|
|

09-28-2015, 03:35 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
Posts: 8,682
|
|
Okay, you've redeemed yourself with that one, Erik.
|

09-28-2015, 05:44 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Iowa City, IA, USA
Posts: 10,420
|
|
Since we are on a Cunningham streak, here is one of my favorites of his (content warning!), which is very Martial-like but not a translation.
Lip was a man who used his head.
He used it when he went to bed
With his friend's wife, and with his friend,
With either sex at either end.
--J. V. Cunningham
|

10-03-2015, 03:44 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 2,161
|
|
LII. — TO CENSORIOUS COURTLING (Ben Jonson)
In this epigram Jonson satirizes a spiteful "courtling" who condemns his work with a fashionable faintness of approbation, or sets himself up as a censorious critic to gain a reputation for wit. The same thing Jonson satirizes here is found in Lucian's recommendation to the courtier in The Rhetorician's Vade Mecum, Fowler: And then do not wave your hand too much-warm approval is rather low: and as to jumping up, never do it more than once or twice. A slight smile is your best expression; make it clear that you do not think much of the thing. So, Pope's "Damn with faint praise," &c. *LII. — To Censorious Courtling
COURTLING, I rather thou shouldst utterly
Dispraise my work, than praise it frostily:
When I am read, thou feign'st a weak applause,
As if thou wert my friend, but lackd'st a cause.
This but thy judgement fools: the other way
Would both thy folly, and thy spite betray.
*An Epistle to Arbuthnot
Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; [...]
.
Last edited by Erik Olson; 10-04-2015 at 12:52 PM.
|
 |
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
Member Login
Forum Statistics:
Forum Members: 8,511
Total Threads: 22,664
Total Posts: 279,474
There are 1207 users
currently browsing forums.
Forum Sponsor:
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|