The theme of the Fifth Satire is the Stoic doctrine of True Liberty. All
men are slaves except the philosopher, and Persius has learned to be a
philosopher-- thanks to Cornutus, to whom the Satire is addressed.
Compare and contrast Horace's handling of a like subject in Sat., 2, 3.
In Teuffel's commentary on his translation of this Satire, the matter is
briefly summed up in these words: Horace is an artist, Persius a
Preacher. See Introd., xxvi. Comp. also Hor., Sat., 2, 7, 46 seqq.
ARGUMENT.-- Persius speaks: Poets have a way of asking for a hundred
mouths, a hundred tongues, whether the theme be tragedy or epic.
--Cornutus: A hundred mouths, a hundred tongues! What do you want with
them? Or, for that matter, with a hundred gullets either, to worry down
the tragic diet which other poets affect. You do not pant like a
bellows, nor croak like a jackdaw, nor strain your cheeks to bursting in
the high epic fashion. Your language is to be the language of every-day
life, to which you are to give an edge by skilful combination. Your
utterance is modest, and your art is shown in rasping the unhealthy body
of the age, and in impaling its faults with high-bred raillery. Be such
your theme. Let others sup full with tragic horrors, if they will. Do
you know nothing beyond the frugal luncheon of our daily food (1-18).
Persius: It is not my aim to have my pages swollen with 'Bubbles from
the Brunnen of Poesy.' We are alone, far from the madding crowd, and I
may throw open my heart to you, for I would have you know how great a
part of my soul you are. Knock at the walls of my heart, for you are
skilful to distinguish the solid from the hollow, to tell the painted
stucco of the tongue from the strong masonry of the soul. To this end I
fain would ask-- and ask until I get-- a hundred voices, to show how
deeply I have planted you in my heart of hearts; to tell you all that is
past telling in my inmost being (19-29). When first the purple garb of
boyhood withdrew its guardianship, and the amulet-- no longer potent--
was hung up, an offering to the old-fashioned household gods, when all
about me humored me, and when the dress of manhood permitted my eyes to
rove at will through the Subura with all its wares and wiles, what time
the youth's path is doubtful, and bewilderment, ignorant of life, brings
the excited mind to the spot where the great choice of roads is to be
made-- in that decisive hour I made myself son to you, and you took me,
Cornutus, to your Socratic heart. Where my character was warped, the
quiet application of the rule of right straightened what in me was
crooked. My mind was constrained by reason, wrestled with its conqueror,
and took on new features under your forming hand. How I remember the
long days I spent with you, the first-fruits of the festal nights I
plucked with you. Our work, our rest we ordered both alike, and the
strain of study was eased by the pleasures of a modest table (30-44).
Nay, never doubt that there is a harmony between our stars. Our
constellation is the Balance or the Twins. The same aspect rules our
nativities. Some star, be that star what it may, blends my fate with
yours (45-51).
We are attuned each to other; but look abroad, and see how different men
are from us and from each other. Each has his own aims in life. One is
bent on active merchandise, one is given up to sluggish sleep, another
is fond of athletic sports. One is drained dry by dicing, another by
chambering and wantonness; but when the chalk-stones of gout rattle
among their fingers and toes, they awake to the choke-damp and the foggy
light in which they have spent their days, and mourn too late their
wasted life (52-61).
But you delight to wax pale over nightly studies. A tiller of the human
soul, you prepare the soil, and sow the field of the ear with the pure
grain of Stoic wisdom. Hence seek, young and old, an aim for your higher
being, provision for your hoary head (62-65).
'Hoary head, you say?' interposes an objector. 'That can be provided for
as well to-morrow.' To-morrow! 'Next day the fatal precedent will
plead.' Another to-morrow comes, and we have used up yesterday's
to-morrow, and so our days are emptied one by one. To-morrow! It is
always ahead of us, as the hind wheel can never overtake the front
wheel, though both be in the self-same chariot (66-72).
The remedy for this and all the other ills of life is True Liberty-- not
such as gives a dole of musty meal, a soup-house ticket to the new-made
citizen; not such as makes a tipsy slave free in the twinkling of an
eye. Now Dama is a worthless groom, and would sell himself for a handful
of provender. Anon he is set free, as you call it-- becomes Marcus Dama.
