Argument.—I never drank of Hippocrene, never dreamed on Parnassus. The maids of Helicon and the waters of Pirene are meat and drink for my masters—the acknowledged classics—not for me, a poor lay-brother, with my humble, homely song (1-7). Others succeed: the parrot with his Greek, the pie with her Latin. They have not dreamed on Parnassus either; but they have a teacher—the great master Belly—and Sixpence is their Phoebus Apollo. Hark how they troll forth their notes! (8-14).
Alas for me! no golden Muse, no silver sixpence inspires me. Quis leget haec?
This prologue is a survival of the dramatic element of the satire, as Casaubon has remarked. Peculiarly personal, the prologue is found in the earlier and in the later stages of art, in ballad literature and in reflective poetry. The spurious verses which precede the Aeneid—Ille ego—were intended to serve as a prologue, and prologues in prose and poetry are familiar to the readers of Martial, Statius, Ausonius, and Claudian.
There is no good reason to doubt the genuineness of the prologue, or to attribute the authorship to Caesius Bassus, the Editor of Persius, as Heinrich has done. Nor is there any sufficient ground for supposing that the prologue is fragmentary. The two parts—of seven verses each—do not hang well together, but the connection of the thought is not so remote after all. ‘In the former part, Persius ridicules the pretended source of the poetical inspiration of his time, in the latter he exposes its real origin’ (Teuffel).
More open to debate is the relation of the prologue to the satires. Is it an introduction to all, or only to the first? It is true that the prologue seems to belong especially to the first. Both furnish us with a programme of the poet’s views, with a confession of faith which consisted in a want of faith in the age; but as the First Satire itself contains a vindication of the poet’s work, and forms an introduction to the other five satires, it is safer not to restrict the prologue to the narrower office.
It is needless to say that these verses have not lacked admirers and imitators. The latter half is parodied by Milton (In Salmasii Hundredam), and the line magister artis ingenique largitor is expanded by Rabelais (4, 59).
The metre is the scazon or choliambus (G., 755; A., 82, 2, a, R), and as the combination of different rhythms is one of the peculiarities of the earlier satura, it is not unlikely that Persius followed an older pattern. In Petronius, cap. 5, the choliambus is in like manner followed by the hexameter, but the analogy is not close. The choliambus, the invention of the great lampoonist Hippōnax, is admirably adapted by its structure for the expression of disappointment, vexation, discontent. The march of the iambus is suddenly checked in the fifth foot, and the rapid measure violently tripped up. It is a mischievous metre, and betrays in its malice the Thersitic character of its inventor.
1. The allusion is to Ennius, the alter Homerus, who drank of Hippocrene (Prop., 3, 2 [4], 6), and dreamed that he had seen his great original on Parnassus (Cic., Ac. Pr., 2, 16, 51).—fonte: ‘in the spring.’ The Latin Abl. often has a locative translation, when the conception is not necessarily or not distinctly locative. (G.,* 387.)—prolui: ‘drenched’ is designedly misused. The figure is Litotes. (G., 448, R. 2.) The greater the depression, the greater the rebound. Non prolui labra = ne primoribus quidem labris attigi. —caballino: Fons caballinus, ‘hack’s spring,’ is a mock translation of Hippocrene = ἵππου κρήνη: the fountain opened by Pegasus with his hoof. Caballus is a comic equivalent of equus. Comp. Juvenal’s Gorgonei caballi (3, 118).
* G. = Gildersleeve’s L. Grammar; A. = Allen and Greenough’s; M. = Madvig’s.
2. bicipiti: ‘two-peaked.’ Parnassus is called biceps, either because it appears to have two peaks from such common points of view as the entrance to the Corinthian Gulf (δικόρυμβος ὁ Παρνασός, Lucian, Char., 5), or because of the two tall cliffs (Ov., Met., 1, 316; 2, 221)—the Φαιδριάδες of Diodorus (16, 28), the δίλοφος πέτρα of Sophocles (Ant., 1126)—between which the Castalian spring takes its rise.—somniasse: sc. me somniasse (G., 527, R. 2; M., 401). With memini the Pres. Inf. is more common of Personal Recollection (G., 277, R; A., 58, 11, b), but the Perfect is also found when the action is distinctly recognized as a by-gone. Comp. saepe velut gemmas eius signumque probarem | per causam memini me tetigisse manum, Tib., 1, 6, 26. Also Ov., Am., 3, 7, 25-6; A. A., 2, 169. The Perfect is especially appropriate here, as the balance of the period would seem to require nec prolui nec (quod meminerim) somniavi; and so Conington with correct instinct translates, ‘never that I can remember.’
3. sic: οὕτως, ‘just so,’ ‘without any warning, any preparation.’—prodirem: ‘make my appearance’ (as it were on the stage).
4. Heliconidas: The Muses. Comp. Hesiod (Theog., 1). Hermann prefers the epic form, Heliconiadas.—-que—-que: G., 478; A., 43, 2, a.—pallidamque Pirenen: Pirene is the fountain of Acrocorinthus, where Pegasus was broken in by Bellerophon. The poetic virtue of its water was a late discovery. Pallidam, attribute for effect. Comp. pallida mors, χλωρὸν δέος, and the like. The pallor of students and poets needs no illustration.
5. remitto: ἀφίημι, for the more usual relinquo, which is a common v.l. Kisselius (Specimen criticum, p. 51) cites Cic., De Orat., 1, 58: tibi remittunt istam voluptatem et ea se carere patiuntur; and Tac., Hist., 4, 11: vim principis complecti, nomen remittere.—imagines: ‘busts’ (set up in libraries, public and private). Comp. ut dignus venias hederis et imagine macra, Juv., 7, 29.—lambunt: more frequently used of flames.
