De mundana comedia, uel tragedia
The Comedy of Earthly Life
Human life is often a vain performance where people lose their true selves in the roles they play.
And he uses an elegant comparison, for almost everything that happens among the profane crowd is more like a comedy than a real event. “Life on earth,” he says, “is a struggle.”✦ But if a prophetic spirit had foreseen our times, it would be fitting to say that life on earth is a comedy, where everyone forgets who they are and plays someone else's part. Yet perhaps the prophet's oracle aims at this: to teach those whom the earth has not yet swallowed to keep on struggling. For those who are held captive by the pull of their vices are dragged to punishment like an ox being led to slaughter, chasing after their own desires; even if they seem to be living on the surface of the earth, they are already swallowed up and are descending into hell while they still live. And if we use a different turn of phrase, those whose conversation is not in heaven inhabit the earth entirely, knowing nothing of heaven for themselves, and they desire only what is seen on earth.✦ A constant struggle is also assigned to them, for whom—to return to the fables—the water of Tantalus, the vulture of Tityus, the wheel of Ixion, the urn of the Danaids, and the rock of Sisyphus are never lacking, so long as their will is entangled in the world and cannot fulfill its purpose while it wanders far from the Lord. The life of such people is a struggle, and it is certainly a malice. If you find that hard to accept, you'll learn through a different interpretation that human life on earth is a trial; and if we follow the true meaning of the word, it more often carries the mark of evil. In this trial—or struggle—even though the Lord has reserved seven thousand men for Himself, almost the whole world seems, as our Arbiter says, to be playing a part in a comedy, looking toward its own performance in a way, and (what is worse) they are so caught up in their own comedy that they cannot return to themselves when they need to. I've seen children imitate the vices of those who stammer for so long that afterward, even when they wanted to, they couldn't speak correctly. For habit, as someone says, is hard to unlearn, and custom becomes a second nature; even if you drive it out with a pitchfork, it will always come back. That is why the ethicist also wisely and usefully says: 'Choose the best way of living from your youth, and habit will make it pleasant for you.' This comedy, therefore, defeats the secular sense of great men. The varied shape of times is a certain variety of actions. Furthermore, people serve their roles while the game of mocking fortune is played out in them. For what else is it that now clothes some unknown newcomer in the greatest power and raises him to the height of a kingdom, and now casts another—who was wearing purple before he was even born—from the peak of the kingdom into hostile chains, plunging him into extreme miseries, or (which is common) stains the infamous swords not only of tyrants but even of princes with the blood of the lowest men or even of vile servants?
The Tragedy of Wicked Prosperity
The apparent success of the wicked is a fleeting tragedy that ends in bitterness and divine judgment.
"If Fortune wills it," he says, "a rhetorician becomes a consul; if she wills it, a consul becomes a rhetorician." In this way, human life feels more like a tragedy than a comedy, because almost everything ends in sadness; all the world’s sweetness, no matter how great, turns bitter, and grief overtakes the final moments of joy. No matter how much the wicked flourish and are gilded by a rush of prosperity, and no matter how much Fortune serves them at their beck and call, she will overturn their steps in the end, and eventually it will be as bitter as wormwood. "Why," asks blessed Job, "do the wicked live, grow old, and become powerful in wealth?" Their offspring remain before them, a crowd of relatives and grandchildren in their sight; their houses are secure and peaceful, and the rod of God is not upon them. Their ox has conceived and not miscarried; their cow has calved and has not lost its offspring. They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children dance in play. They hold the tambourine and the lyre, and they rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in comfort, and in a moment they descend to the depths. What end to a life of pleasure could be more bitter, or what end to a happy life more miserable? For this is the way of those who are not involved in the labors of men, nor are they scourged like other people. The counsel of the Lord has surely cast them down while they were being exalted. Indeed, all these things should be attributed to Him rather than to fortune—which either comes from Him or, as I am more inclined to think, doesn't exist at all. For the moralist says: Don't call fortune blind, for she doesn't exist. Homer, too, in that work of celebrated perfection, disdained to acknowledge fortune, to such an extent that she isn't named in any part of that great poem. He preferred to entrust the governance of all things to God alone—whom he called MOIPAN—rather than attribute anything to the recklessness of fortune, which it is certain is not a goddess, just as it is certain that she is described and depicted as blind.
Providence Over Fortune
Chance is an illusion, as all events are governed by the divine cause of all things.
