A. PERSIUS FLACCUS (continued 2)

3. sic: οὕτως, ‘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, χλωρὸν δέος, and the like. The pallor of students and poets needs no illustration.

5. remitto: ἀφίημι, 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 γενναίων ὄργια Μουσῶν, 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 (ψιττακός), 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 = χαῖρε. 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. ἁ πενία, Διόφαντε, μόνα τὰς τέχνας ἐγείρει, Theocr., 21, 1; Paupertas omnes artis perdocet, Plaut., Stich., 1, 3. 23 (Jahn). Add χρεία διδάσκει, κἂν βραδύς τις ᾖ, σοφόν, Eur., fr. 709 (Nauck), and Alexis, fr. 205 (3, 479 Mein.), where the γαστήρ 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 δόλιον κέρδος (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 (νέκταρ χυτόν, Μοισᾶν δόσιν), and when combined with Pegaseium is sufficiently grandiloquent to be as absurd as it is intended to be. The old reading, melos (μέλος), with its faulty quantity, rarely finds a champion against nectar.

FIRST SATIRE.

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.

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. ἢ τις ἢ οὐδείς.

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.

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.

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.

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,’ κλαδαρός. Conington translates: ‘with a languishing roll of your wanton eye.’

19. neque more probo nec voce serena: Litotes. see Prol., 1.

21. scalpuntur intima: ‘their marrow is tickled.’ Scalpere is opposed to radere, 1, 107. Comp. 3, 114; 5, 15.

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.

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: δακτύλῳ δείκνυσθαι (δακτυλοδεικτεῖσθαι). Quod monstror digito praetereuntium, Hor., Od., 4, 3, 22; saepe aliquis digito vatem designat euntem, Ov., Am., 3, 1. 19.—hic est: οὗτος ἐκεῖνος, 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.’

31. Romulidae: Comp. Titos, v. 20; trossulus, v. 82; Romule, v. 87.—dia: θεῖα, 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. χλαμυδηφόροι ἄνδρες, 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. θαῦμα μέγα, 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.

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.’

48. recti finemque extremumque: ‘the ultimate standard.’ Conington renders ‘be-all and end-all.’

51. veratro: white hellebore (album multum terribilius nigro, Plin., II. N., 25, 5, 21), a strong emetic, which students took ‘to quicken their wits.’ The modern veratrum is a different drug.—elegidia: contemptuous, ‘bits of elegies’ on such themes as Phyllis and Hypsipyle. E. a Greek word not in Greek lexicons, like poetridas, Prol., 13.—crudi: with their dinners undigested and their brains muddled.

52. dictarunt: ‘extemporize.’—lectis: ‘sofas.’ The ancients wrote in a recumbent posture far more frequently than we do.

57. aqualiculus: (said properly to mean ‘a pig’s stomach’) ‘paunch,’ ‘cloak-bag of guts,’ Shaksp.—protenso sesquipede: Comp. the Greek proverb: παχεῖα γαστὴρ λεπτὸν οὐ τίκτει νόον. Even M. Martha is forced to say: Le trait n’est ni spirituel ni poli (Moralistes Romains, p. 147). For the justification, see v. 128. Jahn (1843) reads propenso.

58. Iane: Janus, who sees both ways, is secure from being laughed at behind his back.—ciconia pinsit = pinsendo ludit. The fingers of the mocker imitate the clapping of the stork’s bill. Pinsit, ‘pounds,’ because the ciconia levat ac deprimit rostrum dum clangit, Isidor., Orig., 20, 15, 3. ‘Pecks at’ is not correct; ‘claps’ is nearer. What seems to be meant is mock applause.

59. auriculas: The imitation of ass’s ears by the hands belongs to universal culture.—imitari mobilis = ad imitandum m. G., 424, R. 4; A., 57, 8, f.—albas: on account of the white lining. Ov., Met., 11, 176: aures—villis albentibus implet.

61. vos, o patricius sanguis: Hor., A. P., 291: vos, o | Pompilius sanguis. The Nom. for the Vocative in solemn address. G., 194, R. 3; A., 53, a.—fas est = fatum est, ‘it is ordained.’

62. occipiti: Notice the exceptional Abl. in i. Comp. Auson., Epigr., 12, 8: occipiti calvo es, and capiti, v. 83.—posticae: chiefly of the back part of a building: ‘back-stairs’ (Conington).—occurrite: ‘turn round and face’ (Conington and Pretor).—sannae: ‘flout,’ ‘gibe,’ ‘fleer,’ μῶκος.

63-82. Persius takes up the thread which Janus had rudely snapt: ‘We have heard the bounden praise of dependants. What does the town say? Why, they admire the smooth flow of the verse, the grand style. If they find these requisites, little do they care about theme or order of development; the ’prentice hand that bungles an eclogue, undertakes an epic—nay, jumbles eclogue and epic—Bravo, poet! all the same. Another mania is the passion for the old poets, a Pacuvian revival. What is to be expected when all this bubble-and-squeak language is the daily food of our children and the dear delight of lecture-halls?’

63. Quis = qui. G., 105; A., 21, 1, a.—quis enim: Enim, like γὰρ; ‘why, what else?’ ‘of course.’ G., 500; A., 43, 3, d.

64. nunc demum: as if something marvellous had been accomplished.—severos: ‘captious, critical.’

66. Carpenter-like, the versewright stretches his ruddled line (rubrica), sights it (oculo derigit uno), and springs it. The modern carpenter uses chalk instead of ruddle, but the red pencil may be regarded as a survival of color. For references, see Rost’s Passow, s.v. στάθμη. For the spelling derigat, remember that dirigere is ‘to point in different directions;’ derigere ‘in one.’—ac si derigat: On the sequence, see G., 604; A., 61, 1, R.

69. heroas: used as an adjective.—sensus: ‘sentiments.’—adferre: ‘parade,’ ‘bring on parade.’ On the Inf., see 3, 64.

71. artifices: With artifices ponere comp. artifex sequi, Prol., 11.—rus saturum: ‘lush, teeming country.’—corbes—focus—porci: all ‘properties’ of country life.

72. fumosa Palilia faeno: The festival called Palilia, in honor of Pales (from the same radical as pa-sco), was celebrated on the anniversary of the founding of Rome, April 21st. It was a day reeking (fumosa) with bonfires of hay (faenum), over which the peasants leaped, doubtless ‘to appease the evil spirit by a pretended sacrifice’ (Pretor). The dictionaries will furnish the loci classici. The other form, Parilia, is due to ‘dissimilation.’ Comp. meridies for medidies.

76. est nunc: Persius attacks the antiquarii in imitation of Horace. The older Latin poets have long been restored to their rights. Accius and Pacuvius hardly need defenders. Hermann makes the sentence interrogative.—Brisaei: ‘Bacchic.’ Brisaeus was an epithet of Bacchus, transferred to the poet of Bacchus, who was perhaps too devoted a worshipper of the god. There was a famous saying of Cratinus, who was in like manner called ταυροφαγος, a surname of Bacchus: ὕδωρ δὲ πίνων οὐδὲν ἂν τέκοι σοφόν, fr. 186 (2, 119 Mein.). Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 19, 1.—venosus: For the figure, comp. Tac., Dial. 21. The ‘standing out of the veins’ refers not so much to the ‘shrinking of the flesh in old age’ (Conington), as to the scrawniness of the person. So Tacit. uses durus et siccus of Asinius Pollio (l.c.), Gr. ἰσχνός. ‘Angular,’ ‘hard-lined,’ is about what is meant. Others prefer ‘thick-veined,’ ‘turgid.’—liber: of a play, Quint., 1, 10, 18; Prop., 4 (3), 21, 28 (Jahn).—Acci: also written Atti (584-650? A.U.C.). Cicero calls him gravis et ingeniosus poeta, summus poeta (pr. Planc., 24, 59; Sest., 56, 120); Hor., altus (Ep., 2, 1, 56); Ov., animosi oris (Am., 1, 15, 19). Pacuvius said that the compositions of Accius were sonora quidem et grandia sed duriora paulum et acerbiora.

77. Pacuvius: nephew of Ennius (534-622 A.U.C.). His great model was Sophocles.—verrucosa: ‘warty,’ intended to be a climax of ugliness.—moretur: ‘fascinates,’ ‘enthralls.’ Fabula—valdius oblectat populum meliusque moratur, Hor., A. P., 321.

78. Antiopa: imitated from a lost play of Euripides. The fragments have been collected by Ribbeck, Tr. Lat. Reliq., p. 62; comp. p. 278. Antiope, as the mother of Amphion and Zethus, and the victim of Dirce, is famous in literature and in art (the Toro Farnese).—aerumnis cor luctificabile fulta: ‘who props her dolorific heart on teen’ (Gifford). Jahn defends the conception as truly poetical, apart from the obsolete language. ‘The only stay of her sad heart is sorrow.’ The words are doubtless taken from the play itself, of course in different order. Aerumna was out of date as early as the time of Quintilian (8, 3, 26), who protests against the use of it. As to luctificabile, if we go by the fragments, it is Accius, rather than Pacuvius, that indulges in such formations as horrificabilis, aspernabilis, tabificabilis, execrabilis, evocabilis.

79. lippos: of the eyes of the mind. Comp. 2, 72.

81. dedecus: The language is disgraced and degraded by this mixture of old and new. Persius would not have enjoyed Tennyson’s resuscitations. See Introd., xxiv.—in quo: ‘at which.’

82. trossulus: an old name of the Roman knights, of disputed origin. It was afterward used in derision. Jahn compares the German Junker.—exsultat: ἀναπηδᾷ, ‘jumps up in delight.’—per subsellia: Jahn understands the ‘benches’ or ‘forms’ in court; others, perhaps more correctly, the seats in the lecture-hall. There is a climax. First, private teaching; next, public lectures; thirdly, practical life, to which we come in the following verse.—levis: the position is emphatic, ‘the smug, womanish creature.’ Levis is levigatus. Ancient literature is full of allusions to this effeminate παρατιλσις.

83. nilne: stronger than nonne, ‘not a blush of shame.’—capiti: rarer Ablative in i. Neue gives examples (Formenlehre, 1, 242). The simple Abl. is found with pellere, even in prose, and the Dative, which some prefer, would be forced.—cano: See note on v. 9.

84. quin optes: G., 551; A., 65, 1, b.—tepidum: ‘lukewarm,’ decenter being faint praise. ‘In good taste’ (Conington). Gr. πρεπόντως.

