A letter from Hugh Metel, Augustinian canon ()

Translated letter:

Fame, flying to us, resounding through the emptiness, thunders to us with worthy report of you. It told us that you are a woman who has surpassed her sex. How? by composing/dictating, versifying, connecting in new ways, renewing known words, and what is more excellent than all, you have overcome womanly softness and been hardened in virile strength. You have cut off from yourself the deforming burden of the humpback camel and striven to come to life through the narrow gate. Having put down the load of earthly delights, you have smelled heavenly delights. You must strive to keep that very sweet odor from disappearing, to keep the love of religion kindled in you by divine breath from ever cooling — who perseveres to the end, the truth says, will be saved. So put on the long tunic of blessed Joseph, act and strive that you may persevere in good work. But I am a fool, who wish to illumine the moon, pour water into the sea. I am a fool who brings wood to the forest, who untaught presumes to teach the learned, I am a fool. Yet the spur encourages the running horse. Who I might be, who I might have been, perhaps you want to know. Hear therefore who I am: my name is Hugh Metel, Toul engendered me, who once associated with the muses, drinking in almost all of Helicon, who drew the whole region of heaven with my rod, who used to play often at composing, indicating the principle of the clause in pentameter and hexameter verses, with centrimetrical metres, and, saving your peace, happily wasting myself. And yet scarcely had I hung my lyre among the willows of Babylon, in Babylon indeed, and descending into Babylon, that I was freed by one whose chalice made me violently drunk. The Lord taking care of his little ones, humiliated me and set me free, and I who had spoken earlier(1) in the language of Egypt afterwards spoke in the language of Canaan. But this is enough to greet your order with our words, in particular the first prince of your order, in praise of whom I think it better to be silent than to speak less than worthy praise. Your daughters crown your table like new olive vines around the table, where they take in spiritual food. May the Lord grant you to see the daughters of your daughters from generation to generation.

Original letter:

Fama sonans per inane volans apud nos sonuit, quae digna sonitu de vobis, nobis intonuit. Foemineum enim sexum vos excessisse nobis notificavit. Quomodo? dictando, versificando, nova junctura, nota verba novando, & quod excellentius omnibus est his, muliebrem mollitiem exuperasti, & in virile robur indurasti. Deformem siquidem sarcinam gibbosi Cameli procul a vobis excussisti, & per angustam portam ad vitam venire contenditis. Deposito siquidem onere terrenarum deliciarum, coelestes delicias odorastis. Satagendum itaque vobis est, ne odor iste suavissimus evanescat, cavendum ne amor religionis sufflatorio divino accensus in vobis aliquando tepescat, qui perseveraverit inquit veritas usque in finem hic salvus erit. Talarem itaque tunicam Beati Joseph induite, & ut in bono opere perseveretis agite, satagite. Stultus autem ego, qui lunam illuminare volo, qui aquam in mari fundo. Stultus sum ego, qui ligna in sylvam fero, qui doctam indoctus docere praesumo, stultus sum ego. Prodest tamen currenti addere calcar equo. Quis sim ego, quis fuerim ego, forsitan cognoscere vultis. Audite ergo qui sim ego, qui fuerim ego, nominor ego Hugo Metellus, genui me Leucha Tellus, qui olim musis associatus fere totum hausi heliconem, qui radio totam depinxi Coeli regionem, qui inveniendi, indicandique palmo clausi rationem versibus pentametris & hexametris, rithmisque centimetris, qui ludere saepe solebam, & ut salva pace vestra loquar, qui jocunde dessipiebam. Tandem & vix tandem in salicibus Babylonis suspendi cytharam meam, cujus calice vehementer inebriatus eram ego. Custodiens parvulos Dominus, humiliatus sum & liberavit me, & qui pene loquebar lingua AEgyptia, postmodum lingua Cananea locutus sum. Sed haec hactenus, salutate verbis nostris militiam vestram, Priorem maxime principem militiae vestrae, de cujus laude melius in praesentiarum puto silere, quam minus digna laude dicere. Filiae vestrae sicut novellae olivarum in circuitu mensae vestrae coronant mensam vestram, ubi spiritualem sumunt escam. Concedat vobis Dominus videre filias filiarum vestrarum in generatione & generationem.

Historical context:

Hugo had never met Heloise but admired her by reputation and hoped to engage in correspondence with her. It is a fan letter, however condescending and sanctimonious it may sound now — and perhaps then as well.

Scholarly notes:

(1) Constant Mews, who has read the Hugh Metel letters in manuscript, corrects "pene" to "prius."

Printed source:

Epistolae Hugonis Metelli, Sacrae antiquitatis monumenta historica (Impressum Stivagii in Lotharingia, 1725-31), v.2, ep.16, p.348-49