Laudator Temporis Acti

Robert Francis (1901-1987), "Though a Fool," Collected Poems 1936-1976 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1976), p. 254:

The wayfaring man though a fool
Will often fare as well
As one who has been to school
And knows how to scan and spell.

The scholar is melancholy
Too often on his way
While the fool may well be jolly
Though why he cannot say.

The first line seems to recall Isaiah 35.8:

And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

John Conington (1825-1869), "The Academical Study of Latin," Miscellaneous Writings, Vol. I (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1872), pp. 198-228 (at 219-220):

Whoever may complain of the difficulties which beset the pursuit of classical scholarship, assuredly it will not be the scholar himself. He knows it is precisely by means of these difficulties that he is made perfect in his work. If he is led to repine at times that knowledge should be hidden, it is not as wishing to evade the pains of searching, but because he is already longing to bestow his labour on some other part of the field. It is nothing to him that his time has often to be spent on minute and seemingly trivial points, for he feels that the smaller is to be estimated by the standard of the greater, and that in accepting his calling he has accepted a duty, more or less defined, to everything that appertains to it. The task of recovering a lost word or allusion is not resented as a gratuitous hardship, but embraced as a welcome boon, which compels the student, as it were, to enter the author's laboratory, not as a spectator, but as a fellow-worker, and rewards the restoration with something of the same delight which must have attended the original invention. It is his labour that he has to go down among those who have long been dead; but there is conscious pleasure in every step of the way, and it is his glory that he can break their sleep and revive them, that he can make them drink the blood of life and speak living words, that he can endow them, if not with the gift of prophecy, at least with the human power of memory.

Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (1848-1931), Greek Historical Writing and Apollo. Two Lectures Delivered before the University of Oxford, June 3 and 4, 1908, tr. Gilbert Murray (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908), p. 25:

Yet let us be honest. We ourselves, when once Dryasdust has done his work within us, and we advance to the shaping of our scientific results—from that time forth we do just the same, we use our free formative imagination. The tradition yields us only ruins. The more closely we test and examine them, the more clearly we see how ruinous they are; and out of ruins no whole can be built. The tradition is dead: our task is to revivify life that has passed away. We know that ghosts cannot speak until they have drunk blood; and the spirits which we evoke demand the blood of our hearts.

Both Conington and Wilamowitz are alluding to Homer, Odyssey 11.34-50, here in Richmond Lattimore's translation:

Now when, with sacrifices and prayers, I had so entreated
the hordes of the dead, I took the sheep and cut their throats        35
over the pit, and the dark-clouding blood ran in, and the souls
of the perished dead gathered to the place, up out of Erebos,
brides, and young unmarried men, and long-suffering elders,
virgins, tender and with the sorrows of young hearts upon them,
and many fighting men killed in battle, stabbed with brazen        40
spears, still carrying their bloody armor upon them.
These came swarming around my pit from every direction
with inhuman clamor, and green fear took hold of me.
Then I encouraged my companions and told them, taking
the sheep that were lying by, slaughtered with the pitiless        45
bronze, to skin these, and burn them, and pray to the divinities,
to Hades the powerful, and to revered Persephone,
while I myself, drawing from beside my thigh my sharp sword,
crouched there, and would not let the strengthless heads of the perished
dead draw nearer to the blood, until I had questioned Teiresias.        50

Jan van der Straet (1523-1605), Ulysses at the Entrance of Hades

Euripides, fragment 275 (tr. Christopher Collard and Martin Cropp):

A miserable death to all those who are happy with monarchy, or with the tyranny of a few in their city! The title 'free' is worth everything; (with this) even a man who has little is reckoned to have much.

κακῶς δ᾿ ὄλοιντο πάντες οἳ μοναρχίᾳ
χαίρουσιν ὀλίγων τ᾿ ἐν πόλει τυραννίδι.
τοὐλεύθερον γὰρ ὄνομα παντὸς ἄξιον·
κἂν σμίκρ᾿ ἔχῃ τις, μεγάλ᾿ ἔχειν νομίζεται.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), Sybil, Book I, Chapter V:

'Well, society may be in its infancy,' said Egremont, slightly smiling; 'but, say what you like, our Queen reigns over the greatest nation that ever existed.'