86. doctas figuras: Doctus, Scaliger’s correction, which requires, moreover, a period at figuras, is unnecessary. Doctas figuras, like artes doctae, dicta docta, doli docti. Figurae, σχήματα, embraces ‘tropes.’—posuisse = quod posuerit. G., 533; A., 70, 5, b.

87. an: ‘what?’ ‘can it be that?’—Romule: bitter, like Titi, Romulidae, trossulus. Comp. Catull., 29, 5. 9.—ceves: ‘Wag the tail’ keeps within bounds of possible translation.

88. men moveat? So men moveat cimex Pantilius, Hor., Sat., 1, 10, 78. The sentiment is that of the well-worn si vis me flere, dolendum est | primum ipsi tibi, Hor., A. P., 102. Moveat sc. Pedius.—quippe: is often ironical, ‘good sooth.’—protulerim: The Perf. Subj. in a sentence involving total negation.

92-106. ‘But,’ rejoins the impersonal personage, whom Persius always has at hand, ‘we have made great advances in art. Contrast this verse and that verse with the roughness of the Aeneid!’—‘The Aeneid rough? Well, what is smooth? [He gives a specimen of fashionable poetry.] If we had an inch of our sires’ backbone, such drivel would be impossible. And as for art—it is as easy as spitting.’

I have followed the distribution as presented in Hermann. Jahn gives vv. 96, 97 to Persius, 98-102 to the interlocutor, the rest to Persius. It is impossible to discuss all the arrangements that have been suggested for this passage.

92. decor: Gr. χάρις.—iunctura: is used as in v. 64, of ‘smoothness,’ ‘harmonious sequence,’ the even surface without a break. See Quint., 9, 4, 33. All the specimen verses that follow avoid mechanically the offences against iunctura that Quintilian enumerates, and do not avail themselves of the license which he accords to a grata neglegentia. There is no elision, no synaloepha, in any of them. As these fashionable verses have been held up to derision by the satirist, commentators have been busy in hunting out defects, and translators have vied with each other in absurd renderings. But Jahn has wisely warned us against an over-curious search into the supposed faults of these verses, which Vossius pronounced superior to any thing in the compositions of the critic himself. It is enough for us to know that to the ear of Persius the lines lacked masculine vigor. The multiplication of diaereses, the length of the words, the careful avoidance of elision, the dainty half-rhyme of bombis and corymbis, the jingle of ablatura and flexura, may be cited as confirmations of the view of Persius, but, with the exception of the desperate verse 95, the diction is in keeping with the theme. If adsonat Echo is not ridiculous in Ovid (Met., 3, 505), it is not ridiculous here; and one surely needs to be told that reparabilis is not a happy adjective for Echo, who is always ‘paying back’ and making good.

93. cludere versum: like concludere versum (Hor., Sat., 1, 4, 40), is ‘round a verse’ (Conington), rather than ‘close a line.’—didicit: What is the subject? ‘Our man,’ ‘our poet,’ the lover of decor et iunctura? So most commentators. Heinr. makes Attis the subject. The personification of iunctura would not be too harsh for Persius.—Berecyntius Attis: It suffices to refer to Catull., 63. Berecyntus, a mountain in Phrygia.

94. Nerea: god of the sea, the water. In modern Gr. νερόν is ‘water.’ The use, which Conington calls ‘grotesque,’ is almost as ‘grotesque’ as Vulcanus for ‘fire.’ The scholiast thinks of Arion’s dolphin. Bacchus’s dolphin is as likely.

96. Arma virum! ‘Compare with these elegant verses Arma virum; what a rough affair!’ Not only were the opening words of a poem used to indicate the poem itself—Μῆνιν ἄειδε the Iliad, Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε the Odyssey, Arma virum the Aeneid—but the first verses were considered peculiarly significant. So the metrical structure of the first verse of the Iliad is very different from that of the first verse of the Odyssey. Arma virum, etc., with its short words and its frequent caesurae, was harsh to the ear of the interlocutor, and is compared with the rough, cracked bark of the cork-tree.—spumosum et cortice pingui: ‘frothy and fluffy’ (Conington). As usual, Persius works out his comparison into minute details.

97. vegrandi subere: So Jahn, instead of praegrandi subere. Do not translate ‘huge, overgrown bark’ (Conington), but ‘dwarfed, stunted cork-tree.’ See Ribbeck (Beiträge zur Lehre von den lateinischen Partikeln, S. 9), who has discussed ve and this verse at some length. Both Conington and Pretor admire the metaphysics of Jahn, who has ‘explained, after Festus and Nonius, vegrandis as male grandis, so as to include the two senses attributed to it by Gell., 5, 12; 16, 5, of too small and too large.’ But ve- means separation (Vaniček, Etym. Wb., S. 166); ve-cor-s, ‘out of one’s mind;’ ve-sanu-s, ‘out of one’s sound senses;’ ve-grandi-s, ‘shrunken,’ ‘dwarfed,’ ‘undergrown’ (if the word is admissible). For the growth of the cork-tree, R. refers to Plin., N. H., 16, 8, 13: suberi minima arbor—cortex tantum in fructu, praecrassus ac renascens atque etiam in denos pedes undique explanatus. Some of the best commentators give these two verses (96 and 97) to Persius, and consider Arma virum as an invocation of the shades of Vergil, ‘as Horace, A. P., 141, contrasts the opening of the Odyssey with Fortunam Priami cantabo.’ Hoc is supposed to refer to the specimen verses. Ribbeck also (l.c.) regards the swollen, light bark of the low cork-tree as the image of the genus tumidum et leve, as opposed to the grande et grave.—coctum: ‘thoroughly dried.’

98. Quidnam igitur: Igitur is not unfrequently used in questions, as our ‘then.’ So quidnam igitur censes? Juv., 4, 130. But, unless the question is a rejoinder, it is not very appropriate. ‘If the Aeneid is rough, give us something really soft,’ would be a fit reply to Arma virum, etc., in the mouth of the objector. Conington, who gives 96-98 to Persius, connects thus: ‘If these are your specimens of finished versification, give us something peculiarly languishing.’—laxa cervice: the attitude of the mobile guttur, v. 18.

101. Bassaris: a Bacchante. Jahn cites a Greek epigram (Anth. Pal., 6, 74), which shows how close a resemblance may be due simply to community of theme.—lyncem: ‘The lynx was sacred to Bacchus as the conqueror of India.’

102. euhion: Gr. εὔιον, Accus. of εὔιος (commonly but falsely spelled Evius), Euhius, Bacchus.—reparabilis: Actively, as Horace’s dissociabilis, Od., 1, 3, 22; ‘renewing,’ ‘restoring,’ ‘reawakening.’ So Ov., Met., 1, 11, of the moon: reparat nova cornua.—adsonat: ‘chimes in.’

103. testiculi vena ulla paterni: ‘Honestius expressit, Ov., Her., 16, 291: si sint vires in semine avorum.’ ‘If we had one spark of our fathers’ manhood alive in us’ (Conington).

104. delumbe: ‘backboneless,’ ‘marrowless.’ Comp. ἰσχιορρωγικός—saliva: Spittle is ‘foolish rheum’ as well as tears.

106. nec pluteum caedit, etc.: Pluteus, which is commonly rendered ‘desk,’ is, ‘according to the scholiast, the back-board of the lecticula lucubratoria,’ or studying-sofa, such as Augustus indulged in, Suet., Aug., 78; comp. v. 53. ‘The man lies on his couch after his meal, listlessly drivelling out his verses, without any physical exertion or even motion of impatience’ (Conington). Persius underrates the artistic finish, as he has overdrawn the moral conclusion.—demorsos: ‘bitten down to the quick.’ Et in versu faciendo | saepe caput scaberet vivos et roderet ungues, Hor., Sat., 1, 10, 70.

107-121. M. But what is the use of offending people? We must not tell the truth at all times. You will have a cool reception at certain great houses. Nay, the dog will be set on you.—P. Well! I make no struggle. Every thing is lovely. No nuisance, you say. All right. Boys, let us go somewhere else. But there was Lucilius—he wielded the lash, he gnawed the bones of his victims. There was Horace—he probed his friend’s heart and punched him in the ribs, and had the town dangling from the gibbet of his tip-tilted nose. And I am not to say—Bo! Not all to myself? Not with a ditch for my confidant? Nowhere? Nowhere, you say? But I will. I have found a place—a ditch. It is my book. Here, book, is my great secret: ‘All the world’s an ass.’ What a relief!

108. vidĕ: like cavĕ, and other iambic Imperatives. G., 704, 2; A., 78, 2, d.—sis = si vis, to soften the Imperative, ‘pray do.’—maiorum tibi forte: Hor., Sat., 2, 1, 60: O puer ut sis | vitalis metuo et maiorum ne quis amicus | frigore te feriat. Maiores = ‘grandees.’

111. nil moror, etc.: The whole line, indeed the whole passage, is strongly conversational in its tone. Nil moror, ‘I don’t wish to be in your way, to spoil sport.’ Comp. Ter., Eun., 3, 2, 7, and Gesner, s.v. moror.—bene: Comp. Cic., Fam., 7, 22: bene potus. See also note on 4, 22.—mirae res: ‘wonders of the world’ (Conington), ‘miracles of perfection.’

113. pinge duos anguis: ‘a sign of dedication rather than of prohibition’ (Pretor). The dedication involves the prohibition. This is one of the innumerable phases of serpent-worship. For the serpent, as the symbol of the genius loci, which is Greek as well as Latin, see Verg., Aen., 5, 95, and the commentators. The reading pinguedo sanguis of some of the best MSS. may be mentioned, animi causa.

114. secuit: ‘cut to the bone.’—Lucilius: The loci classici are Hor., Sat., 1, 4, 6; 1, 10, 1; 2, 1, 62; Juv., 1, 19, 165. The testimonia de Lucilio have been collected and annotated by L. Müller, Lucil., p. 170 seqq.; p. 288 seqq.

