Voices from the Past

Medieval words speak to the present

by Melissa Snell

Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language. -- Samuel Johnson

I have a confession: I'm a quotation fanatic. I thoroughly enjoy hearing the pithy remarks of the famous, the long dead, and the wise. It's fascinating to me to hear ideas proclaimed centuries ago, and hearing them, compare them to the popular ideas of today. It's also most satisfying to discover a quote that so succinctly articulates a concept I hold true. For example, I believe that no one can make you feel inferior without your consent (Eleanor Roosevelt), that too much of a good thing can be wonderful (Mae West), and that the shortest route to a man's heart is through his chest (Mark Twain).

Therefore, I decided to indulge my interest and share with you some quotes from the middle ages. The quotes are limited to a period ranging from the fifth century to the fourteenth century, after the fall of Rome and before the Renaissance was truly underway. They come from literature and law as well as the spoken word. In this way I hope the voices of the past will speak to us, and we will all understand a little more of life in the middle ages.

Sixth Century

Justice is the constant and perpetual wish to render every one his due.
-- Emperor Justinian in Institutes

The banners of the king advance, the mystery of the cross shines bright; where his life went through with death, and from death brought forth life.
-- Venantius Fortunatus in Analecta Hymnica

Eighth Century

The present life of men on earth, O king, as compared with the whole length of time which is unknowable to us, seems to me to be like this: as if, when you are sitting at dinner with your chiefs and ministers in wintertime...one of the sparrows from outside flew very quickly through the hall; as if it came in one door and soon went out through another. In that actual time it is indoors it is not touched by the winter's storm; but yet the tiny period of calm is over in a moment, and having come out of the winter, it soon returns to the winter and slips out of your sight. Man's life appears to be more or less like this; and of what may follow it, or what preceded it, we are absolutely ignorant.
-- The Venerable Bede

And those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness.
-- Alcuin in a letter to Charlemagne

Eleventh Century

Families, when a child is born,
Want it to be intelligent.
I, through intelligence,
Having wrecked my whole life,
Only hope the baby will prove
Ignorant and stupid,
Then he will crown a tranquil life
By becoming a Cabinet Minister.
-- Su Tung-P'o in On the Birth of his Son

Twelfth Century

O how great and glorious are those sabbaths, which the heavenly court for ever celebrates!
-- Peter Abelard

Will no one revenge me of the injuries I have sustained from one turbulent priest?
-- King Henry II of England, speaking of Thomas À Becket

Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.
-- Quoted by John of Salisbury

Thirteenth Century

To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay, right or justice.
-- The Magna Carta

Had I been present at the Creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe.
-- attributed to Alfonso the Wise, King of Castile, after studying the Ptolemaic system

Sumer is icumen in,
Lhude, sing cuccu!
Groweth sed, and bloweth med,
And springth the wude nu!
--The Cuckoo Song (anonymous), sung annually at Reading Abbey Gateway

Let us then rejoice,
While we are young.
After the pleasures of youth
And the tiresomeness of old age
Earth will hold us.
-- Student's song (anonymous).

Fourteenth Century

Consider your origins: you were not made that you might live as brutes, but so as to follow virtue and knowledge.
-- Dante in The Divine Comedy.

Also say unto them, that they suffre hym this day to wynne his spurres, for if God be pleased, I woll this journey be his, and the honoure therof.
-- King Edward III of England, speaking of The Black Prince at Crécy.

And whan a beest is deed he hath no peyne;
But man after his deeth moot wepe and pleyne.
-- Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales

Wouldest thou wit thy Lord's meaning in this thing? Wit it well: Love was his meaning.
-- Dame Julian of Norwich in Revelations of Divine Love

 

All quotes taken from The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, third edition, © 1979.

 

For more quotes from and about medieval history, visit our archive of the Knightly Newsletter.

Do you have a quote from the middle ages or about history in general that you'd like to share? Feel free to post it in our forum.

If you like quotes as much as I do, don't miss the Quotations site at About.com, hosted by Guide Ray Gallagher.

 

Voices from the Past is copyright © 1997-2003 Melissa Snell. Permission is granted to reproduce this article for personal or classroom use only, provided that the URL below is included. For reprint permission, please contact Melissa Snell.

The URL for this feature is: http://historymedren.about.com/library/weekly/aa102097.htm

 

 

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Keywords: Historical quotations, language, words of wisdom, voices from the past

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