'Which nation?' asked the younger stranger, 'for she reigns over two.'

The stranger paused; Egremont was silent, but looked inquiringly.

'Yes,' resumed the younger stranger after a moment's interval. 'Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws.'

'You speak of—' said Egremont, hesitatingly.

'THE RICH AND THE POOR.'

"Fed by a different food" indeed. State Dinner In Honor of The Right Honorable Justin Trudeau, P.C., M.P., Prime Minister of Canada, and Mrs. Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, The White House, March 10, 2016:

The first course is a baked Alaskan Halibut "Casserole" accented with delicate angel hair asparagus, chanterelles and spring onion from a farm in Ohio, and finished with herbed butter sourced from Mrs. Obama's White House Kitchen Garden. This will be served in individual tureens from the Obama State China service; this occasion is the first time these tureens have been used.

The next course is a composed salad of thin slivered, roasted apricots in ginger, cardamom, and White House Honey, with crystal lettuce, young arugula, and variegated spinach. It is garnished with pine nut crisps and shaved Appalachian cheese from Galax, Virginia. With sweet and salty, and soft and crunchy, all in one dish, the salad has a wonderful juxtaposition of flavors and textures.

The main course highlights tender lamb from Colorado, accented with an herb crust. It is accompanied by Yukon Gold potato dauphinoise and lightly sautéed varieties of spring vegetables. As a finishing touch, the dish is drizzled with Yukon Jack Canadian Whisky.

Keeping with the dinner theme, the dessert course reflects the memory of winter and celebrates the coming of spring. Guests will be served a cake with delicate nuances of toasted Texas pecans and caramelized New England maple syrup. The cake is accompanied by creamy, butterscotch swirl ice cream, vanilla scented California strawberries, and a crispy cocoa nib wafer.

Inspired by the splendor of the Rocky Mountains, which extend from New Mexico to Canada, "A View from the Mountain Top" is a sugar sculpture, handmade by Chef Morrison, that illustrates the region's breathtaking scenery. Using a variety of pastries with American and Canadian influences, the display depicts a dramatic landscape surrounded by stunning wilderness, forested basins, and lush valleys mirrored with turquoise waters. Included in this design are cranberry squares, white chocolate snowballs, golden raisin tarts, fleur de sel caramels, and chocolate coconut slices.

This is the same Right Honorable Justin Trudeau who recently insulted the citizens of the United States with these patronizing, condescending words:

I just felt like it might be nice if they paid a little more attention to the world. So having a little more of an awareness of what's going on in the rest of the world, I think, is what many Canadians would hope for Americans.

Ignorant hicks, those Americans.


Eli Jacobi (1898-1984), Mission Fare
My idea of a proper state dinner, with ordinary people in attendance:


Russell Lee (1903-1986), Serving up the barbeque
at the Pie Town, New Mexico, Fair (Library of Congress)
Related posts:

• Let Them Eat Cake
• The Blessings of Plenty

Sydney Smith (1771-1845), "A Fragment on the Irish Roman Catholic Church," Works, Vol. II (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, 1859), pp. 333-342 (at 335):

What is the object of all government? The object of all government is roast mutton, potatoes, claret, a stout constable, an honest justice, a clear highway, a free chapel.

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), p. 199 (from Book IV, § 8):

The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden — that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time.

I don't own a copy of F.L. Lucas' book on Style, and the only excerpts I can find on the World Wide Web (I originally wrote "World Wide Wen," a revealing error) are from some wretched "eBook" without page numbers. So I can't cite chapter and verse for Lucas' interesting remarks on German, a language I have been trying to learn, without much success, for decades (footnotes omitted):

On the other hand, I believe — though it may be prejudice — that among the causes and effects of the sometimes unhappy history of the German mind are certain qualities of the German tongue; a language that can lend itself splendidly to poetry, but in prose (with great exceptions like Schopenhauer or Nietzsche) seems prone at times to lose itself in a kind of ponderous Götterdämmerung of drifting obscurities and cloudy abstractions. Take an example from Hitler himself (on Judaism): 'Eine von infernalischer Unduldsamkeit erfüllte Weltanschauung wird nur zerbrochen werden durch eine vom gleichen Geist vorwärtsgetriebene, vom gleichen stärksten Willen verfochtene, dabei aber in sich reine und durchaus wahrhaftige neue Idee.' To the ordinary English mind the idea of reading an eight-hundred-page book composed in such sentences is a nightmare; that it should be read with enthusiasm remains flatly incomprehensible. There was current in my War Department a jesting quotation, perhaps apocryphal, to express this side of the German mind: 'Warum denn so einfach? Können Sie es nicht komplizierter machen?' We did not underestimate the formidable efficiency, pertinacity, and courage of our opponents. None the less, if you wish to talk imposing twaddle of an abstruse and abstract kind, though wonders can be done even in English, you will find it hard to equal German.