It’s pointless, therefore, to argue for its blindness, since that cannot be found in the nature of things. From this, it’s clear that chance doesn’t exist if you define it as an unforeseen event, since nothing happens that isn’t preceded by a legitimate cause and reason; a faithful preacher teaches that nothing on earth happens without a cause. However, because some things happen beyond the intention of those involved, and some things happen unexpectedly, they are grouped under the name of 'chance,' even though they are just as much foreseen by the reason of the One who disposes them as those things which seem bound by the chains of natural necessity. Therefore, it’s clear that these very contingencies are so linked to the primal cause of all things that everything is referred back to it; and in my opinion, this necessarily follows for the positioning of all things that exist. Prudent people might laugh at my foolishness for agreeing that God must be followed for the existence of all things, but the Peripatetics taught me that a cause can be inferred, or at least reasonably suggested, from its effect. Furthermore, the doctors of the faith necessarily infer Him as the cause of all things—the One from whom are all things, through whom are all things, and in whom are all things, and without whom nothing that has been made can exist or subsist. The fact that we seem to attribute something to fortune, therefore, doesn't in any way prejudice Him. But because we are speaking to men, we use the language of men, dealing with individual things in a plain way (as we said before), without giving a subtle account of any of them.
Patience in the Midst of Labor
Scripture and philosophy offer consolation to the human soul as it endures the trials of this life.
If this is accepted patiently, what prevents us from listening to what the philosophers of the nations have written for the sake of the public good? For whatever was written, he says, was written for our instruction, so that through the patience and consolation of the Scriptures we might have hope. For while peace is absent from the children of Adam—who are born to labor, prepared for the lash, conceived in sin, and brought forth in toil, not so much walking as running toward death, than which nothing is more sorrowful—patience is necessary, and that consolation is useful which, from the oil of gladness in the conscience and from the immensity of God's mercy, warms and strengthens those predestined to life with the hope of future things. O guardian of humanity, the blessed Job says, expressing the calamities of the human race in himself, why have you set me as an opponent to you, and why have I become a burden to myself? There is no one who, given their faults, cannot find in themselves the causes and material for sorrow, since by the testimony of philosophy itself, it happens to everyone that they have what they would not want, or lack what they would want. Hence also the faithful soul, to whom the prisoner is sent, while the flesh wears its muddy garment. It must be stripped with such subtlety that it can pass through the eye of a needle without any friction. Otherwise, no one is brought forth whole; perhaps for this reason, because the Styx, flowing nine times, restrains those capable of this area.
The True Home Within
While earthly life is vanity and passing, true happiness is found by turning inward to the light of God.
Ecclesiastes says, "I saw everything under the sun, and suddenly, it was all vanity"; this is because everything that drifts away from the solid state of truth is subject to the vanity that befits our comedy. For the creature has been subjected to vanity, not by its own will. Although our entire dwelling place is enclosed by nine spheres—or rather, nine globes—everyone must eventually leave, and that inexorable Charon will ferry them all across in the ancient boat of his time. Others will succeed everyone in turn, and so the passing human remains in form, just as a known river remains in its channel while the water flows past. Where, he asks, are the powerful men who knew war from the beginning, or those who play among the birds of the sky and hoard for themselves the gold in which humans trust, joining field to field and house to house until there is no end to their possessions? He immediately added what has now become clear to everyone through experience and habit: they have descended to the underworld, and others have succeeded to their place. Yet it goes well with those departing who aren't carried off by this game of fortune to be cast into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, and who don't pass from the waters of snow that holy Job mentions into the intense heat; it goes well with those who await their Elysium, which the true Sun of justice illuminates with His presence. But why do I exclude the Elysian fields from the boundaries of mutable things with my words? They are certainly enclosed only in part, opening out into the vastness of good souls to whom it has been given by the Father of lights to be occupied in the knowledge and love of the Good with the whole movement of their being. That’s why the moralist tells the restless person looking for happiness in the wrong places outside himself: 'What you’re looking for is everywhere; it’s within you, if only your heart doesn’t fail you.'
