Assignment for Monday, 03-07-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, March 7, please do the following:

(1) Read G. B. Conte on Juvenal, who'll be our exemplar of imperial satire. (I'll distribute the chapter in class.) Because Conte lumps Juvenal together with his near-contemporary, Persius, you may wish to read only pages 467–8 (general context) and 474–80 (Juvenal's life and career). Do note anything that resonates with you, so we can discuss it in class.

(2) Read and translate Juvenal, Satire 1.1–30 (that is, his first Satire, lines 1 to 30). Make use of our new commentators, Rudd and Courtney, to help you through the more difficult passages. We'll be reading poem 1 in its entirety over the next four classes.

NOTE: No scansion drill this week. (You're welcome.)

DC

Assignment for Friday, 03-04-16

Dear Satirists,

A friendly reminder that the third milestone of our semester project, your topic selection, is due by 11:00 p.m. on Friday, March 4.

Details on the semester project and all of our milestones are available on our Semester project page. As noted there, your topic selection should be the result of some serious thinking, not serious speculation.

DC

Scansion of Hor. S. 1.6.102

Dear Satirists,

The question was raised last class about line 102 of Hor. Sat. 1.6.  It's a hypermetric line, a line whose number of syllables exceeds what's required for six feet.

The scansion is as follows:

ēt cŏměs | āltěr, ŭ | tī nē | sōlūs | rūsvě pě | rēgrē<vě>

(If we were marking the scansion by hand, the syllable /gre/ in regre<ve> would be an anceps.)

You can see that the addition of the second -ve at the end creates an extra syllable at the end of the line. The addition of this syllable, indicated by the angle brackets, is necessary for parallel construction: "either to the country or abroad," -ve here functioning like -que does.

The solution for lines like these is often to see whether that extra syllable might elide into the first word if the next line. It does here, as is typical:

ēt cŏměs | āltěr, ŭ | tī nē | sōlūs | rūsvě pě | rēgrē<v(ě)>
ēxīrēm…

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 03-02-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, March 2, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate Horace, Satires 1.9.52–78.

(2) Read, in preparation for our second scholarship discussion, C. Martindale (2005), "The Horatian and the Juvenalesque in English Letters" (distributed via email and with hardcopies available outside my door). Take notes on and/or highlight ideas and statements that seem interesting or relevant in light of the work we've done to date (and the work we will do for the semester project).

DC

Assignment for Monday, 02-29-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, February 29, please do the following:

(1) Navigate over to our Quizzes page, and read the following sections carefully:

• Introduction;
• Format; and
• Guidelines for Quiz 1 (due March 11).

 We'll spend some time Monday and Wednesday addressing any questions you might have.

(2) Read and translate the following:

• Horace, Satires 1.9.1–52.

Satire 9, "The Boor" (or "Bore") is arguably the best known Horatian satire. As we did with 1.6, we'll this poem in its entirety over the next two class periods.

(3) Download, print, and fill in scansion drill 4. We'll spend a few minutes discussing any trouble spots, and then I'll collect your sheets.

(3a) If you want some additional perspective on caesurae, beyond what we've discussed in class, consult the following section of the Hexametrica site:

• Scansion >>> Pauses.

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 02-24-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, February 24, please read and translate

• Horace, Satires 1.6.89–131.

DC

Assignment for Monday, 02-22-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, February 22, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate the following:

• Horace, Satires 1.6.45–88.

From Satire 5, we transition to Satire 6, the most personal and autobiographical of Horace's satires. Since we're plunging in medias res, you might find it helpful to read the beginning of the poem in English.

(2) Download, print, and fill in scansion drill 3. We'll spend a few minutes discussing any trouble spots, and then I'll collect your sheets.

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 02-17-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, February 17, please read and translate

• Horace, Satires 1.5.51–104.

DC

Assignment for Monday, 02-15-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, February 15, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate the following:

• Horace, Satires 1.5.1–51.

From Satire 4, we transition to Satire 5, "The Journey to Brundisium," which we'll read in its entirety.

(2) Download, print, and fill in scansion drill 2. We'll spend a few minutes discussing any trouble spots, and then I'll collect your sheets.

(2a) If you want some additional perspective on elision, beyond what we've discussed in class, consult the following section of the Hexametrica site:

• Scansion >>> Elision.

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 02-10-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, February 10, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate the following:

• Horace, Satires 1.4.25–62.

(2) Read, in preparation for our first scholarship discussion, F. Muecke (2005), "Rome's First 'Satirists.'" Take notes on and/or highlight ideas and statements that seem interesting or relevant in light of the work we've done to date.

DC

Assignment for Monday, 02-08-16

Dear Satirists,

For Monday, February 8, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate the following:

• Horace, Satires 1.1.61–87; and
• Horace, Satires 1.4.1–25

We're going to move from Horace's views on greed in Satire 1 to his thoughts on genre and Lucilius in Satire 4. As usual, make use of Gowers' commentary, and remember your best practices.

(2) Download, print, and fill in scansion drill 1. We'll spend a few minutes discussing any trouble spots, and then I'll collect your sheets.

(2a) If you want some additional perspective on scanning, beyond what we've discussed in class, consult the following short sections of the Hexametrica site:

• Preface;
• Rhythms >>> The Tradition, Fingers, Feet, Substitution; and
• Scansion >>> Nature, Position, Example, Syllabification.

DC

Assignment for Wednesday, 02-03-16

Dear Satirists,

For Wednesday, February 3, please do the following:

(1) Read and translate Horace, Satires 1.1.23–60 (that is, book 1, Satire 1, lines 23 to 60). Make use of Gowers' commentary to help you through the more difficult passages, and remember your best practices (which I discussed in the previous post).

DC