Letter 5007: Although you have often recognized the meagerness of my talent, you nonetheless wished to risk the fasting of a...

VII. ENNODIUS TO EUPREPTIA. Although you had often come to know the leanness of my talent, you nevertheless wished, by the swiftness of your command, to put to the test the fastings of a mouth whose worth was approved long ago. But I do not refuse to obey one so diligent, so that, if eloquence is wanting in merit, the grace of compliance may come to its aid. Various are the kinds of heavenly gifts, although they proceed from a single author: perfection recommends the one; what wishes to obey without any delay commends the other. The epitaph for my lady Cynegia I composed with unpolished speed, having scarcely a single hour's space to work upon it. [The text here is interrupted by an editor's apparatus of manuscript variant readings (the sigla B, L, T, P, V, b and the like), which records differences among the manuscripts and is not part of the letter itself.] Consider the necessity that I had to unfold that woman of such great merits in the bounds of words. May her venerable soul spare my barrenness, accepting in place of elegance of diction a zeal unclouded by the speaker's [failings]. You, my lady, embracing this letter that pleads in place of my own presence, pray that her spirit be in no way injured by these rough services. EPITAPH. Sex does no harm, nor the grave, nor the last thread of the sisters [the Fates], which with deceiving thumb they draw thin: a woman mingled with God lives on after death by her deeds, bearing manly accomplishments along a feminine path. Blood, honor, native spirit, uprightness, constancy, countenance overcame destruction at so great a price. By her character she laid claim to the lineage of her great forebears, she whose mind was a clear token of her descent. She trained her children to keep a life serene, while by her example she teaches them ever to love God.

VII. EVPREPIAE ENNODIVS. Quamuis saepe ingenii mei maciem cognouisses, periclitari tamen ieiunia oris olim probati iussionis celeritate uoluisti. sed ego non abnuo oboedire diligenti, ut si facundiae deest meritum, gratia subueniat obsequendi. uariae sunt donorum caelestium, licet ab uno auctore progrediantur, species: alium commendat perfectio, alterum insinuat quod sine tarditate aliqua uult parere. domnae meae Cynegiae epitaphium uix una hora habens tractandi spatium inelimata uelocitate conposui. 1 spiritalis B medicos (o corr.) B s. I . indultate La 2 religiosae L (supra ae rae.) 3 perquiretis B ∗quorum (r in ras.) B 4 negligens B ( post corr.) LT oratione ̃ | et talem B, me talem oratione (Orationem L1) LPTVb 5 adseritisr B 8 quintum B 10 presentis (r ex a) B 11 misericordi B 12 actionis B\' 13 contingat] finit add. B VII. 15 enpraepiae B, eapremie T 16 sepe B cognoaisses (ui in ras.) L 17 ante ieiunia (afi a. I. P) Pb probari Tl al. celebrate persoluisti P in mg . uoluisti B 18 faoondie T1 19 ueDiat Sirm . 20 actore T 22 unl L dfie T, dom.ne (i eras.) L cynegiae B epytafiam B, epitafiam T 23 spadum BL inelimenta Ll VI. 9 uide necessitatem, ut illam tantorum meritorum feminam uerborum saltibus explicarem. parca.t sterilitati meae uenerabilis anima, suscipiens pro schemate dictionis studium sine nube dictoris. tu, mi domina, epistolam praesentiae meae uice conplectens ora, ut spiritus illius scabridis nequaquam laedatur officiis. EPITAPHIVM. Nil sexus nec busta nocent, nil fila sororum Vltima, fallaci pollice quae tenuant: Mixta deo mulier uiuit post funera factis, Mascula femineo tramite gesta ferens. Sanguis honor genius probitas constantia uultus Vicerunt tantis exitium pretiis. Moribus adseruit magnorum stemma parentum Indicium generis mens cui clara fuit. Instituit natos uitam seruare serenam, Dum docet exemplis semper amare deum.