Post-Augustan Poetry From Seneca to Juvenal Part 35

162. Cp. p. 263.

163. Cp. the not dissimilar situation in Sen. _Oed_. (936), where Oedipus meditates in very similar style, as to how he may expiate his guilt. The couplet _vivere si poteris_, &c., is nothing if not Senecan.

164. Quint, viii. 3. 31 ('memini iuvenis admodum inter Pomponium ac Senecam etiam praefationibus esse tractatum, an "gradus eliminet" in tragoedia dici oportuisset') shows Seneca as critic of dramatic diction; there is no evidence to show what these _praefationes_ were, but they _may_ have been prefaces to tragedies. The _Medea_ (453) is cited by Quintilian ix. 2. 8. For later quotations from the tragedies, cp.

Diomedes, _gr. Lat_. i. p. 511, 23; Terentia.n.u.s Maurus, ibid. vi. p.

404, 2672; Probus, ibid. iv. p. 229, 22, p. 246, 19; Priscian, ibid. ii.

p. 253, 7 and 9; Tertullian, _de An_. 42, _de Resurr_. 1; Lactantius, _Schol. Stat. Theb_. iv. 530.

165. Cp. also the iambic translation of Cleanthes, _Ep_. cvii. 11:--

duc, o parens celsique dominator poli, quocunque placuit: nulla parendi mora est.

adsum impiger. fac nolle, comitabor gemens malusque patiar, facere quod licuit bono.

duc.u.n.t volentem fata, nolentem trahunt.

166. Some of the more remarkable parallels have been collected by Nisard (_etudes sur les poetes latins de la decadence_, i. 68-91), e.g. _Med_.

163 'qui nil potest sperare, desperet nihil'. _Ep_. v. 7 'desines timere, si sperare desieris'. _Oed_. 705 'qui sceptra duro saevus imperio regit, timet timentes: metus in auctorem redit'. _Ep_. cv. 4 'qui timetur, timet: nemo potuit terribilis esse secure'. de Ira_, ii.

11 'quid quod semper in auctores redundat timor, nec quisquam metuitur ipse securus?'-_Oed_. 980 sqq.; _de Prov_. v. 6 sqq.; _Phoen_. 146, 53; _Ep_. xii. 10; _de Prov_. vi. 7; _Herc. F_. 463, 464; _Ep_. xcii. 14.

167. The arguments against the Senecan authorship are of little weight.

It has been urged (a) that the MSS. a.s.sign the author a _praenomen_ Marcus. No Marcus Seneca is known, though Marcus was the _praenomen_ of both Gallio and Mela, and of Lucan. Mistakes of this kind are, however, by no means rare (cp. the 's.e.xtus Aurelius Propertius Nauta' of many MSS. of that poet: both 'Aurelius' and 'Nauta' are errors), (b) Sidonius Apollinaris (ix. 229) mentions three Senecas, philosopher, tragedian, and epic writer (i.e. Lucan). But Sidonius lived in the fifth century A.D., and may easily have made a mistake. Such a mistake actually occurs (S. A. xxiii. 165) where he seems to a.s.sert that Argentaria Polla, Lucan's faithful widow, subsequently married Statius. The mistake as regards Seneca is probably due to a misinterpretation of Martial i. 61 'duosque Senecas unic.u.mque Lucanum facunda loquitur Corduba'. Not being acquainted with the works of the elder Seneca the rhetorician, Sidonius invented a new author, Seneca the tragedian.

168. See ch. on Octavia, p.78.

169. Leo, _Sen. tragoed._ i. 89-134.

170. It is not even necessary to suppose with Leo that these were the earliest of the plays and that these metrical experiments were youthful indiscretions which failed and were not repeated. Leo, i. p. 133.

171. For a detailed treatment see Leo, i. p. 48. Melzer, _de H. Oetaeo Annaeano_, Chemnitz, 1890; _Cla.s.sical Review_, 1905, p. 40, Summers.

172. See p. 39 on relation of epigrams to dramas.

173. _Ann_. xiv. 52.

174. See also note on p. 42 for Leo's ingenious, but inconclusive theory for the dates of the _Agamemnon_ and _Oedipus_.

175. There is but one pa.s.sage that can be held to afford the slightest evidence for a later date, _Med_. 163 'qui nil potest sperare, desperet nihil' seems to be an echo of _Ep_. v. 7 'sed ut huius quoque diei lucellum tec.u.m communicem, apud Hecatonem nostrum inveni ... "desines", inquit, "timere, si sperare desieris".' This aphorism is quoted as newly found. The letters were written 62-5 A.D. This pa.s.sage would therefore suggest a very late date for the _Medea_. But Seneca had probably been long familiar with the works of Hecato, and the epigram is not of such profundity that it might not have occurred to Seneca independently.

176. For comparative a.n.a.lyses of Seneca's tragedies and the corresponding Greek dramas see Miller's _Translation of the Tragedies of Seneca_, p. 455.

177. The _Phaedra_ of Seneca is interesting as being modelled on the lost _Hippolytus Veiled_ of Euripides. Phaedra herself declares her pa.s.sion to Hippolytus, with her own lips reveals to Theseus the pretended outrage to her honour, and slays herself only on hearing of the death of Hippolytus. Cp. Leo, _Sen. Trag_. i. 173. The _Phoenissae_ presents a curious problem. It is far shorter than any of the other plays and has no chorus. It falls into two parts with little connexion.

