CATON1, CATOUN1. Cato was the supposed author of Disticha de moribus ad filium, known also as Ethica Catonis, Liber Catonianus, and Disticha Catonis, written probably in the third or fourth century A.D. The work served as a Latin grammar as well as an introduction to ethics, its aim being to teach the four cardinal virtues. It was glossed by scholars from Remigius of Auxerre in the ninth century to Erasmus in the sixteenth. Twelfth- and thirteenth-century Latin satirical poets used Cato familiarly, as did Chaucer's contemporaries Deschamps, Langland, and Gower. The Liber Catonianus was an anthology, or florilegium, containing pieces by Cato, Avianus, Theodolus, Maximianus, Statius, and Claudian; Cato was thus one of the curriculum authors taught in the schools.
The Miller paraphrases Distich II.2; MillT 3163-3164; variations appear in MillT 3454, 3558. John the Carpenter is untaught and does not know Cato, MillT 3227. The Miller quotes from Cato, MillT 3229-3232; this quotation is not found in Cato but in glosses of Facetus 37. Alys of Bath paraphrases Distich III.23, WBP 781. The Merchant quotes Distich III.23, MerchT 1377. The Franklin's "Lerneth to suffre" is a paraphrase of Distich I.38, FranklT 773-777. Dame Prudence's exhortation on good counsel recalls Distich III.4, Mel 1181-1183; her remarks on examining advice resemble Distich III.15, Mel 1215-1216; on the value of true friends, Dame Prudence paraphrases Distich IV.13, Mel 1306; on the wisdom of suffering annoyances, she paraphrases Distich IV.39, Mel 1489; on the dangers of idleness, Dame Prudence recalls Distich I.2, Mel 1594; on stinginess and avarice, Dame Prudence quotes Distich IV.16, Mel 1602; on the dangers of waste, she recalls Distich III.21, Mel 1605. Pertelote quotes Cato on dreams, Distich III.3, NPT 2940. Chauntecleer replies that although Cato was doubtless a learned man, he gave an opinion that many others have reversed, NPT 2970-2981. The Second Nun's Prologue, 1-7, may be traced to glosses on Distich I.2. The narrator paraphrases Distich I.17, CYT 688-689; the gloss for this passage provides the identification (Manly-Rickert III: 522). The Manciple paraphrases Distich I.12, MancT 325-328. Robinson (770) identifies the "wise man" of ParsT 661 as "Dionysus Cato," Distich I.38; the Riverside Chaucer does not offer an identification.
Caton, one form of the French variant, appears in medial position, NPT 2976; Catoun, both French and Anglo-Norman variant, occurs four times in medial position, MillT 3227; MerchT 1377; NPT 2940; CYT 688; and once in final rhyming position, NPT 2971. Both forms appear in the prose tale of Melibee.