Quintilian: DECLAMATIONES MAIORES

[1] Etsi, iudices, ita a natura conparatum est, ne sit ullus iustior dolor quam beneficii sui perdidisse rationem, nihilque gravius adficiat conscientiam bonorum, quam quotienscumque nulla merita ceciderunt, non efficiet tamen nefandum praesentis reatus indignumque discrimen, ut misera puella non gratuletur sibi, quod illam pauper accusare iam potest. timuerat infelix, ne remedio suo sic repugnaret pauper, ut magis amaret, ne iuvenis in omni genere animi contentiosus ac pertinax potionem illam dolore coactae sanitatis expelleret. bene, quod et terribilis et minax est pauper, quod poenam nostram, quod sanguinem petit!

[1] Although, judges, it has been so arranged by nature that there is no more just grief than to have lost the account of one’s own benefaction, and that nothing more grievously affects the conscience of good men than whenever blows fall where there were no deserts, nevertheless it will not bring about the unspeakable and unworthy peril of the present charge that the wretched girl should not congratulate herself, because the pauper can now accuse her. The unhappy woman had feared lest the pauper would so resist her remedy as to love the more, lest the youth, contentious and stubborn in every temper of mind, should expel that potion of a health compelled by pain. Good, that the pauper is both terrible and menacing, that he seeks our punishment, that he seeks blood!

non expectes, ut statim gratias agat, qui sanatur invitus. nobis tamen, iudices, hodiernam pauperis mentem non prima fronte tractantibus miserrimus iuvenis nondum videtur explicitus, et, si bene prioris ardoris inpatientiam novi, quod cum maxime facit, ira, non odium est. alioquin, si profecisset remedium, et, a pristino furore iam liber, animo intellectum sanitatis admitteret, omnem adhuc puellae vitaret occursum, non sibi crederet ultionem et ipsum quoque iudicii timeret adire conplexum.

Do not expect that he who is healed unwillingly should immediately give thanks. To us, however, judges, who do not handle the poor man’s present mind at first blush, the most wretched youth does not yet seem extricated; and, if I know well the impatience of his former ardor, what he is doing just now is anger, not hatred. Otherwise, if the remedy had made progress, and, now freed from his former fury, he were admitting into his mind an understanding of sanity, he would still avoid every encounter with the girl, would not entrust vengeance to himself, and would even fear to approach the very embrace of the court.

deprehensa est, puto, novissime potionis supervacua persuasio: amat, iudices, amat, qui queritur, quod non ametur.

the superfluous persuasion of the potion has, I think, at last been detected: he loves, judges, he loves, who complains that he is not loved.

[2] Quid agam hoc, iudices, loco? sub quo temperamento defensionem periclitantis adgrediar? timeo, ne, si coepero simplicissimae puellae laudare mores, referre probitatem, amare rursus pauper incipiat.

[2] What am I to do at this point, judges? Under what tempering shall I approach the defense of the one in peril? I fear lest, if I should begin to praise the manners of the most simple girl, to recount her probity, the poor man may begin to love again.

sive enim, iudices, malignitas est persuasionis humanae formam vacantem vocare meretricem, seu miserae nomen istud inposuit aliquis amator, cui cum corporis bonis fortuna non dederat, unde severi matrimonii castitati sufficeret, laboravit necessitatium suarum custodire probitatem. nullius umquam per hanc matrimonii turbata concordia est, nemo questus est pro filio pater, nemo exhaustas facultates in avidissimos sinus paenitentiae dolore deflevit. temptet licet ingratissimus iuvenis invidiam miserae facere prioris adfectus, non poterat obicere meretrici et quod amarit et quod amare desierit.

for either, judges, it is malignity to call someone a “meretrix” on the basis of an appearance vacant of human persuasion; or some lover imposed that name upon the wretched woman—he to whom, since fortune had not given, along with the goods of the body, the means whereby he might suffice for the chastity of a severe marriage, strove, under the pressure of his necessities, to keep his probity. Through her the concord of no marriage has ever been disturbed; no father has complained on behalf of a son; no one has bewailed, with the grief of penitence, resources drained into the most greedy bosoms. Let the most ungrateful youth try to make envy against the wretched one out of a former affection; he could not object against a courtesan both that he has loved and that he has ceased to love.

ne quem igitur accusator hac prima fortunae suae conploratione decipiat, tamquam meretricis caritate consumptus sit. securi estote pro innocentia nostra, talis incidit, talis adamavit, nec habuit, quod perderet in tam inmodico ardore nisi mentem. vidistis enim notissimum tota civitate miserum.