Excellent surety! Most excellent judge! If Marcus says it is so, it is
so. Your sign and seal here, good Marcus. Pah! This is the liberty that
manumission gives. Up speaks Marcus: 'Well! Who is free except the man
that can do as he pleases? I can do as I please. _Argal_ I am free as
air.' --'Not so,' says your learned Stoic. 'Your logic is at fault.
I grant the rest, but I demur to the clause "as you please."' --'The
praetor's wand made me my own man. May I not do what I please, if I
offend not against the statute-book?' (73-90).
'Do what you please!' cries Persius, who identifies himself with the
Stoic philosopher. 'Stop just there and learn of me; but first cease to
be scornful, and let me get these old wives' notions out of your head.
The praetor could not teach you any thing about the conduct of life with
all its perplexities. As well expect a man to teach an elephant to dance
the tight-rope. Reason bars the way, and whispers, "You must not do what
you will spoil in the doing." This is nature's law, the law of
common-sense. You mix medicine, and know nothing of scales and weights?
You, a clodhopper, and undertake to pilot a ship? Absurd, you say; and
yet what do you know of life? How can you walk upright without
philosophy? How can you tell the ring of the genuine metal, and detect
the faulty sound of the base alloy? Do you know what to seek, what to
avoid, what to mark with white, what with black? Can you control your
wishes, moderate your expenses, be indulgent to your friends? Do you
know how to save and how to spend? Can you keep your month from watering
at the sight of money, from burning at the taste of ginger? When you can
say in truth, "All this is mine," then you are truly free. But if you
retain the old man under the new title, I take back all that I have
granted. You can do nothing that is right. Every action is a fault. Put
forth your finger-- you sin. There is not a half-ounce of virtue in your
silly carcass. You must be all right or all wrong. Man is one. You can
not be virtuous by halves. You can not be at once a ditcher and a
dancer. You are a slave still, though the praetor's wand may have waved
away your bonds. You do not tremble at a master's voice, 'tis true, but
there are other masters than those whom the law recognizes. The wires
that move you do not jerk you from without, but masters grow up within
your bosom' (91-131).
Here the dialogue is dropped. We leave Dama, whose personality has been
getting fainter all the time, and are treated to a series of more or
less dramatic scenes in illustration of the Ruling Passions.
So Avarice and Luxury dispute about the body and soul of an un-Stoic
slave (132-160).
A Lover tries to break the chain that binds him to an unworthy mistress
(161-175).
Another is led captive by Ambition at her will (176-179).
Yet another is under the dominion of Superstition (180-188).
But why discourse thus? Imagine what the military would say to such a
screed of doctrine. I hear the horse-laugh of Pulfennius, as he bids a
clipped dollar for a hundred Greek philosophers-- a cent apiece
(189-191).
This Satire is justly considered by many critics the best of all the
productions of Persius, as it is the least obscure. The warm tribute to
his master Cornutus may have had its share in commending the poem to
teachers, who, of all men, are most grateful for gratitude. But apart
from this revelation of a pure and loving heart, the peculiar talent of
Persius, which consists in vivid portraiture of character and situation,
appears to great advantage in this composition. True, the introduction
is not wrought into the poem, and the poet's discourse is too distinctly
a Stoic school exercise, and reminiscence crowds on reminiscence, but
there is a certain movement in the Satire, or Epistle, as it were better
called, which carries us on over the occasional rough places, without
the perpetual jolt which we feel every where else on the 'corduroy road'
of Persius's _Gradus ad Parnassum_.
1-4. Persius: Oh for a hundred voices, a hundred mouths, a hundred
tongues!
1. #Vatibus hic mos est#: Comp. Hor., Sat., 1, 2, 86: _#regibus hic mos#
est._ _Vatibus_, with a sneer. See Prol., 7. --#centum sibi poscere
voces#: Examples might be multiplied indefinitely from Homer to Charles
Wesley. Comp. Il., 2, 489: +oud' ei moi deka men glôssai, deka de
stomat' eien+; and Verg., Aen., 6, 625: _non mihi si linguae centum sint
oraque centum_; also Georg., 2, 43; Ov., Met., 8, 532. Conington
burlesques the passage by translating _poscere_ 'put in a requisition
for,' and _optare_ 'bespeak.' By such devices humor of a certain kind
might be extracted from elegies, and Vergil be made 'to put in a
requisition for Quintilius at the Bureau of the Gods,' Hor., Od., 1, 24,
12.
