Mephistopheles has three bits of Latin:<\/p>\n
II.1.429:<\/p>\n
So<\/u>lá<\/u>men míseri<\/u>s sócio<\/u>s habuísse doló<\/u>ris.<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n Solamen<\/i> is ‘consolation’ – relative, not interrogative – miseris<\/i> is ‘to\/for the wretched\/miserable’, socios<\/i> (related to ‘social, society, associate’) is ‘companions, associates, allies’ (plural direct object), habuisse<\/i> is a perfect infinitive ‘to have had’, and doloris<\/i> is ‘of pain, sorrow, trouble’. Put together, it means ‘(it is) a consolation to the [plural] wretched to have had companions of [=in] sorrow’, pretty much ‘misery loves company’ but more concrete (‘miserable\/wretched people’ for ‘misery’) and with a past tense added.<\/p>\n The line is a complete Latin dactylic hexameter, which mixes spondees with the dactyls in the first five feet, and ends with a spondee: in this case we have one spondee, then four dactyls, then a spondee to end the line. It looks like a quotation, but if so the author is unknown: perhaps Marlowe composed it himself. As with Wagner’s Qui mihi discipulus<\/i>, we can read it according to the Latin rules, like this<\/a>, or we can give the words their proper prose accents, like this<\/a>. The second half sounds pretty much the same either way.<\/p>\n II.3.639:<\/p>\n Per inaequá<\/u>lem mó<\/u>tum respéctu<\/u> tó<\/u>tius.<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n This is a tedious bit of scholastic Latin prose, pseudoscientific jargon that doesn’t really answer Faustus’ question. Why do different planets pass each other in their courses around the sun, or even sometimes appear to back up (‘retrograde motion’ as in the All’s Well<\/i> joke)? ‘Through [= because of] the unequal motion in respect of the whole’. Mephistopheles doesn’t know enough, or care enough, to give a more precise scientific answer. It should sound something like this<\/a>.<\/p>\n III.1.793:<\/p>\n Súmmum bónum.<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n SUH-muhm BO-nuhm<\/b>. This is two trochees, and the Us all sound like the U in English ‘put’ or ‘push’. Summum<\/i> is ‘highest’ (as in ‘summit’ and ‘sum’ and ‘summary’), and bonum<\/i> is ‘good’ (= ‘good thing’ – neuter adjective used as a noun, as in English). It’s philosophical Latin: the ‘highest good’ is whatever is most important in life – pleasure for Epicureans, duty for Stoics, God’s will (I think) for Christians, and so on. It should sound something like this<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mephistopheles has three bits of Latin: II.1.429: Solámen míseris sócios habuísse dolóris. Solamen is ‘consolation’ – relative, not interrogative – miseris is ‘to\/for the wretched\/miserable’, socios (related to ‘social, society, associate’) is ‘companions, associates, allies’ (plural direct object), habuisse is … Continue reading