TRANSLATION.
WOMAN A TREASURY OF EVILS.
MISCELLANEOUS AND COMMEMORATIVE.
NEVER BEFORE PRINTED.
NOTE.
Once more the Sancroft MS. furnishes the Poems of this division, all hitherto unprinted. In this section I have again been largely and finely aided in the translations by my already-named friend the Rev. Richard Wilton, as before. G.
TRANSLATION.
THE BEAUTIFUL NOT LASTING.
DUM IN ILLIUS TUTELAM TRANSEUNT VIRGINES.
TRANSLATION.
A HYMN TO VENUS,
WHILE THE VIRGINS PASS UNDER HER PROTECTION.
TRANSLATION.
A DESCRIPTION OF SPRING.
The two following poems—somewhat out of character, so to say, with Crashaw—were probably prepared for a tractate, which it has been our good fortune to hap on in the Bodleian. It is a Latin burlesque Poem, filling a small 4to of 20 pages, with this title:
The words 'Priscianus Verberans et Vapulans' remind us of the once-famous 'Comoedia' of Nicodemus Freschlin; but the later poem shows no reminiscence of the earlier. These details will doubtless interest and amuse in relation to Crashaw's pieces. Priscianus, otherwise Nisus, a schoolmaster, whips a boy who broke and dirtied his whipping-horse, and the boy's parents bring an action against him for assault. The place is evidently Aldborough in Suffolk—illumined by the genius of Crabbe—and the name of the boy's family Coleman. The poem thus begins and proceeds—the marginal notes being placed at the bottom of our pages:
He describes the school:
Vicinae senior Carbonius[103] incola villae,
'Lingua vernacula idem quod ἀνθράκανδρος,
sends his son as a scholar: the stipend 20s. a year:
De stipe[103] consentit genitor: Carbunculus intrat.
He describes the whipping-block, the judicious use of which saves boys from the gallows:
Iste caballus
the Trojan Non in perniciem, non urbis ut ille ruinam
Sed curam imberbis populi, regimenque salubre:
A triplici ligno[104] lignum hoc penate tuetur
Praecipitem aetatem.
Young Coleman plays truant from school, and one day, when the school is empty, breaks and defiles the horse. He openly boasts of his feat, and returning another day to repeat his misdeed, is caught by Nisus, who mounts him on the injured horse, which, by poetical license, is made to whinny with content. The youth expects twenty cuts, and receives four:
Quattuor[105] inflixit tantum mediocriter ictus,
Plures optet equus, plures daret arbiter aequus.
Coleman senior calls on the Schoolmaster, who remarks that payment for his son's schooling is in arrear. Coleman returns with Mrs. Coleman, and demands a receipt for the payment, which he makes, as Nisus discovers, lest a counter-action be brought against him:
Vult sibi ut absolvens[106] accepti latio detur
Consignata manu Nisi, atque a teste probata.
Then Mrs. Coleman shows herself deserving of the cucking-stool:
..... bona Carbonissa
Inque caput Nisi cumulata opprobria plaustro
Digna et rixivomas sub aquis mersante[107] cathedra,
Quinetiam manibus quasi pugnatura lacessit.
They bring their action for assault. (The English words in the marginal notes, placed below, are in black-letter:)
Nulla mora est, juristam adhibent, de fonte dicarum
Qui populo Placita ad Communia[108] panditur, exit
Schedula quod vulgo[109] Regis Breve dicitur: illo
Mox capitur Nisus, geminoque sub obside spondet
In responsurum praescripto tempore: tempus
Cunctarum[110] lux est animarum crastini. Verum
Actor quis?[111] Puer ipse, virum qui provocat, annos
Nondum bis-senos superans. Sed et actio quaenam?
Quid crimen? Pravus atque atrox injuria, tristes
Et tragicae ambages, ampullae sesquipedales,
Quod[112] Regis contra pacem vi Nisus, et armis
Insultum fecit, male tractans verbere saevo
Verberibus diris adeo, plenisque pericli
De pueri vita ut desperaretur.
The poem ends, leaving poor Nisus in the midst of his first law-suit:
Ecce
Nisus, jam primum Nisus miser ambulat in jus:
and the marginal note is 'In causis litigiosis sive casibus inscriptionum stylus Johannes de Stiles versus Johannem de Nokes.' A concluding chronogram gives the year 1629:
LVDI MagIster LIte VeXatVr forI.
The Schoolmaster's friends have written him complimentary epigrams, which are prefixed to his poem. One is worth reproducing, ae it has an echo of Crashaw's:
Ad κοπροχρυσοῦντα
Suavia nonnulli lutulento carmine narrant:
Turpia tu nitido, Nise poeta, places.
In black-letter, as follows:
Some cloath faire tales in sluttish eloquence:
Thy tale is foule, thy verse is frankincense.
T. Lovering Artium Ludiq. Magister.
There seems little doubt that Crashaw's two poems were born of this anonymous tractate. Cf. 'rixivomas' (p. 310) with 'vomitivam' and 'rixosa volumina linguae.' Biographically they and others secular have a special interest and value. My good friend Rev. Richard Wilton, as before, has very happily translated these playthings. G.
TRANSLATION.
PRISCIANUS BEATING AND BEING BEATEN.
SUPER HAC RE AB IPSO LUDI MAGISTRO EDITUM, QUI DICITUR 'PRISCIANUS VERBERANS ET VAPULANS.'
TRANSLATION.
TO A TRACTATE ON THIS SUBJECT
PUBLISHED BY THE MASTER OF THE SCHOOL HIMSELF, WHICH IS CALLED 'PRISCIANUS VERBERANS ET VAPULANS.'