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Hilarius (Poet)

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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HILARIUS (fl. 1125), a Latin poet who is supposed to have been an Englishman. He was one of the pupils of Abelard at his oratory of Paraclete, and addressed to him a copy of verses with its refrain in the vulgar tongue, " Tort avers vos li mestre," Abelard having threatened to discontinue his teaching because of certain reports made by his servant about the conduct of the scholars. Later Hilarius made his way to Angers. His poems are contained in MS. supp. lat. 1008 of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, purchased in 1837 at the sale of M. de Rosny. Quotations from this MS. had appeared before, but in 1838 it was edited by Champollion Figeac as Hilarii versus et ludi. His works consist chiefly of light verses of the goliardic type. There are verses addressed to an English nun named Eva, lines to Rosa, " Ave splendor puellarum, generosa domin g ," and another poem describes the beauties of the priory of Chaloutre la Petite, in the diocese of Sens, of which the writer was then an inmate. One copy of satirical verses seems to aim at the pope himself. He also wrote three miracle plays in rhymed Latin with an admixture of French. Two of them, Suscitatio Lazari and Historia de Daniel repraesentanda, are of purely liturgical type. At the end of Lazarus is a stage direction to the effect that if the performance has been given at matins, Lazarus should proceed with the Te Deum, if at vespers, with the Magnificat. The third, Ludus super iconia Sancti Nicholai, is founded on a sufficiently foolish legend. Petit de Julleville sees in the play a satiric intention and a veiled incredulity that put the piece outside the category of liturgical drama.

A rhymed Latin account of a dispute in which the nuns of Ronceray at Angers were concerned, contained in a cartulary of Ronceray, is also ascribed to the poet, who there calls himself Hilarius Canonicus. The poem is printed in the Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Chartes (vol. xxxvii. 1876), and is dated by P. Marchegay from 1121. See also a notice in Hist. litt. de la France (xii. 251-254), supplemented (in xx. 627-630), s.v. Jean Bodel, by Paulin Paris; also Wright, Biographia Britannica literaria, Anglo-Norman Period (1846); and Petit de Julleville, Les Mystbres (vol. i. 1880).