UNIT IV
Lily's "CARMEN DE MORIBUS"
At the same time that the
student was translating the colloquies of Corderius and Erasmus, he was
also introduced to his first lengthy, consecutive, Latin passage, the poem
"Carmen de Moribus." This poem on "morals," which actually were
nothing more than school regulations, was part of A Short Introduction
of Grammar, the Latin grammar book compiled by William Lily,
an early sixteenth-century master of St. Paul's school in England. Lily,
assisted by the founder of that school, John Colet, and by Erasmus himself,
composed this comprehensive Latin grammar book, by order of Henry VIII.
It became the standard book for the instruction of Latin grammar in England
throughout the sixteenth century. Lily's grammar book persisted for well
over three hundred years in England and, in essence, was the inspirational
source for Ezekiel Cheever's Latin grammar book in New England, as has
already been mentioned (Unit 1).
The "Carmen de Moribus"
is a series of pithy sentences, containing a rather extensive vocabulary,
as well as emphatic examples of most of the grammar rules with which the
student had struggled from the outset of his grammar school training. In
addition, this poem is one of the earliest preserved documents which reinforces
part of the reading list in Erasmus' "de ratione studii" of those
Classical authors who should be included in the curriculum of a Latin grammar
school. The authors adopted from Erasmus, and explicitly named in Lily's
poem, are Cicero, Terence and Vergil. This poem also provides a straightforward
description of the conduct expected of each student in Lily's classroom.
Undoubtedly, the same sort of behavior was expected in Cheever's classroom.
By today's standards, the
Latin of Lily's "Carmen de Moribus" presents a challenging text
for even experienced students and should elicit considerable admiration
from the modern student that this text was read by ten-year-olds in colonial
America. The following selection is taken from a reprint of W. Lily's,
A
Short Introduction of Grammar (London, 1650), found in a diminutive
(4" x 6"), but lengthy, book of approximately 400 pages in the Rare Books
Collection of Dinand Library of Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts.
It was owned by an otherwise unknown, Thomas Dominell, who dates his use
of the book to 1681. The work is divided into two parts: I. "An Introduction
of the Eight Parts of Speech" and Lily's "Carmen de Moribus," and
II. "Brevissima Institutio, seu, Ratio Grammatices cognoscendae, ad
omnium puerorum utilitatem praescripta." An interesting feature of
the book is that the text is interspersed with nearly one hundred blank
pages, designed for student notetaking, for which purpose Dominell, or
another owner, used them. In the beginning of the book, these student notes
reflect a verbatim repetition of the school master's lectures:
How many Letters are there?
24 in English: and 23 in Latin.
What Letter is there in English that is not in Latin?
That Letter is W.
How are the Letters divided?
Into Vowels and Consonants.
Much later in the same text, the student's handwritten notes present
a far more sophisticated knowledge of Latin, and eventually the notes themselves
are written exclusively in the Latin language. For example, under the heading
of "De Vitiis orationis grammaticae" the student notes include:
Quot sunt praecipue vitia orationis grammaticae?
Duo: Barbarismus, et Solecismus: quibus annumeratur, et hyperbaton, si
usurpetur intempestive aut in excessu.
Quid est Barbarismus? etc.
Reading
William Lily - A Short Introduction of Grammar (1548) "Carmen
de Moribus"
Qui mihi discipulus puer es, cupis atque doceri,
Huc ades, haec animo concipe dicta tuo.
Mane situs lectum fuge, mollem discute somnum.
Templa petas supplex, & venerare Deum.
Attamen in primis facies sit lota manusque:
5
Sint nitidae vestes, comptaque caesaries.
Desidiam fugiens, cum te schola nostra vocarit,
Adsis nulla pigrae sit tibi causa morae.
Me praeceptorem cum videris, ore saluta,
Et condiscipulos, ordine quoque tuos.
10
Tu quoque fac sedeas, ubi te sedisse iubemus:
Inque loco, nisi si iussus abire, mane.
