Lines 5311-5809 Summary

Reason now presents a discussion that combines ideas on poverty, covetousness, and fortune.

Lines 5311-5809 Analysis

This discussion is very oddly structured and is difficult to follow the logic of Reason's arguments. The main theme of this discussion could be the love of money or covetousness in general. It is nominally another type of love, although it is another form that is shunned by reason.

Reason makes the following points:

* Wealth is a result of good fortune (for example: Dame Fortune, another quasi-allegorical figure), and fortune is notoriously fickle, waxing and waning like the moon. The main point of interest here for a modern reader is the description of the phases of the moon. It is obvious that the reader understood that the phases of the moon or "eclipses" are caused by the earth standing between the sun and the moon...