Let not, therefore, the accuser deceive anyone by this first comploration of his fortune, as though he had been consumed by the affection of a meretrix. Be untroubled on behalf of our innocence: such a sort he encountered, such a sort he fell in love with; nor had he anything to lose in so immoderate an ardor except his mind. For you have seen the most well-known wretch in the whole city.

cum lupanari noctibus diebus deserviens et, quamvis indulgentissimae puellae simplicitate frueretur, modo tamen maledictis opprobriisque vulgi, modo crebra rivalium contentione pulsatus, abigi tamen conpescique non posset, movit mitissimam puellam hic infelicis adfectus. laboranti primo sui voluit facultate succurrere, sed quicquid indulserat, fovebat ardorem, quaeque in hac impatientia prona persuasio est, quia nihil praestanti meretrix tam saepe contingeret, amator sibi videbatur.

while serving the lupanar by nights and days, and, although he enjoyed the simplicity of a most indulgent girl, yet now struck by the crowd’s maledictions and opprobrium, now by the frequent contention of rivals, he could not be driven off and restrained—this affection of the hapless man moved the most gentle girl. At first she wished to succor the one struggling by the resources of herself; but whatever she had indulged was nurturing his ardor, and there arose that persuasion which is prone in such impatience, that, since nothing better so often befalls a meretrix, he seemed to himself a lover.

[3] postquam nihil miseratio, nihil proficiebat humanitas, temptavit asperitate discutere: poposcit, exclusit. non defuerunt misero preces; adhibita sunt ex ipsa iuvenis condicione consilia, sed ista vincebat, et vires amoris impedimenta perdebant, donec intellegeret hominem, qui explicari ratione non poterat, necessitate servandum. puto, iudices, frustra male audit inmodico pauper ardore: meretrix magis amavit hominem, a quo noluit amari.

[3] after compassion did nothing, after humanity profited nothing, she tried to shake it off with asperity: she demanded, she excluded him. Prayers were not lacking to the wretch; counsels drawn from the very condition of the youth were applied, yet he was overcoming these, and the forces of love were shedding impediments, until she understood that the man, who could not be unraveled by reason, had to be saved by necessity. I think, judges, the poor man is ill-spoken of to no purpose for immoderate ardor: the prostitute loved more the man by whom she did not wish to be loved.

Consumptis igitur optimae feminarum cunctis indulgentiae severitatisque consiliis, dum apud omnes de pauperis sui amore conqueritur, incidit remedium, quo iam dicebatur alius amator explicitus. quae prima igitur medicamenti pariter ac dantis integritas est, non negatura porrexit. adiuvit deinde quod dederat, imperavit sibi, ne quas admitteret amplius preces, ne querelis adsistentis, ne lacrimis moveretur exclusi[t]. vultis scire, iudices, ubi sit medicamenti, quod obicitur, totus effectus?

Therefore, when all the counsels of indulgence and of severity of the best of women had been consumed, while she was complaining before everyone about the love of her poor man, a remedy occurred, by which another lover was already said to have been extricated. Accordingly she, not about to refuse, proffered that which is the first integrity—both of the remedy and of the giver. Then she seconded what she had given: she commanded herself to admit no further prayers, not to be moved by the complaints of the one standing by, nor by the tears of the excluded [man]. Do you wish to know, judges, where the whole effect of the medicine that is objected lies?

quisquis odium dedit, omnia post hoc facit, ne debeat amari. quanto, iuvenis, hoc melius! in forum aliquando venisti, incipis agere serium, gravem, iam leges, iam iura loqueris, conviciaris maledicisque meretricibus.

Whoever has given hatred does everything after this so that he need not be loved. How much better this, young man! At some time you have come into the forum, you begin to act serious, grave, now you speak laws, now rights, you rail at and malign prostitutes.

hunc tu animum modo inter libidines ac scorta perdebas macie notabilis, pallore deformis solaque inpatientiae tuae fabula notus. perieras, infelix, nisi bibisses venenum.

This spirit of yours you were but now destroying amid lusts and harlots, notable for emaciation, disfigured by pallor, and known only as the tale of your impatience. You would have perished, unhappy one, unless you had drunk the venom.

[4] Veneficii agit. credam mehercules, iudices, ad subscriptionis huius immanitatem expectasse publicae severitatis aures, quodnam saeculo nefas nuntiaret hic gemitus, quae prosiliret orbitas de novercalibus questura commissis, quem pestiferis heredum medicaminibus enectum tristis conploraret adfinitas. non pudet ergo, quod vacatis lupanarium querelis et ad vos deferuntur amantium rixae?

[4] He prosecutes for poisoning. I would believe, by Hercules, judges, that the ears of public severity had been awaiting the monstrosity of this indictment, what nefarious crime against the age this groan was announcing, what orphanhood would leap forth to make complaint about stepmotherly crimes committed, whom a relationship by marriage would sadly bewail as slain by the pestiferous medicaments of heirs. Are you not ashamed, then, that you have leisure for the complaints of brothels and that the quarrels of lovers are brought before you?

videtis hunc accusatoria fronte terribilem; oscula poscit, destitutos queritur amplexus. vultis vos abire potius in vestra secreta, ibi gaudia querelasque mutua conversatione consumere? non agnoscunt leges ac iura miseros; hic audiuntur seriae calamitates.

you see this man, terrible with an accusatory brow; he demands kisses, he complains of embraces forsaken. do you wish rather to withdraw into your secrets, there to consume joys and complaints by mutual conversation? laws and rights do not acknowledge the wretched; here serious calamities are heard.

non est ultione dignus, de quo potest efficere meretrix, ut queratur.

He is not worthy of retribution, the one about whom a courtesan can manage to complain.

