Medieval Academy of America

A Mediaeval Cato -- Virtus or Virtue?Author(s): Jeanette M. A. BeerReviewed work(s):Source: Speculum, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Jan., 1972), pp. 52-59Published by: Medieval Academy of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2851215 .Accessed: 13/09/2012 23:19

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A MEDIAEVAL CATO - VIRTUS OR VIRTUE? BY JEANETTE M. A. BEER

THE anonymous thirteenth-century compiler of Li Fet des Romains introduced his translation of Caesar, Sallust, Suetonius, and Lucan with the claim that Roman history had useful lessons for his contemporaries: "car en lor fez puet en trover assez connoissance de bien fere et de mal eschiver."' This claim merits close examination and should not be dismissed merely as a formula of self-advertise- ment. A detailed scrutiny of the text shows that many of the translator's tech- niques are a function of his utilitarian attitude. The most obvious of these is the direct didactic explanation to render alien concepts comprehensible to the mediaeval audience. But there are other modifications of the original text. They range from the unobtrusive omission of a word to the interpolation of ten pages of original material. Such practices can hardly be interpreted as accidental, and it must therefore be assumed that the mediaeval translator judged his work by different criteria from those of the modern translator. It is, for example, a conven- tion of later ages that competent translation depends on an informed apprecia- tion and rendering of the connotative meanings of the words in the original text. But in certain passages of Li Fet des Romains the translator, far from rendering the historical connotations of a word as closely as possible, has substituted for them a completely new set.

A good illustration of this intentional adaptation of the source is to be found in the treatment of M. Porcius Cato.2 He was represented both in Roman antiquity and in the Middle Ages as an exemplar of virtue, but, for this exemplar to be didactically useful, the qualities implied by the Roman "virtus" must necessarily be modified to fit thirteenth-century conceptions. Cato's life and death had been determined by a philosophical system that was barely appreciated in the early Middle Ages: Stoicism. The translator has therefore attenuated the inhuman severity of Stoic indifference by omitting some characteristics and interpolating others, notably charity and an epic taste for battle. He has also re-evaluated Cato's suicide, which was hardly to be recommended for admiration by a thir- teenth-century audience. Stoic virtus has been given affinities with Christian saintliness at the expense, sometimes, of historical accuracy. Cato's usefulness as

1 Li Fet des Romains, ed. L.-F. Flutre and K. Sneyders de Vogel (Paris, 1938), p. 2, lines 23-5. 2 M. Porcius Cato ("Cato Uticensis") is not to be confused with M. Porcius Cato "Censorius,"

whom the translator twice mentions as belonging to an earlier age of Roman heroes. Li Fet des Romains is not therefore responsible for the confusion of later ages concerning the identity of the two Catos. Its only error is a wrong rendering of "nepos" as "nephew" in "maeret Cato fata nepotis" (M. Annaei Lucani, Pharsalia, VI, 1. 790). Cato the Censor was the great-grandfather of Cato of Utica, not "Ii oncles Caton" (Li Fet des Romains, p. 503,1. 17, and p. 516, 1. 29). The error is understandable, since Old French "nies" (from "nepos") was consistently used with the post-Augustan sense of "nephew." There are obvious advantages in using Cato to illustrate the medieval translator's practices: Cato plays a highly didactic role in Suetonius and Lucan, yet his didacticism is only partially understood by the translator. It will be realized, however, that Cato is merely one illustration of a much wider subject, mediaeval adaptation of classical texts. This subject is treated in detail in a book I have al- most completed on Li Fet des Romains.

52

A Mediaeval Cao - Virtus or Virtue? 53

a model of virtue remains intact thereby, and provides interesting evidence that faithfulness to the original text need not always be the most important aim of the mediaeval translator. When didactic considerations were at stake, Cato of Utica could become an "a-Stoic," and the change was not wholly unintentional.

