/lit/ - Literature

>>17582024
Read Francesco Filelfo's Satyræ. The erudtion of Persius and the mordant wit of Juvenal.

>>17582024
>Facetiae - Poggio Bracciolini
Been meaning to read this for a long time now

>>17582024
Just explore jstor by looking into the “learned wit” tradition.

>>17582054
Thank you!

For some reason that reminded me of another: the Cœna Cypriani that Eco mentions in Name of the Rose.

Good to get Juvenal in here, as well. Which reminds me to mention Horace, too.

I'm completely unfamiliar with Persius. Any comments on him?

>>17582024
La Novella del Grasso legnaiuolo, very funny.
Straparola's piacevoli notte, though not all of the novelle are humorous.

>>17582109
Scaliger found him obtuse, but I find him more humane than Juvenal, who always has a foul word for his neighbor, but never for himself. Horace remains the most true and humane of all and you will come to love him more with age.

Oh dear, how'd I forget Apuleius and Petronius, too?

>>17582054
>>17582121
Thank you, as well!

>>17582145
So far I've been a Menippean most of all, as opposed to a Juvenalian or Horatian.

>>17582070
Meant to thank you (as well!).

>>17582211
Then you ought to appreciate the Apocolocyntosis Divi Claudii (Pumpkinification of the Divine Claudius) of Seneca. The only serious extant Latin work of Menippean satire.

>>17582373
That's a very good one. It's too bad that we've lost Menippus and Varro, but I'd argue we've received tinges of Menippea from Cicero, too.

Lucian's the main channel by which we've inherited Menippeanism, which via the immense enthusiasm of Erasmus and Thomas Moore and Robert Burton trickled on to the whole Scriblerian squad, and then of course to everyone else.

>>17582539
Astute observation. Are you a classicist as well?

>>17582564
Not by trade—just an accomplished dilettante.

Lately I'm mainly about the Chinese: Kongzi, Mozi, Mengzi, Zhuangzi, Laozi, Xunzi, Hanfezi, Sunzi.

>>17582615
I see. Da operam, ut totus valeas, tum corpore, tum animo and in these strange times λάθε βιώσας. Did Pound pique your interest in the Chinaman or did you discover it yourself?

>>17582659
I'm not sure what gathered all the dried grass in one place, but Zhuangzi in particular was the spark that started the forest fire. I plan to re-read him once I've finished reading his milieu.

I only just saw recently that Pound was interested in Kongzi et al....almost picked up his Pivot/Digest/Analects, last weekend. Is it good?

>>17582743
I haven't read it, I'm afraid to say. In my experience, many Anglophone readers were first introduced to Chinese poetry via Pound, so I just thought I would ask.

>>17582743
Why don't we take a brief moment to toast to our erudition, anon? Prosit. As the proverb goes:
>Alkohol, Alkohol! Du bist mein Feind: das weiß ich wohl. Doch in der Bibel steht geschrieben, man sollte seine Feinde lieben.

>>17582815
Coffee is good, and so no doubt is cocoa;
Tea did for Johnson and the Chinamen:
When "Dulce est desipere in loco"
Was written, real Falernian winged the pen.
When a rapt audience has encored "Fra Poco"
Or "Casta Diva," I have heard that then
The Prima Donna, smiling herself out,
Recruits her flagging powers with bottled stout.
But what is coffee, but a noxious berry,
Born to keep used-up Londoners awake?
What is Falernian, what is Port or Sherry,
But vile concoctions to make dull heads ache?
Nay stout itself — (though good with oysters, very) —
Is not a thing your reading man should take.
He that would shine, and petrify his tutor,
Should drink draught Allsopp in its "native pewter."
But hark! a sound is stealing on my ear —
A soft and silvery sound — I know it well.
Its tinkling tells me that a time is near
Precious to me — it is the Dinner Bell.
O blessed Bell! Thou bringest beef and beer,
Thou bringest good things more than tongue may tell:
Seared is, of course, my heart — but unsubdued
Is, and shall be, my appetite for food.
I go. Untaught and feeble is my pen:
But on one statement I may safely venture:
That few of our most highly gifted men
Have more appreciation of their trencher.
I go. One pound of British beef, and then
What Mr. Swiveller called a "modest quencher";
That home-returning, I may "soothly say,"
"Fate cannot touch me: I have dined to-day."

>>17582869
Very based. Whither is this pièce recherché?

>>17582940
Id est Calverley's Ode to Beer.