Letter 5006: Ad Syagrium episcopum Augustidunensem

VI To Syagrius, bishop of Autun. To the holy lord, and most worthy of the apostolic see, the lord Pope [bishop] Syagrius, from Fortunatus. By the torpor of a witless idleness, in which a drunken mind plays the fool, growing brutish with a lingering and sickening decay, and as if overcome by the dulling languor of a sluggish sleep, drowsing with no biting care for any task entrusted to me, since indeed reading seemed as much neglected as practice was being abused, and since I could lay hold of no occasion from any theme that might be elaborated in verse, and, so to speak, nothing was being plucked from the fleece that might be carded into song, burying myself within myself, as it were, in a coffining silence, and, since I sang nothing, growing rusty with the worn-out quill of my tongue; at last, by one who had unexpectedly become my fellow-captive, brought to me, as I suppose, by the lot of your good fortune, while I inquire who he is, whence he comes, and what he brings, he burst forth, with a betraying sob scarcely loosening his speech, with the causes of his son's calamity, of my own compassion, and of your reward: and when his voice was cut off, while he was not permitted to speak as much by the grief of his inward parts as by the flood of his eyes, by that very silence his tears confessed him a father; because, while the anxious begetter hung upon his word and did not express it, with the instrument of his throat falling silent the pupil of his eye spoke through weeping. So strong is nature in love that it prevails, so that a parent betrays himself by his feeling before he does by his lip. (2) His eyes therefore flowed, their plea pierced through with coaxing lament, so that the laments might render even one however cruel a merciful man; the tears watered as much the seed of misery as the harvest of mercy: from one fountain flowed the matter of grief and of gift, from one the mourning and the recompense, so that one man watering with his eyes, another drinking with his ears, what the one pressed out in weeping the other might store away as fruit. (3) And so by the sign of his sob the captive's mind made itself understood. And, as if in a mirror, the grief upon his face displayed the anguish that was seen to be in his heart. Whence, among those keeping silence, the cause of the matter being known, since with me to utter this had the same force as to weep it, the affection seemed wondrously to speak thus without a tongue. (4) Therefore, since my fellow-citizen's lamentable loss, as much as his fatherland, moved me, since the father's countenance was seen to be drenched with a shower of devotion, so that I too almost passed wholly into another's feeling, his weeping eyes fixed their complaints upon me in place of ink, and in a marvelous manner with water, which is wont to blot out, he wrote through his weeping. For who would not believe one who weeps, whom no stone begot? Whom would humanity not bend, whom no birth of a tigress brought forth? Since the leopard's course softens at flatteries, the boar's strength, the lion's tooth, and the elephant's bulk. (5) He at last, the din of his complaints being calmed, marks you out as the fortunate antidote of his grief: namely, that while sick in mind he begs a remedy for himself, your tongue, if it deign to expend itself, may be his poultice. And as he spoke, mingling myself into the midst of his words, trusting in you I gave my faith to the man that, through me, you would be consulted on his behalf, that he should not weep. (6) Yet it remained to be conjectured whether I should direct my plea for his redemption: by what his offspring might avail, or by what might profit you? Thinking of the saving of cost, lest by the cheapness of the price the ransom of the captive be cheapened for you; fearing this for certain, that if it were taken in mere coin, the matter would perish in the talent [a great weight]: especially since I desire that you should enjoy your treasures equally with your martyr. (7) But what should my slenderness offer for a gift? Since I was hesitating in the choosing, there came to mind, to me in my lethargy, the saying of Pindaric Flaccus [Horace]: To painters and to poets alike there has always been an equal license to dare whatever they will. Considering the little verse, if each craftsman mingles whatever he wishes, why [not], even if not by a craftsman, should both be mingled, so that one web might at once begin both poetry and painting? (8) Thereupon, since I wished to set forth my plea for the captive in verse, attending to what were the times of the Redeemer, in what year of his own age Christ released us, I would weave a poem in just as many little verses as letters; forthwith repelled by this difficulty of the work, or rather difficultly shut in as much by the necessity of the meter as by the abridgment of the letters, what was I to do, by what way was I to come forth? By a new reckoning the narrow number widened my straits for me, because, the term being fixed beforehand, there was nowhere for prolixity to shake itself out or for brevity to draw itself in, nor did the beginning of the weaving permit any wandering on account of the descending verses, with a restraining bar holding it back. In which beginning indeed, with the topmost line growing too large, it was not allowed either to loosen or to slacken the threads, lest the web, leaping over the number, throw itself into wandering disorder. (9) Hence I am stirred with care, that two whole little verses might be read down through the headings, two from the slant, and one through the middle in descent. One part remained, which letter I was to place among all the rest in the very middle, which should so receive every one as to offend no one. (10) Therefore, when I had gathered the heddles of this web by number, as I had begun to weave, both the threads and I were breaking; I, beginning to be bound