116. A deservedly admired characteristic of Horace.—vafer: a hard word to catch. Vafer crowns the formidable list of synonyms in the well-known passage of Cic., Off., 3, 13, 57: versuti, obscuri, astuti, fallacis, malitiosi, callidi, veteratoris, vafri, ‘a shuffler, a hoodwinker, a trickster, a cheat, a designing rascal, a cunning fox, a blackleg, a sly dog.’ The indirectness of vafer may sometimes be rendered by ‘politic,’ ‘adroit.’ ‘Rogue’ is a tolerable equivalent.—amico: is much happier than amici would be; it makes the friend a party to the game. Horatius qui ridendo verum dicit (Sat., 1, 1, 24) tam leniter vitia tangit, ut ipse, quem tangit, amicus rideat et poetam, qui dum ludere videtur intima aggreditur, lubens admittat et excipiat (Jahn, after Teuffel).—admissus: ‘gets himself let in,’ ‘gains his entrance’ (Conington, after Gifford).

117. praecordia: ‘heartstrings.’

118. excusso: Persius would not be Persius, if he did not give us a problem even in his best passages. Excusso naso stronger than emunctae naris, Hor., Sat., 1, 4, 8 (Jahn). According to Heinr., excusso = sursum iactato, like excussa brachia, Ov., Met., 5, 596, which seems to suit suspendere. Conington renders, ‘with a sly talent for tossing up his nose and catching the public on it,’ doubtless with reference to ‘tossing in a blanket,’ a pastime not unknown to the ancients: Ibis ab excusso missus in astra sago, Mart., 1, 3, 8. Comp. Suet., Otho, 2; Cervantes, Don Quijote, 1, 17; and on the sagatio, see Friedländer, Sittengesch., 1, 25. As the blanket is drawn tight in order to effect the elevation of the person tossed, we may combine with this figure the old version of an ‘unwrinkled nose,’ a nose that is ‘kept straight’ (exporrectus) by the owner to disguise his merriment (ac si nihil tule ageret). But this is over-interpretation, the besetting sin of the editors of Persius.—callidus suspendere: On the construction, see Prol., 11.—naso: Naso suspendis adunco, Hor., Sat., 1, 6, 5. Comp. 2, 8, 64.

122. ridere meum: See v. 9.—nulla: G., 304, R. 2.—vendo: ‘I am going to sell;’ familiar present for future; hence = vendito.

126. inde = ab iis, ‘by these’ (G., 613, R. 1; A., 48, 5), ‘by the study of these,’ dependent on vaporata.—vaporata: ‘steamed,’ hence ‘cleansed,’ ‘refined’ (Jahn). Comp. purgatas aures, 5, 63; aurem mordaci lotus aceto, 5, 86.—lector mihi ferveat: Mihi really depends on ferveat, though it may be conveniently translated by ‘my’ with lector. ‘Let my reader be one who comes to me with his ears aglow from the pure effluence of such poetry.’

127. non hic: Hic is different in tone from is, more distinctly demonstrative, and hence more distinctly contemptuous.—in crepidas: The simple Accusative with ludere is the regular construction. Crepidae, a part of the Greek national dress. Comp. Suet., Tib., 13: redegit se [Tiberius], deposito patrio habitu, ad pallium et crepidas. Hence fabulae crepidatae of tragedies with Greek plots.—Graiorum: the rarer and more stilted form for Graecorum, perhaps by way of rebuking the impertinence of this stolid would-be wag.

129. aliquem: G., 301.—Italo: ‘provincial.’—supinus = superbus. The head is thrown back with the chin in the air, a familiar stage attitude. Others render ‘lolling at his ease.’

131. abaco: The abacus was a slab of marble or other material which was covered with sand (pulvis), for the purpose of drawing mathematical figures or making calculations (Jahn). Or pulvere may be dissociated from abaco, and then abacus would be a counting-board, pulvis, the sand on the ground (eruditus pulvis, Cic., N. D., 2, 18, 48), familiar from the story of the murder of Archimedes.—metas: ‘cones.’

132. scit: as if this were a feat. Comp. v. 53.—risisse: γελάσαι, ‘to have his laugh at,’ one of the Perfect Infinitives mentioned in note on v. 41.—vafer: ironical.—gaudere paratus: Paratus, as a Participle from parare, takes the Infinitive with ease. The grammars generally treat it as an exceptional Adjective. Here paratus is οἷος; ‘Just your man to have a fit of glee.’ Comp. Petron., 43: paratus fuit quadrantem de stercore mordicus tollere.

133. Cynico barbam: ‘a Cynic’s beard for him.’ G., 343, R. 2. Vellunt tibi barbam | lascivi pueri, Hor., Sat., 1, 3, 133 (of a Stoic). The beard was the badge of a philosopher.—nonaria: so called because women of that class were not allowed to ply their trade before the ‘ninth hour’—‘callet,’ ‘trull.’—vellat: because dependent; otherwise gaudet si vellit. G., 666; A., 66, 2. The Cynic philosopher and the nonaria (ὁ καὶ ἡ κύων) belong to each other by elective affinity, Alciphron, 3, 55, 9. See an amusing parallel between philosopher and courtesan in the same sophist, 1, 34; and on the worst specimens of the ‘Capuchins of antiquity,’ as the Cynics have been called, comp. Friedländer, Sittengesch., 3, 572.

134. edictum: ‘play-bill,’ after Sen., Ep., 117, 30. Others, ‘the business of the courts,’ the praetor’s court being a favorite lounging-place.—prandia: See v. 67.—Calliroen: possibly one of the elegidia procerum (v. 51), after the order of Phyllis and Hypsipyle (v. 34). Comp. Ov., Met., 9, 407, Rem. Am., 455-6. Others suppose that Persius meant a nonaria. See note on 6, 73, and comp. Plutarch, Quaest. Conv., 3, 6, 4. With this gracious permission, Casaubon compares the edict of Hor., Ep., 1, 19, 8: Forum putealque Libonis | mandabo siccis, adimam cantare severis.

SECOND SATIRE.

The theme of this Satire is the Wickedness and Folly of Popular Prayers. The true philosopher is the only man that knows how to pray aright, and the Stoic is your only true philosopher. Compare, on the subject of prayer, the Second Alcibiades ascribed to Plato.

Argument.—Macrinus, you may well salute your returning birthday. Your wishes on that day of wishes are pure, whereas most of our magnates pray for what they dare not utter aloud. Any one can hear their requests for sound mind and good report, but the petitions for the death of an uncle, a ward, a wife, the prayer for sudden gain, are mere whispers (1-15). Strange that, in order to prepare for such impieties as these, men should go through all manner of lustral services, and trust to the ear of Jove what they would not breathe to any mortal (15-23). Strange that men should fancy because Jove is not swift to strike the sinner dead that he may be insulted with safety, or easily bought off by a lot of greasy chitterlings (24-30).

Pass from wicked to foolish prayers. Grandam and aunt would have skinny Master Hopeful a wealthy nabob, would have him make a great match. Girls are to scramble for him, and roses spring up beneath his feet. Silly petitions! Refuse them, Jupiter (31-40). Nor less silly are those prayers whose fulfilment the suppliant himself defeats—prayers for a hale old age, despite rich made-dishes (41-43); prayers for wealth, while the worshipper expends his whole substance in sacrifice (44-51).

The trouble lies in this, that men judge the gods by themselves. Because gold brings a joyous flutter to their hearts, they think to sway the gods by gold, and change to gold the vessels of the sanctuary. The gods are measured by our ‘accursed blubber,’ that flesh which corrupts all that it handles. Yet the flesh tastes what it touches, and enjoys the ruin which it has wrought. But what can a pure god do with our gold? To him it is a spent toy, an idle offering. Let us give the gods honest and upright hearts, and a handful of meal will suffice to gain their blessing (32-75).

Although the colors of the piece pale before the rhetorical glare of Juvenal’s Tenth Satire, which treats of a kindred theme—the ‘Vanity of Human Wishes’—the philosophical commonplace is handled with considerable vigor, and with all the picturesque detail of the author’s style. And Montaigne, who, as a moralist, quotes Persius very often, has garnished the 56th essay of his First Book with copious extracts from this Satire.

1-15. Macrinus, your prayers are pure, you need no private audience of the gods. Not so the petitions of many of our foremost men. Far different is what they say and what they whisper, when they come before the gods in prayer.

1. Hunc diem: The birthday was always a high-day in Rome, as elsewhere. In French, fête is a synonym of birthday.—Macrine: ‘Plotius Macrinus, the scholiast says, was a learned man, who loved Persius as his son, having studied in the house of the same preceptor, Servilius. He had sold some property to Persius at a reduced rate’ (Conington).—meliore: sc. solito. G., 312, 2; A., 17, 5.—lapillo: The Scythians used to drop into a quiver a stone for every day, white for the good and black for the bad, and when life was over the stones were counted. There is a similar story of the Thracians, Plin., H. N., 7, 40, 41 (Jahn). The phrase ‘white stone’ is so common that one passage will suffice as a parallel: Felix utraque lux diesque nobis | signandi melioribus lapillis, Mart., 9, 52, 4.

4. seductis: Comp. paulum a turba seductior audi, 6, 42.—nequeas: G., 633; A., 65, 2.

6. haud cuivis: Comp. non cuivis homini contingit, Hor., Ep., 1, 17, 36.—humilis: ‘that keep near the ground,’ ‘groundling,’ hence ‘low.’ Persius delights in rare epithets.

7. aperto vivere voto: Comp. Mart., 1, 39, 6: si quis erit recti custos, mirator honesti | et nihil arcano qui roget ore deos.

8. Mens bona: Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 16, 59.—Mens bona, fama, fides: are commonly considered to be the things prayed for. They are possibly persons prayed to. ‘Such notions as Welfare (salus), Honesty (fides), Harmony (concordia), belong to the oldest and holiest Roman divinities’ (Mommsen).—hospes: ‘a stranger,’ ‘any body.’

9. o si: On this form of the wish, see G., 254, R. 1; A., 57, 4, b. O si may be considered an elliptical conditional sentence, but as the ellipsis is emotional it must not be supplied. Such an apodosis as scholars are prone to understand for the Greek (καλῶς ἂν ἔχοι) bene sit, would change the wish into a thought. In this passage the apodosis, which is involved in praeclarum funus, comes limping in as an afterthought.

13. inpello: ‘whose kibe I gall,’ ‘whom I tread hard upon.’—expungam: ‘get him out’ (of his place in the will).—namque: gives an explanation, which serves at once to heighten and to excuse the hope. ‘You see he is in a bad way already. He is going to die at any rate, and death would really be a relief to all parties.’—scabiosus: ‘scrofulous.’—acri | bile: δριμεῖα χολή, Casaubon, who compares Juv., 6, 565: consulit ictericae lento de funere matris.