Or consider a more particular point. One of the most important things, to my mind, in English style is word-order. For us, the most emphatic place in clause or sentence is the end. This is the climax; and, during the momentary pause that follows, that last word continues, as it were, to reverberate in the reader's mind. It has, in fact, the last word. One should therefore think twice about what one puts at a sentence-end. But in a German sentence this final position may be reserved, by a most curious grammatical convention, for an infinitive or past participle; or, in a subordinate clause, for the main verb. Thus logical emphasis, unless particularly strong, tends to be sacrificed to mere grammar. One can see this happening even in the eloquence of Nietzsche: 'Ich lehre Euch den Übermenschen. Der Mensch ist Etwas, das überwunden werden soll.' The essential words are Übermenschen and überwunden; but, though Übermenschen gets its rightful pride of place, überwunden does not. Here it may not much matter. But in longer sentences or clauses, German has a tendency to lose clarity and point. Hence the pleasant story of the man who, entering a foreign café where there sat groups of English, French, and Germans, noted that the English were of course entrenched round their table in solid silence; the French all gabbling at once; but the Germans listening to each other in turn with a tense concentration that for a moment astonished him. Then he realized — they were waiting for the verb!

Update: Thanks to Ian Jackson for checking the quotation above against the 1955 Cassell edition of Lucas' Style, pp. 39-40.

Related posts:

• The German Language
• The Study of German
• German

M.L. West (1937-2015), "Comparisons between Homer and Hesiod," Classical Review 15.2 (June, 1965) 158-159, a review of Fritz Krafft, Vergleichende Untersuchungen zu Homer und Hesiod (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1963), from p. 159 of the review:

The fact that σῶμα is never used of the living body in Homer does not mean that the poets were unacquainted with the word or the concept. This sort of argument is taken to an extreme by Krafft: 'Hesiod sah den "Körper" schon als innere Einheit, ohne aber von Anfang an ein Wort dafür zu haben. Er kommt über die homerischen (traditionellen) μέλεα γυῖα und εἶδος (s.u.) allmählich am Ende der Erga zu dem neuen Begriff σῶμα.'  (p. 39). I do not think anyone has yet remarked on the further advance made by Archilochus, who saw beyond the Homeric (traditional) γλουτοί the inner unity of the πυγή.

I find this quite funny. At the risk of belaboring the obvious, the sentences quoted from Krafft mean roughly:

Hesiod saw the "body" already as an internal unity, but without having at the beginning a word for it. He passes over the Homeric (traditional) μέλεα γυῖα and εἶδος (see below) gradually at the end of the Works and Days to the new term σῶμα.

The Greek words, in order of occurrence:

• σῶμα (soma) = body, always of a corpse in Homer
• μέλεα (melea), plural of μέλος (melos) = limb
• γυῖα (guia), plural of γυῖον (guion) = limb
• εἶδος (eidos) = form, shape
• γλουτοί (gloutoi), plural of γλουτός (gloutos) = buttock (cf. English glutes)
• πυγή (pyge) = bottom, rump, a word first appearing in Archilochus (cf. English callipygian = with a beautiful bottom)

Here and here. Well worth reading.

Greek Anthology 9.439 (on a skull; by Crinagoras or Antiphilus; tr. W.R. Paton):

Once hairy crown, deserted shell of the eye, fabric of the tongueless mouth, feeble fence of the brain, relic of the unburied dead, set by the wayside to draw a tear from passers-by, thou liest there by the path near the tree-trunk, that looking on thee we may learn what profit there is in being thrifty of life.

