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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/28921-8.txt b/28921-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fdfd748 --- /dev/null +++ b/28921-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2219 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in +which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams, by Pierre Nicole + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams + +Author: Pierre Nicole + +Translator: J V Cunningham + +Release Date: May 22, 2009 [EBook #28921] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAY ON TRUE AND APPARENT BEAUTY *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Richard J. Shiffer +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this text +as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings +and other inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an +obvious error is noted at the end of this ebook.] + + + The Augustan Reprint Society + + + + + _An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in Which From Settled + Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting + Epigrams_ + + + by Pierre Nicole + + + Translated by J. V. Cunningham + + + Publication Number 24 + (Series IV, No. 5) + + + Los Angeles + William Andrews Clark Memorial Library + University of California + 1950 + + +GENERAL EDITORS + + H. RICHARD ARCHER, _Clark Memorial Library_ + RICHARD C. BOYS, _University of Michigan_ + EDWARD NILES HOOKER, _University of California, Los Angeles_ + H. T. SWEDENBERG, JR., _University of California, Los Angeles_ + + +_ASSISTANT EDITORS_ + + W. EARL BRITTON, _University of Michigan_ + JOHN LOFTIS, _University of California, Los Angeles_ + + +_ADVISORY EDITORS_ + + EMMETT L. AVERY, _State College of Washington_ + BENJAMIN BOYCE, _University of Nebraska_ + LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, _University of Michigan_ + CLEANTH BROOKS, _Yale University_ + JAMES L. CLIFFORD, _Columbia University_ + ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, _University of Chicago_ + SAMUEL H. MONK, _University of Minnesota_ + ERNEST MOSSNER, _University of Texas_ + JAMES SUTHERLAND, _Queen Mary College, London_ + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The following essay forms the introduction to a famous anthology of +the seventeenth century, the _Epigrammatum delectus_, a Port-Royal +textbook published at Paris in 1659.[1] The essay was twice translated +into French in the same century, but the use of the text in France did +not survive, apparently, the downfall of the Port-Royal movement. It +was, however, later adopted by Eton College, where it was used in the +sixth form.[2] The text went through thirteen English editions between +1683 and 1762. The author of the essay, and a collaborator with Claude +Lancelot in making the selections for the anthology, was Pierre +Nicole, who began teaching in the Little Schools around 1646. It has +been said that the essay was written at that time.[3] + +The scope of the anthology is indicated on the title page, which I +translate: _A selection of epigrams carefully chosen from the whole +range of ancient and modern poets, and so on. With an essay on true +and apparent beauty, in which from settled principles is rendered the +grounds for choosing and rejecting epigrams. There are added the best +sententiae of the ancient poets, chosen sparingly and with severe +judgement. With shorter sententiae, or proverbs, Latin, Greek, +Spanish, and Italian, drawn both from the chief authors of those +languages and from everyday speech_. + +The essay is preceded by a preface in which the origin, purpose and +method of the anthology is explained. The two ends of instruction, we +are told,[4] are learning and character, and of these the latter is +the more important. But there are many books, and especially books of +epigrams, that are quite filthy and obscene. Young people are led by +curiosity to read these, and losing all chastity of mind enter upon a +progressive corruption of life. It would be best if they could be kept +wholly from such books; but there is a good deal in them of genuine +profit and literary merit, which makes it difficult to keep them +wholly out of the hands of youth. Therefore the editor undertook to +expurgate the epigrammatists, especially Catullus and Martial. He was +horrified when he read over their works, but he found some good among +the bad, as in vipers not everything is poisonous but some things even +useful to health. His primary purpose, then, was to protect the good +young man from being harmed and to leave him no excuse for wishing to +have or peruse such books since the good in them had already been +extracted for him. + +The difficulty then arose of making the selection serve the purposes +both of morality and of judgement. The editor could either gather +together all the epigrams that were not obscene, or he could choose +only the best. He took in fact both ways: he preserved everything of +Catullus and Martial except the cheapest odds and ends and filthiest +obscenities, and he applied strict standards of judgement to the rest +so that, unless an epigram had literary merit or contained something +worth knowing, he felt there was no reason to burden the book with it. + +Nevertheless, some middling epigrams found entrance into the +anthology--he confesses the fact so the reader will not look for +excellence without flaw. The reasons were, first, that the complete +perfection he was looking for is seldom or never attained. Hence, if +he had admitted only those epigrams in which there was nothing to +censure, the task would not have been one of selecting some but rather +of rejecting almost all. Again, in epigrams dealing with memorable +events or in praise of famous men, sometimes he looked to the profit +of the work rather than to its polish, as in Ausonius' quatrains on +the Caesars. Finally, he will not deny that chance has played its part +against his will. As a judge after a series of severe sentences will +give a lighter one to a man no less guilty than the others, so after +rejecting a great number of epigrams by some writer a sense of pity +arose and a distaste with severity of judgement; then if anything that +seemed pointed turned up, though no better than what was rejected, he +could not bear to see it discarded. This has occasionally happened, +but hardly ever without a warning note to the reader. + +He admits that some, perhaps quite excellent, epigrams have escaped +him, either because he never read them or because he was at the moment +of reading less attentive. But the paucity or lack of selections from +a given writer should not be taken as an indication of ignorance or +indiligence in that case. Rather, he confidently professes to have +exerted the greatest patience and industry--patience, since so many +were so bad. His hope was by his trouble to free others from so much +trouble. With this in mind he read countless authors of different ages +and countries, a total of around 50,000 epigrams, from most of which +nothing at all was worth excerpting. There is no point in +memorializing the names of the bad, except to note in passing that he +found hardly anything so inept as the _Delitiae_, as they call them, +of the German poets[5]--in this connection he gives special mention to +the book of Lancinus Curtius[6], which contains 2,000 epigrams. + +He found some fairly tolerable epigrams in other books, which +nevertheless he excluded, for what is lacking in distinction is better +not known at all than learned at the expense of better things, not to +speak of its being a burden to the mind which gradually will lose the +ability to judge excellence, and so, becoming accustomed to +mediocrity, will be unable to attempt anything higher. There is no +more useful motto for a man in quest of solid learning than Grotius' +line: "Not to know some things is a large part of wisdom."[7] + +The editor added to the epigrams a collection of sententiae since the +two forms are quite cognate, the sententia being a kind of shorter +epigram, for the principal part of an epigram, the conclusion, usually +consists in a sententia. It is true that such collections have come in +bad repute, and not wholly unjustly, but the thing itself is worth +doing. For what is our aim in reading books except to nourish and +fashion judgement? and what better serves this end than sententiae, +which furnish as it were the premises and axioms by which one is able +to form a just and true judgement on most of the duties and affairs of +human life? Hence he extracted these gems from the huge pile of +trifles in which they lay mixed. Perhaps they please less in isolation +than when one runs across them as he reads, and for this reason such +anthologizing should be contemned. But it would be precious to refuse +a great accession of profit because of a small dimunition of pleasure. + +The editor thought that in many cases the selections should not be +published without notes, for epigrams have often some obscurity in +them and their whole charm is lost unless the light that would +illuminate it is at hand. The notes to the selections from Martial are +pretty largely taken from Farnaby. Elsewhere the editor has supplied +notes sparingly, at those points where the reader might be stuck. He +has also changed the titles of a good many pieces, especially where +the original involved the name of some fictitious or base person. The +purpose of a title is to recall the whole piece to memory or to +facilitate finding it in an index. Why, then, title an epigram _To +Gargilianus_ or _Cecilianus_, which gives no idea of what the epigram +is about? The editor, therefore, has substituted titles which express +as well as possible the force of the poem, a difficult task especially +when the meaning is compact, as only one who has tried it knows. + +But that out of the brevity of this book the reader may get that +ability in judgement, which above all should be cultivated, the editor +thought it worth while to prefix to the anthology an exposition of the +norms of judgement used in selecting the epigrams. He drew these norms +not merely from his own wit or from the authorities of Antiquity, but +from the conversation of learned men experienced in civilized life. +Hence the reader will find here their judgements, not the editor's, +and will, if he is unbiased, perceive how just and accurate they are. + +The preface is then followed by the essay. The principles of the +essay, as Nicole asserted above in the preface, are not peculiarly his +own but those of the group with which he was associated. They are the +principles, for example, of the _Port-Royal logic_: particularly 1), +"one of the most important rules of true rhetoric," "_that there is +nothing beautiful except that which is true_; which would take away +from discourse a multitude of vain ornaments and false thoughts;" and +2) the doctrine that "the figurative style commonly expresses, with +the things, the emotions which we experience in conceiving or speaking +of them," and hence in the light of the adjustment of feeling to the +situation "we may judge the use which ought to be made of it, and what +are the subjects to which it is adapted."[8] + +The purpose of the book is to serve morality and to promote +judgement.[9] To this end the editor provides a check list of the +better epigrams, and affixes an asterisk to designate the best.[10] +Seventeen pieces are given the highest rating: thirteen of Martial's +(1.8, 1.21, 1.33, 2.5, 3.44, 3.46, 4.56, 4.69, 5.10, 5.13, 8.69, +10.53, and 12.13); the re-written epigram ascribed to Seneca and +discussed in the notes to the essay (note 32); Claudian on Archimedes' +sphere;[11] Boethius, _De cons. phil._ 1.m.4; and one modern poem, +Buchanan's dedication of the _Paraphrase of the psalms_ to Mary, Queen +of Scots.[12] + + _J. V. Cunningham_ + _The University of Chicago_ + + +NOTES + +[1] This paragraph is based largely on James Hutton, _The Greek +anthology in France_, "Cornell studies in classical philology," XXVIII +(1946), p. 192, and _The Greek anthology in Italy_, "Cornell studies +in English," XXIII (1935), pp. 69-70. + +[2] Sir H. C. Maxwell Lyte, _A history of Eton college_, London, 1911, +4th ed., p. 311. + +[3] Nigel Abercrombie, _The origins of Jansenism_, Oxford, 1936, p. +246; no authority is there cited. + +[4] The following paragraphs contain an abbreviated and paraphrastic +translation of the preface. + +[5] Janus Gruter, _Delitiae poetarum germanorum_, 6 v., Frankfort, +1612. + +[6] See Georg Ellinger, _Geschichte der neulateinischen literatur +Deutschlands_, I, "Italien und der Deutsche humanismus," Berlin, 1929, +pp. 115-7. + +[7] The last line of an epigram on learned ignorance, _Poemata_, +Leyden, 1637, pp. 331-2, printed in the _Delectus_, p. 399. + +[8] _The Port-Royal logic_, tr. Thomas Spencer Baynes, 8th ed., +Edinburgh, n.d., Discourse 2, p. 17; Part 3. 20, p. 286; and 1. 14, p. +90. + +[9] _Ibid._, Discourse 1, p. 1, "Thus the main object of our attention +should be, to form our judgement, and render it as exact as possible; +and to this end, the greater part of our studies ought to tend." + +[10] Lipsius had suggested some such procedure (Justus Lipsius, +_Epist. quaest._, 1.5, _Opera omnia_, Antwerp, 1637, I, p. 143): "He +would do a service to the world of letters who would make a selection +of Martial's epigrams in the fashion of the old critics and would +affix a mark of praise to the good and of blame to the bad." + +[11] Shorter poems 51, _Claudian_, ed. Maurice Platnauer, 2 v., "Loeb +classical library," London, 1922, II, 278-81. + +[12] _Poemata_, Amsterdam, 1687, p. 1; not in _Opera omnia_, Leyden, +1725. + + + + +AN ESSAY ON TRUE AND APPARENT BEAUTY IN WHICH FROM SETTLED PRINCIPLES +IS RENDERED THE GROUNDS FOR CHOOSING AND REJECTING EPIGRAMS. + + +_Why men's judgments on beauty differ so much._ + +I should say that the reason why even learned men differ so widely and +display so great a range of opinion in judging the excellence of +particular writers is that practically no one looks to reason and +weighs the matter in the light of true and settled principles. Indeed +everyone in the act of judging embraces a hastily conceived opinion +and follows his impressions without reflection or judgment. Thus it is +that few have made any attempt so far to arrive at an exact knowledge +of the nature of true beauty, by which in the last analysis all else +must be determined; rather, each has immediately pronounced that to be +beautiful which affected him with some sort of pleasure. Yet there is +no norm of judgment more misleading or more variable, for a false and +adulterate beauty will give pleasure to minds imbued with deformed +opinions whom a true and solid beauty often cannot affect. It follows +there is nothing so ugly that it will not please someone or other, and +nothing on the other hand so absolutely beautiful that it will not +displease someone. Farmers will be found to dance to absurd songs, and +whole theaters time and again roar at the tasteless jokes of the +actors. Similarly, there are a good many who find little or no delight +in Vergil or Terence, though there is nothing in the world of letters +more polished--such is the power of custom and preconceived opinion to +impart or preclude delight. Consequently, if we wish to dissociate +ourselves from the fickle mob of opinions, we must have recourse to +reason, which is single, fixed, and simple. We must discover by her +aid that true and genuine figure of beauty with which is marked +whatever is truly beautiful and finished, and from which whatever +departs is justly called ugly and repugnant to taste. + +Reason leads us directly to nature and establishes that to be +generally beautiful which accords both with the nature of the thing +itself and with our own. For example, if an object that is excessive +or defective in some part is thought ugly, it is because it diverges +from nature which demands a completeness in the parts and despises +excess. Almost everything that is judged to be ugly is so judged for +the same reason: you will always observe that there is here some flaw +at variance with a rightly constituted nature. Nevertheless, for an +object to be declared beautiful it is not enough that it answer to its +own nature; it must also be congruent with ours. For our nature, being +invariable both in the soul and in the body endowed with senses, has +definite inclinations and aversions by which it is either attracted or +estranged. Thus our eye is moved with pleasure by certain colors, our +ear is drawn by a certain kind of sounds; one thing delights the soul, +one repels it, each in the measure that it corresponds or is repugnant +to our ways of feeling. However, what is meant by nature here is not +any nature at all, since some are misshapen, perverse, and corrupt. +What is meant is a nature corrected and well-ordered from whose +inclinations must arise the judgement of beauty and charm. + +However, the essence of true beauty is such that it is not fugitive, +changeable, or of one time, but rather invariable, fixed, persistent +and such as pleases all times equally. And although there may be found +some men of so corrupt a nature that they despise beauty, nevertheless +they are but few. And even these may be recalled to truth by reason, +since false beauty though it may for a while have its admirers cannot +long hold them, for nature itself which cannot be erased will +gradually beget in them a distaste for it. For, as Cicero so notably +says, time that erases the fictions of opinion only confirms the +judgements of nature.[1] + +If we may apply this maxim to literature we may say that that is truly +beautiful which agrees both with the nature of things themselves and +with the inclinations of our senses and of our soul. And since in a +work of literature one takes account of sound, diction, and idea, the +agreement of all these with nature in its two aspects is required for +beauty. Hence we will take these up one by one, beginning with sound. + + +ON SOUND + +_How seldom it charms in echoing the sense, how commonly by sweetness. +Its natural measure in the ear._ + +We have assigned the first division of natural beauty to sound, which +we distinguish from diction in that propriety and force of meaning are +looked to in this; in sound it is the pleasantness or harshness that +is regarded, flattering or offending the ear, or it is a kind of +imitation of the subject-matter--sad things recited tearfully, excited +rapidly, or harsh harshly. This is common enough in the spoken word; +in writing, however, with which we are chiefly concerned here, it is +uncommon, though Vergil sometimes quite happily represents the sound +of things themselves, their swiftness and slowness, in the sound of +his verse. When you hear, for example, the well-known _procumbit humi +bos_, do you not seem to hear the blunt sound of the falling bull? Or +when you read the line _Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula +campum_,[2] doesn't the sound of running horses strike your ears? But +this effect, as I said, is uncommon, and hardly to be found in any +other poet than Vergil. Thus the chief potentiality of sound, and the +most common, lies in charming the ear. It is a slight beauty, yet it +is of nature, and for this reason especially agreeable to all classes +of people. For there is scarcely any person so uneducated as not to +be naturally displeased at what is incomplete and botched, or not to +perceive what is full, ordered, and defined. Hence Cicero says justly +in the _Orator_: + + The ear, or the soul at the injunction of the ears, possesses a + natural way of measuring sounds, by this judges some longer, some + shorter, and ever anticipates the completion of a measure. It + feels hurt when a rhythm is maimed or curtailed as if it had been + defrauded of due payment. It dislikes even more whatever is + prolonged and runs on beyond the proper bounds, since too much is + more offensive than too little. Not that everyone knows the + metrical feet, or understands anything about rhythm, or is aware + of what offends him, or where, or why; it is rather that nature + has set in our ears a power of judging the length and brevity of + sound, as also the acute and grave accent of words.[3] + + +_Pleasantness of sound is justly exacted of poets. The harshness of +many poets, particularly the German. Some are too melodious._ + +Hence it is that anyone who wishes to conform to nature must +necessarily strive for pleasantness of sound. This is the more justly +exacted of poets since poetry itself is nothing other than measured +language, bound into fixed numbers and feet, for the purpose of +charming the ear. Consequently, those poets are justly censured who +rest content with rounding off their words in six feet and altogether +neglect to accommodate the ear. A good many epigrammatists are +constant offenders in this kind, especially those who have rendered +the Greek Anthology in Latin and the German poets. + +For example, who can tolerate this German epigram? + + He who made all that nothing was of nothing, + Who'll make that nothing that now something is, + Made you who nothing were what you now are + From nothing, will make nothing what you are-- + Yes, or if something, being but sin from sin, + From sin must form something for heaven fit. + +Again, what is harsher than this epigram? + + You from your soul could not but know mine that + That gave up in your ghost but just now his: + As soul is known from soul so is your ghost + Known to the Muses by my muse that's yours. + +Or than this distich? + + Forward, nor turn from the old path one bit: + This that you are I while I live shall be.[4] + +But just as it is a considerable fault in diction wholly to neglect +the pleasure of the ear, since verse, as we said, was devised to +flatter it, so on the other hand those writers make a grievous mistake +who have an immoderate regard for the ear, and pay no attention to the +thought so long as they are satisfied with the sound. Out of such +concern we get tuneful trifles and verses empty of substance. Writers +who have by an attentive consideration of the poets achieved the +faculty of poetic diction and rhythm quite often fall into this error. +They abound in choice phrases and so are in effect content to smooth +over the commonplace with a not indecorous make-up. You can see this +in many poems and epigrams of Buchanan, Borbonius, and Barleius. If +the reader is not quite attentive such poems will often deceive him, +but being re-read and examined they beget a kind of distaste because +of the thinness of the matter. Consequently, we have looked carefully +for this fault, and have eliminated many poems that are melodious in +this way and have nothing inside. + + +_How diction should be suited to subject-matter._ + +We come now to the question of conforming the diction and +subject-matter to nature, in which, as was said above, nature must be +considered in its double aspect: namely, in relation to the subjects +of which we speak, and in relation to the audience by whom we are +heard or read. + +The agreement of words and subject consists in this: that lofty words +should be fitted to lofty subjects, and lowly to lowly. It is true, of +course, that every kind of writing demands simplicity, but the +simplicity meant is such as does not exclude sublimity or vehemence. +In fact, it is no less faulty to treat high and weighty subjects in a +slight and unassuming style than it is to treat what is slight and +unassuming in a high and weighty style. In both of these ways one +departs from that agreement with nature in which, we have said, beauty +resides. Therefore, not every piece of writing admits the rhetorical +figures and ornaments, and likewise not every one excludes them. The +answer lies wholly in whether there is throughout a complete harmony +between diction and subject. + +In addition, I wish you would carefully observe something that few +do--namely, when you temper your diction to the subject, to regard it +not only as it is in itself or in the mind of the writer, but also as +it has been formed by your speech in the minds of your audience. Thus, +the reader is assumed to be unacquainted with what you have to say at +the beginning of a work, and hence you must use simple language to +initiate him into your lines of thought. Afterwards you may build upon +this foundation what you can. It follows that if you are to speak of +some outrageous crime, you should not inveigh against it with a +comparable violence of diction until your audience has achieved such a +notion of the crime as will not be at odds with such force and +violence. + +Thus Vergil begins in the best way with simple diction: + + Arms and the man I sing who first from Troy + Banished by fate came to the Italian shore. + +And Homer, too, who was praised for this by Horace: + + Speak to me, Muse, of him, when Troy had fallen, + Who saw the ways of many and their cities. + +But Statius begins badly, and sweeps the reader away too suddenly in +these verses: + + Fraternal arms, and alternate rule by hate + Profane contested, and the guilt of Thebes + I sing, moved by the fiery Muse. + +Claudian is even more at fault, and thrusts these bombastic lines on +our unprepared attention: + + The horses of Hell's rapist, the stars blown + By the Taenarian chariot, chambers dark + Of lower Juno ... + +But this rule should particularly be observed in the use of +adjectives, which are always ill-joined with their noun when they +disaccord with the impression the reader has in his mind. I have seen +the opening of Lucan censured on this point: + + Wars through Emathian fields, wars worse than civil, + And crime made legal is my song. + +The critics urge that the epithet _worse than civil_ could justly be +employed after the depiction of the slaughter at Pharsalia, but that +here it is out of order and suddenly attacks the reader who was +thinking of no such thing. It offends against the precept of Horace: + + Not smoke from brightness is his aim, but light + He gives from smoke.[5] + + +_In what way diction should answer to man's inner nature. First, the +grounds of the natural disaffection with unusual diction: how far this +should be observed._ + +But it is not sufficient that diction answer to the subject-matter +unless it also answers to the nature of man, in which may be discerned +a kind of aversion to obsolete, low, and inappropriate words. I prefer +to call this aversion a natural one rather than a result of opinion, +though it is in a way based on opinion. For although the feeling that +a particular word is more in common use and more civilized than +another is purely a matter of men's judgement, nevertheless it is as +natural to be displeased by the unusual and inappropriate as it is to +be pleased with the usual and proper. Whatever is contrary to reason +offends by the very fact that it is seen to lack reason. Certainly, to +leave aside familiar terms and to search out unusual ones is wholly +foreign to reason. However, there is added to this natural source of +offense another that proceeds from opinion. Since such words are +commonly condemned, there is associated with them a certain distaste +and contempt such that it is scarcely possible to pronounce them +without immediately arousing the associated feelings. + +Consequently, the intelligent writer will willingly comply with usage +so as not to give grounds for displeasure--whether this displeasure +springs from nature or opinion. Though he is aware that usage is +unstable and changes day by day, nevertheless he will prefer rather to +please at one time than never. He will be careful, however, in his +written work not to make use of the current jargon, especially of the +French court and women's circles, or of any locutions that are not yet +generally received. For the life of such expressions is too short to +be bound into a lasting work--not to speak of the detestable +affectation which detracts from the weight and dignity of the writing. + +To conclude, there is a beauty and charm in propriety and elegance of +diction which is not to be scorned, though it is but of a time, and, +since it rests on opinion, by which usage is determined, will pass +away with a change of opinion. Hence those who write not for an age +but for all time should try to attain something else, something that +has no admixture of opinion: Such is the agreement of words with +nature, which we will now explain. + + +_The inner and more intimate agreement of words and nature._ + +If one wishes to look deeply into the nature of the human mind and to +search out its inner sources of delight, he will find there something +of strength conjoined with something of weakness, and out of this +circumstance arises variety and irregularity. The mind's vexation with +a continual relaxation derives from its strength, while from its +weakness stems the fact that it cannot bear a continual straining. +Hence it is that nothing pleases the human mind very long, nothing +that is all of one piece. So in music it rejects a wholly perfect +harmony, and for this reason musicians deliberately intercalate +discordant sounds--what are technically called dissonances. So, +finally, it happens that physical exercise, even if it was at first +undertaken for pleasure, becomes a torture when continued without +interruption. + +This point has its pertinence to literature, the more so since in that +field nature reveals the greatest delicacy and cannot long endure what +is lofty and excited. Yet on the other hand, whatever creeps close to +earth and never lifts its head is, if it be prolonged, wearisome. To +stand, to rest, to rise up, to be thrown down, this is what every +reader or listener desires, and from this derives the driving +necessity for variety, for the mingling of the majestic and slight, +excited and calm, high and low. But it may seem that this +consideration has little pertinence to the epigram, which is brief and +so in less need of variety. However, I need not apologize for +introducing these more general considerations since others of more +immediate pertinence to the course of our discussion are derived from +them, and particularly the question of the discriminate use of +metaphors, which are of considerable effect in adorning or vitiating +poetry. + +For if we consider attentively why men are pleased with metaphors we +will find no other reason than that already stated: the weakness of +nature which is wearied by the inflexibility of truth and plain +statement and must be refreshed by an admixture of metaphors which +depart somewhat from the truth. This gives the clue to the proper and +legitimate use of metaphors; they are to be employed specifically, as +musicians employ discordant sounds, to relieve the distaste of perfect +harmony. But how frequently and at what point they should be +introduced is a matter of considerable caution and skill. One warning +will suffice for the present: that metaphors, hyperboles, and whatever +varies from the plain and natural way of saying something should not +be sought for their own sakes but as a kind of relief for nauseated +nature. They are to be accepted on grounds of necessity, and +consequently a good deal of moderation must be observed in their use. +Thus Quintilian rightly says, "A sparing and opportune use of these +figures gives lustre to speech; frequent use obscures and fills with +disgust."[6] You will discover this fault often in many epigrams, +especially in those of contemporary writers as I shall show by several +examples later on. However, lest this doctrine should issue in too +strict an austerity of diction, it should be noted that only those +expressions are to be taken as metaphors that are remote from ordinary +usage and offer the mind a double idea. Hence if a metaphor is so +commonplace that it no longer has a figurative connotation and +suggests nothing other than the notion itself for which it is used, +then it should be numbered among proper rather than metaphorical +expressions and does not fall in that class of tropes whose too +frequent use is here censured. + + +_On a too metaphorical style. Certain epigrams rejected for this +reason._ + +Though poets are granted a greater indulgence in the use of tropes, +nevertheless they have their own mean, or, as Cicero says, their own +modesty, and there is ever an especial ornament to be derived from +simplicity. Consequently those writers stray pretty far from beauty +for whom, as it were, all nature plays the ham to the point that they +say nothing in an ordinary way, imagine nothing in the way in which it +is perceived outside of poems, but instead elevate, debase, alter, and +clothe everything in a theatrical mask. For this reason we have +excluded from this anthology a number of epigrams as too metaphorical: +for example, these two by Daniel Heinsius, a man otherwise eminent in +scholarship and letters: + + Driver of light, courier of the bright pole, + Surveyor of the sky, and hour-divider, + Servant of time, circler perpetual, + Cleanser of earth, disperser of the clouds, + Ever your chariot, fiery four-in-hand, + You curb fast; you who bear on the bright day + Steal from the world once more your countenance + And of your glowing hair conceal the flame; + Tomorrow from the arms of Tethys you + Return once more: but night has sealed my sun. + +By my _sun_ he means Douza. And again: + + Sweet children of the night, brothers of fire, + Small cohorts, citizens of the fiery pole, + Who wandering through the cloudless fields of air + Lead the soft choruses with a light foot + When our tired bodies are stretched softly out + And gentle sleep invades our conquered sense, + Why now as then through the enamelled halls + From the recesses, still, and the clear windows + Of the gold arch bear off his hallowed face? + Farewell, at last; you shall not see your Douza.[7] + +In these epigrams, apart from the metaphors heaped up _ad nauseam_, +and each of them harsh and absurd, a keen critic has noted another +fault: namely, that nothing is more distant from the spirit of a man +grieving and mourning for the death of a friend--and this is what +Heinsius intended to depict--than such a wantonness of epithets. And +so much for diction. + + +_Truth, the primary virtue of ideas. How great a fault there is in +untruth. Thence, of false epigrams._ + +We take up now the question of ideas, and postulate again that these +too must conform both to the subject and to men's character. Ideas +agree with the subject if they are true, if they are appropriate, and +if they so to speak get into the insides of the thing. They are in +accord with men's character if they fit in with natural aversions or +desires. + +The primary virtue of ideas is truth. Whatever is false is at variance +with external reality, nor is there any beauty in falsity except in so +far as it pretends to truth. From this you may gather that truth is +the source of beauty, falsity of ugliness. The latter, in fact, is out +of keeping not only with reality but also with human nature. For we +possess an innate love of truth and an aversion to falsehood, so that +what delights us when it seems to be true becomes disagreeable and +unpleasant when its falseness is made manifest. This principle applies +to those learned men whom we have mentioned several times now, and has +led to the exclusion from this anthology of many epigrams in which the +point rests on a falsehood: for example, there is the well-known one +by Grotius, though simply as a poem it is noble enough: + + +_On Joan of Arc, who is called "La pucelle d'Orleans"_ + + French Amazon of never-dying fame, + Virgin untouched by men and by men feared, + Nor Venus in her eyes nor young Desire + But Mars and Terror and the bloody Weird-- + France owes the Salic Law to her alone, + And hers is the true king on the true throne. + Let none lament her death who was all fire + And never, or by fire alone, should die.