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#:
+daktulô deiknusthai (daktulodeikteisthai)+. _Quod #monstror digito#
praetereuntium_, Hor., Od., 4, 3, 22; _saepe aliquis #digito# vatem
designat euntem_, Ov., Am., 3, 1. 19. --#hic est#: +houtos ekeinos+, 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
+anagnôstês+, as lives of the saints are still read in religious houses.
31. #Romulidae#: Comp. _Titos_, v. 20; _trossulus_, v. 82; _Romule_, v.
87. --#dia#: +theia+, 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.
+chlamudêphoroi andres+, 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. +thauma mega+, _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#: +huposkelizei+ (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.'