Read the original Latin
Et quidem eleganti utitur similitudine, quia fere quicquid in turba prophanae multitudinis agitur comediae quam rei gestae similius est. Militia, inquit, est uita hominis super terram. At, si nostra tempora propheticus spiritus concepisset, diceretur egregie quia comedia est uita hominis super terram, ubi quisque sui oblitus personam exprimit alienam. Sed forte eo prophetae tendit oraculum, ut eos a quos nondum terra absorbuit, doceat iugiter militare. Nam qui captiui uitiorum impulsu trahuntur ad penam sicut bos immolandus ad uictimam, abeuntes post concupiscentias suas, etsi corpore uideantur inhabitare superficiem terrae, uiui tamen absorti sunt et descendunt in infernum uiuentes. Et, si alium orationis sequimur tropum, terram usquequaque inhabitant quorum conuersatio minime in celis est nec sibi sciunt aliquid in celo esse, et id dumtaxat afiectant animo quod cemitur super terram. His quoque mihtia iugis indicitur, quibus (ut ad fabulas redeamus) nec unda Tantali, Ticii uultur, rota Yxionis, Belidum urna, saxum Sisiphi deest, dum uoluntas mundo implicita nequit implere propositum, quamdiu peregrinatur a Domino. Istorum uita militia et certe malitia est.
Quod si abhorres, alia interpretatione doceberis quia uita hominis super terram temptatio est; quae, si proprietatem nominis sequimur, mali frequentius habet notam. In hac utique temptatione uel mihtia, licet sibi septem milia uirorum Dominus reseruauerit, fere totus mundus ex Arbitri nostri sententia mimum uidetur implere, ad comediam suam quodammodo respiciens et (quod deterius est) eo usque comediae suae insistunt ut in se cum opus fuerit redire non possint. Vidi pueros tam diu balbutientium uitia imitari ut postmodum nec cum uellent recte loqui potuerint. Vsus enim, ut ait quidam, egre dediscitur, et consuetudo alteri naturae assistit, quam n licet expellas furca, tamen usque recurret, Vnde et ethicus prouide quidem et utiliter: Optimam, inquit, uiuendi consuetudinem ab ineunte etate elige, eam tibi iocundam usus efficiet. Magnorum proinde uirorum sensus secularis haec expugnat comedia. Varia figura temporum actuum quaedam uarietas est. Porro actibus personae deseruiunt, dum in eis fortunae iocantis ludus impletur. Quid enim aliud est quod nouum quemlibet et ignotum nunc amplissimo induit potentatu et in regni fastigium erigit, nunc alium purpuratum antequam natum de regni culmine in cathenas hostiles proicit et seruituti addictum in miserias extremas praecipitat, aut (quod frequens est) non modo tyrannorum sed et principum sanguine infimorum hominum aut etiam uilium seruorum infames cruentat gladios?
Si fortuna uolet (inquit), fiet de rethore consul; si uolet haec eadem, fiet de consule rethor. In eoque uita hominum tragediae quam comediae uidetur esse similior, quod omnium fere tristis est exitus, dum omnia mundi dulcia quantacumque fuerint amarescunt, et extrema gaudii luctus occupat. Quantumlibet in uiis suis iniqui floreant et prosperorum concursu inaurentur, eis ad nutum fortuna seruiat, subuertet in fine gressus eorum, et tandem amara erit quasi absintium. Quare, inquit beatus lob, impii uiuunt, subleuati sunt confortatique diuitiis? a Semen eorum permanet coram eis, propinquorum turba et nepotum in conspectu eorum, domus eorum securae sunt et pacatae, et non est uirga Dei super illos. Bos eorum concepit et non abortiuit; uacca peperit et non est priuata fetu suo. Egrediuntur quasi greges paruuli eorum, et infantes eorum exultant lusibus. Tenent tympanum et citharam, et gaudent ad sonitum organi.
Ducunt in bonis dies suos, et in puncto ad inferna descendunt. Quis letitiae praecedentis exitus potest esse amarior aut felicis uiae infelicior finis? Haec est enim uia illorum qui in labore hominum non sunt neque cum hominibus flagellantur. Vtique deiecit eos consilium Domini dum alleuarentur. Ei siquidem haec potius ascribenda sunt omnia quam fortunae, quae aut ab ipso est, aut (quod magis reor) omnino non est. Ait namque ethicus: Noli fortunam, quae non est, dicere cecam. Homerus quoque in illo celeberrimae perfectionis opere dedignatus est nosse fortunam, adeo quidem ut in nulla parte tanti carminis nominetur. Maluit enim soli Deo, quem MOIPAN nominauit, uniuersa regenda committere, quam ut aliquid ascriberet temeritati fortunae, quam utique sic constat minime esse deam, sicut certum est dici et pingi cecam.
