To be sure, I said that Lucilius' verses run with an unpolished meter.
quis tam Lucili fautor inepte est,
Who is so foolishly a partisan of Lucilius as not to admit this?
But on the same page, because he rubbed the city with much salt, he is praised.
§1.10.5nec tamen hoc tribuens dederim quoque cetera; nam sic §1.10.6et Laberi mimos ut pulchra poemata mirer.
Yet while granting this, I would not also give him all other qualities; for in that way I would also admire the mimes of Laberius as beautiful poems.
§1.10.7ergo non satis est risu diducere rictum §1.10.8auditoris; et est quaedam tamen hic quoque virtus.
Therefore it is not enough to stretch the listener's grin with laughter; and yet here too is a certain merit.
§1.10.9est brevitate opus, ut currat sententia neu se §1.10.10inpediat verbis lassas onerantibus auris, §1.10.11et sermone opus est modo tristi, saepe iocoso, §1.10.12defendente vicem modo rhetoris atque poetae, §1.10.13interdum urbani, parcentis viribus atque §1.10.14extenuantis eas consulto.
There is need of brevity, so that the thought may run and not impede itself with words that burden weary ears, and there is need of a style now serious, often playful, supporting the role now of the rhetorician and the poet, sometimes of the refined wit, holding back his strength and deliberately diminishing it.
ridiculum acri §1.10.15fortius et melius magnas plerumque secat res.
What is ridiculous often cuts great matters more forcefully and better than what is severe.
§1.10.16illi, scripta quibus comoedia prisca viris est, §1.10.17hoc stabant, hoc sunt imitandi; quos neque pulcher §1.10.18Hermogenes umquam legit neque simius iste §1.10.19nil praeter Calvum et doctus cantare Catullum.
Those men by whom the Old Comedy was written stood by this, in this they are to be imitated; whom neither pretty Hermogenes ever read, nor that ape of yours, learned in singing nothing except Calvus and Catullus.
§1.10.20‘at magnum fecit, quod verbis Graeca Latinis §1.10.21miscuit. ’ o seri studiorum, quine putetis §1.10.22difficile et mirum, Rhodio quod Pitholeonti
"But he accomplished a great thing, because he mixed Greek words with Latin." O late-learners, who think difficult and wonderful what happened to Rhodian Pitholeon!
§1.10.23contigit? ‘at sermo lingua concinnus utraque §1.10.24suavior, ut Chio nota si conmixta Falerni est. ’ §1.10.25cum versus facias, te ipsum percontor, an et cum §1.10.26dura tibi peragenda rei sit causa petilli?
"But a style harmonious with both languages is sweeter, as when Chian wine is mixed with Falernian." When you write verses, I ask you yourself, or also when you must plead the hard case of the accused Petillius?
§1.10.27scilicet oblitus patriaeque patrisque Latini, §1.10.28cum Pedius causas exsudet Poplicola atque §1.10.29Corvinus, patriis intermiscere petita §1.10.30verba foris malis, Canusini more bilinguis.
Surely, forgetting your country and father Latinus, while Pedius Poplicola and Corvinus sweat out their cases, would you prefer to mix imported words with ancestral ones, in the manner of the bilingual Canusian?
§1.10.31atque ego cum Graecos facerem, natus mare citra, §1.10.32versiculos, vetuit me tali voce Quirinus §1.10.33post mediam noctem visus, cum somnia vera: §1.10.34‘in silvam non ligna feras insanius ac si §1.10.35magnas Graecorum malis inplere catervas. ’ §1.10.36turgidus Alpinus iugulat dum Memnona dumque §1.10.37diffingit Rheni luteum caput, haec ego ludo, §1.10.38quae neque in aede sonent certantia, iudice Tarpa, §1.10.39nec redeant iterum atque iterum spectanda theatris.
And as for me, when I, born on this side of the sea, was writing Greek verses, Quirinus forbade me, appearing after midnight, when dreams are true: "You would carry wood to a forest no more insanely than if you preferred to fill the great cohorts of the Greeks." While turgid Alpinus slaughters Memnon, and while he misshapes the muddy source of the Rhine, I play with these things, which neither resound in competition in the temple, with Tarpa as judge, nor return again and again to be seen in the theatres.
§1.10.40arguta meretrice potes Davoque Chremeta §1.10.41eludente senem comis garrire libellos §1.10.42unus vivorum, Fundani, Pollio regum §1.10.43facta canit pede ter percusso; forte epos acer §1.10.44ut nemo Varius ducit, molle atque facetum §1.10.45Vergilio adnuerunt gaudentes rure Camoenae:
You alone of living men, Fundanius, can babble charming plays with the clever courtesan and Davus tricking the old Chremes; Pollio sings of the deeds of kings in the three-struck foot; fierce epic, sharp Varius leads as no other; the Camenae, rejoicing in the countryside, granted the tender and the witty to Virgil.
§1.10.46hoc erat, experto frustra Varrone Atacino §1.10.47atque quibusdam aliis, melius quod scribere possem, §1.10.48inventore minor; neque ego illi detrahere ausim §1.10.49haerentem capiti cum multa laude coronam.
