Post-Augustan Poetry

ښThe Project Gutenberg EBook of Post-Augustan Poetry, by H.E. Butler
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Title: Post-Augustan Poetry
From Seneca to Juvenal
Author: H.E. Butler
Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9303]?[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]?[This file was first posted on September 19, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
? START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POST-AUGUSTAN POETRY ***
Produced by Keren Vergon, Tapio Riikonen, and PG Distributed Proofreaders.
POST-AUGUSTAN POETRY
From Seneca to Juvenal
By
H.E. BUTLER, Fellow of New College
PREFACE
I have attempted in this book to provide something of an introduction to the poetical literature of the post-Augustan age. Although few of the writers dealt with have any claim to be called poets of the first order, and some stand very low in the scale of poetry, as a whole the poets of this period have suffered greater neglect than they deserve. Their undeniable weaknesses tend in many cases to obscure their real merits, with the result that they are at times either ignored or subjected to unduly sweeping condemnation. I have attempted in these pages to detach and illustrate their excellences without in any way passing over their defects.
Manilius and Phaedrus have been omitted on the ground that as regards the general character of their writings they belong rather to the Augustan period than to the subsequent age of decadence. Manilius indeed composed a considerable portion of his work during the lifetime of Augustus, while Phaedrus, though somewhat later in date, showed a sobriety of thought and an antique simplicity of style that place him at least a generation away from his contemporaries. The authorities to whose works I am indebted are duly acknowledged in the course of the work. I owe a special debt, however, to those great works of reference, the Histories of Roman Literature by Schanz and Teuffel, to Friedl?nder's Sittengeschichte, and, for the chapters on Lucan and Statius, to Heitland's Introduction to Haskin's edition of Lucan and Legras' _Théba?de de Stace_. I wish particularly to express my indebtedness to Professor Gilbert Murray and Mr. Nowell Smith, who read the book in manuscript and made many valuable suggestions and corrections. I also have to thank Mr. A.S. Owen for much assistance in the corrections of the proofs.
My thanks are owing to Professor Goldwin Smith for permission to print translations from 'Bay Leaves', and to Mr. A.E. Street and Mr. F.J. Miller and their publishers, for permission to quote from their translations of Martial (Messrs. Spottiswoode) and Seneca (Chicago University Press) respectively.
H.E. BUTLER.
November, 1908.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE DECLINE OF POST-AUGUSTAN POETRY
Main characteristics, p. 1.?The influence of the principate, p. 1.?Tiberius, p. 2.?Caligula, p. 4.?Claudius, p. 5.?Nero, p. 6.?Decay of Roman character, p. 9.?Peculiar nature of Roman literature, p. 10.?Greatness of Augustan poets a bar to farther advance, p. 11. Roman education: literary, p. 12;?rhetorical, p. 14.?Absence of true educational spirit, p. 16.?Recitations, p. 18.?Results of these influences, p. 19.
CHAPTER II
DRAMA
i. THE STAGE.?Drama never really flourishing at Rome, p. 23.?Comedy, represented by Mime and Atellan farce, p. 24.?Legitimate comedy nearly extinct, p. 25.?Tragedy replaced by salticae fabulae, p. 26;?or musical recitations, p. 28.?Pomponius Secundus, p. 29.?Curiatius Maternus, p. 30.
ii. SENECA: his life and character, p. 31.?His position in literature, p. 35.?His epigrams, p. 36.?His plays, p. 39.?Their genuineness, p. 40.?The Octavia, Oedipus, Agamemnon,_ and _Hercules Oetaeus, p. 41. Date of the plays, p. 43.?Their dramatic value, p. 44.?Plot, p. 45.?Descriptions, p. 48.?Declamation, p. 49;?at its best in Troades_ and _Phaedra, p. 51.?Dialogue, p. 55.?Stoicism, p. 58.?Poetry (confined mainly to lyrics), p. 63.?Cleverness of the rhetoric, p. 65.?Sententiae, p. 68.?Hyperbole, p. 69.?Diction and metre; iambics, p. 70;?lyrics, p. 71.?Plays not written for the stage, p. 72.?Influence on later drama, p. 74.
iii. THE OCTAVIA. Sole example of fabula praetexta, p. 74.
Plot, p. 75.?Characteristics, p. 76.?Date and authorship, p. 77.
CHAPTER III
PERSIUS
Life, p. 79.?Works, p. 81.?Influence of Lucilius, p. 83;?of Horace, p. 84.?Obscurity, p. 85.?Qualifications necessary for a satirist; Persius' weakness through lack of them, p. 87.?Success in purely literary satire, p. 88.?Lack of close observation of life, p. 90.?Persius' nobility of character, p. 91.?His Stoicism, p.