>>* Theodard, bishop of Maastricht (670?)
>> - when held up by robbers in the forest of Bienwald, he made a long
>>speech to them, to which they replied with a quotation from Horace before
>>killing him
>>
>
>Does hagiography relate what this quotation was? If not, perhaps we could
>have a competition to suggest the most apposite line of Horace for an
>educated brigand to invoke when about to kill a bishop...
>
>Seriously, I'd be very interested to know if any source supplies this detail.
>
>Steven Botterill
>
>Associate Professor and Chair
>Department of Italian Studies
>3335 Dwinelle Hall #2620
>University of California
>Berkeley, CA 94720-2620
>U.S.A.
Dear all,
I don't know if it helps, and I may be dragging a red herring across the
trail. Does the legend definitely state the quotation was from Horace? If
the bishop was worth robbing, I can imagine a scene where the robbers
quoted to him, ironically, the lines from Juvenal, Sat.x.20-22
Nocte iter ingressus gladium contumque timebis
et motae ad lunam trepidabis arundinis umbras:
cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator.
This was taken up and used by Boethius *De Cons. Phil.* BkII pr.5 (though
it's not certain how familiar people were with Boethius in c.670), from
where later on it became a commonplace. Chaucerians who have joined the
list may know it from Chaucer's *Boece*, and from the Wife of Bath's Tale
ll.1193-4; it also appears in *Piers Plowman* (B version), Pass.14.305.
G.L.Apperson, *The Wordsworth Dictionary of Proverbs*, s.v. SING, verb
(p.573 my copy) lists a number of other references.
Just a thought. But if someone *does* come up with an apposite quotation
from Horace, I would be interested.
Brian Donaghey
Brian Donaghey - Dept of English Language & Linguistics - Ext 6291
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