"Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor."
In p. 352. of the same volume W. W. T. (quoting from D'Israeli's
_Curiosities of Literature_ a passage which supplies the hexameter
completing the distich, and attributes the verses to Sidonius Apollinaris)
asks where may be found a legend which represents the two lines to have
formed part of a dialogue between the fiend, under the form of a mule, and
a monk, who was his rider. B. H. C., at p. 521. of the same volume, sends a
passage from the _Dictionnaire Litteraire_, giving the complete distich:
"Signa te, signa, temere me tangis et angis.
Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor,"
and attributing it to the devil, but without supplying any more authentic
parentage for the lines. The following Note will contribute a fact or two
to the investigation of the subject; but I shall be obliged to conclude by
reiterating the original Query of BOEOTICUS, Who was the real author of the
lines?
In a little work entitled _A Summer in Brittany_, published by me in 1840,
may be found (at p. 99. of vol. i.) a legend, which relates how one Jean
Patye, canon of Cambremer, in the chapter of Bayeux, rode the devil to
Rome, for the purpose of there chanting the epistle at the midnight mass at
Christmas, according to the tenor of an ancient bond, which obliged the
chapter to send one of their number yearly to Rome for that purpose. This
story I met with in a little volume, entitled _Contes populaires, Prejuges,
Patois, Proverbes de l'Arrondissement de Bayeux, recueillis et publies_,
par F. Pluquet, the frontispiece of which consists of a sufficiently
graphic representation of the worthy canon's feat. Pluquet concludes his
narrative by stating that--
"Etienne Tabourot dans ses _Bigarrures_, publiees sous le nom du
_Seigneur des Accords_, rapporte que c'est a Saint Antide que le
diable, qui le portait a Rome sur son dos, adresse le distique latin
dont il est question ci-dessus."
It should seem that this trick of _carrying people to Rome_ was attributed
to the devil, by those conversant with his habits, in other centuries
besides the nineteenth.
I have not here the means of looking at the work to which Pluquet refers;
but if any of your correspondents, who live in more bookish lands than
this, will do so, they may perchance obtain some clue to the original
authorship of the lines; for in Sidonius Apollinaris I cannot find them.
The only edition of his works to which I have the means of referring is the
quarto of Adrien Perrier, Paris, 1609. Among the verses contained in that
volume, I think I can assert that the lines in question are not. We all
know that the worthy author of the _Curiosities of Literature_ cannot be
much depended upon for accuracy.
Once again, then, Who was the author of this specimen, perhaps the most
perfect extant, of palindromic absurdity?