6. hederae: Notice the plural, ‘ivy wreaths,’ G., 195, R. 6. The ivy, being sacred to Bacchus, formed the wreath of victors in scenic contests; thence transferred to poets generally.—sequaces: ‘lissom, pliant.’ Persius seldom, if ever, uses a merely descriptive epithet, and hence some commentators have detected a sneer in these words, ‘lackeying ivy belicks.’—semipaganus: ‘poor half-brother of the guild’ (Conington). The paganus is admitted to all the sacra pagi (paganalia); the semipaganus is a lay-brother. Persius is not a vates, but a semivates. He is not initiated into what Aristophanes calls the γενναίων ὄργια Μουσῶν, Ran., 356. Those who believe that the Satires of Persius were aimed at Nero, see in semipaganus, ‘half-educated,’ as well as in the last seven verses, a deliberate disguise of the poet’s real condition, as a man of culture and of wealth. They overlook the sneer at the class which he is not worthy to join.
7. vatum: with the same tone of derision as in the English equivalent, ‘bards.’—nostrum: perhaps not simply = meum, but ‘native, home-made.’
8. expedivit: Expedire and conari both imply difficulty (Jahn), but the difficulty is completely conquered in expedire; not so in conari. The parrot, if not a Greek (ψιττακός), is a Hellenized Hindoo (bitak), and has learned to utter glibly his familiar Bonjour. The magpie is an Italian, and not so deft. Others regard this interpretation, which is essentially Jahn’s, as too subtle, and make verba nostra, which many prefer to nostra verba, simply equivalent to ‘human speech.’—chaere = χαῖρε. Greek was the language of small talk, love talk, parrot-talk.
10. magister artis ingenique largitor: Magister, of that which is taught; largitor, of that which comes from nature’s bounty; -que combines the two into an exhaustive unit (G., 478; A., 43, 3, a). The thought recurs in numberless forms. Comp. ἁ πενία, Διόφαντε, μόνα τὰς τέχνας ἐγείρει, Theocr., 21, 1; Paupertas omnes artis perdocet, Plaut., Stich., 1, 3. 23 (Jahn). Add χρεία διδάσκει, κἂν βραδύς τις ᾖ, σοφόν, Eur., fr. 709 (Nauck), and Alexis, fr. 205 (3, 479 Mein.), where the γαστήρ is expressly mentioned. Birds, it seems, were trained to talk by hunger.
11. negatas: (a natura).—artifex sequi: poetic syntax for a. sequendi. G., 424, R. 4. (comp. 429, R. 4); A., 57, 8, f, 3. A so-called Greek construction. See 1, 59. 70. 118; 5, 15. 24; 6, 6. 24.—sequi = sectari.—voces: (articulate) ‘speech.’
12. quod si: ‘Nay, if but.’ Commentators on Horace still indulge in remarks on the unpoetical character of quod si, copying Orelli on Od., 1, 1, 35. If quod si is prosaic, Propertius is to be pitied; he uses it at every turn.—dolosi: ‘seductive, alluring.’ Persius does not deal much in ‘general epithets;’ hence δόλιον κέρδος (Pind., Pyth., 4, 140) is not a sufficient parallel.—refulserit: better every way than refulgeat, which Jahn accepts in his ed. of 1868. The Perf. Subj. is more vivid and more correct than the Present. Re- must not be overlooked. Like the English ‘again,’ it denotes the reversal of a previous condition. Refulgere, ‘to catch the eye by its glitter,’ ‘to flash on the sight’—whereas it lay unnoticed before.—nummi: better translated as a coin. Comp. ‘The Splendid Shilling,’ ‘The Almighty Dollar;’ perhaps ‘The Magic Sixpence.’ Comp. Juv., 7, 8: nam si Pieria quadrans tibi nullus in umbra | ostendatur, etc.
13. corvos poetas et poetridas picas: ‘Raven poets and poetess pies,’ the substantive standing for an epithet, like popa venter, 6, 74. Which of the substantives is adjective to the other does not appear. For the corvus, Poe and Dickens will answer as well as Macrob., Sat. 2, 4. The male poet has a female counterpart in the magpie (pica). According to Ov. (Met., 5, 294, foll.), the daughters of Pierus, the Macedonian, were changed into magpies because they had challenged the Muses to a contest, and reviled the victorious goddesses. There seems to be an allusion to the literary ladies of the day, the blue-stockings of Juvenal’s Satire (6, 434 foll.). See Friedländer, Sittengeschichte, 1, 481. Poetridas after Gr. analogy.
14. cantare nectar: a poetic extension of the cognate accusative = nectareum carmen cantare (G., 331; A., 52, 1, b). Nectar is copied from Pind., Ol., 7, 7 (νέκταρ χυτόν, Μοισᾶν δόσιν), and when combined with Pegaseium is sufficiently grandiloquent to be as absurd as it is intended to be. The old reading, melos (μέλος), with its faulty quantity, rarely finds a champion against nectar.
This Satire is an attack on the literature of the day as the efflorescence of the corruption of the times. The age is personified by a critical friend, but it is not always easy to determine when the poet is speaking and when the friend, or when the satirist is meeting an imaginary objection from some other imaginary quarter. The unreality of the whole dialogue is confessed with more candor than art in v. 44. Instead of a firm outline, we have a floating quisquis es.
