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. +ê tis ê oudeis+.
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: +mê protimêsôsi+. --#Polydamas#: Some write
_Pulydamas_, corresponding with the Homeric form, +Pouludamas+; but
_P[-o]lydamas_ (+Pôludamas+) is the Sicilian Doric, like _p[-o]lypus_
(+pôlupos+). The allusion is to a familiar passage in Hom., Il., 22,
100. 104. 5: +Pouludamas moi prôtos elencheiên anathêsei-- nun d' epei
ôlesa laon atasthaliêsin emêsin | aideomai Trôas kai Trôadas
helkesipeplous+. 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. +Ômon bebrôthois Priamon Priamoio te paidas+ (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. +trutanê+, 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._[3] 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.'
[Footnote 3: 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 +trutanê epi zogou hê teiromenê tô barei tôn ogkôn+
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,' _+kladaros+._ Conington translates: 'with a languishing
roll of your wanton eye.'