"Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor."
In p. 352. of the same volume W. W. T. (quoting from D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature a passage which supplies the hexameter completing the distich, and attributes the verses to Sidonius Apollinaris) asks where may be found a legend which represents the two lines to have formed part of a dialogue between the fiend, under the form of a mule, and a monk, who was his rider. B. H. C., at p. 521. of the same volume, sends a passage from the Dictionnaire Littéraire, giving the complete distich:
"Signa te, signa, temere me tangis et angis.
Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor,"
and attributing it to the devil, but without supplying any more authentic parentage for the lines.
The following Note will contribute a fact or two to the investigation of the subject; but I shall be obliged to conclude by reiterating the original Query of Bœoticus,
Who was the real author of the lines?
In a little work entitled A Summer in Brittany, published by me in 1840, may be found (at p. 99. of vol. i.) a legend, which relates how one Jean Patye, canon of Cambremer, in the chapter of Bayeux, rode the devil to Rome, for the purpose of there chanting the epistle at the midnight mass at Christmas, according to the tenor of an ancient bond, which obliged the chapter to send one of their number yearly to Rome for that purpose.
This story I met with in a little volume, entitled
Contes populaires, Préjugés, Patois, Proverbes de l'Arrondissement de Bayeux,
recueillis et publiés, par F. Pluquet, the frontispiece of which consists of a
sufficiently graphic representation of the worthy canon's feat. Pluquet
concludes his narrative by stating that—
"Etienne Tabourot dans
ses Bigarrures, publiées sous le nom du Seigneur des Accords, rapporte que
c'est à Saint Antide que le diable, qui le portait à Rome sur son dos, adresse
le distique latin dont il est question ci-dessus."
It should seem that this
trick of carrying people to Rome was attributed to the devil, by those
conversant with his habits, in other centuries besides the nineteenth.
I have not here the means of looking at the work to which Pluquet refers; but if any of your correspondents, who live in more bookish lands than this, will do so, they may perchance obtain some clue to the original authorship of the lines; for in Sidonius Apollinaris I cannot find them.
The only edition of his works to which I have the means of referring is the quarto of Adrien Perrier, Paris, 1609.
Among the verses contained in that volume,
I think I can assert that the lines in question are not.
We all know that the worthy author of the Curiosities of Literature cannot
be much depended upon for accuracy.
Once again, then, Who was
the author of this specimen, perhaps the most perfect extant, of palindromic
absurdity?
T. A. T.
Florence.
Notes and Queries, Number
233, April 15, 1854.
Photo: Pixabay/UrticaDesign_HM
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