Argument.—The poem opens with a line, which Persius recites to his man of straw, who forthwith urges him to abandon authorship (1-3). The poet acknowledges that he is at odds with his generation and expects no applause at their hands. But little does he care for their praise; let them prefer a Labeo to him. Their standard is not his standard. He is his own canon. He will not, can not follow the advice of his friend. He must obey the impulse of his temper and speak out (4-12).
Whether we write laborious verse or laborious prose—so the attack begins—it is all one; display and applause are the aim and object of both. The style is fustian; the delivery wanton; the theme prurient. The bard is little better than a bawd (13-23). And yet so deeply rooted is this love of praise that learning is loss, unless it be minted into golden opinions, and knowledge is naught until it be known of men. To be pointed out as a lion, to be used as a school classic—what glory! (24-30). Oh, yes! A glory shared by the dainty ditties, the mewling elegies of lisping, snuffling dandies, for this is what calls forth the approval of the after-dinner circle. Such is the praise that is to bless the poet even after death! (30-40). It is true that fame is not to be despised. No poet but feels his heart vibrate to praise. But the popular acclaim is not the ultimate standard. Mad epics, elegies thrown off in a surfeit, effusions of aristocratic easy-chairs are alike lauded. A man feeds the hungry and clothes the naked, and then asks for a candid opinion. Mockery of criticism! (40-62). The taste of the people relishes nothing but smooth verses—verses without flaw or break, faultless machine-verses—which answer any turn, and serve alike for satire, for eclogues, for heroic strains (63-75). Others, again, call themselves passionate pilgrims to the well of Latin undefiled, and linger over the obsolete magniloquence of Pacuvius and Accius. A fine olla podrida—this jumble of modern affectation and ancient trumpery (76-82). Bad as this is in literature, how much worse it is to find that the jargon of the salon has become the language of the courts, and that the manly Roman speech is dead. Even in a matter of life and death, the accused thinks more of his rhetorical than of his judicial sentence, and listens for a ‘Pretty good,’ as if that were the verdict (83-91). It will not do to say that great improvements have been made in the art of verse. Smooth are the verses and resonant, but at the cost of sense, of manly vigor. Once catch the trick, and any body can reel off such lines (92-106). Ears are ticklish, our satirist admits. Truth is an unwelcome rasp, and the cold shoulder of great men no toothsome meal. Police regulations are stringent. ‘Commit no nuisance’ is posted every where. Ah, well! It was otherwise in the time of Lucilius. That was a free world in which he craunched Lupus and Mucius. It was otherwise in the time of Horace. That was a gay world, in which he tickled while he taught. And is the poet not to mutter even? King Midas’s barber told his master’s secret to a ditch. Where can a ditch be found? Here in this book (107-121). Few readers can our author hope or desire—only such as have studied closely the great masters of the Attic sock, not such as ignorantly make a mock of Greek attire and Greek science, pride themselves on petty local honors, and rise to no higher conception of wit or fun than a dog-fight or a jibe at personal infirmity (122-134).
It has been well observed that this is the only Satire of Persius in the strict sense of the term; the other five have rather the character of essays on moral themes.
One of the best commentaries on this poem is the famous 114th Epistle of Seneca.
The student of English literature will remember that Gifford’s Baviad is an imitation of this piece.
1-7. At the very outset we encounter a difficulty in the distribution of the first lines between P. (Persius) and M. (Monitor, as the second interlocutor is usually called). The arrangement followed in the text may be explained thus:
P. (is discovered absorbed in contemplation. He recites a line from his projected poem).—‘Vanity of vanities!’
M.—Who will read this stuff of yours?
P. (wakes up).—Do you mean that for me? Why, no one, of course.
M.—No one?
P.—Next to no one.
M.—A lame and impotent conclusion!
P.—Why so? Am I to fear that Polydamas and the Trojan dames shall make up their minds to give Labeo the preference over me? Stuff! Don’t assent, when muddled Rome rejects a thing as light weight, and do not trouble yourself to get the faulty tongue of that pair of scales to work right, and look not outside of yourself for what you can find only within yourself.
1. O curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane! Homines and res are both used for ‘the world,’ sometimes singly, sometimes together. Res is often to be omitted in translation, or another turn given. O quantum est in rebus inane, ‘Vanity of vanities’—a suitable Stoic text. There seems to be no allusion to Lucretius’s common phrase, in rebus inane.
2. Quis leget haec? a quotation from Lucilius, according to the scholiast. Jahn follows Pinzger in supposing that the quotation begins with O curas hominum! See, however, L. Müller, Lucilius, p. 194.
3. vel duo vel nemo: is more guarded, and hence (by Litotes) stronger than nemo. Comp. Gr. ἢ τις ἢ οὐδείς.
