Note 259 — Chapter XVII

Here, and in Ep. 108, to Arno, Alcuin combines two phrases from the Song of Solomon, v. 7 and 8: “The watchmen have wounded me,” “I am sick of love.” In the letter to Arno he appears to quote the actual words of a text in his possession: vulnerata karitate ego sum; in the present letter he writes caritatis calamo vulneratus sum. The Vulgate has vulneraverunt me—amore langueo. See p. 275.