Thanks, all -- it must be 'syncope', however like a stroke that
sounds. Actually, it was Pieter Burman, the early-18C scholar,
penning a footnote to a Sidney letter and calling him 'egregius
proetus'. After some discussion with one of my Latin gurus, I decided
that he had had a lapsus calami creating a syncope and had meant to
write 'egregius proelatus', i.e. 'that noble warrior'.
As one of my old professors used to say, 'One should never discount
stupidity'.
Gracias,
Roger K
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