Cato first appears in Li Fet des Romain8 with his speech before the Senate condemning the Catilinarian conspiracy. Sallust had included almost every Stoic stance: his Cato had made a proud assertion of moral superiority,3 a criticism of sybaritic living,4 and a eulogy of the mos maiorum. The unifying theme of his speech was regret for the passing of the old virtus, which he exemplified by T. Manlius Torquatus who ordered his own son to be killed for disobeying orders.5 The term "Stoicus" was not used in the Latin text, but the current knowledge both of Stoicism and of Cato's life made it unnecessary; Cato's speech would not have been interpreted in any other light.

The translator has transferred most of these themes to a Christian context without difficulty, and he has added no modifying or explanatory statement.6 Rigorous self-discipline, severity towards human weakness, and a scorn of transi- tory pleasures and of all that hinders the pursuit of man's highest good were Stoic attitudes that syncretized easily with Christian. But, ignoring the Stoic affectation of insensibility to human emotion, the translator has inserted an element which transforms the somewhat inhuman Stoic into a more successful mediaeval ideal of virtue: the thirteenth-century Cato laments the disappearance of charity. Since Cato was insisting that banishment was inadequate punishment for revolutionaries who plotted to overthrow Rome, the addition is somewhat incongruous. It is, for that reason however, all the more valuable as evidence that consistency in the didactic lesson of virtue was more important to our translator than historical consistency.

In Sallust, the historical situation was presented as the following: Cato had repudiated mercy-mongers, defying anyone to mention generosity and mercy in regard to would-be murderers.7 He had then quoted a statement from Thucydides8 that words for things are always being misapplied these days,9 and had suggested

3 "Saepe numero, patres conscripti, multa uerba in hoc ordine feci, saepe de luxuria atque auaritia nostrorum ciuium questus sum, multosque mortalis ea causa aduorsos habeo" (C. Sallusti Crispi, Catilina, ui).

4 "Qui mihi atque animo meo nullius ulmquam delicti gratiam fecissem, haud facile alterius lubidini male facta condonabam" (ibid.).

6"Nolite existumare maiores nostros armis rem publicam ex parua magnam fecisse ... Apud maiores nostros A. Manlius Torquatus bello Gallico filium suum, quod is contra imperium in hostem pugnauerat, necari iussit, atque ille egregius adulescens inmoderatae fortitudinis morte poenas dedit" (ibid.).

8 It is the translator's custom generally to add a few words of explanation or to give a subjective impression of alien concepts. See, for example, his addition to Lucan's description of the death of Pompey: "Mes li espirist, ce dist Lucans, - qui le veut si 1'en croie, - s'en ala vers la lune en air; por itant con Lucans le di8t le vo3 rendons" (Li Fet des Romains, p. 574, lines 4-6).

7 "Hic mihi quisquam mansuetudinem et misericordiam nominat? Iam pridem equidem nos uera uocabula rerum amisimus" (Catilina, LII).

8 "Ti)v LeWOvZa' &Atat,o T65v 6op&rwiv is ra gpya &VTJXXaaiV K.r.X.," (Thuc. 3, 82). 9 See note 7 above.

54 A Mediaeval Cato - Virtus or Virtue?

that it was typical of Rome's decadent attitude that generosity could be invokea to pardon criminals. The translator does not render Sallust's harsh irony, and is probably unaware of the origin of Cato's generalization about the perversion of vocabulary (see above). He therefore translates the "rerum" too narrowly as "mansuetudinem et misericordiam," and gives Cato an un-Stoic lament for a virtue he is.actually decrying: "Ci ne me doit nus parler de debonerete ne de misericorde: nos avons piega perduz les droiz non(s) de pitie et de me(r)ci" (p. 41, lines 4-6). The lament for an age of simple Christian virtues is a familiar medi- aeval topos,'0 making Cato a conventional Christian and an unconventional Stoic.