4. ne mihi praetulerint: an elliptical sentence, such as we often find in final relations (A., 70, 3, f), in English as well as in Latin (G., 688, R.). The sequence is not common in the classic period, but see G., 512, R. Comp. Plaut., Aul., 2, 3, 11; Liv., 44, 22, and Weissenborn in loc. The Greek would be: μὴ προτιμήσωσι.—Polydamas: Some write Pulydamas, corresponding with the Homeric form, Πουλυδάμας; but Pōlydamas (Πωλυδάμας) is the Sicilian Doric, like pōlypus (πωλύπος). The allusion is to a familiar passage in Hom., Il., 22, 100. 104. 5: Πουλυδάμας μοι πρῶτος ἐλεγχείην ἀναθήσει—νῦν δ᾽ ἐπεὶ ὤλεσα λαὸν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ἐμῇσιν | αίδέομαι Τρῶας καὶ Τρῳάδας ἑλκεσιπέπλους. These are the words of Hector, as he steels his great heart to meet Achilles. Polydamas is the counsellor who had urged him (18, 254) to withdraw the Trojans into Troy, and Hector is ashamed to turn back and encounter the rebuke of Polydamas and the reproaches of his people. Persius uses Polydamas as the type of the Roman critic, and by a familiar satiric stroke leaves out the Trojan men, as if they were no men in Rome. Others understand ‘Nero and his effeminate court.’ The Homeric passage had been well worn by Aristotle and Cicero (Att., 2, 5, 1; 7, 1, 4; 8, 16, 2) before it came to Persius. There is perhaps a side-thrust at the pride of the old Roman families in their Trojan descent. Comp. Juv., 1, 100: iubet a praecone vocari | ipsos Troiugenas; also 8, 181. See Friedländer, Sittengesch., 1, 230.—Labeonem: the Attius (Labeo) of v. 50, an unfortunate translator of Homer, who stuck close to the letter. The scholiast has preserved a line. Ὠμὸν βεβρώθοις Πρίαμον Πριάμοιό τε παῖδας (Il., 4, 35) is rendered thus: crudum manduces Priamum Priamique pisinnos. ‘Raw you’d munch both Priam himself and Priam’s papooses.’
5. nugae: The accusative is more common. Comp. G., 340, R. 1.—non accedas—nec quaesiveris: Non and nec, where Quintilian’s rigid rule (1, 5, 50) requires ne and neve. G., 266, R. 1; A., 41, 2, e. Comp. 3, 73 and 5, 45.—turbida: ‘muddle-headed’ (Conington). But comp. Alexandrea turbida, Auson., Clar. Urb., 3, 4.
6, 7. elevet: ‘reject as light.’ The figure is taken from weighing, doubtless a common trope in the schools.—examen: (filum, ligula) is the ‘index, tongue, or needle’ which is said to be inprobum, ‘faulty,’ ‘wilful,’ ‘untoward,’ because it does not move freely or accurately on its pivot.—trutina: (Gr. τρυτάνη, a word of doubtful etymology and loose application, means here ‘a balance,’ ‘a pair of scales,’ not, as the scholiast says, the foramen, ‘fork’ or ‘cheeks,’ in which the examen plays.—castiges = percutias (Schol.) of the tap given to a hitching balance. Gesner, s.v., regards castigare here as equivalent to conpescere (5, 100), a view which has a good deal in its favor. The notion is not ‘do not correct the popular standard,’ but ‘do not try to get an exact result by the popular standard (for your guidance).’ Hermann (Lect. Pers., II., 9) follows those who understand the examen and trutina of different instruments: Noli examen tuum in populi trutina castigare.* So Pretor, who translates: ‘Do not try to correct the erring tongue of your delicate balance by applying to it a pair of ordinary scales.’—nec te quaesiveris extra: (te) ‘Nor look for yourself (what you can find only in yourself) outside of yourself.’ ‘Be your own norm.’ Others arrange: nec quaesiveris extra te, ‘Nor ask any opinion but your own.’
* No satisfactory treatment of this subject is accessible to me. The Greek and Latin dictionaries are wildly at variance with one another and with the authorities. Examen seems to have been originally the strap by which the beam was suspended—not from AG, but from AP. See Isidor., Orig., 16, 23, and comp. amentum (ammentum). Add Lucil., 16, 14 (L. Müller). Eustathius’s τρυτάνη ἐπὶ ζογοῦ ἡ τειρομένη τῷ βάρει τῶν ὄγκων points to the pivot (knife-edge) as the first meaning of trutina.
8-12. The distribution followed is that of Jahn (1843), which gives nolo (v. 11) to the interlocutor. The jerky, self-interrupting discourse is supposed to be characteristic of the petulante splene cachinno. ‘What is the use of consulting Rome? Every body there is an— If I might say what! If I might? Surely I may, when I consider how old we are become, how grum we are, and all the step-fatherly manner of our lives, since the days of “commoneys” and “alley tors.” Indulge me. It can not be. What am I to do? Nothing? But I am a man of laughter with a saucy spleen.’
8. nam Romae quis non? The suppressed predicate is to be supplied from the general scope of the passage. The sentence is not completed in v. 131 (auriculas asini habet), for the simple reason that Persius did not write quis non in that passage, but Mida rex.
9. cum—aspexi: Cum is equivalent to postquam here. G., 567; A., 62, 3, e.—canitiem: ‘premature old age,’ ‘loss of youthful freshness.’ All through this satire the poet lashes old age, as commentators have observed. So here, and 22. 26. 56. 79. The ‘hoary head’ is not a ‘crown of glory,’ but a sign of debauchery; the ‘fair, round belly,’ which is not uncomely in the elderly justice, is nothing but a swagging paunch; the bald pate is not a mirror of honor, but a mirror of dishonor; in short, ‘no fool like an old fool.’ Especially severe is Persius on the ‘used-up’ man; and the affected moralizing of young men, who had outlived their youth before they had had time to forget the games of boyhood, drove him to satire. On the Neronian hypothesis, Persius is endeavoring to masquerade as an old man.—nostrum istud vivere triste: ‘sour way of life.’ This is a so-called figura Graeca, which out-Greeks the Greeks. Good authors are very cautious in adding an attribute to the infinitive, and do not go beyond ipsum, hoc ipsum. Scire tuum, v. 27; ridere meum, v. 122; velle suum, 5, 53; sapere nostrum, 6, 38, can not be rendered literally into the language from which they are supposed to be imitated. Nursery infinitives (3, 17) belong to a different category.
