Desbillons: Vulpecula / Vulpis

Last week, Hector came up with a really good pair of fables to read together for our ongoing work on the Latin fables of Desbillons (see this post for more info), one with direct speech, and one with indirect speech only. Needless to say, I like the one with direct speech so much better; I will never understand why, given a choice, storytellers ever use indirect speech. 

So, let's start off with the fable with direct speech:

2.4 Vulpecula et Gallina

Vulpecula domum ingressa gallinariam,

Solamque languentemque Gallinam videns,

Exclamat "O mea soror salvane es satis?

"Aegroto," ait illa "tu recedas hinc tamen,

Mea soror et me habebo iam meliuscule."

Bonos juvare cum abeunt incipiunt mali.

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

Vulpecula,

ingressa gallinariam domum,

et videns Gallinam,

solam et languentem,

exclamat, 

"O mea soror,

satisne 

es salva?

Illa (Gallina) ait,

"Aegroto,

mea soror;

tamen 

(si) tu recedas hinc,

et iam me habebo 

meliuscule."

Mali,

cum abeunt,

incipiunt juvare bonos.

I really like the diminutives in this one also: the -cul- suffix on vulpecula is common, but turning melius into a diminutive, meliucule, is really cool! Desbillons cites Babrius as his source, although in Babrius, it is a cat who is being solicitous of the sick chicken; the fable works just as nicely with a fox.

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

Vulpe · cula dom~ · ingres · sa gal · lina · riam,

Solam · que lan · guentem · que Gal · linam · videns,

Excla · mat, "O · mea so · ror, sal · van~ es · satis?

Aegrot~ · ait il · la tu · rece · das hinc · tamen,

Mea so · ror, et · m~ habe · bo iam · melius · cule.

Bonos · juva · re, c~ abe · unt, in · cipiunt · mali.

Now, for comparison, here is a different fable, this time with indirect speech only:

9.15 Vulpis

Vulpis dum furtim villici chortem subit,

Queritur, meatus quod sit angustus nimis,

Sed insequentem posthac dum refugit canem,

Queritur, meatus quod sit multo laxior.

Humana saepe ratio secum dissidet.

Dum Vulpis 

subit chortem villici furtim,

queritur 

quod meatus sit nimis angustus,

sed posthac,

dum refugit insequentem canem,

queritur

quod meatus sit multo laxior.

Humana ratio

saepe dissidet secum.

Now wouldn't that have been better if we had the fox's actual complaint, with some real personality like the dialogue in the fable about the fox and the chicken? Don't give me quod-this and quod-that... I want direct speech!

Here is some help with the meter:

Vulpis · dum fur · tim vil · lici · chortem · subit,

Queritur · mea · tus quod · sit an · gustus · nimis,

Sed in · sequen · tem post · hac dum · refugit · canem,

Queritur · mea · tus quod · sit mul · to lax · ior.

Huma · na sae · pe rati · o se · cum dis · sidet.

Desbillons' source for this fable is Faernus, and when I checked, he also just uses indirect speech! Argh! We'll be getting to the fables of Faernus later, but you can read that poem online here if you are curious, and this is the illustration that goes with it. Poor chicken! And yes, Faernus mentions that the fox got away with a chicken: subreptam ore gallinam efferens.

Meanwhile, for more Desbillons, here are the other poems I've posted so far here at the blog. :-)