Nature
‘Nature, qui pensoit des choses
Qui sont desouz le ciel encloses,
Dedenz sa forge entree estoit,
Ou toute s’entente metoit
A forgier singulieres pieces
Por continuer les espieces;
Car les pieces tant les font vivre
Que mors ne les puet aconsivre,
Jà tant ne saura corre après.’
(Roman de la Rose 15897-15905)
(Nature, whose thoughts were on the things enclosed beneath the sky, had entered her forge, where she was concentrating all her efforts upon the forging of individual creatures to continue the species. For individuals give such life to species that, however much death pursues them, she can never catch up with them. - transl. F. Horgan)
Roman de la Rose, Bruges ca. 1490-1500.
British Library, Harley 4425, fol. 140r