ABSTRACT
The “ABC of Aristotle” is a late Middle English alliterative abecedarium that counsels adherence to Aristotle's “Golden Mean”: the doctrine that health and happiness in life are to be found by seeking a path of moderation in all things. (See figure 1.) The poem illustrates this wisdom by listing extremes of behavior that a child or young adult should resist, occasionally offering a balanced alternative between two forms of extravagance already enumerated. The ideal of moderation is then stated formally in the poem's last line: “a mesurable meene is eu ere ee beste of alle.” In accordance with the formal device of an abecedarium, the undesirable modes of conduct are arranged in alphabetical order, each line of the poem beginning with a successive letter of the alphabet, running from A through W and excluding J and U. 1 The poem's alliterative verse form makes way for at least two additional behavioral extremes within each line, so that, all told, it lists fifty-seven peccadilloes to be avoided.