At magis ut quisque est doctrinae munere clarus,
Sic magis is clara sede locandus erit.
Scalpellum, calami, atramentum, charta, libelli,
15
Sint semper studiis, arma parata, tuis.
Si quid dictabo, scribes, at singula recte:
Nec macula, aut scriptis menda sit, ulla, tuis.
Sed tua nec laceris dictata, aut carmina, chartis
Mandes, quae libris inseruisse decet.
20
Saepe recognoscas tibi lecta, animoque revolvas:
Si dubites, nunc hos consule, nunc alios.
Qui dubitat, qui saepe rogat, mea dicta tenebit:
Is qui nil dubitat, nil capit inde boni.
Disce puer, quaeso, noli dediscere quicquam:
25
Ne mens te insimulet conscia desidiae.
Sisque animo attentus, quid enim docuisse iuvabit,
Si mea, non firmo pectore, verba praemis:
Nil tam difficile est, quod non solertia vincat:
Invigila, & parta est gloria militiae.
30
Nam veluti flores tellus nec semina profert,
Ni sit continuo victa labore manus:
Sic puer ingenium, si non exercitet, ipsum
Tempus & amittet, spem simul ingenii.
Est etiam semper lex in sermone tenenda,
35
Ne nos offendat improba garrulitas.
Incumbens studio, submissa voce loqueris:
Nobis dum reddis, voce canorus eris.
Et quaecunque mihi reddis, discantur ad unguem:
Singula, & abiecto, verbula redde, libro.
40
Nec verbum, quisquam dicturo suggerat, ullum,
Quod puero, exitium non mediocre, parit,
Si quicquam rogito, sic responders studebis,
Ut laudem dictis & mereare decus.
Non lingua celeri, nimis, aut laudabere tarda:
45
Est virtus medium quod tenuisse iuvat.
Et quoties loqueris, memor esto, loquare latine:
Et veluti scopulos, barbara verba fuge.
Praeterea socios, quoties tecumque rogabunt,
Instrue, & ignaros, ad mea vota, trahe.
50
Qui docet indoctos, licet indoctissimus esset,
Ipse brevi, reliquis, doctior esse queat.
Sed tu nec stolidos imitabere grammaticastros,
Ingens Romani dedecus eloquii.
Quorum tam fatuus nemo, aut tam barbarus ore est,
55
Quem non autorem, barbara turba probet.
Grammaticas, recte si vis cognoscere, leges:
Discere si cupias cultius ore loqui,
Addiscas veterum, clarissima scripta, virorum,
Et quos autores, turba latina, docet.
60
Nunc te Vergilius, nunc ipse Terentius optat:
Nunc simul amplecti te Ciceronis opus.
Quos qui non didicit, nil praeter somnia vidit:
Certat & in tenebris vivere Cimmeriis.
Sunt quos delectat (studio virtutis honesta
65
Posthabito) nugis tempora conterere,
Sunt quibus est cordi, manibus pedibusve, sodales,
Aut alio quovis solicitare modo.
Est alius, qui se dum clarum sanguine iactat,
Insulso, reliquis improbat, ore genus.
70
Te tam prava sequi nolim vestigia morum,
Ne tandem factis, praemia digna feras.
Nil dabis aut vendes, nil permutabis emesve:
Ex damno alterius, commoda nulla feres.
Insuper & nummos, irritamenta malorum,
75
Mitte aliis: puerum nil nisi pura decent.
Clamor, rixa, ioci, mendacia, furta, cachinni,
Sint procul a vobis: martis & arma procul.
Nil penitus dices quod turpe, aut non sit honestum:
Est vitae ac pariter ianua lingua necis.
80
Ingens crede nefas cuiquam maledicta referre:
Iurare, aut magni numina sacra Dei.
Denique servabis res omnes atque libellos,
Et tecum quoties isque redisque, feres.
Effuge vel causas faciunt quaecunque nocentem:
85
In quibus & nobis displicuisse potes.
