Saturday, January 2, 2010

Tubicen captivus: Parem delinquentis et suasoris culpam esse (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 174 in the collection. For other versions, see Perry 370.

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:

Praecōnem lituō perflantem classica victrix
Captīvum in taetrō carcere turba tenet.
Queis ille excūsat, quod nec sit strēnuus armīs,
Ullius aut saevō laeserit ēnse latus.
Huīc illī: Quīn ipse magis timidissime peccās,
Quī clangōre aliōs aeris in arma ciēs.


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

Turba victrix praecōnem lituō classica perflantem captīvum in carcere taetrō tenet. Queis (quibus) ille excūsat, quod nec strēnuus armīs sit, aut ēnse saevō latus ullius laeserit. Illī huīc: Quīn ipse magis timidissime peccās, quī aeris clangōre aliōs in arma ciēs.


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):

Turba victrix praecónem lítuo clássica perflántem captívum in cárcere taetro tenet. Queis (quibus) ille excúsat, quod nec strénuus armis sit, aut ense saevo latus ullíus laéserit. Illi huic: Quin ipse magis timidíssime peccas, qui aeris clangóre álios in arma cies.


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.

Praecō·nem litu·ō per·flantem· classica· victrix
Captīv~· in tae·trō || carcere· turba te·net.
Queis il·l~ excū·sat, quod· nec sit· strēnuus· armīs,
Ullius· aut sae·vō || laeserit· ēnse la·tus.
Huīc il·lī: Quīn· ipse ma·gis timi·dissime· peccās,
Quī clan·gōr~ ali·ōs || aeris in· arma ci·ēs.


IMAGE. ere's an illustration for the fable (image source) from a 1531 edition of the emblems:


What follows is an unmarked version of the prose rendering to faciliate word searches:
Turba victrix praeconem lituo classica perflantem captivum in carcere taetro tenet. Queis (quibus) ille excusat, quod nec strenuus armis sit, aut ense saevo latus ullius laeserit. Illi huic: Quin ipse magis timidissime peccas, qui aeris clangore alios in arma cies.