How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
I trowe at Troye, whan Pirrus brak the wal,
Or Ilion brende, ne at Thebes the Citee,
N'at Rome for the harm thurgh Hanybal
That Romayns hath venwuysshed tymes thre,
Nas herd swich tendre wepyng for pitee
As in the chambre was, for his departynge. (288-293)
This is not the first nor will it be the last of the narrator's extremely hyperbolic, or exaggerated, descriptions of the characters' suffering. He seems to get particularly excited whenever a character is going through hard times. Schaudenfreude, much?
Quote #5
O sodeyn wo, that evere art successour
To worldly blisse, spreynd with bitternesse!
The ende of the joye of oure worldly labour!
Wo occupieth the fyn of oure gladnesse!
Herke this conseil for thy sikernesse,
Upon thy glade day have in thy minde
The unwar wo or harm that comth bihynde. (421-427)
Our narrator is definitely a glass-half-empty kind of person. Instead of appreciating the good times, he wants you to always keep in mind the pain and suffering that is bound to come after it. Since he obviously believes that we're powerless to prevent this suffering, it's really not clear what good obsessing about its likely occurrence will do.
Quote #6
"Victorious tree, proteccioun of trewe,
That oonly worthy were for to bere
The Kyng of Hevene with his woundes newe,
The white lamb that hurt was with the spere,
Flemere of feendes out of hym and here
On which thy lymes feithfully extenden,
Me keep, and yif me myght my lyf tamenden." (456-462)
Here Custance prays to the cross when she's cast out of Syria in a rudderless boat. She prays not to just any cross, but to the cross as the place where Christ suffered, describing his piercing with the spear of the Roman soldiers. So, once again, Custance draws strength from the thought of someone else who suffered. Christ's suffering gives meaning to her own.