VATIBUS hic mos est, centum sibi poscere voces, centum ora et linguas optare in carmina centum, fabula seu maesto ponatur hianda tragoedo, vulnera seu Parthi ducentis ab inguine ferrum. Quorsum haec? aut quantas robusti carminis offas ingeris, ut par sit centeno gutture niti? 4. educentis. To Cornutus. The poet acknowledges bis obligations to his old tutor, and descants on the Stoic doctrine of moral freedom, proving that all the world are slaves, as Stertinius in Hor. 2 S. 3, proves to Damasippus that all the world are madmen. The subject is the same as that of Hor. 2 S. 7, the dialogue between Horace and Davus, and the treatment not unlike. Jahn bas summed up the few particulars known about Cornutus, Prolegomena, pp. 8-27. L. Annaeus Cornutus was born at Lepta, flourished at Rome under Nero as a tragic poet, like Seneca, a grammarian (author of a commentary on Virgil, some fragments of which are preserved by Servius, and of a treatise, De Figuris Sententiarum) and a Stoic philosopher (author of a work against Athenodorus and Aristotle, and of another on the Theology of the Greeks, which still exists as a meagre epitome). The name Annaeus renders it probable that he was a freedman of that family, especially as Lucan is known to have been one of his pupils. was banished by Nero, under the following circumstances. The emperor bad a plan He 5. rubusti. 5 of writing the history of Rome, in verse, from Romulus downwards, and consulted Cornutus, among others, about the number of books of which the poem ought to consist. Some of his flatterers suggested 400. Cornutus replied that it would be too many for any one to read. It was retorted, But your great philosopher, Chrysippus, wrote many more.' 'True,' said Cornutus, but they do some good to mankind.' Nero, enraged, first thought of putting him to death, but eventually banished him to an island. 1-4. Persius. 'Poets are allowed to wish for a hundred tongues when they have any great effort to make, either tragic or epic.' 1. Regibus hic mos est' Hor. I S. 2. centum, etc.; the fountain is Hom. 11. 2. 489 οὐδ ̓ εἴ μοι δέκα μὲν γλῶσσαι, δέκα δὲ στόματ ̓ εἶεν. Hostius, a contemporary of Caesar, author of a poem on the wars of Istria, wished, for 100, 'Non si mihi linguae Centum atque ora sient totidem vocesque liquatae' (Macrob. 6. 3), and so Virg. G. 2. 43, speaking of SATIRE V. It is a standing rule with poets to put in a requisition for a hundred voices, to bespeak a hundred mouths and a hundred tongues for the purposes of song, whether the work before them be a play to be mouthed by some dolorous tragedian, or the wounds of the Parthian dragging the dart from his groin. 'What do you want with things like this? What are these lumps of solid poetry that you have to cram, big enough to justify the strain of a hundred-throat power? Let those who mean to talk grande locuturi nebulas Helicone legunto, si quibus aut Prognes, aut si quibus olla Thyestae tu neque anhelanti, coquitur dum massa camino, 7. grande. I. 14. nebulas may be from Hor. A. P. 230 Aut, dum vitat humum, nubes et inania captet,' as Jahn thinks, especially as both are speaking of tragic writing. Compare also the conception of Aristophanes' Clouds, which Persius is not likely to have forgotten. To collect mists' it would be necessary of course to ascend the mountain. Helicone, as in Prol. I foll. 'Let those who set up to be great poets avail themselves of poetical privileges,' which are generally mere moonshine. 8. The stories of Tereus and Thyestes were common subjects of tragedy in Rome as well as at Athens. Attius wrote on both subjects. Varius was the author of a Thyestes and Seneca, whose play is extant. See also Juv. 7. 12. 73, Mayor's notes. Thyestes was one of Nero's characters, Dio. 63. 9, etc. referred to by Mayor on Juv. 8. 228. The feast of Thyestes is mentioned twice by Horace as a stock tragic subject, A. P. 91, 186, and Progne's name occurs similarly, v. 187. 9. fervebit.. cenanda, like 'discere laudanda' 3. 46. 15. teris. Glyco, as the Scholiast informs us, was a slave, the joint property of Vergilius, also a tragic actor, and some other person -manumitted, on account of his great popularity, by Nero, who gave 300,000 sesterces to Vergilius for his share in him -tall and dark, with a hanging lower lip, and ill-looking when not dressed upcalled 'insulsus' from his inability to understand a joke. Persius doubtless means to ridicule the people through their favourite actor, who was probably too tragic, and seemed as if he had really 'supped full of horrors,' in spite of the frequent repetition of the process. 10. Imitated, as the Scholiast remarks, from Hor. I S. 4. 