Again:
"Felix, quicunque dolore
Alterius disces posse carere tuo."
Tibul. lib. iii. 6. 43.
It is remarkable that the annotator on this passage in the Delphin ed.,
Paris, 1685, p. 327., quotes the line in question thus: "Consonat illud:
Felix quem faciunt," &c., _without giving the authority_.
Again:
"Periculum ex aliis facere, tibi quod ex usu siet."--Ter. _Heaut._ i.
2. 36. (Not 25., as in the Delphin _Index_.)
Again:
"Feliciter is sapit, qui periculo alieno sapit."
This passage is assigned to Plautus in the _Sylloge_ of Petrus
Lagnerius, Francf. 1610, p. 312., but I cannot find it in this author.
C. H. P.
Brighton, May 12. 1851.
Perhaps it is hardly an answer to EFFIGIES to tell him that the earliest
occurrence of this line, with which I am acquainted, is in a rebus
beneath the device of the Parisian printer, Felix Balligault, about the
year 1496. Thus:
"Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum.
Felici monumenta die felicia felix
Pressit: et hæc vicii dant retinentve nihil."
The device is a fruit-tree, from which a shield is suspended inscribed
_felix_. Two apes are seated at the foot of the tree. The thought is,
however, common to the wise and the witty of every age. Menander has it
thus:--
[Greek: "Blepôn pepaideum eis ta tôn allôn kaka."]
And Plautus:
"Feliciter sapit qui alieno periculum sapit."
Compare Terence, _Heaut._ i. 2. 36.:
"Periculum et aliis facere, tibi quod ex usu siet."
And Diodorus Siculus, i. ab init.:
[Greek: "Kalon gar to dunasthai tois tôn allôn agnoêmasi pros
diorthôsin chrêsthai paradeigmasi."]
And Tibullus, lib. iii. eleg. vi.:
"Felix, quicunque dolore
Alterius disces posse carere tuo."
These indications may perhaps put your correspondent in the way of a
more satisfactory answer to his question.