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(To be filed under: Things that would doubtless be less amazing to me if I were less ignorant about medieval literature.)
The part just before this is pretty good, too, although it doesn't push my sine ira et studio buttons in quite the same way: ( The trouthe only, whyche thei han compyled/ Unto this fyn - that we wer nat begyled... )
Also this:
"misty speech" that tricks readers through the very labor they have to expend in unfolding it sums up what Tacitus does very nicely, I think. Just in case you were wondering.
For after deth clerkis lityl drede
After desert for to bere witnesse 185
Nor of a tyraunt the trouthe to expresse,
As men disserve withoute excepcioun;
With lak or prys thei graunt hem her guerdoun.
Wherfore me semeth every maner man
Schulde be his live in al that ever he can 190
For vertu only eschewe to don amys,
For after dethe, pleynly as it is,
Clerkis wil write, and excepte noon,
The pleyne trouthe whan a man is goon.
The part just before this is pretty good, too, although it doesn't push my sine ira et studio buttons in quite the same way: ( The trouthe only, whyche thei han compyled/ Unto this fyn - that we wer nat begyled... )
Also this:
Ovide also poetycally hath closyd
Falshede with trouthe, that maketh men ennosed 300
To whiche parte that thei schal hem holde;
His mysty speche so hard is to unfolde
That it entriketh rederis that it se.
Virgile also for love of Enee
In Eneydos rehersyth moche thyng
And was in party trewe of his writyng,
Exsepte only that hym lyst som whyle
The tracys folwe of Omeris stile.
"misty speech" that tricks readers through the very labor they have to expend in unfolding it sums up what Tacitus does very nicely, I think. Just in case you were wondering.
