HOWLETT, D.R.

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MISCOUPLINGS IN COUPLETS * 
Oxford, Queen's College MS 320 contains a copy of lsidori 
Hispalensis Originum siue Etymologiarum Libri XX, written in the 
English square minuscule script associated with the period about 940 
to 965. ' Before the list of chapter headings there is a poem about 
miscoiiplings in elegiac couplets on folios lv-2r.: Capital letters and 
punctuation marks in boldface represent features of the manuscript. 
Italics suggest rhymes at caesuras and ends of lines within couplets. 
Solid underlinings suggest alliteration within lines. Dotted under-
linings suggest alliteration between adjacent lines. 
IN NOMINE TRINITATIS. 
SEriceum tegmen gemmatica tecta laconum 
Pellibus hircinis aequiparanda loquor 
Nobilis horribih' iungatur purpura burrae 
Nectatur plumbo fulgida gemma grau/ 
Sit captiua suz nunc margarita nitons 5 
Et dausa obscuro fulgeat in calibe. 
Leuconico pariter claudatur in aere smaragdos . 
Conpar silicibuj nunc hyacintus adest 
* I owe thanks for helpful criticism to Dr Leofranc Holford-Strevens. 
J. Copied probably from an exemplar in Insular script, not Cambridge, Trinity 
College MS B 15.33, which was written in Winchester about A.D. 920. Professor 
David Ganz in a private communication. 
2. D. SCHALLER & E. KoNSGEN, Initia carminum Latinorum saecula undecimo 
antiquomm (Göttingen 1977) no. 14935, record this manuscript as the unique source 
for this poem. 
272 D. R. HOWLETT 
Rupibus atque moh's similis dicatur ïaspw 
Eligat infernum iam modo luna caos . 10 
Nunc etiam urtic/s mandemus lilea iung/ 
Perspicuamque rosam dira cicutajpremat. 
Nunc simul optemus despectis piscibus^rgo 
Delicias magm nullificare fret/ 
Auratam crassantas1 amet saxatilLv anguem 15 
Limacem pariter nunc sibi tracta petat . 
Altaque iungatur uili cum uulpe leaena 
Perspicuam lincem similis accipiat 
Iungatur nunc cerua asino nunc tigris onagro 
Iungatur fesso concita damma boui 20 
Nectarium uiti et nunc laus erat et raro satum 
Mellaque cum fellis sint modo mixta raa/ù . 
Gemmantem socie/n aquam luteumque baratrum 
Stercoribus mixti^ fons eat mriguuj . 
Praepes funereum cumuulture ludat hirundo . 25 
Cum bubone graui nunc filomela sonet. 
Tristis perspicua sit cum perdice cauanus 
Iunctaque cum conio pulchra columba cubet 
Haec monstra incesrù mutent sibi tempora îa.tis 
Rusticus etseruuspetat ëuceriam . 30 
1 gemmatiqa. 2 œquiperanda. 7 Lenconico. 8 s'c[ ]licibus. 
12 Praespicuam. dina underpointed and corrected in left margin to 
dira, prœmat. 13 dispectis. 17 Altque. leena. 18 Prespicuam. 
25 Prepes. funerê. 27 prœspicua. 
Analogy with pariter 1 and conpar 8 supports emendation to aequi-
paranda 2. Alliteration with similis 9 supports emendation to etymo-
logically correct silicibus 8. Alliteration with delicias 14 supports 
emendation to etymologically correct despectis 13. Analogy with the 
Classical diphthong ae in aequiparanda 2 and burrae 3 supports res-
toration in leaena 17 and praepes 25. Grammar and metre alike 
require the form funereum 25. The manuscript misspellings praespi-
cuam 12, prespicuam 18, and prespicua 27 may have issued from 
misreading of the abbreviation p v&p. In this text h is present in Latin 
MISCOUPLINGS IN COUPLETS 273 
pulchra 28, but consistently absent from words derived from Greek 
spelled with % ch, calibe 6, caos 10, euceriam 30, 0 th, hyacintus 8, 
cmssantus 15, baratrum 23, and (p ph, filomela 26. Retention of 
unassimilated consonants, as in inriguus 24, is normal in early 
Insular Latin texts. 
There is elision in clausa obscuro 6, cerua asino 19, uti et 21, and 
monstra incestis 29, but not in etiarn urticis 11 and sociem aquam 23. 
There is diaeresis in i'aspis 9 and ëuceriam 30. There are false quan-
tities in margarita 5, ram satum 21, and petat 30. 
IN THE NAME OF THE TRINITY. 
A silken covering, jewelled covers, 
I speak of as things to be made equivalent with goat skins of 
[of menial servants. 
Noble purple should be joined to bristly flock ; 
A shining jewel should be bound with heavy lead. 
A pearl now the captive of its own brightness should 5 
Shine even closed in dark iron. 
An emerald equally should be closed in Leuconian [or 'whitish'] 
[brass. 
A jacinth is present now as equal partner with flints, 
And a jasper should be said of similar mass with cliffs. 
At this point then the [high] moon should choose [low] 
[infernal chaos. 10 
Now also let us order lilies to be joined to nettles 
And dire hemlock should press the perspicuous rose. 
Now at the same time let us wish therefore with despicable fishes 
To make as nothing the delights of the great sea. 
Let the fat heron that lives among rocks love the gilded water 
[snake ; 15 
