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The Liber de Dictis Philosophorum Antiquorum and Common Proverbs in George Ashby's Poems
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
The three poems associated with the name of George Ashby have been readily available to students of Middle English verse for the past half century in the edition prepared for the Early English Text Society by Mary Bateson. It does not appear, however, that any particular inquiry has been undertaken as to the use Ashby made of possible sources. Indeed, in the case of his first poem (A Prisoner's Reflections) such a study holds little promise of being very rewarding, as the poem is, to a considerable extent, frankly autobiographical. The Active Policy of a Prince, in turn, is a collection of moral commonplaces of a more than commonplace nature—doubtless the number of parallels to other poems of this genre would be most impressive, and perhaps equally tedious. The Latin title of the third poem (Dicta opiniones diversorum philosophorum) suggests its own origin and Miss Bateson has correctly pointed out that this poem is based upon that Latin work which, in its English form, constitutes the first dated work to be printed in England—
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1950
References
1 Extra Series LXXVI (1899). The Prisoner's Reflections was also printed by M. Förster, “George Ashby's Trost in Gefangenschaft”, Anglia, xx (1898), 139–152, and by F. Holthausen, “Ashby-Studien”, Anglia, XLV (1921), 76–104. In this article Holthausen also offered emendations for Miss Bateson's text of the Active Policy.
2 Ashby seems to have borrowed liberally from other sources. Stanza 99 of the Active Policy was probably not written by him but simply incorporated in his poem; it also appears as stanza 67 of the Court of Sapience and independently in Huntington MS. HM 144; consult my Sources of the Court of Sapience (Leipzig, 1932), p. 87, and my “Lydgate's Horse, Sheep and Goose and Huntington MS. HM 144”, MLN, LV (1940), 563–569.
3 Miss Bateson (p. vii) says of the De dictis that “There is evidence that these commonplaces had extraordinary popularity in the Middle Ages, but the true origin of this collection of proverbs is still to seek.” The sources were discussed by Ezio Franceschini, “Il ‘Liber philosophorum moralium antiquorum’”, Memorie delta Reale Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, série vi, vol. iii, fasc. v (1930), 354–399, and the text printed by the same writer in Atti del Reale Isliluto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, xci2 (1931–32), 393–597. For further details, see the Introduction to my Diets and Sayings of the Philosophers, EETS, Original Series 211 (1941). The title Liber de dictis philosophorum antiquorum is here used for the Latin text as suggested by Giuseppe Billanovich, “La tradizione del ‘Liber de dictis philosophorum antiquorum’ e la cultura di Dante del Petrarca e del Boccaccio”, Studi Petrarcheschi, i (1948), reprint 15 pp.
4 E. Gordon Duff, Fifteenth Century English Books (Bibliographical Soc, 1917), p. 34, no. 123, and Seymour de Ricci, A Census of Caxtons (Bibliographical Soc, 1909), no. 36. A facsimile edition was issued by William Blades in 1877 (London: Elliot Stock).
5 The variant readings in the Latin text for stanzas 30, 98, 125, 148, and 179 indicate that Ashby's MS must have been closely related to Franceschini's MS. P (Paris, Bibl. Nat MS. Lat. 6652).
6 A few stanzas have no Latin headings and several contain a number of quotations. Stanza 69 is attributed to Ovid but has no Latin text to identify it.
7 I have been unable to find the direct Latin sources for two stanzas. In stanza 11 the “Honoranti fit honor” is attributed to Aristotle and may be some adaptation from the Nicomachean Ethics (i.3) : . For the “Non potes reuocare quod dixisti nec quod fecisti; ergo prouideas ante tibi; hec Socrates” of stanza 162, compare Willi Haeckel, “Das Sprichwort bei Chaucer”, Erlanger Beiträge zur englischen Philologie, II (1890), no. 8, pp. 25 (nos. 81–82), 31 (no. 103) and 53 (“Thing that is sayd”). See also the saying attributed to the Similitudes of Demophilus: “Deliberate long and maturely before you proceed to speak or act; for it will not be in your power to alter what has been said or done”, The Phenix; a Collection of Old and Rare Fragments (New York, 1835), p. 286, no. 5. For the original, see the text of Demophilus printed with the Enchiridium of Epictetus (Amsterdam: Wetstenius, 1750), p. 124:, $
8 There are eight extracts from the De dictis in Ashby's Active Policy (viz.: stanzas 43, 48, 51, 100, 114, 118, 119 and 121), all of which are correctly attributed. The Latin for stanza 94 is not assigned to any philosopher and is (apparently) not in the Liber.
9 See the introduction to the writer's Diets, pp. xvii-xviii, the “Fleurs de toutes vertus and Christine de Pisan's L'Epître d'Othéa”, PMLA, LXII (1947), 32–44, and “New Manuscripts of The Diets and Sayings of the Philosophers”, MLN, LXIII (1948), 26–30.
10 Compare my article “A survival from the Middle Ages: William Baldwin's Use of the Dictes and Sayings”, Speculum, xxiii, 76–80.
