THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY
PHILOSOPHIAE CONSOLATIO
Boethius and Philosophy
Please Note - a scholarly modern translation
of
PHILOSOPHIAE CONSOLATIO
By Sanderson Beck can be accessed here:
http://san.beck.org/Boethius1.html
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Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius,commonly
called Boethius (ca. 480-524 or 525 AD) was
a philosopher of the early 6th century. He
was born in Rome to an ancient and prominent
family which included emperors Petronius
Maximus and Olybrius and many consuls. His
father, Flavius Manlius Boethius, was consul
in 487 after Odoacer deposed the last Western
Roman Emperor. Boethius, of the noble Anicia
family, entered public life at a young age
and was already a senator by the age of 25.
Boethius himself was consul in 510 in the
kingdom of the Ostrogoths. In 522 he saw
his two sons become consuls. Boethius was
imprisoned and eventually executed by King
Theodoric the Great, who suspected him of
conspiring with the Eastern Roman Empire.
While jailed, Boethius composed his Consolation of Philosophy, a philosophical treatise on fortune, death,
and other issues. The Consolation became one of the most popular and influential
works of the Middle Ages. A link between
Boethius and a mathematical boardgame Rithmomachia has been made. (wikipedia.)
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The Consolation of Boethius
Introduction
From wikipedia with grateful thanks and respect.
Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Karina Aleksandrova
and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading
Team.
[Greek: homôs de kai en toutois dialampei
to kalon, epeidan pherê tis eukolôs pollas
kai megalas atychias, mê di analgêsian, alla
gennadas ôn kai megalopsychos.]
Aristotle's 'Ethics,' I., xi. 12.
THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY OF BOETHIUS.
Translated into English Prose and Verse
by
H. R. JAMES, M. A., CH. CH. OXFORD.
Quantumlibet igitur sæviant mali, sapienti
tamen corona non decidet, non arescet.
Melioribus animum conformaveris, nihil opus
est judice præmium deferente, tu te ipse
excellentioribus addidisti; studium ad pejora
deflexeris, extra ne quæsieris ultorem, tu
te ipse in deteriora trusisti.
LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1897.
PREFACE.
The book called 'The Consolation of Philosophy'
was throughout the Middle Ages, and down
to the beginnings of the modern epoch in
the sixteenth century, the scholar's familiar
companion. Few books have exercised a wider
influence in their time. It has been translated
into every European tongue, and into English
nearly a dozen times, from King Alfred's
paraphrase to the translations of Lord Preston,
Causton, Ridpath, and Duncan, in the eighteenth
century. The belief that what once pleased
so widely must still have some charm is my
excuse for attempting the present translation.
The great work of Boethius, with its alternate
prose and verse, skilfully fitted together
like dialogue and chorus in a Greek play,
is unique in literature, and has a pathetic
interest from the time and circumstances
of its composition. It ought not to be forgotten.
Those who can go to the original will find
their reward. There may be room also for
a new translation in English after an interval
of close on a hundred years.
Some of the editions contain a reproduction
of a bust purporting to represent Boethius.
Lord Preston's translation, for example,
has such a portrait, which it refers to an
original in marble at Rome. This I have been
unable to trace, and suspect that it is apocryphal.
The Hope Collection at Oxford contains a
completely different portrait in a print,
which gives no authority. I have ventured
to use as a frontispiece a reproduction from
a plaster-cast in the Ashmolean Museum, taken
from an ivory diptych preserved in the Bibliotheca
Quiriniana at Brescia, which represents Narius
Manlius Boethius, the father of the philosopher.
Portraiture of this period is so rare that
it seemed that, failing a likeness of the
author himself, this authentic representation
of his father might have interest, as giving
the consular dress and insignia of the time,
and also as illustrating the decadence of
contemporary art. The consul wears a richly-embroidered
cloak; his right hand holds a staff surmounted
by the Roman eagle, his left the _mappa circensis,_
or napkin used for starting the races in
the circus; at his feet are palms and bags
of money--prizes for the victors in the games.
For permission to use this cast my thanks
are due to the authorities of the Ashmolean
Museum, as also to Mr. T. W. Jackson, Curator
of the Hope Collection, who first called
my attention to its existence.
I have to thank my brother, Mr. L. James,
of Radley College, for much valuable help
and for correcting the proof-sheets of the
translation. The text used is that of Peiper,
Leipsic, 1874.
PROEM.
Anicus Manlius Severinus Boethius lived in
the last quarter of the fifth century A.