10. nucibus: The modern equivalent is ‘marbles.’ The very games survive. (See 3, 50.) It is hardly necessary to prove that putting away such childish things means becoming a man. Da nuces pueris, iners | concubine: satis diu | lusisti nucibus, Catull., 61, 127-9.
11. patruos: On the accusative, see G., 329, R. 1; A., 52, 1, c. The patruorum rigor was proverbial. Owing to the legal position of the paternal uncle, who was often the guardian, it is the patruus, not the avunculus, who is the type of severity. So the cruel uncle of the ballad of the ‘children in the wood’ is the father’s brother.
12. quid faciam? G., 258; A., 57, 6.—sed: (I know you want me to do nothing), ‘but’ (I can’t keep quiet) ‘I am a laugher born.’—petulante: literally, ‘given to butting,’ hence ‘saucy’—splene: The seat of laughter.—cachinno: a substantive, perhaps built by Persius on the analogy of bibo, epulo, erro, etc. Comp. glutto, 5, 112; palpo, 5, 176. Hermann, following Heindorf, makes cachinno a verb, and reads: tunc, tunc—ignoscite, nolo; quid faciam sed sum petulante splene—cachinno, ‘Then—then—excuse me—I would rather not—what am I to do?—I can’t help it—my spleen is too much for me—I must have my laugh.’ Jahn (1868) accepts tunc, tunc—ignoscite, nolo, but goes no further.
13-23. The battery opens. Verse-wright and writer of prose alike care for nothing except applause. Follows a vivid picture of a popular recitation.
13. Scribimus inclusi: Comp. scribimus indocti, etc. Hor., Ep., 2, 1, 117.—inclusi: ‘in closet pent’ (Gifford’s Baviad), to show the artificial and labored character of the composition in contrast with the beggarly result. Markland’s ingenious conjecture, inclusus numeris, is not necessary. Heinr. admires Markl., but retains numeros as a Greek accusative!—numeros: ‘poetry;’ pede liber = pede libero, ‘foot-loose,’ ‘prose,’ soluta oratio.
14. grande: ‘vast,’ ‘grandiose.’ Grandis is always used with intention, which our word ‘grand’ sometimes fails to give. See 1, 68; 2, 42; 3, 45. 55; 5, 7. 186; 6, 22.—quod pulmo: ‘something vast enough to make a lung generous of breath pant in the utterance of it.’ Jahn (1868) reads quo for quod; quo is not so vigorous.—animae praelargus: a stretch of the adjectives of fulness (G., 373, R. 6; A., 50, 3, b); praelargus = capacissimus.
15. scilicet: Ironical sympathy, ‘O yes!’—haec: The position is emphatic.—populo: ‘to the public,’ ‘in public.’ The political force of populus has ceased.—pexus: ‘with hair and beard well dress’d.’ ‘Combed’ hardly conveys the notion: say ‘shampooed.’—togaque recenti: ‘fresh’ (from the fuller).
16. natalicia sardonyche: Jewelry reserved for great occasions. The brilliancy of the sardonyx is a common theme. Rufe vides ilium subsellia prima tenentem | cuius et hinc lucet sardonychata manus, Mart., 2, 29, 1-2—tandem: shows impatience.—albus = albatus (comp. 2, 40; Hor., Sat., 2, 2, 61) on account of the toga recens. So niveos ad frena Quirites, Juv., 10, 45. Heinr. argues at length in favor of ‘pale.’
17. sede celsa = ex cathedra.—leges: So Jahn (1868), despite the MSS. Legens may be explained at a pinch as lecturus, a comma being put after ocello; Hermann combines with pulmo, and comp. Juv., 10, 238 sq., where os stands for the owner of the same. Add cana gula, Juv., 14, 10. But pexus and albus make such a synecdoche incredible.—liquido: quia liquidam vocem efficit. Comp. Hor., Od., 1, 24, 3: cui liquidam pater | vocem cum cithara dedit. The attribute is put for the effect, as in pallidam Pirenen, Prol., 4.—plasmate: according to Quint., 1, 8, 2, a technical name for the professional training of the voice, a kind of rhetorical solfeggio. Others understand the plasma of a gargle to clear the throat.
18. mobile collueris: Mobile is predicative. Translate: ‘after gargling your throat to suppleness by filtering modulation.’—patranti ocello: ‘an eye that would be doing,’ ‘a leering, lustful eye.’ Quint. (8, 3, 44) says of patrare: mala consuetudine in obscenum intellectum sermo detortus. Comp. ‘do’ in Shaksp., Troil. and Cressida, 4, 2: Go hang yourself, you naughty, mocking uncle! You bring me to do, and then you flout me too.—fractus = effeminatus, ‘debauched,’ ‘languishing,’ κλαδαρός. Conington translates: ‘with a languishing roll of your wanton eye.’
19. neque more probo nec voce serena: Litotes. see Prol., 1.
20. ingentis Titos: Comp. celsi Rhamnes, Hor., A. P., 342. Here, however, there is a reference to size of body (like ingens Pulfennius, 5, 190; torosa iuventus, 3, 86; caloni alto, 5, 95), for which Persius seems to have had a Stoic contempt. Titi, perhaps another form of Tities, the old Sabine nobility (Mommsen, Rom. Gesch., B. 1, K. 4), of whom much aristocratic virtue might have been expected (sanctos licet horrida mores | tradiderit domus ac veteres imitata Sabinos, Juv., 10, 298-9). Instead of that we have great, hulking debauchees.—trepidare: ‘quiver.’ The word is used indifferently of pleasant and unpleasant agitation. The quavering measure thrills them so that they can not sit still. On the infinitive, see 3, 64.