11 The Latin heading covers both stanzas.
12 This is a reply to a query addressed by Alexander to Plato. It does not occur in the chapter on Plato but in that on Alexander.
13 This is a modification of the Latin text; compare my Dicts, note to 220.5.
14 Since so many proverbs are attributed to Hermes rather than to Sedechias as in the original, one may suppose either that Ashby's source was defective at the beginning or that it had the wrong philosopher's name on the first page. No such MS was, however, known to Franceschini.
15 The printed catalogue is not specific as to this;see Charles Hardwick and Henry Luard, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts Preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge 1856–67), IV, 299–300, no. 2390.
16 For the Latin tag of stanza 87 of the Dicta (“Fac omnia cum consilio”) and line 281 of the Active Policy, compare my article, “Wirk alle thyng by conseil”, in Speculum, xxiv (1949), 410–412.
17 Franceschini (546.21): “Et dixit: qualis sit sensus ostendit eloquium; igitur que pro-feres investiga.”
18 “Et dixit: os ostendit quod iacet in'corde” (418.17). The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs (Oxford, 1935) cites Rivers' translation of the Dictes as the first example (569 a 5).
19 Migne, Pair. Lat., xc, 1095.
20 Parson's Tale, 1. 627: “For after the habundance of the herte speketh the mouth ful ofte” (F. N. Robinson ed., Boston & New York, 1933, p. 294). The Proverbes communs (see next note) has: “De l'abondance du cueur la langue parle” (sig. B2V).
21 Quoted from the reprint (Paris: Chez Silvestre, 1839). The work was first printed in the late fifteenth century; for the earlier editions, see Jacques-Charles Brunet, Manuel du libraire et de l'amateur de livres (Paris, 1860–64), iv, 912–913.
21a Compare also Ashby, Dicta, 1. 504: “As the kyng is, suche bene al in his cure.” The Dits moraulx (Morgan MS. 771, f. 100v) has: “Selon seigneur mesgnie duite” and Scrope (Dicts, 142.33) renders this as: “After be lord, be meynye disportith.”
22 See Remigio Sabbadini, “II traduttore latino del Liber Philosophorum”, Alti del R. Islituto Veneto Sc. Lett. Arti, XCII2 (1932–33), 537–540. This attribution is disputed by Billanovich, op. cit.
23 Compare the translation by Robert Burrant attached to his Preceptes of Cato (London: Richard Grafton, 1545) quoted from the copy in the Pierpont Morgan Library (sig. G4V, no. 68): Such thynges as men haue by them dayly, Bee lytle estemed, and lytle set by.
24 This attribution may be found in Joseph Ritson, Spartan Manual (London, 1785), p. 16.
25 Tale of Melibee (Robinson ed., p. 220,1. 1686): “Over-greet hoomlynesse engendreth dispreisynge.” W. W. Skeat, Early English Proverbs (Oxford, 1910), no. 251, quotes examples from Minsheu and Shakespeare.
28 EETS, OS 6 (1865), p. 50,11. 1700–02: for, as the most philosephur can duclar, To mych to oyss familiaritee Contempnyng bryngith one to hie dugre.
27 Also cited in the Book callid Caton [Westminster: Caxton, 1483, sig. c3v] and twice translated by Chaucer (Manciple's Tale, ll. 332–333, and Troilus, iii, 294). Burrant, op. cit., sig. E2, renders this as: The chiefe of all vertues is, thy tongue to represse. He is nexte vnto God, that wel can holde his peace.
28 Echoes of the Liber may even be found in Ashby's Prisoner's Reflections. Thus line 187 reads: “Neuyr so mery but some heuynes”, which seems to be an adaptation of the line in Socrates (454.16): “non est sine dolore gaudium.”
29 Ashby is occasionally cited by the Oxf. Diet. Eng. Prov. For example, his line 408 of the ActivePolicy is the first entry under “There is falsehood in fellowship” (p.477). Itismy pleasant duty to thank Professor Bartlett J. Whiting for pointing out to me the quotations in Apperson's work.
30 Roman Dyboski, Songs, Carols, and other Miscellaneous Poems, from the Balliol MS 354 (EETS, ES CI, 1908).
31 Quoted from the edition of his Workes (London: Felix Kingston, 1598-PML 6398), sig. Plv, the proverb being there cited in three different forms. It is also to be found in his Dialogue, part 2, sig. G3, as: “Tongue breaketh bone, it selfe hauing none (quoth I).”
32 This extract is taken from the Morgan copy (PML 682), sig. c2v. The Latin text reads (Leyden: Elzevir, 1643, p. 154) : “Non enim viribus, aut velocitatibus, aut celeritate corporis res magnae geruntur, sed consilio, auctoritate, sententia.” Compare, also, Chaucer's Tale of Melibee, 1. 1164.
33 Cited from the facsimile edition (1906) of the unique copy of the first edition (Duff 76) in the University Library, Cambridge, f. 16.
34 Morgan 690, sig. f4v.
35 See also Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, Prologue (text F), ll. 451–152 (Robinson ed., p. 580):
For whoso yeveth a yif te, or dooth a grace, Do it by tyme, his thank ys wel the more.