[8] + +I have ventured to cite this that the reader may see quite clearly +what is involved in this kind of falsehood and how much it is +repugnant to nature: namely, that something is alleged the contrary of +which might as plausibly be affirmed. For Grotius might have written +no less foolishly: + + Justly lament her death: she who was fire + Should not by fire but by cold water die. + +Actually, if we wish to get to the bottom of this fault we will find +that men are not led to it by nature but driven to it by lack of +skill. For they would not fly to the refuge of falsehood for any other +reason than that they are not vigorous enough to elicit beauty from +the subject itself. Truth, indeed, is limited and defined, but the +realm of lies is unlimited and undefined. Hence the one offers +difficulties for invention, the other is obvious and easy, and for +that reason also is to be scorned. + +Moreover, falsehood occurs not only in propositions but also in the +delineation of feeling, as, for instance, when feelings are ascribed +to a character other than those which nature and the subject-matter +demand. You will find this fault in an epigram by Vulteius, which was +for this reason rejected: + + I viewed one day the marble stone + That hides a man in sin well-known. + I sighed and said, "What is the point + Of such expense? This tomb might serve + To house kings and the blood of kings + That now conceals a villainous corpse." + I burst in tears that copiously + Flowed from my eyes down both my cheeks. + A stander-by took me to task + In some such words, I think, as these: + "Aren't you ashamed, be who you may, + To mourn the burial of this plague?" + But I replied, "My tears are shed + For the lost tomb, not his lost head."[9] + +It was surely foreign to nature to represent a man weeping copiously +because a villain and scoundrel had been buried in a noble tomb, for +the funeral honors paid to scoundrels excite anger and indignation +rather than pity and tears. The poet, consequently, adopted an +erroneous feeling when he wept where he should have been angry and +wrathful. + + +_On mythological epigrams._ + +Untruth, then, is a considerable fault, one that is quite widespread +and one that embraces many sub-divisions. Under this category falls +especially the use of mythological propositions, the common vehicle of +poets when they have nothing to say. We have rejected many epigrams +that are faulty in this kind, as, for example, Grotius on the Emperor +Rudolph, which is too crowded with myths: + + Not Mars alone has favored you, Invincible, + At whom as enemy barbarian standards shake, + But the Divine Community with gifts adore you, + And with this in especial from the wife of Zephyr: + She to the Dutch Apelles did perpetual spring + Ordain, and meadows living by the painter's hand. + Alcinous' charm is annual, and Adonis' gardens, + Nor do the Pharian roses bloom long in that air; + Antique Pomona of Semiramis has boasted, + And yet deep winter climbs the summit of her roof. + How shall your honors fail? The garlands that you wear + Beseem Imperial triumph, which time may not touch.[10] + +I know there are other things to be censured in this epigram, but I +note here only that one fault which it was quoted to illustrate. + + +_On puns._ + +To the same general category may be referred most puns, the point of +which usually rises from some untruth. For example, in Sannazaro's +well-known epigram: + + Happy has built twin bridges on the Seine: + Happy the Seine may call her Pontifex.[11] + +If you take _Pontifex_ in the sense of "builder of bridges" the +thought is true, but pointless; consequently, for there to be a point +the word _Pontifex_ must be taken in the sense of "Bishop", and in +this sense it will be false that the Pontifex is happy. Similarly, in +another epigram of some reputation: + + They say you're treating Cosma for his deafness, + And that you promised, French, a definite cure; + But you can't bring it off for all your deftness: + He'll hear ill of himself while tongues endure.[12] + +Take _audire_ as referring to the sense of hearing and the thought is +false, since that physical defect is curable; take it as referring to +a good reputation, and the thought will again be false and inept, for +it is false and inept that a doctor will labor in vain to cure a +defect of the ears because he cannot medicine to a diseased +reputation. + +All puns are embarrassed by such faults, while on the other hand their +charm is quite thin, or rather nonexistent. Formerly, it is true, in +an earlier age there was some praise for that kind of thing, and so +Cicero and Quintilian are said to have derived polished witticisms +from the device of double-meaning; now, however, it is rightly held in +great contempt, so much so that men of taste not only do not hunt for +puns but even avoid them. They are, one must admit, more bearable, or +at least less objectionable when they come spontaneously; but anyone +who brings out ones he has thought up or indicates that he himself is +pleased with them is quite properly judged to be inexperienced in +society. Hence it is that epigrams whose elegance is derived from puns +are held of no account. For since verses are only composed by labor +and diligence he is justly considered to be a weak and narrow spirit +who wastes time in fitting such trivial wit into verse. One should +add, too, that there is another disadvantage in puns, that they are so +imbedded in their own language that they cannot be translated into +another. For these reasons we have admitted few punning epigrams into +this anthology, and those only as examples of a faulty kind. + + +_On hyperbolical ideas._ + +In the category of false ideas must be reckoned the hyperbolical. +These are not false in a given word, for we dealt with this above, but +false in the whole train of thought. Of this kind is that epigram of +Ausonius, the absurdity of which is unbearable: + + Riding in state, as on an elephant, + Faustus fell backwards off a silly ant; + Abandoned, tortured to the point of death + By the sharp hooves, his soul stayed on his breath + And his voice broke: "Envy," he cried, "begone! + Laugh not at my fall! So fell Phaethon."[13] + +Ausonius was imitating in this epigram the Greeks, who were quite open +to this sort of bad imitation, as may be seen in their Anthology which +is stuffed full of such hyperboles. A good many fall into the same +fault either because their talent is weak or because they write for +the unskilled--a consideration which should move those who have no +compunction about reading, let alone praising, the silly tales of +Rabelais which are filled with stupid hyperboles. + + +_On debatable and controvertible ideas._ + +Furthermore, debatable and double-edged ideas, about which the reader +is in doubt whether they be false or true, fall under the same +category of falseness. For this doubtfulness, since it takes away all +pleasure, removes also the beauty. For this reason I have never +approved the conclusion of Martial's epigram: + + Equal the crime of Antony and Photinus: + This sword and that severed a sacred head-- + The one head laurelled for your triumphs, Rome! + The other eloquent when you would speak. + Yet Antony's case was worse than was Photinus': + One for his master moved, one for himself.[14] + +The reader is bothered by a sort of quiet annoyance that the poet +should so confidently take a dubious idea for a certain one. He might +easily argue against the poet that on the contrary it seemed to him +that a man who commits a crime for his master is more at fault than +one who commits it for himself, and he could support his position with +rational arguments. For one who sins for his own advantage is driven +to his deed by such emotions as rage, lust, and fear, and these as +they diminish the power of willing in like measure diminish the +magnitude of the offence. But one who effects a crime at another's +behest comes coldly to the deed, a fact that convicts him of a far +greater depravity. One could allege these and similar lines of +argument against Martial's position, and could reverse the sense of +his distich so that it read no less irrationally: + + Yet Antony's case was better than Photinus': + One for his master moved, one for himself. + +Hence this whole category of controvertible ideas lacks literary merit +and should be studiously avoided by those who aim at beauty, which in +the last analysis is to be found in truth alone, and in truth of such +a sort that as soon as it is proposed the reader recognises as true +and accepts it. + + +_The second virtue of ideas, that they should agree with the inner +nature of the subject; and thence on ideas foreign and accidental to +the subject._ + +The second virtue of ideas with respect to the subject-matter is that +they should agree with its inner nature: that is, that they should be +elicited out of the very inners of the subject and not far-fetched or +drawn from external accidents which are only the accompaniments of +things. By this rule we have been delivered from numerous frigid +epigrams, of which I subjoin a few examples: + +Foreign and far-fetched is Owen's on a lyre: + + That there is concord in so diverse chords + Discordant mankind some excuse affords.[15] + +As if nothing were more pertinent for making men ashamed of their +discords than the concord of strings on a lyre. + +From concomitant accidents, and not from the very heart of the subject +itself, is drawn this epigram of Germanicus Caesar, though the verses +are otherwise sufficiently polished: + + The Thracian boy at play on the stiff ice + Of Hebrus broke the waters with his weight + And the swift current carried him away, + Except that a smooth sherd cut off his head. + The childless mother as she burned it said: + "This for the flames I bore, that for the waves."[16] + +Certainly the mother had a deeper and more native cause of grief than +that her son was destroyed partly by water and partly by fire; she +would have grieved no less had he perished wholly in water or wholly +in fire. The whole reason for grief, then, ought not be sought in such +a slight circumstance, which was an accompaniment of and not the +grounds for grief. + +Negative descriptions labor under the same fault, namely those in +which are enumerated not what the endowments of the subject are but +what they are not. This is justly censured in one of Barlaeus' +epigrams, which is in other respects quite polished: + + Of royal Bourbon blood, by whose aid once + Belgium believed that God inclined to her; + For sceptered fathers famed, more famed for war, + And by Astraea's doom of rare renown; + Whom War as general, Peace lauds unarmed, + To whom so many lands and seas are slaves; + Neither the fleece drinking barbarian dye + I send you, nor Sidonian artifice, + Nor Indian ivory, Dalmatian stone, + Nor the choice incense that delights grave Jove, + Nor warring eagles, no, nor cities stormed, + Nor plundered canvas from the conquered sea; + Louis, I give you Christ as King and Lord, + Titles not foreign to the ones you bear: + For I would send you, greatest of all kings, + Than which I cannot more, I send you God.[17] + +Surely it is a long way around to enumerate what you will not give the +King in order to make clear how slight your gift is. Besides, the +conclusion is harsh in that a book about Christ is called God and +Christ, as if Christ and a book about him were the same thing. But +this is a commonplace absurdity of what one may call the dedicatory +_genre_, in which writers almost always speak of their book as if +there were no difference between the book itself and its subject: +thus, if they write about Caesar or Cato, "Caesar and Cato," they +say, "prostrate themselves before you;" If about Cicero, "Look," they +say, "Cicero addresses you and takes you as patron:" all of which are +correctly to be reckoned in the category of false statements. + + +_In what way ideas are to be made agreeable to men's character. On +avoiding offense; and, first, on obscenity._ + +The harmony of idea and subject is a matter fairly easy to understand, +but the attuning of idea and men's character is more difficult to +grasp and requires more painstaking treatment. For in this inquiry the +whole scope of human nature must be thoroughly examined, and our +silent inclinations and aversions must be laid open so that we will +know how to avoid the one and comply with the other. For it cannot be +that anything should please that offends nature, or anything displease +that complies with natural inclinations. We will touch briefly on some +of these points, but only on those that suffice to our purposes. + +In the first place, there is in the nature of man an aversion to the +shameful and the obscene, and this the more powerful in the best and +well-educated natures. All obscene ideas offend this sense of shame to +such an extent that they are regarded as alien to nature, ugly, and +uncivilised. Nor does it matter that some corrupt souls laugh at them. +For civilization, as we have said, does not consist in agreement with +a corrupt, but with a virtuous and moral, nature. Consequently, +absolutely nothing of this kind is to be found in the conversation of +respectable men, and is only resorted to by those who lack any feeling +for Christianity as well as for genuine society and civilization. + +Therefore we have excluded all shameful and licentious epigrams not +only in deference to morals and religion but also to good taste and +civilization. Of this Catullus and Martial in Antiquity witness that +they had no perception at all, for they filled up their works with a +good deal of ill-bred filth, and on that account must be regarded not +only as dissolute but also as vulgar, uncultivated, and, to use +Catullus' own phrase, "goat-milkers and ditch-diggers."[18] + + +_On the cheap subject-matter of some epigrams._ + +But it is not only faulty and unpolished to offer the reader a +shameful and obscene picture but also in general to depict whatever is +cheap, ugly, and unwelcome. Hence those epigrams cannot be regarded as +beautiful and polished whose subject is a toothless hag, a poetaster +with a threadbare cloak, a rank old goat, a filthy nose, or a glutton +vomiting on the table--all of which are a fertile ground of jokes for +actors--since ugliness of that sort can never be redeemed by the +point. + +For this reason we have admitted none of such kind in the epigrams of +Martial which we have subjoined to this treatise, and a good many +epigrams that we have run across we have put aside, such as Buchanan's +in which he depicts the unattractive and unpleasant picture of a lank +old man: + + While Naevolus yells he can outbellow Stentor, + And roars and roars, "All men are animals," + He has slipped by almost his ninetieth year + And bent senility shakes his weak step. + Now three hairs only cling to his smooth head, + And he sees what a night-owl sees at dawn. + The snot is dripping from his frosty nose, + And stringed saliva falls on his wet breast-- + Not an odd tooth in his defenceless gums, + Not an old ape so engraved with wrinkles. + Naevolus, for shame leave this frivolity + And no more cry, "All men," since you are none.[19] + +Again, the baseness of the subject and the hardly pleasant or +civilized image of a hanging man is a fault in this epigram of +Sannazaro's, although it has an element of humor: + + In your desire to learn your fortune, sir, + You questioned every tripod, every rune; + "You'll stand out above gods and men," at last + Answered the god in truth-revealing voice. + What arrogance you drew from this! You were + Immediately lord of the universe. + Now you ascend the cross. God was no cheat: + The whole world lies spread out beneath your feet.[20] + +This is fairly respectable and merely low. But the cynical license of +Martial and Catullus, by which they speak of many things that are not +simply morally foul but such as decent society demands be removed from +sight and hearing, must be regarded as altogether shameless and +vulgar. For this reason men of taste never mention favorably Catullus' +_Annales Volusi cacata charta_, or Martial's + + et desiderio coacta ventris + gutta pallia non fefellit una[21] + +And there are many others a good deal more despicable which cannot be +adduced even as examples of a fault. Assuredly Antiquity was too +forbearing toward this sort of thing, and I have often wondered how +Cicero could have been tolerated in the Roman Senate when he inveighed +against Piso: + + Do you not remember, blank, when I came to see you about the + fifth hour with Gaius Piso, you were coming out of some dirty + shack, slippers on your feet and your face and beard covered; and + when you breathed on us that low tavern air from your fetid + mouth, you apologized on grounds of ill health, saying that you + were taking a kind of wine treatment? When we had accepted your + explanation--what else could we do?--we stood a while in the + smell and fume of the joints you patronize until you kicked us + out by the impudence of your answers and the stench of your + belches.[22] + + +_On spiteful epigrams._ + +Men with some gentleness of nature have an inborn hatred of spite, +especially of such as mocks bodily flaws or reversals of fortune, or, +finally, anything that happens beyond the individual's responsibility. +For, since no man feels himself free of such strokes of chance, he +will not take it easily when they are torn down and laughed at. The +Vergilian Dido spoke with human feeling when she said: _Not unaware of +ill I learned to aid misfortune._[23] and the good will of the reader +rises quietly in her favor. Likewise, Seneca says nicely: _It is not +witty to be spiteful._[24] On the other hand they act inhumanely who +triumph over misfortune and upbraid what was not guiltily effected, to +such an extent that they arouse a feeling of aversion and alienation +in the hearts of their readers. + +Accordingly we have admitted only a few of this kind, and have +rejected a great many, as, for example, Owen's frigid and spiteful +epigram: + + Look, not a hair remains on your bright skull. + The hairs on your inconstant brow are null. + With every last hair lost behind, ahead, + What has the bald man left to lose? His head.[25] + +Nor do we greatly care for many of the same kind in Martial, which +nevertheless were not omitted for the reasons given above.[26] + + +_On wordy epigrams._ + +It would be a long task to assemble all the natural aversions, +nevertheless we may add a few more which have removed a whole host of +epigrams from this anthology. Beyond those already mentioned, nature +finds distasteful long circumlocutions and the piling up of a single +point with varying phrase; for nature burns with a desire to find out, +ever hastens to the conclusion, and is impatient at being detained by +much talk unless there is a special reward. Consequently wordy +epigrams beget a good deal of loathing, especially those that do not +sufficiently balance their length with the magnitude of the idea. Some +of Martial's are burdened with this fault; sometimes they accumulate +too many commonplace compliments or are too petty in enumeration. For +example, in this epigram to what point are so many trite similes piled +up? + + Her voice was sweeter than the agëd swan, + None would prefer the Eastern pearl before her, + Or the new-polished tooth of Indic beasts, + Or the first snow, lilies untouched by hand; + She who breathed fragrance of the Paestan rose, + Compared with whom the peacock was but dull, + The squirrel uncharming, and unrare the phoenix, + Erotion, is still warm on a new pyre.[27] + +Similarly, why in another well-known epigram is the same idea repeated +again and again? + + Oh not unvalued object of my love, + Flaccus, the darling of Antenor's hearth, + Forego Pierian songs, the sisters' dances: + No girl among them ever gave a dime. + Phoebus is nought; Minerva has the cash, + Is shrewd, is only usurer to the gods. + What's there in Bacchus' ivy? The black tree + Of Pallas bends with mottled leaves and weight. + On Helicon there's only water, wreaths, + The divine lyres, and profitless applause. + Why do you dream of Cirrha, bare Permessis? + The forum is more Roman and more rich. + There the coins clink, but round the sterile chairs + And desks of poets only kisses rustle.[28] + +In the same way that nature is displeased with wordiness, she is +displeased with ideas that are too commonplace, for it is a kind of +loquacity to bubble on with the commonplace and trite, since it is the +purpose of speech to reveal what isn't known, not to repeat what is +known and worn-out. Countless epigrams have been excluded from this +selection for this fault, but since there is nothing more common I +will omit offering examples. + + +_On trifling wit, and plays on words._ + +Not a little displeasing, also, is an assiduity in trifling which +withdraws the mind from solid subject-matter out of which true beauty +springs. Plays on words, puns and other playing around of that kind, +unless they come to the judgement of the pen within the bounds of art, +are not so much figures of speech as faults of style, and in those +epigrams where the point rests solely in these there is nothing +thinner, especially when they are so peculiar to one language that +they cannot be translated into another. On this basis we have passed +over such frivolous witticisms as Owen's: + + Rope ends the robber, death is his last haul; + The gallows gets the gangster--if not all, + If many get away, God gives no hope: + It's an odd thief dies with no coffin rope.[29] + +A little more humorous is that of another poet on the Swiss killed at +night, though it too is faulty: + + Annihilated in night snow by a nut stick, + I snow, night, nut, now, and annihilation know.[30] + + +_In what way natural inclinations are to be gratified._ + +We must carefully avoid all these natural sources of aversion and no +less gratify natural inclinations if we wish to attain that beauty we +aim at. For self-love is so strong in men that they can hear nothing +with pleasure unless it flatters them with their own feelings. For +which reason those epigrams have correctly been judged best that +penetrate deeper into those feelings and present to the reader's mind +an idea recognised not only by the interior light but also by the +interior feeling as quite true, so that he can be seduced into +embracing it: for example, Martial's: + + I scorn the fame purchased with easy blood + And praise the man who can be praised alive.[31] + +For, since everyone hates death and longs for praise and glory, there +is no one who would not be glad if he could be praised without dying. +Another example is that of the old poet: + + Put high disdain, deciduous hope put by: + Live with yourself who with yourself must die.[32] + +For nature has, as Quintilian said, a kind of elevation intolerant of +anything above it[33] that fawns on anyone who bids it be contemptuous +of a pride in riches. + +This much on the general sources of beauty and ugliness will be +sufficient for passing judgement on any _genre_ of poems. +Nevertheless, this should be adapted to the particular nature, laws, +and principles of the epigram, and so it will not be out of point to +add a few remarks on the epigram itself. + + +_The origin of the name epigram. Its definition, form, and laws._ + +"Epigram", as Scaliger observes, is the same thing as "inscription"; +but since there are inscriptions of a good many things the former word +has been applied to short poems inasmuch as epigrams of that sort used +to be inscribed on monuments and statues;[34] and from this the word +has been extended generally to short poems. The epigram is defined, +then, as a short poem directly pointing out some thing, person, or +deed.[35] + +There are those who locate its formal principle in the serious or +witty idea that forms the conclusion, and so insist on this that they +deny anything is an epigram that lacks such a conclusion.[36] But this +is an error. There are some epigrams, and highly cultivated ones, that +have an equable elevation throughout and nothing of especial note in +the conclusion, as in this of a contemporary writer: + + That on insurgent serpents breathing peace, + On unplumed eagles trembling, on tame pards, + And lions whose low necks accept the yoke, + Louis looks out, sublime on a bronze horse, + Nor fingers shaped this nor the craftsman's forge + But worth and God's fortune accomplished it. + The armed venger of faith, trustee of peace, + Ordained, for all to reverence, this, and bade + Rise in the royal place the reverend bronze, + That, the long perils past of civil strife, + And enemies subdued by prosperous arms, + Louis should ever triumph in the master city.[37] + +Again, in some epigrams there is a straightforward neatness and a +gentle and dry humor that pleases, as may be seen in some of Catullus' +epigrams which we have put in this anthology. + +Some go to the contrary extreme and not only do not require such +conclusions but even scorn them. These are for the most part the +outrageous lovers of Catullus who, as long as they finish off some +limp little dirge in hendecasyllabics, feel that they are marvellously +charming and polished, although there is nothing more empty than such +verses or nothing easier to do if a man has acquired a little practice +in Latin. + +How little effort, for instance, shall we imagine the conclusion of +this epigram cost Borbonius, fashioned as it is according to the model +of Catullus? + + Wherefore come, O Roman muses, + Full of honey and of graces, + Learned verses of good Pino; + I embrace you, just Camenae, + All day long I read you gladly + In this mortifying season, + Time of tears and time of penance, + Harsh and troublesome, by Jupiter![38] + +You can see where the perverse imitation of Catullus has conducted a +Christian, in other respects devout, so that in discussing a Christian +fast day he had no fear of using the profane name of Jove. But, +leaving this aside, what is more inept than the verse _Harsh and +troublesome, by Jupiter!_, however Catullan. Nevertheless, Borbonius +thought his epigram concluded elegantly in that line because he found +in Catullus a similar one.[39] But, leaving aside such spiritless +imitators, one can truly affirm of those ideas that conclude epigrams +that there is a good deal of elegance in them when they are themselves +distinguished and nicely cohere with the preceding chain of thought. +For, since nothing so sticks in the reader's mind as the conclusion, +what is better than to put there what especially you want to fix in +his soul. Consequently, those epigrams are rightly censured as faulty +that go in the order of anti-climax or in which the conclusion is sort +of added on or appended to the rest and does not neatly develop out of +the preceding verses. This fault is discernible in the following +epigram, though in other respects it is distinguished: + + You that a stranger in mid-Rome seek Rome + And can find nothing in mid-Rome of Rome, + Behold this mass of walls, these abrupt rocks, + Where the vast theatre lies overwhelmed. + Here, here is Rome! Look how the very corpse + Of greatness still imperiously breathes threats! + The world she conquered, strove herself to conquer, + Conquered that nothing be unconquered by her. + Now conqueror Rome's interred in conquered Rome, + And the same Rome conquered and conqueror. + Still Tiber stays, witness of Roman fame, + Still Tiber flows on swift waves to the sea. + Learn hence what Fortune can: the unmoved falls, + And the ever-moving will remain forever.[40] + +The last four verses are completely unnecessary and contain a frigid +point by which the lustre of the preceding is dimmed. + + +_The material of epigrams; thence the division into different kinds. +The first kind and the second._ + +The material of epigrams comprises any subject and anything that can +be said on it--in fact, there are as many kinds of epigrams as there +are kinds of things that can be said. We will notice here particularly +those kinds from which the special powers of each can be understood. + +There is, then, a kind of epigram that is elevated, weighty, sublime, +pursuing a noble subject in noble lines and concluding with a noble +sentiment. Such is Martial's on Scaevola: + + That hand that sought a king and found a slave + Was thrust to burn up in the sacred fire: + So cruel a portent the good enemy + Appalled, who bade him carried from the fire. + The hand the regicide endured to burn, + The king could not endure to see it done. + Greater the glory of the hand deceived! + Had it not erred it had accomplished less.[41] + +Of the same sort are Grotius' epigrams on Ostend and on the sailing +carriages, and Barclay's on Margaret of Valois.[42] + +There is another sort somewhat lower in style but weighty and +profitable in idea: for example, that truly distinguished one of +Martial: + + In that you follow the strict rules of Cato + And yet are willing to remain alive + And will not run bare-breasted on the sword + You do exactly as I'd have you do: + I scorn the fame purchased with easy blood + And praise the man who can be praised alive.[43] + +And this: + + In private she mourns not the late-lamented; + If someone's by her tears leap forth on call. + Sorrow, my dear, is not so easily rented. + They are true tears that without witness fall.[44] + +And that genuinely golden epigram: + + That I now call you by your name + Who used to call you sir and master, + You needn't think it impudence. + I bought myself with all I had. + He ought to sir a sir and master + Who's not himself, and wants to have + Whatever sirs and masters want. + Who can get by without a slave + Can get by, too, without a master.[45] + +However, of all kinds of epigram that kind is generally thought to be +most properly epigrammatic which is distinguished by a witty and +ingenious turn that deeply penetrates the soul. Martial excels in this +kind, as in this one: + + You serve the best wines always, my dear sir, + And yet they say your wines are not so good. + They say you are four times a widower. + They say ... A drink? I don't believe I would.[46] + +and in this: + + Though you send presents to old men and widows + Why should I call you, sir, munificent? + There's nothing lower, dirtier than you only + Who can denominate enticements gifts. + These are the sly hooks for the greedy fish, + These are the clever baits for the wild beasts. + I will instruct you what it is to give + If you are ignorant: give, sir, to me. [47] + +Some are lower in style but witty and pleasant, and have a glowing +simplicity, as can be illustrated by another of Martial's: + + "An epic epigram," I heard you say. + Others have written them, and so I may. + "But this one is too long." Others are too. + You want them short? I'll write two lines for you: + _As for long epigrams let us agree + They may be skipped by you, written by me._[48] + +And, indeed, of all the special capabilities of the epigram none is +more difficult to realise or more rarely achieved than the adroit +handling, the suitable and easy unfolding, of the subject so that +nothing is redundant, nothing wanting, nothing out of order, obscure, +or tangled up in verbiage, and yet at the same time nothing too +unexpected, nothing not adequately prepared for. Martial is +pre-eminent in this; he develops his subjects so aptly, clearly, and +perceptively that he obtains for ideas of no special note otherwise a +good deal of distinction by the charm of the handling. For example, +what could be more resourcefully developed than this epigram? + + Believe me, sir, I'd like to spend whole days, + Yes, and whole evenings in your company, + But the two miles between your house and mine + Are four miles when I go there to come back. + You're seldom home, and when you are deny it, + Engrossed with business or with yourself. + Now, I don't mind the two mile trip to see you; + What I do mind is going four to not to.[49] + +And what would the following epigram be if it had not been perfected +and prepared for by the handling? + + That no one meets you willingly, + That where you come they go, that vast + Areas of silence circle you-- + Why so? you ask. Too much the bard. + This makes it terribly, terribly hard. + Who would put up with what I do? + You read verse if I stand or sit; + You read it if I run or sing; + And in the baths you read me verse; + I try the pool, and swim in verse; + I haste to dine, you go my way; + I order, and you read me out; + Worn out, I take my rest with verse. + You want to know what harm you do? + Just, upright, harmless, you're a pest.[50] + +The conclusion is pleasantly witty, but the special charm of the poem +derives from the preceding enumeration. + +This finishes the account of what we looked to in selecting these +epigrams. You will find what else is pertinent to this book in the +preface. + + + + +_Notes_ + +I have silently emended a few passages; otherwise the text translated +is that of _Epigrammatum Delectus_, Paris, 1659. It is regrettable +that the Latin text, at least of the poems cited, could not be printed +with the translation. + +[1] _De nat. deor._ 2.2.5 + +[2] _Aen._ 5.481 and 8.596 + +[3] 177-8, 173 + +[4] All three passages are from epigrams by Gaspar Conrad in Janus +Gruter, _Delitiae poetarum germanorum_, 6 v., Frankfort, 1612: II, +1065-6, lines 1-6 of a twelve line epigram, "In symbolum Iacobi +Monavi"; II, 1077, the concluding lines of an eight line epigram, "Ad +Valentinum Maternum"; and II, 1079, the concluding couplet of a six +line epigram, "Ad Georgum Menhadum Philophilum." The second passage is +hardly construable. + +[5] _Ars. poet._ 141-2, the paraphrase of Homer, and 143-4. The other +quotations in this passage are from the opening of the _Aeneid_, +_Thebaid_, _Rape of Proserpine_, and the _Pharsalia_. + +[6] _Inst. orat._ 8.6.14 + +[7] "Manes Dousici," IV "Ad solem" and V "Ad sidera," _Poemata_, +Leyden, 1613, p. 166. Nicole reads _tandem_ for _rursus_ in the last +line of the second poem. Douza is the younger Janus Douza (1571-1596). + +Nicole's criticism of these poems is just but superficial. The +difficulty with such poems lies in the method, which consists in the +establishment by amplification of one pole, followed by the briefest +statement of the contrary pole. But the latter is of personal concern +and is the essential subject of the poem. Thus the subject is +deliberately avoided for the greater part of the poem, and hence there +is in the amplification no principle of order to control the detail +and its accumulation. This accounts for the features Nicole censures; +however, he himself makes a similar point below in condemning negative +descriptions. + +[8] I have been unable to find this among Grotius' poems. + +[9] Joannes Vulteius (c.1510-1542), "De ignobili Aruerno in sepulchro +nobili posito," _Hendecasyllaborum libri iv_, Paris, 1538, Ni., p. 97. + +[10] "Ad Rudolphum Imp. florum picturae dedicatio," _Poemata_, Leyden, +1637, p. 326. + +[11] Epig. 1.50, "De Jucundo architecto," _Poemata_, Pavia, 1719, p. +189. + +[12] I have been unable to identify this epigram. + +[13] A translation of _Anth. Pal._ 11.104 and printed as Ausonius in +the Renaissance, but probably by Girogio Merula (c.1424-1494): see +James Hutton, _The Greek Anthology In Italy to the year 1800_, +"Cornell Studies in English," XXIII (1935), pp. 23-4, 102-5, and +Ausonius, _Opuscula_, ed. Rudolphus Peiper, Leipzig, 1886, p. 428. The +younger Scaliger strongly condemns this epigram on the same grounds: +Joseph Scaliger, _Ausoniarum lectionum libri ii_, 2.20, Heidelberg, +1688, p. 204. + +[14] 3.66 + +[15] Epig. libri tres, ad D. Mariam Neville, 2.211. _Epigrammata_, +Amsterdam, 1647, p. 47. Translated by Thomas Harvey, _John Owen's +Latin Epigrams_, London, 1677, p. 36: "Sith th' Harps discording +Strings concording be, / Is't not a shame for men to disagree?" and by +Thomas Pecke, _Parnassi puerperium_, London, 1659: "Can there be many +strings; and yet no Jars? / And are not men asham'd of dismal wars?" + +[16] Nicole's text follows what are now regarded as inferior mss: see +Germanious Caesar, _Aratea_, ed. Alfred Breysig, 2nd. ed., Leipzig, +1899, p. 58. The poem corresponds to _Anth. Pal._ 7.542. Nicole's +comment recalls Dr. Johnson on Gray's cat. + +[17] The dedicatory poem, addressed to Louis XIII, to Caspar Barlaeus' +_Poematum editio nova_, Leyden, 1631, sig.