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DE MULIERE IGNME IN MARITI DOMUM FERENTE

Source: Abstemius 97 (You can see a 1499 edition of Abstemius online, but I am doing my transcription from the 1568 edition of Aesopi fabulae in the EEBO catalog.)

Latin Text:

Vir quidam prudens uxorem ducebat. Interrogatus autem ab amicis, quid sibi vellet facula illa, quam nova nupta accensam a paterna domo effert, rursusque mariti domum ingressura accendit et introfert. Significat, inquit, me hodie ignem a soceri mei aedibus ablatum in domum meam inferre. Fabula significant saepenumero mulieres ignem quendam esse, qui mariti bona comburit.

Here is a segmented version to help you see the grammatical patterns:

uxorem ducebat.

Interrogatus autem ab amicis,

quid sibi vellet facula illa,

quam

nova nupta

accensam a paterna domo effert,

rursusque mariti domum

ingressura

accendit et intro fert.

Significat, inquit,

me hodie

ignem a soceri mei aedibus ablatum

in domum meam inferre.

Fabula significant

saepenumero mulieres

ignem quendam esse,

qui mariti bona comburit.

Translation: A certain sensible man had gotten married. When he was asked by his friends what he made of that torch which, blazing, his new wife was bringing from her father's house, and, about to go into her husband's house in turn, she set on fire and brought inside. He replied: It means that today I have brought into my own house a fire transferred from my father-in-law's house into my own abode. The fable means that women habitually are like a sort of fire which burns up their husband's goods.

[This translation is meant as a help in understanding the story, not as a "crib" for the Latin. I have not hesitated to change the syntax to make it flow more smoothly in English, altering the verb tense consistently to narrative past tense, etc.]

Sir Roger L'Estrange

Sir Roger L'Estrange included the fables of Abstemius in his amazing 17th-century edition of Aesop's fables. Here is L'Estrange's translation:

The Question was put to an honest Man newly marry'd, What might be the Meaning of his New Bride's bringing a Torch out of her Father's House into her Husband's? Why this, says he; I have eas'd my Father-in-law of a Fire-brand, to set my own House in a Flame. A Contentious Woman puts all into a Flame, wherever she comes.