Excerpt from Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Vol. 7: Edited With a Memoir During these scenes, Nature has been lamenting the losses daily inflicted on her by death, but is now somewhat com forted by the news of the oath made by Venus and her son. Still, however, desponding, she repairs to Genius, who is represented as a priest, to make her general confession, in the course of which she describes the creation, and denounces the wickedness of men in restraining, by exclusive institutions, the free intercourse of the sexes; and, finally, assuming the character of an instructor rather than that of a penitent, she exhorts her confessor to hasten to the camp of Love, and hurl his excommunications against all who fail in the first command to increase and multiply. Her confession being ended, Genius directs, as her penance, that she shall labour at her anvil with increased diligence in the propagation of the human species; and then sets off for the camp. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.