Frustra ergo cecitas eius arguitur, quae in natura rerum inueniri non potest. Vnde et casus non esse conuincitur, si eum quis improuisum euentum esse diffiniat, cum nichil fiat cuius ortum legitima causa et ratio non praecedat, et fidelis concionator nichil in terra doceat fieri sine causa. Verumtamen quia praeter intentionem gerentium aliqua, nonnulla contingunt praeter opinionem, casus appellatione clauduntur, licet aeque disponentis ratione J5 praeuisa sint,sicut ea quae lege naturae necessitatis nexibus uidentur artata. Proinde et haec ipsa contingentia primeuae omnium causae sic esse constat adnexa ut ad eam omnia ref erantur; et pro mea opinione haec ipsa ad positionem omnium quae sunt necessario consequatur. Ridebunt forte prudentiores insipientiam meam, qui Deum esse ad existentiam omnium sequi consentio; sed ab effectu causam inferri uel probabiliter me Peripatetici docuerunt. Porro doctores fidei eam ex omnibus causam necessario inferunt, ex qua omnia, per quam omnia, et in qua sunt omnia, et sine qua factum est aut subsistere potest nichil. Quod ergo aHquid fortunae uidemur ascribere, ei nequaquam praeiudicat. Sed quia nobis ad homines sermo est, hominum uerbis utimur, pingui (ut praediximus) Minerua agentes de singulis, de nullo subtilem reddentes rationem.
Quod si 3ohoc ipsum patienter admittitur, ea quae a philosophis gentium publicae utilitatis gratia scripta sunt audire quid prohibet? Quaecumque enim, inquit, scripta sunt ad nostram doctrinam scripta sunt, ut per patientiam et consolationem scripturarum spem habeamus. Dum enim pax abest filiis Adam, qui ad laborem nati sunt, parati ad flagella, concepti in peccatis, editi in labore, non tam euntes quam a currentes ad mortem qua nichil tristius est, necessaria est patientia, utilis consolatio quae de oleo letitiae in conscientia et de immensitate clementiae Dei praedestinatos ad uitam spe futurorum fouet et roborat. O custos hominum, inquit beatus lob, humani generis calamitates in se exprimens, quare posuisti me contrarium tibi, et factus sum michimet ipsi grauis? Nemo siquidem est qui exigentibus culpis in seipso non inueniat causas materiamque doloris, cum ipsius philosophiae testimonio unicuique contingat adesse quod nollet uel abesse quod uellet. Vnde et fidelis anima, cui emittatur inclusus, dum camis gerit luteum indumentum. Eam quippe tanta subtilitate necesse est exui ut per foramen acus possit sine omni attritione transiri. Alioquin integer nemo egi'editur; forte ideo, quia capacera hanc aream Stix nouies interfusa cohercet.
Vidi, inquit Ecclesiastes, cuncta sub sole, et ecce statim omnia uanitas; eo quod omnia, quae a solido ueritatis statu recedunt, uanitati, quae nostram comediam deceat, subiecta sunt. Vanitati enim subiecta est creatura non uolens. Licet enim nouem orbibus siue globis potius sedium nostrarum habitatio tota claudatur, omnibus tamen quandoque egrediendum est, omnesque Caron ille inexorabilis uetusta sui temporis naue traiciet. Omnibus quoque succedent alii, et sie transiens homo manet in specie, quemadmodum aqua praetereunte notus amnis manet in flumine. Vbi sunt, inquit, uiri potentes, ab initio scientes bellum, aut qui in auibus celi ludunt, et thesaurizant sibi aurum, in quo confidunt homines, iungentes agrum agro domum domui usque ad terminum loci, et non est finis possessionis eorum. Statimque subiecit quod usu et assiduitate iam omnibus persuasum est: Hi ad inferos descenderunt, et alii in locum illorum successerunt. Verumtamen bene cum egredientibus agitur, qui non ab hoc fortunae ludo transferuntur eiciendi in tenebras exteriores ubi erit fletus et stridor dentium, et qui ab aquis niuium quas sanctus lob commemorat ad calorem nimium minime transeunt; bene cum illis agitur, qui suos expectant Elisios, quos praesentia a, sua iustitiae sol uerus illustrat. Sed quid est quod Elisios campos a mutabilium rerum septis uerbis excludo?
Certe pro parte inclusi sunt, patentes in latitudine bonarum mentium quibus a Patre luminum datum est ut in notitia et amore boni toto sui agitatu uersentur. Vnde ethicus inquieto extra se ineptam beatitudinem inquirenti: Quod quaeris ubique est, est Vlubris, animus si te non deficit aequus.
Scripture echoes
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