Notes and Queries, Number 26, April 27, 1850 by Various
page 20 of 67 (29%)
page 20 of 67 (29%)
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The vindication of Pope from the charge of borrowing his well-known sentiment--"_Worth_ makes a man," &c.--from Petronius, is not so completely made out by "P.C.S.S." as it might be; for surely there is a sufficient similitude of idea, if not of expression, between the couplet of Pope and the sentence of Petronius, as given in all four of the translations cited by him (No. 23. p. 362.)--"The _heart_ makes the man," &c.--to warrant a notion that the one was suggested by the other. But the surmise of plagiarism originates in a misconception of the terms employed by the Latin author--_virtus_, _frugalitas_, and more especially _corcillum_,--which have been misunderstood by every one of these translators. _Virtus_ is applied to mental as well as bodily superiority (_Cic. Fin._ v. 13.).--The sense in which _frugalitas_ is employed by Petronius may be collected from a preceding passage in the same chapter, where Trimalchio calls his pet _puerum frugalissimum_--a very _clever_ lad--as he explains the epithet by adding that "he can read at sight, repeat from memory, cast up accounts, and turn a penny to his own profit." _Corcillum_ is a diminutive of _corculum_ (like _oscillum_, from _osculum_), itself a diminutive of _cor_, which word, though commonly put for "the heart," is also used by the best authors, Lucretius, Horace, Terence, &c, in the same sense as our _wit_, _wisdom_, _intellect_. The entire passage, if correctly translated, might then be expressed as follows: "The time has been, my friends, when I myself was no better off than you are; but I gained my present position solely by my own talents (_virtute_). Wit (_corcillum_) makes the man--(or, literally, It is wisdom that makes men of us)--everything else is worthless lumber. I buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market. But, as I said before, my own shrewdness |
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