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 Hipp[-o]nax, 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.,[2] 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_ = +hippou krênê+: the fountain opened by Pegasus with
his hoof. _Caballus_ is a comic equivalent of _equus_. Comp. Juvenal's
_Gorgonei #caballi#_ (3, 118).
[Footnote 2: 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 (+dikorumbos ho Parnasos+, Lucian,
Char., 5), or because of the two tall cliffs (Ov., Met., 1, 316; 2,
221)-- the +Phaidriades+ of Diodorus (16, 28), the +dilophos petra+ 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#: +houtôs+, '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_, +chlôron deos+, and the like. The pallor of students and
poets needs no illustration.
5. #remitto#: +aphiêmi+, 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 +gennaiôn orgia Mousôn+, 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 (+psittakos+), 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# = +chaire+. 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. +ha penia, Diophante, mona tas
technas egeirei+, Theocr., 21, 1; _Paupertas omnes artis perdocet_,
Plaut., Stich., 1, 3. 23 (Jahn). Add +chreia didaskei, kan bradus tis ê,
sophon+, Eur., fr. 709 (Nauck), and Alexis, fr. 205 (3, 479 Mein.),
where the +gastêr+ 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 +dolion kerdos+ (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 (+nektar chuton, Moisan dosin+), and when combined
with _Pegaseium_ is sufficiently grandiloquent to be as absurd as it is
intended to be. The old reading, _melos_ (+melos+), with its faulty
quantity, rarely finds a champion against _nectar_.