 |
 |
>>>* 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 > > > Dear Steven, If *I* were about to kill a bishop defending himself with long speeches, I would chose maybe something like "quidquid praecipies, esto brevis" (Ars poet. 335). Should I want to incite him to try a bit more effective self-defence, I might say: "vellunt tibi barbam / lascivi pueri, quos tu nisi fuste coerces, / urgueris turba circum te stante miserque / rumperis et latras" (Sat. I.iii.133ss.). An eventual attempt to escape would be countered by my words: "misere cupis (inquam) abire, / iamdudum video; sed nil agis; usque tenebo" (Sat. I.ix.14s.), or maybe, if I am in a less courteous mood: "quo tu, turpissime!" (ibd. 75). On the other hand, I might want to offer him some consolation, like: "quid refert, morbo an furtis pereasque rapinis" (Sat. II.iii.157, or almost), or "quid refert, uri virgis ferroque necari" (Sat. II.vii.58), if I had decided that he should get some beating first. And a good line to accompany the final stroke would be: "accipe quod numquam reddas mihi" (Sat. II.iii.66). I only wonder why you ever asked. Horace is full of appropriate verses to kill a bishop. Yours, Otfried %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%