Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Capra et Lac: In desciscentes (Alciato)

SOURCE: The emblems of Alciato, with a convenient bilingual presentation online at Memorial University, and a marvelous collection of illustrated editions at Glasgow. This is emblem 141 in the collection. Although the proverbial "Scyrian goat" does not make an appearance in Aesop's fables, you can find the motif in Erasmus's Adagia, 1.10.20 Capra Scyria.

READ OUT LOUD. Choose which marked text you prefer to practice with - macrons in verse form, or macrons in prose order, or accent marks in prose order, or focusing on the meter. You will find materials for all of these options below. :-)


VERSE MACRONS. Here is the verse text with macrons (note that the o is short in profundit):

Quod fīne ēgregiōs turpī maculāveris orsūs,
In noxamque tuum verteris officium;
Fēcistī quod capra, suī mulctrālia lactis
Cum ferit, et propriās calce profundit opēs.


PROSE MACRONS. Here is the same text with macrons written out in prose word order:

Quod orsūs ēgregiōs fine turpī maculāveris, et in noxam officium tuum verteris, fēcistī quod capra, cum lactis suī mulctrālia ferit et opēs propriās calce profundit.


STRESS (ACCENT) MARKS. Here is the prose text with accents, plus some color-coding for the words of three or more syllables (blue: penultimate stress; red: antepenultimate stress):

Quod orsus egrégios fine turpi maculáveris, et in noxam offícium tuum vérteris, fecísti quod capra, cum lactis sui mulctrália ferit et opes próprias calce profúndit.


ELEGIAC COUPLET METER. Below I have used an interpunct dot · to indicate the metrical elements in each line, and a double line || to indicate the hemistichs of the pentameter line.

Quod fī·n~ ēgregi·ōs tur·pī macu·lāveris· orsūs,
In no·xamque tu·um || verteris· offici·um;
Fēcis·tī quod· capra, su·ī mulc·trālia· lactis
Cum ferit,· et propri·ās || calce pro·fundit o·pēs.


IMAGE. Here's an illustration for the fable (image source) from a 1621 edition of the emblems:


What follows is an unmarked version of the prose rendering to faciliate word searches: Quod orsus egregios fine turpi maculaveris, et in noxam officium tuum verteris, fecisti quod capra, cum lactis sui mulctralia ferit et opes proprias calce profundit.