Johannes Secundus

Johannes Secundus (also Janus Secundus; 15 November 1510 – 25 September 1536) was a Neo-Latin poet of Dutch nationality.

Quotes

Elegies

• (Nil tibi sit) cantare tui victricia Caesaris arma.
  • You are not to sing of the victorious arms of your caesar.
  • Elegies, I, 2, 91 — Tr. David Price (1996), p. 41

Basia (Kisses)

• Mensura rebus est sua dulcibus.
  Ut quodque mentes suavius afficit,
    fastidium sic triste secum
      limite proximiore ducit.
  • The wary Lover learns by measure
      To circumscribe his greatest joy;
    Lest, what well-husbanded yeilds pleasure,
      Might by the Repetition cloy.
  • Basium 9 [8], st. 2 — Tr. T. Stanley (1652), p. 61

Occasional Poems

• Quae mala sint hominum rebus tria maxima scire
  Quaeris? Habe paucis: femina, flamma, fretum.
  • Would'st know men's greatest dangers? They are three:
    Woman the first, then fire, and then sea.
  • Tria Mala ("The Three Daughters) — Tr. F. A. Wright (1930), p. 193

• Mitte peregrinis opplere coloribus ora.
  Nudus Amor nudae munera frontis amat.
  • Seek not in borrowed hues your cheeks to dress,
    Naked is Love, and loveth nakedness.
  • In Lycoridem ("To a Lady who used Cosmetics") — Tr. F. A. Wright (1930), p. 193

External links

• Thomas Stanley, Poems (London: Humphrey Moseley, 1652)

• Kisses, being a poetical translation of the Basia, 2nd ed. (London: T. Davies, 1778)

• F. A. Wright, The Love Poems of Joannes Secundus (London: George Routledge & Sons Ltd., 1930)

• David Price, Janus Secundus (Tempe, AZ: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1996)