An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams Part 4

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, fas.h.i.+oned 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 ma.s.s 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 l.u.s.tre 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 n.o.ble subject in n.o.ble lines and concluding with a n.o.ble 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 ill.u.s.trated 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 pa.s.sages; 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