63 Colloquial and Li.. - Ganino.com

Conversations in Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica 429
mancipare (rather bureaucratic in tone) with haec...necauxiliari subiectis
possunt nec supplicantium sibi desideria vel vota conplere; and(e)si quis ea
his imaginibus reddere procuraverit with quicumque his sacrificia simulacris
[order!] obtulerit. These changes do not point in any one stylistic direction,
and the itch to alter for alteration’s sake (apparent elsewhere in Bede) is
noticeable. But it should be observed that what we might have guessed to
be traces of Bede himself, like the allusion to Verg. Aen. 7.648 contemptor
divum and the rhetoric of Christianum...esseChristianisqueofficiis vacare,
in fact take over wording of the source. In general, we should bear in mind
that at least some of Bede’s other miracle tales may go back to lost written
sources, whose influence on his phraseology it is impossible to gauge.
5 miscellanea
In the course of my discussion, I have mentioned a number of places where
Bede might be thought to be employing colloquial language. I now list a
number of other expressions that might be regarded as colloquial.
(6) at ego respondi: ‘habeo quidem de ligno in quo caput eius occisi a paganis
infixumest...’ (3.13.2 (153))
Acca here recounts his reply to a request for a relic of St Oswald. The
sentence, as it proceeds, is elaborately expressed, and habeo...de ligno
may not be felt as colloquial in tone. In a narrative passage at 3.15.2 (158)
Bede can write presbyter...adsumtaampullamisit de oleo in pontum.Here
too the phrasing may merely reflect ordinary late usage (though note the
relaxed word order). 40
(7) et quid ego possum puellae, si moritura est, facere?
What can I doforthegirl...?
(5.3.2 (285))
For the dative cf. K–S i.321 (often colloquial in classical Latin).
(8) et dum adsiderem illi, dixit: ‘vis petamus bibere?’ at ego: ‘volo,’ inquam
‘et multum delector si potes.’
Shall we ask for something to drink? (Colgrave)
(5.3.2 (286))
This is perhaps conversational, yet cf. Liv. 40.47.5 nihil prius petierunt a
praetore quam ut bibere sibi iuberet dari (cf. Gwara 1996: 32 ut des mihi
bibere; Väänänen 1981: 139). One might however take bibere as depending
directly on petamus, ‘seek to drink’.
40 Seee.g.E.Löfstedt (1956: i.145–7). Druhan (1938: 104 ‘distinctly Late Latin’) compares HE 3.10
(147) tulit . . . de pulvere terrae, 5.4.2 (287) miserat . . . de aqua (both narrative).