3. #seu ponatur#: The mood after _seu_-- _seu_ is determined on general
principles (A., 61, 4, _c_). In practice, however, the Indicative is
more common (G., 597, R. 4). The Subjunctive is to be explained by G.,
666 (see last example), and A., 66, 2. --#ponatur# = _proponatur_ (Cic.,
Tusc. Dis., 1, 4, 7). Comp. +theinai+, +thesis+. Jahn understands it as
_ponere lucum_, 1, 70, _posuisse figuras_, 1, 86. Perhaps there is a
play on the different senses of _ponere_. 'Serve up' would not be bad in
view of vv. 9, 10. --#hianda#: 'To be spouted by some doleful actor.'
'_Hianda_ has reference to the tragic mask, in which a wide aperture was
cut for the mouth, to facilitate a distinct enunciation. From the
appearance presented by the speaker, it soon came to be used of a
bombastic style of utterance. Comp. _carmen #hiare#_, Prop., 2, 31, 6,
and _grande Sophocleo carmen bacchamur #hiatu#_, Juv., 6, 636.' Pretor,
after Jahn.
4. #vulnera Parthi#: Is _Parthi_ object or subject? The passage is a
reminiscence of Hor., Sat., 2, 1, 15: _aut labentia equo describat
#vulnera Parthi#_. If _Parthi_ is the object, an interpretation which is
favored by the Horatian passage and by the propriety of the epic theme--
for why should a Roman enlarge upon the wounds that the Parthian
deals?-- _ducentis ab inguine ferrum_ must be rendered 'drawing the dart
from his groin.' Still _ab_ is not a suitable preposition, nor can it be
defended by such expressions as _ducere suspiria ab imo pectore_, Ov.,
Met., 10, 402. Others think of 'trailing the shaft from his groin,' in
which it had been imbedded. Comp. v. 160: _a collo trahitur pars longa
catenae_. If _Parthi_ is the subject, translate, 'The Parthian who draws
the arrow from [the quiver] near his groin.' The Eastern nations wore
the quiver low, the Greeks upon the shoulder. This line refers to epic
poetry as the preceding to tragedy.
5-18. Cornutus: What need have you of a hundred mouths? You have no
foolish tragedy to cram, no big epics to mouth. Your simple satire
demands a simple style, the talk of every day, only better put. Your
business is to scourge and pierce, and yet remember that you are a
gentleman. Let these themes suffice you, and leave to others the
stage-horrors of cannibalic feasts; yourself content with the pot-luck
of the Roman cit.
5. #Quorsum haec#: Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 7, 21. --#aut#: G., 460, R.; A.,
71, 2. --#robusti carminis offas#: 'dumplings of substantial poetry,'
'lumps of solid poetry' (Conington). _Offa_ is a dumpling of meal or
flesh. Comp. Apul., Met., 1, 3, on the chokiness of a certain _polentae
caseatae #offula# grandior_.
6. #ingeris#: 'cram.' The whole passage is intended to be coarse. 'What
great gobbets of stuffing song are you cramming yourself with, that you
require a hundred throats to strain them down?' Others understand:
_ingeris_ sc. _populo_. See v. 177. --#centeno gutture# = _centum
gutturibus_. So _centena arbore_, Verg., Aen., 10, 207 (Conington).
7. #grande#: See 1, 14. --#locuturi#: See 1, 100. --#nebulas#: Jahn is
reminded of Hor., A. P., 230: _nubes et inania captet_. Observe that
_legunto_ suggests the culinary figure below. The mists represent the
vegetables, Procne and Thyestes furnish the meat. --#Helicone#: See
Prologue. Persius is as intensely Roman in poetic practice as he is
Greek in philosophic theory. --#legunto#: The Imperative, instead of the
Subjunctive, gives the tone of an edict or of a cookery-book.
8. #Prognes--Thyestae#: See Classical Dictionaries for the familiar
myths. Observe the balance. Procne served up her son, Thyestes made a
dinner off his. Both are common tragic themes. See Hor., A. P., 91.
186-187. --#olla fervebit#: 'Who are going to set Thyestes's pot
a-boiling' (Conington).
