Quid tū, inquit, es animantis? quī pūlicem noctū cēperat. Quī sē rēspondit eum esse, quī, ut ā natura ad exsūgendum dē hūmānō corpore sanguinem prōcreātus sit, ita noceat nēminī, praeterquam quod cutem leviter pungat. Quārē nōn dēbēre illum īnsontis caede polluere manūs. Interrogātus autem, bonī nē aliquid facere posset? Neque bonī neque malī ferē quicquam, rēspondit. Moriēre igitur, inquit ille, quippe quī molestus mihi fueris, cum nec laedere magnoperē, neque prōdesse omnīno possīs.
SOURCE: This comes from the Latin translation that accompanies Camerarius's edition of the Aesopic corpus; the 1571 edition of Camerarius's Aesop is available at GoogleBooks. This is fable 244 in Camerarius; for other versions, see Perry 272.
READ OUT LOUD. Choose which marked text you prefer to practice with - macrons (above) or accent marks (below) - and read the text out loud until you feel comfortable and confident. Then, try reading the unmarked text at the very bottom. It should be easy for you after practicing with the marked texts. :-)
ACCENT MARKS. Here is the text with accent marks, plus some color-coding for the words of three or more syllables (blue: penultimate stress; red: antepenultimate stress):
Quid tu, inquit, es animántis? qui púlicem noctu céperat. Qui se respóndit eum esse, qui, ut a natúra ad exsugéndum de humáno córpore sánguinem procreátus sit, ita nóceat némini, praetérquam quod cutem léviter pungat. Quare non debére illum insóntis caede pollúere manus. Interrogátus autem, boni ne áliquid fácere posset? Neque boni neque mali fere quicquam, respóndit. Moriére ígitur, inquit ille, quippe qui moléstus mihi fúeris, cum nec laédere magnópere, neque prodésse omníno possis.
UNMARKED TEXT. Here is the unmarked text - after practicing with the marked text that you prefer, you should not have any trouble with the unmarked text:
Quid tu, inquit, es animantis?
qui pulicem noctu ceperat.
Qui se respondit eum esse,
qui,
ut a natura
ad exsugendum
de humano corpore sanguinem
procreatus sit,
ita noceat nemini,
praeterquam
quod cutem leviter pungat.
Quare
non debere illum
insontis caede
polluere manus.
Interrogatus autem,
boni ne aliquid facere posset?
Neque boni
neque mali fere quicquam,
respondit.
Moriere igitur, inquit ille,
quippe qui
molestus mihi fueris,
cum nec laedere magnopere,
neque prodesse omnino possis.
IMAGE. Here is an illustration from the Medici Aesop, which is online at the New York Public Library website.