*8. + +[18] 22.10 + +[19] Epig. 1.25, _Opera Omnia_, 2 v., Leyden, 1725, II, 365. Nicole's +text presents several variants and cuts the next to the last couplet, +which I translate: "Already at the tomb, He beats the gates / Of Dis, +and Libertina waits his torches." + +[20] Epig. 3.5, _op. cit._, p. 233. + +[21] Catullus 36 and Martial 1.109. 10-11 + +[22] _Pis._ 13 + +[23] _Aen._ 1.630 + +[24] _Anthologia Latina_, ed. Alexander Riese, 412.17, Leipzig, 1894, +I, 1, p.319. The epigram, from which this phrase is quoted, was +ascribed to Seneca by Pithoeus. + +[25] Epig.... ad ... Neville, 2.126, _op. cit._, p. 38. Harvey, p. 36, +translates: "Lo, not an hair thine heads bald Crown doth crown: / Thy +Faithless Front hath not one hair thine own: / Before, Behind thine +hair's blown off with Blast, / What's left thee to be lost? thine Head +at last." + +[26] In the preface, _Delectus_, Paris, 1659, ch. 2. The problem was +whether to print a large collection of epigrams, rejecting merely the +obscene ones, or to choose only the best. A middle way was taken for +these reasons: 1) there are so few first-class epigrams that a reader +who had his own opinions might think the selection too choosy; 2) the +best shines out only in comparison with what is not so good, and +examples of vice are as useful as examples of virtue, since judgement +in large measure consists in knowing what to avoid; 3) finally and +principally, the curiosity of young men would not be sufficiently +satisfied by the selection if they knew that a good many witty and +polished epigrams were to be found elsewhere. Since it was especially +necessary to keep youth from the unspeakable filth of Catullus and +Martial, who are at the same time the best writers, everything of +theirs is included except the cheapest odds and ends and filthiest +obscenities. For the writers after Martial stricter standards were +applied, for the book would have grown beyond bounds if everything +tolerable had been admitted. + +[27] Martial 5.37, 1, 4-6, 9, 12-14. The lines that Nicole cuts +contain only more of the same. + +[28] Martial 1.76 + +[29] Epig. libri tres ad Henricum ... ded. 1.67, _op. cit._, p. 131. + +[30] Unidentified. The text reads: "In nive nocte vagans nuceo cado +stipite nectus, / Sic mihi nix, nox, nux, nex fuit ante diem." + +[31] 1.8. 5-6. + +[32] The conclusion of an epigram of ten lines, ascribed to Seneca in +_Delectus_, pp. 326-7. Lines 1-8 correspond to _Anth. Lat._, _op. +cit._, 407. 5-12. The younger Scaliger had begun a new epigram with +line 5, as also with lines 9 and 11 (ed., Vergil, _Appendix, cum +supplemento_ ..., Lyons, 1572, pp. 196-7.) The concluding sententia, +however, which Nicole quotes here and praises later in the notes to +the anthology, is from the conclusion of the next epigram, _Anth. +Lat._, 408. 7-8, which is a response to the preceding one. But the +first two-thirds of the couplet has been rewritten with the aid of +something like a _Gradus ad Parnassum_. The ms reads, "nunc et reges +tantum fuge! vivere doctus / uni vive tibi nam moriare tibi." Nicole +reads, "Mitte superba pati fastidia, spemque caducam / Despice: vive +tibi, nam moriere tibi." _superba pati fastidia_ corresponds to +Vergil, _Ecl._ 2.15; _spem ... caducam_ to Ovid, _Epist._ 15 (sive 16, +"Paris Helenae"). 169 (sive 171). + +The epigram as it stands in the anthology, then, is a result of +Scaliger's disintegration of _Anth. Lat._ 407, which suggested +beginning with line 5 and adding 408. 7-8 from the responsory poem. +But this couplet is subjected to improvement to adjust it to the +sense, to sustain the level of feeling, and to enhance the sententious +point. Thus, with the aid of phrases from Vergil and Ovid, using +_mitte_ and _despice_ as fillers and helpers, the epigram is concluded +"with a noble, exalted and true thought," as the editor says in the +notes. + +[33] _Inst. orat._ 11.1.16. + +[34] J. C. Scaliger, _Poeticas libri vii_, 3.125, 5th. ed., 1607, p. +389. + +[35] _loc. cit._, p. 390: "An epigram, therefore, is a short poem +directly pointing out some thing, person, or deed, or deducing +something from premises. This definition includes also the principle +of division--so let no one condemn it as prolix." Nicole, however, +uses only the first half of the definition, since he rejects the +principle of division. + +[36] _loc. cit._: "Brevity is a property; point the soul and, so to +speak, the form." For a full account of the Renaissance theory of the +epigram and the contemporary controversies, see Hutton, _op. cit._, +pp. 55-73, and _The Greek Anthology in France and in the Latin writers +of the Netherlands to the year 1800_, "Cornell studies in classical +philology," XXVIII (1946), _passim_. + +[37] Anon., "In statuam equestrem Ludouici XIII positam Parisiis in +circo regali," _Delectus_, pp. 409-10. + +[38] Nicolas Borbon, the younger, _Poematia exposita_, Paris, 1630, +pp. 144-5, the concluding lines (lines 23-30) of an epigram, "In +versus v.c. Iacobi Pinonis." + +[39] Catullus 1.7 + +[40] Ianus Vitalis Panomitanus (c.1485-1560), "Antiquae Romae ruinae +illustres," _Delectus_, p. 366; see also _Delitiae delitiarum_, ed. +Ab. Wright, Oxford, 1637, p. 104, with textual variants. + +[41] 1.21 + +[42] _Delectus_, pp. 396-7, 399-400, and 405. See Grotius, _op. cit._, +pp. 341-2, and 383. + +[43] 1.8 + +[44] 1.33 + +[45] 2.68 + +[46] 4.69 + +[47] 4.56 + +[48] 6.65 + +[49] 2.5 + +[50] 3.44. 1-5, 9-18. The lines cut, 6-8, read in translation: "No +tigress wild for her lost cubs, / No viper burned by the noon sun, / +No scorpion begets such fear." In line 11, line 8 of the translation, +Nicole reads _canenti_ for the received _cacanti_. The latter reading +will yield in translation a rhyme with the preceding line. + + + + +_The Editors of_ THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + +_are pleased to announce that_ + +THE WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY + +_of The University of California, Los Angeles_ + +will become the publisher of the Augustan Reprints in May, 1949. The +editorial policy of the Society will continue unchanged. 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Blackwell, Broad Street, Oxford, England. + + +Publications for the fourth year (1949-1950) + +(_At least six items will be printed in the main from the following +list_) + + +SERIES IV: MEN, MANNERS, AND CRITICS + + John Dryden, _His Majesties Declaration Defended_ + (1681) + Daniel Defoe (?), _Vindication of the Press_ (1718) + _Critical Remarks on Sir Charles Grandison, Clarissa, + and Pamela_ (1754) + + +SERIES V: DRAMA + + Thomas Southerne, _Oroonoko_ (1696) + Mrs. Centlivre, _The Busie Body_ (1709) + Charles Johnson, _Caelia_ (1733) + Charles Macklin, _Man of the World_ (1781) + + +SERIES VI: POETRY AND LANGUAGE + + Andre Dacier, _Essay on Lyric Poetry_ + _Poems_ by Thomas Sprat + _Poems_ by the Earl of Dorset + Samuel Johnson, _Vanity of Human Wishes_ (1749), + and one of the 1750 _Rambler_ papers. + + +EXTRA SERIES: + + Lewis Theobald, _Preface to Shakespeare's Works_ + (1733) + + A few copies of the early publications of the Society + are still available at the original rate. + +GENERAL EDITORS + + H. 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SWEDENBERG, JR., + University of California, Los Angeles + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- + + TO THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_ + _2205 West Adams Blvd., Los Angeles 7, California_ + + AS MEMBERSHIP FEE I enclose for: + + _Name_ _______________________________ + + _Address_ ___________________________ + + The fourth year $ 2.50 + The third and fourth year 5.00 + The second, third and fourth year 7.50 + The first, second, third, and fourth year 10.00 + +[Add $.25 for each year if ordering from Great Britain or the +continent] + +Make check or money order payable to THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF +CALIFORNIA. + +_Note: All income of the Society is devoted to defraying cost of +printing and mailing._ + + + + +PUBLICATIONS OF THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + +First Year (1946-1947) + + 1. Richard Blackmore's _Essay upon Wit_ (1716), and Addison's + _Freeholder_ No. 45 (1716). (I, 1) + + 2. Samuel Cobb's _Of Poetry and Discourse on Criticism_ (1707). + (II, 1) + + 3. _Letter to A. H. Esq.; concerning the Stage_ (1698), and + Richard Willis's _Occasional Paper No. IX_ (1698). (III, 1) + + 4. _Essay on Wit_ (1748), together with Characters by Flecknoe, + and Joseph Warton's _Adventurer_ Nos. 127 and 133. (I, 2) + + 5. Samuel Wesley's _Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry_ (1700) + and _Essay on Heroic Poetry_ (1693). (II, 2) + + 6. _Representation of the Impiety and Immorality of the Stage_ + (1704) and _Some Thoughts Concerning the Stage_ (1704). (III, 2) + + +Second Year (1947-1948) + + 7. John Gay's _The Present State of Wit_ (1711); and a section on + Wit from _The English Theophrastus_ (1702). (I, 3) + + 8. Rapin's _De Carmine Pastorali_, translated by Creech (1684). + (II, 3) + + 9. T. Hanmer's (?) _Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet_ + (1736). (III, 3) + + 10. Corbyn Morris' _Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of + Wit, etc._ (1744). (I, 4) + + 11. Thomas Purney's _Discourse on the Pastoral_ (1717). (II, 4) + + 12. Essays on the Stage, selected, with an Introduction by Joseph + Wood Krutch. (III, 4) + + +Third Year (1948-1949) + + 13. Sir John Falstaff (pseud.), _The Theatre_ (1720). (IV, 1) + + 14 Edward Moore's _The Gamester_ (1753). (V, 1) + + 15. John Oldmixon's _Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to Harley_ + (1712); and Arthur Mainwaring's _The British Academy_ (1712). + (VI, 1) + + 16. Nevil Payne's _Fatal Jealousy_ (1673). (V, 2) + + 17. Nicholas Rowe's _Some Account of the Life of Mr. William + Shakespear_ (1709). (Extra Series, 1) + + 18. Aaron Hill's Preface to _The Creation_; and Thomas Brereton's + Preface to _Esther_. (IV, 2) + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +On p. 23, a letter was missing in one of the words; it was changed as +follows: + + From: "when they are orn down and laughed at." + To: "when they are torn down and laughed at." + +On p. 35, footnote #24, removed the repeated word "is": + + From: "from which this phrase is is quoted" + To: "from which this phrase is quoted" + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty +in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams, by Pierre Nicole + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAY ON TRUE AND APPARENT BEAUTY *** + +***** This file should be named 28921-8.txt or 28921-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/9/2/28921/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Richard J. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams + +Author: Pierre Nicole + +Translator: J V Cunningham + +Release Date: May 22, 2009 [EBook #28921] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAY ON TRUE AND APPARENT BEAUTY *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Richard J. Shiffer +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="trans-note"> +<p class="heading">Transcriber's Note</p> +<p>Every effort has been made to replicate this text as +faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other +inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an obvious error +is noted at the <a href="#END">end</a> of this ebook.</p> +</div> + +<p class="heading"><big>The Augustan Reprint Society</big></p> + + +<h1><i>An Essay on True and Apparent<br /> +Beauty in Which From Settled Principles<br /> +is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing<br /> +and Rejecting Epigrams</i></h1> + + +<h3>by Pierre Nicole</h3> + + +<h3>Translated by J. V. Cunningham</h3> + + +<h4>Publication Number 24<br /> +(Series IV, No. 5)</h4> + + +<h4>Los Angeles<br /> +William Andrews Clark Memorial Library<br /> +University of California<br /> +1950</h4> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"><i>GENERAL EDITORS</i></p> + +<p class="center"> +<span class="smcap">H. Richard Archer</span>, <i>Clark Memorial Library</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">Richard C. Boys</span>, <i>University of Michigan</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">Edward Niles Hooker</span>, <i>University of California, Los Angeles</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">H. T. Swedenberg, Jr.</span>, <i>University of California, Los Angeles</i><br /> +</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>ASSISTANT EDITORS</i></p> + +<p class="center"> +<span class="smcap">W. Earl Britton</span>, <i>University of Michigan</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">John Loftis</span>, <i>University of California, Los Angeles</i><br /> +</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>ADVISORY EDITORS</i></p> + +<p class="center"> +<span class="smcap">Emmett L. Avery</span>, <i>State College of Washington</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">Benjamin Boyce</span>, <i>University of Nebraska</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">Louis I. Bredvold</span>, <i>University of Michigan</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">Cleanth Brooks</span>, <i>Yale University</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">James L. Clifford</span>, <i>Columbia University</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">Arthur Friedman</span>, <i>University of Chicago</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">Samuel H. Monk</span>, <i>University of Minnesota</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">Ernest Mossner</span>, <i>University of Texas</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">James Sutherland</span>, <i>Queen Mary College, London</i><br /> +</p> + + +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p> +<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> + + +<p>The following essay forms the introduction to a famous anthology of +the seventeenth century, the <i>Epigrammatum delectus</i>, a Port-Royal +textbook published at Paris in 1659.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The essay was twice translated +into French in the same century, but the use of the text in France did +not survive, apparently, the downfall of the Port-Royal movement. It +was, however, later adopted by Eton College, where it was used in the +sixth form.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The text went through thirteen English editions between +1683 and 1762. The author of the essay, and a collaborator with Claude +Lancelot in making the selections for the anthology, was Pierre +Nicole, who began teaching in the Little Schools around 1646. It has +been said that the essay was written at that time.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>The scope of the anthology is indicated on the title page, which I +translate: <i>A selection of epigrams carefully chosen from the whole +range of ancient and modern poets, and so on. With an essay on true +and apparent beauty, in which from settled principles is rendered the +grounds for choosing and rejecting epigrams. There are added the best +sententiae of the ancient poets, chosen sparingly and with severe +judgement. With shorter sententiae, or proverbs, Latin, Greek, +Spanish, and Italian, drawn both from the chief authors of those +languages and from everyday speech</i>.</p> + +<p>The essay is preceded by a preface in which the origin, purpose and +method of the anthology is explained. The two ends of instruction, we +are told,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> are learning and character, and of these the latter is +the more important. But there are many books, and especially books of +epigrams, that are quite filthy and obscene. Young people are led by +curiosity to read these, and losing all chastity of mind enter upon a +progressive corruption of life. It would be best if they could be kept +wholly from such books; but there is a good deal in them of genuine +profit and literary merit, which makes it difficult to keep them +wholly out of the hands of youth. Therefore the editor undertook to +expurgate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span> the epigrammatists, especially Catullus and Martial. He was +horrified when he read over their works, but he found some good among +the bad, as in vipers not everything is poisonous but some things even +useful to health. His primary purpose, then, was to protect the good +young man from being harmed and to leave him no excuse for wishing to +have or peruse such books since the good in them had already been +extracted for him.</p> + +<p>The difficulty then arose of making the selection serve the purposes +both of morality and of judgement. The editor could either gather +together all the epigrams that were not obscene, or he could choose +only the best. He took in fact both ways: he preserved everything of +Catullus and Martial except the cheapest odds and ends and filthiest +obscenities, and he applied strict standards of judgement to the rest +so that, unless an epigram had literary merit or contained something +worth knowing, he felt there was no reason to burden the book with it.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, some middling epigrams found entrance into the +anthology—he confesses the fact so the reader will not look for +excellence without flaw. The reasons were, first, that the complete +perfection he was looking for is seldom or never attained. Hence, if +he had admitted only those epigrams in which there was nothing to +censure, the task would not have been one of selecting some but rather +of rejecting almost all. Again, in epigrams dealing with memorable +events or in praise of famous men, sometimes he looked to the profit +of the work rather than to its polish, as in Ausonius' quatrains on +the Caesars. Finally, he will not deny that chance has played its part +against his will. As a judge after a series of severe sentences will +give a lighter one to a man no less guilty than the others, so after +rejecting a great number of epigrams by some writer a sense of pity +arose and a distaste with severity of judgement; then if anything that +seemed pointed turned up, though no better than what was rejected, he +could not bear to see it discarded. This has occasionally happened, +but hardly ever without a warning note to the reader.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> + +<p>He admits that some, perhaps quite excellent, epigrams have escaped +him, either because he never read them or because he was at the moment +of reading less attentive. But the paucity or lack of selections from +a given writer should not be taken as an indication of ignorance or +indiligence in that case. Rather, he confidently professes to have +exerted the greatest patience and industry—patience, since so many +were so bad. His hope was by his trouble to free others from so much +trouble. With this in mind he read countless authors of different ages +and countries, a total of around 50,000 epigrams, from most of which +nothing at all was worth excerpting. There is no point in +memorializing the names of the bad, except to note in passing that he +found hardly anything so inept as the <i>Delitiae</i>, as they call them, +of the German poets<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>—in this connection he gives special mention to +the book of Lancinus Curtius<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>, which contains 2,000 epigrams.</p> + +<p>He found some fairly tolerable epigrams in other books, which +nevertheless he excluded, for what is lacking in distinction is better +not known at all than learned at the expense of better things, not to +speak of its being a burden to the mind which gradually will lose the +ability to judge excellence, and so, becoming accustomed to +mediocrity, will be unable to attempt anything higher. There is no +more useful motto for a man in quest of solid learning than Grotius' +line: "Not to know some things is a large part of wisdom."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>The editor added to the epigrams a collection of sententiae since the +two forms are quite cognate, the sententia being a kind of shorter +epigram, for the principal part of an epigram, the conclusion, usually +consists in a sententia. It is true that such collections have come in +bad repute, and not wholly unjustly, but the thing itself is worth +doing. For what is our aim in reading books except to nourish and +fashion judgement? and what better serves this end than sententiae, +which furnish as it were the premises and axioms by which one is able +to form a just and true judgement on most of the duties and affairs of +human life? Hence he extracted these gems from the huge pile of +trifles in which they lay mixed. Perhaps they please less in isolation +than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span> when one runs across them as he reads, and for this reason such +anthologizing should be contemned. But it would be precious to refuse +a great accession of profit because of a small dimunition of pleasure.</p> + +<p>The editor thought that in many cases the selections should not be +published without notes, for epigrams have often some obscurity in +them and their whole charm is lost unless the light that would +illuminate it is at hand. The notes to the selections from Martial are +pretty largely taken from Farnaby. Elsewhere the editor has supplied +notes sparingly, at those points where the reader might be stuck. He +has also changed the titles of a good many pieces, especially where +the original involved the name of some fictitious or base person. The +purpose of a title is to recall the whole piece to memory or to +facilitate finding it in an index. Why, then, title an epigram <i>To +Gargilianus</i> or <i>Cecilianus</i>, which gives no idea of what the epigram +is about? The editor, therefore, has substituted titles which express +as well as possible the force of the poem, a difficult task especially +when the meaning is compact, as only one who has tried it knows.</p> + +<p>But that out of the brevity of this book the reader may get that +ability in judgement, which above all should be cultivated, the editor +thought it worth while to prefix to the anthology an exposition of the +norms of judgement used in selecting the epigrams. He drew these norms +not merely from his own wit or from the authorities of Antiquity, but +from the conversation of learned men experienced in civilized life. +Hence the reader will find here their judgements, not the editor's, +and will, if he is unbiased, perceive how just and accurate they are.</p> + +<p>The preface is then followed by the essay. The principles of the +essay, as Nicole asserted above in the preface, are not peculiarly his +own but those of the group with which he was associated. They are the +principles, for example, of the <i>Port-Royal logic</i>: particularly 1), +"one of the most important rules of true rhetoric," "<i>that there is +nothing beautiful except that which is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span> true</i>; which would take away +from discourse a multitude of vain ornaments and false thoughts;" and +2) the doctrine that "the figurative style commonly expresses, with +the things, the emotions which we experience in conceiving or speaking +of them," and hence in the light of the adjustment of feeling to the +situation "we may judge the use which ought to be made of it, and what +are the subjects to which it is adapted."<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>The purpose of the book is to serve morality and to promote +judgement.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> To this end the editor provides a check list of the +better epigrams, and affixes an asterisk to designate the best.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> +Seventeen pieces are given the highest rating: thirteen of Martial's +(1.8, 1.21, 1.33, 2.5, 3.44, 3.46, 4.56, 4.69, 5.10, 5.13, 8.69, +10.53, and 12.13); the re-written epigram ascribed to Seneca and +discussed in the notes to the essay (note 32); Claudian on Archimedes' +sphere;<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> Boethius, <i>De cons. phil.</i> 1.m.4; and one modern poem, +Buchanan's dedication of the <i>Paraphrase of the psalms</i> to Mary, Queen +of Scots.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p class="author"> +<i>J. V. Cunningham</i><br /> +<i>The University of Chicago</i></p> + +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span></p> +<p class="center">NOTES</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> This paragraph is based largely on James Hutton, <i>The +Greek anthology in France</i>, "Cornell studies in classical philology," +XXVIII (1946), p. 192, and <i>The Greek anthology in Italy</i>, "Cornell +studies in English," XXIII (1935), pp. 69-70.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Sir H. C. Maxwell Lyte, <i>A history of Eton college</i>, +London, 1911, 4th ed., p. 311.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Nigel Abercrombie, <i>The origins of Jansenism</i>, Oxford, +1936, p. 246; no authority is there cited.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The following paragraphs contain an abbreviated and +paraphrastic translation of the preface.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Janus Gruter, <i>Delitiae poetarum germanorum</i>, 6 v., +Frankfort, 1612.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> See Georg Ellinger, <i>Geschichte der neulateinischen +literatur Deutschlands</i>, I, "Italien und der Deutsche humanismus," +Berlin, 1929, pp. 115-7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> The last line of an epigram on learned ignorance, +<i>Poemata</i>, Leyden, 1637, pp. 331-2, printed in the <i>Delectus</i>, p. +399.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>The Port-Royal logic</i>, tr. Thomas Spencer Baynes, 8th +ed., Edinburgh, n.d., Discourse 2, p. 17; Part 3. 20, p. 286; and 1. +14, p. 90.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, Discourse 1, p. 1, "Thus the main object of our +attention should be, to form our judgement, and render it as exact as +possible; and to this end, the greater part of our studies ought to +tend."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Lipsius had suggested some such procedure (Justus +Lipsius, <i>Epist. quaest.</i>, 1.5, <i>Opera omnia</i>, Antwerp, 1637, I, p. +143): "He would do a service to the world of letters who would make a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> +selection of Martial's epigrams in the fashion of the old critics and +would affix a mark of praise to the good and of blame to the bad."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Shorter poems 51, <i>Claudian</i>, ed. Maurice Platnauer, 2 +v., "Loeb classical library," London, 1922, II, 278-81.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>Poemata</i>, Amsterdam, 1687, p. 1; not in <i>Opera omnia</i>, +Leyden, 1725.</p></div> + + + +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2>AN ESSAY ON TRUE AND APPARENT BEAUTY IN WHICH FROM SETTLED PRINCIPLES +IS RENDERED THE GROUNDS FOR CHOOSING AND REJECTING EPIGRAMS.</h2> + + +<h3 class="heading">Why men's judgments on beauty differ so much.</h3> + +<p>I should say that the reason why even learned men differ so widely and +display so great a range of opinion in judging the excellence of +particular writers is that practically no one looks to reason and +weighs the matter in the light of true and settled principles. Indeed +everyone in the act of judging embraces a hastily conceived opinion +and follows his impressions without reflection or judgment. Thus it is +that few have made any attempt so far to arrive at an exact knowledge +of the nature of true beauty, by which in the last analysis all else +must be determined; rather, each has immediately pronounced that to be +beautiful which affected him with some sort of pleasure. Yet there is +no norm of judgment more misleading or more variable, for a false and +adulterate beauty will give pleasure to minds imbued with deformed +opinions whom a true and solid beauty often cannot affect. It follows +there is nothing so ugly that it will not please someone or other, and +nothing on the other hand so absolutely beautiful that it will not +displease someone. Farmers will be found to dance to absurd songs, and +whole theaters time and again roar at the tasteless jokes of the +actors. Similarly, there are a good many who find little or no delight +in Vergil or Terence, though there is nothing in the world of letters +more polished—such is the power of custom and preconceived opinion to +impart or preclude delight. Consequently, if we wish to dissociate +ourselves from the fickle mob of opinions, we must have recourse to +reason,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> which is single, fixed, and simple. We must discover by her +aid that true and genuine figure of beauty with which is marked +whatever is truly beautiful and finished, and from which whatever +departs is justly called ugly and repugnant to taste.</p> + +<p>Reason leads us directly to nature and establishes that to be +generally beautiful which accords both with the nature of the thing +itself and with our own. For example, if an object that is excessive +or defective in some part is thought ugly, it is because it diverges +from nature which demands a completeness in the parts and despises +excess. Almost everything that is judged to be ugly is so judged for +the same reason: you will always observe that there is here some flaw +at variance with a rightly constituted nature. Nevertheless, for an +object to be declared beautiful it is not enough that it answer to its +own nature; it must also be congruent with ours. For our nature, being +invariable both in the soul and in the body endowed with senses, has +definite inclinations and aversions by which it is either attracted or +estranged. Thus our eye is moved with pleasure by certain colors, our +ear is drawn by a certain kind of sounds; one thing delights the soul, +one repels it, each in the measure that it corresponds or is repugnant +to our ways of feeling. However, what is meant by nature here is not +any nature at all, since some are misshapen, perverse, and corrupt. +What is meant is a nature corrected and well-ordered from whose +inclinations must arise the judgement of beauty and charm.</p> + +<p>However, the essence of true beauty is such that it is not fugitive, +changeable, or of one time, but rather invariable, fixed, persistent +and such as pleases all times equally. And although there may be found +some men of so corrupt a nature that they despise beauty, nevertheless +they are but few. And even these may be recalled to truth by reason, +since false beauty though it may for a while have its admirers cannot +long hold them, for nature itself which cannot be erased will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +gradually beget in them a distaste for it. For, as Cicero so notably +says, time that erases the fictions of opinion only confirms the +judgements of nature.<a name="FNanchor_1_13" id="FNanchor_1_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_13" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>If we may apply this maxim to literature we may say that that is truly +beautiful which agrees both with the nature of things themselves and +with the inclinations of our senses and of our soul. And since in a +work of literature one takes account of sound, diction, and idea, the +agreement of all these with nature in its two aspects is required for +beauty. Hence we will take these up one by one, beginning with sound.</p> + + +<p class="center bold">ON SOUND</p> + +<h3 class="heading">How seldom it charms in echoing the +sense, how commonly by sweetness. Its natural measure in the ear.</h3> + +<p>We have assigned the first division of natural beauty to sound, which +we distinguish from diction in that propriety and force of meaning are +looked to in this; in sound it is the pleasantness or harshness that +is regarded, flattering or offending the ear, or it is a kind of +imitation of the subject-matter—sad things recited tearfully, excited +rapidly, or harsh harshly. This is common enough in the spoken word; +in writing, however, with which we are chiefly concerned here, it is +uncommon, though Vergil sometimes quite happily represents the sound +of things themselves, their swiftness and slowness, in the sound of +his verse. When you hear, for example, the well-known <i>procumbit humi +bos</i>, do you not seem to hear the blunt sound of the falling bull? Or +when you read the line <i>Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula +campum</i>,<a name="FNanchor_2_14" id="FNanchor_2_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_14" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> doesn't the sound of running horses strike your ears? But +this effect, as I said, is uncommon, and hardly to be found in any +other poet than Vergil. Thus the chief potentiality of sound, and the +most common, lies in charming the ear. It is a slight beauty, yet it +is of nature, and for this reason especially agreeable to all classes +of people.