42. Was it for this He sent souls, that some should infest the highways and roads,3700 others ensnare the unwary, forge3701 false wills, prepare poisoned draughts; that they should break open houses by night, tamper with slaves, steal and drive away, not act uprightly, and betray their trust perfidiously; that they should strike out delicate dainties for the palate; that in cooking fowls they should know how to catch the fat as it drips; that they should make cracknels and sausages,3702 force-meats, tit-bits, Lucanian sausages, with these3703 a sow’s udder and iced3704 puddings? Was it for this He sent souls, that beings3705 of a sacred and august race should here practise singing and piping; that they should swell out their cheeks in blowing the flute; that they should take the lead in singing impure songs, and raising the loud din of the castanets,3706 by which another crowd of souls should be led in their wantonness to abandon themselves to clumsy motions, to dance and sing, form rings of dancers, and finally, raising their haunches and hips, float along with a tremulous motion of the loins?
Was it for this He sent souls, that in men they should become impure, in women harlots, players on the triangle3707 and psaltery; that they should prostitute their bodies for hire, should abandon themselves to the lust of all,3708 ready in the brothels, to be met with in the stews,3709 ready to submit to anything, prepared to do violence to their mouth even?3710
Footnotes
- 3700
Lit., “passages of ways.”
- 3701
Lit., “substitute.”
- 3702
So the later edd., reading botulos; the ms. and early edd. give boletos—“mushrooms.”
- 3703
For his, Heinsius proposes hiris—“with the intestines.”
- 3704
Lit., “in a frozen condition.” As to the meaning of this there is difference of opinion: some supposing that it means, as above, preserved by means of ice, or at least frozen; while others interpret figuratively, “as hard as ice.” [Our Scottish translators have used their local word, “iced haggises:” I have put puddings instead, which gives us, at least, an idea of something edible. To an American, what is iced conveys the idea of a drink. The budinarius, heretofore noted, probably made these iced saucisses.]
- 3705
Lit., “things”—res.
- 3706
Scabilla were a kind of rattles or castanets moved by the feet.
- 3707
Sambuca, not corresponding to the modern triangle, but a stringed instrument of that shape. Its notes were shrill and disagreeable, and those who played on it of indifferent character.
- 3708
So the ms. and first four edd., reading virilitatem sui populo publicarent. Meursius emended utilitatem—“made common the use,” etc.; and Orelli, from the margin of Ursinus, vilitatem—“their vileness.”
- 3709
The ms. reads in fornicibus obvi-t-ae, which, dropping t, is the reading translated, and was received by Elmenhorst, LB., and Hildebrand, from the margin of Ursinus. The other edd. insert nc before t—“bound.”
- 3710
The translation does not attempt to bring out the force of the words ad oris stuprum paratæ, which are read by Orelli after Ursinus and Gelenius. The text is so corrupt, and the subject so obscene, that a bare reference to the practice may be sufficient.