Medieval rhetoric and poetic to 1400 : $b Interpreted from representative worksBaldwin, Charles Sears
History
Medieval rhetoric and poetic to 1400 : $b Interpreted from representative works
Baldwin, Charles Sears
Literature, Medieval -- History and criticism; Poetics -- History -- To 1500; Rhetoric, Medieval
O miserrima Fæsulanórum propágo (_planus_),
et iterum iam puníta barbáries (_tardus_)!
An parum timoris prælibáta incútiunt (_tardus_)?
Omnino vos tremere árbitror vìgilántes (_velox_),
Quamquam spem simuletis in facie verbóque mendáci (_planus_),
atque in somniis expergísci plerúmque (_planus_),
sive pavescentes infúsa præságia (_tardus_),
sive diurna consília rècoléntes (_velox_).[38]
The fixing of these three cadences in Roman use would of itself have
given them a vogue beyond letter-writing. Moreover they were chosen not
at random, but as typical fulfilments of rhythmical expectation. For they
appear also, though not exclusively, in the collects of the liturgy and
in the daily offices.[39] The collect for the fourth Sunday after the
Epiphany has all three.
Deus qui nos in tantis perículis cònstitútos (_vel._) pro
humana scis fragilitate non pósse subsístere (_tard._) da nóbis
salútem (_plan._) méntis et córporis (_tard._) ut ea quæ pro
peccatis nostris patimur (not conformed) te adjuvánte vincámus
(_plan._).[40]
The longer measures of the collect composed in 1264 by St. Thomas Aquinas
for Corpus Christi fall upon _velox_.
Deus, qui nobis sub sacramento mirabili passionis tuæ memóriam
rèliquísti, tribue, quæsumus, ita nos corporis et sanguinis tui
sacra mystéria vènerári ut redemptionis tuæ fructum in nobis
júgiter sèntiámus.
The English translation, following this cadence in the first measure and
the third, departs in the second.
O God, who in this wonderful sacrament hast left us a memórial
of thy pássion, grant us, we beseech thee, so to venerate
the sacred mysteries of thy body and blood [not conformed]
that we may ever perceive within ourselves the frúit of thy
redémption.[41]
Hearing these cadences over and over, preachers of course used them often
in Latin sermons. Thus the cadences that were obligatory in ceremonious
letters, and habitual in other use, confirmed the conception and
practise of Latin prose as rhythmical.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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