Vir Bonus
Si quicquid rarum, carum est pretiumque meretur,
Crede mihi: res est vir pretiosa bonus.
If what Rare’s preclare, and of Account,
A good Man doth all Rarities surmount.Source: John Owen (c.1564-c.1628), Epigrammata, 1.87. The English version is by Thomas Harvey. Meter: Elegiac. Note the interwoven word order: res est vir pretiosa bonus = res pretiosa est vir bonus.
The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There is only one word in this poem that is not on the DCC list:
pretiōsus -a -um - expensive, costly, precious
bonus -a -um: good
cārus -a -um: dear
crēdō crēdere crēdidī crēditum: believe
ego meī mihi mē: I, me
mereō merēre meruī meritum: deserve, merit; serve as a soldier
pretium -ī n.: price, worth, reward; pretium operae: a reward for trouble
que (enclitic) - and
quisquis quidquid: whoever, whichever
rarus -a -um: wide apart, loose, thin; rare, seldom
rēs reī f.: thing (rēs pūblica, commonwealth; rēs familiāris, family property, estate; rēs mīlitāris, art of war; rēs novae, revolution)
sī: if
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
vir virī m.: man
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