Grammatical Notes
Lily's "Carmen de Moribus"
is written in the elegiac meter-i.e., a hexameter line followed by a pentameter.
The pentameter is scanned as two half verses, of which the second half
consists of two dactyls followed by a single syllable.
L.1
qui, the subject of es and cupis;
its antecedent is
puer.
L.2 consider ades as a second person singular
present imperative of
adsum, "be present."
L.3
mane, an adverb, "in the morning."
L.4
petas, hortative subjunctive; venerare,
second person, singular,
present imperative of a deponent verb.
L.5
in primis, frequently written imprimis,
adverb, "above all," or "first of all."
1.7
vocarit = vocaverit.
L.8 after adsis understand an et;
literally, "come and let there be no cause of
sluggish delay for you."
L.11 fac sedeas, an alternate expression
for the simple imperative
sede,
"see to it that you take a seat. "Cura ut, fac, fac ut and
velim
are
commonly found with the subjunctive as a substitute for the imperative.
L.12 nisi si = nisi; understand
es or sis, the verb "to be," with iussus; mane
not the adverb here, but present imperative of maneo.
L.13
munere clarus "distinguished in the
performance of."
L.14
locandus erit, future indicative second
periphrastic, i.e., the
gerundive with the verb sum and used to express obligation, necessity,
or, as here, propriety; translate, "should be placed."
L.17
at, conjunction, usually meaning,
"but," or, "however"; it may also
have the meaning of correcting the understanding or implications of
one's own statements, as here. Translate, "yes and what's more."
L.18
nec = neque; "and ... not."
L.24
inde, "from that place," i.e., from
the master's lessons or dictations.
L.28
praemis = premis.
L.34 translate spem as "the expectation
of."
L.35
tenenda + est, again the second
periphrastic conjugation, but
here indicating necessity.
L.39
ad unguem, "to an exact measure,"
or, in the contemporary
expression, "at one's fingertips."
L.41
dicturo, future active participle,
acting as a noun, the indirect
object of suggerat.
L.44
mereare, second person singular passive
(deponent verb)
subjunctive, alternate ending for merearis.
L.45
laudabere = laudaberis; future
passive indicative.
L.46 the order is: est virtus tenuisse
medium (middle course)
quod iuvat. This is a particularly troublesome line which can be
translated as follows: "there is virtue in having maintained the
middle course which is beneficial."
L.47
esto, future imperative second person
singular of sum.
L.52
brevi, understand tempore,
"in a short period of time."
L.55 the antecedent of quorum is grammaticastros,
"grammarians."
L.60
autores = auctores.
L.62 also understand the verb, optat.
L.64 the Cimmerians were a semi-mythical people
who inhabited a
cold and dark land to the north of the Black Sea.
L.65f. "There are those to whom it is pleasing
to waste their time
in nonsense, once the pursuit of honorable virtue has been determined
to be unimportant."
L.67 est cordi = "to be pleasing."
L.78 with Martis & arma procul also
understand sint a vobis.
L.81 the word order is: crede (esse understood)
ingens nefas
referre maledicta cuiquam.
L.84 with feres understand ea (the
res and libellos of 1. 83).
References
In 1612 John Brinsley, an
English educator, wrote Ludus Literarius, an extremely rich record
of the daily teaching methodology used in the beginning of the seventeenth-century
in English grammar schools. This work emphasizes the significant role of
Lily's grammar in the instructional process in the seventeenth-century
in England, and, in all likelihood, it is an accurate description of similar
instructional methodologies used in the American colonies in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. The format of the book is a dialogue between
two grammar school masters; one highly successful and confident of his
methodology, the other frustrated and seeking advice for improvement of
his approach. The following excerpt gives a vivid description of the demanding
and detailed attention which was paid to Lily's Carmen de Moribus
in the early education of grammar school students:
(Spoudeus- a frustrated teacher) For parsing, I have followed the
common course; which is this, so farre as I have seene or heard: viz.