Ecquando umquam, iudices, audistis de veneficio vivum querentem? facinus hoc semper ex mortibus accepit invidiam. si latrocinium probes cruore, vulneribus, si sacrilegium spoliis numinum praedaque templorum, ita, veneficium si arguas, oportet ostendas putre livoribus cadaver, inter efferentium manus fluens tabe corpus.

When ever, judges, have you heard a living man complain of poisoning? This crime has always drawn its odium from deaths. If you prove latrociny by blood, by wounds, if sacrilege by the spoils of the divinities and the plunder of temples, so too, if you arraign poisoning, you must show a corpse rotten with livid blotches, a body, oozing with corruption, in the hands of the bearers.

ut iam istud obicere possit et vita, debet aliquid esse passa, quod invidiam mortis imitetur. veneficium voca quod caecitate grassatur, quod in aliqua deprehenditur debilitate membrorum. profer agedum corporis notas, in quas se <partes> noxiae potionis vagus fervor effuderit, ubi depastis, enectis visceribus saevitura consederit.

so that even the living may now be able to throw that charge, he must have suffered something that imitates the invidiousness of death. call it venefice/poisoning which makes its way by blindness, which is apprehended in some debilitation of the members. bring forward, come then, the marks on the body, into which <parts> the wandering fervor of the noxious potion has poured itself, where, after the viscera have been devoured and slain, it has settled to be about to rage.

aspicio par laboribus corpus retinere sua ministeria, sufficientem animum seriis actibus, accusatoria firmitate robustum.

I behold a body equal to labors retaining its own functions, a mind sufficient for serious acts, robust with accusatory firmness.

[5] crede, iuvenis, hominibus, qui te modo noveramus, nunc acrior, erectior: rediit in sensus vigor, in membra sanguis, viribus velut novae iuventutis exulta[n]s. bibisse te medicamentum probare non posses, nisi meretrix fateretur.

[5] Believe, young man, the men who had only just come to know you; now keener, more upright: vigor has returned to your senses, blood to your limbs, exulting with the strengths as if of a new youth. You could not prove that you drank a medicament, unless the prostitute confessed it.

Quodsi permittitis, iudices, ut, quicquid contra consuetudinem datur, ad huius vocabuli referatur infamiam, <in> veneficium male audiendo vertetur sanitas, statimque merebitur sceleris invidiam quicquid profuerit invito. illud tantum noxium virus vocavere leges, quod non admitteret interpretationis incertum. iniquissimum est venenum videri, quod in potestate bibentis est an sit remedium.

But if you permit, judges, that whatever is given contrary to custom be referred to the infamy of this term, health will, by ill report, be turned to poisoning, and at once whatever has benefited one who is unwilling will merit the odium of crime. The laws have termed noxious venom only that which did not admit the uncertainty of interpretation. It is most iniquitous that what is in the power of the drinker, whether it be a remedy, should seem to be a poison.

Sentit, iudices, iuvenis crimen, quod detulit, nec nomine nec effectu scriptionem legis implere; itaque ex vocabulo mulieris quaerit invidiam. 'meretricem,' inquit, 'accuso.' nescis, mihi crede, iuvenis, sceleris, quod detulisti, qualem mihi debeas probationem. rei expecto mehercules ut sit ante omnia minax vultus, feralis habitus; horreant squalore crines, rigeat super nefandas cogitationes efferata tristitia.

He perceives, judges, that the young man’s charge which he has brought does not fulfill the writing of the law either in name or in effect; and so he seeks odium from the woman’s designation. ‘A meretrix,’ he says, ‘I accuse.’ You do not know, believe me, young man, of the crime which you have brought, what kind of proof you owe me. As to the accused, by Hercules I expect that, before all, there be a menacing countenance, a funereal bearing; let the hair bristle with squalor, let savage gloom grow rigid over nefarious thoughts.

facinus, quod dicitur inquietare superos, sidera diris agitare carminibus, tumulos, busta scrutari et amputatis cadaveribus ipsas in scelus armare mortis, fieri non potest, ut auctorem suum non statim primo prodat aspectu. vides veneficae non horridos vultus placidamque faciem; si cogitationes, si consilia pertractes, sola cura de forma, omnis in hoc conlata meditatio, ut sollicitet aspectu, sermone detineat.

the crime which is said to trouble the supernal ones, to agitate the stars with dire incantations, to scrutinize tumuli and funeral pyres, and, with corpses amputated, to arm Death herself for wickedness, cannot be, but that it reveals its author at once at the first sight. you see in the venefica not horrid looks but a placid face; if you thoroughly handle her thoughts, her counsels, the sole care is about form, all meditation gathered to this: that she may solicit by her look, and by her speech detain.

[6] audio subinde exactas mero noctes, ~tua mulier~ convivia, perditas amantium rixas. meretricis unum veneficium est, ne desinat amari.

[6] I hear from time to time of nights driven through with unmixed wine, ~your woman~'s banquets, the ruinous quarrels of lovers. The one witchcraft of a meretrix is this: that she not cease to be loved.

Numquid inique, iudices, in tanti sceleris subscriptione deposco, ne nominibus reos velitis aestimare, sed moribus? venefica tua quid prius umquam, quid simile commisit? cuius per hanc expugnatus animus?