βρέγμα πάλαι λαχναῖον, ἐρημαῖόν τε κέλυφος
    ὄμματος, ἀγλώσσου θ᾿ ἁρμονίη στόματος,
ψυχῆς ἀσθενὲς ἕρκος, ἀτυμβεύτου θανάτοιο
    λείψανον, εἰνόδιον δάκρυ παρερχομένων,
κεῖσο πέλας πρέμνοιο παρ᾿ ἀτραπόν, ὄφρα <μάθῃ τις>
    ἀθρήσας, τί πλέον φειδομένῳ βιότου.

5 suppl. Jacobs

Commentary in A.S.F. Gow and D.L. Page, edd., The Garland of Philip and Some Contemporary Epigrams, Vol. II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), pp. 257-258.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), "Thoughts on Various Subjects," Miscellanies, Vol. I (London: Benjamin Motte, 1731), pp. 293-310 (at 303-304):

The common Fluency of Speech in many Men, and most Women, is owing to a Scarcity of Matter, and Scarcity of Words; for whoever is a Master of Language, and hath a mind full of Ideas, will be apt, in speaking, to hesitate upon the Choice of both; whereas common Speakers have only one Sett of Ideas, and one Sett of Words to cloath them in; and these are always ready at the Mouth: So People come faster out of a Church when it is almost empty, than when a Crowd is at the Door.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Henry VI, Part III 2.2.15-18:

Who 'scapes the lurking serpent's mortal sting?
Not he that sets his foot upon her back.
The smallest worm will turn being trodden on,
And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood.

Gottfried Hermann (1772-1848), quoted in H. Koechly, Gottfried Hermann. Zu seinem hundertjährigen Geburtstage (Heidelberg: Karl Winter, 1874), p. 85 ("welches ich selbst einmal aus seinem Munde gehört habe"):

Wer Nichts über die Sache versteht, schreibt über die Methode!

I.e.,

He who understands nothing about the matter, writes about the method!

Cf. number 4 of Karl Lehrs' Ten Commandments for Classical Philologists (tr. William M. Calder III):

Thou shalt not take the name Method in vain.

Du sollst den Namen Methode nicht unnütz im Munde führen.

Gottfried Hermann

"Carmen Astrologicum," in Ernst Heitsch, ed., Die griechischen Dichterfragmente der römischen Kaiserzeit, Vol. II (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1964), pp. 43-44 (my rough translation; lines 7 and 9 consist entirely of nouns in asyndeton):

At the Olympian threshold seven far-roaming stars
revolve, and with them always Time comes round—
Moon shining by night, gloomy Kronos, sweet Sun,
Paphian goddess bearing the marriage bed, bold Ares, well-winged Hermes,
and chief progenitor Zeus, from whom Nature has sprung.        5
These same stars obtained as their portion the race of men, and in us are
Moon, Zeus, Ares, Paphian goddess, Kronos, Sun, Hermes;
therefore we have been assigned to draw in from upper air
tears, laughter, anger, birth, speech, sleep, desire.
Kronos is tears, Zeus is birth, Hermes is speech,        10
Ares is anger, Moon is sleep, Cytherea is desire,
and Sun is laughter; for rightly by him all
mortal understanding and the boundless universe laugh.

Ἑπτὰ πολυπλανέες κατ' ᾿Ολύμπιον ἀστέρες οὐδόν
εἱλεῦνται, μετὰ † τοῖσιν ἀεὶ δ᾿ ἐπινήσεται † αἰών.
νυκτιφανἠς Μήνη, στυγνὀς Κρόνος, Ἥλιος ἡδύς,
παστοφόρος Παφίη, θρασὺς Ἄρης, εὔπτερος Ἑρμῆς,
καἰ Ζεὺς ἀρχιγένεθλος, ἀφ' οὗ φύσις ἐβλάστησεν.        5
οἱ δ' αὐτοὶ μερόπων ἔλαχον γένος, ἔστι δ' ἐν ἡμῖν
Μήνη Ζεύς Ἄρης Παφίη Κρόνος Ἥλιος Έρμῆς·
τοὔνεκ' ἀπ' αἰθερίου μεμερίσμεθα πνεύματος ἕλκειν
δάκρυ γέλωτα χόλον γένεσιν λόγον ὕπνον ὄρεξιν.
δάκρυ μέν ἐστι Κρόνος, Ζεὺς <δ>' ἡ γένεσις, λόγος Ἑρμῆς,        10
θυμὸς Ἄρης, Μήνη δ' ἄρ' ὕπνος, Κυθέρεια δ' ὄρεξις,
Ἡέλιός τε γέλως· τούτῳ γὰρ ἅπασα δικαίως
καὶ θνητὴ διάνοια γελᾷ καὶ κόσμος ἀπείρων.