To parse over, all my yongest, every word; and even in the same order
as the words doe stand in their Authors: teaching them what part of
speech every word is, how to decline them; and so all the questions
belonging thereunto: and what each word is governed of; the rules for
every thing, and the like.
Herein, after long and much labor, I have found very little fruite,
through the hardnesse of it, and the weakenesse of the childrens
memories to carie away that which I tolde them: much lesse have I
beene able to make my litle ones, no not in the second or third fourmes,
so to parse of themselves, as to give a true reason of every word why
it must be so; according to that which I saw in the note, what might
be
done in parsing. Now if you have seen the practice therof, let me heare
it of you, I intreate you; and that in so few wordes as you can.
(Philoponus-a successful teacher) Yes indeed, I have seene the
practice
hereof, & do know it, that children will doe very much, to ease
& delight
both the Master and themselves exceedingly. Besides some of the best
of
those which you mention (as the shewing the youngest how to parse every
word) I have learned to observe these things following, and finde
marvellous light, easinesse, surenesse, and helpe of memory by them:
1 To cause the children ever
to parse as they construe, according
to the Grammaticall rule of construing and the Translations;
alwayes marking the last principall word which went before
in construing: wherein (as I shortly shewed you before) the
very childe may see every principall word going before,
governing or ordering that which followeth; and so he hath
therein a guide leading him by the hand for all the Syntax
at least: except in the exceptions mentioned in the Grammaticall
rule; as of Interrogatives, Relatives, &c. which they will soone
know: and where one word governes divers things; as in that
example, Dedit mihi vestem pignori, te presente, propria
manu where the word Dedit governes most of the rest in a
divers consideration.
2 To aske among them every
word of any hardnesse, whether
they have not learned it before: & if they have, to repeat where.
As it was before, so it is there for the most part.
3 For the Etymologie; al
the difficulty is in these three parts of
speech, Nouns, Verbs, and Participles; the rest being set downe
in the Accedence, or easily known as was shewed before. And
in all words of these three parts, do but tell them what examples
they are like in the Accedence: which examples being knowne,
will presently bring to their understanding all the questions
depending on them and their answers. As, of what part of speech
the words are; or what declension or Conjugation: so the declining,
Case, Gender, Number, Person, Mood, Tense, &c. Also with litle
practice they wil soon ghesse at them, themselves; & that very
right, to shew what examples they are like. The example makes
the rule most plaine, and imprints all in the childes memory.
To
make this plaine to the capacity of the simplest, I will adde
one only example, particularly examined out of the first two
verses of Qui mihi discipulus puer es, &C.
First,
be sure that the childe know the meaning of them, and
can construe them perfectly, as thus: Puer Oh childe, qui who,
es art, discipulus a Schollar, mihi to me, atque
and, cupis dost
covet (or desire), doceri to bee taught; ades come, huc
hither:
concipe conceive (or consider well), dicta haec these sayings
animo tuo in thy minde.In this sentence, parse the childe after
the same manner; and examine him accordingly. As aske, where
he must begin to parse; he answereth at Puer, Oh boy, because
he began to construe there. And if you ask why he began to
construe there; he answers by the rule of construing which
biddeth, If there be a Vocative case to begin commonly
at it. Then aske what Puer is like; he answereth, like Magister:
which being knowne of him & he perfect in his examples can
tel you by Magister, what declension it is, how to decline it,
and the number; and also by the increasing of it short in the
Genitive case, he can tell you, it is the Masculine Gender
by the third speciall rule.
For
the case, that it is the Vocative, knowne by calling, or
speaking to the childe. And if you aske, why it may not be
pueri nor puero, but puer; he answereth, because it is
the
Vocative case, which is like the Nominative.