14. tumet: Comp. turgescit vitrea bilis, 3, 8; mascula bilis | intumuit, 5, 145.—Nerio: Nerius is the usurer in Horace, Sat., 2, 3, 69. Persius borrows his names from Horace, as Horace borrows his from Lucilius—progressive bookishness, of which there are several examples. Comp. Pedius, 1, 85; Craterus, 3, 65; Bestius, 6, 37.—conditur: So Jahn (1868) and Hermann. Jahn (1843) reads ducitur with many MSS. Ducitur is not to be explained of ‘being carried out to burial’ (Servius ad Verg., Georg., 4, 256), but in its ordinary sense of ‘being married.’ Nerius has got rid of two wives, and ‘is actually marrying a third.’ Conditur is best supported by MS. authority, and gives a sufficiently good sense. Hermann quotes, in support of conditur, Mart., 5, 37, where a man survives the loss of a rich wife, and γυναῖκα θάπτειν κρεῖττόν ἐστιν ἢ γαμεῖν, Chaeremon, ap. Stobaeum, Sermon., 88, 22. Among the wishes in Lucian’s Icaromen., 25, we find ὦ θεοί, τὸν πατέρα μοι ταχέως ἀποθανεῖν (comp. v. 10), and εἴθε κληρονομήσαιμι τῆς γυναικός, which is the key of this verse. On the use of the Dative, see G., 352, R. 1; A., 51, 4, c.

15, 16. These are the impious prayers that must be prefaced by pious observances.

16. bis terque: δὶς καὶ τρίς. G., 497.—flumine: Prol., 1. The lustral use of the bath, the pollution of the night, the peculiar virtue of running water, are common to Scriptural and classical antiquity. Lev., chap. 15. Illo | mane die, quo tu indicis ieiunia nudus | in Tiberi stabit, Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 290; Ter matutino Tiberi mergetur et ipsis | verticibus timidum caput abluet, Juv., 6, 523; Ac primum pura somnum tibi discute lympha, Prop., 4, 10, 13. For parallels, see Tylor, Primitive Culture, 2, 388.

17-30. With a sudden dramatic turn, Persius pins his omnipresent Second Person to the wall by an ironical question touching his conception of the divine character. ‘What do you think of God? What can you think of God when you confide to him wishes that you would conceal from a Staius? Are you so bold because God is so slow? Are you so bold because God’s favor is so cheaply bought?’

17. minimum est, etc.: Ironical.—scire laboro: So Hor., Ep., 1, 3, 2, and nosse laboro, Sat., 2, 8, 19.

21. inpellere: ‘smite’ (Verg., Georg., 4, 349; Aen., 12, 618), a rather strong word for humilis susurros. Pretor renders ‘quicken;’ Conington, ‘have an effect on.’ ‘Reach’ is about what is meant. With the thought of the passage, comp. Sen., Ep., 10, 5, cited by Casaubon: Nunc quanta dementia est hominum? Turpissima vota diis insusurrant: si quis admoverit aurem, conticescent; et quod hominem scire nolunt, deo narrant.

22. agedum: Agedum hoc mi expedi primum, Ter., Eun., 4, 4, 27. Dum shows impatience. ‘Be at it,’ or ‘be done with it,’ as the case may be.—clamet: Dic—clamet = si dicas—clamet. G., 594. 4; A., 60, 1, b.

23. sese non clamet: Iovem would make the joke clearer, but Persius would have had to pound his desk and bite his nails to get Iovem in. ‘Because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,’ Hebr., 6, 13. König compares Hor., Sat., 1, 2, 17: Maxime, quis non, | Juppiter, exclamat simul atque audivit?

24. ‘The guilty worshipper is in a grove (lucis, v. 27) during a thunderstorm; the lightning strikes not him but one of the sacred trees, and he congratulates himself on his escape—without reason, as Persius tells him. The circumstances are precisely those used by Lucretius to enforce his skeptical argument, 6, 390 and 416’ (Conington).

27. lucis: local Abl. and poetic Plural.—bidental: According to a law of Numa, whosoever was struck dead by lightning was buried where he fell, and the spot was inclosed. The place was called puteal, from the resemblance of the inclosure to a well-curb, or bidental, because of the oves bidentes (sheep with upper and lower teeth, hence ‘full grown’) sacrificed in the consecration of the spot, which was invested with a holy horror (triste), and might not even be looked at (evitandum). Here bidental is transferred from the place to the person: ‘a trophy of vengeance’ (Conington), ‘a monument of wrath’ (Gifford). Triste bidental, Hor., A. P., 471.

28. idcirco: Emphatic resumption.—vellere = vellendam. G., 424, R. 4; A., 57, 8, f. On the phrase vellere barbam, comp. 1, 133. Jupiter was always represented as bearded, γενειήτης, Lucian, Sacrif., 11. ‘Jove, will nothing wake thee? | Must vile Sejanus pull thee by the beard | ere thou wilt open thy black-lidded eyes | and look him dead?’ Ben Jonson, Sejan., 4, 5.

31-40. Thus far we have had wicked prayers; now we have specimens of silly prayers, of old wives’ wishes.

32. exemit: The Perf. brings the scene before us, and makes it particular instead of generic.—uda: ‘slobbering.’

33. infami digito: The middle finger (Juv., 10, 53) being used in mocking and indecent gesture, was considered on that very account to have more power against fascination. The notion still survives, and is embodied in coral ‘amulets’ or ‘charms’ (breloques) manufactured at Genoa.—lustralibus: The lustral day for a girl was the eighth, for a boy the ninth. Such a day would be the day for vows and prayers. On the corresponding Gr. ἀμφιδρόμια, see the Classical Dictionaries.—ante: adverbial, ‘first of all.’—salivis: Spittle has manifold medical and magical virtues among all nationalities. Comp. Plin., H. N., 28, 4, 22; Juv., 8, 112; Petron., 131. The Plural is poetical, perhaps intimating abundance.

34. expiat: ‘charms against mischief’ (Conington).—urentis: ‘blasting,’ ‘withering,’ μαραίνοντας.—oculos: If the belief in the ‘evil eye’ is not too well known and too widely spread to need illustration, comp. Verg., Ecl., 3, 103; Hor., Ep., 1, 14, 37. On the philosophy of the evil eye, see Plutarch, Quaest. Conv., 5, 7.—inhibere perita: On the construction, see Prol., 11.

36. Licini: Licinus, originally slave and steward of Caesar, then set free and made procurator of Gaul, where he acquired immense wealth by extortion. Comp. Juv., 1, 109: Ego possideo plus | Pallante et Licinis.—Crassi: a still more familiar synonym for wealth, Cic., Att., 1, 4, 3. The two combined in Sen., Ep., 119, 9: Quorum nomina cum Crasso Licinoque numerantur.—mittit: ‘transports,’ ‘wafts’ (Pretor); ‘packs off’ (Conington), is not in keeping with the mock-lyrical tone of the passage.

37. hunc: δεικτικῶς König comp. Catullus, 62, 42: Multi illum pueri, multae optavere puellae. On optet, comp. G., 281, Exc. 1; A., 49, 1, d.—rex et regina: Comp. 1, 67. ‘My lord and [my] lady’ (Conington). As the prayer is extravagant, Pretor thinks that the words are to be taken literally, and Conington inclines to the same opinion. But there is no objection to regina for domina in itself, Mart., 10, 64.

38. rapiant = diripiant, ἁρπάζοιεν. ‘May the girls have a scramble for him.’ The sexes are to be reversed in his honor. Casaubon comp.: Editum librum continuo mirari homines et diripere coeperunt, Vita Persii.—rosa fiat: Casaubon comp. Claud., Seren., 1, 89: Quocumque per herbam | reptares, fluxere rosae. A fairy-tale wish. Comp. Theocr., 8, 41; Verg., Ecl., 7, 59.

39. ast = at + set. G., 490; R.—nutrici: Quid voveat dulci nutricula maius alumno, Hor., Ep., 1, 4, 8. With the sentiment of the passage Casaubon comp. Sen., Ep., 60, 1: Etiamnum optas quod tibi optavit nutrix aut paedagogus aut mater? Nondum intellegis quantum mali optaverint?

41-51. From wicked wishes we have passed to silly wishes, from silly we now pass to insane. Men pray for health and pray for wealth, and all the while are doing their utmost to break down their health and squander their wealth.

41. nervis: ‘thews,’ ‘sinews.’—senectae: may depend on poscis opem or on fidele (Casaubon’s view), ‘to stand you in stead in old age’ (Conington), or ‘to stand your old age in stead.’ The latter is the more forcible.

42. esto: ‘so far, so good’ (Conington).—grandes patinae, etc.: Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 2, 95: Grandes rhombi patinaeque | grande ferunt una cum damno dedecus. Jahn (1868) reads pingues.—tuccetaque crassa: According to the Schol., ‘beef steeped in a thick gravy, which enables it to keep a year.’ ‘Rich gravies’ (Conington); ‘rich forced meats’ (Pretor). ‘Rich potted meats.’—his = his precibus, votis.—vetuere: Perf. to show that ‘the mischief is already done’ (Pretor). It is not a general Perfect. Comp. 32.

44. rem struere: The Biblical ‘heap up riches.’ Hor., Sat., 1, 1, 35: acervo | quem struit.—caeso bove: An expensive sacrifice. Comp. Gr. βουθυτεῖν.—Mercurium: See note on v. 11. An allusion to Mercury, or rather Hermes, as the God of Flocks and father of Pan, is barely possible.

46. quo, pessime, pacto: Hor., Sat., 2, 7, 22: quo pacto, pessime?

47. iunicum = iuvencarum. Observe the extravagance of the sacrifice, and compare with the expression Catull., 90, 6: omentum in flamma pingue liquefaciens.

48. extis et ferto: Comp. vv. 30, 45. Fertum (a ferendo), a kind of sacrificial cake or pudding, libi genus, quod crebrius ad sacra obmovebatur (Jahn).

49. et tamen: at tamen (Hermann), on which see 5, 159.

In his ed. of 1868 he follows Hermann, who reads:

Pretor prints:

The scholiast hesitates. All much more prosaic and much less satisfactory.—suspiret: See G., 574, R.; A., 62, 2, d.

