to themselves, and putting out their lips like a pivot for balancing their words, lost in pondering over the dreams of some sick dotard or other. Nothing can come out of nothing, nothing can go back to nothing. Is this a thing to get pale on? is a man to go without his dinner for this?' Aye, and folks are amused at him, and the big brawny brotherhood send rippling waves of laughter again and again through their curled nostrils. 'Examine me. I have a strange palpitation at heart. My throat is amiss, and foul breath is rising from it. Pray, examine me.' Suppose a patient to say this to his physician, and be told to keep quiet, and then when the third night has found the current of his veins steady, to have sent to a great house with a flagon of moderate swallow for some mellow Surrentine before bathing. 'My tremulos seems intended to express the appearance of the sneering laugh as it runs down the nose, as well as its sound. Freund says the intransitive use of 'crispo' is confined to the pres. participle, of which he quotes two instances from Pliny. The line is altogether a strange one, suggesting the notion of affected and effeminate laughter, such as might be expected from a company like that mentioned I. 19, not the 'crassum ridet' (5. 190) of a military auditory. 88-107. A man feels ill-consults his physician, who recommends quiet and abstinence-obeys for three days-then, finding himself better, procures wine to drink after bathing. A friend cautions him on his way to the bath, but the advice is scorned-he bathes upon a full stomach-drinks-is seized with shivering -rejects his food-and in course of time makes the usual end, and is buried.' 88. A story of real disease-told to show what indulgence and want of selfcommand can do. 'Inspicere morbum,' of medical examination, Plaut. Pers. 2. 5. 15. nescio quid, a cogn. acc. after 'trepidat.' 89. faucibus, 'from the throat.' 'Heus, bone, tu palles!' 'Nihil est.' 'Videas tamen istuc, quidquid id est: surgit tacite tibi lutea pellis.' 'At tu deterius palles; ne sis mihi tutor; iam pridem hunc sepeli: tu restas.' 'Perge, tacebo.' sed tremor inter vina subit calidumque triental 100. trientem. est, qui vires excolunt, ut in ipso paene balinei limine inter nudos bibant, imo potent.' Compare also Juv. 8. 168' thermarum calices,' and Mayor's note. 93. Surrentina (Hor. 2 S. 4. 55) was a thin light wine recommended for invalids when recovering. Plin. 14. 6. 8., 23. I. 20. Jahn. Pliny tells us that Tiberius used to say that the physicians had conspired to raise the credit of Surrentine, which was in fact only generous vinegar,' a name which Caligula improved upon by calling it nobilis vappa.' 6 94. A dialogue between the invalid and a friend who meets him on his way to the bath. 95. surgit and lutea emphatic, also pellis, which is used instead of 'cutis,' as in Hor. Epod. 17. 22, Juv. 10. 192, to express the abnormal condition of the skin, which looks as if it did not belong to the man. With lutea' Jahn compares Hor. Epod. 10. 16 'pallor luteus,' Tibull. 1. 8. 52 'Sed nimius luto corpora tingit 104. compossitus crassis om. que. 95 100 105 99. See v. 89. sulpureas is the proper epithet of 'mefites.' 'Mefitis proprie est terrae putor qui de aquis nascitur sulfuratis' Serv. on Virg. Aen. 7. 84, where the saeva mefitis' spoken of is a vapour arising from the sulphureous spring Albunea, the source of the Albula, of which the modern name is la Solforata. Thus the whole line is rather grandiloquent, like v. 87. 100. sed tremor. Imitated from Hor. 1 Ep. 16. 22 foll. occultam febrem sub tempus edendi Dissimules, donec manibus tremor incidat unctis.' inter vina, I. 30 note. calidum. The wine was heated, being drunk to promote perspiration. good sir, you look pale.' 'O, it's of no consequence.' 'You had better attend to it, though, of whatever consequence it may be; your skin is getting insensibly bloated and quite yellow.' 'I tell you you're paler than I am; don't come the guardian over me; I've buried him long ago, and now I've got you in my way.' 'Go on, I'm dumb.' So our hero goes to his bath, with his stomach distended with eating and looking white, and a vapour of sulphurous properties slowly oozing from his throat; but a shivering comes on over the wine, and makes him let fall his hot tumbler from his fingers; his teeth are exposed and chatter; the rich dainties come back again from his dropping jaws. The upshot is hornblowing and tapers; and at last the deceased, laid out on a high bed and daubed with coarse ointment, turns up his heels stark and stiff towards the door; and citizens of twenty-four hours standing in their caps of liberty carry him to the grave. crepuere, because of the tremor.' retecti, because of the laxa labra.' Compare Prop. 5. 8. 53 foll. 'Pocula mi digitos inter cecidere remissos, Palluerant ipso labra soluta mero.' 102. His jaw drops, and he rejects the dainties he had lately gorged. pulmentaria, properly ov-anything eaten with bread as a relish: 'tu pulmentaria quaere sudando' Hor. 2 S. 2. 20. 6 Hence dainties. Veniet qui pulmentaria condiat' Juv. 7. 185. Pulmentum' or 'pulpamentum' has the same meaning. Pulmento utor magis unctiusculo' Plaut. Pseud. 