PROLOGUE. VER. 1-6. 'Twas never yet my luck, I ween, On the fork'd Hill to sleep a night, character and the scenery with which he set out, in the compass of a few words. The pseudo-Cornutus informs us that, in the opening lines, the poet alludes to Ennius, who dreamed, (for he was a great dreamer,) that he fell asleep upon mount Parnassus, was favoured with a visit from Homer, &c. There appears to have been no absolute necessity for recurring to the example of Ennius ;-though it must be admitted that his vaunts of drawing inspiration from draughts of Hippocrene, pottle-deep, were familiar to the Roman poets; and Propertius and others designate the fount, as one "Unde pater sitiens Ennius ante bibit :" for many poets nearer the times of Persius had advanced the same boast and it seems probable that in this elegant little piece of irony, a constant allusion is maintained to the trite follies of his immediate contemporaries. However this be, it is sufficiently clear that our youthful censor regarded Ennius and the earlier dramatic poets with no particular kindness. He Heliconidasque, pallidamque Pirenen Illis remitto, quorum imagines lambunt could scarcely be insensible to their real merits: but he was probably (I do not say, justly) prejudiced against them by the injudicious imitation of their language, then so prevalent as to be characteristic of the literature of the age. It is to little purpose the poet declares that he has no recollection of having drank of the " Caballine fount;" one of those blundering honest souls (Barthius, I believe,) per quem non licet esse negligentem, jogs his memory, and tells him that he not only drank of it, but reaped many notable advantages from it: "-Ut liquore potus Hippocrenæo "Dat erudita Persius, sed obscura." VER. 7. Thee, Helicon, &c.] In reading Hall (always a favourite with me) for the purpose of marking his imitations of Juvenal, I was frequently struck with the happy allusions to his immediate predecessor. The following passage, which is taken from his opening poem, has great beauty: 66 Trumpets, and reeds, and socks, and buskins fine, "I them bequeath; whose statues, wandring twine "Of ivy, mixt with bayes, circlen around, "Their living temples likewise laurel-bound." VER. 10. Whose busts, &c.] The Romans were late before they thought much either of busts or books. Sylla laid the foundation of a library in the immense number of volumes collected in his predatory progress through Greece; but Cæsar appears to have been the first who conceived the idea of throwing the collection open to the people. After his death, public libraries rose in various parts of the city. Generally speaking, these collections of books were placed in the temples, or in buildings attached to them; but Augustus and some of his successors had very extensive libraries in the Imperial residence on the Palatine Mount, which were also open to the people. Thee, Helicon, with all the Nine, And pale Pyrene, I resign, Unenvied, to the tuneful race, Whose busts (of many a fane the grace) Private libraries were sufficiently common: these, like the former, were appropriately ornamented with the busts of eminent philosophers, statesmen, poets, &c. Of these Persius modestly speaks in this place. He resigns Helicon to the inspired few whose statues, crowned with ivy, graced the shelves of eminent citizens, an honour, to which the obscurity of his humble fame did not entitle him and which, indeed, Horace himself seems to count among the humanis majora bonis: : "Me doctarum hederæ præmia frontium "Diis miscent superis." but he will, he says, avail himself of a privilege enjoyed by all, and, mean as his pretensions to the rank of a poet are, deposit (ipse) his verses in the public library.* If sacra vatum be taken for an allusion to a particular edifice, (which, in truth, is not necessary,) we may suppose it to be the Library of Apollo, which was the most distinguished, and if we may trust Martial, one of the most recent of these edifices which crowned the Palatine Hill, and to which he ventures to recommend his own book: "Jure tuo veneranda novi pete limina templi It is to this also that Juvenal alludes: "iste, "Quem colis, et Musarum et Apollinis æde relicta." * A practice somewhat similar to the one established by law among ourselves, prevailed at Rome-i. e. to deposit copies of every literary work in one of the public libraries. If it was good, the librarians probably took care to see it placed there; if otherwise, the author. Hederæ sequaces: Ipse semipaganus, Quis expedivit psittaco suum xaïge! VER. 17. Who bade the parrot xaïpel cry ; And forced our language on the pie ?] M. Sélis and some of the other translators are quite scandalized at the folly of those who suppose Persius intended to say that he wrote from pecuniary motives. That he really did not, we all know; for he was rich: but that such was the meaning which he wished to convey, is quite clear; and, indeed, the Prologue has no object at all, unless this be admitted. It would naturally occur to those whom he was addressing to ask, why, without inspiration, learning, or patronage of any kind, he turned his thoughts to poetry? and the answer is as ready as a borrower's cap. I was driven to it by hunger,' &c. 66 It is but for a short time, (as has been already observed,) that Persius preserves his irony; for though he begins stoutly, yet, as honest Trot says of his master, "he canna hauld it :" it seems therefore unreasonably captious in the criticks to dispute his assumption of it at all; but they are generally too grave for their author. - The couplet at the head of this note would, perhaps, present a fairer picture of the original, if it were rendered, Who taught the parrot Grecian words, And Roman speech to vulgar birds ? for Persius seems inclined to ridicule the fashionable taste of Sequacious ivy climbs, and spreads With sounds their natures never knew! For, let the wily hand unfold The glittering bait of tempting gold, And straight the choir of daws and pies, To such poetick heights shall rise, giving a superior education to the foreign bird. Every word, in fact, of this exquisite little piece is a satire. Brewster has well observed that Jonson alludes to this and a subsequent passage, in the Poetaster : They would think it strange, now "Their Belly, made.-Yet this is possible!" The commentators, who can never have too much of a good thing, have inserted this tasteful and characteristic line between v. 8 and v. 9: "Corvos quis olim concavum salutare!" |