1 wine the man they are anxious to see through, whether he be worthy of their friendship. If you mean to fashion verses, never let the intent that lurks beneath the fox ensnare you." "6 438 If you ever read aught to Quintilius," he would say: Pray correct this and this." If, after two or three vain trials, you said you could not do better, he would bid you blot it out, and return the illshaped verses to the anvil. If you preferred defending your mistake to amending it, he would waste not a word more, would spend no fruitless toil, to prevent your loving yourself and your work alone without a rival. An honest and sensible man will censure lifeless lines, he will find fault with harsh ones; if they are graceless, he will draw his pen across and smear them with a black stroke; he will cut away pretentious ornament; he will force you to flood the obscure with light, will convict the doubtful phrase, will mark what should be changed, will prove an Aristarchus. He will not say, "Why should I give offence to a friend about trifles ? ' These trifles will bring that friend into serious trouble, if once he has been laughed down and given an unlucky reception. "" 453 As when the accursed itch plagues a man, or the disease of kings, or a fit of frenzy and Diana's wrath, so men of sense fear to touch a crazy poet and run away; children tease and pursue him rashly. He, with head upraised, splutters verses and off he strays; a The morbus regius, said to be so called because the patient was treated with costly remedies, which only the rich (reges) could afford, was our jaundice and was supposed to be contagious. 66 e Lunacy was supposed to be caused by the moon, and the moon-goddess was Diana. 487 si1 veluti merulis intentus decidit auceps 66 qui scis, an prudens huc se deiecerit3 atque servari nolit?" dicam, Siculique poetae narrabo interitum. deus immortalis haberi dum cupit Empedocles, ardentem frigidus Aetnam insiluit. sit ius liceatque perire poetis : invitum qui servat, idem facit occidenti. nec semel hoc fecit, nec, si retractus erit, iam fiet homo et ponet famosae mortis amorem. nec satis apparet, cur versus factitet, utrum minxerit in patrios cineres, an triste bidental moverit incestus: certe furit, ac velut ursus, obiectos caveae valuit si frangere clatros, indoctum doctumque fugat recitator acerbus ; quem vero arripuit, tenet occiditque legendo, non missura cutem, nisi plena cruoris, hirudo. 1 si Kô: sic aEM. 2 dimittere most Mss. 460 466 470 475 a So Thales is said to have fallen into a well while studying the stars (Plato, Theaetetus, 174 A). "" 66 66 then if, like a fowler with his eyes upon blackbirds, he fall into a well a or pit, despite his far-reaching cry, "Help, O fellow-citizens ! not a soul will care to pull him out. And if one should care to lend aid and let down a rope, How do you know," I'll say, but that he threw himself in on purpose, and does not wish to be saved?" and I'll tell the tale of the Sicilian poet's end. Empedocles, eager to be thought a god immortal, coolly leapt into burning Aetna. Let poets have the right and power to destroy themselves. Who saves a man against his will does the same as murder him. Not for the first time has he done this, nor if he is pulled out will he at once become a human being and lay aside his craving for a notable death. Nor is it very clear how he comes to be a verse-monger. Has he defiled ancestral ashes or in sacrilege disturbed a hallowed plot? At any rate he is mad, and, like a bear, if he has had strength to break the confining bars of his cage, he puts learned and unlearned alike to flight by the scourge of his recitals. If he catches a man, he holds him fast and reads him to death—a leech that will not let go the skin, till gorged with blood. The bidental was a spot struck by lightning, which was consecrated by a sacrifice of sheep (bidentes). INDEX OF PROPER NAMES = The references are to books and lines in the Latin text. Abbreviations: ACADEMUS, an old Athenian hero. In a garden dedicated to him and Achivi, the Greeks, S. ii. 3. 194; Actius, adj., of Actium, promon- tory and town of Greece on the Aeneas, the Trojan hero, son of ii. 1. 163; A.P. 279 Aetolus, adj., of Aetolia, in central Afranius, a writer of comedies with a Roman setting, known as Agave, daughter of Cadmus, wife vanus, E. i. 8. 1. See Celsus S. i. 4. 28, 109; (2) the poet, |