"Inter Faeces..." Quote

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>First, somewhat earlier than the saying in Beroalde (c1616) that Doug
>quotes ("tu es ne entre la merde & le pissat") is this from Laurent
>Joubert's 2nd part of _Les Erreurs populaires_, the 1587 edition, in a
>list of Catalan aphorisms: "entre la merdo, & lou pis, se nourris lou bel
>fils." The modern translation renders that, "Between shit and piss is the
>handsome son being developed" (Gregory de Rocher, tr., _The Second Part of
>the Popular Errors_ [U of Alabama P, 1995], 164).

Getting older!

>It's certainly quite possible that the saying "Inter faeces et urinam
>nascimur" arose later, then got retrofathered onto Augustine because it
>sounds kind of pithy and patristical, and he's everyone's favorite Church
>Father. I'm pretty sure, though, that Augustine himself did NOT say it in
>any of his extant works.
>
>As for the Latin noun "f(a)ex": Forms of the word, which at some point
>must have been a euphemism, appear hundreds of times in the Patrologia,
>mostly (it seems) in reference to excrement.  "Stercus" and "fimus" abound
>too (it IS, after all, a favorite subject!). "Excrementa," I believe, is
>less common, "merda" nonexistent.
>
>In one place we find "in faeces et stercora"--excremental overkill! As
>there, the old Catholic guys regularly gave "faeces" for the accusative plural.

Here is an 'attribution' to Bernard of Clairvaux ...

http://omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu/mailing_lists/CLA-L/Older/log95/9512b/9512b.56.html

... but supposedly Bernard's complete works are on-line ...

http://www.binetti.ru/bernardus/

... and the item in question doesn't seem to be present.

-- Doug Wilson


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