Another revealing change in this passage is the mediaeval Cato's rejection of the Roman gods. Sallust's Cato had castigated his fellow-Senators for the inertia that had led them to postpone action and to trust in the gods who had often preserved the Republic in times of danger." The translator has, by one word, slanted Cato's speech differently, with a condemnation not only of the inert Senators but also of the gods themselves: "Vos metez vostre fiance en voz diex et dites que il ont le comun garde et delivre de meinz periz" (p. 42, lines 33-4). Cato is thereby re- moved from any pagan beliefs, and the idea that the gods had saved Rome in former times is represented as a misguided superstition. The new Cato then delivers a Christian homily on God's help to those who help themselves, and in it the multiple hostile gods who do not respond to womanish prayers'2 have been replaced by a single God who rewards virtue: "L'aide de Dieu ne vient pas a la volente de cels qui volent vivre come fames; mes totes choses aviennent bien a cels qui volent veillier en bien fere et en doner bon conseil: por noient apele Dieu qui s'abandone a parece et a mauvestie" (p. 43, lines 1-4). As for the condemna- tion of the Senators, the new Cato is not content with the twin crimes of "inertia et mollitia animi," which were, after all, the gravest sins of all to the Stoic. He adds that their hearts are corrupt: "Mes la parece, la moletez, la mauvestiez de vos cuers fet que l'un de vos s'atent a l'autre" (p. 42, lines 32-3). The association of ideas was no doubt connected with their worship of pagan gods. Cato, like the translator, dissociates himself therefore from a religion that was to the Middle Ages misguided, and substitutes an anachronistic Christianity in its place.

Similar transmutations are seen for the word "securus," which Lucan fre- quently associated with "virtus." "Securus" was used to describe the particular self-contained and self-reliant freedom of a Stoic sage, serene and untroubled by the base, material concerns of lesser mortals. The word occurred several times in Cato's discussion with Brutus of the moral dilemma presented by the impending Civil War. Since his immediate surroundings should be irrelevant to the Stoic hero

10 See, for example, the first stanza of La Vie de Saint Alexis: "Bons fut li secles al tens anclenur,/ Quer feit i ert e justise ed amur;/ S'i ert creance, dunt or n'i at nul prut./ Tut est mUiez, perdut ad sa colur:/ Ja mais n'iert tel cum fut as anceisurs."

11 "Sed inertia et mollitia animi alius alium exspectantes cunctamini, uidelicet dis inmortalibus confisi, qui hanc rem publicam saepe in maxumis periculis seruauere. Non uotis neque suppliciis muliebribus auxilia deorum parantur: uigilando, agundo, bene consulundo, prospera omnia cedunt. Ubi socordiae te atque ignauiae tradideris, nequiquam deos inplores: irati infestique sunt" (Catilina, LII).

12 See above note.

A Mediaeval Cato - Virtus or Virtue? 55

in search of virtue, a life that accorded with "nature"'3 and disregarded the transi- tory was the best way to achieve Stoic freedom, to be "securus." Total virtue thus consisted in total detachment, yet Cato was a politician, and civil war between Caesar and Pompey threatened Rome. Did the Stoic ideal forbid the espousal of a cause? Lucan had stressed that Cato's fear for Rome was not in contradiction to his personal detachment: he was "cunctis . .. timentem,/ Securumque sui."''4 The translator's rendering of "securus" as "setirs" in "il estoit torjours setirs come huem de vertu et de nete vie" (p. 366, line 20) does not reveal the full mean- ing of the term. The added explanation (that Cato's self-assurance stemmed from his virtuous life) is barely adequate.

A more radical change of "securus" occurs later, in Cato's crucial declaration of his beliefs. Lucan's Cato had made a bitter justification of his political bias when he maintained that, since the gods had initiated the situation and were totally responsible,'5 then virtue could certainly follow intact: "Sed quo fata trahunt, virtus secura sequetur."'6 This scornful attitude to the gods was part of the arro- gant stance of the Stoic, who rose above suffering to participate in universal Reason (the gods were merely beyond suffering). The cynicismn arising from the Stoic Cato's special set of values was perhaps offensive to the clerical'7 transla- tor;18 for whatever reason, there is no hint of it remaining in the translation. Instead, there is a transference of the incomprehensible to a familiar setting: "Mes chascun preudome covient aler la ou la volentez de Dieu le meine, la ou fortune le tret" (p. 368, lines 1-3). Cato's resentment has been transformed into simple Christian humility, and the philosophic tranquillity that existed above the level of the transitory and fortuitous now merges with a new nobility - the mediaeval ideal of being "preu."

