es lepus

Medieval racism

2010-01-18T08:00:00.003-05:00

Sire, sachiez tot entresait
Que Galois sont tot par nature
Plus fol que bestes en pasture;
Cist est ausi come une best.
Fols est qui dalez lui s'arest,
S'a la muse ne velt muser
Et le tans en folie user.

// Christian de Troyes, Perceval, ll. 242-8 (c. 1181-91)

My Lord, know this, and know it now:
the Welsh are all, due to their nature,
more dumb than any barnyard creature,
and this guy's just a beast inside.
It's dumb to linger at his side
unless you fancy acting silly
and wasting time all willy-nilly.

Why grammar was invented

2010-01-11T08:00:00.003-05:00

Hinc moti sunt inventores gramatice facultatis: que quidem gramatica nichil aliud est quam quedam inalterabilis locutionis ydemptitas diversibus temporibus atque locis. Hec cum de comuni consensu multarum gentium fuerit regulata, nulli singolari arbitrio videtur obnoxia, et per consequens nec variabilis esse potest. Adinvenerunt ergo illam ne, propter variationem sermonis arbitrio singularium fluitantis, vel nullo modo vel saltim imperfecte antiquorum actingeremus autoritates et gesta, sive illorum quos a nobis locorum diversitas facit esse diversos.

// Dante, De Vulgari Eloquentia, I.ix.11 (c. 1302-5)

The inventors of the art of grammar began here, and grammar is nothing other than an identity of speech that remains unchanged in different times and places. Since it has been codified by the common consent of many peoples, it seems safe from any individual's decision, and thus cannot be changed. So they devised grammar, lest, on account of language change brought about by individuals' decisions, we should in no way or at best imperfectly come into contact with the authorities and the deeds of the ancients or of those whom spatial difference makes different from us.

Es lepus

2010-01-04T08:00:00.005-05:00

vir facie, mulier gestu, sed crure quod ambo,
jurgia naturae nullo discrimine solvens,
es lepus, et tanti conculcas colla leonis.

// Ennodius, Epigram LII (c. 500)

Man in appearance, lady in gesture, but in between the legs a bit of both,
resolving nature's quarrels by ignoring its distinctions,
you're a hare, and you stand on the neck of a mighty lion.