by a work that was about to set free, and the case being reversed, while I desire to loose the captive's thongs, I bind myself with a chain. For from this is conjectured what the difficulty of this little work may be: wherever you wish, if you add, the line grows; you subtract, the grace perishes; you change, the headings do not agree: you fix, and you do not flee the letter. (11) And so, since this web hung snared with verses, so that if I crossed two, I should still not escape three, I, an unwary sparrow, ran as if through deceiving clouds upon the panther, because by the very thing I wished to avoid I was here bound by the wing, or rather, so to speak, as if smeared with feathers I was stretched on a fivefold birdlime; among these things this also moving me, that I had not only never done such a thing, but neither was I led on by the drawing of any similar example. (12) Uncertain at these things and trembling, held in suspense by the very novelty whether I should attempt what I had never undertaken, or more cautiously reject it than incautiously bring it forth, nevertheless, though unwilling, I speak almost what I do not know; and you conquer me by love, lest I be conquered by the work. Behold, you demand from me even what you scarcely find in me; you do violence, you who are mine, not a rebel: you extort and are not repelled; love is a coaxing tyrant. (13) That I might furnish this exchange, an untrained sailor I hoisted my sails through the uncertain of the deep: snatched by affection I am carried through the waves and the rocks. You urge me headlong to pass through the unknown: what is there that you may not obtain? As you love, so you command. (14) You have therefore a work squared in a single weave, so that in the reading it is fivefold; and since there are thirty-three verses as well as letters, after the likeness of the carnal age of Christ, by which one rising again released us, there are besides two read down through the headings, two from the slant, and one too through the middle in descent: whence it comes about that the letter does not end when the verse ends, because although by an indirect way it reaches its term, yet a course remains for it in the descent, since it is still joined in the final little verse. (15) But in the middle of this little work we have fixed that letter which is numbered the middlemost among the twenty-three, and which looks back upon as many before itself as it leaps over after itself, because, with the verses running together, the whole is both divided and the divided matter remains entire. But the letter which is dyed in the descending little verse is both held in one and runs in another and, so to speak, both stands for the warp and runs for the weft along its track, as can be on the page: lettered threads. (16) Yet let not the case burden us, that we seem as if by a spider's craft to mingle painted threads: which is known to you in the books of Moses the prophet, where a craftsman of many-colored weaving wove the garments of the priest. Whence, since here scarlet is lacking, the matter is woven of red lead [minium]. But the verses descending aslant from the angles stand by reason, even if they lean by position. But how they are joined, or what each one contains, it is enough for prudence to prove the matter without a pointer. (17) In sum, commending myself to your holy blessedness and to your overflowing sweetness, granting the things requested by the confident exchange of service, if it please you, with this work written upon the wall, let the picture in my stead, as a doorkeeper, guard your vestibule. Pray for me. The work of Autun I render to you, Syagrius. When the divine summit so made Adam, it gives him dreams, until, the rib torn out, Eve was formed, and not his unequal: happy alike, clothed in the double-cloak of light, the wedded pair shining of face amid the holy fields; to their nostrils a pleasing breeze returned from the delightful banks, the delights of incense sated them with a rich-flowing breath, one flowery pleasure cherishing them both in their seat, a region known to the good, a Tempe, pastured the blessed. But when they prevailed with greater honor than so great a thing, the whole earth of men wondrously obeyed the two, soon the hidden liar puts forth the weapons of his poison: the serpent, lifted up, the envier, the spectral foe, fierce, overcoming the innocent with hurtful gall, dashed down by his persuasion those whom divine grace had blessed. And man then fell again from the earth back to that place below, and by the guile of the creeping one is shut out from the Eastern dawn. Born under this law of our condemned parents, we die. But God excelling, and light of light, while from the throne of heaven he provides his gifts of his own accord, the living Lamb entered into the fresh flesh of a chaste one. Thence came forth salvation and the morning's lamp, the light, roused by the childbearing of the inviolate one, brought the world forth: by right God from the Father, then a man of flesh from the womb, that he might rescue us, the Author lowers himself to a cheap price. O saleable head of the King, which he fastened from the cross, wronged by spear, by voice, by hand, by scourge, by gall, you too by this lot loose the captives, O Creator: late was the true purchase given, the life-giving purchase by death; whence I speak hymns to God who absolves the guilt. But you, propped up by the praise of the eternal crown, rays of the Gauls, by whom even the night may shine for you, break the thongs from the yokes and take up the weapons of day: liberty itself frees you and will make you blessed. Grant to Fortunatus, holy Syagrius, these pious prayers. Loosing the captives, you will become the meditation of the Lord. Christ sent himself when he carried us back from death. The sweet gift of God, by which the merchandise may crown you, dear one, the love dear to God grants the soul to be loosed from slaughter.

