SATIRE IV Eupolis and Cratinus and Aristophanes, true poets," and the other good men to whom Old Comedy belongs, if there was anyone deserving to be drawn as a rogue and thief, as a rake or cut-throat, or as scandalous in any other way, set their mark upon him with great freedom. It is on these that Lucilius wholly hangs; these he has followed, changing only metre and rhythm. Witty he was, and of keen-scented nostrils, but harsh in framing his verse. Herein lay his fault: often in an hour, as though a great exploit, he would dictate two hundred lines while standing, as they say, on one foot. In his muddy stream there was much that you would like to remove. was wordy, and too lazy to put up with the trouble of writing-of writing correctly, I mean; for as to quantity, I let that pass. See, Crispinus challenges me at long odds ©: Take your tablets, please; I'll take mine. Let a place be fixed for us, and time and judges; let us see which can write the most.” The gods be praised for fashioning me of meagre wit and lowly spirit, of rare and scanty speech! But do you, for such is your taste, be like the air shut up in goat-skin bellows, and ever puffing away until the fire softens the iron. 66 He large sum against a small one on my part. Bentley conjectured nummo for minimo, i.e. "bets me a sesterce," that being all his poverty would allow. Beatus Fannius ultro delatis capsis et imagine, cum mea nemo 25 scripta legat volgo recitare timentis ob hanc rem, quod sunt quos genus hoc minime iuvat, utpote pluris culpari dignos. quemvis media elige1 turba: aut ob avaritiam2 aut misera3 ambitione laborat. hic nuptarum insanit amoribus, hic puerorum ; hunc capit argenti splendor; stupet Albius aere; hic mutat merces surgente a sole ad eum quo vespertina tepet regio; quin per mala praeceps 30 fertur uti pulvis collectus turbine, ne quid summa deperdat metuens aut ampliet ut rem : omnes hi metuunt versus, odere poetas. 'faenum habet in cornu: longe fuge! dummodo risum excutiat sibi, non hic5 cuiquam parcet amico; et quodcumque semel chartis illeverit, omnis gestiet a furno redeuntis scire lacuque et pueros et anus." 35 6 Agedum, pauca accipe contra. primum ego me illorum, dederim quibus esse poetas, excerpam numero: neque enim concludere versum 40 dixeris esse satis ; neque, si qui scribat uti nos sermoni propiora, putes hunc esse poetam. 4 1 erue K, Vollmer: eripe 3 Bland.: arripe Bentley. 2 ab avaritia. 3 miser K, II. patet, II. 5 non non, II, adopted by Vollmer and Garrod. 6 poetis R and scholia on Sat. i. 6. 25; so Vollmer. a Fannius, a petty poet, brought his writings (kept in capsae or cylindrical boxes), together with his portrait, into prominence, but in what way he did so is now unknown. 21 Happy fellow, Fannius, who has delivered his books and bust unasked! a My writings no one reads, and I fear to recite them in public, the fact being that this style is abhorrent to some, inasmuch as most people merit censure. Choose anyone from amid a crowd he is suffering either from avarice or some wretched ambition. One is mad with love for somebody's wife, another for boys. Here is one whose fancy the sheen of silver catches; Albius c dotes on bronzes; another trades his wares from the rising sun to regions warmed by his evening rays; nay, through perils he rushes headlong, like dust gathered up by a whirlwind, fearful lest he lose aught of his total, or fail to add to his wealth. All of these dread verses and detest the poet : He carries hay on his horns, give him a wide berth. Provided he can raise a laugh for himself, he will spare not a friend, and whatever he has once scribbled on his sheets he will rejoice to have all know, all the slaves and old dames as they come home from bakehouse and pond." d e 66 38 Come now, listen to a few words in answer. First I will take my own name from the list of such as I would allow to be poets. For you would not call it enough to round off a verse, nor would you count anyone poet who writes, as I do, lines more Probably he presented them to private libraries. At this time the only public library in Rome was the one founded by Asinius Pollio in 38 B.C., and the only living writer whose works were admitted to it was Varro. Another view is that Fannius's admirers presented the poet with book-cases and bust. i.e., Satire. The extravagance of Albius impoverishes his son (1.109). d Dangerous cattle were thus distinguished. i.e. the common people, as they went to get bread from the public bakery and water from the public tanks. Agrippa set up seven hundred lacus or reservoirs in Rome. 66 ingenium cui sit, cui mens divinior atque os non satis est puris3 versum perscribere verbis, 45 50 55 tempora certa modosque, et quod prius ordine verbum est, posterius facias, praeponens ultima primis, non, ut si solvas "postquam Discordia taetra Belli ferratos postis portasque refregit," invenias etiam disiecti membra poetae. 60 65 Hactenus haec alias iustum sit necne poema, nunc illud tantum quaeram, meritone tibi sit suspectum genus hoc scribendi. Sulcius acer ambulat et Caprius, rauci male cumque libellis, magnus uterque timor latronibus: at bene si quis et vivat puris manibus, contemnat utrumque. 1 insanit, II. a Who Pomponius was is unknown, but in real life he corresponds to the prodigal in the play, and the language used by his father under the circumstances would be similar to that in the scene from Comedy. 4 2 grandem, II. 3 pueris, II. versum, II. The passage cited is from Ennius and refers to the temple of Janus, which was opened in time of war. It is imitated in Virgil, Aen. vii. 622. 66 66 akin to prose. If one has gifts inborn, if one has a soul divine and tongue of noble utterance, to such give the honour of that name. Hence some have questioned whether Comedy is or is not poetry; for neither in diction nor in matter has it the fire and force of inspiration, and, save that it differs from prose-talk in its regular beat, it is mere prose. But," you say, there is the father storming in passion because his spendthrift son, madly in love with a wanton mistress, rejects a wife with large dower, and in drunken fit reels abroad-sad scandal -with torches in broad daylight." Would Pomponius hear a lecture less stern than this, were his father alive? And so 'tis not enough to write out a line of simple words such that, should you break it up, any father whatever would rage in the same fashion as the father in the play. Take from the verses which I am writing now, or which Lucilius wrote in former days, their regular beat and rhythm -change the order of the words, transposing the first and the last-and it would not be like breaking up : a When foul Discord's din War's posts and gates of bronze had broken in, where, even when he is dismembered, you would find the limbs of a poet." 63 Of this enough. Some other time we'll see whether this kind of writing is true poetry or not. To-day the only question I'll ask is this, whether you are right in viewing it with distrust. Keenscented Sulcius and Caprius stalk about, horribly hoarse and armed with writs, both a great terror to robbers, but if a man is honest of life and his hands |