1. 2. 89, quoted by Casaubon. 103. hinc, 'hereupon.' Freund s. v. Persius hastens to the catastrophe, giving the funeral first, and then the death. tuba. Hor. I S. 6. 42 foll. 'si plaustra ducenta, Concurrantque foro tria funera, magna sonabit Cornua quod vincatque tubas.' The Twelve Tables pre candelae, wax lights.' 'Toties in vicinia mea conclamatum est, toties praeter limen immaturas exequias fax cereusque praecepit' Sen. de Tranq. 11. 7. Some have supposed that 'funalia' were used at ordinary funerals: 'cerei' or 'candelae' where the death was an untimely one, and Jahn seems to agree; but Casaubon rejects the inference. beatulus, pakaрíтηs. Jahn compares Amm. Marc. 25. 3 quem cum beatum fuisse Sallustius respondisset praefectus, intellexit occisum.' The dimin. of course indicates contempt. 'The dear departed.' alto, opp. 'humili,' to show his consequence. Virg. Aen. 2. 2., 6. 603. 104. conpositus. Hor. I S. 9. 28 above quoted. crassis, contemptuously.' 'Crassum unguentum' Hor. A. P. 375: so lutatus. amomis. Amomo quantum vix reddent duo funera' Juv. 4. 108 foll. 105. in portam. A custom as old as Homer (Il. 19. 212) κεῖται ἀνὰ πρόθυρον τετραμμένος. Hesych. δι ̓ ἐκ θυρῶν. τοὺς νεκροὺς οὕτω φασὶν ἑδράζεσθαι ἔξω τοὺς πόδας ἔχοντας πρὸς τὰς αὐλικοὺς θυράς. 106. hesterni.. Quirites. Slaves just manumitted by the deceased's will, or, as the Scholiast and Heinr. think, just before his death. The sneer at the easy Tange, miser, venas et pone in pectore dextram, nil calet hic; summosque pedes attinge manusque, non frigent.' Visa est si forte pecunia, sive candida vicini subrisit molle puella, cor tibi rite salit? positum est algente catino alges, cum excussit membris timor albus aristas; 116. subpossita. iram. acquisition of citizenship is repeated and dwelt on 5. 75 Quibus una Quiritem Vertigo facit.' 106. capite induto. Manumitted slaves used to shave their heads and assume the 'pileus.' 'Faxit Iuppiter ut ego hic hodie, raso capite, calvus capiam pileum!' Plaut. Amph. I. I. 307. subiere. Pars ingenti subiere feretro' Virg. Aen. 6. 222. Casaubon. ['Ipsum propere vix liberti semiatrati exsequiantur' Varro Bimarcus fr. 18 (p. 109, Riese).] 107-118. 'You tell me you have no disease-no fever-no chill. But does not the hope of gain or of pleasure quicken your pulse? Is not your throat too tender to relish a coarse meal? You are subject to shivering fits of fear and the high fever of rage, which makes you rave like any madman.' 110 115 'Poor creature yourself, feel my pulse and put your hand on my chest, there's no heat there; touch my extremities, they're not cold.' Suppose you happen to catch sight of a bit of money, does your heart beat regularly then? Or say you have a tough vegetable mess served up on a cold dish, with meal sifted through the common sieve: now let us examine your palate: ah, you have a concealed putrid ulcer, which makes your mouth tender, and it won't do to let that coarse vulgar beet rub against it. So you shiver, when pale fear sets up the bristles all over you, and then when a fire is lighted underneath your blood begins to boil, and your eyes sparkle with passion, and you say and do things which Orestes, the hero of madmen, would depose to be the words and actions of a madman. latet ulcus, perhaps from Hor. 1 Ep. 16. 24 Stultorum incurata pudor malus ulcera celat,' so as to remind us of the previous story, a sore which you have said nothing of to me, your medical adviser. Persius has convicted his patient of palpitation-he now proves that his mouth is inflamed-then shows that he is feverish-hot and cold alternately. 114. plebeia. beta, like panis plebeius,' quoted on v. 112. The irony is kept up by the word 'beta,' beet being proverbially tender. Suet. Aug. 87 quotes, as a peculiar expression, from Augustus' correspondence, betizare pro languere, quod vulgo lachanizare dicitur.' radere, like 'tergere palatum' Hor. 2 S. 2. 24, compared by the Scholiast. Lucr. 4. 528, 532 Praeterea radit vox fauces.... ianua raditur oris.' 115. excussit, of raising suddenly, but without separation. See I. 118 foll. Est etiam calor ille animo quem sumit in ira, Cum fervescit, et ex oculis micat acribus ardor. Est et frigida multa comes formidinis aura, Qua ciet horrorem membris, et concitat artus:' a curious passage in itself, illustrating Lucretius' theory of the composition of the soul or mind from heat, wind (or cold), and atmospheric air (the medium temperature) by the different temperaments of different animals, and one too which Persius not improbably had in his mind. See next note. 118. non sanus= 'insanus,' v. 46. The instance of Orestes is doubtless taken from Hor. 2 S. 3. 137 sq. Quin ex quo est habitus male tutae mentis Orestes, Nil sane fecit quod tu reprehendere possis,' where Damasippus argues that Orestes was mad when he killed his mother, not afterwards. But he was a favourite example of madness. Jahn refers to Plato, Alc. II. p. 143 D, and to Gell. 13. 4, who says that Varro wrote a work 'Orestes vel de Insania.' Comp. Plautus, Capt. 3. 3. 30' Et quidem Alcmaeus, atque Orestes, et Lycurgus postea Una opera mihi sunt sodales, qua iste.' |