52-75. With a sudden start Persius strikes at the root of the matter—the false conception of the divine character. ‘Thou thoughtest,’ saith God, ‘that I was altogether such a one as thyself,’ Ps. 50, 21. Because you love gold, you fancy that God loves gold, and judge of His Holiness by your corruption. God demands a pure heart, and not ‘thousands of rams.’ This is a plane on which the highest expressions of the most various religions meet, so that Hebrew, Greek, and Christian hold almost identical discourse. M. Martha (Moralistes Romains, p. 134) recognizes ‘a progress’ in thoughts, which are immemorial in their antiquity.

53. dona: Predicate.—pectore laevo: Jahn strangely follows Casaubon in understanding pectore laevo as mente laeva. Comp. Verg., Ecl., 1, 16: si mens non laeva fuisset. The side of the heart is meant. König comp. laeva parte mamillae | nil salit Arcadico iuveni, Juv., 7, 159.

54. excutiat: In his ed. of 1868 Jahn has abandoned the harsh excutias of 1843, which leaves laetari praetrepidum cor to take care of itself, with laetari as an histor. Inf. of habit. Comp. Verg., Georg., 1, 200; 4, 134; Aen., 4, 422; 7, 15.—guttas: ‘Your heart in an eager flutter of excited joy would drive the life-drops from your left breast.’ So Pretor, who adds that Persius alludes to the faintness produced by any violent excitement. Comp. Verg., Georg., 3, 105: cum spes arrectae iuvenum exsultantiaque haurit | corda pavor pulsans. With guttas comp. ‘As dear to me as are the ruddy drops that visit this sad heart,’ Shaksp. Jahn understands ‘tears,’ Heinrich ‘sweat’ (comp. Juv., 1, 167: tacita sudant praecordia culpa). In the latter case we should expect ut, as Schlüter observes.—laetari praetrepidum: ‘over-hasty to rejoice’ (Conington). For the construction, comp. Prol., 11, and Hor., Od., 2, 4, 24: cuius octavum trepidavit aetas | claudere lustrum. On the meaning of trepidum, see 1, 20.

57. pituita: trisyllabic, as in Hor., Sat., 2, 2, 76; Ep., 1, 1, 108. Pituita, ‘phlegm,’ ‘gross humor.’ ‘That pituita was supposed to mark a heavy, cloudy intellect, is clear from the meaning of the opposite expression, emunctae naris’ (Pretor). See also the commentators on Hor., ll.cc.

58. aurea barba: Cic., N. D., 3, 34, 83: Aesculapii Epidaurii barbam auream demi iussit [Dionysius], neque enim convenire barbatum esse filium cum in omnibus fanis pater imberbis esset.

61. O curvae: A passionate apostrophe, which reminds M. Martha of Bossuet.—in terris: So Jahn and Hermann. We should expect in terras, but the Abl. is more forcible as denoting the fixity rather than the tendency of the position.—caelestium inanes: On the Gen., see G., 373, R. 6; A., 50, 3, c. Jahn quotes Hor., Od., 3, 11, 23: inane lymphae | dolium fundo pereuntis imo.

62. quid iuvat hoc: So Jahn. Hos, Hermann’s reading, is not necessary, though natural. Hoc often anticipates the contents of a dependent clause, as here with the Inf., 5, 45; ut with Subj., 5, 19.—templis inmittere mores: is more than ‘the opposite to v. 7: tollere de templis.’ Inmittere, ‘turn loose upon,’ like so many hostes, sicarii, etc. Mores, ‘courses of life.’

63. bona dis: Brachylogy. ‘What is good in the eyes of the gods.’—ducere: ‘infer.’—scelerata pulpa: ‘sinful, pampered flesh’ (Conington). Pulpa is the Stoic σάρξ, σαρκίδιον, in a stronger form. M. Martha (l.c. p. 133, note) says that the Christian σάρξ (caro) is borrowed from the language of philosophy. Others only note the coincidence. Pulpa may be rendered ‘blubber.’

64. haec: sc. pulpa.—sibi: ‘to suit its taste.’—corrupto: The oil is spoiled by the spice, Verg., Georg., 2, 465: Alba nec Assyrio fucatur lana veneno | nec casia liquidi corrumpitur usus olivi.

66. bacam: ‘pearl,’ literally ‘berry.’ The transfer is explained by Auson., Mos., 70: albentes concharum germina bacas. Diluit insignem bacam, Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 241.—rasisse: Perf., like the Greek Aor. Inf. See 1, 42.

68. vitio utitur: ‘gets some good out of its sin.’—nempe: G., 500, R. 2.

72. Messallae propago: Lucius Aurelius Cotta Messalinus (Schol.), an unworthy son of M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus. See Tac., Ann., 6, 7. He was a notorious debauchee in the reign of Tiberius.—lippa: alludes to the effect of his excesses. Comp. 5, 77.

73. conpositum: ‘in just balance,’ ‘well blended’ (Conington).—ius fasque: ‘duty to God and man’ (Conington).—recessus mentis: φρενῶν μυχός Theocr., 29, 3 (Jahn).

74. incoctum: ‘thoroughly imbued.’—generoso honesto: ‘with the honor of a gentleman.’ See note on mordaci vero, 1, 107.

THIRD SATIRE.

Argument.—The Satire opens dramatically. A young Roman of the upper classes is discovered asleep, snoring off the effects of yesterday’s debauch. To him one of his familiars, half companion, half tutor, who rouses him by telling him that the sun is already high in the heavens, and it is time to be up. The young fellow bawls for his servants, brays for them, and makes a show of going to work. But nothing suits him. He curses the ink because it is too thick, then he curses it because it is too thin, and finally swears at pen and ink both. ‘You big baby,’ exclaims the monitor. ‘Do you expect me to study with such a pen?’ asks the young man with a whine. ‘Don’t come to me with your puling nonsense, you dab of untempered mortar, you unformed lump of clay. You are lazing away the time, when every minute is of moment, when the potter’s wheel should fly faster and faster, and deft hands should mould the vessel of your life (1-24). But I see you think that you have already attained perfection. You are satisfied with your position in life, move in a good circle. Tell that to the profane vulgar. I know you, every inch of you. Shame on you, that you, with your training, should live like a brutish creature, who does not know what a rich jewel he is flinging away, who sinks without a struggle in the slough of vice, whose soul dies and makes no sign. But you, who know better, will have a dire fate. No worse doom could Jove himself bring down on cruel tyrants than the vain yearning for lost virtue, which they can never hope to regain. Nay, worse than the brazen bull of Phalaris and the pendent sword of Damocles is the consciousness of sin, the pallor that blanches not the cheek only, but the very heart (25-43). You are past the age of childhood, and have not the excuse of tender years. If you were a child, I could understand your behavior. I remember my own childhood, how hateful and unprofitable task-work alternated with frivolous play, how I dodged the learning of the piece I had to speak, how I had no thought for any thing save dice and marbles and tops (44-51). But you have reached a higher level. You know the great norms of life, the doctrines of the Porch; you understand the distinctions of Right and Wrong. Pshaw! As I live, you are snoring still. Wake up, I say, and tell me—have you any aim in life? Or are you nothing better than a boy following sparrows with a pinch of salt?’ (52-62).

Here the poet drops the dramatic form, deserts the individuality of the student, and makes his exhortation general, reserving, of course, the right to pick out at will any member of his congregation for rebuke. He mounts the pulpit and begins to preach. His text is:

‘Be wise to-day; ’tis madness to defer.’ Go back to the first principles of all true philosophy, the constitution of the universe, the position of man in that universe, the great laws of Ethic as derived from the great laws of Physic. In brief, study your Stoic catechism. Do not allow yourself to be diverted from higher study by success in the lower ranges of life. You lawyer there, for instance, do not let hams and sprats, the gifts of thankful clients, seduce you from the ambrosia of true philosophy (63-76).

But hark! some one is talking out in church. It is the voice of the unsavory centurion.

‘I have got all the sense I want. I would not be for all the world one of your painful philosophers, with head tucked down, eyes riveted on the ground, mumbling and muttering a lot of metaphysic trash—chimaera bombinans in vacuo—and the rest of the scholastic stuff. What! get pale for that? What! miss my breakfast for that!’

Great applause in the galleries, and a rippling reduplication of laughter from the muscular humanity of the period (77-87).

A sudden turn, or rather a sudden return to the figure of v. 63. The connection, if there be a connection, seems to be this:

Such men as the centurion are hopelessly lost, have already ‘imbodied and imbruted.’ Like Natta, they are unconscious of their moral ruin. But there are those who, half-conscious of their condition, consult a physician of the soul, a spiritual director. The state of this class is set forth in a dramatic parable. A man feels sick, goes to see a doctor, follows his advice for a while, gets better, and then, despite all remonstrance, violates the plainest rules of diet and falls dead (88-106).

But before our preacher can make the application, he is interrupted by an impatient hearer, perhaps none other than the yawning youth, whose acquaintance we made in the beginning of the Satire. Whoever he is, he is so literal that he does not understand the drift of the apologue.

‘Sick! Who’s sick? Not I. No fever in my veins. No chill in hands or feet.’

‘But,’ says our resolute moralist, ‘the sight of money, the meaning smile of a pretty girl, makes your heart beat a devil’s tattoo. Coarse flour shows that you are mealy-mouthed, and tough cabbage brings out the ulcer in your throat. Kindle the fire of wrath beneath the cauldron of your blood, and Orestes is sane in comparison’ (107-118).

According to Jahn, this Satire is aimed at those that have received a thorough training in ethics, but, owing to the weakness of human nature, fail to follow the true guide of life; and, although well aware of their short-comings, imitate the example of those brutish souls whose sins are excused by their ignorance. In short, the Satire is an expansion of the old theme—Video meliora proboque.

Knickenberg (De Ratione Stoica in Persii Satiris Apparente, p. 16 seqq.) maintains that in conformity with Stoic doctrine, it is not so much the weakness of human nature as imperfect knowledge—the inscitia debilis of v. 99—that is the source of the vices which the author lashes in the present Satire. According to the Stoic, virtue is knowledge, and the snoring youth, with his half-knowledge, which keeps him from rising to the height of virtue, is the pattern of the false philosophy of the time.

But Persius is not an expounder of the Stoic philosophy, as a system, any more than Seneca is; and commentators have attributed to him a profounder knowledge of philosophy than he had, certainly a profounder knowledge than it would have been artistic to show. Persius repeats the catechism of the sect, expands some of their favorite theses, elaborates some of their pet figures, and finds fault with his fellow students in the lofty tone which he had caught from his teachers. A glaring paradox, such as we find in 5, 119, he is but too happy to reproduce, but the subtle analysis for which the Stoics were famous does not appear in his poems.

