Allegory to describe ill health
The persona in the poem, 'La Male Regle’ uses an allegory to describe how he got sick. He says,
‘As now your foe forces me to understand,
His lime would not have stuck to my coat
For all his cunning, nor would have floored me like this.’
The allegory is that the sickness is likened to a stain that sticks to a person’s coat. This is just like how an illness suddenly gets into a person.
Allegory to describe the consequences for failing to heed advice
An allegory has been used to show the consequences of failing to heed advice. The allegory is, ‘
For it would be very foolish for someone,
To knowingly offend their lord or friend,
In case the force of his hostility,
Overpowers the fool and makes an end of him.’
The fool in the poem who offends his master is the youth who fails to take care of his health. The punishment for the fool is that he will be severely punished by his master whereas the youth will undoubtedly fall ill.
Allegory to describe the use of reason
The persona says regarding the use of reason,
'For whoever has clear vision and cannot see,
the functioning of the eye is of very little use'.
The allegory is that he who has clear vision meaning that he knows the things that they are supposed to do but do not do them just like someone who has clear vision and cannot sea. The knowledge of reason is useless because it is not being applied.
Allegory to describe flattery
An allegory of how mermaids enchant a seaman and eventually harm him to describe how flattery works. The allegory is as ,
‘Whoever likes to read in the book Of the Nature Of Animals,
he can see therein (If he pays attention to the writing)
Where it talks about the mermaids in the sea,
How deeply pleasingly she sings
So that the shipman falls asleep at that
And afterwards he is devoured by her:
It’s good for people to guard against such songs.
Just so the deceiving words of flattery.'
The way a mermaid entices a man is the same way flattery does and both lead to destruction of the person.
Motif of suffering
Suffering is prevalent in the lives of the characters in the poem. Several of those instances of human suffering are ;the youth who does not heed to the teachings on the preservation of good health gets ill and eventually dies. The master who is flattered by his servants and fails to heed the advice or observation of the truthful servant is eventually ruined.