21. scalpuntur intima: ‘their marrow is tickled.’ Scalpere is opposed to radere, 1, 107. Comp. 3, 114; 5, 15.
22. tun: -ne is often found in rhetorical questions.—vetule: ‘you old reprobate,’ ‘you old sinner.’—escas: ‘tidbits;’ ‘escas colligere,’ ‘cater.’
23. quibus et dicas: Et belongs to cute perditus, which is variously explained ‘dropsical,’ ‘unblushing,’ ‘thoroughly diseased.’ The context requires a tough subject, and ‘hide-bound’ or ‘case-hardened’ might answer as a rendering.—ohe: a reminiscence of Hor., Sat. 2, 5, 96: importunus amat laudari; donec ‘Ohe iam’ | ad caelum manibus sublatis dixerit, urge, | crescentem tumidis infla sermonibus utrem, which last line helps us to understand cute perditus. Persius, as is his wont, tries to improve on Horace, and makes his man inelastic.
24-43. M. Study is useless except to show what a man has in him.—P. A low ideal for a student.—M. Fame is a fine thing.—P. It would be a fine thing if it were not shared by every dinner-table poet.—M. You are too captious. It is a great thing to have written poems that are proof against trunk-maker and pastry-cook.
24. Quo didicisse? The exclamatory infinitive with involved subject. G., 534 (340); A., 57, 8, g.
25. iecore: the seat of the passions. Here ‘heart’ or ‘breast’ would seem to be more appropriate.—caprificus: the wild fig-tree sprouts in the clefts of rocks and cracks of buildings, which it rends in its growth. Ad quae | discutienda valent mala robora fici, Juv., 10, 145.
26. En pallor seniumque: ‘So that’s the meaning of your studious pallor (v. 124; 3, 85; 5, 62) and your (early) old age.’ With senium comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 18, 47: inhumanae senium depone Camenae. Persius mocks at the weariness to the flesh which the student has undergone for so paltry a result. This is the arrangement of Jahn (1843) and Hermann. Jahn (1868) follows Heinr. in giving the line to the remonstrant. En, originally an interrogative, is, after the time of Sallust, confounded with em, and combined with the nom. in the sense of em, which properly takes the accus. alone. So Ribbeck, Beiträge zur Lehre von den latein. Partikeln, S. 35.—o mores: Cicero’s famous ejaculation.—usque adeone: Usque adeone mori miserum est, Verg., Aen., 12, 646; usque adeo nihil est, Juv., 3, 84.
27. scire tuum nihil est, etc.: ‘And is thy knowledge nothing if not known’ (Gifford). These jingles were much admired in antiquity. The passage from Lucilius, which Persius is said to have imitated, reads, according to L. Müller (fr. inc., 40, 73): ne dampnum faciam, scire hoc sibi nesciat is me. A better example in Lucr., 4, 470.
28. At: objects. See G., 490; A., 43, 3, b.—digito monstrari: δακτύλῳ δείκνυσθαι (δακτυλοδεικτεῖσθαι). Quod monstror digito praetereuntium, Hor., Od., 4, 3, 22; saepe aliquis digito vatem designat euntem, Ov., Am., 3, 1. 19.—hic est: οὗτος ἐκεῖνος, in the well-known story of Demosthenes. Cic., Tusc. Dis., 5, 36.—dicier: On the form, see G., 191, 2; A., 30, 6, e, 4. So fallier, 3, 50.
29. cirratorum: ‘curl-pates.’ Jahn cites Mart., 9, 29, 7: Matutini cirrata caterva magistri. School-boys wore their hair long, but Persius does not waste his epithets, and ‘youths of quality’ are doubtless meant. Comp. the lautorum pueros of Juv., 7, 177.—dictata: ‘Persius takes not only higher schools, but higher lessons, dictata being passages from the poets read out by the master (for want of books) and repeated by the boys’ (Conington). Translate ‘a lesson-book,’ a ‘school classic.’
30. Ecce: introduces a satiric sketch of ‘classic poets at work.’—inter pocula: ‘over their cups.’ Poems were read at table by an ἀναγνώστης, as lives of the saints are still read in religious houses.
31. Romulidae: Comp. Titos, v. 20; trossulus, v. 82; Romule, v. 87.—dia: θεῖα, an affected word. ‘Let us hear,’ say the company, ‘what his charming verses are about’ (Pretor). Conington renders: ‘What news from the divine world of poesy?’
32. hyacinthia laena: The dandies of the day wore upper garments of military cut and gay colors. A similar military dandyism on the part of non-military men is observable in the Macedonian period. Comp. χλαμυδηφόροι ἄνδρες, Theocr., 15, 6, with the commentators.
33. rancidulum quiddam: ‘affected stuff,’ ‘namby-pamby trash.’—balba de nare = de nare balbutiens, ‘with a nasal lisp,’ ‘with a snuffle and a lisp’ (Conington). Balbus is especially used of the introduction of an aspirate, and ‘lisp,’ which involves a spirant, is only approximate. Comp. θαῦμα μέγα, inquid balba, Lucil., 6, 20, with L. Müller’s note.—locutus: Perf. Part. where we should expect a Present. G., 278, R.
34. Phyllidas Hypsipylas: Phyllis, fearing that she had been deserted by her lover, Demophon, hanged herself, and was changed into an almond-tree (Ov., Her., 2). Hypsipyle of Lemnos, after bearing two children to Jason, was forsaken by him (Ov., Her., 6). These doleful themes (plorabilia) were popular in Persius’s time. The plural is contemptuous in Latin as in English.
