[Previous: lines 530-548]
Christ has instructed his disciples to find a room in which they can hold the Last Supper: walk the city (he tells them) until you see a boy carrying a pitcher of water, follow this lad home and ask the householder for his hospitality. Now read on!
Dixit: Ioannes mandata Petrusque facessunt,------------
et mœsti magnae succedunt mœnibus urbis. [550]
Ibant incerti, atque oculis procul omnia obibant;
cum puer, urnam humero gestans lymphamque recentem,
vicino veniens de fonte, occurrit: eum usque
servantes, gressum ferret quacunque, sequuntur;
quasque subit, subeunt ipsi quoque protinus aedes. [555]
Huc atavis clarusque Simon, et prole beatus
septena, sese semper referebat ab agris,
si quando caris cum natis viseret urbem.
Namque illum potiùs campis rurique iuvabat
degere, civilesque procul contemnere honores. [560]
Umbrae illi nemorum cordi, rivique secantes
praedia, quae centum dives vertebat aratris.
Iam gravis argutasque fides et carmina amabat,
fluminis in ripis, aut fontem propter amœnum.
Nôrat enim caeli numeros, mensusque, viasque: [565]
saepe Deo plenus porrò ventura canebat
agricolis, quid sol, quid menstrua luna pararet,
sudique pluviaeque docens praenuncia signa.
Tum sacris intentam igitur concesserat urbem,
ut de more dies festos celebraret avito: [570]
dumque aliâ famuli mensas et dona pararent
Parte domûs, veterum facta ipse canebat avorum,
nunc citharae levibus digitis, nunc pectine eburno,
percurrens molli attactu vocalia fila.
Praecipuè à prima revocabat origine, quaenam [575]
has ex more epulas, atque haec solemnia priscae
relligio intulerit genti. Verùm ecce canenti
improvisus adest Petrus, et sacra carmina rumpit:
“Rex,” ait, “est nobis, quo nusquam iustior alter,
aut pietate prior; Christum omnes nomine dicunt: [580]
is tua nos ultrò supplex ad limina mittit;
exiguam sacris sedem mensisque rogamus.”
His ille auditis gavisus nomine tanto,
imperat haud haerens animo tectum omne recludi;
hinc hilares totis adolere penatibus ignes, [585]
et pingui suffire Arabum jubet atria sylva;
interiusque viros media in penetralia ducit.
Inde locum ostendit mira testudine pictis
aulaeis circumvelatum ostroque rubenti.
Luxuriant sola strata, nitent argentea eburnis [590]
fulcra torisque, scyphique, auroque è simplice lances,
et passim domus argentoque auroque renidet.
He spoke: and John and Peter did what he asked,------------
though sadly; wandering through the great city [550]
uncertainly, watching everything from afar;
they saw the boy, shouldering his water-urn,
just come from the fountain, and followed him
walking eagerly in his footsteps until
they came to the house, and crossed its threshold. [555]
They met Simon, a man of famous lineage
and blessed with seven children. He stopped here when
he and his sons came to the city from the countryside.
For he preferred to live among the fields, on
his land, holding civic honours in contempt. [560]
Though wealthy, he preferred shady glens where
a river ran through, and his hundred-plough farm.
A dignified man, he loved to sing in the fields,
music on the riverbank or by pleasant springs.
He knew the sky’s rhythms, its courses and ways: [565]
and, inspired by God, would sing to farmers of
things to come: what solar and lunar months
would bring, portents of fine and rainy weather.
Now he had come to the city, preparing
for the sacred rites and festive days ahead. [570]
While his servants were preparing hospitality
in another part of the house, he sang of
his ancestors, striking his harp lightly with
an ivory plectrum, making the strings sing.
He sang the origins of this feast, the [575]
tradition that established these solemn rites
and brought religion to the people. As he
sang these truths, Peter interrupted him:
“The king” he said “is among us—no one more
just or pious: everyone calls him the Christ: [580]
we’ve entered your house to beg a favour;
a small room for the holiday rites and feast.”
When he heard this he rejoiced in the great name
and ordered the whole house to be opened up;
at once, and every festive torch lit, and [585]
the halls all perfumed with Arabian scents,
inviting these two into the inmost rooms.
He showed them a fine high chamber, with hanging
tapestries of red and purple on the walls,
shining floors, couches adorned with silver and [590]
ivory, and cups and dishes all of gold:
for gold and silver shone throughout the house.
In line 562, Vida describes Simon’s farm as a place quae centum vertebat aratris, ‘that was turned-over by a hundred ploughs.’ This is a way of saying ‘a very large farm’: plenty of farmers get by with one plough, after all. The detail is quoted directly from Vergil (of course from Vergil): the description of Old Galaesus, an Ausonian farmer killed as he tries to broker peace between the Latins and the Trojans. His death is especially tragic, since:
qui fuit Ausoniisque olim ditissimus arvis:Hard to imagine so many ploughs could ever be needful, actually; no matter how large the farm. But there you go. The idea that a true gentleman prefers the country to the city is a Roman one, of course, out of Cicero and Juvenal. And Horace too: the wise man of Satires 2.7.85, strong enough responsare cupidinibus, contemnere honores, ‘to defy desire and hold honours in contempt’, is lurking behind Vida’s civilesque contemnere honores in line 560. Indeed, Vida turns Simon into a full-throated pastoral swain, out of Vergil’s Eclogues and the like. When the poem says he's someone who:
quinque greges illi balantum, quina redibant
armenta, et terram centum vertebat aratris. [Aeneid 7:537-9]
... he was of all men most righteous and once wealthiest in Ausonia's fields; for him five flocks bleated, five herds came back from pasture, and a hundred ploughs turned the soil. [Fairclough and Goold's translation]
knew the sky’s rhythms, its courses and ways:... it is in effect positioning him as the narrator of the Georgics, which poem details all such things. In case we miss the allision, Vida reshapes a Vergillian line, ipse Pater statuit, quid menstrua Luna moneret [‘the Father established what the lunar months would bring as warning’; Georgics 1:353] into his saepe Deus quid sol, quid menstrua luna pararet, ‘often God purposed what the solar and lunar months would bring’.
and, inspired by God, would sing to farmers of
things to come: what solar and lunar months
would bring, portents of fine and rainy weather [Lines 565-8]
The image at the top is actually King David playing his harp, not Simon (or whatever the actual name of the householder of the Last Supper was). But close enough for our purposes here.
[Next: lines 593-642]
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