For the impossible I fight, And, should I wish to retreat, Step nor pathway is in sight, For, till victory or defeat, Desire draweth me with might; Though I know that I must die, Ere the victory I achieve, When I most in peril lie, Then it is that I receive _More faith in adversity_. Never may I hope to gain Fortune; this is Heaven's decree. Heaven the works of hope hath ta'en And doth lavish aye on me Countless certainties of pain; But my breast of constancy, Which amidst Love's living flame Glows and melteth ceaselessly, In exchange this boon doth claim: _More faith in adversity_. Certain doubt and fickleness Traitorous faith and surest fear, Love's unbridled wilfulness, Trouble ne'er the loving care Which is crowned with steadfastness, Time on hasty wing may fly, Absence come, or disdain cold, Evil grow, tranquillity Fail, yet I as bliss will hold _More faith in adversity_. Certain folly is it not, And a madness sure and great, That I set my heart on what Fortune doth deny, and Fate, Nor is promised by my lot? Dread of everything have I, There is naught can give me pleasure, Yet amidst such agony Love bestows its chiefest treasure: _More faith in adversity_. Victory o'er my grief I gain, Which to such a pass is brought That it doth Love's height attain, And I find that from this thought Comes some solace to my pain; Although poor and lowly I, Yet relief so rich in woe To the fancy I apply, That the heart may ever know _More faith in adversity_. All the more that every ill Comes with every ill to-day, And that they my life may fill With more pain, though deadly they, They do keep me living still; But our life in dignity With a noble end is crowned, And in mine my fame shall lie, For in life, in death I found _More faith in adversity_. It seemed to Marsilio that what Elicio had been singing accorded with his mood so well that he wished to follow him in the same idea, and so, without waiting for anyone else to take the lead in it, to the sound of the same instruments, he began to sing thus: