Note 487 — Chapter VI

In this place should be noticed a sinister Carnival Song, by an unknown author, which belongs, I think, to the period of Savonarola's democracy. It is called Trionfo del Vaglio, or "Triumph of the Sieve" (Cant. Carn. p. 33):

To the Sieve, to the Sieve, to the Sieve, Ho, all ye folk, descend! With groans your bosoms rend! And find in this our Sieve Wrath, anguish, travail, doom for all who live! To winnow, sift and purge, full well we know, And grind your souls like corn: Ye who our puissance scorn, Come ye to trial, ho! For we will prove and show How fares the man who enters in our Sieve. Send us no groats nor scrannel seed nor rye, But good fat ears of grain, Which shall endure our strain, And be of sturdy stuff. Torment full stern and rough Abides for him who resteth in our Sieve. Who comes into this Sieve, who issues thence, Hath tears and sighs, and mourns: But the Sieve ever turns, And gathers vehemence. Ye who feel sin's offence, Shun ye the rage, the peril of our Sieve. A thousand times the day, our Sieve is crowned; A thousand times 'tis drained: Let the Sieve once be strained, And, grain by grain, around Ye shall behold the ground Covered with folk, cast from the boltering Sieve. Ye who are not well-grained and strong to bear, Abide ye not this fate! Penitence comes too late! Seek ye some milder doom! Nay, better were the tomb Than to endure the torment of our Sieve!