Poem Comparison: Ad Puerum Anglicum and Ad Puerum Andegavenism

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For our essay this week, I want to compare and contrast two very similar poems by Hilary the Englishman. The poems themselves have very similar titles the first being Ad Puerum Anglicum and the second Ad Puerum Andegavenism. The first poem is about English boy and the second is a boy from Angers. In the year 1151, although very late in Hilary life, Anjou became part of the English empire when Henry inherited Anjou. Although these are two distinct places, their histories show much intertwining.
Hilary the Englishman was born in England and spent the later part of his life in Angers, which seems to imply that the first poem was written in the earlier part of his life then the second poem. The major aspects of the poem, such as chastity, communication and religious undertones tones follow along with this idea.However, it cannot be certain that this boy is actually an English because of the last line where he say, “they who call you English let them add a vowel and say angel.” Since it is such a good play on words, it is likely that this is a fictional boy rather then an actual boy.
Both of the poems start out by calling by giving the young boy that Hilary is writing to a complement. In the poem to the English boy, he calls him speciose and in the second poem, he calls him pulcer. However, the word choice Hilary uses here is very important. Speciose and pulcer in Latin both mean beautiful, however speciose can also mean showy. The fact that he uses speciose rather then pulcer to describe the boy seems to imply less of a respect for the English boy. The reason for this is speciose in Latin can also mean showy which means although the boy is beautiful, it seems there is little more to him than his beauty.
However, after the...

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...orment Marbod faces because this appealing boy would rather die then yield to love. In the poem about the boy of Angers, Hilary is in a prison, going through pain and suffering because the boy of Angers is modest.

Works Cited

The Rev. Michael David Knowles, O.S.B.. "Henry II (king of England)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/261477/Henry-II (accessed April 29, 2014).
Fanning, W. (1908). Cleric. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved May 1, 2014 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04049b.htm
Boswell, John. Christianity, social tolerance, and homosexuality: gay people in Western Europe from the beginning of the Christian era to the fourteenth century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980, location 6984. (I use a eBook version so it does not have real pages.)

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