Part 23 (1/2)

But, n.i.g.g.ard Rome, thou giv'st how grudgingly!

What the year's tale of days at Formiae For him who tied by work in town must stay?

Stewards and lacqueys, happy your employ, Your lords prepare enjoyment, you enjoy.

A. E. STREET.

These are surely the most beautiful _scazons_[664] in the Latin tongue; the metre limps no more; a master-hand has wrought it to exquisite melody; the quiet undulation of the sea, the yacht's easy gliding over its surface, live before us in its music. Even more delicate is the homelier description of the gardens of Julius Martialis on the slopes of the Janiculum. It is animated by the sincerity that never fails Martial when he writes to his friend:

Iuli iugera pauca Martialis hortis Hesperidum beatiora longo Ianiculi iugo rec.u.mbunt: lati collibus imminent recessus et pla.n.u.s modico tumore vertex caelo perfruitur sereniore et curvas nebula tegente valles solus luce nitet peculiari: puris leniter admoventur astris celsae culmina delicata villae.

hinc septem dominos videre montes et totam licet aestimare Romam, Albanos quoque Tusculosque colles et quodc.u.mque iacet sub urbe frigus (iv. 64).

Martial's few acres, e'en more blest Than those famed gardens of the West, Lie on Janiculum's long crest; Above the slopes wide reaches hang recessed.

The level, gently swelling crown Breathes air from purer heavens blown; When mists the hollow valleys drown 'Tis radiant with a light that's all its own.

The clear stars almost seem to lie On the wrought roof that's built so high; The seven hills stand in majesty, And Rome is summed in one wide sweep of eye.

Tusculan, Alban hills unfold, Each nook which holds its store of cold.

A. E. STREET.

Such a picture is unsurpa.s.sed in any language.[665] Statius, with all his brilliance, never came near such perfect success; he lacks sincerity; he can juggle with words against any one, but he never learned their truest and n.o.blest use.

There are many other themes beside landscape painting in which the _Silvae_ of Statius challenge comparison with the epigrams of Martial.

Both use the same servile flattery to the emperor, both celebrate the same patrons,[666] both console their n.o.ble friends for the loss of relatives, or favourite slaves; both write _propemptica_. Even in the most trivial of these poems, those addressed to the emperor, Statius is easily surpa.s.sed by his humbler rival. His inferiority lies largely in the fact that he is more ambitious. He wrote on a larger scale. When the infinitely trivial is a theme for verse, the epigrammatist has the advantage of the author of the more lengthy _Silvae_. Perfect neatness vanquishes dexterous elaboration. Moreover, if taste can be said to enter into such poems at all, Martial errs less grossly. Even Domitian--one might conjecture--may have felt that Statius' flattery was 'laid on with a trowel'. Martial may have used the same instrument, but had the art to conceal it.[667] There are even occasions where his flattery ceases to revolt the reader, and where we forget the object of the flattery. In a poem describing the suicide of a certain Festus he succeeds in combining the dignity of a funeral _laudatio_ with the subtlest and most graceful flattery of the princeps:

indignas premeret pestis c.u.m tabida fauces, inque suos voltus serperet atra lues, siccis ipse genis flentes hortatus amicos decrevit Stygios Festus adire lacus.

nec tamen obscuro pia polluit ora veneno aut torsit lenta tristia fata fame, sanctam Romana vitam sed morte peregit dimisitque animam n.o.biliore via.

hanc mortem fatis magni praeferre Catonis fama potest; huius Caesar amicus erat (i. 78).

When the dire quinsy choked his guiltless breath, And o'er his face the blackening venom stole, Festus disdained to wait a lingering death, Cheered his sad friends and freed his dauntless soul.

No meagre famine's slowly-wasting force, Nor hemlock's gradual chillness he endured, But like a Roman chose the n.o.bler course, And by one blow his liberty secured.

His death was n.o.bler far than Cato's end, For Caesar to the last was Festus' friend.

HODGSON (slightly altered).

The unctuous dexterity of Statius never achieved such a master-stroke.

So, too, in laments for the dead, the superior brevity and simplicity of Martial bear the palm away. Both poets bewailed the death of Glaucias, the child favourite of Atedius Melior. Statius has already been quoted in this connexion; Martial's poems on the subject,[668] though not quite among his best, yet ring truer than the verse of Statius. And Martial's epitaphs and epicedia at their best have in their slight way an almost unique charm. We must go to the best work of the Greek Anthology to surpa.s.s the epitaph on Erotion (v. 34):

hanc tibi, Fronto pater, genetrix Flaccilla, puellam oscula commendo deliciasque meas, parvola ne nigras horrescat Erotion umbras oraque Tartarei prodigiosa canis.

inpletura fuit s.e.xtae modo frigora brumae, vixisset totidem ni minus illa dies.

inter tam veteres ludat lasciva patronos et nomen blaeso garriat ore meum.

mollia non rigidus caespes tegat ossa nec illi, terra, gravis fueris: non fuit illa tibi.

Fronto, and you, Flaccilla, to you, my father and mother, Here I commend this child, once my delight and my pet, So may the darkling shades and deep-mouthed baying of h.e.l.lhound Touch not with horror of dread little Erotion dear.

Now was her sixth year ending, and melting the snows of the winter, Only a brief six days lacked to the tale of the years.

Young, amid dull old age, let her wanton and frolic and gambol, Babble of me that was, tenderly lisping my name.

Soft were her tiny bones, then soft be the sod that enshrouds her, Gentle thy touch, mother Earth, gently she rested on thee!

A. E. STREET.

Another poem on a like theme shows a different and more fantastic, but scarcely less pleasing vein (v. 37):