Desbillons: Puer et Fortuna

Yesterday for our work on the Latin fables of Desbillons (see this post for more info), Hector and I look at this great poem about the Roman goddess Fortuna, who is "Fortune" or "Lady Luck" in English. Because this is a classical fable, it has lots of great art too; click here for art plus English versions.

3.6 Puer et Fortuna

Ad oram putei dormiebat Puerulus.

Eum Fortuna suscitans, "Abi hinc," ait,

"In puteum namque si caderes, non hanc tuam

Fuisse culpam, sed meam omnes dicerent."

Here is the poem written out in English prose order to help in reading:

Puerulus dormiebat

ad oram putei.

Fortuna, 

suscitans eum,

ait,

"Abi hinc,

namque 

si caderes in puteum,

omnes dicerent

hanc culpam fuisse

non tuam,

sed meam."

I'm honestly glad that Desbillons did not include an epimythium here. He could have gone on to say something like, "So it is that people often blame bad luck for their own foolish behavior," etc. etc., but I think it's better just to let Lady Luck herself have the last word!

The meter is iambic, and here is some help with the meter (for more about iambic meter, see the post about Desbillons 1.1).

Ad o · ram pute · i dor · mie · bat Pue · rulus.

Eum · Fortu · na sus · citans · Ab~ hinc · ait

In pute · um nam · que si · caderes · non hanc · tuam

Fuis · se cul · pam sed · me~ om · nes di · cerent.

You can find illustrations for the fable here, and my favorite is this one by Walter Crane because he has drawn the story as if it were inside the famous Rota Fortunae, "Wheel of Fortune" ... you can see the spokes of the wheel:

In this illustration for a Croxall Aesop, you can see Fortune has her wheel with her too:

And she also has her wheel with her in this Bewick illustration:

There's a wheel also in this Gouget illustration for La Fontaine: it almost looks like she's riding the wheel, plus she has a cornucopia (another one of her iconic attributes):

Sometimes the emphasis is that the boy is a "schoolboy," and in this Oudry illustration for La Fontaine, you can see that he has dropped his schoolbooks: he fell asleep, when he should have been studying!