I. (_a_) 1-319. Oedipus and Antigone are on their way to Cithaeron.

Oedipus meditates suicide and is dissuaded by Antigone. (_b_) 320-62. An emba.s.sy from Thebes arrives begging Oedipus to return and stop the threatened war between his sons. He refuses, and declares the intention of hiding near the field of battle and listening joyfully to the conflict between his unnatural sons. II. The remaining portion, on the other hand, seems to imply that Oedipus is still in Thebes (553, 623), and represents a scene between Jocasta and her sons. It lacks a conclusion. These two different scenes can hardly have belonged to one and the same play. They may be fragments of two separate plays, an _Oedipus Coloneus_ and a _Phoenissae_, or may equally well be two isolated scenes written for declamation without ever having been intended for embodiment in two completed dramas. Cp. Ribbeck, _Gesch.

Rom. Dichtung_, iii. 70.

178. _Sen. Trag._ i. 161.

179. Leo, op. cit., i. 166 sqq.

180. 530-658. The _Oedipus_ is based on the _O. Rex_ of Sophocles, but is much compressed, and the beautiful proportions of the Greek are lost.

In Seneca out of a total of 1,060 lines 330 are occupied by the lyric measures of the chorus, 230 by descriptions of omens and necromancy.

181. It is also to be noted that the nurse does not make use of this device till after Hippolytus has left the stage, although to be really effective her words should have been uttered while Hippolytus held Phaedra by the hair. The explanation is, I think, that the play was written for recitation, not for acting. Had the play been acted, the nurse's call for help and her accusation of Hippolytus could have been brought in while Hippolytus was struggling with Phaedra. But being written for recitation by a single person there was not room for the speech at the really critical moment, and therefore it was inserted afterwards--too late. See p. 73.

182. Similarly, Medea, being a sorceress, must be represented engaged in the practice of her art. Hence lurid descriptions of serpents, dark invocations, &c. (670-842).

183. Seneca never knows when to stop. Undue length characterizes declamations and lyrics alike.

184. As a whole the _Troades_ fails, although, the play being necessarily episodic, the deficiencies of plot are less remarkable. But compared with the exquisite _Troades_ of Euripides it is at once exaggerated and insipid.

185. Cp. Apul. _Met_. x. 3, where a step-mother in similar circ.u.mstances defends her pa.s.sion with the words, 'illius (sc. patris) enim recognoscens imaginem in tua facie merito te diligo.'

186. This speech is closely imitated by Racine in his _Phedre_.

187. 2: Cp. esp. 995-1006: the _agnosco fratrem_ of Thyestes is perhaps the most monstrous stroke of rhetoric in all Seneca. Better, but equally revolting, are ll. 1096-1112 from the same play.

188. For other examples of dialogue cp. esp. _Medea_, 159-76, 490-529 (perhaps the most effective dialogue in Seneca), _Thyestes_, 205-20; H.

F. 422-38. for which see p. 62.

189. _Pro M_. 61 'Fuit enim quidam summo ingenio vir, Zeno, cuius inventorum aemuli Stoici nominantur: huius sententia et praecepta huiusmodi: sapientem gratia nunquam moveri, nunquam cuiusquam delicto ignoscere; neminem misericordem esse nisi stultum et levem: viri non esse neque exorari neque placari: solos sapientes esse, si distortissimi sint, formosos, si mendicissimi, divites, si servitutem serviant reges.' &c. He goes on to put a number of cases where the Stoic rules break down.

190. Cp. Eurip. _Andr_. 453 sqq.

191. For still greater exaggeration cp. _Phoen_. 151 sqq,; _Oed_. 1020 sqq.

192. Cp. Sen. _Contr_. ii. 5; ix. 4.

193. Cp. Sen. _de Proc_. iv. 6 'calamitas virtutis occasio est'.

194. Cp. Sen. _Ep_. xcii. 30, 31 'magnus erat labor ire in caelum'.

195. Cp. Sen. _Ep_. xcii. 16 sqq.

196. _Ep_. cviii. 24.

197. Cp. _Macbeth_ ii. 2. 36, Macbeth does murder sleep, &c. For other Shakespearian parallels, cp. _Macbeth_, Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased? _H.F._ 1261 'nemo pollute queat animo mederi.'

_Macbeth_, I have lived long enough.... And that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have. _H.F._ 1258 'Cur animam in ista luce detincam amplius morerque nihil est; cuncta iam amisi bona, mentem, arma, famam, coniugem, natos, ma.n.u.s.' J. Phil. vi. 70. Cunliffe, _Influence of Seneca on Elizabethan Tragedy_.

198. An exception might be made in favour of the beautiful simile describing Polyxena about to die, notable as giving one of the very few allusions to the beauty of sunset to be found in ancient literature (_Troad_. 1137):

ipsa deiectos gerit vultus pudore, sed tamen fulgent genae magisque solito splendet extremus decor, ut esse Phoebi dulcius lumen solet iamiam cadentis, astra c.u.m repetunt vices premiturque dubius nocte vicina dies.

Fine, too, are the lines describing the blind Oedipus (_Oed_. 971):

attollit caput cavisque l.u.s.trans...o...b..bus caeli plagas noctem experitur.

199. pp. 52 sqq., 59.

200. Cp. Eur. _H.F._ 438 sqq.