Note 98 — from the Origins To the Renaissance (continued 2)
Reading edition
"Codex Exoniensis," pp. 197 ff. This poem is a paraphrase of a "Carmen de Phœnice" attributed to Lactantius, filled with conceits in the worst taste:
Mors illi venus est; sola est in morte voluptas; Ut possit nasci hæc appetit ante mori. Ipsa sibi proles, suus est pater et suus hæres. Nutrix ipsa sui, semper alumna sibi; Ipsa quidem, sed non eadem, quæ est ipsa nec ipsa est....
"Incerti auctoris Phœnix, Lactantio tributus," in Migne's "Patrologia," vol. vii. col. 277.