Excerpted from Chapter 58 of Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantegruel
[...]
I here divulge to any who will hear
That this next winter without more delay,
Or even sooner, in this present place
There will emerge a certain sort of men,
Weary of rest and tired of staying quiet,
Who will go boldly round by light of day,
Suborning men of every walk in life
To difference and factions, party-strife.
And those who listen and believe their words,
At whatsoever cost or consequence
They'll bring to public and quite open feud,
Friend against friend and kinsman against kin.
The headstrong son will not fear a reproach
For taking part against his very father;
And even great men, come of noble line,
Will find themselves attacked by their own vassals;
Honor and reverence will lack their due,
Order and sense of rank will be forgotten.
For men will say that each one in his turn
Should rise to heights and then return below;
And on this point will be so many quarrels,
So many discards, so much to and fro,
That history, mighty wonders though it tells,
Has no record of like disturbances.
Then shall there many valiant men be seen,
Pricked onward by the spur of their hot youth,
Too trusting of the flames of their desire,
To live a while and then die in their prime.
And none shall ever quit this enterprise
Once he has pledged his bounding courage to it
Till he has filled, by clamour and disputes,
The sky with noise, the earth with trampling feet.
Then faithless men will have authority
As great as have the champions of truth;
For all shall follow the will and beliefs
Of the ignorant and stupid multitude,
The dullest of whom shall be held as judge.
[...]
