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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [K8r p159]

La musique plaist aux Dieux.

CVIII.

A harp lying on a pedestal. On the harp is a grasshopper.
[Click on image to enlarge]

La Harpe, d’Eunome jouant,
Contre Ariston, rompit sa corde.
Voicy la Cigale bruyant,
Qui le defaut du son recorde:
Et tant bien au lieu vuide accorde,
Qu’Eunome en obtint la victoire.
En cuyvre fit telle beste orde,
L’offrant à Phebus, pour memoire.[1]

.

Eunome de Locres, fut un excellent joueur de har-
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [K8v p160] pe, lequel ayant esté contrainct d’entrer en lice avec
Ariston, aussi musicien, comme au milieu de leur
musique, une des chordes de la harpe d’Eunome fut
venue à se rompre, si que l’harmonie en estoit defe-
ctueuse, voire dissonante, une cigale accourut inconti-
nent, qui se posant sur la harpe, supplea le defaut de
la chorde rompue, si que Eunome fut declaré victo-
rieux: lequel voulant recongnoistre le plaisir qu’il
avoit receu de la cigale, la fit graver en cuyvre &
apposer sur sa harpe, & dedia l’un & l’autre à A-
ppollon. Pline recite qu’à Locres les cigales chantent
fort melodieusement, mais au païs d’Ariston elles n’y
sonnent mot. Le vray usage & subject de la musi-
que, soit de vive voix, ou sur les instruments, ne doit
estre autre que les louanges de Dieu: & ainsi l’ont
prattiqué & le doyvent prattiquer tous les gents de
bien.

Notes:

1.  This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 6.54. See Strabo, Geography 6.1.9 for the story of Eunomus and the statue he set up at his home town of Locri commemorating this incident in the song contest at the Pythian Games (celebrated near Delphi, in honour of Apollo, Artemis and their mother Leto); also Erasmus, Adagia 414, Acanthia Cicada.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [E8v]

DOCTOS DOCTIS OB-
loqui nefas esse.

It is wicked for scholars to wrangle with other scholars

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [F1r]

Bird flying to its nest with food
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Quid rapis heu progne vocalem saeva cicadam,
Pignoribusque tuis fercula dira paras?[1]
Ac stridula stridulam[2], vernam verna hospita laedis,
Hospitam, & aligeram penniger ales avem?
Ergo abiice hanc praedam, nam musica pectora summum est,
Alterum ab alterius dente perire nefas.

Alas, Procne, why, cruel bird, do you sieze on the melodious cicada and prepare a dreadful banquet for your young? A whistler yourself, you harm the shrill singer; a summer visitor, you hurt another fine-weather caller; a guest, you harm a guest; a feathered bird, you hurt another winged creature. So let this prize go. It is the greatest sin for hearts devoted to the Muses to perish by one another’s tooth.

Notes:

1.  The reference is to the legend of Procne’s metamorphosis into a swallow. See [A50a070]. For swallows catching cicadas, see Aelian, De natura animalium 8.6.

2.  Textual variant: Stridula stridentem.

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