16 August 2020

SCHEMATA POESEOS LIMERICENSIS

A repeat of an old (2018) post, with its original thread. Among those on that thread is that great Pontiff Edwin Barnes, the first Bishop of Richborough (Rutupiae) since (probably) around 380. May he rest in peace. 

I invited English versions: in my view, the winner, in that old thread, was Mrs Sims.

Here is what I wrote in 2018:
I am not the first to point this out; but some readers may not have heard it: the first recorded Limerick is found in the middle of the prayer attributed to S Thomas Aquinas in thanksgiving after Celebrating and Communicating.

Sit vitiorum meorum evacuatio,
Concupiscentiae et libidinis exterminatio,
      Caritatis et patientiae,
      Humilitatis et obedientiae,
Omniumque virtutum augmentatio.


This must surely prove that there is something inherently satisfying about these structured rhythms and rhymes.

UPDATE about the early history of the Limerick.

Wikipedia offers the following from 1717, refering to a Dr Bainbridge who moved from Cambridge to Oxford to be professor of Astronomy. In the course of a lecture the poor higorant Tab said de Polis et Axis [he should of course have said Axibus]; eliciting the comment:
     Dr Bainbridge
     Was sent from Cambridge
To read lectures de Polis et Axis.
     Lett them that brought him hither
     Return him thither
And teach him the rules of Syntaxis. 

Not quite in accordance with the modern structure of the Limerick, but demonstrating the direction in which such popular epigrammatic verse was evolving.

I have come across the following, written by William Kent (not, I believe, Alexander Pope) in 1739. Again, it is embedded in a slightly longer piece ... so I have printed in bold the section which is Limerickish. 

Ho! Gate, how came ye here?
I came fro Chelsea the last yere
Inigo Jones there put me together
Then was I dropping by wind and weather
     Sir Hannes Sloane
     Let me alone
But Burlington brought me hither.

This architecton-ical
Gate Inigo Jon-ical
Was late Sir Hans Slon-ical
And now Burlington-ical.

This example illustrates an interesting point. The nineteenth century Limerick as it was popularised by Edward Lear had the same rhyme in the first and fifth lines. However, after Lear's time, the Limerick took on a new life when that restriction was abandoned. But this earlier evidence suggests that in the eighteenth century, Lear's rule did not yet exist.

Of course, the main reason I left the Church of England was that modern Anglican limericists (have I just coined a new word? Limerikhographoi, perhaps, in Greek?) show a dogged and tedious pertinacity in concentrating upon the current occupant of the See of Buckingham. (When the Vatican creates a Sedes titularis Buckinghamiensis I shall flee to the Chaldaeans.)

Future Church Historians may well wonder why there are so few Limericks relating to and illustrating the genius of this present pontificate. To help them out, I may be willing to enable any suggestions made as long as they strike me as decentia.

[Episcopal readers are welcome to use pseudonyms ... I do understand what nervous times these are for Successors of the Apostles ... as long as they put the + sign before their pseudonyms (++ for Metropolitan Archbishops; +++ for Cardinals).]

25 comments:

  1. What makes for elegance?

    Of my vices, lusts and fancies (frenzies?)
    Let it be the source of surcease;
    But of long-suffering and love,
    Of humble faith from above,
    Of all noble pow'rs, the increase.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This isn't by any means elegant, but I don't find Aquinas' Latin elegant at all.

    Of my vices let there be an end
    Of desire and greed too forfend.
    But of love and patience
    Humility and obedience
    And all the virtues, one big crescend...
    O


    Regards, Ed

    ReplyDelete
  3. All blemish of soul be effaced,
    All fleshly affections abased,
    That to love and forbear,
    Human pride to forswear,
    The desire in my heart be emplaced.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Make an end of my vices, I plead;
    My envy, my lust and my greed:
    Make me patient, I pray,
    So I love and obey,
    And increase all the virtues I need.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am confident that Cranmer would approve this rather loose translation:

    May my wickedness all be forgiven
    Desire and lust utterly shriven
    In their place patience, love
    And e’en at a shove,
    May virtue abounding be given.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fr William wins, in my opinion.
    Sunday prevented me having a shot.