VI Ad Syagrium episcopum Augustidunensem DOMINO SANCTO ET APOSTOLICA SEDE DIGNISSIMO DOMNO SYAGRIO PAPAE FORTV- NATVS. Torpore vecordis otii, quo mens ebria desipit diutina tabe morbescente bru- tiscens, et velut ignavi soporis hebetante marcore suffectus, negotii indulti nulla mor- dente cura dormitans, cum videretur scilicet tam lectio neglegi quam usus abuti, neque nancisceretur quicquam occasionis ex themate quod digereretur in poesi, et, ut ita dictum sit, nihil velleretur ex vellere quod carminaretur in carmine, intra me quodam- modo me ipsum silentio sarcofagante sepeliens, et, cum nulla canerem , obsoleto linguae plectro aeruginavissem; tandem nec opinato concaptivo meo, sed tamen ut arbitror vestrae felicitatis ad me sorte delato, quis, unde, quidve deferat dum per- contor, de fili calamitate suae necessitatis, meae conpassionis, vestrae mercedis causas, indice singultu vix laxante, prorupit: quo voce intercepta tam viscerum maerore quam luminum flumine dum loqui non permittitur, ipso silentio patrem lacrimae fatebantur; quia, dum anxius in verbo genitor pendet nec exprimit, tacente faucis organo pupilla fletibus loquebatur. tantum est in caritate natura quod praevalet, ut parens ante se prodat affectu quam labio. (2) Fluebant igitur lumina suggestionem suam blandito ploratu conpunctam , ut etiam quamvis crudelem redderent lamenta clementem; inri- gabant lacrimae tam semen miseriae quam frugem misericordiae: uno fonte manabant res maeroris et muneris, uno luctus et merces, ut unus rigans oculis alter bibens auribus quod iste torcularet in fletu ille apothecaret in fructu. (3) Itaque signo singulti fecit se intellegi mens captivi. et quasi speculariter traxit maeror in facie qui videbatur angor in corde. unde inter tacentes causa rerum cognita, dum apud me valuit hoc fari quod flere, videbatur affectus mire sine lingua sic loqui. (4) Igitur cum me moveret lamentabilis concivis tam iactura quam patria, cum cernerentur vultus patris pietatis imbre perfundi, ut paene totus et ipse in alieno affectu migrarem, lacrimantes oculi querellas mihi fixerunt ad vicem incausti et admirabili modo aqua, quae delere solet, per fletus scripsit. quis enim flenti non crederet quem lapis non genuit? quem non humanitas flecteret quem partus tigridis non effudit? cum lentiscat blanditiis cursus pardi, virtus apri, dens leonis et moles elephanti. (5) Qui tandem sedato querellarum strepitu doloris sui prosperum te designat antidotum: scilicet dum aeger mente sibi poscit medellam, si se dignanter inpendat vestra lingua sit malagma. quo loquente media per verba me miscens, mihi de vobis credulus fidem feci homini, ex hoc per me te consuli, se non flere. (6) Restabat tamen conici, utrumne pro redemptione dirigerem: quod suboles valeret? an quod vobis proficeret? de conpendio cogitans, ne vilitate pretii depretiaretur tibi merces captivi; illud certe metuens, si caperetur in nummo, res periret in talento: praesertim cum desiderem, thesauros ex aequo te tuo frui cum martyre. (7) Quid vero pro munere modicitas proferret? cum in electione cunctarer, venit in mentem letargico dictum Flacci Pindarici : pictoribus atque poetis quaelibet audendi semper fuit aequa potestas. considerans versiculum, si quae vult artifex permiscet uterque, cur [non], etsi non ab artifice, misceantur utraque, ut ordiretur una tela simul poesis et pictura? (8) Dehinc cum pro captivo velim versu suggerere, adtendens quae fuerint tempora redemptoris, quoto nos suae aetatis anno Christus absolverit, totidemque versiculis texerem carmen quot litteris, hac protenus operis difficultate repulsus aut magis difficulter inclusus tam metri necessitate quam litterarum epitome quid facerem, quo prodirem? nova calcula- tione angustus mihi numerus angustias dilatavit, quia praefixo termino non erat nec ubi se prolixitas excuteret aut brevitas angularet, nec evagari propter descendentes versus frenante repagulo orditura permisit. in quo quippe exordio supercrescente apice non licuit vel solvere vel fila laxare, ne numerum transiliens erratica se tela turbaret. (9) Hinc cura commoveor, ut duo per capita, duo ex obliquo, unus vero per medium descendentes integri versiculi legerentur. altera pars restiterat, quam inter omnes litteram meditullio conlocarem, quae sic reciperet omnem ut offenderet nemi- nem. (10) Igitur huius telae cum licia numero collegissem, ut texere coeperam, et se et me fila rumpebant; incipiens ego