35. eliquat: ‘filters.’ Every rough particle is strained out so as to make the voice ‘liquid.’ The passage from Apul., Flor., p. 351, Elm., cited by Jahn, canticum videtur ore tereti semihiantibus in conatu labellis eliquare, indicates a cooing position of the lips, in which the mouth simulates a colander.—supplantat: ὑποσκελίζει (Lucil., 29, 50, L. M.), ‘trips up.’ To judge by Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 274, balba feris annoso verba palato, of which the language of Persius seems to be an exaggeration, the sounds impinge upon the roof of the mouth instead of coming out boldly—a kind of lolling utterance.—tenero: adds another shade: the tripping is light, for the roof is sensitive; ‘minces his words as though his mouth were sore’ (Pretor).
36. adsensere viri: Observe the Epic vein. Adsensere omnes, Verg., Aen., 2, 130; adsensere dii, Ov., Met., 9, 259 (Jahn). Viri, ‘heroes.’—non-?—non-? On the form of the question, see G., 455; A., 71, 1, R.
37. levior cippus: Sufficiently familiar is the old wish, SIT · TIBI · TERRA · LEVIS, which, like the modern R·I·P·, was promoted to the dignity of initials (S·T·T·L·).—ossa: Patrono meo ossa bene quiescant, Petron., 39.
38. manibus = cineribus, ‘remains’ (Conington). On this ‘materialism,’ see Tylor, Primitive Culture, 2, 24 foll.
40. nascentur violae: ‘Lay her i’ the earth | and from her fair and unpolluted flesh | may violets spring.’ Shaksp., Hamlet, 5, 1.—‘Rides’ ait: As in Hor., Ep., 1, 19, 43. Ait is used like inquit (G., 199, R. 3), without any definite reference.—nimis uncis | naribus indulges: ‘you are too much given to hooking, curling your nose.’ Naribus uti, Hor., Ep., 1, 19, 45; naso adunco, Hor., Sat., 1, 6, 5.
41. an: when used alone is more or less rhetorical, and is intended to force a conclusion involved in the foregoing; ‘What?’ ‘So then?’ G., 459; A., 71, 2, b. Persius’s use of it is instructive: v. 87; 2, 19. 26; 3, 19. 27. 61; 5, 83. 125. 163. 164; 6, 51. 63.—velle meruisse: See G., 275, 2; A., 53, 11, d, for the tense of meruisse. The Perf. after velle is legal rather than Greek. Comp. v. 91, qui me volet incurvasse querela. So Hor. (Sat. 2, 3, 187), mimicking the legal tone: ne quis humasse velit Aiacem, Atrida, vetas? cur? Other Perf. Infinitives with varying motives are found: 1, 132; 2, 66; 4, 7. 17; 5, 24. 33; 6, 4. 6. 17. 77.
42. os populi: ‘popular applause,’ ‘a place in the mouths of men’ (Conington). Comp. the phrase in ore esse.—cedro digna: Cedar oil was used to preserve manuscripts. Speramus carmina fingi | posse linenda cedro, Hor., A. P., 331-2.
43. nec scombros nec tus: The fear of the mackerel is a stroke of Catullus, 95, 8, which Milton imitates, Ep., 10: gaudete scombri. Comp. Mart., 4, 86, 8. For tus, comp. Hor., Ep., 2, 1, 269: deferar in vicum vendentem tus et odores | et piper et quicquid chartis amicitur ineptis. The modern equivalent is the grocer or the pastry-cook.
44-62. The poet gives up his dramatizing and speaks in his own person. ‘I am not indifferent to fame, but I reject a standard which approves such stuff as Labeo’s, such ditties as “persons of quality” dictate after dinner, a standard which makes a hot dish the test of poetic fervor, and covers a multitude of poetic sins with a cast-off cloak. If you had eyes in the back of your head, you would see that all this praise is for value received.’
44. dicere feci: G., 527, R. 1; A., 70, 2.
45. non ego: ‘I do not decline your praise—no, not I.’ G., 447; A., 76, 3, d. Comp. 2, 3; 3, 78; and Hor., Ep., 1, 19, 37, non ego ventosae plebis suffragia venor.—si forte quid aptius exit: ‘if I chance to turn out (off) a rather neat piece of work.’ Exit may mean ‘to leave the shop’ (ex officina exire, Cic., Parad., pr. 5), or ‘to leave the potter’s wheel,’ as urceus exit, Hor., A. P., 22 (Jahn). Conington translates ‘hatch’ on account of rara avis. Κακὸν ᾠόν. The passage is imitated by Quint., 12, 10, 26.
46. quando: gives the reason for his saying si forte. There is no necessity of writing quanquam, but the translation ‘although’ is not unnatural, as causative particles are often adversative. Comp. cum and Gr. ἐπεί.—rara avis: proverbial as in the famous line of Juv., 6, 165.
47. laudari metuam: So Hor., metuens audiri, Ep., 1, 16, 60; metuit tangi, Od., 3, 11, 10. In prose the construction is less common with metuo than with vereor. G., 552, R. 1; M., 376, Obs.—cornea: ‘of horn.’ The metaphorical use seems to be novel. Comp. Hom., Od., 19, 211: ὀφθαλμοὶ δ᾽ ὡς εἰ κέρα ἔστασαν ἠὲ σίδηρος.—fibra: ‘heart.’ See 5, 29.
48. recti finemque extremumque: ‘the ultimate standard.’ Conington renders ‘be-all and end-all.’