I translated Friedrich Jacobs' conjecture περινίσσεται in line 2; there may be a misprint in Heitsch's critical apparatus — for κακονιζεται I think κανονιζεται should be read instead (Heitsch in his apparatus seems to omit accents).

---

Ausonius 19.50 Peiper = 13.34 Green (on a marble statue of Corydon; my translation; the first line is a hexameter consisting entirely of nouns in asyndeton):

Goat, billy goat, bag, herdsman, staff-bearer, olive-tree—
one stone; from all of these am I, simple Corydon.

Αἲξ χίμαρος πήρη ποιμὴν ῥαβδοῦχος ἐλαίη
    εἷς λίθος· ἐκ πάντων λιτὸς ἐγὼ Κορύδων.

A charming miniature ekphrasis. In my mind's eye I see a statue (carved from a single block of marble) of a goat-herd, leaning on his staff, with a bag of food over his shoulder, and in his charge two goats, nibbling on wild olive. On εἷς λίθος cf. two anonymous monostichs in the Greek Anthology (9.759 and 9.760, tr. W.R. Paton):

Of one stone are chariot, charioteer, horses, yoke, reins, whip.

εἷς λίθος, ἅρμ᾿, ἐλατήρ, ἵπποι, ζυγόν, ἡνία, μάστιξ.

Of one stone are chariot, charioteer, horses, yoke, reins, and Victory.

εἷς λίθος, ἅρμ᾿, ἐλατήρ, πῶλοι, ζυγός, ἡνία, Νίκη.

There is a misprint in Hugh G. Evelyn-White's Loeb Classical Library edition of Ausonius, Vol. II (London: William Heinemann,1921), p. 186 (Greek for this poem) — in the first line the incorrect πήδη appears instead of πήρη. The mistake persists in the Digital Loeb Classical Library and in the Perseus Digital Library.

---

Greek Anthology 16.39 (by Arabius Scholasticus; tr. W.R. Paton; the first line is a hexameter consisting entirely of proper nouns in asyndeton):

The Nile, Persia, the Iberian, the Lycians, the West, Armenia, the Indians,
the Colchians near the crags of Caucasus,
and the burning plains of the widely-scattered Arabians,
are witnesses to the rapidly executed labours of Longinus;
and as he was on his journeys a swift minister of the Emperor,
so likewise was he swift in giving us peace which had lain in hiding.

Νεῖλος, Περσίς, Ἴβηρ, Σόλυμοι, Δύσις, Ἀρμενίς, Ἰνδοι,
    καὶ Κόλχοι σκοπέλων ἐγγύθι Καυκασιων,
καὶ πεδία ζείοντα πολυσπερέων Ἀγαρηνῶν
    Λογγίνου ταχινῶν μάρτυρές εἰσι πόνων,
ὡς δὲ ταχὺς βασιλῆϊ διάκτορος ἦεν ὁδεύων,        5
    καὶ ταχὺς εἰρήνην ὤπασε κευθομένην.

---

Thanks to Ian Jackson for sending me photocopies of the relevant pages in Heitsch's edition.

Related posts:

• Some Lines in Lucretius
• Asyndeton Filling Hexameters
• Asyndeton Filling Hexameters in Sidonius
• Verse-Filling Asyndeton
• Verse-Filling Asyndeton: Some Greek Examples
• Another Greek Example of Verse-Filling Asyndeton
• More Examples of Asyndeton Filling Hexameters
• Asyndeton Filling Hexameters in Corippus
• Twelve Gods
• Seven Cities
• A Hexameter Consisting of Nouns in Asyndeton
• More Hexameters Consisting of Words in Asyndeton
• Hexameters Consisting of Words in Asyndeton: Dracontius
• Zopyrus' Victims
• A Latin Hexameter Consisting of Adjectives in Asyndeton
• A Sojourn in the Country

Labels: typographical and other errors

Columella, On Agriculture 1.praef.16 (tr. Harrison Boyd Ash):

It is practice and experience that hold supremacy in the crafts, and there is no branch of learning in which one is not taught by his own mistakes.

usus et experientia dominantur in artibus, neque est ulla disciplina, in qua non peccando discatur.