opere propter absoluturo ligari, atque mutata vice, dum captivi solvere lora cupio, me catena constringo. nam huius opusculi quae sit hinc conicitur difficultas: ubicumque volueris, si addis, crescit linea; subtrahis, perit gratia; mutas, non consonant capita: figis nec fugis litteram. (11) Itaque cum penderet haec tela versibus laqueata, ut si duo transirem, adhuc tria non fuge- rem, ego incautus passer quasi mentita per nubila incurri pantheram, quia quod cavere volebam huc pinna ligabar, aut magis. ut dictum sit, velut plumis inlitis quinquifida viscatura tendebar; inter haec illud me commovens, quod tale non solum feceram, sed nec_exemplo simili trahente ducebar. (12) His incertus et trepidus, ipsa novitate suspensus utrumne temptarem quae numquam adgressus sim, an cautius respuerem quam incaute proferrem, tamen, licet invitus. loquor paene quae nescio; et tu me vincis amore, ne vincar ab opere. ecce exigis a me et quod in me vix invenis; violen- tiam facis qui tuus, non rebellis est: extorques nec repelleris; amor blandus tyrannus est. (13) Vt hoc pararem conmercii, per incertum pelagi rudis nauta vela suspendi: affectu raptus deferor per fluctus et scopulos. urgues me praecipitem per ignota trans- ire: quid est quod non obtineas? sicut amas, sic imperas. (14) Habes igitur opus sic uno textu quadratum, ut sit legendo quinquifidum; et cum sint triginta tres tam versus quam litterae, ad similitudinem Christi carnalis aetatis, qua nos absolvit unus resurgens, adhuc duo per capita, duo ex obliquo, unus quoque per medium legitur in descensu: unde fit ut se finito versu littera non finiret, quia etsi indirecto pervenit ad terminum, tamen cursus illi superest in descensu, quia adhuc coniungitur in finali versiculo. (15) In meditullio autem parvi huius opusculi illam fiximus litteram quae inter viginti tres numeratur permedia ac tantas ante se respicit quantas et post se transilit, quia concurrentibus versibus et dividitur tota et manet integra res divisa. littera vero quae tinguitur in descenderiti versiculo, et tenetur in uno et currit in altero et, ut ita dicatur, et stat pro stamine et pro trama currit in tramite, ut esse potest in pagina: licia litterata. (16) Ne tamen causa nos oneret, quod velut aragnaea arte videmur picta fila miscere: quod vobis conpertum est in Moysi prophetae libris, polymitarius artifex vestes texuit sacerdotis. unde, cum desit hic coccinum, res est texta de minio. versus autem ex obliquo descendentes ab angulis ratione stant, etsi positione succlinant. qualiter autem conexi sint singulive quid continent satis est prudentiae sine indice rem probare. (17) In summa, commendato me piae beatitati et exuberanti vestrae dulcedini, tribuentes petita confidenti vicarietate servitii, si placet, hoc opere parieti conscripto pro me ostiario pictura servet vestibulum. ora pro me. Augustidunensis opus tibi solvo, Syagri. Dius apex Adam ut fecit, dat somnia, donec avulsa costa plasmata est Eva nec inpar: felices pariter, diploide lucis operti, ore coruscantes inter pia rura iugales; ripae iucundae nari grata aura redibat, turis deliciae saturabant ubere flatu, una fovens ambos florosa sede voluptas, nota bonis regio pascebat Tempe beatos. at cum tam magno pollerent maius honore, tota hominum mire parebat terra duorum, occultus mendax mox exerit arma veneni: serpens elatus, zelator, larveus hostis, atrox innocuos evincens felle nocenti conlisit suasu quos gratia diva bearat. et homo de terra tum denuo decidit illuc reptantisque dolo Eoois excluditur ortu. hac nati morimur damnati lege parentum. at deus excellens aie et de lumine lumen e caeli solio dum munera providet ultro, castae carne rudi vivax introiit agnus. prodiit inde salus matutinive lucerna intactae partu lux eruit excita mundum: a patre iure deus, homo dehinc carneus alvo, ut nos eriperet, vili se detrahit auctor. o regis venale caput, quod de cruce fixit, telo voce manu malfactus verbere felle, ac tu hac solvis captivos sorte, creator: sero vera data est vitalis emptio morte; ymnos unde deo loquor absolvente reatu. at vos, aeternae suffulti laude coronae, Gallorum radii, vobis quo fulgeat et nox, rumpite lora iugis et sumitis arma diei: ipsave libertas vos liberat atque beabit. Da Fortunato sacer haec pia vota Syagri. Captivos laxans domini meditatio fies. Cristus se misit cum nos a morte revexit. Dulce dei munus quo merx te care coronet, Cara deo pietas animam dat de nece solvi.