September 28, 2017

We quote:

.... [P]roverbs in the Middle Ages were popular. One excellent source of medieval proverbs is The Well-Laden Ship, an eleventh-century Latin poem composed by Egbert of Liege. Egbert had written this as a textbook for young students – something that they would enjoy and be able to learn Latin from. He included hundreds of proverbs, along with short stories...

In the opening of his book, Egbert explained, “Many people often say many things in ordinary language, and that wisdom of commoners is proffered in a great many examples that are indispensable to employ. I drank from this font, thinking to myself that among these things were many that are practical and (if somehow they could be preserved) clear – things which could make listeners of those who were for this reason inattentive : that these things had been written down nowhere to be preserved better in a mindful heart. So, I have gathered up in just two little books whatever things I could think of through the hours of day and night, in single verselets, many times in two, sometimes in three, furthermore interspersing them with some new and popular tales and a few divine ones.”....

The Well-Laden Ship has been just edited and translated by Robert Gary Babcock of the University of North Carolina, and it now published as part of the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library series by Harvard University Press.....

And we quote further:

While the cat’s away, the mouse is seen scurrying about.
Dum deerit cattus, dicurrens conspicitur mus.

The crow, by not crowing, could have the cadaver for himself.
Corvus non crocitando cadaver solus haberet.

When your neighbour’s house is burning, the fire is getting close to you.
Dum flagrat vicina domus, ibi proximat ad te.

The man who licks a greasy knife gives little to his companion.
Dat modicum comiti, sicam qui lingit inunctam.

One bee in the city is preferable to countless flies.
Prestat apes una immensis per moenia muscis.

A living dog is better than a dead lion.
Defuncto canis est melior vivendo leone.

A kitten roves about, following the straw; even if you are clever, you will scarcely induce an old cat to this trick.
Cattulus inprimis stipulas imitatus oberrat.
ad quam vix veterem sollers produxeris artem.

We quote on THIS date because September 28, 2017, is National Poetry Day in Britain. And we reach back to the 11th century.