Letter 4033: ---

--- If love would yield to shame, if the restless urgency of affection could be held in check by the law of decorum, I would restrain myself from the duty of filling pages and would take up your own model of silence as my guide. I would not be so rash a judge as to conclude that what receives no return from you is therefore unloved — nor that the easiest way to persuade men schooled in the arts of the court [the *comitatus*, Theoderic's traveling royal household] to abstain from writing is simply by saying nothing, proclaiming through the holidays of the tongue what they reject. But it is not so. Your Greatness is not so precisely squared by a craftsman's rule that it could escape the eyes of one who loves you, however many veils might be drawn across it — for the mind of a friend looks into the innermost chamber without the obstruction of any garment. Let no one imagine that the polished refinement of the court, fired and forged in courtly furnaces, can conceal from those it holds dear the inner workings of a hidden intention. But I suspect you will oppose my complaints with exactly the kind of excuse that suits your station: that the duties of the idle cannot properly be demanded of the busy; that men bound tight to royal service can scarcely step down to such obligations. I have heard this argument often enough, I confess, but I have never accepted it — because necessity frequently outstrips desire, and because fear, without pause, gives way to affection. It is the *will* that is at fault when it defends itself with so neatly assembled an excuse. And so, my lord, see how great are the things I grieve — things I have given voice to in the very act of greeting you. I commend to you the bearer of this letter, a man of proven faithfulness and honorable birth, asking that through the benefit of Your Eminence's patronage, the insolence of his enemies — crushed beneath the weight of their own schemes — may be made to yield. Farewell.

XXXIII. ENNODIVS SENARIO. Si amor pudori adquiesceret, si caritatis inpatientia uerecundiae lege teneretur, a paginalibus officiis temperarem et silentii formam uestri imitator adsumerem, non inprouidus aestimator coniciens illa, quibus remuneratio a uobis subtrahitur, non amari nec suaderi facilius tabellarum abstinentiam quam tacendo, uiros comitatensis exercitii per linguae ferias clamare quid respuant. sed non ita est magnitudo 2 muniis Pb, munue BLT1V, moneribus T* ab] a Pb 3 confi**|tetur (te eras.) L negligentiam BT 4 est T s. I . 5 occiosi T 7 gratia B, anime T 9 affaerit LPTVb dampnatis T, damnates B 11 utrorumquę B 13 recipi B 14 podore B1 geminati T* 15 querqns B 16 memore. Ll m eras. et re in rS corr. m. ant . multiplicet] finit add. B XXXIII. 19 pudore fbrt . inpacientia B 90 tenetor L 21 silentii in silentium carr. T m. 2 formam Bb, om. LPTV imitatur B impronide Pb 22 aestimatar B subtrahetur B 24 uiro comittat enais Bb tua lineis quadrata fabrilibus, ut quolibet tecta uelamine amantis oculos possit effugere, quia sine obstaculo uestium penetralia respicit mens amici. nemo aestimet quod latentis interna consilii apud caros aulicis excocta fornacibus celet urbanitas. sed credo, querelis meis illud ordinis uestri aptum excusationibus genus opponas: non recte ab occupatis otiosorum munia postulari, uix ad haec officia posse descendere obsequiis principalibus adhaerentes. audiui quidem saepe talia, sed confiteor non recepi, quia frequenter necessitates desideria transcendunt et sine intermissione timor cedit affectui uoluntas in culpa est, quae concinnata excusatione defenditur. ecce, mi domine, quam magna doleam, cum officio salutationis adserui, perlatorem utrimque earum pro fide sua et nobilitate commendans, ut beneficio culminis uestri inimicorum eius insolentia technis suis oppressa subiaceat. uale.