Quo tendis inertem Rex periture, fugam? Nescis heu, perdite! nescis Quem fugias; hostes incurris, dum fugis hostem. Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim.
Where, O king, destined to perish, are you directing your unavailing flight? Alas, lost one, you know not whom you flee; you are running upon enemies, whilst you flee from your foe. You fall upon the rock Scylla desiring to avoid the whirlpool Charybdis.
Phillippe Gaultier de Lille ("D. Chatillon"). Alexandriad, Book V. 298. Found in the Menagiana. Ed. by Bertrand de la Monnoie. (1715). Source said to be Quintus Curtius. See Andrews—Antient and Modern Anecdotes, p. 307. (Ed. 1790). (See also Homer—Odyssey, Book XII, line 85. Merchant of Venice, III. 5).
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Quo, tendis, Rex, fugam, Nescis, heu, perdite, Quem, fugias