49. euge, belle: like decenter (v. 84), are current expressions of approbation at public readings. Euge, ‘bravo!’ belle, ‘well said!’ decenter, ‘pretty fair!’ Martial gives us a list of popular comments (2, 27, 3-4): Effecte! graviter! st! nequiter! euge! beate! | hoc volui!—excute: a favorite word with Persius as with Seneca, Ep., 13, 8; 16, 7; 22, 10; 26, 3; De Ira, 3, 36 (Jahn). The metaphor is taken from shaking clothes in order to get out any thing that may be concealed in them—Gr., ἐκσείειν. We should say ‘analyze.’
50. quid non intus habet: The figure is kept up. ‘What is not covered up in that beggarly rag of a belle’?—non = nonne. G., 445 and R.; A., 71, 1.—Atti: See v. 4.—Ilias ebria: Comp. ebrius sermo, Sen., Ep., 19, 9.
51. veratro: white hellebore (album multum terribilius nigro, Plin., II. N., 25, 5, 21), a strong emetic, which students took ‘to quicken their wits.’ The modern veratrum is a different drug.—elegidia: contemptuous, ‘bits of elegies’ on such themes as Phyllis and Hypsipyle. E. a Greek word not in Greek lexicons, like poetridas, Prol., 13.—crudi: with their dinners undigested and their brains muddled.
52. dictarunt: ‘extemporize.’—lectis: ‘sofas.’ The ancients wrote in a recumbent posture far more frequently than we do.
53. citreis: ‘of citron wood,’ ‘wood of the thyia’ (Thyia articulata, African Arbor Vitae, Plin., 15, 29). The fabulous cost of tables of this material is well known. Cic., Verr., 4, 17, 37.—scis: ‘you know how.’ Scire in this sense is related to posse, as Fr. savoir to pouvoir, a traditional distinction.—calidum: ‘hot-and-hot’ (Pretor).—ponere: 1. ‘serve up;’ 2. ‘cause to serve up,’ ‘treat to.’ Heri non tam bonum posui et multo honestiores cenabant, Petron., 34.—sumen: a dainty dish in the eyes of Greek and Roman. Comp. vulva nil pulchrius ampla, Hor., Ep., 1, 15, 41; Plut., Sanit. Praec., 124F; Alciphr., Ep., 1, 20; and the joke in Alexis, fr. 188 (3, 473 Mein.).
54. comitem horridulum trita donare lacerna: This is the kind of patronage that galled Lucian (De Merced. Cond., 37), who mentions the paltry present of an ἐφεστρίδιον ἄθλιον ἢ χιτώνιον ὑπόσαθρον. On the word comitem, see 3, 7. Horridulum comitem, ‘shivering beggar of a companion,’ ‘poor devil in your suite.’ For the custom, comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 19, 37: Non ego ventosae plebis suffragia venor | impensis cenarum et tritae munere vestis.
56. qui pote? Pote is an archaism for potis. Both potis and pote are used as predicates without regard to number and gender.—vis dicam: G., 546, R. 3; A., 70, 3, f, R. Vis does not wait for an answer. See 6, 63.—nugaris: ‘you are a twaddler’ (Conington).—calve: Persius calls up his vetulus (v. 22) again, and gives him a huge ‘bombard’ of a belly. Nero had a venter proiectus, and some editors fancy that Nero’s person is aimed at here, and Nero’s poetry in the verses that follow. See Introd., xxxvi.
57. aqualiculus: (said properly to mean ‘a pig’s stomach’) ‘paunch,’ ‘cloak-bag of guts,’ Shaksp.—protenso sesquipede: Comp. the Greek proverb: παχεῖα γαστὴρ λεπτὸν οὐ τίκτει νόον. Even M. Martha is forced to say: Le trait n’est ni spirituel ni poli (Moralistes Romains, p. 147). For the justification, see v. 128. Jahn (1843) reads propenso.
58. Iane: Janus, who sees both ways, is secure from being laughed at behind his back.—ciconia pinsit = pinsendo ludit. The fingers of the mocker imitate the clapping of the stork’s bill. Pinsit, ‘pounds,’ because the ciconia levat ac deprimit rostrum dum clangit, Isidor., Orig., 20, 15, 3. ‘Pecks at’ is not correct; ‘claps’ is nearer. What seems to be meant is mock applause.
59. auriculas: The imitation of ass’s ears by the hands belongs to universal culture.—imitari mobilis = ad imitandum m. G., 424, R. 4; A., 57, 8, f.—albas: on account of the white lining. Ov., Met., 11, 176: aures—villis albentibus implet.
60. linguae: The thrusting out of the tongue in derision is as common now as it was then.—canis Apula: Apulia was the δίψιον Ἄργος of Italy. Siticulosae Apuliae, Hor., Epod., 3, 16.—tantae: So Jahn and Herm. ‘Tongues big enough to represent the thirst of an Apulian hound’ (Pretor). Jahn compares for the construction, Luc., 1, 259: quantum rura silent, tanta quies. Conington considers tantum ‘much neater,’ and makes quantum sitiat = quantum sitiens protendat, ‘a length of tongue protruded like an Apulian dog in the dog-days.’
61. vos, o patricius sanguis: Hor., A. P., 291: vos, o | Pompilius sanguis. The Nom. for the Vocative in solemn address. G., 194, R. 3; A., 53, a.—fas est = fatum est, ‘it is ordained.’
62. occipiti: Notice the exceptional Abl. in i. Comp. Auson., Epigr., 12, 8: occipiti calvo es, and capiti, v. 83.—posticae: chiefly of the back part of a building: ‘back-stairs’ (Conington).—occurrite: ‘turn round and face’ (Conington and Pretor).—sannae: ‘flout,’ ‘gibe,’ ‘fleer,’ μῶκος.