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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [C8v]

CUM LARVIS NON LUCTAN-
DUM.[1]

Do not wrestle with the dead

Hares gathered round a dead lion
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Aeacide[2] moriens percussu cuspidis Hector[3],
Qui toties hosteis vicerat ant่ suos.
Comprimere haud potuit vocem insultantibus illis,
Dum curru & pedibus nectere vincla parant.
Distrahite ut libitum est sic cassi luce leonis,
Convellunt barbam vel timidi lepores.[4]

When he was dying from the wound dealt by the spear of Aeacus’ descendant, Hector, who had so often before defeated his own enemies, could not keep silent as they triumphed over him, while preparing to tie the ropes to chariot and feet. Tear me as you will, he said; when the lion is deprived of the light of life, even cowardly hares pluck his beard.

Notes:

1.  Cf. Erasmus, Adagia 153, Cum larvis luctari.

2.  ‘of Aeacus’ descendant’, i.e. ‘of Achilles’. Textual variant: Aeacidae.

3.  Hector was the greatest warrior on the Trojan side in the Trojan War, killed in single combat by Achilles, the Greek champion. See Homer, Iliad 22.367ff. and 24.14ff. for Achilles’ desecration of Hector’s body, dragging it, tied by the feet behind his chariot, round the tomb of Patroclus.

4.  The last two lines are a translation of the two-line epigram Anthologia graeca 16.4, where, in Planudes’ text, the words are attributed to Hector in the heading.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [p147]

Che non si dee combatter con quegli, che difender non si possono.

One must not fight with those who cannot defend themselves.


Dead lion being eaten by hares.
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Quando trasfitto da la lancia cade
Del fero Achille il valoroso Hettore.
Mentre per far di lui rosse le strade
Si vide al Carro il fune a i piedi porre:
Disse, o nemichi e privi di pietade
Fate pur cio, ch’io no’l vi posso torre.
Cosi’l timido Lepre del Leone
Morto ne suelle i crini, e astraccio il pone.

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