In the deeper poets it is
oppressed
by more Roman ideals.
Oxford Book of Latin Verse
And it is this that so often redeems
Roman literature from itself. We are accustomed to associate the word
_facetus_ with the idea of 'wit'. It is to be connected, it would seem,
etymologically with _fax_, 'a torch'. Its primitive meaning is
'brightness', 'brilliance': and if we wish to understand what Horace
means when he speaks of the element of '_facetum_' in Vergil, perhaps
'glow' or 'fire' will serve us better than 'wit'. _Facetus_, _facetiae_,
_infacetus_, _infacetiae_ are favourite words with Catullus. With
_lepidus_, _illepidus_, _uenustus_, _inuenustus_ they are his usual
terms of literary praise and dispraise. These words hit, of course,
often very superficial effects. Yet with Catullus and his friends they
stand for a literary ideal deeper than the contexts in which they occur:
and an ideal which, while it no doubt derives from the enthusiasm of
Alexandrian study, yet assumes a distinctively Italian character. Poetry
must be _facetus_: it must glow and dance. It must have _lepor_: it must
be clean and bright. There must be nothing slipshod, no tarnish. 'Bright
is the ring of words when the right man rings them. ' It must have
_uenustas_, 'charm', a certain melting quality. This ideal Roman poetry
never realizes perhaps in its fullness save in Catullus himself. In the
lighter poets it passes too easily into an ideal of mere cleverness:
until with Ovid (and in a less degree Martial) _lepor_ is the whole man.
In the deeper poets it is oppressed by more Roman ideals.
The _facetum ingenium_, as it manifests itself in satire and invective,
does not properly here concern us: it belongs to another order of
poetry. Yet I may be allowed to illustrate from this species of
composition the manner in which the Italian spirit in Roman poetry
asserts for itself a dominating and individual place. _Satura quidem
tota nostra est_, says Quintilian. We know now that this is not so: that
Quintilian was wrong, or perhaps rather that he has expressed himself in
a misleading fashion. Roman Satire, like the rest of Roman literature,
looks back to the Greek world. It stands in close relation to
Alexandrian Satire--a literature of which we have hitherto been hardly
aware. Horace, when he asserted the dependence of Lucilius on the old
Attic Comedy, was nearer the truth than Quintilian. But the influence of
Attic Comedy comes to Lucilius (and to Horace and to Juvenal and to
Persius) by way of the Alexandrian satirists. From the Alexandrians come
many of the stock themes of Roman Satire, many of its stock characters,
much of its moral sentiment. The _captator_, the μεμψίμοιρος,
the _auarus_ are not the creation of Horace and Juvenal. The seventh
satire of Juvenal is not the first 'Plaint of the Impoverished
Schoolmaster' in literature. Nor is Horace _Sat. _ II. viii the earliest
'Dinner with a Nouveau-Riche'. In all this, and in much else in Roman
Satire, we must recognize Alexandrian influence.
Roman literature from itself. We are accustomed to associate the word
_facetus_ with the idea of 'wit'. It is to be connected, it would seem,
etymologically with _fax_, 'a torch'. Its primitive meaning is
'brightness', 'brilliance': and if we wish to understand what Horace
means when he speaks of the element of '_facetum_' in Vergil, perhaps
'glow' or 'fire' will serve us better than 'wit'. _Facetus_, _facetiae_,
_infacetus_, _infacetiae_ are favourite words with Catullus. With
_lepidus_, _illepidus_, _uenustus_, _inuenustus_ they are his usual
terms of literary praise and dispraise. These words hit, of course,
often very superficial effects. Yet with Catullus and his friends they
stand for a literary ideal deeper than the contexts in which they occur:
and an ideal which, while it no doubt derives from the enthusiasm of
Alexandrian study, yet assumes a distinctively Italian character. Poetry
must be _facetus_: it must glow and dance. It must have _lepor_: it must
be clean and bright. There must be nothing slipshod, no tarnish. 'Bright
is the ring of words when the right man rings them. ' It must have
_uenustas_, 'charm', a certain melting quality. This ideal Roman poetry
never realizes perhaps in its fullness save in Catullus himself. In the
lighter poets it passes too easily into an ideal of mere cleverness:
until with Ovid (and in a less degree Martial) _lepor_ is the whole man.
In the deeper poets it is oppressed by more Roman ideals.
The _facetum ingenium_, as it manifests itself in satire and invective,
does not properly here concern us: it belongs to another order of
poetry. Yet I may be allowed to illustrate from this species of
composition the manner in which the Italian spirit in Roman poetry
asserts for itself a dominating and individual place. _Satura quidem
tota nostra est_, says Quintilian. We know now that this is not so: that
Quintilian was wrong, or perhaps rather that he has expressed himself in
a misleading fashion. Roman Satire, like the rest of Roman literature,
looks back to the Greek world. It stands in close relation to
Alexandrian Satire--a literature of which we have hitherto been hardly
aware. Horace, when he asserted the dependence of Lucilius on the old
Attic Comedy, was nearer the truth than Quintilian. But the influence of
Attic Comedy comes to Lucilius (and to Horace and to Juvenal and to
Persius) by way of the Alexandrian satirists. From the Alexandrians come
many of the stock themes of Roman Satire, many of its stock characters,
much of its moral sentiment. The _captator_, the μεμψίμοιρος,
the _auarus_ are not the creation of Horace and Juvenal. The seventh
satire of Juvenal is not the first 'Plaint of the Impoverished
Schoolmaster' in literature. Nor is Horace _Sat. _ II. viii the earliest
'Dinner with a Nouveau-Riche'. In all this, and in much else in Roman
Satire, we must recognize Alexandrian influence.
