Note 1, 12 — A. PERSIUS FLACCUS (continued 3)

12. quid faciam? G., 258; A., 57, 6.—sed: (I know you want me to do nothing), ‘but’ (I can’t keep quiet) ‘I am a laugher born.’—petulante: literally, ‘given to butting,’ hence ‘saucy’—splene: The seat of laughter.—cachinno: a substantive, perhaps built by Persius on the analogy of bibo, epulo, erro, etc. Comp. glutto, 5, 112; palpo, 5, 176. Hermann, following Heindorf, makes cachinno a verb, and reads: tunc, tunc—ignoscite, nolo; quid faciam sed sum petulante splene—cachinno, ‘Then—then—excuse me—I would rather not—what am I to do?—I can’t help it—my spleen is too much for me—I must have my laugh.’ Jahn (1868) accepts tunc, tunc—ignoscite, nolo, but goes no further.