Laura Gibbs, Mille Fabulae et Una §126

A monkey, wishing to win the reputation of a polished, charming, and urbane gentleman, donned exquisite refinement and every adornment of a fine fellow. Thus arrayed, he made for a famous gathering; with due solemnity he displayed great self-assurance and bore himself as an elegant beau. The company straightaway accorded honors to such merits — but the moment he, leaping with joy, opened his mouth to speak, they all began to feel ashamed at having honored so foolish an animal. They drove him out and ejected him.

This fable warns those who abound in splendid bodily ornament but lack common sense.

Translation rendered by AI from the Latin in Mille Fabulae et Una; not from a published edition.

Wisdom Lesson

A short fable on the perennial gap between dress and substance: borrowed elegance wins the ape a moment of honor, but the instant he opens his mouth he is exposed and ejected. The Latin moral — qui ornatu corporis splendido abundant sed sensu communi carent — is sharper than the proverbial “don’t judge a book by its cover.” What betrays the impostor is not appearance but speech: the moment he tries to act the part, the part collapses. The worst fate in a culture of self-presentation is being asked to explain yourself.

Language Lesson

Simius, politi et lepidi et urbani famam captare volens, munditiam exquisitam et omnem ornatum hominis pulchelli induit. Ita decoratus, conventum celebrem petit; magnam confidentiam rite praefert ac pro troffulo elegante sese gerit. Continuo meritis talibus honor habetur, at ille, gaudio gestiens ubi vult loqui, omnes pudere coepit quod animal ineptum honoraverint. Abiguntque et foras eiiciunt. Fabula hos monet qui ornatu corporis splendido abundant sed sensu communi carent.

Vocabulary

  • simius, -i (m.) — monkey, ape
  • politus, -a, -um — polished, refined
  • lepidus, -a, -um — charming, witty, elegant
  • urbanus, -a, -um — urbane, sophisticated (literally: of the city)
  • fama, -ae (f.) — reputation, talk, rumor
  • captare (1) — to chase after, court, seek to grasp
  • munditia, -ae (f.) — cleanliness, refinement, neatness
  • ornatus, -us (m.) — adornment, elegant attire
  • pulchellus, -a, -um — (diminutive of pulcher) “pretty,” dapper (often faintly ironic)
  • conventus, -us (m.) — gathering, assembly
  • celebris, -e — famous, well-attended, busy
  • praeferre — to carry openly, display
  • ineptus, -a, -um — silly, foolish, ill-fitted
  • abigere — to drive away
  • carere (+ abl.) — to lack, be without

Grammar

politi et lepidi et urbani — three masculine genitive singulars dependent on famam (“the reputation of a polished, charming, urbane (gentleman)”); the head noun hominis pulchelli follows two lines later. The triple coordination with et … et … et (polysyndeton) is emphatic — the monkey is courting not just one virtue but a whole social type.

famam captare volens — a participle of wishing (volens) governing a complementary infinitive (captare). Standard Latin shorthand for purpose/desire.

omnes pudere coepit — impersonal pudet construction. The person who feels shame is in the accusative (omnes), and the cause appears in the quod-clause that follows. Literally “it began to shame all (of them).”

quod … honoraverint — quod + perfect subjunctive. The subjunctive marks the cause as something the company is now realizing about themselves ("[they grasped] that they had honored an unfit animal") — oblique/causal subjunctive, not indicative.

ornatu … abundant sed sensu communi carent — abundare takes the ablative of fullness, carere the ablative of separation. The two verbs frame the moral as a single ablative diptych: full of one thing, empty of another.

Gibbs, Laura. Mille Fabulae et Una: 1001 Aesop’s Fables in Latin. Morrisville, NC: Lulu Publishers, 2010. PDF version 1.01 (18 August 2010). Fable 126 (“Simius Decoratus”).