Page:Satires, Epistles, Art of Poetry of Horace - Coningsby (1874).djvu/227



In sing-song drawl, or Gnatho in the play. "Partes mimum tractare secundas" seems to mean "to act the stage parasite," who, according to Festus, was the second character in almost every mime. I thought therefore that I might substitute for the general description the name of a particular parasite in Roman comedy.

Let temperate folk write verses in the hall Where bonds change hands. Strictly speaking, there does not seem to have been a hall of exchange at the Puteal, which was apparently open to the sky: but the inaccuracy is not a serious one.

While all forlorn the baffled critic stands, Fumbling a naked stump between his hands. I had originally written By the old puzzle of the dwindling mound Bringing at last the critic to the ground, which of course represents the Latin better: but it occurred to me that the allusion to the sophism of the heap, following immediately on the similar figure of the horse's tail, could only embarrass an English reader, and would therefore be out of place in a passage intended to be idiomatic. Howes has got over the difficulty neatly:— Till my opponent, by fair logic beat, Shall find the ground sink fast beneath his feet.

Enjoys his ease, nor cares how he redeems The gorgeous promise of his peacock dreams. I suppose the meaning to be this: Ennius, as appears