Drawn to itself [i.e. the snake] let it now seek equally the 
[slug. 
And the lofty lioness should be joined with the vile fox ; 
The ape should receive the perspicuous lynx. 
Now the hind should be joined to the ass, now the tigress to the 
[wild ass, 
274 D. R. HOWLElT 
The swift doe should be joined to the wearied ox. 20 
Nectary fruit was praiseworthy for the grapevine both now and 
[seldom, 
And meads should be mixed then with apples of bitterness. 
May I combine water sparkling like a jewel and the slimy pit; 
May the well-watered fountain flow with mixed mucks. 
May the straight-flying [i.e. well-omened] swallow play some-
[thing funereal with the vulture; 
With the grave owl let the nightingale now sound. 
Let the sad owl be with the perspicuous partridge, 
And let the beautiful dove lie joined with the crow. 
The times may change these monsters with fates unchaste 
[for them, 
And the rustic servant may seek ease. 
The poem exhibits words not recorded in the Dictionary of Medieval 
Latin from British Sources fascicules I-V (A-L), antedatings of words 
recorded only from later periods, and postdatings of words poorly 
recorded from an earlier period. 
1 sericeum The adjective, as distinct from CL sericus, is not 
recorded from the Classical period. 
1 gemmatica The adjective, as distinct from CL gemmatus, is not 
recorded from the Classical period, nor in DMLBS. 
1 laconum genitive plural of 2 laco in DMLBS antedates John of 
Salisbury's usage of 1159 in Policraticus 594C and 
603C. 
3 burrae antedates the quotation of 1206 recorded in DMLBS. 
5 captiua The word is not otherwise recorded in DMLBS s.v. 
captivus 2 as a feminine substantive. 
6 calibe CL chalybs < XCIXA)\|/. 
7 leuconico CL Leuconicus 'of the Gallic tribe Leucones' or neu-
ter as substantive 'Leuconian wool (used for stuffing 
pillows)' is not recorded in DMLBS. As neither 
sense is particularly appropriate here one wonders 
whether the word derives from AeI)KOv + -IKOÇ 
'whitish'. 
MISCOUPLINGS IN COUPLETS 275 
7 smaragdos CL < O|j,âpay8oç here representing the Greek nomi-
native singular form. 
8 hyacintus CL hyacinthus <taKiv6oç. 
9 iaspis CL iaspis < làrjmç. 
10 caos CL chaos < x^oç. 
15 crassantus CL crassus + anthus < avôoç, not otherwise 
recorded in DMLBS. 
23 baratrum CL barathrum < ßdpaOpov. 
25 funereum is not recorded as a neuter substantive in DMLBS. 
27 cauanus DMLBS s.v. cavannus records one quotation from 
Aldhelm and two from glossaries. 
30 euceriam < 8"ö%ep8ia is not recorded in DMLBS. 
The poet may have been reading the beginning of Horatii de Arte 
Poetica Liber. In the first of the poet's inconcinnities the first words 
of the second verse remind one of coincident diction at the end of the 
seventh-century pseudo-Isidorean Hiberno-Latin text De Ordine 
Creaturarum §13 :3 
in aurato tabernaculo, ubi aurum argentumque et gemmamm pretiosarum, bissi 
et purpurae et hiacinthi et cocci dona conferuntur, etiam eorurn qui pelles capra-
rum deferunt diligentia non dispicitur. 
There the pelles caprarum are the goat skins on which the author 
presents his work to his patron. Here the laconum pelles hircinae 
may allude to the poet and his clothes, if not his work. He may refer 
to himself at the beginning and the end of the poem, at the end of the 
first couplet in loquor 2 and at the beginning of the last line, rusticus 
seruus 30, and in three verbs in the first person, mandemus 11, opte-
mus 13, sociem 23. Observing a widespread convention the poet 
refers to himself at places determined by sesquioctave ratio (9:8) and 
one-ninth and eight-ninths of the text. The 170 words of the poem 
divide by sesquioctave ratio at 90 and 80, at the centre of the lines, 
there being eighty words in lines 1-15 and ninety words in lines 16-
30. The ninety words of lines 16-30 divide by the ratio 9:8 at 48 and 
42. After sociem 23 the forty-second word is the last of rusticus et 
3. Liber de ordine creaturarum, ed. M.C. Diaz y Diaz (Santiago de Compostela 
1972), p. 204. D.R. Howlett, 'Insular Latin Writers' Rhythms', Peritia XI (1997), 
pp. 53-116 at 64-6. 
276 D. R. HOWLETT 
seruus 30. The eighty words of lines 1-15 divide by V9 at 9, at the 
ninth word, loquor 2. There are nine words between mandemus 11 
and optemus 13. The 170 words of the entire poem divide by 1/9 and 
8/9 at 19 and 151, at cauanus 27, which might suggest, but for the 
early date of the manuscript, that the composition was written by a 
poet surnamed Howlett. 
D. R. HOWLETT 
Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources 
Bodleian Library 
Oxford 


Miscouplings in Couplets

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Miscouplings in Couplets

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