Laudator Temporis Acti

Now may I sing the ode that Datis made,
The ode he sang in ecstacy at noon,
"Eh, sirs, I'm pleased, and joyed, and comforted."

νῦν, τοῦτ᾿ ἐκεῖν᾿, ἥκει τὸ Δάτιδος μέλος.
ὃ δεφόμενός ποτ᾿ ᾖδε τῆς μεσημβρίας·
"ὧς ἥδομαι καὶ χαίρομαι κεὐφραίνομαι."

That's that, now! Here comes the song of Datis,
which once upon a time he used to sing while masturbating of an afternoon:
"How happy, how pleasured, how bubbly I feel!"

We are fully satisfied that the most solid of all earthly happiness is of the domestic kind, in a well assorted family, all the members of which set a just value on each other, and are disposed to make the happiness of each other their first object.

As late as 1868 he says he never goes to sleep without having read a chapter of "the sacrosanct, immense, and superlatively beautiful Rabelais."⁴¹

41. Quoted by Boulenger, p. 159; cf. pp. 156-58.

En 1868, il déclare qu'il ne s'endort chaque soir qu' «après avoir lu un chapitre du sacrosaint, immense et extra-beau Rabelais».

To die gloriously, if die one must,
though it is of course painful to him who dies,
is a source of magnificence for the survivors and a glory to their houses.

θανεῖν γὰρ εὐκλεῶς μέν, εἰ θανεῖν χρεών,
λυπρὸν μὲν οἶμαι τῷ θανόντι — πῶς γὰρ οὔ; —
τοῖς ζῶσι δ᾽ ὄγκος καὶ δόμων εὐδοξία.

You're trembling like a Fawn that flees.
Allow, at least, my hand to rest
And play a little on your breast;
Or even lower, if you please.

Tu fuis comme fan qui tremble;
Au moins souffre que ma main
S'esbate un peu dans ton sein,
Ou plus bas, si bon te semble.

For thou art well versed in clever tricks, and hast a ready wit.
And 'tis right to allot a man to the work he can best perform.

τρίβων γὰρ εἶ τὰ κομψὰ καὶ νοεῖν σοφός.
χρὴ δ᾿ ἄνδρα τάσσειν οὗ μάλιστ᾿ ἂν ὠφελοῖ.

"In the name of common sense," asked the old gentleman, rather testily, "what can be better for a man than his own parlor and chimney-corner?"

Pleasant it is to the unhappy to speak, and to recall the sorrows of old time.

dulce loqui miseris veteresque reducere questus.

We have recently been informed that, with his eighty-two years, Goethe outlived himself: yet I would gladly exchange a couple of Goethe's 'outlived' years for whole cartloads of fresh modern lifetimes, so as to participate in such conversations as Goethe conducted with Eckermann and thus be preserved from all and any up-to-date instruction from the legionaries of the moment. In relation to such dead men, how few of the living have a right to live at all!

Ueber Goethe hat uns neuerdings Jemand belehren wollen, dass er mit seinen 82 Jahren sich ausgelebt habe: und doch würde ich gern ein paar Jahre des "ausgelebten" Goethe gegen ganze Wagen voll frischer hochmoderner Lebensläufte einhandeln, um noch einen Antheil an solchen Gesprächen zu haben, wie sie Goethe mit Eckermann führte, und um auf diese Weise vor allen zeitgemässen Belehrungen durch die Legionäre des Augenblicks bewahrt zu bleiben. Wie wenige Lebende haben überhaupt, solchen Todten gegenüber, ein Recht zu leben!

There are only three classes of men that we in general have no patience with,— superiors, inferiors, and equals.

"I should like to rap with a good stick on the empty pates of the dolts who circulate such nonsense!"

In fact, some people thought that since man is defined as an intellectual and reasoning animal, he could no less adequately be defined as a laughing animal, for they believed that laughter is no less characteristic of man than reason. And this is indeed something to marvel at: that man, who is the most afflicted and the most miserable of all creatures, should possess the faculty of laughter, which is alien to every other animal. And also something to marvel at is the use we make of this faculty, for we see many in extremely severe accidents, others in the depths of sadness, and still others who scarcely retain any love for life at all, totally convinced as they are of the vanity of every human good, almost incapable of any joy, and deprived of all hope—and yet we see them laugh. As a matter of fact, the more they know the vanity of those goods and the unhappiness of life, and the less they can hope and the less they are suited for the enjoyment of pleasure, the more men are inclined to laughter. Yet the nature of laughter in general and its inner principles and modes, as regards that part of it which consists in the mind, can scarcely be defined and explained—except by saying that laughter is a form of temporary madness, raving, and delirium. For men, never being satisfied and never finding real pleasure in anything, cannot have a reasonable and just cause for laughter.