This was what, though Varro Atacinus had tried in vain, and some others, I could write better, though inferior to the inventor; nor would I dare to tear from his head the crown that clings to it with much praise.
But I said that he flows muddily, often carrying more things to be removed than to be left.
age quaeso, §1.10.52tu nihil in magno doctus reprehendis Homero?
Come, I pray, do you, a learned man, find nothing to blame in great Homer?
§1.10.53nil comis tragici mutat Lucilius acci?
Does the polite Lucilius alter nothing in tragic Accius?
§1.10.54non ridet versus Enni gravitate minores, §1.10.55cum de se loquitur non ut maiore reprensis?
Does he not laugh at the verses of Ennius that are inferior in gravity, when he speaks of himself not as superior to those he criticized?
§1.10.56quid vetat et nosmet Lucili scripta legentis §1.10.57quaerere, num illius, num rerum dura negarit §1.10.58versiculos natura magis factos et euntis §1.10.59mollius ac siquis pedibus quid claudere senis, §1.10.60hoc tantum contentus, amet scripsisse ducentos §1.10.61ante cibum versus, totidem coenatus, Etrusci
What forbids us too, when reading the writings of Lucilius, to ask whether his own nature, or the hard nature of his subjects, denied him verses better made and flowing more smoothly than if someone, content with merely enclosing something in six feet, loves to have written two hundred verses before eating, and as many after dinner?
§1.10.62quale fuit Cassi rapido ferventius amni §1.10.63ingenium, capsis quem fama est esse librisque §1.10.64ambustum propriis.
Such was the genius of Etruscan Cassius, more burning than a rapid river, who, as the rumor goes, was burned upon his own book-boxes and books.
fuerit Lucilius, inquam, §1.10.65comis et urbanus, fuerit limatior idem §1.10.66quam rudis et Graecis intacti carminis auctor §1.10.67quamque poetarum seniorum turba; sed ille, §1.10.68si foret hoc nostrum fato delapsus in aevum, §1.10.69detereret sibi multa, recideret omne quod ultra §1.10.70perfectum traheretur, et in versu faciendo §1.10.71saepe caput scaberet vivos et roderet unguis.
Let it be granted, I say, that Lucilius was polite and witty, let it be that he was more polished than the author of a rough genre untouched by the Greeks, and than the crowd of older poets; but he, if he had fallen by fate into this age of ours, would rub out many things of his own, would prune everything that was dragged beyond perfection, and in making verse would often scratch his head and bite his nails to the quick.
§1.10.72saepe stilum vertas, iterum quae digna legi sint §1.10.73scripturus, neque te ut miretur turba labores, §1.10.74contentus paucis lectoribus.
Erase often, if you are to write things worthy of being read again, and do not labor that the crowd may admire you, content with a few readers.
an tua demens §1.10.75vilibus in ludis dictari carmina malis?
Or would you, insane, prefer your poems to be dictated in cheap schools?
§1.10.76non ego; nam satis est equitem mihi plaudere, ut audax, §1.10.77contemptis aliis, explosa Arbuscula dixit.
Not I; for it is enough for me that a knight applauds, as bold Arbuscula said, despising the others, when she was hissed off the stage.
§1.10.78men’ moveat cimex Pantilius? aut cruciet quod
Should the bug Pantilius move me?
§1.10.79vellicet absentem Demetrius? aut quod ineptus
Or should it torture me that Demetrius carps at me in my absence?
§1.10.80Fannius Hermogenis laedat conviva Tigelli?
Or that the foolish Fannius, guest of Hermogenes Tigellius, hurts me?
§1.10.81Plotius et Varius, Maecenas Vergiliusque, §1.10.82Valgius et probet haec Octavius optimus atque §1.10.83Fuscus et haec utinam Viscorum laudet uterque §1.10.84ambitione relegata.
May Plotius and Varius, Maecenas and Virgil, Valgius and excellent Octavius approve of these things, and Fuscus, and may both of the Visci praise them, with all ambition put aside.
te dicere possum, §1.10.85Pollio, te, Messalla, tuo cum fratre, simulque §1.10.86vos, Bibule et Servi, simul his te, candide Furni, §1.10.87conpluris alios, doctos ego quos et amicos §1.10.88prudens praetereo, quibus haec, sint qualiacumque, §1.10.89arridere velim, doliturus, si placeant spe §1.10.90deterius nostra.
I can speak of you, Pollio, of you, Messalla, with your brother, and at the same time of you, Bibulus and Servius, and along with these of you, honest Furnius, and of many others, learned men and friends, whom I deliberately pass over; whom I would wish these lines, whatever they may be, to please, destined to grieve if they should please less than our expectation.
Demetri, teque, Tigelli, §1.10.91discipularum inter iubeo plorare cathedras.
Demetrius, and you, Tigellius, I bid you go weep among the chairs of your female pupils.
§1.10.92i, puer, atque meo citus haec subscribe libello.
Go, boy, and quickly write these lines under my little book.