Mourning under the false impression that his son, Balthazar, has been killed in battle with the Spanish, the Viceroy of Portugal uses a common idiom and metaphor that imagines the concept of fortune as “blind.”
Yes, Fortune may bereave me of my crown:
Here, take it now; let Fortune do her worst,
She will not rob me of this sable weed—
Oh no, she envies none but pleasant things,
Such is the folly of despiteful chance!
Fortune is blind and sees not my deserts,
So is she deaf and hears not my laments;
And could she hear, yet is she willful mad,
And therefore will not pity my distress.
Suppose that she could pity me, what then?
His lengthy speech personifies the concept of “Fortune”—or chance—as a minor goddess who dictates the fates of men and women. He imagines her stealing his crown and even attempts to taunt Fortune to “do her worst.” “Fortune,” he concludes, “is blind and sees not my deserts.” In describing fortune as blind, he invokes a common idiom in early modern literature and drama that suggests that the destinies of men are seemingly random. Unlike the Christian God, who is generally imagined as punishing the wicked and rewarding the good, “blind” Fortune does not discriminate based upon merit or achievement. The Viceroy further expands upon this idiom, adding that Fortune is “deaf” too, and cannot be convinced by his “laments.”