[E] perciò pensarono alcuni che siccome l'uomo è definito per animale intellettivo o razionale, potesse non meno sufficientemente essere definito per animale risibile; parendo loro che il riso non fosse meno proprio e particolare all'uomo, che la ragione. Cosa certamente mirabile è questa, che nell'uomo, il quale infra tutte le creature è la più travagliata e misera, si trovi la facoltà del riso, aliena da ogni altro animale. Mirabile ancora si è l'uso che noi facciamo di questa facoltà: poiché si veggono molti in qualche fierissimo accidente, altri in grande tristezza d'animo, altri che quasi non serbano alcuno amore alla vita, certissimi della vanità di ogni bene umano, presso che incapaci di ogni gioia, e privi di ogni speranza; nondimeno ridere. Anzi, quanto conoscono meglio la vanità dei predetti beni, e l'infelicità della vita; e quanto meno sperano, e meno eziandio sono atti a godere; tanto maggiormente sogliono i particolari uomini essere inclinati al riso. La natura del quale generalmente, e gl'intimi principii e modi, in quanto si è a quella parte che consiste nell'animo, appena si potrebbero definire e spiegare; se non se forse dicendo che il riso è specie di pazzia non durabile, o pure di vaneggiamento e delirio. Perciocché gli uomini, non essendo mai soddisfatti né mai dilettati veramente da cosa alcuna, non possono aver causa di riso che sia ragionevole e giusta.

I wish there was someone to offer us better advice than mine,
either young man or old: this is what I’d really welcome.

νῦν δʼ εἴη ὃς τῆσδέ γʼ ἀμείνονα μῆτιν ἐνίσποι
ἢ νέος ἠὲ παλαιός· ἐμοὶ δέ κεν ἀσμένῳ εἴη.

And note right here that grapes and freshly-baked cakes make a most heavenly breakfast, especially when the grapes are black Burgundies, fig-grapes, muscadines, sour grapes or diarrheic ones—these last, for the benefit of those who are constipated in the belly, for they make you squirt the length of a good long pole; and frequently, when those who have eaten them think they are going to fart, they crap instead, and hence, these persons are called "vintage-thinkers."

Car notez que c'est viande celeste manger à desjeuner raisins avec fouace fraiche, mesmement des pineaulx, des fiers, des muscadeaulx, de la bicane, et des foyrars pour ceulx qui sont constipéz de ventre, car ilz les font aller long comme un vouge, et souvent, cuidans peter, ilz se conchient, dont sont nomméz les cuideurs des vendanges.

We are forever being told that whereas pornography is reprehensible, "hearty Rabelaisian humour" (meaning a preoccupation with the W.C.) is perfectly all right. This is partly, perhaps, because Rabelais is nowadays seldom read. So far from being "healthy" as is always alleged, he is an exceptionally perverse, morbid writer, a case for psycho-analysis. But people who lead strict lives have dirty minds...

The bakers were by no means inclined to grant the shepherds' request, but, what was worse, proceeded to insult the latter, terribly, calling them "scum of the earth, toothless bastards, red-headed rogues, chippy-chasers, dirty sons-of-bitches, big lubbers, sneaky curs, lazy hounds, hungry-harries, potbellies, windjammers, good-for-nothings, hicks, ornery customers, hand-out-grabbers, big bluffers, mamma's-boys, monkey-faces, do-nothings, measly wretches, poor boobs, dirty scoundrels, simpletons, foul-mouthed-loafers, dudes, panhandlers, filthy cowherds and shitty-assed shepherds," with other like defamatory epithets...

A leur requeste ne feurent aulcunement enclinéz les fouaciers, mais (que pis est) les oultragèrent grandement, les trop diteulx, breschedens, plaisans rousseaulx, galliers, chienlictz, averlans, limes sourdes, faictnéans, friandeaulx, bustarins, talvassiers, riennevaulx, rustres, challans, hapelopins, trainne-guainnes, gentilz flocquetz, copieux, landores, malotruz, dendins, baugears, tézéz, gaubregeux, goguelus, claquedens, boyers d'étrons, bergiers de merde, et aultres telz épithètes diffamatoires...

Alas for youth and alas for cursed old age,
the latter because it comes on, the former because it leaves.

ὤ μοι ἐγὼν ἥβης καὶ γήραος οὐλομένοιο,
    τοῦ μὲν ἐπερχομένου, τῆς δ᾿ ἀπονισομένης.

By humanism I mean both the thirst for knowledge and the knowledge itself of ancient literature, culture, and philosophy, especially of ancient Greece and Rome—a knowledge that involves a mastery of their languages; and with that, a sense that this is the road not only to learning and culture but also to wisdom and virtue.

He married one of the daughters of Adrestos, and established
a house rich in substance, and plenty of wheat-grown acres
were his, with many orchards of fruit trees circled about him,
and many herds were his. He surpassed all other Achaians
with the spear.

