Letter 8029: Your error does not bring me joy — but neither does it shake my affection.

Your mistake did not deceive me, nor did your inverted affection mislead me: you kept to the order of your age, your nature, your resolve; I went astray by judging otherwise about you than the truth demanded. To this point return those whom a tasteless diligence holds captive. Accordingly we must now speak without circumlocution. To what end did insane presumption lead you, forgetful of yourself, that you said to the holy presbyter that in those verses, though composed in a moment of time, the affection of conjugal favor seemed to some not to have been expressed? Or did I wish to spread abroad what I had written? Or did the epitaphs demand this, or reason? What man so unskilled, what man so void of soundness of mind in your company, said that the song, which the lord Faustus received into the highest favor, should be wounded by you and your gnawing associates? Perhaps they may have gotten something out of the third hendecasyllable, men who do not know their Terence, so that, seeking an occasion over a single syllable, they might prate. Truly I was worthy of these things which I endured, since it is also written that pearls are not to be cast before unclean animals. Although I am well aware of my own diction and unskillfulness, yet I had learned beforehand that you neither know anything nor will know it. Farewell, and turn yourself to others, about whom you ought to speak.

XXVIIII. ENNODIVS BEATO. Non mihi tuus error inlusit nec retrouersa decepit adfectio: tu aetatis naturae propositi ordinem custodisti: ego deliqui aliter de te quam poscebat ueritas iudicando. ad hoc redeunt quos diligentia insulsa captiuat. proinde iam sine circuitione loquendum est. quo te inmemorem tui duxit insana praesumptio, ut sancto presbytero diceres in uersibus illis quamuis in temporis momento conpositis aliquibus uideri affectum coniugalis gratiae non expressum? aut ego diffamareuolui quod scripseram ? aut epitaphia hoc poscebant aut ratio? quis hoc inperitus, 22 cf. Terentii Andr. ns. 202 3 origenis B anteferani T - add. m. 2 ut uidetur 4 in in & corr. T m. 2 7 honore om. B adcepto B notteris (e in ras.) B 8 ammonitionis T suffestinatione B 9 symmacum iccirco T 10 diregoJ B Pcuraui L, prorogaui B 13 manifestis B, manifestas L1 conpraehenso B 14 emmenentissimo B 15 eorum perferre LPTVb XXVIIII. 20 ego] ergo B diliqui BL 22 infusa Pb 23 praesumtio B 24 presbitero diceris B 25 mumento B 27 epjtafio B quis tecum sanitate uacuus dixit, ut carmen, quod in summam gratiam domnus Faustus excepit, te et participibus tuis rodentibus laederetur? forte de tertio Phaleucio qui Terentianum nesciunt habuerint, quod de una syllaba quaerentes occasionem loquerentur. uere dignus fui ista quae pertuli, quia et scriptum est margaritas ante inmunda animalia non esse mittendas. quamuis dictionum et inperitiae meae bene sim conscius, te tamen nec scire aliquid nec sciturum ante didiceram. uale et ad alios te, de quibus debeas loqui, conuerte.