Part 24 (2/2)

Here, at least, Martial shows that he could complain of his poverty with decency, and speak of himself and his work with becoming modesty. Or take a poem of a different type, an indirect plea for the recall of an exile (viii. 32):

aera per tacitum delapsa sedentis in ipsos fluxit Aratullae blanda columba sinus, luserat hoc casus, nisi in.o.bservata maneret permissaque sibi nollet abire fuga.

si meliora piae fas est sperare sorori et dominum mundi flectere vota valent, haec a Sardois tibi forsitan exulis oris, fratre reversuro, nuntia venit avis.

A gentle dove glided down through the silent air and settled even in Aratulla's bosom as she was sitting.

This might have seemed but the sport of chance had it not rested there, though undetained, and refused to part even when flight was free. If it is granted to the loving sister to hope for better things, and if prayers can move the lord of the world, this bird perchance has come to thee from Sardinia's sh.o.r.e of exile to announce the speedy return of thy brother.

Nothing could be more conventional, nothing more perfect in form, more full of music, more delicate in expression. The same felicity is shown in his epigrams on curiosities of art or nature, a fas.h.i.+onable and, it must be confessed, an easy theme.[680] Fish carved by Phidias' hand, a lizard cast by Mentor, a fly enclosed in amber, are all given immortality:

artis Phidiacae toreuma clarum pisces aspicis: adde aquam, natabunt (iii. 35).

These fishes Phidias wrought: with life by him They are endowed: add water and they swim.

PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH.

inserta phialae Mentoris manu ducta lacerta vivit et timetur argentum (iii. 41).

That lizard on the goblet makes thee start.

Fear not: it lives only by Mentor's art.

PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH.

et latet et lucet Phaethontide condita gutta, ut videatur apis nectare clusa suo.

dignum tantorum pretium tulit illa laborum: credibile est ipsam sic voluisse mori (iv. 32).

Here s.h.i.+nes a bee closed in an amber tomb, As if interred in her own honey-comb.

A fit reward fate to her labours gave; No other death would she have wished to have.

MAY.

Always at home in describing the trifling amenities of life, he is at his best equally successful in dealing with its trifling follies. An acquaintance has given his cook the absurd name of Mistyllos in allusion to the Homeric phrase [Greek: mistyllon t' ora talla]. Martial's comment is inimitable:

si tibi Mistyllos cocus, Aemiliane, vocatur, dicatur quare non Taratalla mihi? (i. 50).

He complains of the wine given him at a dinner-party with a finished whimsicality:

potavi modo consulare vinum.

quaeris quam vetus atque liberale?

Prisco consule conditum: sed ipse qui ponebat erat, Severe, consul (vii. 79).

I have just drunk some consular wine. How old, you ask, and how generous? It was bottled in Priscus' consuls.h.i.+p: and he who set it before me was the consul himself.

Polycharmus has returned Caieta.n.u.s his IOU's. 'Little good will that do you, and Caieta.n.u.s will not even be grateful':

quod Caietano reddis, Polycharme, tabellas, milia te centum num tribuisse putas?

'debuit haec' inquis. tibi habe, Polycharme, tabellas et Caietano milia crede duo (viii. 37).

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