19 foll. At tu conclusas hircinis follibus auras, Usque laborantes dum ferrum molliat ignis, Ut mavis, imitare.' Compare also Juv. 7. III (Jahn). The meaning is the same as Horace expresses elsewhere, A. P. 97, by ampullas et sesquipedalia verba.' grandiose go and catch vapours on Helicon, if there be any who are going to set Progne or Thyestes' pot a-boiling, to be the standing supper of poor stupid Glycon. But you are not squeezing wind in a pair of panting bellows while the ore is smelting in the furnace, nor are you croaking mysterious nonsense to yourself in hoarse pent-up tones, nor straining and puffing your cheeks till. they give way with a plop. No; your line is to follow the language of common life, with dexterous nicety in your combinations, and a moderate rounding of the cheek; your skill must be shown in rubbing against the bloated skin of morality, and pinning vice to the ground in sport which will do for gentlemen. Let this be found only in an imitation by Jerome, Ep. 95, referred to by Jahn) being suggested by raucus. grave is perhaps used here technically of a deep bass sound, opp. to ' acutus.' inepte, perhaps from Hor. A. P. 140 'qui nil molitur inepte,' where the simple opening of the Odyssey is contrasted with the hiatus' of the cyclic poet,-'out of taste.' more 13. A graphic amplification, Persii,' of Horace's 'tumido ore' A. P. 94. stloppo, a word occurring nowhere else, perhaps coined by Persius, expressive of sound, like bombus I. 99 note. Siloppo dixit μεταφορικῶς, a ludentibus pueris, qui buccas inflatas subito aperiunt, et totum simul flatum cum sonitu fundunt' Schol. The spellingstloppo' instead of scloppo,' which many MSS. give, is supported by Jahn from Priscian, 1. 10. 565. intendis rumpere seems to be a mixture of intendis (temptas) rumpere' and intendis buccas dum rumpantur.' Compare buccae' Juv. 11. 34, for noisy talkers, whom Plautus (Bacch. 5. I. 2) calls 'buccones;''stloppo' with 'rumpere,' as the noise would be a concomitant of the bursting. 14. verba togae, like ' fabula togata' (Hor. A. P. 288), the talk of common life at Rome, opp. to the 'praetexta,' the symbol of tragedy, and the 'pallium,' which belonged to Greek subjects. We must bear in mind the relation of satire to the old comic drama, asserted by Persius himself, 1. 123. The whole line is imitated from Hor. A. P. 47 'notum si callida verbum Reddiderit iunctura novum' (compare also ib. 242 Tantum series iuncturaque pollet, Tantum de medio sumtis accedit honoris'), so that notum' and 'de medio sumtis? answer to verba togae.' iunctura (the same metaphor as in 1. 65, 92, though the application there is to the flow of the verse) refers here, as in Horace, to the combination of words in a happy phrase or expression. acri is a well-chosen epithet, expressing the nicety of the material process, as we use sharp,' at the same time that it denotes keenness of mind. 15. ore teres modico. Jahn well compares ore rotundo' Hor. A. P. 323, which Persius doubtless was thinking of here and in v. 13. Os tumidum' is an exaggeration of os rotundum,' the fullness of the mouth in measured speech: but as Persius had gone beyond 'tumidum,' he is here satisfied with something less than rotundum.' modico qualifies teres, which itself denotes smoothness within compass. 'Oratio plena, sed tamen teres' Cic. de Or. 3. 52, with shapely mouth, moderately rounded.' pallentis mores. 1. 26 En pallor seniumque! O mores!' Here the paleness is doubtless that of dropsy and disease, as in 3. 94 foll. when any rough application to the skin would be acutely felt. Compare 'radere teneras auriculas' I. 107, 'radere ulcus in tenero ore' 3. 114. 16. ingenuo.. ludo answers to Aristotle's definition of evrрaneλía (Rhet. 2. 12) as πεπαιδευμένη ὕβρις. No precisely similar instance of this use of ' defigere' has been adduced, but it is apparently the same as that of 'figere' in such phrases as 'figere aliquem maledictis,' with the additional notion of driving down. hinc trahe quae dicis, mensasque relinque Mycenis voce traham pura, totumque hoc verba resignent, Cum primum pavido custos mihi purpura cessit 18. plebeaque. 19. pullatis. 20. turguescat. 26. bis. 20 25 30 17. hinc, from common life, which is implied in the three preceding lines. König compares Hor. A. P. 317 foll. 'Respicere exemplar vitae morumque iubebo Doctum imitatorem, et vivas hinc ducere voces. Mycenis, a dative, like illis relinquo' Prol. 5, which Jahn compares. 18. cum capite et pedibus, which were put aside to show Thyestes what he had been eating : τὰ μὲν ποδήρη καὶ χερῶν ἄκρους κτένας Εθρυπτ ̓ ἄνωθεν Aesch. Ag. 1594, Tantum ora servat et datas fidei manus' Sen. Thyest. Act. 4. 764., quoted by Casaubon. plebeia prandia. The full opposition is between banquets of an unnatural sort in the heroic ages at Mycenae, known in these days only as stage-horrors, with no lesson for life, 'raw head and bloody bones,' as Dryden renders it, and everyday meals (prandia,' not 'cenae') of the simplest kind, in common society at Rome, which show ordinary men as they are. noris, the conj. used imperatively, as in 4. 52, because 'novi' has no imperative of its own. you may see how true it is, how de 19. Heinr. and Jahn restore 'pullatis' |