Twin gates of heaven and hell

1 passages · search this phrase →

Often appears with: the fear of death · moral instruction · justice as a virtue · equity, mercy, and pardon · dream vision · courtly love paradise · afterlife punishment

Usually: narrative (1) · confronting death (1) · curiosity (1) · exhortation (1)

Quotable

“Then pray’d him Scipio, to tell him all The way to come into that Heaven’s bliss;” Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems · observation

“Through me men go into the blissful place Of hearte’s heal and deadly woundes’ cure; Through me men go unto the well of grace; Where green and lusty May shall ever dure;” Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems · vivid

The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems primary

Geoffrey Chaucer · c. 1387–1400 (composition of The Canterbury Tales and included poems; some items likely earlier/later)
i.e. > Act, which was passed soon after, 5 H. IV. c. iv., to make it felony ‘to multiply gold or silver, or to use the art of multiplication.’” Tyrwhitt finds in the prologue some colour for the hypothesis that this Tale was intended by Chaucer to begin the return journey from Canterbury; but against this must be set the fact that the Yeoman himself expressly speaks of the distance to Canterbury yet to be ridden. (67/112)

In a dream, the narrator is guided by Scipio and Africane to a pair of twin gates: one for the bliss of lovers and inner healing, and the other for lawbreakers’ endless pain.

That ev’ry star should come into his place, Where it was first; and all should *out of mind,* *perish from memory* That in this world is done of all mankind. Then pray’d him Scipio, to tell him all The way to come into that Heaven’s bliss; And he said: “First know thyself immortal, And look aye busily that thou work and wiss* *guide affairs To common profit, and thou shalt not miss To come swiftly unto …