SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Saga-Book of the Viking Society
The genre, however, is not, strictly speaking, liturgical or
ecclesiastical in the limited sense of these terms despite
the religious undertones and moral didacticism, but rather
it should be associated with the so-named Goliardic
poetry which was written by educated men, some of them
anonymous 'clerici vagantes' but some named authors such
as Philippe de Greve, chancellor of Paris University who
died in 1236.29
Some titles and some representative verses will give an
impression of the genre. Titles include: The Evils of the
Times, On Injustice, The Conflict of Justice and Grace,
Complaint on the Vileness of the Times, On Faith and
Truth, On the Exile of Truth.30 Verses include 'Fas et
Nefas ambulant' in the loose but rhythmical translation of
Miss Waddell: 31
Right and Wrong they go about
Cheek by jowl together.
Lavishness can't keep in step,
Avarice his brother.
Virtue even in the most
Unusual moderation,
Seeking for the middle course,
Vice on either side it, must
Look about her with the most
Cautious contemplation.
and 'Ecce torpet probitas'32 in a closer prose translation:
.. On Philippe see F.]. Raby, A History of Secular Latin Poetry in the Middle
Ages (1957), II 227-235.
8. De Malitia Temporum, De Iniustitia, Confiictus Justitiae et Misericordiae,
in Analecta Hymnica, ed. G. M. Dreves, etc. (1886-), XLVI 361, 367, 377;
Planctus de temporum nequitia, ibid., XLV 73 (Anhang); De Fide et Veri/ate,
De Veritate exsule, ibid., XXI 124, 125.
81 Helen Waddell, Media-oat Latin Lyrics (1948), 189. The text, 188, reads:
Fas et Nefas ambulant
pene passu pari;
prodigus non redimit
vitium avari;
virtus temperantia
quadam singulari
debet medium
ad utrumque vitium
caute contemplari.
.. Quoted by Hildeman, op, cit., 129, but the translation is that of a
slightly variant text in Carmina Burana, herausgegeben von A. Hilka and
O. Schumann (1930), I i 3: (see foot of following page).