The Satire is said by the Scholiast to be imitated from the Fourth Book of Lucilius.

1-24. A young student is roused by one of his companions, who, after meditating on his snoring form (1-4), remonstrates with him against lying abed so long. Yawning and headachy, he attempts to go to work, calls his servants testily, has his writing materials brought, swears at them, and is rebuked by his sage friend for his babyishness, and urged to make use of this golden season of life.

1. Nempe: The opening is made very lively by the use of nempe, which implies a preceding statement, and thus plunges at once into the thick of the dialogue. ‘And so’—a clear imitation of Hor., Sat., 1, 10, 1. Comp. the English use of ‘and’ in the first verse of lyrics, and the common stage trick of beginning a scene with conjunctions: Farquhar, Beaux’ Stratagem, 2, 2: ‘And was she the daughter of the house?’ Cibber, The Provoked Wife, 5, 4: ‘But what dost thou think will come of this business?’ This effect is lost by bringing in the comes at v. 5, as some do.—mane: Substantive, the Abl. of which, mane (mani), is in more common use as an Adverb.—fenestras: ‘windows,’ here for ‘window-shutters.’

2. extendit: ‘makes wider,’ ‘makes seem wider,’ a familiar optical effect.—rimas: ‘chinks’ (between the shutters).

4. quintā dum linea tangitur umbrā: where we should expect quintă linea umbrā, by what is called Hypallagé. Conington compares Aeschyl., Ag., 504: δεκάτῳ σε φέγγει τῷδ᾽ ἀφικόμην ἔτους. See Schneidewin’s note.—dum: ‘while,’ ‘whereas,’ ‘and yet.’ Comp. G., 572, R.; A., 72, 1, c.—linea: of the sun-dial. The fifth hour (about 11 o’clock) was the time of the prandium, according to Auson., Ephem. Loc. Ordin. Coqui, 1, 2 (Casaubon): Sosia, prandendum est, quartam iam totus in horam | sol calet: ad quintam flectitur umbra notam. In Horace’s time breakfast was after 10 (Sat., 1, 5, 25). The sophist Alciphron implies that 12 was the hour in his day (3, 4, 1).

7. comitum: Comes is a wide term, embracing fellow-students and tutors. The Greek word is οἱ συνοντες. See Lucian’s famous tract, περὶ τῶν ἐπὶ μισθῷ συνόντων (de mercede conductis).

8. aliquis: ‘somebody,’ ‘τις,’ of a servant. Aperite aliquis actutum ostium, Ter., Adelphi, 4, 4, 46. Ὥσπερ ἐν οἴκῳ ἔνιοι δεσπόται προστάττουσι, Ἴτω τις ἐφ᾽ ὕδωρ, Ξύλα τις σχισάτω, Xen., Cyr., 5, 3, 49.—nemon? on the rhetorical -ne, see 1, 22.—vitrea bilis: a medical term, ὑαλώδης χολή, according to Casaubon. Comp. splendida bilis, Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 141.

9. findor: ‘I’m splitting,’ the exclamation of the impatient youth. The old reading, finditur, ‘he’ or ‘it’ (bilis) ‘is splitting,’ has little MS. authority. Others read findimur.—Arcadiae pecuria: The asses of Arcady were famous in antiquity.—rudere: with u long only here and Auson., Epigr., 76, 3.

11. nodosa harundo = calamus of the next verse.

12. querimur: In his ed. of 1868 Jahn has abandoned queritur (1843) here and in v. 14. Comp. stertimus, v. 3.—calamo: In prose, de calamo.

13. nigra sepia: ‘The blackness of the liquor,’ Conington, who says correctly that nigra is emphatic. Sepia, ‘juice of the cuttle-fish,’ used for ink. Comp. Auson., Epist., 4, 76; 7, 54 (Jahn).

14. fistula = harundo. The nib of the pen was badly slit. Comp. nec iam fissipedis per calami vias | grassetur Cnidiae sulcus harundinis, Auson., Epist., 7, 49-50.

The whole period is very awkward, and is not improved by Jahn’s sed for quod in v. 13. Mr. Pretor suspects a duplex recensio, and brackets v. 13. In any other author I should suggest dilutasque nimis for dilutas querimur, v. 14 (Mp. querimus).

16. tenero columbo: a pet name for children (Schol.). Columbus is ‘the house-pigeon,’ palumbus ‘the wood-pigeon.’ Some of the best MSS. read palumbo, which Bentley on Hor., Od., 1, 2, 10, prefers. Notice further that nurses often feed their babies pigeon-fashion.—regum pueris: ‘aristocratic babies,’ ‘babies of quality’ (Conington). Regum as in 1, 67.—pappare: (papare, Jahn, 1843) Infin. for Substantive, ‘pap.’ Such Infinitives are hardly parallel with vivere triste (1, 9), and belong rather to the verba togae. They may be called nursery Infinitives. Comp. Titin. (ap. Charisium, 1, p. 99P.), v. 78 Ribb.: Date illi biber, iracunda haec est. Comp. the Greek τὸ πιεῖν, τὸ φαγεῖν, Theocr., 10, 53; Anthol. Pal., 12, 34, 5. The Scholiast calls pappare and lullare ‘voces mutilas.’—minutum: ‘chewed fine,’ ‘minced.’

18. iratus: ‘in a pet.’—mammae: exactly our ‘mammy;’ depends on lallare, not on iratus.—lallare: like pappare, ‘lullaby.’ ‘Pettishly refusing to let mammy sing you to sleep’ (Conington)—‘to go by-bye for mammy.’

22. viridi: = crudo, ‘untempered.’ The material is ill-mixed and the crock ill-baked (non cocta).

23. ‘Persius steps back, as it were, while pursuing the metaphor,’ is Conington’s droll defence of Persius’s ὕστερον πρότερον. Common critics would say that Persius had bungled the figure.—properandus et fingendus: not necessarily equivalent to propere fingendus. Comp. Juv., 4, 134: argillam atque rotam citius properate.

24-43. Persius: ‘I know what you are going to say. You have a fair estate, you have nothing to dread, you have good connections, you have a good position. Away with these baubles. I know you yourself. You live no higher life than the dullest sensualist, who knows not what he is losing; but the time will come when you will be roused to the consciousness of your loss, and your soul must be tortured with the expectation of impending ruin and the carking of hidden sin.’—rure paterno: G., 412, R. 1; A., 55, 3, c, R.

26. quid metuas: ex animo iuvenis. The young man is supposed to ask quid metuam? See v. 19. ‘I have nothing to fear on the score of poverty.’—cultrix foci: The patella was used in the worship of the Lares. Conington preserves the possible double sense of ‘inhabitant’ and ‘worshipper,’ by rendering ‘a dish for fireside service.’—secura: ‘that knows no fear’ (of want).

27. hoc satis? This is very well, but is it enough?—an deceat: The connection is not very plain, and Jahn thinks that another person is apostrophised. Persius is attacking the same man, now as to his fortune, now as to his family. That this is not clearly brought out, is simply his own fault.—ventis: ‘with airs’ (Pretor). See 4, 20.

28. stemmate: Abl. as a whence-case. ‘Comp. Juv., 8, 1-6; Suet., Nero, 37. These stemmata were genealogical trees or tables of pedigree, in which the family portraits (imagines) were connected by winding lines. Comp. stemmata vero lineis discurrebant ad imagines pictas, Plin., H. N., 25, 2, and multae stemmatum flexurae, Sen., de Benef., 3, 28’ (Pretor, after Jahn).—Tusco: The Etruscans were great sticklers for family, as Persius well knew. Comp. Hor., Od., 3, 29, 1; Sat., 1, 6, 1; Prop., 4, 9, 1. Your aristocratic philosopher can afford to be disdainful of birth. A Stoic commonplace: si quid est aliud in philosophia boni, hoc est quod stemma non inspicit, Sen., Ep., 44, 1.—ramum = lineam.—millesime: ‘a thousand times removed’ (Pretor). On the case, 1, 123. Conington recognizes a side-thrust, and compares Savage’s ‘No tenth transmitter of a foolish face.’

32. stupet: ἀναισθητεῖ (Casaubon). He is ‘past feeling,’ his conscience is benumbed, is ‘seared with a hot iron.’—fibris increvit opimum pingue: ‘his heart is overgrown with thick collops of fat’ (Conington). The Scriptural parallels are familiar: Psa., 119, 70; Matt., 13, 15; John, 12, 40. The Delphin ed. comp. Tertull., de Anima, 20: Opimitas impedit sapientiam. On opimum pingue, comp. 1, 107.

33. caret culpa: Perhaps because the Stoic would not hold him responsible, Epictet., Diss., 1, 18. Conington well remarks that Casaubon’s quotation from Menand., Mon., 430—ὁ μηδὲν εἰδὼς οὐδὲν ἐξαμαρτάνει—does not meet the case. In Menander we have to do with ‘a sin of ignorance’ against others. Here the sin is against the man’s own nature. Possibly culpa is = conscientia culpae.

34-43. The terrors of remorse.

36. velis: ‘deign.’ Velle gives a reverential turn to the wish.

37. moverit: Perf. Subj. Attraction of mood. G., 666; A., 66, 2.—ferventi tincta veneno: The gelidum venenum chills, this poison fires the blood. Comp. Alciphr., 1, 37, 3: θερμότερον φάρμακον, of a love potion. Occultum inspires ignem fallasque veneno, Verg., Aen., 1, 688. Tincta is a reminiscence of the shirt of Nessus and the bridal-gift of Medea to Glaucé.

38. intabescant: belongs to the same sphere of comparison. Intabescere, κατατήκεσθαι, is hopeless pining for a lost love. Comp. Theocr., 1, 66; 11, 14. For the figure, see Ov., Met., 3, 487: ut intabescere flavae | igne levi cerae—solent, sic attenuatus amore | liquitur.—relicta: sc. virtute. Conington comp. Verg., Aen., 4, 692: quaesivit caelo lucem ingemuitque reperta. Relicta = quod religuerint.

41. purpureas cervices: Damocles was arrayed in royal purple; hence purpureas (Casaubon). Others apply the expression to tyrants generally. Comp. Hor., Od., 1, 35, 12: purpurei tyranni.

