Page:Juvenal and Persius by G. G. Ramsay.djvu/459

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PERSIUS, SATIRE V

trembling soul into the branching cross-ways^[1]—I placed myself in your hands, Cornutus; you took up my tender years in your Socratic bosom. Your rule, applied with unseen skill, straightened out the crooked ways;^[2] my soul, struggling to be mastered, was moulded by your reason, and took on its features under your plastic thumb. With you, I remember, did I pass long days, with you pluck for feasting the early hours of night. We two were one in our work; we were one in our hours of rest, and unbent together over the modest board. Of this I would not have you doubt, that there is some firm bond of concord between our lives, and that both are drawn from a single star.^[3] Either a truth-abiding Fate hangs our destinies on the even-balanced Scales, or if the hour which dawned upon the faithful paii distributes between the Twins the accordant destinies of us twain,^[4] and a kindly Jupiter has vanquished for us the malignancy of Saturn,^[5] some star assuredly there is which links your lot with mine.

↑ These lines repeat, in a more complicated form, the idea of the branching ways given in iii. 56-57; and just as in the former passage the reading diduxit, though not that of the best MSS., is to be preferred to deduxit, so here diducit, though hard to translate, may perhaps be preferred to deducit. Cum iter ambiguum est denotes the point at which the choice has to be made, when vitae nescius error, "the ignorant wanderings of childhood," diducit trepidas mentes, i.e. "parts, or draws asunder," the youthful mind into the two branching ways. The phrase illustrates the tendency of Persius to jumble two separate ideas into one, a new idea being introduced before he has finished off the old. The less natural, the more tortuous, the expression, the more is it after the manner of Persius. Deducit would have the simpler meaning "leads down the mind to the point where the roads begin to diverge" (Conington).
↑ We have here repeated from iv. 11–12, in a more grotesque form, the idea of a moral foot-rule. In the former passage the truly moral man can distinguish the crooked from the straight even when his foot-rule has a crooked leg (i.e. is off the square); in the present passage the moral foot-rule of Cornutus is so perfect that it cunningly and insensibly straightens out the most twisted ways; his teaching is so skilfully applied that the pupil is led on to virtue without effort, scarcely knowing it himself.
↑ The passage which follows (45–51) is closely imitated from Hor. Od. n. xvii. 15–24. I have followed the translation and interpretation given by Professor Housman (l.c. pp. 16–18). The horoscope is the sign of the zodiac which rises at the moment of birth; Persius chooses the signs of the Balance and the Twins, as both are suggestive of close friendship.
↑ The translation given above for lines 48 and 49 (seu nata . . . duorum) is that given by Professor Housman. He takes seu in line 48 as equivalent to vel si (l.c. p. 20).
↑ The influence of Saturn was always malignant, that of Jupiter favourable (Hor. Od. II. xvii. 23-25). Compare the use of our words "saturnine" and "jovial."

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[1] These lines repeat, in a more complicated form, the idea of the branching ways given in iii. 56-57; and just as in the former passage the reading diduxit, though not that of the best MSS., is to be preferred to deduxit, so here diducit, though hard to translate, may perhaps be preferred to deducit. Cum iter ambiguum est denotes the point at which the choice has to be made, when vitae nescius error, "the ignorant wanderings of childhood," diducit trepidas mentes, i.e. "parts, or draws asunder," the youthful mind into the two branching ways. The phrase illustrates the tendency of Persius to jumble two separate ideas into one, a new idea being introduced before he has finished off the old. The less natural, the more tortuous, the expression, the more is it after the manner of Persius. Deducit would have the simpler meaning "leads down the mind to the point where the roads begin to diverge" (Conington).

[2] We have here repeated from iv. 11–12, in a more grotesque form, the idea of a moral foot-rule. In the former passage the truly moral man can distinguish the crooked from the straight even when his foot-rule has a crooked leg (i.e. is off the square); in the present passage the moral foot-rule of Cornutus is so perfect that it cunningly and insensibly straightens out the most twisted ways; his teaching is so skilfully applied that the pupil is led on to virtue without effort, scarcely knowing it himself.

[3] The passage which follows (45–51) is closely imitated from Hor. Od. n. xvii. 15–24. I have followed the translation and interpretation given by Professor Housman (l.c. pp. 16–18). The horoscope is the sign of the zodiac which rises at the moment of birth; Persius chooses the signs of the Balance and the Twins, as both are suggestive of close friendship.

[4] The translation given above for lines 48 and 49 (seu nata . . . duorum) is that given by Professor Housman. He takes seu in line 48 as equivalent to vel si (l.c. p. 20).

[5] The influence of Saturn was always malignant, that of Jupiter favourable (Hor. Od. II. xvii. 23-25). Compare the use of our words "saturnine" and "jovial."

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