Jorge Luis Borges and Osvaldo Ferrari, Conversations, Vol. 1, tr. Jason Wilson (London: Seagull Books, 2014), p. 12 (Borges speaking):

If one reads Montaigne's essays, one finds the pages full of Latin quotations, quotations that have to be translated now because Latin, sadly, is a dead language. At one time, though, it was the language of educated Europe. One of my grandfathers, Dr Haslam, couldn't afford to go to Oxford or Cambridge so he went to Heidelberg. Five years later he returned with a degree in Philosophy and Literature but without a word of German—he'd passed all his exams in Latin! A very British Latin, no doubt, but sufficient for those exams. Today I doubt you'd find a teacher able to sit for those exams; in those days, that wasn't the case. My friend Néstor Ibarra told me that at his house he was forced to speak Latin at lunch and dinner. All the conversation had to be in Latin which I think was a good thing.

The Spanish, from Borges en Diálogo: Conversaciones de Jorge Luis Borges con Osvaldo Ferrari (Barcelona: Ediciones Grijalbo, 1985), p. 25:

Si usted lee los ensayos de Montaigne, las páginas están llenas de citas latinas, a las cuales han tenido que agregarles la traducción ahora, porque el latín, desgraciadamente, es una lengua muerta. En cambio, antes era el idioma común de toda Europa culta. Un bisabuelo mío, el doctor Haslam, bueno, no podía costearse Oxford o Cambridge, entonces fue a la universidad de Heidelberg, en Alemania. Y volvió, al cabo de cinco años, con su título de doctor en Filosofía y Letras, sin una palabra de alemán. Había dado todos los exámenes en latín. Un latín muy británico sin duda, ¿no?, pero suficiente para, bueno, para esos exámenes. Actualmente, no creo que se encuentre a un profesor capaz de tomar esos exámenes; en aquel tiempo, sí. Bueno, un amigo mío, Néstor Ibarra, me dijo que en su casa los obligaban a usar el latín durante el almuerzo y la comida. Toda la conversación tenía que ser en latín, me parece que está bien.

Hat tip: Ian Jackson.

Related post: Motivation to Learn Latin.

Raffaella Cribiore, Gymnastics of the Mind: Greek Education in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), pp. 141-142 (footnotes omitted):

Unusually profuse accentuation in texts other than lyric can also be an indication that a book was written for or used in school. A case in point is a fragment from what was probably the fourth book of the Catalogue of Hesiod in which nearly every syllable has an accent. Though Homeric papyri frequently present abundant accentuation, the presence of this feature accompanied by many lectional signs that indicate a regular punctuation strongly points to a book used in education. Moreover, when a wealth of accents was added not by the original scribe but by the reader, one strongly suspects that a student was engaged in an accentuation exercise. Thus, a beautifully written text of Iliad 24, the "Bankes" Homer, which also presents elementary marginal annotations, is disfigured by numerous accents grossly written by a second hand: a student marked the book with an energetic disrespect for the written word. Other texts that show signs of school use combine an unusual amount of accentuation with marginal notes written by the reader: a carefully written text of Iliad 5, to which plentiful accents and other lectional signs have been added—this time more gently—by a student, also exhibits numerous marginal annotations of an elementary nature. Asked to distinguish the narrative parts of the book from the speeches, this pupil wrote in the margin the names of various speakers and the indication "the poet" in a rough hand. That such an exercise was needed is shown by the evident uncertainty in identifying the poet's voice. In any case, one should not feel too sorry for such ancient books in disgrace. It is likely that an expensive book copied accurately in a formal hand by a scribe landed in the hands of a student only at the end of a useful life spent in the service of more respectful readers.

Related posts:

• Between the Pages of Books
• Pet Peeve
• Scholia

William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Henry VI, Part II 4.7.32-35:

It will be proved to thy face that thou hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and a verb, and such abominable words as no Christian ear can endure to hear.