The translator's lack of appreciation for the Stoic quality of detachment ap- pears again in the discussion between Brutus and Cato when Brutus expresses astonishment and regret that Cato, "Virtutis iam sola fides,"'9 intends to join the Caesar-Pompey conflict. Lucan's Brutus there argues against involvement with heavily-weighted questions: "Pacemne tueris,/ Inconcussa tenens dubio vestigia mundo,/ An placuit, ducibus scelerum populique furentis/ Cladibus inmixto, civile absolvere bellum?"20 Brutus' intention to condemn Cato's depar- ture from tranquillity appears in the emotive language describing the seething,

13 "Hi mores, haec duri inmota Catonis / Secta fuit: servare modum, finemque tueri, / Naturamque sequi, patriaeque inpendere vitam" (Pharsalia, ii, lines 380-2).

14 Ibid., lines 240-1. 16 "Crimen erit superis et me fecisse nocentem" (ibid., line 288). 16 Pharsalia ii, line 287. For further comments on this line, see my Villehardouin - Epic Historian,

p. 28. 17 "L'auteur de notre compilation est inconnu (cf. FLUTRE, "Les mss. des F. des R." p. 3-4). Mais

si nous ignorons son nom, nous pouvons tirer de l'etude des Faits quelques renseignements sur sa personne. D'abord, il semble bien qu'il etait clerc" (Li Fet des Romains, ii, 18, q.v. for further details).

18 There are similar omissions of unassimilable religious ideas elsewhere e.g. on p. 363, line 35, when the men of Rome complain over the impending civil war, there is no mention of their just grievances against relentless divinities: "Effundunt iustas in nuimina saeva querellas" (Pharsalia ii, line 44).

19 Pharsalia ii, line 243. 20 Pharsalia iI, lines 947-50.

56 A Mediaeval Cato - Virtus or Virtue?

crazed masses and the bloodletting Cato will "absolve" if he participates. The translator removes the bias in favor of widthdrawal. There may even be a sug- gested taunt for cowardice in his rendering: "Or me di: Vielz te tu a pes tenir et lessier les autres conbatre? ou tu te vodra(s) tenir a Cesar ou a Pompee?" (p. 366, lines 28-30). And cowardice would seem to be a trait that the translator intends to counteract for his model hero - he reinforces the translation with a significant addition. Ten pages of his own invention are added to the Pharsalia struggle so that Cato and Cicero may assume the role of epic beroes. Each of them performs "au mielz que il savoit et pooit," even though, as the translator admits, "d'autres choses se soloient entremetre que de conbatre" (p. 526, lines 6-7). The translator's insistence on counter-balancing Cato's obvious "sagesse" with his "prouesse" is not surprising in an age that admired Turpin, "l'arcevesque ki fut sages e proz."'21 The civil battle that had been a dangerous hazard to Stoic virtue and had been undertaken by Cato with extreme reluctance is reconstructed to emphasize Cato's bravery and to erase the memory of his evidently shameful hesitation.

The appearance of Marcia after Brutus' conversation presented another threat to Cato's medlaeval perfection, and the translator is less consistent here than elsewhere in the reconstruction of a paragon of virtue. Marcia was originally Cato's second wife; he had three children by her then handed her over to Hor- tensius. When Hortensius died, Marcia pleaded with Cato to take her back, and it is this episode that the translator chooses to expand. Unfortunately the anecdotic possibilities of the situation constantly obtrude. The translator hovers between a Cato resisting temptation and a Cato who no longer feels it. The unity of motivation provided by Stoicism is thus effectively destroyed. Lucan had shown that Marcia's presence or absence was of little consequence to Cato, since the Stoic, living in this world while remaining above it, did not allow pleasure to play any part in his actions.22 The translator concentrates on Cato's rejection of sexual pleasure, Lucan's general statement on "voluptas" is translated in this narrow context, and the comment is prefaced by an expression of surprised ad- miration: "Et merveille estoit il ne touchast ja a fame charnaument nule foiz, se ne fust por enfant engendrer, ainz contrestoit vertueusement as aguillons de luxure" (p. 371, lines 24-7).

