Sender
Hildebert of Lavardin
Receiver
Matilda, Empress
Translated letter:
Born to august parents, Matilda more august(1) still,
in whatever praises you evoke from skilled mouths,
but in vain, for no one can render praise to you,
which [your] birth and customs and good form/beauty demand.
a [one] tongue may utter you, but you alone provide
the matter of highest praise to all tongues.(2)
in your face is a queen, redolent of juniper,(3)
serious [not frivolous] in gait, a beauty not fashioned by art.
learning did not lend holy customs, a virgin modesty,
each good flowed from your ancestors.
you have it all from your mother who, closed in the tomb,
illumines the English kingdom with her merits.
and lest the glory of the womanly sex should decline she gave birth to you, completely reborn in your birth.
not born only once, the parent lies in the urn, rules in the court,
here beside men, above, beside God.
beside God, she sees how all that is left is nothing,
how her daughter holding the scepter is poor.
herself secure, I think she watches over you,
and solicits her maker thus:
“I have not yet been admitted fully to the heavenly see,
great God, I enjoy only semi-blessed rest.
a part lies in the tomb, a part governs the English kingdom,
the court, the tomb, and heaven hold me divided.
help the one in the court: reform the one in the tomb:
hear the one in heaven, and be a crown to all three.”
Original letter:
Augustis patribus augustior orta Mathildis,
quaslibet in laudes ora diserta vocas --
sed frustra, quia nemo tibi preconia solvet,
que genus, et mores, et bona forma petit.
una loqui te lingua potest, que laudis opime
materiam linguis omnibus una paras.
in vultu regina tuo est, redoletque Sabinam
non levis incessus, nec datus arte decor.
non mores doctrina sacros, non virgo pudorem
prestitit — ex proavis fluxit utrumque bonum.
cuncta tue genetricis habes, que clausa sepulchro,
illustrat meritis Anglica regna suis.
neve simul caderet muliebris gloria sexus
te peperit, partu tota renata tuo.
non semel orta parens iacet urna, regnat in aula,
hic homini, sursum collaterata Deo.
collaterata Deo, quam sit nihil omne relictum
cernit, quam sit inops filia sceptra tenens.
hanc sibi securam de te curare, suumque
taliter Auctorem sollicitare reor:
“nondum me totam celesti sede recepi,
magne Deus, requie semibeata fruor.
pars iacet in tumulo, pars Anglica regna gubernat,
divisamque tenent aula, sepulchra, polus.
quam tenet aula iuva; quam clausa sepulchra reforma:
quam polus exaudi, sisque corona tribus.”
Historical context:
The poem praises Matilda for her birth, her customs, her beauty, her learning, and her virtues, calling her a fitting successor to her deceased mother.
Scholarly notes:
(1)Augustior is presumably a pun on the daughter’s imperial status, which her parents did not have: they were venerable but not imperial.
(2)Carmela Franklin, who helped me with this translation, wondered if “una lingua” could refer to Matilda’s mother, the only one who can properly praise her daughter.
(3)Could Sabinam be a reference to Saba, the queen of Sheba who tested Solomon in wisdom?
(4)Scott and others assume the addressee of this poem is queen Matilda, the mother of the empress, but Chibnall, The Empress Matilda, 47 fn14, assigns it to the empress, based on the arguments of T. Latzke, “Die Fürstinnenpreis,” Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 14 (1979), 50-53.
Printed source:
Hildeberti Carmina Minora, ed. A.B. Scott (Leipzig: Teubner, 1969), #35(4); also PL190, c.1408-09