De Bono Vitae Humilioris (Anthologia Latina 433 Riese = 431 Shackleton Bailey), tr. John Dunlop, Selections from the Latin Anthology. Translated into English Verse (Edinburgh: Thomas Clark, 1838), p. 161:

Small are my treasures, my domain is small;
    But quietude makes that blameless little, great:
    My tranquil mind no tremors agitate—
Heedless if men my days should slothful call.
Go! Seek the camp—ascend some curule throne—
    All the vain joys that sway the bosom taste!
    Mean though I am, by no distinctions graced,
Still, (while I live,) I call the hours mine own.

Est mihi rus parvum, fenus sine crimine parvum,
    sed facit haec nobis utraque magna quies.
pacem animus nulla trepidus formidine servat
    nec timet ignavae crimina desidiae.
castra alios operosa vocent sellaeque curules        5
    et quicquid vana gaudia mente movet.
pars ego sim plebis, nullo conspectus honore,
    dum vivam, dominus temporis ipse mei.

Thanks to Clive Bloomfield for pointing out an error in my quotation of the Latin, which I've corrected.

Euripides, fragment 520 (tr. Christopher Collard and Martin Cropp):

So I reckoned, if one joined
an inferior spouse with a man of worth, one would not get good children—
but if both were good, their offspring would be good also.

ἡγησάμην οὖν, εἰ παραζεύξειέ τις
χρηστῷ πονηρὸν λέκτρον, οὐκ ἂν εὐτεκνεῖν,
ἐσθλοῖν δ᾿ ἀπ᾿ ἀμφοῖν ἐσθλὸν ἂν φῦναι γόνον.

Related post: Eugenics.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Henry VI, Part III 2.5.21-54:

O God! methinks it were a happy life,
To be no better than a homely swain;
To sit upon a hill, as I do now,
To carve out dials quaintly, point by point,
Thereby to see the minutes how they run,        25
How many make the hour full complete;
How many hours bring about the day;
How many days will finish up the year;
How many years a mortal man may live.
When this is known, then to divide the times:        30
So many hours must I tend my flock;
So many hours must I take my rest;
So many hours must I contemplate;
So many hours must I sport myself;
So many days my ewes have been with young;        35
So many weeks ere the poor fools will ean:
So many years ere I shall shear the fleece:
So minutes, hours, days, months, and years,
Pass'd over to the end they were created,
Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave.        40
Ah, what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely!
Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade
To shepherds looking on their silly sheep,
Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy
To kings that fear their subjects' treachery?        45
O, yes, it doth; a thousand-fold it doth.
And to conclude, the shepherd's homely curds,
His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle.
His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade,
All which secure and sweetly he enjoys,        50
Is far beyond a prince's delicates,
His viands sparkling in a golden cup,
His body couched in a curious bed,
When care, mistrust, and treason waits on him.

36 ean: give birth

William Byrd (1543-1623), Psalmes, Sonets, & songs of sadnes and pietie, made into Musicke of fiue parts (London: Thomas East, 1588), number XIX:

What pleasure haue great princes
more daintie to their choice,
then heardmen wyld, who carelesse
in quiet lyfe reioyce,
& fortunes fate not fearing,        5
sing sweet in Sommer morning.

Their dealings plaine and rightfull,
are void of all disceit:
they neuer know how spightefull
it is to kneele and waite        10
on fauorite presumptius,
whose pride is vaine and sumptious.

All day their flocks ech tendeth,
at night they take their rest,
more quiet than who sendeth        15
his shippe into the East,
where gold and pearle are plentie,
but getting verie daintie.

For Lawiers and their pleading
the'steeme it not a straw,        20
they thinke that honest meaning,
is of it selfe a law,
where conscience iudgeth plainelie,
they spend no monie vainelie.

O happie who thus liueth,        25
not caring much for gold,
with clothing which suffiseth,
to keepe him from the cold,
though poore and plaine his diet,
yet merrie it is and quiet.        30

From the movie Good Will Hunting (1997):

Sean: So what do you really want to do?
Will: I wanna be a shepherd.
Sean: Really.
Will: I wanna move up to Nashua, get a nice little spread, get some sheep and tend to them.
Sean: Maybe you should go do that.