Am I asking unjustly, judges, in the indictment of so great a crime, that you should be willing to evaluate the accused not by names but by morals? What has your witch‑poisoner ever done before, what like to this has she committed? Whose mind has been overmastered by her?

quis queritur iuvenis, quis senex, quis dives, quis pauper alius? in te ergo solo venefica, in te tantum aliud ista quam meretrix? vultis integritatem puellae breviter probem?

What young man complains, what old man, what rich man, what poor man—who else? In you alone, then, is she a poisoner; in you only is this woman anything other than a courtesan? Do you wish me briefly to prove the girl’s integrity?

hanc, quam nunc pauper detestatur, accusat, amare mallet.

this one, whom now the pauper detests, he accuses; he would rather love her.

Omnia, iudices, facinora, ni fallor, causas vel de cupiditate vel de simultatibus trahunt. quod odium de amatore meretrici, quae praeda de paupere?

All crimes, judges, unless I am mistaken, draw their causes either from cupidity or from enmities. What hatred toward a courtesan from a lover, what booty from a pauper?

'Odium,' inquit, 'accepi.' ecquid, iudices, satis eam contra infamiam veneni vel solum medicamenti nomen absolveret? nec invenio, cur debeat idem videri, quod non potest idem vocari. agedum, iuvenis, potionis inple huius inmanitatem, dic: 'odium accepi contra coniugem, contra liberos meos, ut a sacris avocarer adfectibus, ut pignora sancta despicerem.' illud odium in meretrice facinus est, quo utitur in sui caritatem.

"'Hatred,' he says, 'I have received.' Would, judges, even the name of a medicament alone sufficiently acquit her against the infamy of poison? Nor do I find why the same ought to seem the same which cannot be called the same. Come now, young man, fill up the inhumanity of this potion, say: 'I have received hatred against my spouse, against my children, that I might be called away from sacred affections, that I might despise holy pledges.' That hatred in a courtesan is a crime, which she uses toward the love of herself."

ita vel hoc solum sufficit excusationi, quod illa contra se tantum dedit.

thus even this alone suffices for the excusation, that she gave it only against herself.

[7] 'Odium,' inquit, 'accepi.' nunc te hic reposco, iuvenis, invidiam, quam fortunae nostrae paulo ante faciebas. dic: 'meretrix dedit, prostituta porrexit'; o quam timueram, ne diceres 'amatorium sui'! consurge agedum, iuvenis, et totis corporis animique viribus inple susceptae accusationis horrorem. est quod audiente tota civitate proclames: 'miseremini mei, adiuvate, succurrite!

[7] 'Hatred,' he says, 'I received.' now I here call you to account, young man, for the ill-will that a little before you were directing against our fortune. say: 'a meretrix gave it, a prostitute proffered it'; oh how I had feared, lest you would say 'an amatorial charm of herself'! arise then, young man, and with all the forces of body and mind fill up the horror of the accusation you have undertaken. there is something you can proclaim, the whole commonwealth listening: 'have pity on me, help, succor me!'

bibi medicamentum crudele, saevum: desii pauper amare meretricem! iamiam non inquietis noctibus vagus vilissimi cuiusque perditos patior ictus, nec exclusus ante lupanarium fores posterum diem pervigil amator expecto. possum navigare, colere terras, sufficio militiae, redditus mihi est animus, quo fierem maritus, quo senectuti liberisque prospicerem.' quantum, dii deaeque, remedium condicione bibentis valuit!

I drank a cruel, savage medicament: I, a poor man, ceased to love a prostitute! Right now I no longer, on restless nights, wandering, suffer the ruinous blows of every most worthless fellow, nor, shut out before the brothel doors, do I, a sleepless lover, wait for the next day. I can sail, cultivate the lands, I suffice for soldiery; my spirit has been given back to me, by which I might become a husband, by which I might provide for old age and for children. How greatly, gods and goddesses, the remedy, given the condition of the drinker, has availed!

fecerat te ~potius istam felicem si divitem puella.~

had made you ~rather that woman happy, if the girl were rich.~

Ita vel hoc non solum, iudices, innocentissimae puellae pro defensione sufficeret, quod nihil fecit causa sua? amatorem dimisit, explicuit illa, quae captare dicitur, ut ametur, quae sollicitat, quae corrumpit adfectus. ingrate, quanta de te potu[er]it gloria frui!

Thus, would not even this alone, judges, suffice for the defense of a most innocent girl—that she did nothing for her own case? She dismissed her lover; she disentangled those things which are said to capture, in order to be loved, which solicit, which corrupt the affections. Ungrateful man, how great a glory she could have enjoyed on your account!

non quidem confers pretia, non stipes, sed adsides, sequeris, haeres, praestas comitatum, favorem, laudas ubique, miraris. hinc ergo causa[m] meretricibus, quod illas etiam pauperes ament, quod facile contingant, quod laboribus exorentur adeuntium: faciet hic amator, ut divites ament. in crimen maximum captas transferre beneficium: ut aliquis amare desinat, non nisi ab amante praestatur.

you do not indeed confer prices, not alms, but you sit by, you follow, you adhere, you furnish companionship, favor, you praise everywhere, you marvel. hence therefore a reason for prostitutes, that even the poor love them, that they are easily within reach, that they are won over by the labors of those who approach: this lover will bring it about that the rich love them. to transfer a benefit into a most serious crime against the women you have won over: that someone cease to love is provided only by the lover.