Ἀδρήστοιο δ᾿ ἔγημε θυγατρῶν, ναῖε δὲ δῶμα
ἀφνειὸν βιότοιο, ἅλις δέ οἱ ἦσαν ἄρουραι
πυροφόροι, πολλοὶ δὲ φυτῶν ἔσαν ὄρχατοι ἀμφίς,
πολλὰ δέ οἱ πρόβατ᾿ ἔσκε· κέκαστο δὲ πάντας
Ἀχαιοὺς ἐγχείῃ.

The Church of San Giorgio is like an art gallery. All the pictures are altarpieces which vary in merit but all are well worth seeing. But what subjects these poor artists had to paint! And for what patrons! A rain of manna, thirty feet long and twenty feet high, and, as a companion picture, the miracle of the five loaves! What is there worth painting about that? Hungry persons pounce upon some small crumbs, bread is handed out to countless others. The painters have racked their brains to give these trivialities some significance.

San Giorgio ist eine Galerie von guten Gemälden, alle Altarblätter, wo nicht von gleichem Wert, doch duich- aus merkwürdig. Aber die unglückseigen Künstler, was mußten die malen! und für wen! Ein Mannaregen, vielleicht dreißig Fuß lang und zwanzig hoch! das Wunder der fünf Brote zum Gegenstück! was war daran zu malen! Hungrige Menschen, die über kleine Körner herfallen, unzählige andere, denen Brot präsentiert wird. Die Künstler haben sich die Folter gegeben, um solche Armseligkeiten bedeutend zu machen.

But let every one follow his own opinion whither the facts may lead him.

νοείτω δ᾿ ὅπῃ τοῖς πράγμασιν ἕκαστος ἄγεται.

It is better for things to be at home, for what is outdoors is at risk.

οἴκοι βέλτερον εἶναι, ἐπεὶ βλαβερὸν τὸ θύρηφιν.

Oedipus expresses his anxieties over his predicted fate and the present plague in Thebes. However, he vigorously rejects Jocasta’s charge of spinelesssness.

Labels: typographical and other errors

[Guillaume Budé's] De asse is typical of many Renaissance works whose dominant technique I like to call trivial pursuit; the Renaissance called it amplificatio. This technique, a natural result of the emphasis on copia in Renaissance education, consists in choosing a topos and then enumerating every possible example, illustration, or aspect of it, most basically in the form of a list, as in Erasmus's 200 variations on "As long as I live I shall remember you," Ravisius Textor's 38 successive chapters on strange and improbable deaths, or Jean Lemaire de Belges's descriptions of natural beauty by means of enumerations of flowers and trees. More sophisticated trivial pursuit can be found in the blasons of Marot (everything the poet can find to say about the lady's eyebrow) and in the Hymns of Ronsard (all the stories ever told about demons and other supernatural beings). Rabelais's trivial pursuit is often facetious: 217 children's games in 1:22, 63 verbs of violent motion in the third book prologue, 170 adjectives for tired testicles in 3:28; and sometimes serious, as in the detailed description of the Abbey of Thelema.

Ram, ass and horse, my Kyrnos, we look over
With care, and seek good stock for good to cover;
And yet the best men make no argument,
But wed, for money, runts of poor descent.
So too a woman will demean her state
And spurn the better for the richer mate.
Money's the cry. Good stock to bad is wed
And bad to good, till all the world's cross-bred.
No wonder if the country's breed declines,—
Mixed metal, Kyrnos, that but dimly shines.

κριοὺς μὲν καὶ ὄνους διζήμεθα, Κύρνε, καὶ ἵππους
    εὐγενέας, καὶ τις βούλεται ἐξ ἀγαθῶν
βήσεσθαι· γῆμαι δὲ κακὴν κακοῦ οὐ μελεδαίνει        185
    ἐσθλὸς ἀνήρ, ἤν οἱ χρήματα πολλὰ διδῷ,
οὐδὲ γυνὴ κακοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἀναίνεται εἶναι ἄκοιτις
    πλουσίου, ἀλλ᾽ ἀφνεὸν βούλεται ἀντ᾽ ἀγαθοῦ.
χρήματα γὰρ τιμῶσι· καὶ ἐκ κακοῦ ἐσθλὸς ἔγημε
    καὶ κακὸς ἐξ ἀγαθοῦ· πλοῦτος ἔμειξε γένος.        190
οὕτω μὴ θαύμαζε γένος, Πολυπαΐδη, ἀστῶν
    μαυροῦσθαι· σὺν γὰρ μίσγεται ἐσθλὰ κακοῖς.

The philosopher of sensual pleasure. — A little garden, figs, little cheeses and in addition three or four good friends — these were the sensual pleasures of Epicurus.

Der Philosoph der Üppigkeit. — Ein Gärtchen, Feigen, kleine Käse und dazu drei oder vier gute Freunde, — das war die Üppigkeit Epikurs.

Send me a little pot of cheese so that I can indulge in extravagance when I wish.

πέμψον μοι τυροῦ κυθρίδιον, ἵν' ὅταν βούλωμαι πολυτελεύσασθαι δύνωμαι.