Author: Alexander Robertson Macewen

Publisher:

Published: 2015-09-27

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13: 9781330625224

Excerpt from The Origin and Growth of the Roman Satiric Poetry The treatise of Casaubon and his edition of Persius, published in 1605, contained the first exhaustive account of the origin and growth of the Roman satiric poetry. His elaborate scrutiny and shrewd sense not only appreciated but answered all vital questions. So far was he in advance of his age, that more than two hundred years passed before his conclusions were questioned. Though many volumes were written in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Ruperti, in 1801, simply reasserted on every essential point the judgment of Casaubon; and for the next thirty years his decisions were undisputed; so that in 1840 a learned critic found it "a weary task to revive discussions which had been handled and rehandled enough and more than enough." The last forty years, however, have changed the aspect of the subject. Hardly one of Casaubon's verdicts has been unassailed; hardly a year passes but some new light arises. The task may still be a weary one, but it is necessary; and the result is pleasant, for it throws us back on Casaubon, and shows that genius is as free of time in criticism as in philosophy or art. "Satira quidem," says Quintilian, "tota nostra est." Its root was as truly Roman as its growth. It arose in verse those rude outbursts in which the primitive Italians gave spontaneous expression to their mirth and mourning, to their gratitude and supplication. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.