[Mid] Ambition -- a 14th century view

I just acquired a copy of *The Book of Chivalry of Geoffroi de Charny*
and boy is it amazing. This is a practical knight telling the knights of
mid-14th century France that they must shape up their act, and telling
them what true chivalry is. (Charny died carrying the oriflamme, the
French royal banner, at Poitiers.)

We were talking about ambition: Here is what Charny has to say.

"You should know for certain that there is no one who can or should
excuse himself from performing well according to his station, some in
relation to arms, others in relation to clerical vocation, others in
relation to the affairs of the world. It therefore behooves each person
to engage in the appropriate affairs and undertakings, for those who do
well in them deserve to be esteemed and praised, each according to his
status and according to what he does. Hence no one should be dismayed at
the thought of undertaking great deeds, for the above-mentioned men of
standing tell us truly that those who hae the will to achieve great worth
are already on the way to great achievement. And they speak the truth,
for because of their great desire to reach and attain that high honor,
they do not care what suffering they have to endure, but TURN EVERYTHING
INTO GREAT ENJOYMENT." (My emphasis, of course.)

And he goes on: "Indeed, it is a fine thing to perform great deeds, for
those who rise to great achievement cannot rightly grow tired or sated
with it; so the more they achieve, the less they feel they have achieved;
this stems from the delight they take in striving constantly to reach
greater heights. And great good comes from performing these deeds, for
the more one does, the less is one proud of oneself, fand it always seems
that there is so much left to do."

Preach it, Geoffroi!

I liked that passage so much I leapt out of bed to share it with you.

Here is the book info for those who might want to get it (it's quite
cheap for an academic book):

Richard W. Kaeper and Elspeth Kennedy, *The Book of Chivalry of Geoffroi:
 Text, Context, and Translation* (Philadelphia: U. of Pennsylvania
Press, 1996). ISBN 0-8122-1579-6

Finnvarr

-- 
The Late Antiquity Pages of the On-line Reference Book for Medieval 
Studies begin at 
http://www.unipissing.ca/department/history/orb/lt-atest.htm
"O! It is excellent to have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous to 
use it like a giant."
From:  Steve Muhlberger <stevem@faculty.unipissing.ca>
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