Text.Reusner.1579-01.B2r
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Source: In nuptias [...] Floriani Sigharti [...] cum [...] Magdalena, Leipzig: Hans Rambau, 1579, sig. B2r–B4r [BP.Reusner.1579-01]
Summary: Hieronymus Reusner's poem, composed for the marriage of Florian Sighart and Magdalene Salmuth in 1579, is an epithalamium celebrating the couple's union with a blend of classical mythology, nature imagery, and blessings for their future. The poem opens with a rhetorical question to the groom about his secret wedding plans, quickly transitioning into vivid descriptions of love and commitment symbolized by the bride's embrace. The sun, rivers, and Muses are invoked as witnesses to the marriage, while the dawn, personified by Aurora, heralds the wedding day promised by Hymen, the god of marriage.
The poem is rich with mythological references, including gods and goddesses like Ceres, Liber, and Phoebus, who bestow their blessings and gifts upon the couple, signifying abundance, joy, and prosperity. The natural world participates in the celebration, with scenes of hunting and bountiful harvests, indicating a life of richness and fertility for the bride and groom.
Reusner employs the imagery of flowers, herbs, and celestial bodies to wish the couple a harmonious and healthy life together, free from discord and strife. The poem concludes with a prayer to Christ for the couple's happiness, linking divine favor with the joyous occasion. (generated by ChatGPT)
Text
Pro sponsi sponsæque ευτυχια, ευχη επιθαλαμιος.
Dißimulare etiam sperasti, sponse, latenter
Posse faces, tacit usq́ue nouos moliri hymenæos?
Sed te primus amor, sed te data dextera nuper,
Et niueis tenuit circumdans sponsa lacertis.
Esto mihi testis Sol, & Philyreus Elister
Fluuiorum princeps: Musæ, mea numina, plausus
[sig. B2v] Tollebant, aureoq́ue sonans chelys enthea plectro
Edebat numeros, dubijs cum fama susurris
Innueret thalamos, nec, quid sperasset, haberet
At iam Mygdonijs, rutilans Aurora quadrigis
Inducit cœlo lucem, quam dixerat Hymen.
Ipse fauet sponsis Diuûm sator, atque hominum rex,
Dum non deturbat vibrata ceraunia telo.
Gratantur sponsis, spumas salis ære ruentes,
Dum nullos tollis Nereus è vortice fluctus,
Fluctus, qui frangunt ferrata cuspide contos,
Ancora sed classes optata figit arena.
Plenis ipsa Ceres calathis fert munera sponsis,
Dum iani maturis falces supponit artistis,
Quas circum inflatus buccis agrestibus vter
Clangit. Quin largi properat carchesia musti,
Liber, pampineo mox quod grauidus autumno
Mittet ager, curuo Saturni dente putatum,
Et plenum vino fundit cratera Falerno.
Ipsi etiam Fauni agrestes, Dryadesq́ue puellæ
Venatum ire parant: rigido venabula ferro,
Quadrijugiq́ue ruunt curris, & odora canum uis.
Ærea terribili conspirant cornua cantu,
Frendentesq́ue vomunt spumis mistum ore cruorem
Apri: lethali sternuntur cominus arcu
Cerui, ac aurici lepores per retia vitam
Cum fremitu fundunt. Regali splendida luxu
[sig. B3r] Sic domus instruitur sponsis parere paratis.
Mensis Cymodoce, Thetis & Panopea virago,
Pinnigeros donant flagranti è flumine pisces.
Ipse etiam Phœbis, Latonæ splendida proles,
Iungit equos curru, quem magnus membra Pyragmon,
Et pater Æolijs formarat Lemnius oris:
Laudibus vt meritis docto gratetur alumno.
Munera Pieriæ nectunt cantanda sorores
Sponsis: quas iuxta crepitat Tritonia Pallas,
Terribilis cristis, armataq́ue acynace curuo:
Non secus ac Mauors tremulos vomit aureus ignes.
Quem contra insurgit torto Bellona flagello.
Et dubitemus adhuc, Floriani extollere sponsam?
Fert rosa lacteolum depictum sanguine florem,
Cum referunt gratum Eoæ Atlantides ortum:
Lactea sic roseo suffundit labra rubore
Magdalena, aureô suras ornata cothurno,
Sarranoq́ue gerens fucatus murice pallas.
Egregiam Floriane domum, & spolia ampla reportas,
Sponsam, quæ sanctos æquat pietate parentes.
Quæ dotata venit castoq́ue ornata pudore
Huc geminas nunc flecte acies, hanc aspice nympham,
Hæc illa est, tibi quam promitti sæpius audis,
Magdalena, genus Salmvthi: secula viuet
Aurea quæ tecum. Multi hac è stirpe nepotes
Mille tibi Aurunco libabunt oscula patri.
[sig. B3v] Tu Florianus eris: manibus date lilia plenis.
Puniceos spargam flores, viridesq́ue amaranthos.
Viuite felices felici fædere iuncti:
Insistat nunquam vestras Cocytia virgo
Sedes, quæ tetros Amsancti exhalat odores.
Vipereis crines torquens discordia tænis
Hunc fugiat, stygijsq́ue Alecto emissa tenebris.
Sponsa sit excellens capiti Chamomilla dolenti,
Sic sponsus tristes poterit deponere curas.
Casta oculis sponsi dubijs sit Ruta, medullis
Illicitas pellens flammas: subrideat vni
Sponsæ, ac in sola defigat lumina sponsa.
