Ad elegantem puerum scite scribentem (c.1584-1595)

This poem was probably written to one of Rollock's students at Edinburgh High School. Metre: elegiac couplets.

Link to an image of this page  [p387]

Ad elegantem puerum scite scribentem

Grammata, scite puer, calamo scitissima ducis,
quale manus magni pinxit Apellis opus.
Vox animi est icon, ut vocis scriptio: mentem
scita tibi scitam praedicat ergo manus.

Link to an image of this page  [p387]

To the neat boy, writing skillfully

Skillful boy, you lead the most skillful characters from your stylus, the kind of work the hand of great Apelles a painted. The voice of the mind is the image, as writing is of the voice: thus your learned hand foretells of your learned mind.

Notes:

Translation

a: A famous Greek painter of the fourth century BC.