aware, however, that exposure of the weaknesses of men makes my writings unpopular, and I desire to say a word in self-defence. 6 'In the first place, I do not think that satire is poetry or should be judged by the standards of poetry. It lacks the imaginative inspiration and the lofty expression of poetry, and is, in this respect, like comedy, a mere reproduction in verse-form of ordinary talk on everyday subjects. The main question, however, is whether the satirist deserves to be regarded with dislike and suspicion. You compare him to a detective, not noticing that you thereby compare yourself to a criminal, but the comparison fails because my notes are not taken for use in a court or for publication. You say that the satirist is a man of meanly critical spirit, who finds pleasure in exhibiting the failings of others. But this also is untrue; my satire is no more personal or serious than the raillery of a good talker at a dinner table. It is in fact only the exercise of a habit of observation taught me by my good father, who without knowing the philosophy of books instructed me in a practical philosophy founded on observation. The only fault you can find with me is that I write down my observations. But everybody nowadays writes; if you object to that, we'll unite to condemn you and the penalty shall be that you shall turn writer yourself.' The connection of thought is less clearly indicated in this satire than in the first or third; there is occasional sharpness of retort and there is little of the mellow humor of the later work. These are the marks of immaturity. The sensitiveness to criticism, also, is of the kind that decreases with experience. Eupolis atque Cratinus Aristophanesque poetae, The 1-2. The three most important writers of the Old Comedy (prisca comoedia), of whose works only the eleven plays of Aristophanes (444-388 B.C.) are extant. names make a sonorous opening of the speech for the defendant. poetae: to close the verse with emphasis; 'true poets, all of them.' - virorum: attracted into the rel ative clause and the genitive; cf. the corresponding verse, Sat. I, 10, 16. 3. dignus describi: deserved to be satirized; cf. vs. 25, culpari dignos, and Sat. 1, 3, 24, dignus ... . notari. These are all various ways of saying, 'a suitable subject for satire.'-malus ac fur: the same as malos fures, Sat. 1, ? 5 quod moechus foret aut sicarius aut alioqui Nam fuit hoc vitiosus: in hora saepe ducentos, 5. famosus: in a bad sense, the common meaning in early Latin. libertate: with the utmost freedom of speech. The extant plays of Aristophanes, in which public men are ridiculed with great license, abundantly support this drama. - tantum: not to be taken too strictly, for Lucilius of course did not use the dramatic form. The emphasis here is upon the satirical spirit. - facetus: originally brilliant or polished in speech' (from fa-ri, to speak), and this is the meaning always in Plautus; cf. also Sat. I, 10, 44, molle atque facetum, of Vergil's bucolic poetry. The meaning 'humorous,' 'facetious,' comes over into the adj. from the noun facetiae. It combines with emunctae naris to express the single idea 'keen in words and in thought,' 'sarcastic.' The same idea is expressed in Sat. 1, 10, 3 f., sale multo urbem defricuit. 9. hoc in this, referring to what follows, which is at the same time an expansion of durus componere versus. 10. ut magnum: 'considering it a great feat.'. stans. uno: apparently a proverbial expression for doing something without effort, but it does not occur elsewhere; Quintilian, 12, 9, 18, in his actionibus omni, ut agricolae dicunt, pede standum est, seems to be a reference to the opposite idea. 15 cum flueret lutulentus, erat quod tollere velles ; II. tollere: take out, before us- this is quite wrong. 12-13. garrulus: this must go back in agreement to 9-10, in spite of the verse between. It is a loose construction, but the whole passage is loosely hung together; secutus without est, facetus, durus, vitiosus with its own verb, garrulus, form a series of half-connected appendages to the noun, Lucilius. scribendi recte: a corrective; 'of writing properly, I mean.'-ut multum: sc. scripserit. — nil moror: a common colloquialism, which usually means 'I don't care,' 'I don't bother about it.' The construction is properly acc. and infin., and the only way of explaining the ut-clause is to say that nil moror has here the meaning and con struction of concedo; 'for that he wrote much, I grant with indifference.' Ecce: the mere mention of writing much brings forward Crispinus at once with a boast. 