[8] Quid ais, iuvenis? ita bibisti potionem, quae finem cupiditatibus daret, premeret ardorem, desideria restingueret? abi, recede, dum puellae publico generis humani nomine gratias agimus, quod hoc fieri posse monstravit.

[8] What say you, young man? So you have drunk a potion that would give an end to cupidities, would press down ardor, would extinguish desires? Be off, withdraw, while we give thanks to the girl, in the public name of the human race, because she has demonstrated that this could be done.

furor ille, qui, si credimus, numina quoque detracta sideribus misit in terras, qui de sacris venerandisque pigneribus monstra commentus est, ardor, qui miscuit hominum ferarumque concubitus, ferrum, ignis, claustra laxabat, per interiecta late maria fugiebat, vetatur, perit. accipite, quod magis debeatis stupere, mirari: remedium amoris mulier invenit. desinite nunc incestum timere, mortales, nulla pietas horreat nefandae cupiditatis instinctum.

that fury, which, if we believe it, sent even the divinities, dragged down from the stars, onto the earth; which contrived monsters from sacred and venerable pledges; the ardor that mingled the couplings of men and wild beasts, was loosening iron, fire, and bars, was fleeing across the widely intervening seas, is forbidden, it perishes. Receive what you ought rather to be astonished at, to admire: a woman has found a remedy for love. Cease now to fear incest, mortals; let no piety shudder at the impulse of nefarious cupidity.

quicquid non parentium irae, castigationes, non serii propinqui, non paupertas, non necessitas poterat efficere, haustus brevis, facilis, unus extorquet. o si quis odium posset omnium bibere vitiorum! felix profecto mortalitas, si reliquos lapsus incommodosque mentis errores fas esset infusa potione compescere.

Whatever the angers of parents, castigations, the earnest kinsmen, poverty, necessity could not effect, a brief, easy, single draught wrenches out. O if someone could drink a hatred of all vices! Happy indeed would mortality be, if it were right to repress the remaining lapses and the incommodious errors of the mind by an infused potion.

facinus est, quod maximum remedium gratiam sui vocabulo perdit auctoris. miraremur hominem, qui illud contra meretricem dedisset.

It is a crime that the greatest remedy loses its own grace by the name of its author. We would marvel at the man who had administered it against a prostitute.

Tibi tamen ultra omnes inmodica cupiditate flagranti, tibi praecipue succurrendum, iuvenis. cuius homo condicionis adamaveras! divitiis opus est, ne simus in amore miseri, et inpotentissimi mali difficultates illi fortasse non sentiant, quos contra fastidia ceterosque contemptus explicat felicitas magna perdendi.

To you, however, burning beyond all others with immoderate cupidity, to you especially there must be succor, young man. A man of what condition had you fallen in love with! We have need of riches, lest we be wretched in love; and perhaps those do not feel the difficulties of the most ungovernable evil, whom great good fortune in squandering extricates against disgusts and the other contempts.

[9] felix profecto, qui modo facultates in lupanari effudit; tu perdis animum. ille fastum opibus exorat, tu lacrimis rogas, pallore blandiris, et, quod ad pessimum spectat eventum, miserabilis sis oportet, ut amator esse videaris. finge te nullum huius adfectus sentire cruciatum; sed amare te, pauper, saltem non pudet?

[9] fortunate indeed is he who merely poured out his resources in a brothel; you are losing your mind. he wins over her haughtiness with wealth, you beg with tears, you coax with your pallor, and—looking toward the worst outcome—you must be miserable, so that you may seem to be a lover. suppose you feel none of this passion’s torment; but are you not at least ashamed, poor man, to be in love?

homo, cui non vacaret agere longa languoris, aegrumque non deceret totarum noctium quies, excusari non possis, si tantum perdideris dies. cuius census ex manibus, ex laboribus substantia, quem cotidie poscit ultro rationem in dies <cibus> dimensus, amentiam pateris: ~adversus felicium oscula tantum amplexusque meditaris, et, unde tibi calamitatis huius non potest nec venia contingere, de voluptate miser es. expectandum videlicet, quando te famis, inopia castiget? sed inter ista coepisti; quid iam facere potest ratio, consilium?

man, who do not have leisure to pass long spells of languor, and for whom, even sick, the rest of entire nights would not be fitting, you cannot be excused if you have wasted so many days. you, whose census is from your hands, whose substance is from labors, whom daily, from day to day, measured-out food of its own accord demands an account, you are suffering madness: you meditate only embraces as a counter against the kisses and hugs of the fortunate, and, in a matter wherein for this calamity no pardon can befall you, you are wretched over pleasure. are we, forsooth, to wait until hunger, want chastises you? but you have begun amidst these things; what now can reason, counsel do?

odio sanandus est, quem non explicat, quod pauper adamavit. nun<c> tamen intellegere possumus te non sola fuisse paupertate miserum; non opes tantum tibi, non facultates defuerunt: non erant, quantum video, propinqui, non amici. alioquin illi te potius nostra potione sanassent, vel, si ignorassent huius graminis vires, vinculis nexibusque tenuissent.

