Many thanks to Neven for Nicholas Modrussiensiensis; but if I may expand on my own dissertation, where I had occasion to comment on 'facetiis' at Gellius 2. 23. 3 'ita Graecarum, quas aemulari nequiuerunt, facetiis atque luminibus obsolescunt' [i.e. Roman comedies are not a patch on the Greek originals]:
To the English reader _facetus_ is a 'faux ami': it implied not schoolboyishness but polished elegance; not always even humour; cf. Quintilian 6.3.20: "Facetum quoque non tantum citca ridicula opinor consistere; neque enim diceret Horatius facetum carminis genus concessum esse Vergilio. Decoris hanc magis et excultae cuiusdam elegantiae appellationem puto. Ideoque in epistulis Cicero haec Bruti refert uerba: "ne illi sunt pedes faceti ac +deliciis ingredienti mollius+ [text corrupt, but reference is to mincing gait]." Quod conuenit cum illo Horatiano "molle atque facetum". It is allied to _urbanitas_; cf. Catullus 36. 19 'pleni ruris et inficetiarum', 22. 14 'idem infaceto est infacetior rure'. To be sure a sense of humour is not excluded (see Fordyce on Catullus 43. 8), but 'hoc etiam animaduertendum est, non esse omnia ridicula faceta' (Cicero, _De oratore_ 2. 251). In Horace, if 'facetum' is to be translated 'witty', let it be in the eighteenth-century sense rather than the twentieth. Leofranc Holford-Strevens *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* Leofranc Holford-Strevens 67 St Bernard's Road usque adeone Oxford scire MEVM nihil est, nisi ME scire hoc sciat alter? OX2 6EJ tel. +44 (0)1865 552808(home)/267865(work) fax +44 (0)1865 512237 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (home) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (work) *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
