Wine, Women, and Song: Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse
History
Wine, Women, and Song: Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse
Goliards -- Songs and music -- Texts; Songs, Latin (Medieval and modern) -- Translations into English; Students' songs -- Europe -- Texts
Oh, how blest for bounteous uses
Is the birth of pure vine-juices!
Safe's the table which produces
Wine in goodly quality.
Oh, in colour how auspicious!
Oh, in odour how delicious!
In the mouth how sweet, propitious
To the tongue enthralled by thee!
Blest the man who first thee planted,
Called thee by thy name enchanted!
He whose cups have ne'er been scanted
Dreads no danger that may be.
Blest the belly where thou bidest!
Blest the tongue where thou residest!
Blest the mouth through which thou glidest,
And the lips thrice blest by thee!
Therefore let wine's praise be sounded,
Healths to topers all propounded;
We shall never be confounded,
Toping for eternity!
Pray we: here be thou still flowing,
Plenty on our board bestowing,
While with jocund voice we're showing
How we serve thee--Jubilee!
Another, regarding the date of which I have no information, is an
imitation of a well-known _Christmas Carol_.
A CAROL OF WINE.
No. 46.
In dulci jubilo
Sing we, make merry so!
Since our heart's pleasure
Latet in poculo,
Drawn from the cask, good measure.
Pro hoc convivio,
Nunc, nunc bibito!
O crater parvule!
How my soul yearns for thee!
Make me now merry,
O potus optime,
Claret or hock or sherry!
Et vos concinite:
Vivant socii!
O vini caritas!
O Bacchi lenitas!
We've drained our purses
Per multa pocula:
Yet hope we for new mercies,
Nummoram gaudia:
Would that we had them, ah!
Ubi sunt gaudia? where,
If that they be not there?
There the lads are singing
Selecta cantica:
There are glasses ringing
In villae curia;
Oh, would that we were there!
_In Dulci Jubilo_ yields an example of mixed Latin and German. This is
the case too with a comparatively ancient drinking-song quoted by
Geiger in his _Renaissance und Humanismus_, p. 414. It may be
mentioned that the word _Bursae_, for _Burschen_, occurs in stanza v.
This word, to indicate a student, can also be found in _Carm. Bur._,
p. 236, where we are introduced to scholars drinking yellow Rhine wine
out of glasses of a pale pink colour--already in the twelfth century!
THE STUDENTS' WINE-BOUT.
No. 47.
Ho, all ye jovial brotherhood,
Quos sitis vexat plurima,
I know a host whose wits are good,
Quod vina spectat optima.
His wine he blends not with the juice
E puteo qui sumitur;
Each kind its virtue doth produce
E botris ut exprimitur.
Host, bring us forth good wine and strong,
In cella quod est optimum!
We brethren will our sport prolong
Ad noctis usque terminum.
Whoso to snarl or bite is fain,
Ut canes decet rabidos,
Outside our circle may remain,
Ad porcos eat sordidos,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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