    ReplyDelete
  7. O, dilly me all me sin,
    Purge lewd and crude within,
    Love's patience grant,
    Yea, I humb'ly pant,
    For a dram or two of gin.

    ...It needs work, but it does have a certain "ring" to it, no?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Very kind of you, Pastor, though I'm not too happy with the last line. (Besides, I wouldn't wish to set myself up in competition with my ex-PEV and Chapter confrater …)

    ReplyDelete
  9. my free transaltion

    there once was a man named egidio
    who freed himself from dark libido
    all the virtues arose
    from his toes to his nose
    how grand! cried that man named egidio.


    +Seraphim Sigrist
    ive journal =seraphimsigrist

    ReplyDelete
  10. a less literal translation than
    mine just sent.

    from a livejournal friend
    'macseamus1' offers this grand
    bit of neo thomism as it seems to
    me(but being only eastern orthodox
    even my maritain is vague so who
    am I to judge)

    There once was a man from Sicily
    who wanted to see how good he could be
    his family brought him a w___e
    whom he shoved out the door
    saying "I'm getting the hang of this chastity!"

    ReplyDelete
  11. Please visit:

    http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/limerick/stthomas.html

    Let it be for the elimination for my sins,
    For the expulsion of desire and lust,
    [And] for the increase of charity and patience,
    Humility and obedience,
    As well as all the virtues.

    Extinguish concupiscent fires,
    Eliminate lustful desires;
    Give patience and love,
    A plentitude of
    What humble obeying requires.

    O strengthen my efforts to rule
    My passions and help me to cool
    Attractions to sin,
    Then help me begin
    Considering virtue a jewel.

    Oh LORD, I can prove intellectual,
    A. Doctor, profoundly effectual,
    Whose teachings are sure
    If YOU keep me pure
    With thoughts that are wholly asexual.

    Another Version
    by Robin Kay Willoughby

    This limerick’s for purging my sin,
    Ousting lust and desire from within,
    Which leaves oodles of space
    For agape and grace,
    Plus humility, virtue, and gin.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I would give the prize to Sue Sims.

    ReplyDelete
  13. An attempt:

    To my sins may death it be,
    To sins' love the end;
    Of patience and charity,
    Meek heart, true faith the friend;
    And good, right, pure make me.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Do away with lust’s burning fire,
    Cast your every vice in the mire.
    Then charity, patience
    And humble obedience
    Will give more than you can desire

    ReplyDelete
  15. You have all completely impressed me. Respect.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anent Ms Willoughby's.........Not Gin. Most definitely not Gin. Some sort of wine, undoubtedly.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Prune and cart away the evil in my soul;
    Trim lustful desire from every root and bole.
    But give me growth in patience,
    True charity, obeisance;
    Bless with every virtue more to make me whole.

    ReplyDelete
  18. There once was a Bishop of Rome
    Spiritually a Marxist Gnome
    But he admired himself
    This sinister elf
    As he daily soiled his throne

    ReplyDelete
  19. @ABS: this would be the old ICEL translation, surely?

    ReplyDelete
  20. Dear Victor. It is a translation into Székely, an old Pungarian dialect

    ReplyDelete
  21. There was a young lady from Chichester
    Who made all the saints in their niches stare;
    One morning at Matins
    Her breast in white satins
    Made the Bishop of Chichester's britches stir.

    ReplyDelete
  22. The best I can do is a half rhyme at the end, although in certain Irish accents it might be a perfect rhyme:

    May vices in me be displaced,
    With lust and desire effaced,
    Then patience and charity,
    Docile humility,
    And all the virtues increased.

    ReplyDelete
  23. There once was a Pope most uncouth
    Who gave an instruction to youth,
    To "Go make a mess",
    Create chaos, no less,
    His pontificate’s mirror, in truth.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Father H set a limerick test:
    “I will judge”, quoth the parson, “who’s best.
    “And my taste shall hold sway -
    “Let none carp at me. De
    Gustibus disputandum non est.”

    ReplyDelete