14. minimo: this must mean offers me heavy odds, i.e. will accept a bet in which Horace puts up the smallest possible pledge. There is no precise parallel to this use of minimo, but cf. Sueton. Iul. 50, amplissima praedia . minimo addixit; Catull. 44, 4, quovis Sabinum pignore esse contendunt; Verg. Ecl. 3, 31, tu dic, mecum quo pignore certes. The scholiasts appear to know the expression: 'minimo provocare dicuntur hi qui in sponsione plus ipsi promittunt quam exigant ab adversario,' but the explanation that it is minimo digito, with a gesture, is a mere guess. - Accipe: sc. tabulas. - si vis: less formal than 'if you please'; often used in colloquial language of comedy in the shortened form sis to lessen the abruptness of the bare impv. Cf. sodes, Sat. 1, 9, 41 n., and the enclitic -dum. 15 f. detur custodes: arrangements for a formal contest, with supervisors. 20 Di bene fecerunt, inopis me quodque pusilli finxerunt animi, raro et perpauca loquentis ; at tu conclusas hircinis follibus auras, usque laborantis dum ferrum molliat ignis, ut mavis, imitare. Beatus Fannius, ultro delatis capsis et imagine, cum mea nemo scripta legat, volgo recitare timentis ob hanc rem, quod sunt quos genus hoc minime iuvat, utpote pluris 17. Di bene fecerunt: not merely a statement, but a colloquial expression of gratitude; Thank Heaven. Cf. bene facis, you're very kind; Plaut. Amph. 937, iam nunc irata non es? || non sum. || bene facis. — quodque: quod introduces the whole clause, after the verb of emotion; -que connects inopis and pusilli, but is attached to a word between them; so 115, below, vitatu quidque petitu; Sat. 1, 6, 44, cornua . . . vincatque tubas, and often in Horace. 18. loquentis: agreeing grammatically with animi, but in sense with me. The transfer of epithets is common in the Odes (e.g. 1, 4, 6 f., aspera nigris aequora ventis), and the attraction of loquentis from me to animi is made easier by the frequent use of animus for the whole man (1, 2, 69, diceret haec animus). 19 ff. 'Go and be a pair of bellows, a mere wind-bag, as is evidently your preference.' — ut mavis: as you in fact prefer, not 'since you so choose.' 21 ff. Fannius: mentioned also in 1, 10, 80, with the adj. ineptus, as a follower of Hermogenes Tigellius, but otherwise unknown. There are five scholia attempting to explain the reference and the words ultro . . . imagine, but they are confused and only partially intelligible. The clause cum ... legat contrasts the good fortune of Fannius with the unpopularity of Horace; beatus must therefore mean happy in his popularity' and ultro. . . imagine must contain a satirical reason for calling Fannius popular. "The sense would then be 'The truly fortunate poet is neither Crispinus with his facile versification nor I with my satire, but Fannius; he must be popular, for he has of his own accord set up (in a public place, at the bookseller's?) his bookcases and portrait-bust, while, as to my writings, no one reads them.' But in addition to the obscurity of the allusions, the whole sentence is too condensed for clearness. 23 f. timentis: agreeing with the gen. implied in mea. genus hoc: satire pluris: acc., with quos. 25 30 culpari dignos. Quemvis media elige turba : 'Faenum habet in cornu, longe fuge; dummodo risum bitione: the variation in construction is intentional and is carried still further in the following lines - hic . . . insanit, hunc capit, stupet — until the last craze, the absorption in business, is reached; this, as a most conspicuous and widespread folly, is given fuller description in 29-32. - laborat: a technical word, used of suffering from a chronic ailment. 28. argenti splendor: the craze for collecting silver plate was a common one in Rome, but Albius is a person of independent judgment who has a little special craze for bronzes. There are many references (e.g. Epist. 1, 6, 17) to both of these fads.'Albius: unknown. He cannot well be the man whose son was used by Horace's father (below, vs. 109) to illustrate the folly of wastefulness. — stupet: so torpes, Sat. 2, 7, 95, in a colloquial slang, like the Engl. nouns ‘fad,' ' craze,' 'rage.' 29-32. The idea of passionate absorption in some single interest; which is expressed above by the verbs laborat, insanit, capit, stupet, is in these lines suggested by the elaborate detail of the description. surgente, vespertina: 'from the East to the West'; the Romans felt a kind of wonder at the extent of their business enterprises. praeceps fertur: as if by a force stronger than his own. will. - ne . . . deperdat, ampliet ut: in the proper sense of ut and ne after a verb of fearing. |