9. #Glyconi#: Glyco was a stupid actor of the day, who could not
understand a joke. The Neronians have made the most of the fact, as
reported by the Scholiast, that G. was manumitted by Nero, who paid his
half-owner Vergilius 300,000 sesterces for his share. So, for instance,
Lehmann (_De A. Persii Satira Quinta_, p. 17), who has nosed out all
manner of subtle Neronian flavors in this innocent satire. --#cenanda#:
Comp. 3, 46.
10. #coquitur dum#: When the action with _dum_, 'while,' is co-extensive
with the action in the leading clause, the limit may be expressed by
_until_, 'while it is smelting' = 'until it is smelted' --#massa#: See
note on 2, 67.
11. #folle#: The wind is squeezed 'with' or 'in' the bellows rather than
'from' the bellows. The Scholiast notices the Horatian reminiscence,
Sat., 1, 4, 19: _at tu conclusas hircinis #follibus# auras | usque
laborantes, dum ferrum molliat ignis | ut mavis, imitare_. Comp. also
Juv., 7, 111: _tunc immensa cavi spirant mendacia #folles#_. --#nec
clauso murmure#, etc.: 'Nor with pent-up murmur croak to yourself until
you are hoarse some solemn nonsense.'
13. #scloppo#: So Jahn (1868), instead of _stloppo_ (1843). This is
supposed to be a word coined to express the sound (comp. _bombis_, 1,
99). Conington renders 'plop.' Vanicek records it under SKAR, S. 183,
and it may well be the 'slap' with which the distended cheeks are
reduced, and hence the 'plop' which is heard. The childish trick may be
witnessed wherever there are children. Persius multiplies absurd and
meaningless noises without any sharp distinction.
14. #verba togae#: 'the language of every-day life.' The _fabula togata_
is Roman comedy, as opposed to the _fabula praetexta_, or Roman tragedy,
and to the _f. palliata_, the subjects of which were Greek. Persius
insists on the connection of the national satire with the national
comedy, and the scanty remains of the _fabula togata_ deserve close
comparison. --sequeris = _sectaris_. Prol., 11. --#acri iunctura#: 'nice
grouping,' 'telling combination.' The words are familiar, but the
setting is new. Comp. Hor., A. P., 47: _#notum# si callida #verbum# |
reddiderit #iunctura# novum_; and 242: _tantum #series iunctura#que
pollet | tantum #de medio sumptis# accedit honoris_. An important
passage, as showing the intense self-consciousness of the poet's art.
15. #ore teres modico#: Jahn comp. _ore rotundo_, Hor., A. P., 323. The
mouth stands for the style, and the position of the mouth symbolized the
utterance (_ore magis quam labris loquendum est_, Quint., 11, 3, 81).
_Teres_ as in Cic., De Orat., 3, 52, 199: _est [oratio] et plena quaedam
sed tamen #teres# et tenuis, non sine nervis et viribus._ 'A moderate
rounding of the cheek' (Conington); but although in view of v. 13 it
would be desirable to retain the figure, it is hardly possible. 'With
smooth and compassed tone.' As _teres ore = ore modico_, Hermann
(_L. P._, II., 46) comp. Ov., Fast., 6, 425: _lucoque obscurus opaco_.
--#pallentis mores#: The 'spirit of the age' is also the 'body of the
age.' Hence the figure. 'Pale' with disease and vice (comp. 4, 47),
'guilty.' --#radere#: Comp. 1, 107.
16. #ingenuo ludo#: 'with high-bred raillery,' 'with raillery that a
gentleman may speak and hear.' Persius has in mind +eutrapelia+, the
+pepaideumenê hubris+ of Aristotle, Rhet., 2, 12, as Conington suggests.
--#defigere#: Variously explained. So 'post up,' 'placard' (Casaubon);
'pin to the ground' (Conington); 'pierce,' like an arrow (Jahn);
'sting,' like a hornet, as in Ov., Fast., 3, 753: _milia crabronum
coeunt et vertice nudo, | spicula #defigunt# oraque summa notant_. Comp.
the use of _figere_, 3, 80.
17. #hinc#: From every-day life. König compares Hor., A. P., 318: _vivas
#hinc# ducere voces_. --#quae dicis#: So Jahn (1868), after the best
MSS. In 1843 we find _dicas_, which is more natural, but not necessary.
