Boniface Riddle 3: Spes fatur
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Mon 26 Jul 2021Sancta comes faustos omnes comitata perhortor
Perpetuam meritis caelo comprendere vitam.
Et sine me scandit nullus per culmina caeli,
Sed tristem ac miseram post illinc facta secernunt:
5 Fortunata nimis, si non mentita fuissem,
Aurea promittens starent ut ludicra mundi.
Terrigenas iugiter duco ad caelestia regna,
Viribus ut freti tradant ad corpora poenas
Regmina venturi captantes aurea saecli.
A holy companion and escort, I encourage all the fortunate
to grasp everlasting life in heaven by their merits.
And no one ascends to the heights of heaven without me,
but afterwards, works exclude me, sad and wretched, from there.
5 Too fortunate—if only I had not lied,
promising that the golden pleasures of the world would remain.
I ceaselessly lead earth-dwellers to the heavenly realm,
so that those relying on my strength can give themselves up to bodily punishments
and reach the golden kingdom of the world to come.
Notes:
This edition is based on Ernst Dümmler, (ed.). Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Volume 1. Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1881. Pages 1-15. Available online here.
Line 4, illine > illinc, following Fr. Glorie (ed.), Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis. Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A. Turnhout: Brepols, 1968. Page 287.
Note that this riddle appears as No. 3 (De virtutibus) in Glorie’s edition and No. 3 in Orchard’s edition.