Note 1, 109 — A. PERSIUS FLACCUS (continued 4)

109. limina frigescant: like the modern slang, ‘leave one out in the cold.’ Limen is used in many Latin turns where ‘threshold’ would be too stately in English. Mrs. Gamp would render: ‘the great man’s cold doorsteps will settle on your lungs.’—canina littera: ‘R is for the dog,’ Shaksp., Romeo and Jul.; ‘A dog snarling R,’ Ben Jonson. See Dictionaries, s.v. hirrire. Gr. ἀραρίζειν. An allusion to the familiar cave canem. ‘The snarl is that of the great man’ (Scholiast). Conington compares ira cadat naso, 5, 91. The obvious interpretation is the right one. ‘There is a sound of snarling in the air,’ refers simply to the great man’s dog, which will be set on the unwelcome satirist.