Afterwards,
demanding what must be parsed next; hee
answereth qui; because qui is next in construing: and also
that qui is a Pronoune Relative, set down in the Accedence,
and there declined. Also that it is the Nominative case,
comming before the Verbe es, following it next, by the rule
of the Relative; When there commeth no Nominative case:
as, "Miser es qui nummos admirantur," qui admirantur
so qui es. For the Gender likewise; that it is the Masculine
Gender, because so is his Antecedent puer going next before
in construing: with which the Relative agreeth, by the rule of
the Relative: The Relative agreeth, &c. as "vir sapit qui
pauca loquitur": vir qui, so puer qui. Also hee can shew
it,
to bee the Masculine Gender, because in wordes of three
terminations, the first is the Masculine, the second the
Feminine, the third is the Neuter. Likewise he can tell why
it must be qui, not cuius, nor cui, nor any other;
because it
must be the Nominative case to the Verbe, by the rule of the
Relative; because no other Nominative case commeth
betweene them. So all other questions. For Person; it is
made the second person here, by a figure called Evocation,
because it agreeth with puer, which is made of the second
person; and by the same figure Evocation, as every Vocative
case is, by reason of Tu understood.1
For several more pages, Brinsley
continues his minute grammatical analysis of the first two verses of Lily's
Carmen
de Moribus. This detailed grammatical examination makes the
Ludus
Literarius an exceptionally valuable resource since it illustrates
the techniques of teaching Latin grammar in seventeenth-century England
and, quite likely, in the classrooms of teachers such as Ezekiel Cheever,
who learned his Latin grammar in England at the same time as Brinsley was
writing his Ludus Literarius.
The truly interesting feature
of Lily's Carmen de Moribus is that its Latin text not only served
as a poetical summary of Latin grammar rules, but its content apparently
was considered as a model for imitation of the rules and regulations to
be observed in any Latin grammar school. The latter feature, at least,
seems to be true in the case of the grammar school affiliated with the
College of New Jersey (Princeton) in the 1760s. Its rules and regulations
are more than coincidentally similar to the sentiment, and even to the
exact wording, of several of the precepts in the Carmen de Moribus.
Twenty-two rules are published in the notice for "A Complete Introduction
of the Latin Tongue - Published principally for the Use of the Grammar-School,
at Nassau-Hall, in Prince-Town; and recommended to all who design to send
their Children to New-Jersey College." Among the rules most resembling
provisions of Lily's Carmen de Moribus are:
Rule III
That everyone, when entered the School, take his Place without Noise
or Disturbance;
and when seated, study without speaking loud. (cf. Carmen -
vv. 11-12)
Rule VII
That no one, while at Recitation, suggest so much as one Word, to
any of his Form,
relating to his Lesson, or any Thing else, except by the Master's Orders.
(cf. Carmen -vv. 39-44)
Rule XIV
That there be no Buying, Selling or Exchanging among one another,
without the
Approbation of the Master first obtained. (cf. Carmen - vv.
73-76)
Rule XVIII
That no one presume to take God's Name in vain, swear, lie, steal, or
use any indecent,
unbecoming Language or Behaviour. (cf. Carmen - vv. 79-82)2
Endnotes
1. John Brinsley, Ludus Literarius
(Menston, England The Scolar Press Limited, 1968 reprint), pp. 125-128.
Evidently construing
and literal translation were such an integral part of language
instruction in early America that John Adams naturally resorted to
both practices when he was studying law in the Spring of 1759: "You
may hint to him particular Defects of his Plan, and he willcontrive Amendments,
but the general Plan would never be [exploded?]by his Consent. I will not
attempt to deceive him any more.This scheme
is Mentis gratissimus Error. demptus, Error, gratissimus
Error the most agreable Error mentis of the Mind, demptustaken
away, per Vim, by violence. Pol. by Pollux,
amici my
friends, occidistis you have killed me, non servastis [you]
have not preserved me, [saved?] me alive, cui, sic extorta
Voluptas - Pleasure extorted, torn away, cui from which thus."
L. H. Butterfield, ed., Diary andAutobiography of John Adams
1 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press, 1961), p. 94.
2 A Complete Introduction of the
Latin Tongue, second edition, printed by James Parker, at the Expence of
the Trustees of the College, Woodbridge in New Jersey," Princeton University
Archives.