42. imus: Better to have a sword hanging by a hair over your neck than yourself to be hanging above an abyss of misery. The commentators refer to Tiberius’s letter to the senate (Tac., Ann., 6, 6; Suet., Tib., 67), by way of illustrating the shuddering perplexity of the sinful tyrant.—dicat: The subject is loosely involved.—intus | palleat: This ‘not very intelligible expression’ (Conington) is paralleled by Shaksp., Macb., 2, 2: ‘My hands are of your color, but I shame | to wear a heart so white.’

44-51. You have not the excuse of an unenlightened conscience, nor have you the plea of the ignorance of boyhood. Boys will be boys. I was a boy myself, played boyish tricks, loved boyish sports. My training was bad, my behavior only to be justified by my training.

44. parvus: ‘as a small boy:’ Memini quae plagosum mihi parvo | Orbilium dictare, Hor., Ep., 2, 1, 70.—olivo: The boy would tip (tangere) his eyes with oil, in order to make believe, by the use of the remedy, that he was suffering from the disease. For the anointing of sore eyes, see Hor., Sat., 1, 8, 25; Ep., 1, 1, 29.

46. discere: better than dicere. The boy shirks the learning rather than the speaking, and the sore eyes would be a better excuse for the one than for the other.—non sano: Comp. Petron., cap. 1; Tac., Or., 35, on this system of training. Hermann reads et insano.—laudanda = quae laudaret, the free adjective use of the Gerundive, which is more common in later times.

47. quae pater audiret: Juv., 7, 166: ut totiens illum pater audiat.—sudans: from excitement; hardly ‘in a glow of perspiring ecstasy’ (Conington). Sudans is thrown in maliciously as a comment.

49. scire erat in voto: Hoc erat in votis, Hor., Sat., 2, 6, 1.

51. neu quis = et ne quis. G., 546. ‘Et [erat in voto] ne quis callidior [esset].’—buxum: ‘top,’ because made of ‘boxwood.’ Comp. Verg., Aen., 7, 382: volubile buxum.—torquere: see Prol., 11, and 1, 118.

52. You have had a better training. You have reached years of discretion. You know Right from Wrong.—curvos = pravos. Comp. scilicet ut possem curvo dinoscere rectum, Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 44, and Persius, 4, 12; 5, 38.

53. quaeque docet: Quae depends by Zeugma on some notion involved in deprendere, such as tenere. G., 690; M., 478, Obs. 4.—sapiens porticus: Comp. sapientem barbam, Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 35; eruditus pulvis, Cic., N. D., 2, 18, 48.—bracatis inlita Medis: The στοὰ ποικίλη, the resort of Zeno and his school, was adorned with paintings by Polygnotus and others. One of these paintings represented the battle of Marathon, hence ‘the wise Porch bepainted with the trouser’d Medes.’ Inlita perhaps contemptuous, not necessarily ‘frescoed.’ The bracae ἀναξυρίδες, θύλακοι, a mark of barbaric luxury and display. Comp. Prop., 4, 3, 17: Tela fugacis equi et bracati militis arcus and Persica braca, Ov., Tr., 5, 10, 34 (Freund).—quibus: Neuter. Quibus et = et quibus. Trajection, G., 693.—detonsa: ‘close-cropped,’ for so the Stoics wore their hair, although they let their beard grow long ἐν χρῷ κουρίαι, Luc., Hermot., 18; Vit. Auct., 20. Comp. Juv., 2, 15: supercilio brevior coma.

57. surgentem: The path to the right is the surgens callis of Persius, the ὄρθιος οἶμος of Hesiod. The character itself points upward, and the right-hand path is a clear-cut line (limes), so that there is no mistaking the road, unless you are bent on following Shakspeare’s ‘primrose path of dalliance,’ instead of ‘the steep and thorny path to heaven.’

58. stertis adhuc: The preacher finds his audience still snoring, despite his eloquence. As stertis can not be divorced from what follows, it is better to take it as an exclamation than as a rhetorical question.—laxumque caput, etc.: ‘Your head a-lolling with its coupling loose, yawns a yawn of yesterday with jaws unhinged at every point.’ The head is laxum on account of its weight. Comp. καρηβαρεῖν Alciphr., 3, 32, and Menand., fr. 67 (4, 88 Mein.).

59. oscitat hesternum: ‘Yawning off yesterday’ (Conington); the yawn is yesterday’s yawn, because it comes from yesterday’s debauch, Alexis, fr. 277 (3, 515 Mein.).—undique: ‘from all points of the compass’ (Conington), ‘an intentional exaggeration for utraque parte.’—malis: Jahn’s malis? (1843) is not good. The description is too minute for the interrogative form.

61. ‘A wild-goose chase’ is the corresponding English expression for the Latin corvos sequi, the Greek τὰ πετόμενα διώκειν. ‘Each word is carefully selected. Thus the chase is a random one (passim), the object worthless (corvos), the missile any thing that comes first to hand’ (Pretor, after Jahn). Jahn refers further to Aeschyl., Ag., 394 (Dind.): διώκει παῖς ποτανὸν ὄρνιν. Familiar is Eurip.: πτηνὰς διώκεις, ὦ τέκνον, τὰς ἐλπίδας.

62. ex tempore: ‘for the moment,’ ‘at the beck of the moment,’ ‘by the rule of the moment’ (Conington).

63-76. A general preachment begins. Wake up, you snorer. Wake up, all you snorers. You are all sick, or all threatened with sickness. Do not postpone the remedy until it is too late. That remedy is to be found in the principles of true wisdom; in other words, in the doctrines of the Stoic creed. Before the sermon is finished, the preacher notices an unfriendly stir in his audience, and is punching a member of his congregation when he is interrupted.

63. helleborum: The black hellebore this time (1, 51). The black was good for dropsy, Plin., H. N., 25, 5, 22. It was the great ‘purger of melancholy.’—cutis aegra tumebit: Comp. vv. 95, 98.—venienti occurrite morbo: Every one will remember the well-worn Ovidian Principiis obsta, R. A., 91. The comparison of moral with physical disease was a favorite topic with the Stoics, who overdid it, according to Cic., Tusc. Dis., 4, 10, 23.

66. discite o: To remove the hiatus, Barth suggested io, Guyet vos. Hor., Od., 3, 14, 11: male ominatis, is not a parallel for the hiatus, even if the reading be correct, and the parallel in Catull., 3, 16, is conjectural.—causas cognoscite rerum: Comp. Verg., Georg., 2, 490: Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, and sapientia est rerum divinarum et humanarum causarumque scientia, Cic., Off., 2, 2, 5. On the connection of the different articles of this catechism, see Knickenberg, l.c. p. 35 seqq. Discite is the exhortation to the study of philosophy. Causas cognoscite rerum bids us pursue what the Stoics called Physic, for without a knowledge of nature there can be no knowledge of duty. Ethic is based on Physic; τέλος ἐστὶ τὸ ὁμολογουμένως τῇ φύσει ζῆν (Stob., Ecl., 2, 132). See Long’s Antoninus, p. 56. The constitution of nature once understood, we shall know what we owe to God, what to ourselves, what to mankind, what things are good, what evil. Quid fas optare refers to our duty to God, quem te deus esse iussit to our duty to ourselves, patriae carisque propinquis to our duty to our neighbors. But nothing is more evident than the absence of any logical development. Comp. with the whole passage, Sen., Ep., 82, 6: sciat quo iturus sit, unde ortus, quod illi bonum, quod malum sit, quid petat, quid evitet, quae sit illa ratio quae appetenda ac fugienda discernat, qua cupiditatum mansuescit insania, timorum saevitia conpescitur.

68. quis = qui. So 1, 63. G., 105; A., 21, 1, a.—qua et unde: where (how) it lies and from what point to begin, ‘where to take it’ (Conington). Herm.’s quam is not so good.—metae flexus: ‘turn round the goal.’ The difficulty of rounding the goal in a chariot-race is notorious. See Il., 23, 306 foll.; Soph., El., 720 foll., and the commentators on Plato, Io, 537. With the expression metae flexus Jahn comp. Stat., Theb., 6, 433: flexae—metae. Mollis, ‘gradual,’ ‘easy.’ So Caes., B. G., 5, 9: molle litus, of a gently sloping shore.

69. quis modus argento: The Sixth Satire deals with a similar theme.—quid fas optare: the argument of the Second Satire.—asper nummus: ‘coin fresh from the mint,’ ‘rough from the die,’ Suet., Nero, 44. So Jahn. Others consider this distinction too subtle, and make a. n. simply equivalent to ‘coined silver,’ as opposed to ‘silver plate,’ argentum. Conington suggests the meaning, ‘What is the use of money hoarded up and not circulated (tritus)?’ Comp. Hor., Sat., 1, 1, 41 foll., 73: nescis quo valeat nummus? quem praebeat usum?

72. locatus: ‘posted,’ τεταγμένος, ‘a military metaphor’ (Arrian, Diss., 1, 9, 16; M. Anton., 11, 13).—humana re: ‘humanity,’ inter homines.

73. disce, nec invideas: sc. discere, according to Jahn. His te quoque iungere, Caesar | invideo, Lucan., 2, 550, like φθονεῖν: μὴ φθόνει μοι ἀποκρίνασθαι τοῦτο, Plat., Gorg., 489A. Persius singles out one of his audience, who is tempted away from philosophy by his gains as an advocate. Others, less satisfactorily, suppose that the lawyer is outside of the congregation. On nec invideas, see 1, 7.—multa fidelia putet: ‘Many a jar of good things is spoiling;’ ‘The details are contemptuous. There is a coarseness in fees paid in kind’ (Conington). Comp. Juv., 7, 119.—pinguibus Umbris: ‘fat’ in every sense, in figure, in fortune, and in wit. In Mart., 7, 53, an Umbrian sends by eight huge Syrian slaves a miscellaneous lot of presents, value 30 nummi—a proceeding due as much to stupidity as to stinginess (parcus Umber, Cat., 39, 11). The appearance of the Umbrians was not prepossessing, if we may judge by Ovid’s portrait of an Umbrian dame (A. A., 3, 303-4).

76. mena: ‘sprat,’ cheap sea-fish of some sort. ‘You have not yet come to the last sprat of the first barrel’ (Conington).—defecerit: As non quod more commonly takes the Subjunctive, the shifting to the Subjunctive from the Indicative, after nec invideas, is not strange. G., 541, R. 1; A., 66, 1, d, R.

