Intererit satyris paulum pudibunda protervis.
Non ego inornata, et dominantia nomina solum,
Verbaque, Pisones, satyrorum scriptor amabo:
Nec sic enitar tragico differre colori
Ut nihil intersit, Davusne loquatur, an audax
Pythias emuncto lucrata Simone talentum;
An custos, famulusque dei Silenus alumni.
Ex noto fictum carmen sequar, ut sibi quivis
Speret idem: sudet multùm frustraque laboret
Ausus idem: tantum series juncturaque pollet:
Tantum de medio sumptis accedit honoris.
Silvis deducti caveant, me judice, Fauni,
Ne velut innati triviis, ac penè forenses,
Aut nimium teneris juvenentur versibus unquam,
Aut immunda crepent, ignominiosaque dicta.
Offenduntur enim, quibus est equus, et pater, et res :
Nec, si quid fricti ciceris probat, et nucis emptor,
Equis accipiunt animis, donantve corona.
Successit vetus his Comoedia non sine multâ Laude, sed in vitium libertas excidit, et vim Dignam lege regi. Lex est accepta, chorusque Turpiter obticuit, sublato jure nocendi.
Syllaba longa brevi subjecta vocatur Iambus, Pes citus: unde etiam trimetris accrescere jussit Nomen Iambeis, cum senos redderet ictus,
Primus ad extremum similis sibi: non ita pridem
To dance, so she should shamefac'd differ far
From what th' obscene and petulant satyrs are.
Nor I, when I write satyrs, will so love
Plain phrase, my Pisos, as alone t' approve
Mere reigning words: nor will I labour so
Quite from all face of tragedy to go,
As not make difference, whether Davus speak,
And the bold Pythias, having cheated weak
Simo, and of a talent wip'd his purse;
Or old Silenus, Bacchus' guard and nurse.
I can out of known geer a fable frame,
And so as every man may hope the same;
Yet he that offers at it may sweat much,
And toil in vain: the excellence is such
Of order and connexion; so much grace
There comes sometimes to things of meanest place.
But let the Fauns, drawn from their groves, beware,
Be I their judge, they do at no time dare,
Like men street-born, and near the hall rehearse
Their youthful tricks in over-wanton verse;
Or crack out bawdy speeches, and unclean.
The Roman gentry, men of birth and mean,
Will take offence at this: nor though it strike
Him that buys chiches blanch'd, or chance to like
The nut-crackers throughout, will they therefore
Receive or give it an applause the more.
To these succeeded the old comedy,
And not without much praise, till liberty
Fell into fault so far, as now they saw
Her license fit to be restrain'd by law :
Which law receiv'd, the chorus held his peace,
His power of foully hurting made to cease.
Two rests, a short and long, th' Iambic frame; A foot, whose swiftness gave the verse the name Of Trimeter, when yet it was six-pac'd,
But mere Iambics all, from first to last.
Nor is't long since they did with patience take
Tardior ut paulo graviorque veniret ad aures,
Spondæos stabiles in jura paterna recepit
Commodus, et patiens: non ut de sede secunda
Cederet, aut quarta socialiter: hic et in Accî
Nobilibus trimetris apparet rarus, et Ennî.
In scenam missos magno cum pondere versus,
Aut operæ celeris nimium, curaque carentis,
Aut ignorata premit artis crimine turpi.
Non quivis videt immodulata poëmata judex:
Et data Romanis venia est indigna poëtis,
Idcircòne vager, scribamque licenter? an omnes
Visuros peccata putem mea? tutus, et intra
Spem venia cautus? vitavi denique culpam,
Non laudem merui. Vos exemplaria Græca
Nocturna versate manu, versate diurnâ.
At nostri proavi Plautinos, et numeros, et
Laudavere sales: nimium patienter utrumque,
Ne dicam stultè, mirati; si modò ego, et vos
Scimus inurbanum lepido seponere dicto,
Legitimumque sonum digitis callemus, et aure.
Nil intentatum nostri liquere poëta,
Nec minimum meruêre decus, vestigia Græca
Ausi deserere, et celebrare domestica facta:
Vel qui prætextas, vel qui docuêre togatas.
Nec virtute foret, clarisve potentius armis,
Into their birth-right, and for fitness sake,
The steady Spondees; so themselves do bear
More slow, and come more weighty to the ear:
Provided, ne'er to yield, in any case
Of fellowship, the fourth or second place..
This foot yet, in the famous Trimeters
Of Accius and Ennius, rare appears :
So rare, as with some tax it doth engage
Those heavy verses sent so to the stage,
Of too much haste, and negligence in part,
Or a worse crime, the ignorance of art.
But every judge hath not the faculty
To note in poems breach of harmony;
And there is given too unworthy leave
To Roman poets. Shall I therefore weave
My verse at random, and licentiously?
Or rather, thinking all my faults may spy,
Grow a safe writer, and be wary driven
Within the hope of having all forgiven.
'Tis clear this way I have got off from blame,
But, in conclusion, merited no fame.
Take you the Greek examples for your light,
In hand, and turn them over day and night.
Our ancestors did Plautus' numbers praise,
And jests; and both to admiration raise
Too patiently, that I not fondly say,
If either you or I know the right way
To part scurrility from wit; or can
A lawful verse by th' ear or finger scan.
Our poets too left nought unproved here;
Nor did they merit the less crown to wear,
In daring to forsake the Grecian tracts,
And celebrating our own home-born facts;
Whether the garded tragedy they wrought,
Or 'twere the gowned comedy they taught.
Nor had our Italy more glorious been
In virtue, and renown of arms, than in
Quam lingua, Latium, si non offenderet unum-
Quemque poëtarum lima labor, et mora. Vos, ô
Pompilius sanguis, carmen reprehendite, quod non
Multa dies, et multa litura coërcuit, atque
Perfectum decies non castigavit ad unguem.
Ingenium misera quia fortunatius arte
Credit, et excludit sanos Helicone poëtas
Democritus, bona pars non ungues ponere curat,
Non barbam; secreta petit loca, balnea vitat.
Nanciscetur enim pretium, nomenque poetæ,
Si tribus Anticyris caput insanabile nunquam
Tonsori Licino commiserit. O ego lævus,
Qui purgor bilem sub verni temporis horam.
Non alius faceret meliora poëmata: verùm,
Nil tanti est: ergo fungar vice cotis, acutum
Reddere quæ ferrum valet, exsors ipsa secandi.
Munus et officium, nil scribens ipse, docebo;
Unde parentur opes: quid alat formetque poëtam :
Quid deceat, quid non: quò virtus, quò ferat error.
Scribendi rectè sapere est et principium et fons.
Rem tibi Socraticæ poterunt ostendere chartæ :
Verbaque provisam rem non invita sequentur.
Qui didicit, patriæ quid debeat, et quid amicis:
Quo sit amore parens, quo frater amandus, et hospes :
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