Renaissance Language Instruction

Faustus, cont’d:
carminis occiderat studium, iam nulla sonabat
fistula disparibus calamis; odiosus et arcus,
funda odiosa, canes odiosi, odiosa volucrum
praeda, nucum calyces cultro enucleare molestum;
texere fiscellam iunco vel vimine, piscem
fallere, scrutari nidos, certare palaestra,
sortiri digitis res iniucunda, voluptas
magna prius, tanti dum mens erat inscia morbi.

“My zeal for song had perished; no shepherd’s pipe was sounding with its multi-length reeds. I hated my bow; I hated my sling; I hated my dogs; I hated bird hunting. Shelling nuts with my knife was difficult to bear! Weaving a basket with rushes or withes, fooling a fish, searching out nests, contending on the wrestling mat, playing finger dice—these were unpleasant activities. Formerly, when my mind was free from such a great malady, they were great pleasures.”

For a pdf version of all Monday Mantuan progress to date, click here.

Faustus:
Hic locus, haec eadem sub qua requiescimus arbor
scit quibus ingemui curis, quibus ignibus arsi
ante duos vel (ni memini male) quattuor annos;
sed tibi, quando vacat, quando est iucunda relatu,
historiam prima repetens ab origine pandam.
     Hic ego, dum sequerer primis armenta sub annis,
veste solo strata sedi iacuique supinus
cum gemitu et lacrimis mea tristia fata revolvens.
nulla quies mihi dulcis erat, nullus labor; aegro
pectore sensus iners, et mens torpore sepulta
ut stomachus languentis erat quem nulla ciborum
blandimenta movent, quem nulla invitat orexis.

“This spot, this same tree under which we’re resting knows the cares I groaned over, the fires with which I burned two or four years ago (if memory serves)—But for you, since it’s over, since it’s pleasing as a story, I’ll repeat the crooked history from its first beginning . . .
     ”While I was in my first years following the sheep, I sat alone at this spot with my garments strewn about; I cast myself flat with a groan and tears, considering my sad fate. No rest was sweet to me, nor was any labor. My emotions were stagnant from sickness of heart; my mind was buried in numbness, like a faint stomach which isn’t moved by culinary allurements or enticed by any appetite.”

A Pre-Raphaelite pastoral scene

Baptista Spagnolo of Mantua (thus, Mantuanus) was an Italian Neo-Latin poet who flourished in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. His most remembered work is a series of pastoral poems modeled on Vergil’s Bucolica called the Adulescentia (as eight of the ten were originally written when he was a student). They were wildly successful poems and became a standard school text for almost two centuries. Even Shakespeare’s Holofernes, the schoolmaster in Love’s Labour’s Lost quotes from them. 

It seems fitting, then, that we should spend some time getting to know Mantuan’s Adulescentia; and so we shall, on a weekly basis, have our Monday Mantuan. 

First, as for the text: Wilfred Mustard’s edition of 1911 has been the standard text of the Adulescentia for almost a century. I’ve had the USC library copy checked out for almost three years, but now, thanks (oh, blessed thanks) to Google’s book scanning enterprise and also the demise of the volume’s copyright, a .pdf version is freely available. Simply click here. 

Second, as to our method: Each Monday I will post and translate as long a snippet as I care to until we’ve worked through the whole thing. Fun! 

(The biographical information above is taken from Mustard, Wilfred P., ed. The Eclogues of Baptista Mantuanus. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins P, 1911. Print.) 

Incipiamus! 

Baptistae Mantuani
Adulescentia 

Ecloga I 

Fortunatus and Faustus 

Fortunatus:
Fauste, precor, gelida quando pecus omne sub umbra
ruminat, antiquos paulum recitemus amores,
ne, si forte sopor nos occupet, ulla ferarum
quae modo per segetes tacite insidiantur adultas
saeviat in pecudes; melior vigilantia somno. 

“I beg you, Faustus, since the herd is all grazing in the frosty shade, let’s remember and share a little about former loves . That way none of the wild beasts which are now silently lying in wait among the grown corn will end up raging among the sheep–as they would if  sleep were to happen to grab hold of us. Vigilance is better than sleep.”