The Misfortunes of Arthur

[Christie Waldman]

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Posted Thursday at 08:49 AM (edited)

On 4/20/2023 at 3:46 AM, A Phoenix said:

Love of Seneca

Paper: https://www.academia.edu/45006687/Francis_Bacon_and_his_First_Unacknowledged_Shakespeare_Play_The_Misfortunes_of_Arthur_and_its_Extensive_Links_to_his_other_Shakespeare_Works

Video: https://youtu.be/OvUjs6MVvtY

Wonderful writing A.P. You deliver factual information with empathy and human understanding. In her "History of Gorhambury" (1821), Lady Grimston recorded these Latin verses, transcribed from a singular little book in the British Museum - as she explains:

Eric asked, "Any translators out there?"

As I understand it from A. P., these are from 59 sources on 22 subjects. These sound like essay headings, so some of them might be. First I would try to find out who said each one and in what work. A lot of these, if not all, will have already been translated, and the translations might be available online. If you could find a source with side-by-side translations, Latin-English, that would be great!

Cicero came up with the phrase, summum bono, "the greatest good," so those first few may be from Cicero (but maybe not).

Seneca wrote eight volumes of "Moral Essays":  De Ira (on Anger), De Clementia (on mercy, which has been called a source for Portia's quality of mercy speech), de tranquillitate animu (on mental tranquility), de constantia sapientis (on the steadfastness of the wise man), de vita beata (on the happy life), de Otio ("On Leisure"), de brevitate vitae (on the brevity of life).

Some of the headings are easy to figure out, because the Latin words are so like the English words derived from them. "De ratione" (on reason). "De praeceptis et exemplis" (On precepts and examples). De ambitione (On ambition). De adulatione (on adulatione, praise).

There are resources online, like Perseus. The Perseus Catalog shows that it has "De Otio Sapientis," Seneca's Moral Essays, vol. 2, translated. https://catalog.perseus.org/catalog/urn:cts:latinLit:stoa0255.stoa011. (A starting page, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?q=Seneca. Project Gutenberg has translation of a few of them, "Seneca's Morals of a Happy Life: Benefits, Anger, and Clemency. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/56075/pg56075-images.html.

Seneca's father, a rhetorician, same name, wrote "sententiae." Some of these might be his. The Ency. Britannica article, "Lucius Annaeus Seneca" (the elder) says, "The romantic topics of many of the Suasoriae (“Exhortations”) became part of the collection of tales known as the Gesta Romanorum (Deeds of the Romans)." So that's interesting as well. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lucius-Annaeus-Seneca-Roman-author.

So, it would keep someone (me, at least!) busy for awhile, trying to find and translate, and preferably finding  English translations to compare, all of these. 

 

[Eric Roberts]

5 hours ago, Christie Waldman said:

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Posted Thursday at 08:49 AM (edited)

Wonderful writing A.P. You deliver factual information with empathy and human understanding. In her "History of Gorhambury" (1821), Lady Grimston recorded these Latin verses, transcribed from a singular little book in the British Museum - as she explains:

Eric asked, "Any translators out there?"

As I understand it from A. P., these are from 59 sources on 22 subjects. These sound like essay headings, so some of them might be. First I would try to find out who said each one and in what work. A lot of these, if not all, will have already been translated, and the translations might be available online. If you could find a source with side-by-side translations, Latin-English, that would be great!

Cicero came up with the phrase, summum bono, "the greatest good," so those first few may be from Cicero (but maybe not).

Seneca wrote eight volumes of "Moral Essays":  De Ira (on Anger), De Clementia (on mercy, which has been called a source for Portia's quality of mercy speech), de tranquillitate animu (on mental tranquility), de constantia sapientis (on the steadfastness of the wise man), de vita beata (on the happy life), de Otio ("On Leisure"), de brevitate vitae (on the brevity of life).

Some of the headings are easy to figure out, because the Latin words are so like the English words derived from them. "De ratione" (on reason). "De praeceptis et exemplis" (On precepts and examples). De ambitione (On ambition). De adulatione (on adulatione, praise).

There are resources online, like Perseus. The Perseus Catalog shows that it has "De Otio Sapientis," Seneca's Moral Essays, vol. 2, translated. https://catalog.perseus.org/catalog/urn:cts:latinLit:stoa0255.stoa011. (A starting page, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?q=Seneca. Project Gutenberg has translation of a few of them, "Seneca's Morals of a Happy Life: Benefits, Anger, and Clemency. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/56075/pg56075-images.html.

Seneca's father, a rhetorician, same name, wrote "sententiae." Some of these might be his. The Ency. Britannica article, "Lucius Annaeus Seneca" (the elder) says, "The romantic topics of many of the Suasoriae (“Exhortations”) became part of the collection of tales known as the Gesta Romanorum (Deeds of the Romans)." So that's interesting as well. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lucius-Annaeus-Seneca-Roman-author.

So, it would keep someone (me, at least!) busy for awhile, trying to find and translate, and preferably finding  English translations to compare, all of these. 

 

Hi Christie

 

Thanks for explaining the complexities of the task of translating the Gorhambury Latin quotes, fortunately preserved in the book given to Lady Lumley by Sir Nicholas Bacon. I'll see what else I can find out from the B.M.

 

[Christie Waldman]

Translation could be done. It would just take some time.