--#Mycenis#: Dative, far more forcible than the locative Ablative. Jahn
comp. Prol., 5: _illis relinquo_, a reading which he afterward
abandoned. See G., 344, R. 3.
18. #cum capite et pedibus#: served up to Thyestes after he had finished
his dinner. Comp. Aeschyl., Ag., 1594; Sen., Thyest., 764. --#plebeia
prandia#: Your theme is 'human nature's daily food,' not the heroic
suppers of 'raw-head and bloody-bones' that teach us nothing. _Mensa_ is
contrasted with _prandia_ (comp. Seneca's _sine mensa prandium_, cited
1, 67) as 'banquet' with 'meal,' '_Tafel_' with '_Tisch_.'
19-29. Persius: You understand my aims. I do not care to swell my page
with frothy nonsense. And now that we are alone, I desire you to examine
my heart, that you may see how you are enshrined in it-- a theme for
which I might well desire a hundred voices.
19. #equidem#: Here in accordance with common usage. See 1, 110.
--#bullatis nugis#: 'air-blown trifles' (Gifford). _Bullatis:_ so Jahn
(1868) with Hermann. The reading of the oldest MSS., _pullatis_, 'sad
colored,' explained now as 'tragic stuff' (because mourners were
_pullati_); now as stuff for the groundlings (because the common people
were _pullati_), is scarcely tenable. _Ampullatis_, Jahn's conjecture,
though defended by Lachmann (Lucret., 6, 1067), is metrically bad; but
the sense is excellent, and the reference would be to a passage which
Persius must have had in his mind. Hor., A. P., 97: _proicit #ampullas#
et sesquipedalia verba_. Even Thyestes is mentioned in the context, l.c.
91. _Bullatis_, 'bubbly.' Hermann (_L. P._, I., 32) comp. _alata avis_,
and makes _bullatis_ refer to _tumorem et inanem verborum strepitum_.
20. #dare pondus fumo#: Casaubon comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 19, 42: _nugis
#addere pondus#_. Horace uses the expression in the sense of 'attaching
importance.' Persius means that these trifles are fitted to lend
importance, to give seeming substance to mere vapors. _Fumus_ is a
synonym for 'humbug.' On _dare idonea_ = _idonea quae det_, see G., 424,
R. 4; A., 57, 8, _f._
22. #excutienda#: See 1, 49. But the figure changes below, or there is a
figure within a figure, the heart being compared to a wall, the wall to
a dress. On the construction, see G., 431; A., 72, 5, _c._
23. #pars animae#: Comp. _te meae partem animae_, Hor., Od., 2, 17, 5;
_animae dimidium meae_, Od., 1, 3, 8. --#Cornute#: See Introduction, ix.
24. #ostendisse#: once for all. See G., 275, 1; A., 58, 11, _d._
--#pulsa#: +kroue+. See 3, 21. --#dinoscere cautus#: Hor., Sat., 1, 6,
51: _cautum adsumere dignos_. Comp. Prol., 11.
25. #solidum crepet#: like _sonat vitium_, 3, 21. G., 331, R. 2; A., 52,
3, _a._ --#pictae tectoria linguae#: The comparison is taken from a
stuccoed party-wall painted to look solid. Comp. Afran. ap. Non., 152,
28, v. 14 (Ribbeck): _fallaci aspectu #paries pictus# putidus_
(= _puter_). The notion in _pictae_ belongs rather to _tectoria_ than to
_linguae_-- 'painted tongue-stucco.' The figure will not bear close
examination any more than the stucco.
26. #his, ut# = _ad haec ut._ Comp. _hoc, ut_, v. 19. Others read _hic_.
--#centenas# = _centum_. G., 310, R.; A., 18, 2, _d_. --#deposcere#:
Notice the determination that lies in _deposcere_.
27. #quantum fixi#: This is not conceived as a dependent interrogative,
as is shown by v. 29, where the antecedent of the parallel clause is
expressed. G., 469, R. 3. --#sinuoso#: Comp. Plin., H. N., 2, 37: _cor
prima domicilia intra se animo et sanguini praebet #sinuoso specu#_.
_Sinuoso pectore_ = _in recessu mentis_, 2, 73.