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> For there is scarcely any person so uneducated as not to +be naturally displeased at what is incomplete and botched, or not to +perceive what is full, ordered, and defined. Hence Cicero says justly +in the <i>Orator</i>:</p> + +<blockquote><p>The ear, or the soul at the injunction of the ears, possesses a +natural way of measuring sounds, by this judges some longer, some +shorter, and ever anticipates the completion of a measure. It +feels hurt when a rhythm is maimed or curtailed as if it had been +defrauded of due payment. It dislikes even more whatever is +prolonged and runs on beyond the proper bounds, since too much is +more offensive than too little. Not that everyone knows the +metrical feet, or understands anything about rhythm, or is aware +of what offends him, or where, or why; it is rather that nature +has set in our ears a power of judging the length and brevity of +sound, as also the acute and grave accent of words.<a name="FNanchor_3_15" id="FNanchor_3_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_15" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p></blockquote> + + +<h3 class="heading">Pleasantness of sound is justly exacted of +poets. The harshness of many poets, particularly the German. Some are too +melodious.</h3> + +<p>Hence it is that anyone who wishes to conform to nature must +necessarily strive for pleasantness of sound. This is the more justly +exacted of poets since poetry itself is nothing other than measured +language, bound into fixed numbers and feet, for the purpose of +charming the ear. Consequently, those poets are justly censured who +rest content with rounding off their words in six feet and altogether +neglect to accommodate the ear. A good many epigrammatists are +constant offenders in this kind, especially those who have rendered +the Greek Anthology in Latin and the German poets.</p> + +<p>For example, who can tolerate this German epigram?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He who made all that nothing was of nothing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who'll make that nothing that now something is,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made you who nothing were what you now are<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From nothing, will make nothing what you are—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yes, or if something, being but sin from sin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From sin must form something for heaven fit.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Again, what is harsher than this epigram?</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You from your soul could not but know mine that<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That gave up in your ghost but just now his:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As soul is known from soul so is your ghost<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Known to the Muses by my muse that's yours.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Or than this distich?</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Forward, nor turn from the old path one bit:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This that you are I while I live shall be.<a name="FNanchor_4_16" id="FNanchor_4_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_16" class="fnanchor">[4]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But just as it is a considerable fault in diction wholly to neglect +the pleasure of the ear, since verse, as we said, was devised to +flatter it, so on the other hand those writers make a grievous mistake +who have an immoderate regard for the ear, and pay no attention to the +thought so long as they are satisfied with the sound. Out of such +concern we get tuneful trifles and verses empty of substance. Writers +who have by an attentive consideration of the poets achieved the +faculty of poetic diction and rhythm quite often fall into this error. +They abound in choice phrases and so are in effect content to smooth +over the commonplace with a not indecorous make-up. You can see this +in many poems and epigrams of Buchanan, Borbonius, and Barleius. If +the reader is not quite attentive such poems will often deceive him, +but being re-read and examined they beget a kind of distaste because +of the thinness of the matter. Consequently, we have looked carefully +for this fault, and have eliminated many poems that are melodious in +this way and have nothing inside.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> + + +<h3 class="heading">How diction should be suited to subject-matter.</h3> + +<p>We come now to the question of conforming the diction and +subject-matter to nature, in which, as was said above, nature must be +considered in its double aspect: namely, in relation to the subjects +of which we speak, and in relation to the audience by whom we are +heard or read.</p> + +<p>The agreement of words and subject consists in this: that lofty words +should be fitted to lofty subjects, and lowly to lowly. It is true, of +course, that every kind of writing demands simplicity, but the +simplicity meant is such as does not exclude sublimity or vehemence. +In fact, it is no less faulty to treat high and weighty subjects in a +slight and unassuming style than it is to treat what is slight and +unassuming in a high and weighty style. In both of these ways one +departs from that agreement with nature in which, we have said, beauty +resides. Therefore, not every piece of writing admits the rhetorical +figures and ornaments, and likewise not every one excludes them. The +answer lies wholly in whether there is throughout a complete harmony +between diction and subject.</p> + +<p>In addition, I wish you would carefully observe something that few +do—namely, when you temper your diction to the subject, to regard it +not only as it is in itself or in the mind of the writer, but also as +it has been formed by your speech in the minds of your audience. Thus, +the reader is assumed to be unacquainted with what you have to say at +the beginning of a work, and hence you must use simple language to +initiate him into your lines of thought. Afterwards you may build upon +this foundation what you can. It follows that if you are to speak of +some outrageous crime, you should not inveigh against it with a +comparable violence of diction until your audience has achieved such a +notion of the crime as will not be at odds with such force and +violence.</p> + +<p>Thus Vergil begins in the best way with simple diction:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Arms and the man I sing who first from Troy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Banished by fate came to the Italian shore.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And Homer, too, who was praised for this by Horace:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Speak to me, Muse, of him, when Troy had fallen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who saw the ways of many and their cities.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But Statius begins badly, and sweeps the reader away too suddenly in +these verses:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fraternal arms, and alternate rule by hate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Profane contested, and the guilt of Thebes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I sing, moved by the fiery Muse.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Claudian is even more at fault, and thrusts these bombastic lines on +our unprepared attention:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The horses of Hell's rapist, the stars blown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the Taenarian chariot, chambers dark<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of lower Juno ...<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But this rule should particularly be observed in the use of +adjectives, which are always ill-joined with their noun when they +disaccord with the impression the reader has in his mind. I have seen +the opening of Lucan censured on this point:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Wars through Emathian fields, wars worse than civil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And crime made legal is my song.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The critics urge that the epithet <i>worse than civil</i> could justly be +employed after the depiction of the slaughter at Pharsalia, but that +here it is out of order and suddenly attacks the reader who was +thinking of no such thing. It offends against the precept of Horace:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not smoke from brightness is his aim, but light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He gives from smoke.<a name="FNanchor_5_17" id="FNanchor_5_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_17" class="fnanchor">[5]</a><br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></div></div> + + +<h3 class="heading">In what way diction should answer to man's inner nature. First, the +grounds of the natural disaffection with unusual diction: how far this +should be observed.</h3> + +<p>But it is not sufficient that diction answer to the subject-matter +unless it also answers to the nature of man, in which may be discerned +a kind of aversion to obsolete, low, and inappropriate words. I prefer +to call this aversion a natural one rather than a result of opinion, +though it is in a way based on opinion. For although the feeling that +a particular word is more in common use and more civilized than +another is purely a matter of men's judgement, nevertheless it is as +natural to be displeased by the unusual and inappropriate as it is to +be pleased with the usual and proper. Whatever is contrary to reason +offends by the very fact that it is seen to lack reason. Certainly, to +leave aside familiar terms and to search out unusual ones is wholly +foreign to reason. However, there is added to this natural source of +offense another that proceeds from opinion. Since such words are +commonly condemned, there is associated with them a certain distaste +and contempt such that it is scarcely possible to pronounce them +without immediately arousing the associated feelings.</p> + +<p>Consequently, the intelligent writer will willingly comply with usage +so as not to give grounds for displeasure—whether this displeasure +springs from nature or opinion. Though he is aware that usage is +unstable and changes day by day, nevertheless he will prefer rather to +please at one time than never. He will be careful, however, in his +written work not to make use of the current jargon, especially of the +French court and women's circles, or of any locutions that are not yet +generally received. For the life of such expressions is too short to +be bound into a lasting work—not to speak of the detestable +affectation which detracts from the weight and dignity of the writing.</p> + +<p>To conclude, there is a beauty and charm in propriety and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> elegance of +diction which is not to be scorned, though it is but of a time, and, +since it rests on opinion, by which usage is determined, will pass +away with a change of opinion. Hence those who write not for an age +but for all time should try to attain something else, something that +has no admixture of opinion: Such is the agreement of words with +nature, which we will now explain.</p> + + +<h3 class="heading">The inner and more intimate agreement of words and nature.</h3> + +<p>If one wishes to look deeply into the nature of the human mind and to +search out its inner sources of delight, he will find there something +of strength conjoined with something of weakness, and out of this +circumstance arises variety and irregularity. The mind's vexation with +a continual relaxation derives from its strength, while from its +weakness stems the fact that it cannot bear a continual straining. +Hence it is that nothing pleases the human mind very long, nothing +that is all of one piece. So in music it rejects a wholly perfect +harmony, and for this reason musicians deliberately intercalate +discordant sounds—what are technically called dissonances. So, +finally, it happens that physical exercise, even if it was at first +undertaken for pleasure, becomes a torture when continued without +interruption.</p> + +<p>This point has its pertinence to literature, the more so since in that +field nature reveals the greatest delicacy and cannot long endure what +is lofty and excited. Yet on the other hand, whatever creeps close to +earth and never lifts its head is, if it be prolonged, wearisome. To +stand, to rest, to rise up, to be thrown down, this is what every +reader or listener desires, and from this derives the driving +necessity for variety, for the mingling of the majestic and slight, +excited and calm, high and low. But it may seem that this +consideration has little pertinence to the epigram, which is brief and +so in less need of variety. However, I need not apologize for +introducing these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> more general considerations since others of more +immediate pertinence to the course of our discussion are derived from +them, and particularly the question of the discriminate use of +metaphors, which are of considerable effect in adorning or vitiating +poetry.</p> + +<p>For if we consider attentively why men are pleased with metaphors we +will find no other reason than that already stated: the weakness of +nature which is wearied by the inflexibility of truth and plain +statement and must be refreshed by an admixture of metaphors which +depart somewhat from the truth. This gives the clue to the proper and +legitimate use of metaphors; they are to be employed specifically, as +musicians employ discordant sounds, to relieve the distaste of perfect +harmony. But how frequently and at what point they should be +introduced is a matter of considerable caution and skill. One warning +will suffice for the present: that metaphors, hyperboles, and whatever +varies from the plain and natural way of saying something should not +be sought for their own sakes but as a kind of relief for nauseated +nature. They are to be accepted on grounds of necessity, and +consequently a good deal of moderation must be observed in their use. +Thus Quintilian rightly says, "A sparing and opportune use of these +figures gives lustre to speech; frequent use obscures and fills with +disgust."<a name="FNanchor_6_18" id="FNanchor_6_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_18" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> You will discover this fault often in many epigrams, +especially in those of contemporary writers as I shall show by several +examples later on. However, lest this doctrine should issue in too +strict an austerity of diction, it should be noted that only those +expressions are to be taken as metaphors that are remote from ordinary +usage and offer the mind a double idea. Hence if a metaphor is so +commonplace that it no longer has a figurative connotation and +suggests nothing other than the notion itself for which it is used, +then it should be numbered among proper rather than metaphorical +expressions and does not fall in that class of tropes whose too +frequent use is here censured.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> + + +<h3 class="heading">On a too metaphorical style. Certain epigrams rejected for this +reason.</h3> + +<p>Though poets are granted a greater indulgence in the use of tropes, +nevertheless they have their own mean, or, as Cicero says, their own +modesty, and there is ever an especial ornament to be derived from +simplicity. Consequently those writers stray pretty far from beauty +for whom, as it were, all nature plays the ham to the point that they +say nothing in an ordinary way, imagine nothing in the way in which it +is perceived outside of poems, but instead elevate, debase, alter, and +clothe everything in a theatrical mask. For this reason we have +excluded from this anthology a number of epigrams as too metaphorical: +for example, these two by Daniel Heinsius, a man otherwise eminent in +scholarship and letters:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Driver of light, courier of the bright pole,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Surveyor of the sky, and hour-divider,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Servant of time, circler perpetual,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cleanser of earth, disperser of the clouds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ever your chariot, fiery four-in-hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You curb fast; you who bear on the bright day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Steal from the world once more your countenance<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And of your glowing hair conceal the flame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tomorrow from the arms of Tethys you<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Return once more: but night has sealed my sun.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>By my <i>sun</i> he means Douza. And again:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sweet children of the night, brothers of fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Small cohorts, citizens of the fiery pole,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who wandering through the cloudless fields of air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lead the soft choruses with a light foot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When our tired bodies are stretched softly out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gentle sleep invades our conquered sense,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why now as then through the enamelled halls<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the recesses, still, and the clear windows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the gold arch bear off his hallowed face?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Farewell, at last; you shall not see your Douza.<a name="FNanchor_7_19" id="FNanchor_7_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_19" class="fnanchor">[7]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In these epigrams, apart from the metaphors heaped up <i>ad nauseam</i>, +and each of them harsh and absurd, a keen critic has noted another +fault: namely, that nothing is more distant from the spirit of a man +grieving and mourning for the death of a friend—and this is what +Heinsius intended to depict—than such a wantonness of epithets. And +so much for diction.</p> + + +<h3 class="heading">Truth, the primary virtue of ideas. How great a fault there is in +untruth. Thence, of false epigrams.</h3> + +<p>We take up now the question of ideas, and postulate again that these +too must conform both to the subject and to men's character. Ideas +agree with the subject if they are true, if they are appropriate, and +if they so to speak get into the insides of the thing. They are in +accord with men's character if they fit in with natural aversions or +desires.</p> + +<p>The primary virtue of ideas is truth. Whatever is false is at variance +with external reality, nor is there any beauty in falsity except in so +far as it pretends to truth. From this you may gather that truth is +the source of beauty, falsity of ugliness. The latter, in fact, is out +of keeping not only with reality but also with human nature. For we +possess an innate love of truth and an aversion to falsehood, so that +what delights us when it seems to be true becomes disagreeable and +unpleasant when its falseness is made manifest. This principle applies +to those learned men whom we have mentioned several times now, and has +led to the exclusion from this anthology of many epigrams in which the +point rests on a falsehood: for example, there is the well-known one +by Grotius, though simply as a poem it is noble enough:</p> + + +<h3 class="heading">On Joan of Arc, who is called "La pucelle d'Orleans"</h3> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">French Amazon of never-dying fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Virgin untouched by men and by men feared,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor Venus in her eyes nor young Desire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Mars and Terror and the bloody Weird—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">France owes the Salic Law to her alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hers is the true king on the true throne.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let none lament her death who was all fire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And never, or by fire alone, should die.<a name="FNanchor_8_20" id="FNanchor_8_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_20" class="fnanchor">[8]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I have ventured to cite this that the reader may see quite clearly +what is involved in this kind of falsehood and how much it is +repugnant to nature: namely, that something is alleged the contrary of +which might as plausibly be affirmed. For Grotius might have written +no less foolishly:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Justly lament her death: she who was fire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should not by fire but by cold water die.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Actually, if we wish to get to the bottom of this fault we will find +that men are not led to it by nature but driven to it by lack of +skill. For they would not fly to the refuge of falsehood for any other +reason than that they are not vigorous enough to elicit beauty from +the subject itself. Truth, indeed, is limited and defined, but the +realm of lies is unlimited and undefined. Hence the one offers +difficulties for invention, the other is obvious and easy, and for +that reason also is to be scorned.</p> + +<p>Moreover, falsehood occurs not only in propositions but also in the +delineation of feeling, as, for instance, when feelings are ascribed +to a character other than those which nature and the subject-matter +demand. You will find this fault in an epigram by Vulteius, which was +for this reason rejected:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I viewed one day the marble stone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That hides a man in sin well-known.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I sighed and said, "What is the point<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of such expense? This tomb might serve<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To house kings and the blood of kings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That now conceals a villainous corpse."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I burst in tears that copiously<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flowed from my eyes down both my cheeks.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A stander-by took me to task<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In some such words, I think, as these:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Aren't you ashamed, be who you may,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To mourn the burial of this plague?"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I replied, "My tears are shed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the lost tomb, not his lost head."<a name="FNanchor_9_21" id="FNanchor_9_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_21" class="fnanchor">[9]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was surely foreign to nature to represent a man weeping copiously +because a villain and scoundrel had been buried in a noble tomb, for +the funeral honors paid to scoundrels excite anger and indignation +rather than pity and tears. The poet, consequently, adopted an +erroneous feeling when he wept where he should have been angry and +wrathful.</p> + + +<h3 class="heading">On mythological epigrams.</h3> + +<p>Untruth, then, is a considerable fault, one that is quite widespread +and one that embraces many sub-divisions. Under this category falls +especially the use of mythological propositions, the common vehicle of +poets when they have nothing to say. We have rejected many epigrams +that are faulty in this kind, as, for example, Grotius on the Emperor +Rudolph, which is too crowded with myths:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not Mars alone has favored you, Invincible,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At whom as enemy barbarian standards shake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the Divine Community with gifts adore you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with this in especial from the wife of Zephyr:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She to the Dutch Apelles did perpetual spring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ordain, and meadows living by the painter's hand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alcinous' charm is annual, and Adonis' gardens,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor do the Pharian roses bloom long in that air;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Antique Pomona of Semiramis has boasted,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet deep winter climbs the summit of her roof.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How shall your honors fail? The garlands that you wear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beseem Imperial triumph, which time may not touch.<a name="FNanchor_10_22" id="FNanchor_10_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_22" class="fnanchor">[10]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I know there are other things to be censured in this epigram, but I +note here only that one fault which it was quoted to illustrate.</p> + + +<h3 class="heading">On puns.</h3> + +<p>To the same general category may be referred most puns, the point of +which usually rises from some untruth. For example, in Sannazaro's +well-known epigram:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Happy has built twin bridges on the Seine:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Happy the Seine may call her Pontifex.<a name="FNanchor_11_23" id="FNanchor_11_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_23" class="fnanchor">[11]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>If you take <i>Pontifex</i> in the sense of "builder of bridges" the +thought is true, but pointless; consequently, for there to be a point +the word <i>Pontifex</i> must be taken in the sense of "Bishop", and in +this sense it will be false that the Pontifex is happy. Similarly, in +another epigram of some reputation:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They say you're treating Cosma for his deafness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that you promised, French, a definite cure;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But you can't bring it off for all your deftness:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He'll hear ill of himself while tongues endure.<a name="FNanchor_12_24" id="FNanchor_12_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_24" class="fnanchor">[12]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Take <i>audire</i> as referring to the sense of hearing and the thought is +false, since that physical defect is curable; take it as referring to +a good reputation, and the thought will again be false and inept, for +it is false and inept that a doctor will labor in vain to cure a +defect of the ears because he cannot medicine to a diseased +reputation.</p> + +<p>All puns are embarrassed by such faults, while on the other hand their +charm is quite thin, or rather nonexistent. Formerly,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> it is true, in +an earlier age there was some praise for that kind of thing, and so +Cicero and Quintilian are said to have derived polished witticisms +from the device of double-meaning; now, however, it is rightly held in +great contempt, so much so that men of taste not only do not hunt for +puns but even avoid them. They are, one must admit, more bearable, or +at least less objectionable when they come spontaneously; but anyone +who brings out ones he has thought up or indicates that he himself is +pleased with them is quite properly judged to be inexperienced in +society. Hence it is that epigrams whose elegance is derived from puns +are held of no account. For since verses are only composed by labor +and diligence he is justly considered to be a weak and narrow spirit +who wastes time in fitting such trivial wit into verse. One should +add, too, that there is another disadvantage in puns, that they are so +imbedded in their own language that they cannot be translated into +another. For these reasons we have admitted few punning epigrams into +this anthology, and those only as examples of a faulty kind.</p> + + +<h3 class="heading">On hyperbolical ideas.</h3> + +<p>In the category of false ideas must be reckoned the hyperbolical. +These are not false in a given word, for we dealt with this above, but +false in the whole train of thought. Of this kind is that epigram of +Ausonius, the absurdity of which is unbearable:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Riding in state, as on an elephant,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Faustus fell backwards off a silly ant;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Abandoned, tortured to the point of death<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the sharp hooves, his soul stayed on his breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And his voice broke: "Envy," he cried, "begone!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laugh not at my fall! So fell Phaethon."<a name="FNanchor_13_25" id="FNanchor_13_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_25" class="fnanchor">[13]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Ausonius was imitating in this epigram the Greeks, who were quite open +to this sort of bad imitation, as may be seen in their Anthology which +is stuffed full of such hyperboles. A good many fall into the same +fault either because their talent is weak or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> because they write for +the unskilled—a consideration which should move those who have no +compunction about reading, let alone praising, the silly tales of +Rabelais which are filled with stupid hyperboles.</p> + + +<h3 class="heading">On debatable and controvertible ideas.</h3> + +<p>Furthermore, debatable and double-edged ideas, about which the reader +is in doubt whether they be false or true, fall under the same +category of falseness. For this doubtfulness, since it takes away all +pleasure, removes also the beauty. For this reason I have never +approved the conclusion of Martial's epigram:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Equal the crime of Antony and Photinus:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This sword and that severed a sacred head—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The one head laurelled for your triumphs, Rome!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The other eloquent when you would speak.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet Antony's case was worse than was Photinus':<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One for his master moved, one for himself.<a name="FNanchor_14_26" id="FNanchor_14_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_26" class="fnanchor">[14]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The reader is bothered by a sort of quiet annoyance that the poet +should so confidently take a dubious idea for a certain one. He might +easily argue against the poet that on the contrary it seemed to him +that a man who commits a crime for his master is more at fault than +one who commits it for himself, and he could support his position with +rational arguments. For one who sins for his own advantage is driven +to his deed by such emotions as rage, lust, and fear, and these as +they diminish the power of willing in like measure diminish the +magnitude of the offence. But one who effects a crime at another's +behest comes coldly to the deed, a fact that convicts him of a far +greater depravity. One could allege these and similar lines of +argument against Martial's position, and could reverse the sense of +his distich so that it read no less irrationally:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet Antony's case was better than Photinus':<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One for his master moved, one for himself.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>Hence this whole category of controvertible ideas lacks literary merit +and should be studiously avoided by those who aim at beauty, which in +the last analysis is to be found in truth alone, and in truth of such +a sort that as soon as it is proposed the reader recognises as true +and accepts it.</p> + + +<h3 class="heading">The second virtue of ideas, that they should agree with the inner +nature of the subject; and thence on ideas foreign and accidental to +the subject.</h3> + +<p>The second virtue of ideas with respect to the subject-matter is that +they should agree with its inner nature: that is, that they should be +elicited out of the very inners of the subject and not far-fetched or +drawn from external accidents which are only the accompaniments of +things. By this rule we have been delivered from numerous frigid +epigrams, of which I subjoin a few examples:</p> + +<p>Foreign and far-fetched is Owen's on a lyre:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That there is concord in so diverse chords<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Discordant mankind some excuse affords.<a name="FNanchor_15_27" id="FNanchor_15_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_27" class="fnanchor">[15]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As if nothing were more pertinent for making men ashamed of their +discords than the concord of strings on a lyre.</p> + +<p>From concomitant accidents, and not from the very heart of the subject +itself, is drawn this epigram of Germanicus Caesar, though the verses +are otherwise sufficiently polished:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Thracian boy at play on the stiff ice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Hebrus broke the waters with his weight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the swift current carried him away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Except that a smooth sherd cut off his head.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The childless mother as she burned it said:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"This for the flames I bore, that for the waves."