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DE VIDUA VIRUM PETENTE

Source: Abstemius 31 (You can see a 1499 edition of Abstemius online, but I am doing my transcription from the 1568 edition of Aesopi fabulae in the EEBO catalog.)

Latin Text:

Vidua quaedam dives a vicina petebat, ut maritum sibi reperiret, quem non coitus gratia, qui ingratus admodum sibi erat, sed ne bona sua dilapidarentur exoptare se dicebat. Mulier sagax et viduae versutias intelligens, se inquisituram pollicetur. Paucis post diebus viduam conveniens, "Reperi (inquit) tibi virum ex animi tui sententia. Est enim vir prudens et ad res gerendas natus et genitalibus caret, quae tibi cordi non sunt. Cui vidua: "Abi hinc (inquit) in malam rem cum isto marito tuo tam illepido et si enim coitus appetens non sum, volo tamen habeat, quod nos reconciliet, si quando coeperimus esse discordes." Haec fabula indicat nullum matrimonium felix, si clavis defuerit, qui virum et mulierem arctissime constringit.

Here is a segmented version to help you see the grammatical patterns:

a vicina petebat,

ut maritum sibi reperiret,

quem

non coitus gratia,

qui ingratus admodum sibi erat,

sed

ne bona sua dilapidarentur

exoptare se

dicebat.

Mulier sagax

et viduae versutias intelligens,

se inquisituram

pollicetur.

Paucis post diebus

viduam conveniens,

"Reperi (inquit) tibi virum

ex animi tui sententia.

Est enim vir prudens

et ad res gerendas natus

et genitalibus caret,

quae tibi cordi non sunt.

Cui vidua:

"Abi hinc (inquit) in malam rem

cum isto marito tuo

tam illepido

et si enim coitus appetens

non sum,

volo tamen habeat,

quod nos reconciliet,

si quando coeperimus

esse discordes."

Haec fabula indicat

nullum matrimonium felix,

si clavis defuerit,

qui virum et mulierem

arctissime constringit.

Translation: A certain rich widow asked a neighbor-woman to find her a husband whom she said she wanted to have not for the sake of sex (which was entirely unwelcome to her), but rather so that her estate would not fall into disrepair. The woman, who was sharp and who understood the widow's cunning, promised that she would seek such a husband. After a few days, she ran into the widow and said, "I have found a man exactly as you had in mind. For he is a sensible man, with a head for business, and he has no genitals, which are not to your liking anyway." The widow said to her: "The devil take you and that husband you've found, unappealing as he is! Even if I am not craving sex, nevertheless I want that he should have what it takes to reconcile us if at some time we start to disagree with one another." This fable shows that no marriage is happy if it lacks the key which binds husband and wife together most closely of all.

[This translation is meant as a help in understanding the story, not as a "crib" for the Latin. I have not hesitated to change the syntax to make it flow more smoothly in English, altering the verb tense consistently to narrative past tense, etc.]

Sir Roger L'Estrange

Sir Roger L'Estrange included the fables of Abstemius in his amazing 17th-century edition of Aesop's fables. Here is L'Estrange's translation:

Well! says a Widow in Confidence to a Friend of hers, I am utterly undone for want of a Sober, Provident Husband, to look after my Estate; and there's no Body's Advice that I had rather have than Yours. But pray, will you take This along with You too; that for the Coarse, Common Bus'ness of Matrimony, as I am an Honest Woman, the very Thoughts on't turns my Stomach; Very well, says the Confident, and now I know your Mind, it shall go hard but I'll fit ye. The good Woman went her way for the present, and the next Day came to her again, quite overjoy'd that she had found out a Man (says she) of Industry and Integrity; and one that perfectly understands all sorts of Bus'ness; and then for Turning your Stomach, my Life for yours, Madam, he's not in a Condition to give you any Qualms that way. Away, he Fool, says she, I hate the Infirmity, though I love the Virtue. Women are all of a Make, and in some Things most of them in a Mind. One Woman feels another Woman's Pulse in her own Veins; and there's no halting before Cripples.

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