Aßiduis tracta manibus, Floriane Chamædrin:
En tibi natiuos herba hæc testatur amores:
Bina vt iungantur semper folia, aspice, binis
Iunctis luxuriat folijs diuina Chamædrys.
Hîc floret cupiens æquare Lauendula moschum,
Et reddens morbis amissam spica loquelam,
Frigida cum nimium replet pituita cerebrum:
Sic reddit pressam tua Magdalena loquelam,
Feruida cum bilis flagrantes aggerat iras.
Ponè thorum suaues diffundit Amaracus auras
Cui se Pulegium serpens longo agmine iungit,
Languida ne tardo torpescant membra veterno,
Sed sacra dent Phœbo, cum lucis Phosphorus autor
Tithoni igniferos tollit de gurgite currus.
[sig. B4r] Ah viuant animis iuncti, quos viuere iunctos
Rex iubet altipotens. Patris ô memorabile verbum
Christe faue sponsis, thalamum bone Christe secunda,
Pocula seu Canaæ mutasti Acheloia Baccho,
Cum serui vitreis implerent dolia lymphis.
Modern English Raw Translation
Did you really hope, groom, that you could secretly disguise the torches, silently plotting new nuptials? But first love, and the hand you recently gave, and the bride encircling you with her snowy arms held you. Let the Sun be my witness, and Elister the Philyrean, prince of rivers: the Muses, my deities, raised applause, and the lyre, strumming with a golden plectrum, emitted melodies, while rumor with its uncertain whispers hinted at the marriage chamber, yet had no grasp on what it hoped for.
But now, with the Mygdonian chariot ablaze, Dawn introduces light to the sky, as Hymen had declared. The father of gods and king of men himself favors the bride and groom, as long as he does not cast down his thunderbolts. The seas, with their foamy waves crashing, rejoice for the bride and groom, while Nereus raises no waves from the whirlpool, waves that shatter oars with iron tips, but the anchor secures the fleet in the desired sand.
Ceres herself brings gifts to the bride and groom with full baskets, while she places the sickle under the ripe grains for the reapers, around which the inflated cheeks of rustic satyrs blare. Liber hurries with generous cups of new wine, which the field, pregnant in leafy autumn, will send forth, pruned with Saturn's curved sickle, and pours out a bowl full of Falernian wine.
Even the rustic Fauns and Dryad girls prepare to hunt: with rigid iron spears, and they rush forth in four-horse chariots, and the force of fragrant dogs. The bronze horns conspire with a terrifying song, and the boars, frothing, spew foam mixed with blood from their mouths: deer and golden hares are laid low by the deadly bow in close combat, their lives escaping through the nets with a roar. In such regal splendor is the house prepared for the bride and groom ready to obey.
Cymodoce, Thetis, and the warrior Panopea gift the bride and groom with finned fish from the burning river. Even Phoebus himself, the bright offspring of Latona, yokes his horses to the chariot, which great Pyragmon and the father from the Aeolian shores had crafted: to honor his learned pupil with deserved praises. The Pierian sisters weave songs to be sung for the bride and groom: beside whom Tritonian Pallas rattles, terrifying with her plumes, armed with a curved sword: just as golden Mars spews trembling fires. Against whom Bellona rises with a twisted whip.
And do we still hesitate to extol Florian's bride? The rose bears a milky flower painted with blood, as the daughters of Atlas from the East bring the welcome dawn: thus Magdalene suffuses her lips with a milky rose hue, adorned with golden shoes, and wearing a robe dyed with Tyrian purple.
Florian, you bring home an illustrious house and great spoils, a bride who matches her holy parents in piety. She comes endowed and adorned with chaste modesty. Now turn your twin gazes here, behold this nymph, she is the one you often hear promised to you, Magdalene, of the Salmuth lineage: with whom you will live in a golden age. Many descendants from this line will give you a thousand kisses, O father from Arunca.
You will be Florian: give lilies with full hands. I will scatter crimson flowers and green amaranths. Live happily, joined in a blessed union: may the Cocytian maiden never press upon your abode, she who exhales the foul odors of Amsanctus. May Discord, twining her hair with viperous bands, flee from him, and Alecto, sent from Stygian darkness.
May the bride be outstanding chamomile for a suffering head, so the groom may lay aside his sad cares. May Rue be chaste for the groom's doubtful eyes, driving away illicit flames: may he smile only at the bride, and fix his eyes solely on her. Florian, handle the ground pine with constant hands: behold, this herb attests to your native loves: as two leaves are always joined, see, the divine ground pine luxuriates with two leaves joined.
Here the Lavender blooms, wishing to match the musk, and the spike, restoring lost speech to the sick, when too much cold phlegm fills the brain: thus your Magdalene restores subdued speech, when hot bile piles up blazing anger. Behind the bed, Sweet Marjoram spreads its gentle breezes, to which Pennyroyal joins itself in a long line, lest the limbs grow languid with slow consumption, but they give sacred offerings to Phoebus, when the bringer of light, Phosphorus, lifts the fiery chariots of Tithonus from the deep.
Ah, may they live united in spirit, whom the almighty king commands to live united. O Christ, remember the word of the Father, favor the bride and groom, good Christ, bless their marriage chamber, whether you changed the water of Cana into Bacchic wine, when the servants filled the jars with glassy waters.
Hieronymus Reusner from Löwenberg