<a name="FNanchor_16_28" id="FNanchor_16_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_28" class="fnanchor">[16]</a><br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>Certainly the mother had a deeper and more native cause of grief than +that her son was destroyed partly by water and partly by fire; she +would have grieved no less had he perished wholly in water or wholly +in fire. The whole reason for grief, then, ought not be sought in such +a slight circumstance, which was an accompaniment of and not the +grounds for grief.</p> + +<p>Negative descriptions labor under the same fault, namely those in +which are enumerated not what the endowments of the subject are but +what they are not. This is justly censured in one of Barlaeus' +epigrams, which is in other respects quite polished:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Of royal Bourbon blood, by whose aid once<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Belgium believed that God inclined to her;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For sceptered fathers famed, more famed for war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by Astraea's doom of rare renown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom War as general, Peace lauds unarmed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To whom so many lands and seas are slaves;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Neither the fleece drinking barbarian dye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I send you, nor Sidonian artifice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor Indian ivory, Dalmatian stone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor the choice incense that delights grave Jove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor warring eagles, no, nor cities stormed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor plundered canvas from the conquered sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Louis, I give you Christ as King and Lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Titles not foreign to the ones you bear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I would send you, greatest of all kings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than which I cannot more, I send you God.<a name="FNanchor_17_29" id="FNanchor_17_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_29" class="fnanchor">[17]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Surely it is a long way around to enumerate what you will not give the +King in order to make clear how slight your gift is. Besides, the +conclusion is harsh in that a book about Christ is called God and +Christ, as if Christ and a book about him were the same thing. But +this is a commonplace absurdity of what one may call the dedicatory +<i>genre</i>, in which writers almost always speak of their book as if +there were no difference between the book itself and its subject: +thus, if they write about Caesar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> or Cato, "Caesar and Cato," they +say, "prostrate themselves before you;" If about Cicero, "Look," they +say, "Cicero addresses you and takes you as patron:" all of which are +correctly to be reckoned in the category of false statements.</p> + + +<h3 class="heading">In what way ideas are to be made agreeable to men's character. On +avoiding offense; and, first, on obscenity.</h3> + +<p>The harmony of idea and subject is a matter fairly easy to understand, +but the attuning of idea and men's character is more difficult to +grasp and requires more painstaking treatment. For in this inquiry the +whole scope of human nature must be thoroughly examined, and our +silent inclinations and aversions must be laid open so that we will +know how to avoid the one and comply with the other. For it cannot be +that anything should please that offends nature, or anything displease +that complies with natural inclinations. We will touch briefly on some +of these points, but only on those that suffice to our purposes.</p> + +<p>In the first place, there is in the nature of man an aversion to the +shameful and the obscene, and this the more powerful in the best and +well-educated natures. All obscene ideas offend this sense of shame to +such an extent that they are regarded as alien to nature, ugly, and +uncivilised. Nor does it matter that some corrupt souls laugh at them. +For civilization, as we have said, does not consist in agreement with +a corrupt, but with a virtuous and moral, nature. Consequently, +absolutely nothing of this kind is to be found in the conversation of +respectable men, and is only resorted to by those who lack any feeling +for Christianity as well as for genuine society and civilization.</p> + +<p>Therefore we have excluded all shameful and licentious epigrams not +only in deference to morals and religion but also to good taste and +civilization. Of this Catullus and Martial in Antiquity witness that +they had no perception at all, for they filled up their works with a +good deal of ill-bred filth,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> and on that account must be regarded not +only as dissolute but also as vulgar, uncultivated, and, to use +Catullus' own phrase, "goat-milkers and ditch-diggers."<a name="FNanchor_18_30" id="FNanchor_18_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_30" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + + +<h3 class="heading">On the cheap subject-matter of some epigrams.</h3> + +<p>But it is not only faulty and unpolished to offer the reader a +shameful and obscene picture but also in general to depict whatever is +cheap, ugly, and unwelcome. Hence those epigrams cannot be regarded as +beautiful and polished whose subject is a toothless hag, a poetaster +with a threadbare cloak, a rank old goat, a filthy nose, or a glutton +vomiting on the table—all of which are a fertile ground of jokes for +actors—since ugliness of that sort can never be redeemed by the +point.</p> + +<p>For this reason we have admitted none of such kind in the epigrams of +Martial which we have subjoined to this treatise, and a good many +epigrams that we have run across we have put aside, such as Buchanan's +in which he depicts the unattractive and unpleasant picture of a lank +old man:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While Naevolus yells he can outbellow Stentor,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And roars and roars, "All men are animals,"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He has slipped by almost his ninetieth year<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bent senility shakes his weak step.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now three hairs only cling to his smooth head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he sees what a night-owl sees at dawn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The snot is dripping from his frosty nose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stringed saliva falls on his wet breast—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not an odd tooth in his defenceless gums,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not an old ape so engraved with wrinkles.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Naevolus, for shame leave this frivolity<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And no more cry, "All men," since you are none.<a name="FNanchor_19_31" id="FNanchor_19_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_31" class="fnanchor">[19]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Again, the baseness of the subject and the hardly pleasant or +civilized image of a hanging man is a fault in this epigram of +Sannazaro's, although it has an element of humor:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In your desire to learn your fortune, sir,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You questioned every tripod, every rune;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"You'll stand out above gods and men," at last<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Answered the god in truth-revealing voice.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What arrogance you drew from this! You were<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Immediately lord of the universe.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now you ascend the cross. God was no cheat:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The whole world lies spread out beneath your feet.<a name="FNanchor_20_32" id="FNanchor_20_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_32" class="fnanchor">[20]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This is fairly respectable and merely low. But the cynical license of +Martial and Catullus, by which they speak of many things that are not +simply morally foul but such as decent society demands be removed from +sight and hearing, must be regarded as altogether shameless and +vulgar. For this reason men of taste never mention favorably Catullus' +<i>Annales Volusi cacata charta</i>, or Martial's</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">et desiderio coacta ventris<br /></span> +<span class="i0">gutta pallia non fefellit una<a name="FNanchor_21_33" id="FNanchor_21_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_33" class="fnanchor">[21]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And there are many others a good deal more despicable which cannot be +adduced even as examples of a fault. Assuredly Antiquity was too +forbearing toward this sort of thing, and I have often wondered how +Cicero could have been tolerated in the Roman Senate when he inveighed +against Piso:</p> + +<blockquote><p>Do you not remember, blank, when I came to see you about the +fifth hour with Gaius Piso, you were coming out of some dirty +shack, slippers on your feet and your face and beard covered; and +when you breathed on us that low tavern air from your fetid +mouth, you apologized on grounds of ill health, saying that you +were taking a kind of wine treatment? When we had accepted your +explanation—what else could we do?—we stood a while in the +smell and fume of the joints you patronize until you kicked us +out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> by the impudence of your answers and the stench of your +belches.<a name="FNanchor_22_34" id="FNanchor_22_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_34" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p></blockquote> + + +<h3 class="heading">On spiteful epigrams.</h3> + +<p>Men with some gentleness of nature have an inborn hatred of spite, +especially of such as mocks bodily flaws or reversals of fortune, or, +finally, anything that happens beyond the individual's responsibility. +For, since no man feels himself free of such strokes of chance, he +will not take it easily when they are torn down and laughed at. The +Vergilian Dido spoke with human feeling when she said: <i>Not unaware of +ill I learned to aid misfortune.</i><a name="FNanchor_23_35" id="FNanchor_23_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_35" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> and the good will of the reader +rises quietly in her favor. Likewise, Seneca says nicely: <i>It is not +witty to be spiteful.</i><a name="FNanchor_24_36" id="FNanchor_24_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_36" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> On the other hand they act inhumanely who +triumph over misfortune and upbraid what was not guiltily effected, to +such an extent that they arouse a feeling of aversion and alienation +in the hearts of their readers.</p> + +<p>Accordingly we have admitted only a few of this kind, and have +rejected a great many, as, for example, Owen's frigid and spiteful +epigram:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Look, not a hair remains on your bright skull.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hairs on your inconstant brow are null.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With every last hair lost behind, ahead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What has the bald man left to lose? His head.<a name="FNanchor_25_37" id="FNanchor_25_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_37" class="fnanchor">[25]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Nor do we greatly care for many of the same kind in Martial, which +nevertheless were not omitted for the reasons given above.<a name="FNanchor_26_38" id="FNanchor_26_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_38" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> + + +<h3 class="heading">On wordy epigrams.</h3> + +<p>It would be a long task to assemble all the natural aversions, +nevertheless we may add a few more which have removed a whole host of +epigrams from this anthology. Beyond those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> already mentioned, nature +finds distasteful long circumlocutions and the piling up of a single +point with varying phrase; for nature burns with a desire to find out, +ever hastens to the conclusion, and is impatient at being detained by +much talk unless there is a special reward. Consequently wordy +epigrams beget a good deal of loathing, especially those that do not +sufficiently balance their length with the magnitude of the idea. Some +of Martial's are burdened with this fault; sometimes they accumulate +too many commonplace compliments or are too petty in enumeration. For +example, in this epigram to what point are so many trite similes piled +up?</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her voice was sweeter than the agëd swan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">None would prefer the Eastern pearl before her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or the new-polished tooth of Indic beasts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or the first snow, lilies untouched by hand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She who breathed fragrance of the Paestan rose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Compared with whom the peacock was but dull,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The squirrel uncharming, and unrare the phoenix,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Erotion, is still warm on a new pyre.<a name="FNanchor_27_39" id="FNanchor_27_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_39" class="fnanchor">[27]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Similarly, why in another well-known epigram is the same idea repeated +again and again?</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh not unvalued object of my love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flaccus, the darling of Antenor's hearth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forego Pierian songs, the sisters' dances:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No girl among them ever gave a dime.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Phoebus is nought; Minerva has the cash,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is shrewd, is only usurer to the gods.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What's there in Bacchus' ivy? The black tree<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Pallas bends with mottled leaves and weight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On Helicon there's only water, wreaths,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The divine lyres, and profitless applause.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why do you dream of Cirrha, bare Permessis?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The forum is more Roman and more rich.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There the coins clink, but round the sterile chairs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And desks of poets only kisses rustle.<a name="FNanchor_28_40" id="FNanchor_28_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_40" class="fnanchor">[28]</a><br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>In the same way that nature is displeased with wordiness, she is +displeased with ideas that are too commonplace, for it is a kind of +loquacity to bubble on with the commonplace and trite, since it is the +purpose of speech to reveal what isn't known, not to repeat what is +known and worn-out. Countless epigrams have been excluded from this +selection for this fault, but since there is nothing more common I +will omit offering examples.</p> + + +<h3 class="heading">On trifling wit, and plays on words.</h3> + +<p>Not a little displeasing, also, is an assiduity in trifling which +withdraws the mind from solid subject-matter out of which true beauty +springs. Plays on words, puns and other playing around of that kind, +unless they come to the judgement of the pen within the bounds of art, +are not so much figures of speech as faults of style, and in those +epigrams where the point rests solely in these there is nothing +thinner, especially when they are so peculiar to one language that +they cannot be translated into another. On this basis we have passed +over such frivolous witticisms as Owen's:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Rope ends the robber, death is his last haul;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gallows gets the gangster—if not all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If many get away, God gives no hope:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It's an odd thief dies with no coffin rope.<a name="FNanchor_29_41" id="FNanchor_29_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_41" class="fnanchor">[29]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>A little more humorous is that of another poet on the Swiss killed at +night, though it too is faulty:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Annihilated in night snow by a nut stick,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I snow, night, nut, now, and annihilation know.<a name="FNanchor_30_42" id="FNanchor_30_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_42" class="fnanchor">[30]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h3 class="heading">In what way natural inclinations are to be gratified.</h3> + +<p>We must carefully avoid all these natural sources of aversion and no +less gratify natural inclinations if we wish to attain that beauty we +aim at. For self-love is so strong<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> in men that they can hear nothing +with pleasure unless it flatters them with their own feelings. For +which reason those epigrams have correctly been judged best that +penetrate deeper into those feelings and present to the reader's mind +an idea recognised not only by the interior light but also by the +interior feeling as quite true, so that he can be seduced into +embracing it: for example, Martial's:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I scorn the fame purchased with easy blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And praise the man who can be praised alive.<a name="FNanchor_31_43" id="FNanchor_31_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_43" class="fnanchor">[31]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>For, since everyone hates death and longs for praise and glory, there +is no one who would not be glad if he could be praised without dying. +Another example is that of the old poet:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Put high disdain, deciduous hope put by:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Live with yourself who with yourself must die.<a name="FNanchor_32_44" id="FNanchor_32_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_44" class="fnanchor">[32]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>For nature has, as Quintilian said, a kind of elevation intolerant of +anything above it<a name="FNanchor_33_45" id="FNanchor_33_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_45" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> that fawns on anyone who bids it be contemptuous +of a pride in riches.</p> + +<p>This much on the general sources of beauty and ugliness will be +sufficient for passing judgement on any <i>genre</i> of poems. +Nevertheless, this should be adapted to the particular nature, laws, +and principles of the epigram, and so it will not be out of point to +add a few remarks on the epigram itself.</p> + + +<h3 class="heading">The origin of the name epigram. Its definition, form, and laws.</h3> + +<p>"Epigram", as Scaliger observes, is the same thing as "inscription"; +but since there are inscriptions of a good many things the former word +has been applied to short poems inasmuch as epigrams of that sort used +to be inscribed on monuments and statues;<a name="FNanchor_34_46" id="FNanchor_34_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_46" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> and from this the word +has been extended generally to short poems. The epigram is defined, +then, as a short poem directly pointing out some thing, person, or +deed.<a name="FNanchor_35_47" id="FNanchor_35_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_47" class="fnanchor">[35]<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></a></p> + +<p>There are those who locate its formal principle in the serious or +witty idea that forms the conclusion, and so insist on this that they +deny anything is an epigram that lacks such a conclusion.<a name="FNanchor_36_48" id="FNanchor_36_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_48" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> But this +is an error. There are some epigrams, and highly cultivated ones, that +have an equable elevation throughout and nothing of especial note in +the conclusion, as in this of a contemporary writer:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That on insurgent serpents breathing peace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On unplumed eagles trembling, on tame pards,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lions whose low necks accept the yoke,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Louis looks out, sublime on a bronze horse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor fingers shaped this nor the craftsman's forge<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But worth and God's fortune accomplished it.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The armed venger of faith, trustee of peace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ordained, for all to reverence, this, and bade<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rise in the royal place the reverend bronze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, the long perils past of civil strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And enemies subdued by prosperous arms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Louis should ever triumph in the master city.<a name="FNanchor_37_49" id="FNanchor_37_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_49" class="fnanchor">[37]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Again, in some epigrams there is a straightforward neatness and a +gentle and dry humor that pleases, as may be seen in some of Catullus' +epigrams which we have put in this anthology.</p> + +<p>Some go to the contrary extreme and not only do not require such +conclusions but even scorn them. These are for the most part the +outrageous lovers of Catullus who, as long as they finish off some +limp little dirge in hendecasyllabics, feel that they are marvellously +charming and polished, although there is nothing more empty than such +verses or nothing easier to do if a man has acquired a little practice +in Latin.</p> + +<p>How little effort, for instance, shall we imagine the conclusion of +this epigram cost Borbonius, fashioned as it is according to the model +of Catullus?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Wherefore come, O Roman muses,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full of honey and of graces,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Learned verses of good Pino;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I embrace you, just Camenae,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All day long I read you gladly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In this mortifying season,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Time of tears and time of penance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Harsh and troublesome, by Jupiter!<a name="FNanchor_38_50" id="FNanchor_38_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_50" class="fnanchor">[38]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>You can see where the perverse imitation of Catullus has conducted a +Christian, in other respects devout, so that in discussing a Christian +fast day he had no fear of using the profane name of Jove. But, +leaving this aside, what is more inept than the verse <i>Harsh and +troublesome, by Jupiter!</i>, however Catullan. Nevertheless, Borbonius +thought his epigram concluded elegantly in that line because he found +in Catullus a similar one.<a name="FNanchor_39_51" id="FNanchor_39_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_51" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> But, leaving aside such spiritless +imitators, one can truly affirm of those ideas that conclude epigrams +that there is a good deal of elegance in them when they are themselves +distinguished and nicely cohere with the preceding chain of thought. +For, since nothing so sticks in the reader's mind as the conclusion, +what is better than to put there what especially you want to fix in +his soul. Consequently, those epigrams are rightly censured as faulty +that go in the order of anti-climax or in which the conclusion is sort +of added on or appended to the rest and does not neatly develop out of +the preceding verses. This fault is discernible in the following +epigram, though in other respects it is distinguished:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You that a stranger in mid-Rome seek Rome<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And can find nothing in mid-Rome of Rome,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behold this mass of walls, these abrupt rocks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the vast theatre lies overwhelmed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here, here is Rome! Look how the very corpse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of greatness still imperiously breathes threats!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The world she conquered, strove herself to conquer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Conquered that nothing be unconquered by her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now conqueror Rome's interred in conquered Rome,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the same Rome conquered and conqueror.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still Tiber stays, witness of Roman fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still Tiber flows on swift waves to the sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Learn hence what Fortune can: the unmoved falls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the ever-moving will remain forever.<a name="FNanchor_40_52" id="FNanchor_40_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_52" class="fnanchor">[40]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The last four verses are completely unnecessary and contain a frigid +point by which the lustre of the preceding is dimmed.</p> + + +<h3 class="heading">The material of epigrams; thence the division into different kinds. +The first kind and the second.</h3> + +<p>The material of epigrams comprises any subject and anything that can +be said on it—in fact, there are as many kinds of epigrams as there +are kinds of things that can be said. We will notice here particularly +those kinds from which the special powers of each can be understood.</p> + +<p>There is, then, a kind of epigram that is elevated, weighty, sublime, +pursuing a noble subject in noble lines and concluding with a noble +sentiment. Such is Martial's on Scaevola:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That hand that sought a king and found a slave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was thrust to burn up in the sacred fire:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So cruel a portent the good enemy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Appalled, who bade him carried from the fire.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hand the regicide endured to burn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The king could not endure to see it done.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Greater the glory of the hand deceived!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had it not erred it had accomplished less.<a name="FNanchor_41_53" id="FNanchor_41_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_53" class="fnanchor">[41]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Of the same sort are Grotius' epigrams on Ostend and on the sailing +carriages, and Barclay's on Margaret of Valois.<a name="FNanchor_42_54" id="FNanchor_42_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_54" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p> + +<p>There is another sort somewhat lower in style but weighty and +profitable in idea: for example, that truly distinguished<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> one of +Martial:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In that you follow the strict rules of Cato<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet are willing to remain alive<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And will not run bare-breasted on the sword<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You do exactly as I'd have you do:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I scorn the fame purchased with easy blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And praise the man who can be praised alive.<a name="FNanchor_43_55" id="FNanchor_43_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_55" class="fnanchor">[43]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And this:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In private she mourns not the late-lamented;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If someone's by her tears leap forth on call.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sorrow, my dear, is not so easily rented.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They are true tears that without witness fall.<a name="FNanchor_44_56" id="FNanchor_44_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_56" class="fnanchor">[44]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And that genuinely golden epigram:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That I now call you by your name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who used to call you sir and master,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You needn't think it impudence.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I bought myself with all I had.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He ought to sir a sir and master<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who's not himself, and wants to have<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whatever sirs and masters want.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who can get by without a slave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can get by, too, without a master.<a name="FNanchor_45_57" id="FNanchor_45_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_57" class="fnanchor">[45]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>However, of all kinds of epigram that kind is generally thought to be +most properly epigrammatic which is distinguished by a witty and +ingenious turn that deeply penetrates the soul. Martial excels in this +kind, as in this one:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You serve the best wines always, my dear sir,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet they say your wines are not so good.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They say you are four times a widower.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They say ... A drink? I don't believe I would.<a name="FNanchor_46_58" id="FNanchor_46_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_58" class="fnanchor">[46]</a><br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>and in this:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though you send presents to old men and widows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why should I call you, sir, munificent?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There's nothing lower, dirtier than you only<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who can denominate enticements gifts.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These are the sly hooks for the greedy fish,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These are the clever baits for the wild beasts.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will instruct you what it is to give<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If you are ignorant: give, sir, to me. <a name="FNanchor_47_59" id="FNanchor_47_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_59" class="fnanchor">[47]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Some are lower in style but witty and pleasant, and have a glowing +simplicity, as can be illustrated by another of Martial's:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"An epic epigram," I heard you say.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Others have written them, and so I may.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"But this one is too long." Others are too.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You want them short? I'll write two lines for you:<br /></span> +<span class="i1"><i>As for long epigrams let us agree</i><br /></span> +<span class="i1"><i>They may be skipped by you, written by me.</i><a name="FNanchor_48_60" id="FNanchor_48_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_60" class="fnanchor">[48]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And, indeed, of all the special capabilities of the epigram none is +more difficult to realise or more rarely achieved than the adroit +handling, the suitable and easy unfolding, of the subject so that +nothing is redundant, nothing wanting, nothing out of order, obscure, +or tangled up in verbiage, and yet at the same time nothing too +unexpected, nothing not adequately prepared for. Martial is +pre-eminent in this; he develops his subjects so aptly, clearly, and +perceptively that he obtains for ideas of no special note otherwise a +good deal of distinction by the charm of the handling. For example, +what could be more resourcefully developed than this epigram?</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Believe me, sir, I'd like to spend whole days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yes, and whole evenings in your company,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the two miles between your house and mine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are four miles when I go there to come back.