435

Et faciunt prope plura dolentibus ex animo; sic
Derisor vero plus laudatore movetur.
Reges dicuntur multis urgere culullis
Et torquere mero, quem perspexisse laborant,
An sit amicitia dignus: si carmina condes,
Nunquam te fallant animi sub vulpe latentes.
Quinctilio si quid recitares: Corrige, sodes,
Hoc, aiebat, et hoc:' melius te posse negares,
Bis terque expertum frustra; delere jubebat,
Et male tornatos incudi reddere versus.
Si defendere delictum quam vertere malles,
Nullum ultra verbum aut operam insumebat inanem,
Quin sine rivali teque et tua solus amares.

440

444

455

Vir bonus et prudens versus reprehendet inertes;
Culpabit duros; incomptis allinet atrum
Transverso calamo signum; ambitiosa recidet
Ornamenta; parum claris lucem dare coget;
Arguet ambigue dictum; mutanda notabit:
Fiet Aristarchus. Non dicet: Cur ego amicum 450
Offendam in nugis?' Hæ nugæ seria ducent
In mala derisum semel exceptumque sinistre.
Ut mala quem scabies aut morbus regius urget,
Aut fanaticus error, et iracunda Diana,
Vesanum tetigisse timent fugiuntque poetam,
Qui sapiunt ;-agitant pueri incautique sequuntur.
Hic, dum sublimes versus ructatur et errat,
Si veluti merulis intentus decidit auceps
In puteum foveamve, licet: Succurrite,' longum
Clamet, io cives !' non sit qui tollere curet.
Si curet quis opem ferre et demittere funem,-
Qui scis an prudens huc se projecerit, atque
Servari nolit? dicam; Siculique poetæ
Narrabo interitum. Deus immortalis haberi
Dum cupit Empedocles, ardentem frigidus Ætnam
Insiluit. Sit jus liceatque perire poetis :

Invitum qui servat, idem facit occidenti.
Nec semel hoc fecit; nec, si retractus erit, jam

460

464

Fiet homo, et ponet famosæ mortis amorem.
Nec satis apparet cur versus factitet: utrum
Minxerit in patrios cineres, an triste bidental
Moverit incestus: certe furit, ac velut ursus,
Objectos caveæ valuit si frangere clathros,
Indoctum doctumque fugat recitator acerbus.
Quem vero arripuit, tenet occiditque legendo ;
Non missura cutem, nisi plena cruoris, hirudo.

470

475

NOTES

ON THE

SATIRES, EPISTLES,

AND

ART OF POETRY, OR THE EPISTLE TO THE PISOS.

NOTES.

ON

THE SATIRES, &c.

SATIRE, as a species of Poetry, is altogether of Roman creation. It seems to have originated in the extempore farcical effusions on all subjects, local and personal, which issued from actors on rustic stages at festival seasons-at harvest or vintage festivals, for instance -when the lanx satura, or platter filled with fruits of every description, was offered to the deity, in whose honour the festival was held. Such as the lanx of fruits was in quantity and variety, such was the extemporary effusion of the poet-a lanx satura de omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis.' The adjective satura, or satira, passed in time into the substantive; the form in which we find it when applied to poetry, and as it exists in the phrase, lex per saturam lata,—one law, that is, containing various provisions on matters essentially different. From its first condition, as an extempore effusion on a stage, it passed into that of a farrago, or medley, of poetry in all sorts of measures, and on all subjects; and this was probably its nature under Ennius and Pacuvius; who can only in this sense be called writers of Satire, if we are to believe Quinctilian, who expressly names Lucilius as the first great writer of Satire. It is certain that Lucilius gave to it that form and character which in great measure it even still retains. His Satire was a poetical composition altogether independent of the stage, touching, directly or indirectly, upon the principles of morals, and ridiculing and exposing the follies and vices of his day, in the persons of living individuals, and under their real names; and in these particulars it bore so close a resemblance to the ancient Comedy of the Greeks, that it may well be considered as its Roman representative. Horace carried the creation of Lucilius to a greater state of perfection. And although he added nothing to the form and general character of Satirical poetry, and wrote in the metre first adopted by Lucilius, and ever afterwards retained-the