77-85. The discourse is cut short by a military man, who, with the dogmatism of his class (vieux soldat, vieille bête), sets down all philosophers as a pack of noodles. The lines of the picture which he draws are familiar to every student of manners. ‘Persius hates the military cordially (comp. 5, 189-191) as the most perfect specimens of developed animalism, and consequently most antipathetic to a philosopher. See Nisard, Études sur les Poetes Latins [1, 3^e éd. 273-277; Martha, Moralistes Romains, p. 141]. Horace merely glances at the education their sons received, as contrasted with that given him by his father, in spite of narrow means, Sat., 1, 6, 72. Juvenal has an entire satire on them (16), in which he complains of their growing power and exclusive privileges, but without any personal jealousy’ (Conington). Persius is so bookish that I suspect Greek influence. Comp. κομψὸς στρατιώτης, οὐδ᾽ ἐὰν πλάττῃ θεός, | οὐδεὶς γένοιτ᾽ ἂν, Menand., fr. 711 (4, 277 Mein.). See Introd., xx.

78. Quod sapio satis est mihi: Jahn (1868); Quod satis est sapio mihi, Jahn (1843), Herm. With the latter reading the words quod satis est = satis must be taken together, and a little more stress is laid on mihi. The general sense is the same. Comp. Plato, Phaedr., 242C: ὥσπερ οἱ τὰ γράμματα φαῦλοι ὅσον ἐμαυτῷ μόνον ἱκανός, with a very different tone.—non ego: ‘no—not I.’ See 1, 45.—curo: ‘care,’ i.e., ‘want.’ See 2, 18.

79. Arcesilas: Arcesilaus, the founder of the New Academy, flourished about 300 B.C. His great advance on Socrates was his knowing that he did not even know that he knew nothing, Cic., Acad., 1, 12, 45. Solon flourished about 600 B.C. Our hircose friend is made to jumble his samples.—aerumnosi Solones: Notice the contemptuous use of the Plural. Aerumnosus, κακοδαίμων, ‘God-forsaken,’ ‘poor devil,’ is a strange epithet for Solon, but we have to do with an ignoramus and a jolter-head.

81. murmura: Imitated by Auson., Id., 17, 24: murmure concluso rabiosa silentia rodunt.—rabiosa: ‘Mad dogs do not bark.’—silentia: Poetic Plural; very common.—rodunt: ‘biting the lips and grinding the teeth.’ ‘Whether murmura and silentia are Accusatives of the object, or cognates, is not clear’ (Conington). ‘Chewing the cud of mumbled words and mad-dog silence’ is very much in the vein of Persius. Comp. rarus sermo illis et magna libido tacendi, Juv., 2, 14.

82. exporrecto trutinantur: The lips are thrust out (a sign of deep thought) and quiver like a balance; hence they are said ‘to poise their words upon the quivering balance of a thrust-out lip’—a caricature of the simple figure ponderare verba. Jahn compares Luc., Hermot., 1, 1: καὶ τὰ χείλη διεσάλευες ἠρέμα ὑποτονθορύζων; and Casaubon, Aristaen., 2, 3: ἠρέμα τῷ χείλη κινεῖ καὶ ἄττα δήπου πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ψιθυρίζει.

83. aegroti veteris: The aegri somnia of Hor., A. P., 7. As usual, Persius exaggerates, and makes the sick man (aegroti) a dotard to boot (veteris). Jahn understands, ‘a confirmed invalid.’ Comp. Juv., 9, 16: aegri veteris quem tempore longo | torret quarta dies, etc.—gigni | de nihilo nihilum: The cardinal doctrine of Epicurus (Lucr., 1, 150), but not confined to him.

86. his: Abl. Conington makes it a Dative, and cites an evident Abl. to prove it, Verg., Aen., 4, 128. Jahn comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 8, 83: ridetur fictis rerum.—multum: with torosa, according to Jahn.

87. Conington notices the grandiloquence of the line. ‘Cloth of frize’ is often ‘matched’ with ‘cloth of gold’ in Persius.—naso crispante: ‘curling nostrils.’ The mob laughs, the soldiers snicker. The listening rabble is frankly amused. The crew to which the centurion belongs sneer too much to laugh out. Or perhaps the poet makes the distinction between the general ridere (γελᾶν) and the mocking laughter of cachinnare (καγχάζειν).

88-106. It is strange, as Pretor observes, that the sudden change introduced by this line should not have been noticed by the commentators. With a more mature artist there would be a suspicion of dislocation. As it is, the unity of the Satire would gain by omitting 66-87. Persius composed slowly, and we find here as elsewhere traces of piecemeal work.

The preacher takes up his parable. A man feels sick, consults a physician, lies by; is more comfortable, takes a fancy to a bath and a draught of wine. He meets a friend, perhaps his medical friend, on the way. ‘My dear fellow, you are pale as a ghost.’—‘Pshaw!’—‘Look out! You are yellow as saffron, and bless me! if you are not swelling.’—‘Pale? Why, you are paler than I am. Don’t come the guardian over me. My guardian has been dead a year and a day.’—‘Go ahead, I’m mum.’—He goes ahead, stuffs himself, takes his bath. While he is drinking a chill strikes him, and he is a dead man. No expense spared on the funeral. ‘You can’t mean that for me,’ says a literalist. ‘If I’m sick, you are another. I have no fever, no ague.’ Nay, but you are subject to the worst of diseases—to the fever of covetousness, the fever of lust, to daintiness with its sore mouth, to fear with its cold chill, and, worse than all, to the raging delirium of anger.

88. inspice: ἐπίσκεψαι, a medical term. Comp. Plaut., Pers., 2, 5, 15.—nescio quid: G., 469, R. 2; A., 67, 2, e. Quid is the Accusative of the Inner Object. ‘I have a strange fluttering at my heart.’—aegris: ‘out of order.’ As aegris is emphatic, co-ordinate in English. There is ‘something wrong about my throat and—’

89. exsuperat: Neuter. Comp. exsuperant flammae, Verg., Aen., 2, 759.—gravis: ‘foul.’ So Ov., A. A., 3, 277: gravis oris odor.—sodes: The original form is commonly supposed to be si audes (saudes), Plaut., Trin., 2, 1, 18; from audeo (comp. avidus), ‘if you have the heart,’ ‘an thou wilt,’ A., 35, 2, a. Others put sodes under SA (pron.), as akin to sodalis, and comp. ἠθεῖος, ‘own dear friend,’ ‘mon cher.’ See Vaniček, Lat. Etym. Wb., S. 165. Sodes = socius is an old tradition.

91. tertia nox: The patient thinks that he has the more common semitertian, whereas he has the quartan. When the third night comes without a chill, he fancies that he is safe.

92. de maiore domo: The ‘great house’ is clearly that of a rich friend, rather than that of a large dealer. Casaubon compares Juv., 5, 32: cardiaco numquam cyathum, missurus amico.—modice sitiente lagoena: Thirst and capacity are near akin; a flagon of moderate thirst is a flagon ‘of moderate swallow,’ as Conington renders it. The personification of the flagon is old and not uncommon. See the humorous epigram, Anthol. Pal., 5, 135.

94. videas: rather optative than imperative in its tone.

96. At tu deterius: Le trait est comique. Ce serait de la gaieté, si Perse savait rire, Nisard.—ne sis mihi tutor, etc.: Proverbial. So Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 88: ne sis patruus mihi.

97. iam pridem sepeli: Comp. Omnes composui. Felices! Nunc ego resto, Hor., Sat., 1, 9, 28. Sepeli for sepelii (sepelivi), a rare contraction.—turgidus his epulis: Hor., Ep., 1, 6, 61: crudi tumidique lavemur, and comp. Juv., 1, 142 seqq: paena tamen praesens, cum tu deponis amictus | turgidus et crudum pavonem in balnea portas | hinc subitae mortes atque intestata senectus.—hic: ‘our man.’—albo ventre: Turgidus epulis is one feature, albo ventre another. Ventre does not depend on turgidus. The color (λευκός) is a sign of weakness and sickness. The swollen belly makes a ghastly show.—lavatur: ‘takes his bath.’ Comp. G., 209; A., 39, c, N.

99. sulpureas mefites: Mefitis is originally the vapor from sulphur-water; hence the propriety of the epithet sulpureas.

101. crepuere: Vivid Aorist, not a simple return to the narrative form. Comp. 5, 187. For the Greek, which Persius imitates, see Kühner, Ausf. Gramm. (2te Ausg.), 2, 138.—retecti: He shows his teeth when he chatters.

102. uncta: Remember the large use of oil in Italian cookery.—cadunt = vomuntur, but there is a certain helplessness in cadunt.—pulmentaria: originally ὄψον, ‘relish,’ afterward ‘dainties.’ See the Dictionaries.

103. hinc: ‘hereupon.’—tuba: Trumpets announced the death, and trumpets were sounded at the funeral. See Hor., Sat., 1, 6, 42.—candelae = cerei, ‘wax lights,’ supposed by Jahn and others to have been used chiefly when the death was sudden, on the basis of Sen., Tranq., 11, 7.—tandem: ‘After all the preliminary performances’ (Macleane).—beatulus: μακαρίτης. Jahn cites Amm. Marcell., 25, 3: quem cum beatum fuisse Sallustius respondisset praefectus, intellexit occisum. ‘The dear departed’ (Conington). ‘Our sainted friend.’—alto: A mark of a first-class funeral.

104. conpositus: ‘laid out.’ ‘By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed,’ Pope.—crassis lutatus amomis: Every word is contemptuous: ‘bedaubed with lots of coarse ointments.’ The Plural amoma indicates the cheap display. With crassis, comp. Hor., A. P., 375: crassum unguentum; with amomis, Juv., 4, 108: amomo | quantum vix redolent duo funera.

107. Persius hauls out his man-of-straw, his souffre-douleur, and makes him talk.—Tange venas: ‘Feel my pulse,’ the regular expression, as in Sen., Ep., 22, 1: vena tangenda est.—miser: Comp. v. 15. ‘You’re another!’ ‘Poor creature yourself’ (Conington).—pone in pectore dextram: If you are not satisfied with my pulse, put your hand on my heart.

108. nil calet hic: After some hesitation, I have given the whole passage from Tange miser to non frigent to one person, who anticipates the verdict of the monitor by nil calet hic and non frigent. ‘You must admit that my heart is not hot nor my feet cold.’ At the same time the very clearness is an objection.