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You're seldom home, and when you are deny it,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Engrossed with business or with yourself.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now, I don't mind the two mile trip to see you;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What I do mind is going four to not to.<a name="FNanchor_49_61" id="FNanchor_49_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_61" class="fnanchor">[49]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And what would the following epigram be if it had not been perfected +and prepared for by the handling?</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That no one meets you willingly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That where you come they go, that vast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Areas of silence circle you—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why so? you ask. Too much the bard.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This makes it terribly, terribly hard.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who would put up with what I do?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You read verse if I stand or sit;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You read it if I run or sing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the baths you read me verse;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I try the pool, and swim in verse;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I haste to dine, you go my way;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I order, and you read me out;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Worn out, I take my rest with verse.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You want to know what harm you do?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Just, upright, harmless, you're a pest.<a name="FNanchor_50_62" id="FNanchor_50_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_62" class="fnanchor">[50]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The conclusion is pleasantly witty, but the special charm of the poem +derives from the preceding enumeration.</p> + +<p>This finishes the account of what we looked to in selecting these +epigrams. You will find what else is pertinent to this book in the +preface.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> +<h3><i>Notes</i></h3> + +<p>I have silently emended a few passages; otherwise the text translated +is that of <i>Epigrammatum Delectus</i>, Paris, 1659. It is regrettable +that the Latin text, at least of the poems cited, could not be printed +with the translation.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_13" id="Footnote_1_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_13"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>De nat. deor.</i> 2.2.5</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_14" id="Footnote_2_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_14"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Aen.</i> 5.481 and 8.596</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_15" id="Footnote_3_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_15"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> 177-8, 173</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_16" id="Footnote_4_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_16"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> All three passages are from epigrams by Gaspar Conrad in +Janus Gruter, <i>Delitiae poetarum germanorum</i>, 6 v., Frankfort, 1612: +II, 1065-6, lines 1-6 of a twelve line epigram, "In symbolum Iacobi +Monavi"; II, 1077, the concluding lines of an eight line epigram, "Ad +Valentinum Maternum"; and II, 1079, the concluding couplet of a six +line epigram, "Ad Georgum Menhadum Philophilum." The second passage is +hardly construable.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_17" id="Footnote_5_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_17"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Ars. poet.</i> 141-2, the paraphrase of Homer, and 143-4. +The other quotations in this passage are from the opening of the +<i>Aeneid</i>, <i>Thebaid</i>, <i>Rape of Proserpine</i>, and the <i>Pharsalia</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_18" id="Footnote_6_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_18"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Inst. orat.</i> 8.6.14</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_19" id="Footnote_7_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_19"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> "Manes Dousici," IV "Ad solem" and V "Ad sidera," +<i>Poemata</i>, Leyden, 1613, p. 166. Nicole reads <i>tandem</i> for <i>rursus</i> in +the last line of the second poem. Douza is the younger Janus Douza +(1571-1596). +</p><p> +Nicole's criticism of these poems is just but superficial. The +difficulty with such poems lies in the method, which consists in the +establishment by amplification of one pole, followed by the briefest +statement of the contrary pole. But the latter is of personal concern +and is the essential subject of the poem. Thus the subject is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +deliberately avoided for the greater part of the poem, and hence there +is in the amplification no principle of order to control the detail +and its accumulation. This accounts for the features Nicole censures; +however, he himself makes a similar point below in condemning negative +descriptions.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_20" id="Footnote_8_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_20"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> I have been unable to find this among Grotius' poems.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_21" id="Footnote_9_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_21"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Joannes Vulteius (c.1510-1542), "De ignobili Aruerno in +sepulchro nobili posito," <i>Hendecasyllaborum libri iv</i>, Paris, 1538, +Ni., p. 97.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_22" id="Footnote_10_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_22"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> "Ad Rudolphum Imp. florum picturae dedicatio," +<i>Poemata</i>, Leyden, 1637, p. 326.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_23" id="Footnote_11_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_23"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Epig. 1.50, "De Jucundo architecto," <i>Poemata</i>, Pavia, +1719, p. 189.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_24" id="Footnote_12_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_24"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> I have been unable to identify this epigram.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_25" id="Footnote_13_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_25"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> A translation of <i>Anth. Pal.</i> 11.104 and printed as +Ausonius in the Renaissance, but probably by Girogio Merula +(c.1424-1494): see James Hutton, <i>The Greek Anthology In Italy to the +year 1800</i>, "Cornell Studies in English," XXIII (1935), pp. 23-4, +102-5, and Ausonius, <i>Opuscula</i>, ed. Rudolphus Peiper, Leipzig, 1886, +p. 428. The younger Scaliger strongly condemns this epigram on the +same grounds: Joseph Scaliger, <i>Ausoniarum lectionum libri ii</i>, 2.20, +Heidelberg, 1688, p. 204.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_26" id="Footnote_14_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_26"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> 3.66</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_27" id="Footnote_15_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_27"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Epig. libri tres, ad D. Mariam Neville, 2.211. +<i>Epigrammata</i>, Amsterdam, 1647, p. 47. Translated by Thomas Harvey, +<i>John Owen's Latin Epigrams</i>, London, 1677, p. 36: "Sith th' Harps +discording Strings concording be, / Is't not a shame<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> for men to +disagree?" and by Thomas Pecke, <i>Parnassi puerperium</i>, London, 1659: +"Can there be many strings; and yet no Jars? / And are not men asham'd +of dismal wars?"</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_28" id="Footnote_16_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_28"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Nicole's text follows what are now regarded as inferior +mss: see Germanious Caesar, <i>Aratea</i>, ed. Alfred Breysig, 2nd. ed., +Leipzig, 1899, p. 58. The poem corresponds to <i>Anth. Pal.</i> 7.542. +Nicole's comment recalls Dr. Johnson on Gray's cat.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_29" id="Footnote_17_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_29"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> The dedicatory poem, addressed to Louis XIII, to Caspar +Barlaeus' <i>Poematum editio nova</i>, Leyden, 1631, sig.*8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_30" id="Footnote_18_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_30"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> 22.10</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_31" id="Footnote_19_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_31"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Epig. 1.25, <i>Opera Omnia</i>, 2 v., Leyden, 1725, II, 365. +Nicole's text presents several variants and cuts the next to the last +couplet, which I translate: "Already at the tomb, He beats the gates / +Of Dis, and Libertina waits his torches."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_32" id="Footnote_20_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_32"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Epig. 3.5, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 233.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_33" id="Footnote_21_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_33"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Catullus 36 and Martial 1.109. 10-11</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_34" id="Footnote_22_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_34"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Pis.</i> 13</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_35" id="Footnote_23_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_35"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> <i>Aen.</i> 1.630</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_36" id="Footnote_24_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_36"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> <i>Anthologia Latina</i>, ed. Alexander Riese, 412.17, +Leipzig, 1894, I, 1, p.319. The epigram, from which this phrase is +quoted, was ascribed to Seneca by Pithoeus.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_37" id="Footnote_25_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_37"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Epig.... ad ... Neville, 2.126, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 38. +Harvey, p. 36, translates: "Lo, not an hair thine heads bald Crown +doth crown: / Thy Faithless Front hath not one hair thine own: / +Before, Behind thine hair's blown off with Blast, / What's left thee +to be lost? thine Head at last."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_38" id="Footnote_26_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_38"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> In the preface, <i>Delectus</i>, Paris, 1659, ch. 2. The +problem was whether to print a large collection of epigrams, rejecting +merely the obscene ones, or to choose only the best. A middle way was +taken for these reasons: 1) there are so few first-class epigrams that +a reader who had his own opinions might think the selection too +choosy; 2) the best shines out only in comparison with what is not so +good, and examples of vice are as useful as examples of virtue, since +judgement in large measure consists in knowing what to avoid; 3) +finally and principally, the curiosity of young men would not be +sufficiently satisfied by the selection if they knew that a good many +witty and polished epigrams were to be found elsewhere. Since it was +especially necessary to keep youth from the unspeakable filth of +Catullus and Martial, who are at the same time the best writers, +everything of theirs is included except the cheapest odds and ends and +filthiest obscenities. For the writers after Martial stricter +standards were applied, for the book would have grown beyond bounds if +everything tolerable had been admitted.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_39" id="Footnote_27_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_39"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Martial 5.37, 1, 4-6, 9, 12-14. The lines that Nicole +cuts contain only more of the same.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_40" id="Footnote_28_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_40"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Martial 1.76</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_41" id="Footnote_29_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_41"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Epig. libri tres ad Henricum ... ded. 1.67, <i>op. cit.</i>, +p. 131.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_42" id="Footnote_30_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_42"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Unidentified. The text reads: "In nive nocte vagans +nuceo cado stipite nectus, / Sic mihi nix, nox, nux, nex fuit ante +diem."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_43" id="Footnote_31_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_43"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> 1.8. 5-6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_44" id="Footnote_32_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_44"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> The conclusion of an epigram of ten lines, ascribed to +Seneca in <i>Delectus</i>, pp. 326-7. Lines 1-8 correspond to <i>Anth. Lat.</i>, +<i>op. cit.</i>, 407. 5-12. The younger Scaliger had begun a new epigram +with line 5, as also with lines 9 and 11<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> (ed., Vergil, <i>Appendix, cum +supplemento</i> ..., Lyons, 1572, pp. 196-7.) The concluding sententia, +however, which Nicole quotes here and praises later in the notes to +the anthology, is from the conclusion of the next epigram, <i>Anth. +Lat.</i>, 408. 7-8, which is a response to the preceding one. But the +first two-thirds of the couplet has been rewritten with the aid of +something like a <i>Gradus ad Parnassum</i>. The ms reads, "nunc et reges +tantum fuge! vivere doctus / uni vive tibi nam moriare tibi." Nicole +reads, "Mitte superba pati fastidia, spemque caducam / Despice: vive +tibi, nam moriere tibi." <i>superba pati fastidia</i> corresponds to +Vergil, <i>Ecl.</i> 2.15; <i>spem ... caducam</i> to Ovid, <i>Epist.</i> 15 (sive 16, +"Paris Helenae"). 169 (sive 171). +</p><p> +The epigram as it stands in the anthology, then, is a result of +Scaliger's disintegration of <i>Anth. Lat.</i> 407, which suggested +beginning with line 5 and adding 408. 7-8 from the responsory poem. +But this couplet is subjected to improvement to adjust it to the +sense, to sustain the level of feeling, and to enhance the sententious +point. Thus, with the aid of phrases from Vergil and Ovid, using +<i>mitte</i> and <i>despice</i> as fillers and helpers, the epigram is concluded +"with a noble, exalted and true thought," as the editor says in the +notes.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_45" id="Footnote_33_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_45"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>Inst. orat.</i> 11.1.16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_46" id="Footnote_34_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_46"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> J. C. Scaliger, <i>Poeticas libri vii</i>, 3.125, 5th. ed., +1607, p. 389.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_47" id="Footnote_35_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_47"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>loc. cit.</i>, p. 390: "An epigram, therefore, is a short +poem directly pointing out some thing, person, or deed, or deducing +something from premises. This definition includes also the principle +of division—so let no one condemn it as prolix." Nicole, however, +uses only the first half of the definition, since he rejects the +principle of division.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_48" id="Footnote_36_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_48"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>loc. cit.</i>: "Brevity is a property; point the soul and, +so to speak, the form." For a full account of the Renaissance theory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +of the epigram and the contemporary controversies, see Hutton, <i>op. +cit.</i>, pp. 55-73, and <i>The Greek Anthology in France and in the Latin +writers of the Netherlands to the year 1800</i>, "Cornell studies in +classical philology," XXVIII (1946), <i>passim</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_49" id="Footnote_37_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_49"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Anon., "In statuam equestrem Ludouici XIII positam +Parisiis in circo regali," <i>Delectus</i>, pp. 409-10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_50" id="Footnote_38_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_50"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Nicolas Borbon, the younger, <i>Poematia exposita</i>, Paris, +1630, pp. 144-5, the concluding lines (lines 23-30) of an epigram, "In +versus v.c. Iacobi Pinonis."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_51" id="Footnote_39_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_51"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Catullus 1.7</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_52" id="Footnote_40_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_52"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Ianus Vitalis Panomitanus (c.1485-1560), "Antiquae Romae +ruinae illustres," <i>Delectus</i>, p. 366; see also <i>Delitiae delitiarum</i>, +ed. Ab. Wright, Oxford, 1637, p. 104, with textual variants.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_53" id="Footnote_41_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_53"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> 1.21</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_54" id="Footnote_42_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_54"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>Delectus</i>, pp. 396-7, 399-400, and 405. See Grotius, +<i>op. cit.</i>, pp. 341-2, and 383.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_55" id="Footnote_43_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_55"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> 1.8</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_56" id="Footnote_44_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_56"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> 1.33</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_57" id="Footnote_45_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_57"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> 2.68</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_58" id="Footnote_46_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_58"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> 4.69</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_59" id="Footnote_47_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_59"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> 4.56</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_60" id="Footnote_48_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_60"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> 6.65</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_61" id="Footnote_49_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_61"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> 2.5<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_62" id="Footnote_50_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_62"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> 3.44. 1-5, 9-18. The lines cut, 6-8, read in +translation: "No tigress wild for her lost cubs, / No viper burned by +the noon sun, / No scorpion begets such fear." In line 11, line 8 of +the translation, Nicole reads <i>canenti</i> for the received <i>cacanti</i>. +The latter reading will yield in translation a rhyme with the +preceding line.</p></div> + + + +<hr /> +<p class="center spacedLines"><i>The Editors of </i> THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY<br /> + +<i>are pleased to announce that</i><br /> + +THE WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY<br /> + +<i>of The University of California, Los Angeles</i></p> + +<p>will become the publisher of the Augustan Reprints in May, 1949. The +editorial policy of the Society will continue unchanged. 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(Extra Series, 1)</p> + +<p>18. Aaron Hill's Preface to <i>The Creation</i>; and Thomas Brereton's +Preface to <i>Esther</i>. (IV, 2)</p></blockquote> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<div class="trans-note"> +<a name="END" id="END"></a> +<p class="heading">Transcriber's Notes</p> + +<pre class="note"> +On p. 23, a letter was missing in one of the words; +it was changed as follows: + + From: "when they are orn down and laughed at." + To: "when they are torn down and laughed at." + +On p. 35, footnote #24, removed the repeated word "is": + + From: "from which this phrase is is quoted" + To: "from which this phrase is quoted" +</pre> +</div> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty +in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams, by Pierre Nicole + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAY ON TRUE AND APPARENT BEAUTY *** + +***** This file should be named 28921-h.htm or 28921-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/9/2/28921/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Richard J. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams + +Author: Pierre Nicole + +Translator: J V Cunningham + +Release Date: May 22, 2009 [EBook #28921] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAY ON TRUE AND APPARENT BEAUTY *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Richard J. Shiffer +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this text +as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings +and other inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an +obvious error is noted at the end of this ebook.] + + + The Augustan Reprint Society + + + + + _An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in Which From Settled + Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting + Epigrams_ + + + by Pierre Nicole + + + Translated by J. V. Cunningham + + + Publication Number 24 + (Series IV, No. 5) + + + Los Angeles + William Andrews Clark Memorial Library + University of California + 1950 + + +GENERAL EDITORS + + H. RICHARD ARCHER, _Clark Memorial Library_ + RICHARD C. BOYS, _University of Michigan_ + EDWARD NILES HOOKER, _University of California, Los Angeles_ + H. T. SWEDENBERG, JR., _University of California, Los Angeles_ + + +_ASSISTANT EDITORS_ + + W. EARL BRITTON, _University of Michigan_ + JOHN LOFTIS, _University of California, Los Angeles_ + + +_ADVISORY EDITORS_ + + EMMETT L. AVERY, _State College of Washington_ + BENJAMIN BOYCE, _University of Nebraska_ + LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, _University of Michigan_ + CLEANTH BROOKS, _Yale University_ + JAMES L. CLIFFORD, _Columbia University_ + ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, _University of Chicago_ + SAMUEL H. MONK, _University of Minnesota_ + ERNEST MOSSNER, _University of Texas_ + JAMES SUTHERLAND, _Queen Mary College, London_ + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The following essay forms the introduction to a famous anthology of +the seventeenth century, the _Epigrammatum delectus_, a Port-Royal +textbook published at Paris in 1659.[1] The essay was twice translated +into French in the same century, but the use of the text in France did +not survive, apparently, the downfall of the Port-Royal movement. It +was, however, later adopted by Eton College, where it was used in the +sixth form.[2] The text went through thirteen English editions between +1683 and 1762. The author of the essay, and a collaborator with Claude +Lancelot in making the selections for the anthology, was Pierre +Nicole, who began teaching in the Little Schools around 1646. It has +been said that the essay was written at that time.[3] + +The scope of the anthology is indicated on the title page, which I +translate: _A selection of epigrams carefully chosen from the whole +range of ancient and modern poets, and so on. With an essay on true +and apparent beauty, in which from settled principles is rendered the +grounds for choosing and rejecting epigrams. There are added the best +sententiae of the ancient poets, chosen sparingly and with severe +judgement. With shorter sententiae, or proverbs, Latin, Greek, +Spanish, and Italian, drawn both from the chief authors of those +languages and from everyday speech_. + +The essay is preceded by a preface in which the origin, purpose and +method of the anthology is explained. The two ends of instruction, we +are told,[4] are learning and character, and of these the latter is +the more important. But there are many books, and especially books of +epigrams, that are quite filthy and obscene. Young people are led by +curiosity to read these, and losing all chastity of mind enter upon a +progressive corruption of life. It would be best if they could be kept +wholly from such books; but there is a good deal in them of genuine +profit and literary merit, which makes it difficult to keep them +wholly out of the hands of youth. Therefore the editor undertook to +expurgate the epigrammatists, especially Catullus and Martial. He was +horrified when he read over their works, but he found some good among +the bad, as in vipers not everything is poisonous but some things even +useful to health. His primary purpose, then, was to protect the good +young man from being harmed and to leave him no excuse for wishing to +have or peruse such books since the good in them had already been +extracted for him. + +The difficulty then arose of making the selection serve the purposes +both of morality and of judgement. The editor could either gather +together all the epigrams that were not obscene, or he could choose +only the best. He took in fact both ways: he preserved everything of +Catullus and Martial except the cheapest odds and ends and filthiest +obscenities, and he applied strict standards of judgement to the rest +so that, unless an epigram had literary merit or contained something +worth knowing, he felt there was no reason to burden the book with it. + +Nevertheless, some middling epigrams found entrance into the +anthology--he confesses the fact so the reader will not look for +excellence without flaw. The reasons were, first, that the complete +perfection he was looking for is seldom or never attained. Hence, if +he had admitted only those epigrams in which there was nothing to +censure, the task would not have been one of selecting some but rather +of rejecting almost all. Again, in epigrams dealing with memorable +events or in praise of famous men, sometimes he looked to the profit +of the work rather than to its polish, as in Ausonius' quatrains on +the Caesars. Finally, he will not deny that chance has played its part +against his will. As a judge after a series of severe sentences will +give a lighter one to a man no less guilty than the others, so after +rejecting a great number of epigrams by some writer a sense of pity +arose and a distaste with severity of judgement; then if anything that +seemed pointed turned up, though no better than what was rejected, he +could not bear to see it discarded. This has occasionally happened, +but hardly ever without a warning note to the reader. + +He admits that some, perhaps quite excellent, epigrams have escaped +him, either because he never read them or because he was at the moment +of reading less attentive. But the paucity or lack of selections from +a given writer should not be taken as an indication of ignorance or +indiligence in that case. Rather, he confidently professes to have +exerted the greatest patience and industry--patience, since so many +were so bad. His hope was by his trouble to free others from so much +trouble. With this in mind he read countless authors of different ages +and countries, a total of around 50,000 epigrams, from most of which +nothing at all was worth excerpting. There is no point in +memorializing the names of the bad, except to note in passing that he +found hardly anything so inept as the _Delitiae_, as they call them, +of the German poets[5]--in this connection he gives special mention to +the book of Lancinus Curtius[6], which contains 2,000 epigrams. + +He found some fairly tolerable epigrams in other books, which +nevertheless he excluded, for what is lacking in distinction is better +not known at all than learned at the expense of better things, not to +speak of its being a burden to the mind which gradually will lose the +ability to judge excellence, and so, becoming accustomed to +mediocrity, will be unable to attempt anything higher. There is no +more useful motto for a man in quest of solid learning than Grotius' +line: "Not to know some things is a large part of wisdom."[7] + +The editor added to the epigrams a collection of sententiae since the +two forms are quite cognate, the sententia being a kind of shorter +epigram, for the principal part of an epigram, the conclusion, usually +consists in a sententia. It is true that such collections have come in +bad repute, and not wholly unjustly, but the thing itself is worth +doing. For what is our aim in reading books except to nourish and +fashion judgement? and what better serves this end than sententiae, +which furnish as it were the premises and axioms by which one is able +to form a just and true judgement on most of the duties and affairs of +human life? Hence he extracted these gems from the huge pile of +trifles in which they lay mixed. Perhaps they please less in isolation +than when one runs across them as he reads, and for this reason such +anthologizing should be contemned. But it would be precious to refuse +a great accession of profit because of a small dimunition of pleasure. + +The editor thought that in many cases the selections should not be +published without notes, for epigrams have often some obscurity in +them and their whole charm is lost unless the light that would +illuminate it is at hand. The notes to the selections from Martial are +pretty largely taken from Farnaby. Elsewhere the editor has supplied +notes sparingly, at those points where the reader might be stuck. He +has also changed the titles of a good many pieces, especially where +the original involved the name of some fictitious or base person. The +purpose of a title is to recall the whole piece to memory or to +facilitate finding it in an index. Why, then, title an epigram _To +Gargilianus_ or _Cecilianus_, which gives no idea of what the epigram +is about? The editor, therefore, has substituted titles which express +as well as possible the force of the poem, a difficult task especially +when the meaning is compact, as only one who has tried it knows. + +But that out of the brevity of this book the reader may get that +ability in judgement, which above all should be cultivated, the editor +thought it worth while to prefix to the anthology an exposition of the +norms of judgement used in selecting the epigrams. He drew these norms +not merely from his own wit or from the authorities of Antiquity, but +from the conversation of learned men experienced in civilized life. +Hence the reader will find here their judgements, not the editor's, +and will, if he is unbiased, perceive how just and accurate they are. + +The preface is then followed by the essay. The principles of the +essay, as Nicole asserted above in the preface, are not peculiarly his +own but those of the group with which he was associated. They are the +principles, for example, of the _Port-Royal logic_: particularly 1), +"one of the most important rules of true rhetoric," "_that there is +nothing beautiful except that which is true_; which would take away +from discourse a multitude of vain ornaments and false thoughts;" and +2) the doctrine that "the figurative style commonly expresses, with +the things, the emotions which we experience in conceiving or speaking +of them," and hence in the light of the adjustment of feeling to the +situation "we may judge the use which ought to be made of it, and what +are the subjects to which it is adapted."[8] + +The purpose of the book is to serve morality and to promote +judgement.[9] To this end the editor provides a check list of the +better epigrams, and affixes an asterisk to designate the best.[10] +Seventeen pieces are given the highest rating: thirteen of Martial's +(1.8, 1.21, 1.33, 2.5, 3.44, 3.46, 4.56, 4.69, 5.10, 5.13, 8.69, +10.53, and 12.13); the re-written epigram ascribed to Seneca and +discussed in the notes to the essay (note 32); Claudian on Archimedes' +sphere;[11] Boethius, _De cons. phil._ 1.m.4; and one modern poem, +Buchanan's dedication of the _Paraphrase of the psalms_ to Mary, Queen +of Scots.[12] + + _J. V. Cunningham_ + _The University of Chicago_ + + +NOTES + +[1] This paragraph is based largely on James Hutton, _The Greek +anthology in France_, "Cornell studies in classical philology," XXVIII +(1946), p. 192, and _The Greek anthology in Italy_, "Cornell studies +in English," XXIII (1935), pp. 69-70. + +[2] Sir H. C. Maxwell Lyte, _A history of Eton college_, London, 1911, +4th ed., p. 311. + +[3] Nigel Abercrombie, _The origins of Jansenism_, Oxford, 1936, p. +246; no authority is there cited. + +[4] The following paragraphs contain an abbreviated and paraphrastic +translation of the preface. + +[5] Janus Gruter, _Delitiae poetarum germanorum_, 6 v., Frankfort, +1612. + +[6] See Georg Ellinger, _Geschichte der neulateinischen literatur +Deutschlands_, I, "Italien und der Deutsche humanismus," Berlin, 1929, +pp. 115-7. + +[7] The last line of an epigram on learned ignorance, _Poemata_, +Leyden, 1637, pp. 331-2, printed in the _Delectus_, p. 399. + +[8] _The Port-Royal logic_, tr. Thomas Spencer Baynes, 8th ed., +Edinburgh, n.d., Discourse 2, p. 17; Part 3. 20, p. 286; and 1. 