LXVIIII. De joculalrice

LXVIIII. De joculalrice

But the third image, the playful one, is in its own meaning; it draws a petulance from the heavenly realm to various inappropriate spectacles, and here it follows, because it is like a pipe and like a reed; for when the fatigue and weariness of this kind of play touches its own desire, it gathers other jokes like a breath of fresh air; and it is likened to a man, except that it has a crooked nose, because the same flaw in the knowledge of good and evil gathers people to itself according to the desires of the eyes and the flesh; and in foolish ignorance and in dull intellect, like in an unformed nose, it says that God does not exist. But the fact that his hands are like the paws of a bear, and that his feet appear like those of a griffin, shows that he engages in filthy and impure actions, and that he also does not yield to anyone in the footsteps of greed, where he can seize anything through the deceitful craft of his art. People are stripped of more through this vice than they gain anything of value. He has black hair and is dressed in a pale garment because he is enveloped in the darkness of vanity, which obscures all the foundations of his works, surrounding himself with a gentle joy, since he conforms himself to the character of each person, so that by this means he draws them to himself, making them play with him, as he has previously declared in his speech. But the voice that contradicts modesty speaks clearly against it, and it persuades people to have a sense of moral integrity.