The situation is further changed by an over-emphasis on Cato's human qualities. It would seem that the Stoic search for heroism merely because of the beauty implicit in the exercise of virtue was somewhat arid and emotionless to the translator, since he again imputes to Cato the unsuitable quality of mercy. He omits "duri Catonis,"23 and substitutes for "Hae flexere virum voces"24 "Catons ot pitie de la dame et se lessa veintre par sa requeste" (p. 370, line 18). Lucan's "flexere" had implied little emotion to disturb Cato's Stoic calm, whereas the mediaeval version involves emotional as well as intellectual persuasion.

21 La Chanson de Roland, line 8691. 22 "Nullosque Catonis in actus / Subrepsit partemque tulit sibi nata voluptas" (Pharsalia II, lines

890-1). 28 Pharsalia ii, 880. 24 Pharsalia II, 850.

A Mediaeval Cato - Virtus or Virtue? 57

The dramatic possibilities are seen and expatiated upon in Li Fet des Romains. "Nec foedera prisci/ Sunt temptata tori"25 becomes "onques a cele foiz ne la tocha charnelment; et sel poYst fere et deuist, se il vossist, come cele que il n'avoit mes piega eue en sa baillie" (p. 371, lines 1-3). Cato's Stoic scorn for pleasure becomes a difficult act of continence: "prist si grant cuer et si grant vertu en soi, c'onques a cele foiz ne la tocha charnelment (p. 371, line 1). Yet the translator had earlier suggested that Cato's renunciation was more Montaigne's "affoiblisse- ment des appetits" than "le renforcement de la raison," and his anecdotic supple- mentation of the text had then attributed Cato's sacrifice of Marcia to the im- potence of old age.26 Such ambivalence destroys Lucan's description of Stoic asceticism without achieving either convincing characterization or useful di- dacticism.

Although the translator has not succeeded in determining which of Cato's characteristics - his impassivity or his resistance to temptation - is more useful for a didactic model, certain unambiguous ideals of marital conduct emerge nevertheless. Cato's role is that of provider and sustainer, dominating with mercy (and sometimes pity) an obedient wife in a relationship untouched by the lusts of the flesh (whether by inadequacy or by a conscious effort of will).

A significant didactic contribution is made by the expansion of Marcia's role to complement Cato's. The translator relates that she had behaved througlhout as an honest27 and subservient28 wife, and her virtue is therefore rewarded: "Marcia fist le conmandement son seignor, tot fust ice que ele vossist volentier(s) demorer avec Caton por ce que il estoit tant prodom" (p. 369, lines 12-14). Her marriages are presented as an inspiration, and the translator further comments that the fact that "Cato and some Sarracens" married only to beget children should shame those Christians who marry through concupiscence: "Ici poent avoir grant honte meint crestien, cil meesmement qui ne prannent fames ne mes por lor luxure acomplir, quant Catons et auquant des Sarrazins n'orent fames ne mes por anfanz avoir" (p. 369, lines 16-19). Marcia herself is made to justify Cato's abandonment of her to Hortensius on the grounds that marriage should be for the procreation of children. When she pleads for re-instatement, it is so that posterity will know she was not thrown out for her "puterie": "que cil qui apres nestront ne soient pas en dote savoir mon se tu me gitas de toi por ma puteri(e) quant Hortensius m'espousa, ou se tu me donnas a lui de ton bon gre, si con l'en doit prode fame doner por anfanz avoir" (p. 370, lines 6-10). In sum, Marcia has be- come the good wife of honest repute, exciting no slander, and the chapter ends with a eulogy of her which would not be out of place in the Chevalier de la Tour Landry's instructions to his daughters two centuries later.

26 Phavalia II, 878-79. 28 "Quant il fu de tel aage que il ne pooit mes engendrer et ele pooit encore anfanz porter. . ."