14, p. +90. + +[9] _Ibid._, Discourse 1, p. 1, "Thus the main object of our attention +should be, to form our judgement, and render it as exact as possible; +and to this end, the greater part of our studies ought to tend." + +[10] Lipsius had suggested some such procedure (Justus Lipsius, +_Epist. quaest._, 1.5, _Opera omnia_, Antwerp, 1637, I, p. 143): "He +would do a service to the world of letters who would make a selection +of Martial's epigrams in the fashion of the old critics and would +affix a mark of praise to the good and of blame to the bad." + +[11] Shorter poems 51, _Claudian_, ed. Maurice Platnauer, 2 v., "Loeb +classical library," London, 1922, II, 278-81. + +[12] _Poemata_, Amsterdam, 1687, p. 1; not in _Opera omnia_, Leyden, +1725. + + + + +AN ESSAY ON TRUE AND APPARENT BEAUTY IN WHICH FROM SETTLED PRINCIPLES +IS RENDERED THE GROUNDS FOR CHOOSING AND REJECTING EPIGRAMS. + + +_Why men's judgments on beauty differ so much._ + +I should say that the reason why even learned men differ so widely and +display so great a range of opinion in judging the excellence of +particular writers is that practically no one looks to reason and +weighs the matter in the light of true and settled principles. Indeed +everyone in the act of judging embraces a hastily conceived opinion +and follows his impressions without reflection or judgment. Thus it is +that few have made any attempt so far to arrive at an exact knowledge +of the nature of true beauty, by which in the last analysis all else +must be determined; rather, each has immediately pronounced that to be +beautiful which affected him with some sort of pleasure. Yet there is +no norm of judgment more misleading or more variable, for a false and +adulterate beauty will give pleasure to minds imbued with deformed +opinions whom a true and solid beauty often cannot affect. It follows +there is nothing so ugly that it will not please someone or other, and +nothing on the other hand so absolutely beautiful that it will not +displease someone. Farmers will be found to dance to absurd songs, and +whole theaters time and again roar at the tasteless jokes of the +actors. Similarly, there are a good many who find little or no delight +in Vergil or Terence, though there is nothing in the world of letters +more polished--such is the power of custom and preconceived opinion to +impart or preclude delight. Consequently, if we wish to dissociate +ourselves from the fickle mob of opinions, we must have recourse to +reason, which is single, fixed, and simple. We must discover by her +aid that true and genuine figure of beauty with which is marked +whatever is truly beautiful and finished, and from which whatever +departs is justly called ugly and repugnant to taste. + +Reason leads us directly to nature and establishes that to be +generally beautiful which accords both with the nature of the thing +itself and with our own. For example, if an object that is excessive +or defective in some part is thought ugly, it is because it diverges +from nature which demands a completeness in the parts and despises +excess. Almost everything that is judged to be ugly is so judged for +the same reason: you will always observe that there is here some flaw +at variance with a rightly constituted nature. Nevertheless, for an +object to be declared beautiful it is not enough that it answer to its +own nature; it must also be congruent with ours. For our nature, being +invariable both in the soul and in the body endowed with senses, has +definite inclinations and aversions by which it is either attracted or +estranged. Thus our eye is moved with pleasure by certain colors, our +ear is drawn by a certain kind of sounds; one thing delights the soul, +one repels it, each in the measure that it corresponds or is repugnant +to our ways of feeling. However, what is meant by nature here is not +any nature at all, since some are misshapen, perverse, and corrupt. +What is meant is a nature corrected and well-ordered from whose +inclinations must arise the judgement of beauty and charm. + +However, the essence of true beauty is such that it is not fugitive, +changeable, or of one time, but rather invariable, fixed, persistent +and such as pleases all times equally. And although there may be found +some men of so corrupt a nature that they despise beauty, nevertheless +they are but few. And even these may be recalled to truth by reason, +since false beauty though it may for a while have its admirers cannot +long hold them, for nature itself which cannot be erased will +gradually beget in them a distaste for it. For, as Cicero so notably +says, time that erases the fictions of opinion only confirms the +judgements of nature.[1] + +If we may apply this maxim to literature we may say that that is truly +beautiful which agrees both with the nature of things themselves and +with the inclinations of our senses and of our soul. And since in a +work of literature one takes account of sound, diction, and idea, the +agreement of all these with nature in its two aspects is required for +beauty. Hence we will take these up one by one, beginning with sound. + + +ON SOUND + +_How seldom it charms in echoing the sense, how commonly by sweetness. +Its natural measure in the ear._ + +We have assigned the first division of natural beauty to sound, which +we distinguish from diction in that propriety and force of meaning are +looked to in this; in sound it is the pleasantness or harshness that +is regarded, flattering or offending the ear, or it is a kind of +imitation of the subject-matter--sad things recited tearfully, excited +rapidly, or harsh harshly. This is common enough in the spoken word; +in writing, however, with which we are chiefly concerned here, it is +uncommon, though Vergil sometimes quite happily represents the sound +of things themselves, their swiftness and slowness, in the sound of +his verse. When you hear, for example, the well-known _procumbit humi +bos_, do you not seem to hear the blunt sound of the falling bull? Or +when you read the line _Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula +campum_,[2] doesn't the sound of running horses strike your ears? But +this effect, as I said, is uncommon, and hardly to be found in any +other poet than Vergil. Thus the chief potentiality of sound, and the +most common, lies in charming the ear. It is a slight beauty, yet it +is of nature, and for this reason especially agreeable to all classes +of people. For there is scarcely any person so uneducated as not to +be naturally displeased at what is incomplete and botched, or not to +perceive what is full, ordered, and defined. Hence Cicero says justly +in the _Orator_: + + The ear, or the soul at the injunction of the ears, possesses a + natural way of measuring sounds, by this judges some longer, some + shorter, and ever anticipates the completion of a measure. It + feels hurt when a rhythm is maimed or curtailed as if it had been + defrauded of due payment. It dislikes even more whatever is + prolonged and runs on beyond the proper bounds, since too much is + more offensive than too little. Not that everyone knows the + metrical feet, or understands anything about rhythm, or is aware + of what offends him, or where, or why; it is rather that nature + has set in our ears a power of judging the length and brevity of + sound, as also the acute and grave accent of words.[3] + + +_Pleasantness of sound is justly exacted of poets. The harshness of +many poets, particularly the German. Some are too melodious._ + +Hence it is that anyone who wishes to conform to nature must +necessarily strive for pleasantness of sound. This is the more justly +exacted of poets since poetry itself is nothing other than measured +language, bound into fixed numbers and feet, for the purpose of +charming the ear. Consequently, those poets are justly censured who +rest content with rounding off their words in six feet and altogether +neglect to accommodate the ear. A good many epigrammatists are +constant offenders in this kind, especially those who have rendered +the Greek Anthology in Latin and the German poets. + +For example, who can tolerate this German epigram? + + He who made all that nothing was of nothing, + Who'll make that nothing that now something is, + Made you who nothing were what you now are + From nothing, will make nothing what you are-- + Yes, or if something, being but sin from sin, + From sin must form something for heaven fit. + +Again, what is harsher than this epigram? + + You from your soul could not but know mine that + That gave up in your ghost but just now his: + As soul is known from soul so is your ghost + Known to the Muses by my muse that's yours. + +Or than this distich? + + Forward, nor turn from the old path one bit: + This that you are I while I live shall be.[4] + +But just as it is a considerable fault in diction wholly to neglect +the pleasure of the ear, since verse, as we said, was devised to +flatter it, so on the other hand those writers make a grievous mistake +who have an immoderate regard for the ear, and pay no attention to the +thought so long as they are satisfied with the sound. Out of such +concern we get tuneful trifles and verses empty of substance. Writers +who have by an attentive consideration of the poets achieved the +faculty of poetic diction and rhythm quite often fall into this error. +They abound in choice phrases and so are in effect content to smooth +over the commonplace with a not indecorous make-up. You can see this +in many poems and epigrams of Buchanan, Borbonius, and Barleius. If +the reader is not quite attentive such poems will often deceive him, +but being re-read and examined they beget a kind of distaste because +of the thinness of the matter. Consequently, we have looked carefully +for this fault, and have eliminated many poems that are melodious in +this way and have nothing inside. + + +_How diction should be suited to subject-matter._ + +We come now to the question of conforming the diction and +subject-matter to nature, in which, as was said above, nature must be +considered in its double aspect: namely, in relation to the subjects +of which we speak, and in relation to the audience by whom we are +heard or read. + +The agreement of words and subject consists in this: that lofty words +should be fitted to lofty subjects, and lowly to lowly. It is true, of +course, that every kind of writing demands simplicity, but the +simplicity meant is such as does not exclude sublimity or vehemence. +In fact, it is no less faulty to treat high and weighty subjects in a +slight and unassuming style than it is to treat what is slight and +unassuming in a high and weighty style. In both of these ways one +departs from that agreement with nature in which, we have said, beauty +resides. Therefore, not every piece of writing admits the rhetorical +figures and ornaments, and likewise not every one excludes them. The +answer lies wholly in whether there is throughout a complete harmony +between diction and subject. + +In addition, I wish you would carefully observe something that few +do--namely, when you temper your diction to the subject, to regard it +not only as it is in itself or in the mind of the writer, but also as +it has been formed by your speech in the minds of your audience. Thus, +the reader is assumed to be unacquainted with what you have to say at +the beginning of a work, and hence you must use simple language to +initiate him into your lines of thought. Afterwards you may build upon +this foundation what you can. It follows that if you are to speak of +some outrageous crime, you should not inveigh against it with a +comparable violence of diction until your audience has achieved such a +notion of the crime as will not be at odds with such force and +violence. + +Thus Vergil begins in the best way with simple diction: + + Arms and the man I sing who first from Troy + Banished by fate came to the Italian shore. + +And Homer, too, who was praised for this by Horace: + + Speak to me, Muse, of him, when Troy had fallen, + Who saw the ways of many and their cities. + +But Statius begins badly, and sweeps the reader away too suddenly in +these verses: + + Fraternal arms, and alternate rule by hate + Profane contested, and the guilt of Thebes + I sing, moved by the fiery Muse. + +Claudian is even more at fault, and thrusts these bombastic lines on +our unprepared attention: + + The horses of Hell's rapist, the stars blown + By the Taenarian chariot, chambers dark + Of lower Juno ... + +But this rule should particularly be observed in the use of +adjectives, which are always ill-joined with their noun when they +disaccord with the impression the reader has in his mind. I have seen +the opening of Lucan censured on this point: + + Wars through Emathian fields, wars worse than civil, + And crime made legal is my song. + +The critics urge that the epithet _worse than civil_ could justly be +employed after the depiction of the slaughter at Pharsalia, but that +here it is out of order and suddenly attacks the reader who was +thinking of no such thing. It offends against the precept of Horace: + + Not smoke from brightness is his aim, but light + He gives from smoke.[5] + + +_In what way diction should answer to man's inner nature. First, the +grounds of the natural disaffection with unusual diction: how far this +should be observed._ + +But it is not sufficient that diction answer to the subject-matter +unless it also answers to the nature of man, in which may be discerned +a kind of aversion to obsolete, low, and inappropriate words. I prefer +to call this aversion a natural one rather than a result of opinion, +though it is in a way based on opinion. For although the feeling that +a particular word is more in common use and more civilized than +another is purely a matter of men's judgement, nevertheless it is as +natural to be displeased by the unusual and inappropriate as it is to +be pleased with the usual and proper. Whatever is contrary to reason +offends by the very fact that it is seen to lack reason. Certainly, to +leave aside familiar terms and to search out unusual ones is wholly +foreign to reason. However, there is added to this natural source of +offense another that proceeds from opinion. Since such words are +commonly condemned, there is associated with them a certain distaste +and contempt such that it is scarcely possible to pronounce them +without immediately arousing the associated feelings. + +Consequently, the intelligent writer will willingly comply with usage +so as not to give grounds for displeasure--whether this displeasure +springs from nature or opinion. Though he is aware that usage is +unstable and changes day by day, nevertheless he will prefer rather to +please at one time than never. He will be careful, however, in his +written work not to make use of the current jargon, especially of the +French court and women's circles, or of any locutions that are not yet +generally received. For the life of such expressions is too short to +be bound into a lasting work--not to speak of the detestable +affectation which detracts from the weight and dignity of the writing. + +To conclude, there is a beauty and charm in propriety and elegance of +diction which is not to be scorned, though it is but of a time, and, +since it rests on opinion, by which usage is determined, will pass +away with a change of opinion. Hence those who write not for an age +but for all time should try to attain something else, something that +has no admixture of opinion: Such is the agreement of words with +nature, which we will now explain. + + +_The inner and more intimate agreement of words and nature._ + +If one wishes to look deeply into the nature of the human mind and to +search out its inner sources of delight, he will find there something +of strength conjoined with something of weakness, and out of this +circumstance arises variety and irregularity. The mind's vexation with +a continual relaxation derives from its strength, while from its +weakness stems the fact that it cannot bear a continual straining. +Hence it is that nothing pleases the human mind very long, nothing +that is all of one piece. So in music it rejects a wholly perfect +harmony, and for this reason musicians deliberately intercalate +discordant sounds--what are technically called dissonances. So, +finally, it happens that physical exercise, even if it was at first +undertaken for pleasure, becomes a torture when continued without +interruption. + +This point has its pertinence to literature, the more so since in that +field nature reveals the greatest delicacy and cannot long endure what +is lofty and excited. Yet on the other hand, whatever creeps close to +earth and never lifts its head is, if it be prolonged, wearisome. To +stand, to rest, to rise up, to be thrown down, this is what every +reader or listener desires, and from this derives the driving +necessity for variety, for the mingling of the majestic and slight, +excited and calm, high and low. But it may seem that this +consideration has little pertinence to the epigram, which is brief and +so in less need of variety. However, I need not apologize for +introducing these more general considerations since others of more +immediate pertinence to the course of our discussion are derived from +them, and particularly the question of the discriminate use of +metaphors, which are of considerable effect in adorning or vitiating +poetry. + +For if we consider attentively why men are pleased with metaphors we +will find no other reason than that already stated: the weakness of +nature which is wearied by the inflexibility of truth and plain +statement and must be refreshed by an admixture of metaphors which +depart somewhat from the truth. This gives the clue to the proper and +legitimate use of metaphors; they are to be employed specifically, as +musicians employ discordant sounds, to relieve the distaste of perfect +harmony. But how frequently and at what point they should be +introduced is a matter of considerable caution and skill. One warning +will suffice for the present: that metaphors, hyperboles, and whatever +varies from the plain and natural way of saying something should not +be sought for their own sakes but as a kind of relief for nauseated +nature. They are to be accepted on grounds of necessity, and +consequently a good deal of moderation must be observed in their use. +Thus Quintilian rightly says, "A sparing and opportune use of these +figures gives lustre to speech; frequent use obscures and fills with +disgust."[6] You will discover this fault often in many epigrams, +especially in those of contemporary writers as I shall show by several +examples later on. However, lest this doctrine should issue in too +strict an austerity of diction, it should be noted that only those +expressions are to be taken as metaphors that are remote from ordinary +usage and offer the mind a double idea. Hence if a metaphor is so +commonplace that it no longer has a figurative connotation and +suggests nothing other than the notion itself for which it is used, +then it should be numbered among proper rather than metaphorical +expressions and does not fall in that class of tropes whose too +frequent use is here censured. + + +_On a too metaphorical style. Certain epigrams rejected for this +reason._ + +Though poets are granted a greater indulgence in the use of tropes, +nevertheless they have their own mean, or, as Cicero says, their own +modesty, and there is ever an especial ornament to be derived from +simplicity. Consequently those writers stray pretty far from beauty +for whom, as it were, all nature plays the ham to the point that they +say nothing in an ordinary way, imagine nothing in the way in which it +is perceived outside of poems, but instead elevate, debase, alter, and +clothe everything in a theatrical mask. For this reason we have +excluded from this anthology a number of epigrams as too metaphorical: +for example, these two by Daniel Heinsius, a man otherwise eminent in +scholarship and letters: + + Driver of light, courier of the bright pole, + Surveyor of the sky, and hour-divider, + Servant of time, circler perpetual, + Cleanser of earth, disperser of the clouds, + Ever your chariot, fiery four-in-hand, + You curb fast; you who bear on the bright day + Steal from the world once more your countenance + And of your glowing hair conceal the flame; + Tomorrow from the arms of Tethys you + Return once more: but night has sealed my sun. + +By my _sun_ he means Douza. And again: + + Sweet children of the night, brothers of fire, + Small cohorts, citizens of the fiery pole, + Who wandering through the cloudless fields of air + Lead the soft choruses with a light foot + When our tired bodies are stretched softly out + And gentle sleep invades our conquered sense, + Why now as then through the enamelled halls + From the recesses, still, and the clear windows + Of the gold arch bear off his hallowed face? + Farewell, at last; you shall not see your Douza.[7] + +In these epigrams, apart from the metaphors heaped up _ad nauseam_, +and each of them harsh and absurd, a keen critic has noted another +fault: namely, that nothing is more distant from the spirit of a man +grieving and mourning for the death of a friend--and this is what +Heinsius intended to depict--than such a wantonness of epithets. And +so much for diction. + + +_Truth, the primary virtue of ideas. How great a fault there is in +untruth. Thence, of false epigrams._ + +We take up now the question of ideas, and postulate again that these +too must conform both to the subject and to men's character. Ideas +agree with the subject if they are true, if they are appropriate, and +if they so to speak get into the insides of the thing. They are in +accord with men's character if they fit in with natural aversions or +desires. + +The primary virtue of ideas is truth. Whatever is false is at variance +with external reality, nor is there any beauty in falsity except in so +far as it pretends to truth. From this you may gather that truth is +the source of beauty, falsity of ugliness. The latter, in fact, is out +of keeping not only with reality but also with human nature. For we +possess an innate love of truth and an aversion to falsehood, so that +what delights us when it seems to be true becomes disagreeable and +unpleasant when its falseness is made manifest. This principle applies +to those learned men whom we have mentioned several times now, and has +led to the exclusion from this anthology of many epigrams in which the +point rests on a falsehood: for example, there is the well-known one +by Grotius, though simply as a poem it is noble enough: + + +_On Joan of Arc, who is called "La pucelle d'Orleans"_ + + French Amazon of never-dying fame, + Virgin untouched by men and by men feared, + Nor Venus in her eyes nor young Desire + But Mars and Terror and the bloody Weird-- + France owes the Salic Law to her alone, + And hers is the true king on the true throne. + Let none lament her death who was all fire + And never, or by fire alone, should die.[8] + +I have ventured to cite this that the reader may see quite clearly +what is involved in this kind of falsehood and how much it is +repugnant to nature: namely, that something is alleged the contrary of +which might as plausibly be affirmed. For Grotius might have written +no less foolishly: + + Justly lament her death: she who was fire + Should not by fire but by cold water die. + +Actually, if we wish to get to the bottom of this fault we will find +that men are not led to it by nature but driven to it by lack of +skill. For they would not fly to the refuge of falsehood for any other +reason than that they are not vigorous enough to elicit beauty from +the subject itself. Truth, indeed, is limited and defined, but the +realm of lies is unlimited and undefined. Hence the one offers +difficulties for invention, the other is obvious and easy, and for +that reason also is to be scorned. + +Moreover, falsehood occurs not only in propositions but also in the +delineation of feeling, as, for instance, when feelings are ascribed +to a character other than those which nature and the subject-matter +demand. You will find this fault in an epigram by Vulteius, which was +for this reason rejected: + + I viewed one day the marble stone + That hides a man in sin well-known. + I sighed and said, "What is the point + Of such expense? This tomb might serve + To house kings and the blood of kings + That now conceals a villainous corpse." + I burst in tears that copiously + Flowed from my eyes down both my cheeks. + A stander-by took me to task + In some such words, I think, as these: + "Aren't you ashamed, be who you may, + To mourn the burial of this plague?" + But I replied, "My tears are shed + For the lost tomb, not his lost head."[9] + +It was surely foreign to nature to represent a man weeping copiously +because a villain and scoundrel had been buried in a noble tomb, for +the funeral honors paid to scoundrels excite anger and indignation +rather than pity and tears. The poet, consequently, adopted an +erroneous feeling when he wept where he should have been angry and +wrathful. + + +_On mythological epigrams._ + +Untruth, then, is a considerable fault, one that is quite widespread +and one that embraces many sub-divisions. Under this category falls +especially the use of mythological propositions, the common vehicle of +poets when they have nothing to say. We have rejected many epigrams +that are faulty in this kind, as, for example, Grotius on the Emperor +Rudolph, which is too crowded with myths: + + Not Mars alone has favored you, Invincible, + At whom as enemy barbarian standards shake, + But the Divine Community with gifts adore you, + And with this in especial from the wife of Zephyr: + She to the Dutch Apelles did perpetual spring + Ordain, and meadows living by the painter's hand. + Alcinous' charm is annual, and Adonis' gardens, + Nor do the Pharian roses bloom long in that air; + Antique Pomona of Semiramis has boasted, + And yet deep winter climbs the summit of her roof. + How shall your honors fail? The garlands that you wear + Beseem Imperial triumph, which time may not touch.[10] + +I know there are other things to be censured in this epigram, but I +note here only that one fault which it was quoted to illustrate. + + +_On puns._ + +To the same general category may be referred most puns, the point of +which usually rises from some untruth. For example, in Sannazaro's +well-known epigram: + + Happy has built twin bridges on the Seine: + Happy the Seine may call her Pontifex.[11] + +If you take _Pontifex_ in the sense of "builder of bridges" the +thought is true, but pointless; consequently, for there to be a point +the word _Pontifex_ must be taken in the sense of "Bishop", and in +this sense it will be false that the Pontifex is happy. Similarly, in +another epigram of some reputation: + + They say you're treating Cosma for his deafness, + And that you promised, French, a definite cure; + But you can't bring it off for all your deftness: + He'll hear ill of himself while tongues endure.[12] + +Take _audire_ as referring to the sense of hearing and the thought is +false, since that physical defect is curable; take it as referring to +a good reputation, and the thought will again be false and inept, for +it is false and inept that a doctor will labor in vain to cure a +defect of the ears because he cannot medicine to a diseased +reputation. + +All puns are embarrassed by such faults, while on the other hand their +charm is quite thin, or rather nonexistent. Formerly, it is true, in +an earlier age there was some praise for that kind of thing, and so +Cicero and Quintilian are said to have derived polished witticisms +from the device of double-meaning; now, however, it is rightly held in +great contempt, so much so that men of taste not only do not hunt for +puns but even avoid them. They are, one must admit, more bearable, or +at least less objectionable when they come spontaneously; but anyone +who brings out ones he has thought up or indicates that he himself is +pleased with them is quite properly judged to be inexperienced in +society. Hence it is that epigrams whose elegance is derived from puns +are held of no account. For since verses are only composed by labor +and diligence he is justly considered to be a weak and narrow spirit +who wastes time in fitting such trivial wit into verse. One should +add, too, that there is another disadvantage in puns, that they are so +imbedded in their own language that they cannot be translated into +another. For these reasons we have admitted few punning epigrams into +this anthology, and those only as examples of a faulty kind. + + +_On hyperbolical ideas._ + +In the category of false ideas must be reckoned the hyperbolical. +These are not false in a given word, for we dealt with this above, but +false in the whole train of thought. Of this kind is that epigram of +Ausonius, the absurdity of which is unbearable: + + Riding in state, as on an elephant, + Faustus fell backwards off a silly ant; + Abandoned, tortured to the point of death + By the sharp hooves, his soul stayed on his breath + And his voice broke: "Envy," he cried, "begone! + Laugh not at my fall! So fell Phaethon."[13] + +Ausonius was imitating in this epigram the Greeks, who were quite open +to this sort of bad imitation, as may be seen in their Anthology which +is stuffed full of such hyperboles. A good many fall into the same +fault either because their talent is weak or because they write for +the unskilled--a consideration which should move those who have no +compunction about reading, let alone praising, the silly tales of +Rabelais which are filled with stupid hyperboles. + + +_On debatable and controvertible ideas._ + +Furthermore, debatable and double-edged ideas, about which the reader +is in doubt whether they be false or true, fall under the same +category of falseness. For this doubtfulness, since it takes away all +pleasure, removes also the beauty. For this reason I have never +approved the conclusion of Martial's epigram: + + Equal the crime of Antony and Photinus: + This sword and that severed a sacred head-- + The one head laurelled for your triumphs, Rome! + The other eloquent when you would speak. + Yet Antony's case was worse than was Photinus': + One for his master moved, one for himself.[14] + +The reader is bothered by a sort of quiet annoyance that the poet +should so confidently take a dubious idea for a certain one. He might +easily argue against the poet that on the contrary it seemed to him +that a man who commits a crime for his master is more at fault than +one who commits it for himself, and he could support his position with +rational arguments. For one who sins for his own advantage is driven +to his deed by such emotions as rage, lust, and fear, and these as +they diminish the power of willing in like measure diminish the +magnitude of the offence. But one who effects a crime at another's +behest comes coldly to the deed, a fact that convicts him of a far +greater depravity. One could allege these and similar lines of +argument against Martial's position, and could reverse the sense of +his distich so that it read no less irrationally: + + Yet Antony's case was better than Photinus': + One for his master moved, one for himself. + +Hence this whole category of controvertible ideas lacks literary merit +and should be studiously avoided by those who aim at beauty, which in +the last analysis is to be found in truth alone, and in truth of such +a sort that as soon as it is proposed the reader recognises as true +and accepts it. + + +_The second virtue of ideas, that they should agree with the inner +nature of the subject; and thence on ideas foreign and accidental to +the subject._ + +The second virtue of ideas with respect to the subject-matter is that +they should agree with its inner nature: that is, that they should be +elicited out of the very inners of the subject and not far-fetched or +drawn from external accidents which are only the accompaniments of +things. By this rule we have been delivered from numerous frigid +epigrams, of which I subjoin a few examples: + +Foreign and far-fetched is Owen's on a lyre: + + That there is concord in so diverse chords + Discordant mankind some excuse affords.[15] + +As if nothing were more pertinent for making men ashamed of their +discords than the concord of strings on a lyre. + +From concomitant accidents, and not from the very heart of the subject +itself, is drawn this epigram of Germanicus Caesar, though the verses +are otherwise sufficiently polished: + + The Thracian boy at play on the stiff ice + Of Hebrus broke the waters with his weight + And the swift current carried him away, + Except that a smooth sherd cut off his head. + The childless mother as she burned it said: + "This for the flames I bore, that for the waves."[16] + +Certainly the mother had a deeper and more native cause of grief than +that her son was destroyed partly by water and partly by fire; she +would have grieved no less had he perished wholly in water or wholly +in fire. The whole reason for grief, then, ought not be sought in such +a slight circumstance, which was an accompaniment of and not the +grounds for grief. + +Negative descriptions labor under the same fault, namely those in +which are enumerated not what the endowments of the subject are but +what they are not. This is justly censured in one of Barlaeus' +epigrams, which is in other respects quite polished: + + Of royal Bourbon blood, by whose aid once + Belgium believed that God inclined to her; + For sceptered fathers famed, more famed for war, + And by Astraea's doom of rare renown; + Whom War as general, Peace lauds unarmed, + To whom so many lands and seas are slaves; + Neither the fleece drinking barbarian dye + I send you, nor Sidonian artifice, + Nor Indian ivory, Dalmatian stone, + Nor the choice incense that delights grave Jove, + Nor warring eagles, no, nor cities stormed, + Nor plundered canvas from the conquered sea; + Louis, I give you Christ as King and Lord, + Titles not foreign to the ones you bear: + For I would send you, greatest of all kings, + Than which I cannot more, I send you God.