Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookand hint, "Whither, madman, are you rushing? Whither!
what do you want? The manly bile has fermented in your hot breast,
which not even a pitcher[1483] of hemlock could quench. Would _you_
bound over the sea? Would _you_ have your dinner on a thwart, seated
on a coil of hemp?[1484] while the broad-bottomed jug[1485] exhales
the red Veientane[1486] spoiled by the damaged pitch![1487] Why do you
covet that the money you had here put out to interest at a modest five
per cent., should go on to sweat a greedy eleven per cent.? Indulge
your Genius![1488] Let us crop the sweets of life! That you really
_live_ is my boon! You will become ashes, a ghost, a gossip's tale!
Live, remembering you must die.--The hour flies! This very word I speak
is subtracted from it!"
What course, now, do you take? You are torn in different directions by
a two-fold hook. Do you follow this master or that? You must needs by
turns, with doubtful obedience, submit to one, by turns wander forth
free. Nor, even though you may have _once_ resisted, or once refused to
obey the stern behest, can you say with truth, "I have burst my bonds!"
For the dog too by his struggles breaks through his leash, yet even as
he flies a long portion of the chain hangs dragging from his neck.
"Davus![1489] I intend at once--and I order you to believe me too!--to
put an end to my past griefs. (So says Chærestratus, biting his nails
to the quick.) Shall I continue to be a disgrace to my sober relations?
Shall I make shipwreck[1490] of my patrimony, and lose my good name,
before these shameless[1491] doors, while drunk, and with my torch
extinguished, I sing[1492] before the reeking doors of Chrysis?"
"Well done, my boy, be wise! sacrifice a lamb to the gods who
ward off[1493] evil!" "But do you think, Davus, she will weep at
being forsaken?" Nonsense! boy, you will be beaten with her red
slipper,[1494] for fear you should be inclined to plunge, and gnaw
through your close-confining toils,[1495] now fierce and violent. But
if she should call you, you would say at once, "What then shall I
do?[1496] Shall I not now, when I am invited, and when of her own act
she entreats me, go to her?" Had you come away from her heart-whole,
you would not, even now. This, this is the man of whom we are in
search. It rests not on the wand[1497] which the foolish Lictor
brandishes.
Is that flatterer[1498] his own master, whom white-robed Ambition[1499]
leads gaping with open mouth? "Be on the watch, and heap vetches[1500]
bountifully upon the squabbling mob, that old men,[1501] as they sun
themselves, may remember our Floralia.--What could be more splendid?"
But when Herod's[1502] day is come, and the lamps arranged on the
greasy window-sill have disgorged their unctuous smoke, bearing
violets, and the thunny's tail floats, hugging the red dish,[1503]
and the white pitcher foams with wine: then in silent prayer you move
your lips, and grow pale at the sabbaths of the circumcised. Then are
the black goblins![1504] and the perils arising from breaking an
egg.[1505] Then the huge Galli,[1506] and the one-eyed priestess with
her sistrum,[1507] threaten you with the gods inflating your body,
unless, you have eaten the prescribed head of garlic[1508] three times
of a morning.
Were you to say all this among the brawny centurions, huge
Pulfenius[1509] would immediately raise his coarse laugh, and hold a
hundred Greek philosophers dear at a clipped centussis.[1510]
FOOTNOTES:
[1409] _Centum voces._ Homer is content with ten. Il., ii., 484, Οὐδ εἴ
μοι δέκα μὲν γλῶσσαι δέκα δέ στόματ εἶεν. Virgil squares the number.
Georg., ii., 43, "Non mihi si _linguæ centum_ sint, _oraque centum_,
Ferrea vox." Æn., vi., 625. Sil., iv., 527, "Non mihi Mæoniæ redeat
si gloria linguæ, _Centenas_que pater det Phœbus fundere _voces_, Tot
cædes proferre queam." Ov., Met., viii., 532, "Non mihi si _centum_
Deus _ora_ sonantia _linguis_." Fast., ii., 119.
[1410] _In carmina._ "That their style and language may be amplified
and extended adequately to the greatness and variety of their subjects."
[1411] _Hianda._ Juv., vi., 636, "Grande Sophocleo carmen bacchamur
hiatu;" alluding to the wide mouths of the tragic masks (οἱ ὑποκριταὶ
μέγα κεχηνότες, Luc., Nigrin., i., p. 28, Ben.), or to the "ampullæ et
sesquipedalia verba" of the tragedy itself. Hor., A. P., 96.
[1412] _Mæsto._ Hor., A. P., 105, "Tristia mæstum vultum verba decent."
[1413] _Vulnera_, i. e., "Or whether it be an epic poem on the Parthian
war," which was carried on under Nero. The genitive Parthi may be
either subjective or objective, probably the former, in spite of Hor.,
ii., Sat. i., 15, "Aut labentis equo describat vulnera Parthi."
[1414] _Ab inguine._ This may either mean, "drawing out the weapon from
the wound he has received from the Roman," or may describe the manner
in which the Parthian ("versis animosus equis," Hor., i., Od. xix., 11)
draws his bow in his retrograde course. ("Miles sagittas et celerem
fugam Parthi timet," ii., Od. iii., 17.) Casaubon describes, from
Eustathius, three other ways of drawing the bow, παρὰ μαζον, παρ' ὦμον,
and παρὰ τὸ δεξιὸν ὠτίον, "from the ear," like our English archers.
So Propertius, lib. iv., says of the Gauls, "Virgatis jaculantis ab
inguine braccis." El., x., 43.
[1415] _Cornutus._ Annæus Cornutus (of the same gens as Mela, Lucan,
and Seneca) was distinguished as a tragic poet as well as a Stoic
philosopher. He was a native of Leptis, in Africa, and came to Rome
in the reign of Nero, where he applied himself with success to the
education of young men. He wrote on Philosophy, Rhetoric, and a
treatise entitled ἡ ἑλληνικὴ θεολογία. Persius, at the age of sixteen
(A.D. 50), placed himself under his charge, and was introduced by him
to Lucan; and at his death left him one hundred sestertia and his
library. Cornutus kept the books, to the number of seven hundred, but
gave back the money to Persius' sisters. Nero, intending to write an
epic poem on Roman History, consulted Cornutus among others; but when
the rest advised Nero to extend it to four hundred books, Cornutus
said, "No one would read them." For this speech Nero was going to put
him to death; but contented himself with banishing him. This took
place, according to Lubinus, four years after Persius' death; more
probably in A.D. 65, when so many of the Annæan gens suffered. (Cf.
Clinton in Ann.) Vid. Suid., p. 2161. Dio., lxii., 29. Eus., Chron., A.
2080. Suet. in Vit. Pers.
[1416] _Offas._ "Huge goblets of robustious song." Gifford.
[1417] _Helicone._ Cf. Prol., 1. 4. Hor., A. P., 230, "Nubes et inania
captet."
[1418] _Procnes olla._ The "pot of Procne, or Thyestes," is said
to _boil_ for them who compose tragedies on the subjects of the
unnatural banquets prepared by Procne for Tereus, and by Atreus for
Thyestes. Cf., Ov., Met., vi., 424-676. Senec., Thyest. |