Image Select/Art Resource, NY.
GESTA ROMANORUM
The Gesta Romanorum (“Deeds of the Romans”) is an early 14th-century collection of medieval exempla, brief narratives designed both to entertain and to edify, each containing some spiritual message that is explicated in an allegorizing postscript. Drawn from a variety of Roman, Greek, and near eastern sources, the stories were enormously popular in the late Middle Ages among churchmen and general readers alike and were a source for such later writers as Chaucer and Shakespeare. Perhaps compiled in England, but of unknown authorship, the collection is loosely structured, the style uneven, and the Latinity far removed from that of the classical period.
The Story of the Three Caskets
The emperor Honorius makes a truce with a certain king and agrees to the marriage of the king’s daughter to his own son on two conditions.
Honorius regnavit, dives valde, qui unicum filium habebat, quem multum dilexit. Fama eius imperatoris per mundum volabat quod in omnibus probus erat et iustus. Tamen contra unum regem guerram habebat et eum devastabat. Rex iste, cum multas 90 persecutiones ac damna infinita ab eo sustinebat, tandem cogitabat, “Tantum unicam filiam habeo et adversarius meus unicum filium. Si per aliquam viam filiam meam possem filio suo in matrimonium copulare, pacem perpetuam obtinerem.” Misit sollemnes nuntios ad imperatorem, ut saltem ei trewgam 95 ad tempus concederet quod cum eo personaliter loqui posset. Imperator, habito consilio, trewgam unius anni concessit. Rex vero personaliter ad eum accessit et filiam eius filio suo obtulit. At iste, “Non faciam nisi duo habeam. Primo ut tua filia sit virgo; secundo ut post decessum tuum totum regnum tuum filio 100 meo destinetur.” At ille, “Bene placet mihi.” Statim de conventione charta sigillata est. Rex vale imperatori fecit.
The ship carrying the king’s daughter is swallowed by a whale.
Cum autem ad regnum suum venerat, navem parari fecit, quia oporteret ut filia sua per mare ad imperatorem transiret. Facta nave et omnibus necessariis paratis, puella intravit, 105 habens thesaurum secum in magna copia ac milites quinque cum dominabus et ancillis. Cum autem per mare navigarent, cete grandis ei occurrebat in mare et navem deglutire volebat. Nautae hoc percipientes timuerunt valde et praecipue puella. Nautae vero ignem copiosum fecerunt et die ac nocte vigilabant. 110 Sed accidit post triduum quod, fessi propter magnas vigilias, dormierunt. Cete subito navem cum omnibus contentis deglutivit.
104. facta: = parata, readied.
105. thesaurum: thesaurus, treasure, i.e., her dowry.
106. dominabus: ladies; cp. filiabus, used to distinguish between the f. and the m., which otherwise would have the same form (dominis).
cete: cete, -i,whale. The word, which comes from Greek and in the form cete looks like a Greek pl., is here nom. m. sg., equivalent to the class. Lat. cetus; in line 119 and elsewhere cete is treated as n. sg., an inconsistency characteristic of much of med. Lat. (though this particular word had a number of variants in class. Lat. as well).
107. ei: the ambiguous antecedent is the navis.
deglutire:to devour.
108. praecipue: adv., especially.
110. accidit…quod…dormierunt (111): for class. accidit…ut…dormirent.
110. triduum: triduus, period of three days.
fessi:weary.
113. ventre: venter, belly.
115. estote: fut. imper. of esse.
confortati: med. Lat. (especially in the Vulgate), confortare, to strengthen greatly.
116. salvabit: salvare, med. Lat. for servare.
117. erimus salvati: = salvabimur.
119. cete: here, n. acc.
quilibet:anyone, here perhaps = quisque.
sicut profundius possit:just as deeply as he can.
ista duo (120): i.e., ignem et vulnera.
120. natabit: natare, to swim.
121. per omnia: i.e., in all its details, in every respect.
122. impleverunt: implere, to fill up, complete, accomplish.
perrexit: pergere,to go on, proceed.
123. iuxta: prep. + acc., close to, near.
quam: = hanc.
erat…manens: = manebat; the use of erat as an auxiliary is quite comparable to the Eng. formation was waiting, just one example of the many ways in which the grammar of med. Lat. comes to approximate that of Eng.; cp. erimus salvati, above, line 117.
124. versus: = adversus, prep. + acc., toward.
hinc inde:here and there, back and forth.
126. cum instrumentis: ABL. OF MEANS; for the prep., see note on line 92.
percutere:to strike.
127. sonitum: sonitus, sound.
128. suaviter: lit., sweetly = gently.