He must be cured by hatred, if the fact that he has loved while poor does not unbind him. Now, however, we can understand that you were not wretched by poverty alone; not only wealth failed you, not only means: there were, so far as I see, no kinsmen, no friends. Otherwise they would rather have cured you with our potion, or, if they had been ignorant of the virtues of this herb, they would have held you with chains and bindings.

quid? blandis adfatibus inpotentissimum eludis adfectum? datum est remedium dolori, qui saepe egit in laqueos, in praecipitia compulit, qui cruciatus laborantis animae vulneribus emisit.

What? With bland addresses do you elude the most ungovernable affect? A remedy has been given for the pain which has often drove into nooses, compelled into precipices, which has sent forth through wounds the tortures of a laboring soul.

quantum amori in homine liceat, illi magis sciunt, qui <non> amantur.

how much is permitted to love in a human, those know better who are not loved.

[10] Iunge nunc cum fortuna tua condicionem mulieris adamatae. incideras quidem, miser, in puellam minime superbam minimeque difficilem; quaestum tamen non possumus circumire meretricis. quam multa pro illis exigit sexus, aetas!

[10] Now join to your fortune the condition of the woman beloved. You had indeed fallen, poor wretch, upon a girl not at all proud and not at all difficult; nevertheless we cannot circumvent the profit of the meretrix. How many things on their behalf sex, age exact!

poscit semper necessitas, petit corporum cultus, poscit tristissima stationis inpatientia. totos infelix dies lupanarium foribus inpendes, ut quando prostituta pauperi vacet, et contentione numerantium dilatus, exclusus otium meretricis expectas. negatur tibi complexus: indignatione persequeris; contingit vero: felicitate corrumperis.

Necessity always demands, the cultivation of the body seeks, the most dismal impatience of the station demands. Unhappy, you spend whole days at the doors of brothels, so that whenever the prostituted woman may be free for a poor man; and, delayed by the contention of those who are numbering the coins, shut out, you await the leisure of the prostitute. An embrace is denied you: you pursue with indignation; but if it does befall, you are corrupted by felicity.

spem gaudia parant, adversa contentionem; ex utraque fortuna desideria coalescunt. nobis crede, qui vidimus: quis tibi, <i>uveni<s>, fuit corporis habitus, quis pallor, quam miserabilis, quam pudenda tristitia! quotiens tu venenum bibere voluisti!

joys prepare hope, adversities contention; from either fortune desires coalesce. believe us, who have seen: what was your bodily habit, <i>young man<s>, what pallor, how miserable, how shameful a sadness! how many times you wished to drink poison!

Non est igitur, iuvenis, quod tibi queraris illam mitissimam partem humanae mentis ablatam; non caritatem, sed inpatientiam, non voluptatem, sed tormenta, non amorem, sed quod adamaveras, perdidisti. amoris, si sapientiae sequamur auctores, antiquissimum numen, et cui se naturae debet aeternitas, sed ille mitis et serius, honestis cupiditatibus et viribus sacrae caritatis exultans, ut qui cuncta priscae noctis operta caligine diduxerit primum, deinde miscuerit. hic vero, cui perditis visceribus adhaeremus inquieti, lascivientis adhuc aetatis instinctu tumultuosus ac petulans, telis, funereis facibus armatus.

Therefore, young man, you have no cause to complain that that most gentle part of the human mind has been taken from you; you have lost not charity but impatience, not voluptuousness but torments, not love but the thing you had fallen in love with. Love, if we follow the authorities of wisdom, is the most ancient numen, and to it Nature owes her very eternity—yet that love is gentle and sober, exulting in honorable desires and in the forces of sacred charity, as the one who first drew apart all things veiled in the caliginous gloom of primeval night, and then mingled them. But this other, to whom we cling with our vitals undone, unquiet, tumultuous and petulant by the instinct of an age still wantoning, is armed with darts and with funereal torches.

[11] praestat igitur ille mortalibus liberos ac duratura coniugia pietate, hic incesta, libidines, adulteria, meretrices. referam nunc fabulosas inmodici furoris prodigiosasque novitates, conceptum nescientibus oculis ignoti hominis affectum, formam suis in se luminibus ardentem, virgines patrum senectute flagrantes, mortalium ferarumque coitus usque in monstruosa fecunditatis onera perlatos? ex omnibus tamen, quae nobis patientibus extorquet affectus, hoc saevissimum patimur, quod nemo vult in amore sanari.

[11] Therefore that one bestows upon mortals children and marriages destined to endure, by piety; this one, incest, libidinousness, adulteries, prostitutes. Shall I now recount the fabulous and prodigious novelties of immoderate frenzy—affection for an unknown man conceived by unknowing eyes, a form blazing upon itself in its own lights, virgins inflamed by the senescence of their fathers, the coitus of mortals and beasts borne even to the monstrous burdens of fecundity? Yet of all the things which, as we are patient under it, passion extorts from us, we suffer this most savage: that no one wishes to be healed in love.

