Letter 5

From: Ruricius, aristocrat (later bishop of Limoges) To: Hesperius, his son-in-law Date: ~482 AD Context: A gorgeously written letter urging Hesperius to send the first fruits of his student's rhetorical training, using the renewal of spring as an extended metaphor for intellectual and spiritual awakening. Ruricius to his most devoted son and always magnificent Hesperius. You had promised, dearest son, to send me some of the first blossoms from that little branch you had taken on to transform from bitterness into a cultivated flavor — blossoms whose scent would tell me what hope I should hold for the hope itself: whether the flowers promised buds, and the buds in turn promised fruit by their quality, and whether that fruit could ripen under your care and satisfy the hearts of listeners with the sweet nourishment of eloquence. Since you have put this off — I do not know for what reason — I have found an opportune time to remind you, when in the harmony of the world all living creatures, brute and speechless alike, whether walking, flying, or creeping, each in their own way, with their own hisses and their own voices, though in discordant sound and with different mouths, break forth with equal feeling and as if in one chorus into praise of their Maker, and reveal that they feel a power they cannot express. For at this time of year the face of the whole world is renewed. Everything that was squalid with decay, turbid with cold, frozen with ice, ugly with bareness, and half-dead with drought now emerges as if in a likeness of the resurrection — so that human frailty may learn from visible things what is invisible, and from present things what is to come, and may lay aside despair and grasp the hope of a better age yet to arrive. Now too the earth, unlocking veins sealed by a sterile rigidity, as if impregnated by a male seed — having conceived in the warmth of spring and wedded through hidden channels — opens itself for birth. From this it produces everything that is sweet for pleasure, good for eating, useful for purpose, necessary for sustenance, delightful to the eye, pleasant to smell, and gentle to the touch. And so your student has the most fitting time to cast off at last the sluggishness of spirit, to sharpen the dullness of heart, and — if he cannot yet declaim among men — at least not to be silent among the birds.

V. DEUINCTISSIMO FILIO SEMPERQVE MAGNIFICO HESPERIO RURICIUS. Spoponderas, fili carissime, ut mihi aliquos de ramusculo, quem ex amaritudine in domesticum saporem uertendum transferendumque susceperas, flosculos destinares, quorum odore cognoscerem, quam spem spei gerere deberem, utrumnam ipsi flores germina aut rursus ipsa germina fructus sui qualitate 1 discrepare uidentur v 2 aptate S 4 iuditii 8 5 tuam addidi monente Krvschio, om. S 6 discendisse S ex v, est S 8 ostenderis S B ocioso S 9 cespite S 11 fecudat S (n man. alt.) fructum S 12 producat om . 81, in marg. adiecit 82 tuae gestatem 81, tua egestatem 82 14 si ante uero add. v, om. S 15 incuciat S 16 podoris S 17 preconio S 18 pereclitetur S 28 deuictissimo S 24 ramuscolo S 25 transfendumque S 26 flusculos S destinaris S promitterent idemque iterum fructus utrum possent te excoquente mitescere et dulci eloquentiae cibo audientium corda satiare. quod quia, nescio quam ob causam, facere distulisti, oportunum uos admonendi tempus inueni, quo in harmonia mundi uniuersa animantia bruta pariter et elinguia, incedentia, uolantia atque reptilia suis quaeque modis, suis sibilis, suis quaeque uocibus etsi sono dissono aut ore diuerso, pari tamen affectu quasi uno concentu in laudem proprii auctoris erumpunt et potentiam, quam promere nequeunt, sentire se produnt. Hoc namque tempore cuncti orbis species rediuiua reparatur et, quicquid in eo situ squalidum, frigore turbidum, glacie concretum, nuditate deforme, ariditate praemortuum hactenus fuit, ad instar resurrectionis emergit, ut discat humana fragilitas de uisibilibus inuisibilia et de praesentibus futura cognoscere et spem uenturae melioris aetatis deposita desperatione percipiat. nunc etiam tellus sterili rigore conclausas quasi uirili semine -ita uerno tempore concepto occultis maritata meatibus uenas laxat ad partum. et hinc, quod deliciis suaue, quod esui dulce, quod usui utile, quod uictui necessarium, quod uisui iocundum, quod olfactui gratum, quod tactui blandum, omne producit. siquidem haec est illa temperies, quae mundi nascentis materiam quasi adhuc in incunabulis teneram gremio quodam clementissimae altricis conplexa nutriuit, ne substantiam nullo labore duratam aut aestiuus feruor exureret aut hiemalis algor extingueret aut uentorum flabra portarent. habet itaque susceptus tuus conuenientissimum tempus, quo animi socordia tandem aliquando detestata hebetudinem cordis exacuat et, si inter homines declamare non potest, saltim inter pecudes clamare aut inter uolucres garrire festinet. 1 possint SKr . 2 mitiscere S cybo S, uerbo v 3 saciare S daulisti S 4 armonia S 5 incendentia S 6 quequae S 8 propri S 10 rediuina S 11 turpidum S clacie S 14 prestantibus S, corr. v 15 desposita S disperatione S 16 stereli S ligore S conclusas v 17 ita] hoc v 18 diliciis S 20 olfatui S omne S (o in ras. mati. alt.) 22 in ante gremio add. v 23 complexu v 24 exureret v, exuretur et S 26 conuentissimum S 27 detestata 82 in margine, depstata 81 in contextu, deposita v habitudinem S