And, indeed, of all the special capabilities of the epigram none is more difficult to realise or more rarely achieved than the adroit handling, the suitable and easy unfolding, of the subject so that nothing is redundant, nothing wanting, nothing out of order, obscure, or tangled up in verbiage, and yet at the same time nothing too unexpected, nothing not adequately prepared for. Martial is pre-eminent in this; he develops his subjects so aptly, clearly, and perceptively that he obtains for ideas of no special note otherwise a good deal of distinction by the charm of the handling. For example, what could be more resourcefully developed than this epigram? Believe me, sir, I'd like to spend whole days, Yes, and whole evenings in your company, But the two miles between your house and mine Are four miles when I go there to come back. You're seldom home, and when you are deny it, Engrossed with business or with yourself. Now, I don't mind the two mile trip to see you; What I do mind is going four to not to.[49] And what would the following epigram be if it had not been perfected and prepared for by the handling? That no one meets you willingly, That where you come they go, that vast Areas of silence circle you-- Why so? you ask. Too much the bard. This makes it terribly, terribly hard. Who would put up with what I do? You read verse if I stand or sit; You read it if I run or sing; And in the baths you read me verse; I try the pool, and swim in verse; I haste to dine, you go my way; I order, and you read me out; Worn out, I take my rest with verse. You want to know what harm you do? Just, upright, harmless, you're a pest.[50] The conclusion is pleasantly witty, but the special charm of the poem derives from the preceding enumeration. This finishes the account of what we looked to in selecting these epigrams. You will find what else is pertinent to this book in the preface. _Notes_ I have silently emended a few passages; otherwise the text translated is that of _Epigrammatum Delectus_, Paris, 1659. It is regrettable that the Latin text, at least of the poems cited, could not be printed with the translation. [1] _De nat. deor._ 2.2.5 [2] _Aen._ 5.481 and 8.596 [3] 177-8, 173 [4] All three passages are from epigrams by Gaspar Conrad in Janus Gruter, _Delitiae poetarum germanorum_, 6 v., Frankfort, 1612: II, 1065-6, lines 1-6 of a twelve line epigram, "In symbolum Iacobi Monavi"; II, 1077, the concluding lines of an eight line epigram, "Ad Valentinum Maternum"; and II, 1079, the concluding couplet of a six line epigram, "Ad Georgum Menhadum Philophilum." The second passage is hardly construable. [5] _Ars. poet._ 141-2, the paraphrase of Homer, and 143-4. The other quotations in this passage are from the opening of the _Aeneid_, _Thebaid_, _Rape of Proserpine_, and the _Pharsalia_. [6] _Inst. orat._ 8.6.14