[17] + +Surely it is a long way around to enumerate what you will not give the +King in order to make clear how slight your gift is. Besides, the +conclusion is harsh in that a book about Christ is called God and +Christ, as if Christ and a book about him were the same thing. But +this is a commonplace absurdity of what one may call the dedicatory +_genre_, in which writers almost always speak of their book as if +there were no difference between the book itself and its subject: +thus, if they write about Caesar or Cato, "Caesar and Cato," they +say, "prostrate themselves before you;" If about Cicero, "Look," they +say, "Cicero addresses you and takes you as patron:" all of which are +correctly to be reckoned in the category of false statements. + + +_In what way ideas are to be made agreeable to men's character. On +avoiding offense; and, first, on obscenity._ + +The harmony of idea and subject is a matter fairly easy to understand, +but the attuning of idea and men's character is more difficult to +grasp and requires more painstaking treatment. For in this inquiry the +whole scope of human nature must be thoroughly examined, and our +silent inclinations and aversions must be laid open so that we will +know how to avoid the one and comply with the other. For it cannot be +that anything should please that offends nature, or anything displease +that complies with natural inclinations. We will touch briefly on some +of these points, but only on those that suffice to our purposes. + +In the first place, there is in the nature of man an aversion to the +shameful and the obscene, and this the more powerful in the best and +well-educated natures. All obscene ideas offend this sense of shame to +such an extent that they are regarded as alien to nature, ugly, and +uncivilised. Nor does it matter that some corrupt souls laugh at them. +For civilization, as we have said, does not consist in agreement with +a corrupt, but with a virtuous and moral, nature. Consequently, +absolutely nothing of this kind is to be found in the conversation of +respectable men, and is only resorted to by those who lack any feeling +for Christianity as well as for genuine society and civilization. + +Therefore we have excluded all shameful and licentious epigrams not +only in deference to morals and religion but also to good taste and +civilization. Of this Catullus and Martial in Antiquity witness that +they had no perception at all, for they filled up their works with a +good deal of ill-bred filth, and on that account must be regarded not +only as dissolute but also as vulgar, uncultivated, and, to use +Catullus' own phrase, "goat-milkers and ditch-diggers."[18] + + +_On the cheap subject-matter of some epigrams._ + +But it is not only faulty and unpolished to offer the reader a +shameful and obscene picture but also in general to depict whatever is +cheap, ugly, and unwelcome. Hence those epigrams cannot be regarded as +beautiful and polished whose subject is a toothless hag, a poetaster +with a threadbare cloak, a rank old goat, a filthy nose, or a glutton +vomiting on the table--all of which are a fertile ground of jokes for +actors--since ugliness of that sort can never be redeemed by the +point. + +For this reason we have admitted none of such kind in the epigrams of +Martial which we have subjoined to this treatise, and a good many +epigrams that we have run across we have put aside, such as Buchanan's +in which he depicts the unattractive and unpleasant picture of a lank +old man: + + While Naevolus yells he can outbellow Stentor, + And roars and roars, "All men are animals," + He has slipped by almost his ninetieth year + And bent senility shakes his weak step. + Now three hairs only cling to his smooth head, + And he sees what a night-owl sees at dawn. + The snot is dripping from his frosty nose, + And stringed saliva falls on his wet breast-- + Not an odd tooth in his defenceless gums, + Not an old ape so engraved with wrinkles. + Naevolus, for shame leave this frivolity + And no more cry, "All men," since you are none.[19] + +Again, the baseness of the subject and the hardly pleasant or +civilized image of a hanging man is a fault in this epigram of +Sannazaro's, although it has an element of humor: + + In your desire to learn your fortune, sir, + You questioned every tripod, every rune; + "You'll stand out above gods and men," at last + Answered the god in truth-revealing voice. + What arrogance you drew from this! You were + Immediately lord of the universe. + Now you ascend the cross. God was no cheat: + The whole world lies spread out beneath your feet.[20] + +This is fairly respectable and merely low. But the cynical license of +Martial and Catullus, by which they speak of many things that are not +simply morally foul but such as decent society demands be removed from +sight and hearing, must be regarded as altogether shameless and +vulgar. For this reason men of taste never mention favorably Catullus' +_Annales Volusi cacata charta_, or Martial's + + et desiderio coacta ventris + gutta pallia non fefellit una[21] + +And there are many others a good deal more despicable which cannot be +adduced even as examples of a fault. Assuredly Antiquity was too +forbearing toward this sort of thing, and I have often wondered how +Cicero could have been tolerated in the Roman Senate when he inveighed +against Piso: + + Do you not remember, blank, when I came to see you about the + fifth hour with Gaius Piso, you were coming out of some dirty + shack, slippers on your feet and your face and beard covered; and + when you breathed on us that low tavern air from your fetid + mouth, you apologized on grounds of ill health, saying that you + were taking a kind of wine treatment? When we had accepted your + explanation--what else could we do?--we stood a while in the + smell and fume of the joints you patronize until you kicked us + out by the impudence of your answers and the stench of your + belches.[22] + + +_On spiteful epigrams._ + +Men with some gentleness of nature have an inborn hatred of spite, +especially of such as mocks bodily flaws or reversals of fortune, or, +finally, anything that happens beyond the individual's responsibility. +For, since no man feels himself free of such strokes of chance, he +will not take it easily when they are torn down and laughed at. The +Vergilian Dido spoke with human feeling when she said: _Not unaware of +ill I learned to aid misfortune._[23] and the good will of the reader +rises quietly in her favor. Likewise, Seneca says nicely: _It is not +witty to be spiteful._[24] On the other hand they act inhumanely who +triumph over misfortune and upbraid what was not guiltily effected, to +such an extent that they arouse a feeling of aversion and alienation +in the hearts of their readers. + +Accordingly we have admitted only a few of this kind, and have +rejected a great many, as, for example, Owen's frigid and spiteful +epigram: + + Look, not a hair remains on your bright skull. + The hairs on your inconstant brow are null. + With every last hair lost behind, ahead, + What has the bald man left to lose? His head.[25] + +Nor do we greatly care for many of the same kind in Martial, which +nevertheless were not omitted for the reasons given above.[26] + + +_On wordy epigrams._ + +It would be a long task to assemble all the natural aversions, +nevertheless we may add a few more which have removed a whole host of +epigrams from this anthology. Beyond those already mentioned, nature +finds distasteful long circumlocutions and the piling up of a single +point with varying phrase; for nature burns with a desire to find out, +ever hastens to the conclusion, and is impatient at being detained by +much talk unless there is a special reward. Consequently wordy +epigrams beget a good deal of loathing, especially those that do not +sufficiently balance their length with the magnitude of the idea. Some +of Martial's are burdened with this fault; sometimes they accumulate +too many commonplace compliments or are too petty in enumeration. For +example, in this epigram to what point are so many trite similes piled +up? + + Her voice was sweeter than the aged swan, + None would prefer the Eastern pearl before her, + Or the new-polished tooth of Indic beasts, + Or the first snow, lilies untouched by hand; + She who breathed fragrance of the Paestan rose, + Compared with whom the peacock was but dull, + The squirrel uncharming, and unrare the phoenix, + Erotion, is still warm on a new pyre.[27] + +Similarly, why in another well-known epigram is the same idea repeated +again and again? + + Oh not unvalued object of my love, + Flaccus, the darling of Antenor's hearth, + Forego Pierian songs, the sisters' dances: + No girl among them ever gave a dime. + Phoebus is nought; Minerva has the cash, + Is shrewd, is only usurer to the gods. + What's there in Bacchus' ivy? The black tree + Of Pallas bends with mottled leaves and weight. + On Helicon there's only water, wreaths, + The divine lyres, and profitless applause. + Why do you dream of Cirrha, bare Permessis? + The forum is more Roman and more rich. + There the coins clink, but round the sterile chairs + And desks of poets only kisses rustle.[28] + +In the same way that nature is displeased with wordiness, she is +displeased with ideas that are too commonplace, for it is a kind of +loquacity to bubble on with the commonplace and trite, since it is the +purpose of speech to reveal what isn't known, not to repeat what is +known and worn-out. Countless epigrams have been excluded from this +selection for this fault, but since there is nothing more common I +will omit offering examples. + + +_On trifling wit, and plays on words._ + +Not a little displeasing, also, is an assiduity in trifling which +withdraws the mind from solid subject-matter out of which true beauty +springs. Plays on words, puns and other playing around of that kind, +unless they come to the judgement of the pen within the bounds of art, +are not so much figures of speech as faults of style, and in those +epigrams where the point rests solely in these there is nothing +thinner, especially when they are so peculiar to one language that +they cannot be translated into another. On this basis we have passed +over such frivolous witticisms as Owen's: + + Rope ends the robber, death is his last haul; + The gallows gets the gangster--if not all, + If many get away, God gives no hope: + It's an odd thief dies with no coffin rope.[29] + +A little more humorous is that of another poet on the Swiss killed at +night, though it too is faulty: + + Annihilated in night snow by a nut stick, + I snow, night, nut, now, and annihilation know.[30] + + +_In what way natural inclinations are to be gratified._ + +We must carefully avoid all these natural sources of aversion and no +less gratify natural inclinations if we wish to attain that beauty we +aim at. For self-love is so strong in men that they can hear nothing +with pleasure unless it flatters them with their own feelings. For +which reason those epigrams have correctly been judged best that +penetrate deeper into those feelings and present to the reader's mind +an idea recognised not only by the interior light but also by the +interior feeling as quite true, so that he can be seduced into +embracing it: for example, Martial's: + + I scorn the fame purchased with easy blood + And praise the man who can be praised alive.[31] + +For, since everyone hates death and longs for praise and glory, there +is no one who would not be glad if he could be praised without dying. +Another example is that of the old poet: + + Put high disdain, deciduous hope put by: + Live with yourself who with yourself must die.[32] + +For nature has, as Quintilian said, a kind of elevation intolerant of +anything above it[33] that fawns on anyone who bids it be contemptuous +of a pride in riches. + +This much on the general sources of beauty and ugliness will be +sufficient for passing judgement on any _genre_ of poems. +Nevertheless, this should be adapted to the particular nature, laws, +and principles of the epigram, and so it will not be out of point to +add a few remarks on the epigram itself. + + +_The origin of the name epigram. Its definition, form, and laws._ + +"Epigram", as Scaliger observes, is the same thing as "inscription"; +but since there are inscriptions of a good many things the former word +has been applied to short poems inasmuch as epigrams of that sort used +to be inscribed on monuments and statues;[34] and from this the word +has been extended generally to short poems. The epigram is defined, +then, as a short poem directly pointing out some thing, person, or +deed.[35] + +There are those who locate its formal principle in the serious or +witty idea that forms the conclusion, and so insist on this that they +deny anything is an epigram that lacks such a conclusion.[36] But this +is an error. There are some epigrams, and highly cultivated ones, that +have an equable elevation throughout and nothing of especial note in +the conclusion, as in this of a contemporary writer: + + That on insurgent serpents breathing peace, + On unplumed eagles trembling, on tame pards, + And lions whose low necks accept the yoke, + Louis looks out, sublime on a bronze horse, + Nor fingers shaped this nor the craftsman's forge + But worth and God's fortune accomplished it. + The armed venger of faith, trustee of peace, + Ordained, for all to reverence, this, and bade + Rise in the royal place the reverend bronze, + That, the long perils past of civil strife, + And enemies subdued by prosperous arms, + Louis should ever triumph in the master city.[37] + +Again, in some epigrams there is a straightforward neatness and a +gentle and dry humor that pleases, as may be seen in some of Catullus' +epigrams which we have put in this anthology. + +Some go to the contrary extreme and not only do not require such +conclusions but even scorn them. These are for the most part the +outrageous lovers of Catullus who, as long as they finish off some +limp little dirge in hendecasyllabics, feel that they are marvellously +charming and polished, although there is nothing more empty than such +verses or nothing easier to do if a man has acquired a little practice +in Latin. + +How little effort, for instance, shall we imagine the conclusion of +this epigram cost Borbonius, fashioned as it is according to the model +of Catullus? + + Wherefore come, O Roman muses, + Full of honey and of graces, + Learned verses of good Pino; + I embrace you, just Camenae, + All day long I read you gladly + In this mortifying season, + Time of tears and time of penance, + Harsh and troublesome, by Jupiter![38] + +You can see where the perverse imitation of Catullus has conducted a +Christian, in other respects devout, so that in discussing a Christian +fast day he had no fear of using the profane name of Jove. But, +leaving this aside, what is more inept than the verse _Harsh and +troublesome, by Jupiter!_, however Catullan. Nevertheless, Borbonius +thought his epigram concluded elegantly in that line because he found +in Catullus a similar one.[39] But, leaving aside such spiritless +imitators, one can truly affirm of those ideas that conclude epigrams +that there is a good deal of elegance in them when they are themselves +distinguished and nicely cohere with the preceding chain of thought. +For, since nothing so sticks in the reader's mind as the conclusion, +what is better than to put there what especially you want to fix in +his soul. Consequently, those epigrams are rightly censured as faulty +that go in the order of anti-climax or in which the conclusion is sort +of added on or appended to the rest and does not neatly develop out of +the preceding verses. This fault is discernible in the following +epigram, though in other respects it is distinguished: + + You that a stranger in mid-Rome seek Rome + And can find nothing in mid-Rome of Rome, + Behold this mass of walls, these abrupt rocks, + Where the vast theatre lies overwhelmed. + Here, here is Rome! Look how the very corpse + Of greatness still imperiously breathes threats! + The world she conquered, strove herself to conquer, + Conquered that nothing be unconquered by her. + Now conqueror Rome's interred in conquered Rome, + And the same Rome conquered and conqueror. + Still Tiber stays, witness of Roman fame, + Still Tiber flows on swift waves to the sea. + Learn hence what Fortune can: the unmoved falls, + And the ever-moving will remain forever.[40] + +The last four verses are completely unnecessary and contain a frigid +point by which the lustre of the preceding is dimmed. + + +_The material of epigrams; thence the division into different kinds. +The first kind and the second._ + +The material of epigrams comprises any subject and anything that can +be said on it--in fact, there are as many kinds of epigrams as there +are kinds of things that can be said. We will notice here particularly +those kinds from which the special powers of each can be understood. + +There is, then, a kind of epigram that is elevated, weighty, sublime, +pursuing a noble subject in noble lines and concluding with a noble +sentiment. Such is Martial's on Scaevola: + + That hand that sought a king and found a slave + Was thrust to burn up in the sacred fire: + So cruel a portent the good enemy + Appalled, who bade him carried from the fire. + The hand the regicide endured to burn, + The king could not endure to see it done. + Greater the glory of the hand deceived! + Had it not erred it had accomplished less.[41] + +Of the same sort are Grotius' epigrams on Ostend and on the sailing +carriages, and Barclay's on Margaret of Valois.[42] + +There is another sort somewhat lower in style but weighty and +profitable in idea: for example, that truly distinguished one of +Martial: + + In that you follow the strict rules of Cato + And yet are willing to remain alive + And will not run bare-breasted on the sword + You do exactly as I'd have you do: + I scorn the fame purchased with easy blood + And praise the man who can be praised alive.[43] + +And this: + + In private she mourns not the late-lamented; + If someone's by her tears leap forth on call. + Sorrow, my dear, is not so easily rented. + They are true tears that without witness fall.[44] + +And that genuinely golden epigram: + + That I now call you by your name + Who used to call you sir and master, + You needn't think it impudence. + I bought myself with all I had. + He ought to sir a sir and master + Who's not himself, and wants to have + Whatever sirs and masters want. + Who can get by without a slave + Can get by, too, without a master.[45] + +However, of all kinds of epigram that kind is generally thought to be +most properly epigrammatic which is distinguished by a witty and +ingenious turn that deeply penetrates the soul. Martial excels in this +kind, as in this one: + + You serve the best wines always, my dear sir, + And yet they say your wines are not so good. + They say you are four times a widower. + They say ... A drink? I don't believe I would.[46] + +and in this: + + Though you send presents to old men and widows + Why should I call you, sir, munificent? + There's nothing lower, dirtier than you only + Who can denominate enticements gifts. + These are the sly hooks for the greedy fish, + These are the clever baits for the wild beasts. + I will instruct you what it is to give + If you are ignorant: give, sir, to me. [47] + +Some are lower in style but witty and pleasant, and have a glowing +simplicity, as can be illustrated by another of Martial's: + + "An epic epigram," I heard you say. + Others have written them, and so I may. + "But this one is too long." Others are too. + You want them short? I'll write two lines for you: + _As for long epigrams let us agree + They may be skipped by you, written by me._[48] + +And, indeed, of all the special capabilities of the epigram none is +more difficult to realise or more rarely achieved than the adroit +handling, the suitable and easy unfolding, of the subject so that +nothing is redundant, nothing wanting, nothing out of order, obscure, +or tangled up in verbiage, and yet at the same time nothing too +unexpected, nothing not adequately prepared for. Martial is +pre-eminent in this; he develops his subjects so aptly, clearly, and +perceptively that he obtains for ideas of no special note otherwise a +good deal of distinction by the charm of the handling. For example, +what could be more resourcefully developed than this epigram? + + Believe me, sir, I'd like to spend whole days, + Yes, and whole evenings in your company, + But the two miles between your house and mine + Are four miles when I go there to come back. + You're seldom home, and when you are deny it, + Engrossed with business or with yourself. + Now, I don't mind the two mile trip to see you; + What I do mind is going four to not to.[49] + +And what would the following epigram be if it had not been perfected +and prepared for by the handling? + + That no one meets you willingly, + That where you come they go, that vast + Areas of silence circle you-- + Why so? you ask. Too much the bard. + This makes it terribly, terribly hard. + Who would put up with what I do? + You read verse if I stand or sit; + You read it if I run or sing; + And in the baths you read me verse; + I try the pool, and swim in verse; + I haste to dine, you go my way; + I order, and you read me out; + Worn out, I take my rest with verse. + You want to know what harm you do? + Just, upright, harmless, you're a pest.[50] + +The conclusion is pleasantly witty, but the special charm of the poem +derives from the preceding enumeration. + +This finishes the account of what we looked to in selecting these +epigrams. You will find what else is pertinent to this book in the +preface. + + + + +_Notes_ + +I have silently emended a few passages; otherwise the text translated +is that of _Epigrammatum Delectus_, Paris, 1659. It is regrettable +that the Latin text, at least of the poems cited, could not be printed +with the translation. + +[1] _De nat. deor._ 2.2.5 + +[2] _Aen._ 5.481 and 8.596 + +[3] 177-8, 173 + +[4] All three passages are from epigrams by Gaspar Conrad in Janus +Gruter, _Delitiae poetarum germanorum_, 6 v., Frankfort, 1612: II, +1065-6, lines 1-6 of a twelve line epigram, "In symbolum Iacobi +Monavi"; II, 1077, the concluding lines of an eight line epigram, "Ad +Valentinum Maternum"; and II, 1079, the concluding couplet of a six +line epigram, "Ad Georgum Menhadum Philophilum." The second passage is +hardly construable. + +[5] _Ars. poet._ 141-2, the paraphrase of Homer, and 143-4. The other +quotations in this passage are from the opening of the _Aeneid_, +_Thebaid_, _Rape of Proserpine_, and the _Pharsalia_. + +[6] _Inst. orat._ 8.6.14 + +[7] "Manes Dousici," IV "Ad solem" and V "Ad sidera," _Poemata_, +Leyden, 1613, p. 166. Nicole reads _tandem_ for _rursus_ in the last +line of the second poem. Douza is the younger Janus Douza (1571-1596). + +Nicole's criticism of these poems is just but superficial. The +difficulty with such poems lies in the method, which consists in the +establishment by amplification of one pole, followed by the briefest +statement of the contrary pole. But the latter is of personal concern +and is the essential subject of the poem. Thus the subject is +deliberately avoided for the greater part of the poem, and hence there +is in the amplification no principle of order to control the detail +and its accumulation. This accounts for the features Nicole censures; +however, he himself makes a similar point below in condemning negative +descriptions. + +[8] I have been unable to find this among Grotius' poems. + +[9] Joannes Vulteius (c.1510-1542), "De ignobili Aruerno in sepulchro +nobili posito," _Hendecasyllaborum libri iv_, Paris, 1538, Ni., p. 97. + +[10] "Ad Rudolphum Imp. florum picturae dedicatio," _Poemata_, Leyden, +1637, p. 326. + +[11] Epig. 1.50, "De Jucundo architecto," _Poemata_, Pavia, 1719, p. +189. + +[12] I have been unable to identify this epigram. + +[13] A translation of _Anth. Pal._ 11.104 and printed as Ausonius in +the Renaissance, but probably by Girogio Merula (c.1424-1494): see +James Hutton, _The Greek Anthology In Italy to the year 1800_, +"Cornell Studies in English," XXIII (1935), pp. 23-4, 102-5, and +Ausonius, _Opuscula_, ed. Rudolphus Peiper, Leipzig, 1886, p. 428. The +younger Scaliger strongly condemns this epigram on the same grounds: +Joseph Scaliger, _Ausoniarum lectionum libri ii_, 2.20, Heidelberg, +1688, p. 204. + +[14] 3.66 + +[15] Epig. libri tres, ad D. Mariam Neville, 2.211. _Epigrammata_, +Amsterdam, 1647, p. 47. Translated by Thomas Harvey, _John Owen's +Latin Epigrams_, London, 1677, p. 36: "Sith th' Harps discording +Strings concording be, / Is't not a shame for men to disagree?" and by +Thomas Pecke, _Parnassi puerperium_, London, 1659: "Can there be many +strings; and yet no Jars? / And are not men asham'd of dismal wars?" + +[16] Nicole's text follows what are now regarded as inferior mss: see +Germanious Caesar, _Aratea_, ed. Alfred Breysig, 2nd. ed., Leipzig, +1899, p. 58. The poem corresponds to _Anth. Pal._ 7.542. Nicole's +comment recalls Dr. Johnson on Gray's cat. + +[17] The dedicatory poem, addressed to Louis XIII, to Caspar Barlaeus' +_Poematum editio nova_, Leyden, 1631, sig.*8. + +[18] 22.10 + +[19] Epig. 1.25, _Opera Omnia_, 2 v., Leyden, 1725, II, 365. Nicole's +text presents several variants and cuts the next to the last couplet, +which I translate: "Already at the tomb, He beats the gates / Of Dis, +and Libertina waits his torches." + +[20] Epig. 3.5, _op. cit._, p. 233. + +[21] Catullus 36 and Martial 1.109. 10-11 + +[22] _Pis._ 13 + +[23] _Aen._ 1.630 + +[24] _Anthologia Latina_, ed. Alexander Riese, 412.17, Leipzig, 1894, +I, 1, p.319. The epigram, from which this phrase is quoted, was +ascribed to Seneca by Pithoeus. + +[25] Epig.... ad ... Neville, 2.126, _op. cit._, p. 38. Harvey, p. 36, +translates: "Lo, not an hair thine heads bald Crown doth crown: / Thy +Faithless Front hath not one hair thine own: / Before, Behind thine +hair's blown off with Blast, / What's left thee to be lost? thine Head +at last." + +[26] In the preface, _Delectus_, Paris, 1659, ch. 2. The problem was +whether to print a large collection of epigrams, rejecting merely the +obscene ones, or to choose only the best. A middle way was taken for +these reasons: 1) there are so few first-class epigrams that a reader +who had his own opinions might think the selection too choosy; 2) the +best shines out only in comparison with what is not so good, and +examples of vice are as useful as examples of virtue, since judgement +in large measure consists in knowing what to avoid; 3) finally and +principally, the curiosity of young men would not be sufficiently +satisfied by the selection if they knew that a good many witty and +polished epigrams were to be found elsewhere. Since it was especially +necessary to keep youth from the unspeakable filth of Catullus and +Martial, who are at the same time the best writers, everything of +theirs is included except the cheapest odds and ends and filthiest +obscenities. For the writers after Martial stricter standards were +applied, for the book would have grown beyond bounds if everything +tolerable had been admitted. + +[27] Martial 5.37, 1, 4-6, 9, 12-14. The lines that Nicole cuts +contain only more of the same. + +[28] Martial 1.76 + +[29] Epig. libri tres ad Henricum ... ded. 1.67, _op. cit._, p. 131. + +[30] Unidentified. The text reads: "In nive nocte vagans nuceo cado +stipite nectus, / Sic mihi nix, nox, nux, nex fuit ante diem." + +[31] 1.8. 5-6. + +[32] The conclusion of an epigram of ten lines, ascribed to Seneca in +_Delectus_, pp. 326-7. Lines 1-8 correspond to _Anth. Lat._, _op. +cit._, 407. 5-12. The younger Scaliger had begun a new epigram with +line 5, as also with lines 9 and 11 (ed., Vergil, _Appendix, cum +supplemento_ ..., Lyons, 1572, pp. 196-7.) The concluding sententia, +however, which Nicole quotes here and praises later in the notes to +the anthology, is from the conclusion of the next epigram, _Anth. +Lat._, 408. 7-8, which is a response to the preceding one. But the +first two-thirds of the couplet has been rewritten with the aid of +something like a _Gradus ad Parnassum_. The ms reads, "nunc et reges +tantum fuge! vivere doctus / uni vive tibi nam moriare tibi." Nicole +reads, "Mitte superba pati fastidia, spemque caducam / Despice: vive +tibi, nam moriere tibi." _superba pati fastidia_ corresponds to +Vergil, _Ecl._ 2.15; _spem ... caducam_ to Ovid, _Epist._ 15 (sive 16, +"Paris Helenae"). 169 (sive 171). + +The epigram as it stands in the anthology, then, is a result of +Scaliger's disintegration of _Anth. Lat._ 407, which suggested +beginning with line 5 and adding 408. 7-8 from the responsory poem. +But this couplet is subjected to improvement to adjust it to the +sense, to sustain the level of feeling, and to enhance the sententious +point. Thus, with the aid of phrases from Vergil and Ovid, using +_mitte_ and _despice_ as fillers and helpers, the epigram is concluded +"with a noble, exalted and true thought," as the editor says in the +notes. + +[33] _Inst. orat._ 11.1.16. + +[34] J. C. Scaliger, _Poeticas libri vii_, 3.125, 5th. ed., 1607, p. +389. + +[35] _loc. cit._, p. 390: "An epigram, therefore, is a short poem +directly pointing out some thing, person, or deed, or deducing +something from premises. This definition includes also the principle +of division--so let no one condemn it as prolix." Nicole, however, +uses only the first half of the definition, since he rejects the +principle of division. + +[36] _loc. cit._: "Brevity is a property; point the soul and, so to +speak, the form." For a full account of the Renaissance theory of the +epigram and the contemporary controversies, see Hutton, _op. cit._, +pp. 55-73, and _The Greek Anthology in France and in the Latin writers +of the Netherlands to the year 1800_, "Cornell studies in classical +philology," XXVIII (1946), _passim_. + +[37] Anon., "In statuam equestrem Ludouici XIII positam Parisiis in +circo regali," _Delectus_, pp. 409-10. + +[38] Nicolas Borbon, the younger, _Poematia exposita_, Paris, 1630, +pp. 144-5, the concluding lines (lines 23-30) of an epigram, "In +versus v.c. Iacobi Pinonis." + +[39] Catullus 1.7 + +[40] Ianus Vitalis Panomitanus (c.1485-1560), "Antiquae Romae ruinae +illustres," _Delectus_, p. 366; see also _Delitiae delitiarum_, ed. +Ab. Wright, Oxford, 1637, p. 104, with textual variants. + +[41] 1.21 + +[42] _Delectus_, pp. 396-7, 399-400, and 405. See Grotius, _op. cit._, +pp. 341-2, and 383. + +[43] 1.8 + +[44] 1.33 + +[45] 2.68 + +[46] 4.69 + +[47] 4.56 + +[48] 6.65 + +[49] 2.5 + +[50] 3.44. 1-5, 9-18. The lines cut, 6-8, read in translation: "No +tigress wild for her lost cubs, / No viper burned by the noon sun, / +No scorpion begets such fear." In line 11, line 8 of the translation, +Nicole reads _canenti_ for the received _cacanti_. The latter reading +will yield in translation a rhyme with the preceding line. + + + + +_The Editors of_ THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + +_are pleased to announce that_ + +THE WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY + +_of The University of California, Los Angeles_ + +will become the publisher of the Augustan Reprints in May, 1949. The +editorial policy of the Society will continue unchanged. As in the +past, the editors will strive to furnish members inexpensive reprints +of rare seventeenth and eighteenth century works. + +All correspondence concerning subscriptions in the United States and +Canada should be addressed to the William Andrews Clark Memorial +Library, 2205 West Adams Blvd., Los Angeles 7, California. +Correspondence concerning editorial matters may be addressed to any of +the general editors. Membership fee continues $2.50 per year ($2.75 in +Great Britain and the continent). British and European subscribers +should address B. H. Blackwell, Broad Street, Oxford, England. + + +Publications for the fourth year (1949-1950) + +(_At least six items will be printed in the main from the following +list_) + + +SERIES IV: MEN, MANNERS, AND CRITICS + + John Dryden, _His Majesties Declaration Defended_ + (1681) + Daniel Defoe (?), _Vindication of the Press_ (1718) + _Critical Remarks on Sir Charles Grandison, Clarissa, + and Pamela_ (1754) + + +SERIES V: DRAMA + + Thomas Southerne, _Oroonoko_ (1696) + Mrs. Centlivre, _The Busie Body_ (1709) + Charles Johnson, _Caelia_ (1733) + Charles Macklin, _Man of the World_ (1781) + + +SERIES VI: POETRY AND LANGUAGE + + Andre Dacier, _Essay on Lyric Poetry_ + _Poems_ by Thomas Sprat + _Poems_ by the Earl of Dorset + Samuel Johnson, _Vanity of Human Wishes_ (1749), + and one of the 1750 _Rambler_ papers. + + +EXTRA SERIES: + + Lewis Theobald, _Preface to Shakespeare's Works_ + (1733) + + A few copies of the early publications of the Society + are still available at the original rate. + +GENERAL EDITORS + + H. 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SWEDENBERG, JR., + University of California, Los Angeles + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- + + TO THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_ + _2205 West Adams Blvd., Los Angeles 7, California_ + + AS MEMBERSHIP FEE I enclose for: + + _Name_ _______________________________ + + _Address_ ___________________________ + + The fourth year $ 2.50 + The third and fourth year 5.00 + The second, third and fourth year 7.50 + The first, second, third, and fourth year 10.00 + +[Add $.25 for each year if ordering from Great Britain or the +continent] + +Make check or money order payable to THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF +CALIFORNIA. + +_Note: All income of the Society is devoted to defraying cost of +printing and mailing._ + + + + +PUBLICATIONS OF THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + +First Year (1946-1947) + + 1. Richard Blackmore's _Essay upon Wit_ (1716), and Addison's + _Freeholder_ No. 45 (1716). (I, 1) + + 2. Samuel Cobb's _Of Poetry and Discourse on Criticism_ (1707). + (II, 1) + + 3. _Letter to A. H. Esq.; concerning the Stage_ (1698), and + Richard Willis's _Occasional Paper No. IX_ (1698). (III, 1) + + 4. _Essay on Wit_ (1748), together with Characters by Flecknoe, + and Joseph Warton's _Adventurer_ Nos. 127 and 133. (I, 2) + + 5. Samuel Wesley's _Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry_ (1700) + and _Essay on Heroic Poetry_ (1693). (II, 2) + + 6. _Representation of the Impiety and Immorality of the Stage_ + (1704) and _Some Thoughts Concerning the Stage_ (1704). (III, 2) + + +Second Year (1947-1948) + + 7. John Gay's _The Present State of Wit_ (1711); and a section on + Wit from _The English Theophrastus_ (1702). (I, 3) + + 8. Rapin's _De Carmine Pastorali_, translated by Creech (1684). + (II, 3) + + 9. T. Hanmer's (?) _Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet_ + (1736). (III, 3) + + 10. Corbyn Morris' _Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of + Wit, etc._ (1744). (I, 4) + + 11. Thomas Purney's _Discourse on the Pastoral_ (1717). (II, 4) + + 12. Essays on the Stage, selected, with an Introduction by Joseph + Wood Krutch. (III, 4) + + +Third Year (1948-1949) + + 13. Sir John Falstaff (pseud.), _The Theatre_ (1720). (IV, 1) + + 14 Edward Moore's _The Gamester_ (1753). (V, 1) + + 15. John Oldmixon's _Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to Harley_ + (1712); and Arthur Mainwaring's _The British Academy_ (1712). + (VI, 1) + + 16. Nevil Payne's _Fatal Jealousy_ (1673). (V, 2) + + 17. Nicholas Rowe's _Some Account of the Life of Mr. William + Shakespear_ (1709). (Extra Series, 1) + + 18. Aaron Hill's Preface to _The Creation_; and Thomas Brereton's + Preface to _Esther_. (IV, 2) + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +On p. 23, a letter was missing in one of the words; it was changed as +follows: + + From: "when they are orn down and laughed at." + To: "when they are torn down and laughed at." + +On p. 35, footnote #24, removed the repeated word "is": + + From: "from which this phrase is is quoted" + To: "from which this phrase is quoted" + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty +in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams, by Pierre Nicole + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAY ON TRUE AND APPARENT BEAUTY *** + +***** This file should be named 28921.txt or 28921.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/9/2/28921/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Richard J. 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