(p. 869, lines 6-7). a "Caton, Caton, tant con je fui joene et je pou estre mere et avoir anfanz, je me sui contenue

honestement" (p. 869, lines 80-1). 2S "Onques ne fis rien contre ton conmandement ne contre t'onor, ne ne fu mauvese novele oTe de

moi" (p. 369, lines 31-3).

58 A Mediaeval Cato - Virtus or Virtue?

Lucan's portrayal of Cato's abstinence from all pleasures had illustrated the Stoic precept of "a'rcxov." This abstinence, although vital, might be considered as the means to an even more important end: the "ai%xou" which gave the Stoic sage his peculiar courage and resilience to suffering and to death. Since man was only part of a universe that was destined at intervals to be consumed by fire, personal immortality was attainable only insofar as man was included in this never-ending cycle of destruction by the purity of fire. The Stoic therefore strove to ignore the unimportant material world and to attain the only true good, "fire- born virtue" ("ignea virtus").29 When, by the interference of tyranny or corrup- tion, it was no longer possible to achieve virtue, the taking of his own life was to the Stoic the highest act of beauty, since it was an exercise of pure reason, prov- ing him to be superior to material suffering. Lucan's Cato had expressed this belief in his oration over Pompey: "Scire mori sors prima viri, sed proxima cogi."30 The christianization of the text in the passages concerning Cato's death has had serious effects on the consistency of the characterization, which has again been sacrificed to the didactic lesson. Stoic ideas on immortality and suicide had pro- vided a coherent basis for Cato's actions, and Cato's suicide had resulted from the conviction that death, and preferably self-inflicted death, was a privilege to be welcomed.

On this point the translation brings a complete reversal of attitudes. Cato the model of mediaeval virtue shows chastity, sober severity, and courage.3' But with his suicide the virtuous man is marred. If he has hitherto been represented as virtuous by his disregard of suffering, there is inconsistency in his escape from it when he faces reverses. Logically, a greater suffering should demand a greater i44 aXov" and be of greater merit. Consequently, the translator renders all Lucan's judgments on Cato's virtue, with one reservation he criticizes his suicide. Cato died for freedom, possessed all virtues, was the true father of Rome, and would one day be revered for it.2 But then the translator, remembering De Civitate Dei,33 adds a two-line insertion on Cato's death which obliterates all sense from Cato the Stoic whose death must be represented as congruous with his life: "Que diroie je, dist Lucans, se nul grant bien qui vraiment soient en home deivent estre de nule digne renomee, et se l'en garde nuement les vertuz qui furent

29 Pharsalia ix, line 7. 30 Pharsalia ix, line 211. 31 The translator's over-emphasis on Cato's epic bravery in life becomes doubly understandable if

the mediaeval interpretation of Cato's death was that it was escapism. 32 Lucan's prediction that Cato would one day be worshipped as a Roman god is cleverly expanded

to include the translator's views on Roman religion without falsification of the original sense: "Ecce parens verus patriae, dignissimus aris, / Roma, tuis, per quem numquam iurare pudebit, / Et quem, si steteris umquam cervice soluta, / Nunc olim factura deum es" (Pharsalia ix, lines 601-3) becomes "Cist Catons estoit verais peres dou paYs et plus dignes, ce dist Lucans, d'estre aorez es temples de Rome que li dieu que li Romain i aoroient; et mielz de-ust Rome jurer ou non Caton que ou non de ses autres diex, se ele james revenist a sa franchise, car molt soffri por la franchise de Rome" (p. 6092, lines 10-5).

3 The translator discusses St. Augustine's verdict on Cato's death in more detail on p. 689, para. 28.

A Mediaeval Cato - Virtus or Virtue? 59

en Caton, sanz la mescheance qui au derrien li avint, de ce que sa fortune fu si aspre que il but venim por morir ainz que il receikt Cesar a segnor?" (p. 601, lines 928-33).

That the death of a Stoic could be represented as marring his virtue might be construed as an irony. It must also be seen as an inevitability if the aims of a translator are to provide for his mediaeval audience "connoissance de bien fere et de mal eschiver."

FORDHAM UNIVERSITY