90 SYLVA CRITICA CANADENSIUM. 



"Next, then, we shall see, if we join issue in this way, pleasures and 

 pains," &c. The surprised and indignant Ttoia<; di] xai ttSc Uysiq; with 

 which the defender of pleasure greets this home thrust, shoves that 

 the dialogue has not yet reached that easj didactic stage at which 

 any suggestion unfavourable to his client will be suffered to pass 

 unquestioned. 



9. Sophocles, Ajax, v. 416. touto ng fpovw'^ Jarm. 



These words are generally supposed to be equivalent to "hocsciat 

 qui sapit," " Let him who is wise know this." In this case, they 

 serve as a cue to the spectators. In order to see their force, it is 

 necessary to bear in mind the stage at which they are uttered. Ajax 

 has just recovered consciousness, and, after an outburst of despair, in 

 which, like Shakespeare's Du^chess of Gloster (Henry VI., pt. ii., 

 act iv., sc. iv.), he declares that henceforth "dark shall be his light 

 and night his day," and accuses all nature of being in league with his 

 foes — " long has it kept him about Troy, where he has won nothing 

 but dishonour, but no longer shall it keep him in life " — he exclaims, 

 TooTu Tiq (ppovaJv iffTco — " Tliis let me while in my right mind resolve." 

 As I take it, Ajax fears that he may again relapse into frenzy, and 

 work yet more " sorrow for his friends and laughter for his foes ;" 

 he will therefore make up his mind, while yet free from madness, to 

 die. With regard to this interpretation, I would observe that <ppovm 

 is repeatedly used with this signification in the Ajax, e. g., vv. 82 and 

 342; and rt? is often used, like our "one," not only for the second 

 and third, but also for the first person (cp. v. 245 of this play), espe- 

 cially where there is a hint of something unpleasant which is likely 

 to happen to the person indicated — -as, for instance, in the ludicrous 

 scene between Dionysus and Xanthias, in the Frogs of Aristophanes 

 (vv. 606, 628 and 664). 



10. Cicero, De Legihus, II. xxv. 62. " Gaudeo nostra iura ad 

 naturam accommodari maiorumque sapientia admodum delectorj sed 

 re[cedo] quiro, ut ceteri sumptus, sic etiam sepulchrorum modum. 

 Marcus. Eecte requiris." 



In this passage, which I have given according to Yahlen's text (as 

 being that which adheres most closely to the MSS.), the chief diffi- 

 culty lies in the words sed recede quiro, which are said to be thus 

 given in those MSS. which are generally considered to be of highest 

 authority. Yahlen's remedy would appear to be the least violent of 

 those proposed; he would read sed requiro. Halm, Klotz, and Feld- 