'Ego tamen,' inquit, 'amare mallem.' hoc est ergo, propter quod opus odio fuit. nihil agebant castigationes et preces consilia perdebant. odio debet amator explicari, quem sanat adamata.

'I, however,' he says, 'would prefer to love.' This, then, is the reason for which the task became odious. Castigations were accomplishing nothing and prayers were ineffective; counsels were being ruined. A lover ought to be extricated by hatred—the one whom the beloved heals.

interrogare te hoc loco libet: numquid accusare posses, si, quod fecit medicamento puella, fecisset animo? licuit te reposcere, quantum numerare non poteras, fastidire, contemnere. iam indignaris, quod te maluit remedio quam dolore sanari?

it pleases me to question you here: would you by any chance be able to accuse, if what the girl did by a medicament she had done by intention? it was permitted you to reclaim yourself, to disdain, to contemn, whatever you could not reckon. already are you indignant that she preferred you to be healed by a remedy rather than by pain?

mulier, cui ad dimittendum amorem sufficiebat, ut odisset, ipsa pro te commenta est, ut illam tu potius odisses. finge te tamen aliqua remedii tui sentire tormenta; adrogantissime miserorum, tu autem sperabas ardoris inmodici felicem statim sanitatem? quid, si queratur aeger abstinentiae dolore sanatus?

The woman, for whom, for dismissing love, it sufficed to hate, herself devised on your behalf that you should rather hate her. Imagine yourself, however, to feel some torments of your remedy; most arrogant of the miserable, but were you expecting a happy, immediate recovery from immoderate ardor? What if a sick man should complain, healed by the pain of abstinence?

excussa sunt plerumque languentium vitia verberibus, redempta debilitate vit[i]a, ignibus, vulneribus interdum profutura grassata sunt, et quae fuissent mala sanitatis, in gratiam remediorum de maioris periculi comparatione redierunt.

for the most part the vices of the languishing have been shaken out by beatings, their vices redeemed by debility; by fires and wounds things destined to be beneficial have sometimes made their way; and what would have been evils of health, by comparison with a greater peril, have returned into the favor of remedies.

[12] vix mehercule contingere potest, ut hilares ab hac inpatientia laetique discedant, quos pudor, quos satietas, quos paenitentiae ratio dimittit, nec sine aliquo morsu resilitur a malis, quae voluptate tenuerunt. ~iterum materia amoris est desinere nec queri. opus fuit pari diversitate, viribus, quantis adamasti, ut resipisceres, neque frequenter in media sanitate subsisteres.

[12] Scarcely, by Hercules, can it befall that they depart from this impatience cheerful and glad, those whom shame, whom satiety, whom the reckoning of penitence dismisses; nor does one spring back from evils which held by pleasure without some bite. ~again the matter of love is to cease and not to complain. There was need of an equal contrariety, of forces as great as those with which you fell in love, that you might come back to your senses, and that you not often halt in mid-health.

quale tibi remedium debuerit adhiberi, vel ex hodierno senti, iuvenis, adfectu: pro homine, qui post odium queritur, quod non amet, parum fuit, si amare desineret. audi, igitur, ingratissime, quatenus ad publicas aures secreta vestra proferre voluisti. 'dedi.

what kind of remedy ought to have been applied to you, feel it even from today’s affect, young man: for a man who, after hatred, complains that he does not love, it was too little if he should cease to love. listen, therefore, most ungrateful one, since you wished to bring forth your secrets to public ears. 'I gave.'

quid enim,' inquit, 'facerem, quae remedia tam multa perdideram? ferre misera non poteram, quod te iam coeperunt omnes ridere meretrices.' repete agedum illarum conloquia noctium, quibus te frequenter alterius et fortasse divitis amatoris iniuria receptum inter oscula amplexusque monui: 'quid, miser, cum fortuna, quid cum mea condicione rixaris? parce necessitatibus meis, duo pauperes sumus.' sed et tu quotiens in sinus meos lacrimis fletuque resolutus exclamasti: 'sentio furorem, sed imperare oculis, sed animum regere non possum!

'For what,' she says, 'was I to do, I who had lost so many remedies? Wretched, I could not bear that already all the meretrices have begun to laugh at you.' Recall, come now, the conversations of those nights, in which I, having often received you back from the wrong of another—and perhaps of a rich—lover, admonished you amid kisses and embraces: 'Why, wretch, do you quarrel with Fortune, why with my condition? Spare my necessities, we are two paupers.' But you too, how often, dissolved in tears and weeping into my bosom, cried out: 'I feel the fury, but to command my eyes, but to rule my spirit I cannot!'

quam libenter te, mulier, odissem!'

how gladly I would have hated you, woman!'

Non est igitur, ingratissime mortalium, quod beneficium nostrum nomine potionis infames.

There is no reason, therefore, most ungrateful of mortals, that you defame our benefaction under the name of a potion.

[13] remedium bibisti, sed illud odium tuum est. quid? quod furis, conviciaris, exclamas, non est haustus illius adfectus; et amor talis fuisti.