D., and the first quarter of the sixth. He
was growing to manhood, when Theodoric, the
famous Ostrogoth, crossed the Alps and made
himself master of Italy. Boethius belonged
to an ancient family, which boasted a connection
with the legendary glories of the Republic,
and was still among the foremost in wealth
and dignity in the days of Rome's abasement.
His parents dying early, he was brought up
by Symmachus, whom the age agreed to regard
as of almost saintly character, and afterwards
became his son-in-law. His varied gifts,
aided by an excellent education, won for
him the reputation of the most accomplished
man of his time. He was orator, poet, musician,
philosopher. It is his peculiar distinction
to have handed on to the Middle Ages the
tradition of Greek philosophy by his Latin
translations of the works of Aristotle. Called
early to a public career, the highest honours
of the State came to him unsought. He was
sole Consul in 510 A. D., and was ultimately
raised by Theodoric to the dignity of Magister
Officiorum, or head of the whole civil administration.
He was no less happy in his domestic life,
in the virtues of his wife, Rusticiana, and
the fair promise of his two sons, Symmachus
and Boethius; happy also in the society of
a refined circle of friends. Noble, wealthy,
accomplished, universally esteemed for his
virtues, high in the favour of the Gothic
King, he appeared to all men a signal example
of the union of merit and good fortune. His
felicity seemed to culminate in the year
522 A. D., when, by special and extraordinary
favour, his two sons, young as they were
for so exalted an honour, were created joint
Consuls and rode to the senate-house attended
by a throng of senators, and the acclamations
of the multitude. Boethius himself, amid
the general applause, delivered the public
speech in the King's honour usual on such
occasions. Within a year he was a solitary
prisoner at Pavia, stripped of honours, wealth,
and friends, with death hanging over him,
and a terror worse than death, in the fear
lest those dearest to him should be involved
in the worst results of his downfall. It
is in this situation that the opening of
the 'Consolation of Philosophy' brings Boethius
before us. He represents himself as seated
in his prison distraught with grief, indignant
at the injustice of his misfortunes, and
seeking relief for his melancholy in writing
verses descriptive of his condition. Suddenly
there appears to him the Divine figure of
Philosophy, in the guise of a woman of superhuman
dignity and beauty, who by a succession of
discourses convinces him of the vanity of
regret for the lost gifts of fortune, raises
his mind once more to the contemplation of
the true good, and makes clear to him the
mystery of the world's moral government.
INDEX
OF
VERSE INTERLUDES.
BOOK I. THE SORROWS OF BOETHIUS.
SONG PAGE I. BOETHIUS' COMPLAINT 3 II. HIS
DESPONDENCY 9 III. THE MISTS DISPELLED 12
IV. NOTHING CAN SUBDUE VIRTUE 16 V. BOETHIUS'
PRAYER 27 VI. ALL THINGS HAVE THEIR NEEDFUL
ORDER 33 VII. THE PERTURBATIONS OF PASSION
38
BOOK II. THE VANITY OF FORTUNE'S GIFTS.
I. FORTUNE'S MALICE 47 II. MAN'S COVETOUSNESS
51 III. ALL PASSES 55 IV. THE GOLDEN MEAN
62 V. THE FORMER AGE 70 VI. NERO'S INFAMY
76 VII. GLORY MAY NOT LAST 82 VIII. LOVE
IS LORD OF ALL 85
BOOK III. TRUE HAPPINESS AND FALSE.
I. THE THORNS OF ERROR 93 II. THE BENT OF
NATURE 99 III. THE INSATIABLENESS OK AVARICE
105 IV. DISGRACE OF HONOURS CONFERRED BY
A TYRANT 109 V. SELF-MASTERY 113 VI. TRUE
NOBILITY 116 VII. PLEASURE'S STING 118 VIII.
HUMAN FOLLY 121 IX. INVOCATION 130 X. THE
TRUE LIGHT 141 XI. REMINISCENCE 150 XII.
ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE 158
BOOK IV. GOOD AND ILL FORTUNE.
I. THE SOUL'S FLIGHT 166 II. THE BONDAGE
OF PASSION 177 III. CIRCE'S CUP 182 IV. THE
UNREASONABLENESS OF HATRED 194 V. WONDER
AND IGNORANCE 197 VI. THE UNIVERSAL AIM 212
VII. THE HERO'S PATH 219
BOOK V. FREE WILL AND GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE.
I. CHANCE 229 II. THE TRUE SUN 233 III. TRUTH'S
PARADOXES 241 IV. A PSYCHOLOGICAL FALLACY
250 V. THE UPWARD LOOK 255
NEXT - BOOK ONE
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