[13] you have drunk a remedy, but that is your hatred. What then? That you rage, you rail, you exclaim, is not a draught of that affection; and such a lover you were.

aliud sunt, aliud illi, quos in voluptates superfluentium facultatium mittit secura felicitas. inprobius pauperes amant. sic tumultuabaris admissus, sic moras, sic inpedimenta ferre non poteras.

They are one thing; quite another are those whom secure felicity sends into the pleasures of superfluent means. The poor love more immoderately. Thus you were making a tumult when admitted; thus you could not bear delays, thus impediments.

maledicebas populo, conviciabaris intrantibus. cuius umquam felicius commutata fortuna est, si tunc omnes oderas, nunc unam, pauper, odisti? quin potius, iuvenis, admittis consilii rationem?

You were maligning the people, you were railing at those coming in. Whose fortune was ever more happily changed, if then you used to hate everyone, now, poor man, you hate one woman? Why not rather, young man, adopt the reasoning of counsel?

quid agis, infelix, cur redditam modo sanitatem rigore nimiae contentionis exasperas? praedico, testor, consumis odium; nondum totam mentem vis perfusa possedit, adhuc circa te duo maximi rixantur adfectus. adiuva potius, adiuva potionem.

What are you doing, unlucky man? why do you exasperate the health just now restored by the rigor of excessive contention? I forewarn, I testify: you are consuming yourself with hatred; the force, poured in, has not yet possessed your whole mind; still around you two very great affections quarrel. Help rather—aid the potion.

contradic agedum quicquid est illud, quod tumultuatur, exaestuat, totumque sanitas componat hominem. tunc te sciemus amare desisse, cum desieris odisse.

Contradict, come now, whatever it is that makes a tumult and boils over, and let sanity compose the whole man. Then we shall know that you have ceased to love, when you have ceased to hate.

[14] Et innocentiam quidem puellae satis, ut spero, defendimus; magnitudo periculi ~vocet~ preces. consurge agedum, miserrima feminarum, reliquam defensionis tuae partem tuere lacrimis. accusator, quid speras, quid expectas?

[14] And indeed we have defended the girl’s innocence sufficiently, as I hope; let the greatness of the peril ~invoke~ prayers. Rise up, come now, most wretched of women, defend the remaining part of your defense with tears. Accuser, what do you hope, what do you expect?

ad genua tua non mittimus eam. toto licet infelicem terrore convenias, non exosculabitur manus; mortem, suprema denunties, te non rogabit. frustra tibi aliquid de periculo nostra metuque promittis, nescit puella, non habet odii remedium.

we do not send her to your knees. though you confront the unfortunate one with total terror, she will not kiss your hands; even if you threaten death, the ultimate dooms, she will not beg you. in vain you promise yourself anything from our peril and fear: the girl does not know it, she has no remedy for hatred.

sane tamen viribus potionis effectum sit, ut accusaveris innocentem; sufficit ultioni vidisse pallentem, satis est audisse gemitus. memineris hanc esse, quam tu non, iuvenis, odisti. quid ais?

Granted, however, let it have been effected by the potency of the potion, that you have accused an innocent; it suffices for vengeance to have seen her pale, it is enough to have heard the groans. Remember that this is she whom you, young man, did not hate. What do you say?

etiamne perferes illud pronuntiationis anceps, illud humanae salutis incertum? numerabis ergo sententias, et, si damnaveris, exultabis, nefande, gaudebis? puto, non adamasti.

Will you even endure that ambivalent pronouncement, that uncertainty of human salvation? Will you then number the sentences, and, if you have condemned, will you exult, nefarious one, will you rejoice? I suppose, you have not fallen in love.

an et sequeris, dum carnifex trahit, intereris, dum hos oculos occisura contingit manus, dum haec amplexibus tuis nota cervix ad supremos nudatur ictus? non exilies, non pectus oppones, non fidem hominum deorumque clamabis? aspicies percussam imper<turbatus super> palpitantia membra consistens?

or will you even follow, while the executioner drags her, will you be among them, while the hand that is going to kill touches these eyes, while this neck, familiar to your embraces, is bared for the final blows? will you not leap forth, will you not set your breast in the way, will you not cry out for the faith of men and gods? will you gaze upon her struck down, unperturbed, standing over the palpitating limbs?

potes hoc videre, potes hoc ferre? sanatus es.

can you see this, can you bear this? you are cured.

Quodsi quid tristius iudicii huius attulerit eventus, di ~ripite pereuntium beneficiorum semper ultores, di, quos iste crudelis in amplexibus puellae frequenter maerore, lacrimis aut finem amoris rogavit aut mortem, date nobis iustam de ingrato iuvene vindictam. non inprecamur debilitates, naufragia, morbos: pauper sit et amet quamcumque meretricem et amare non desinat!

But if the outcome of this judgment should bring anything sadder, gods, ~tear apart—ever avengers of benefactions that perish—gods, whom that cruel man, in the embraces of the girl, often in grief, with tears, asked either for an end of love or for death, grant us just vengeance upon the ungrateful youth. We do not imprecate debilities, shipwrecks, diseases: let him be poor and love whatever prostitute, and let him not cease from loving!