Sosoon hath AsiaticusThe gift of eloquence achieved?It was in Thebes it happened thus,The story well may be believed.Ammianus.
Sosoon hath AsiaticusThe gift of eloquence achieved?It was in Thebes it happened thus,The story well may be believed.Ammianus.
Ammianus.
Thestatue of an advocate, as like as like can be.And why? The statue cannot speak a word, no more could he.Anon.
Thestatue of an advocate, as like as like can be.And why? The statue cannot speak a word, no more could he.Anon.
Anon.
Paul, dost thou wish to make thy boyAn advocate like these his betters?Then let him not his time employTo useless ends in learning letters.Ammianus.
Paul, dost thou wish to make thy boyAn advocate like these his betters?Then let him not his time employTo useless ends in learning letters.Ammianus.
Ammianus.
Theparties were as deaf as deaf could be,The judge was far the deafest of the three.Said plaintiff, "Sir, I ask for five months' rent."Defendant, "Grinding corn all night I spent.""Why," quoth the judge, "dispute? Your mother's claimIs good, and you must both support the dame."Nicarchus.
Theparties were as deaf as deaf could be,The judge was far the deafest of the three.Said plaintiff, "Sir, I ask for five months' rent."Defendant, "Grinding corn all night I spent.""Why," quoth the judge, "dispute? Your mother's claimIs good, and you must both support the dame."Nicarchus.
Nicarchus.
Rememberjustice and her yoke, and knowThat 'gainst the wicked votes of "Guilty" go.Thou trustest in thy cunning speech, thy powerOf speaking words that vary with the hour.Hope what thou wilt, thy trifling tricks are vain,Thou canst not make the path of law less plain.Agathias.
Rememberjustice and her yoke, and knowThat 'gainst the wicked votes of "Guilty" go.Thou trustest in thy cunning speech, thy powerOf speaking words that vary with the hour.Hope what thou wilt, thy trifling tricks are vain,Thou canst not make the path of law less plain.Agathias.
Agathias.
Onceto Diodorus came a client in a state of doubt,And to that most learned counsel thus he set the matter out:"Alpha Beta found a slave-girl who had run away from me:To a slave of his he wed her, though she was my property,Well he knew she was my chattel; she has had a child or two;Now I cannot tell for certain whose the children are, can you?"Diodorus thought, consulted all authorities on "Slave,"To his client turned his furrowed brows and slowly answer gave:"'Tis to you or to the other who, you say, has done you wrong,That the children of the handmaid rightfully of course belong,Your best plan will be the matter in the proper court to place,So you'll get a good opinion whether you have any case."Agathias.
Onceto Diodorus came a client in a state of doubt,And to that most learned counsel thus he set the matter out:"Alpha Beta found a slave-girl who had run away from me:To a slave of his he wed her, though she was my property,Well he knew she was my chattel; she has had a child or two;Now I cannot tell for certain whose the children are, can you?"Diodorus thought, consulted all authorities on "Slave,"To his client turned his furrowed brows and slowly answer gave:"'Tis to you or to the other who, you say, has done you wrong,That the children of the handmaid rightfully of course belong,Your best plan will be the matter in the proper court to place,So you'll get a good opinion whether you have any case."Agathias.
Agathias.
"GoodHermes, only just one cabbage plant.""Stop, stop, my thieving traveller, you can't.""What, grudge me one poor cabbage! is it so?""Nay, I don't grudge it, but the law says no.The law says, Keep your itching palms, d'ye see,From meddling with another's property.""Well, this beats anything I ever saw!Hermes against a thief invokes the law."Philippus.
"GoodHermes, only just one cabbage plant.""Stop, stop, my thieving traveller, you can't.""What, grudge me one poor cabbage! is it so?""Nay, I don't grudge it, but the law says no.The law says, Keep your itching palms, d'ye see,From meddling with another's property.""Well, this beats anything I ever saw!Hermes against a thief invokes the law."Philippus.
Philippus.
Pupilsseven of Aristides,Tell me, how are ye?Four of you are walls, beside isNought but benches three.
Pupilsseven of Aristides,Tell me, how are ye?Four of you are walls, beside isNought but benches three.
Another Version
Seven pupils of the rhetorAristides, how are ye?Seven!Hoc et nihil præter,Four are walls and benches three.Anon.
Seven pupils of the rhetorAristides, how are ye?Seven!Hoc et nihil præter,Four are walls and benches three.Anon.
Anon.
"Lendme sestertia, Caius, only twenty,'Tis no great thing for you who roll in plenty."He was an old companion, and his coffersWere full enough to stand such friendly offers."Go, plead in court," said he; "'tis pleadings pay us.""I want your money, not your counsel, Caius."Martial, ii. 30.
"Lendme sestertia, Caius, only twenty,'Tis no great thing for you who roll in plenty."He was an old companion, and his coffersWere full enough to stand such friendly offers."Go, plead in court," said he; "'tis pleadings pay us.""I want your money, not your counsel, Caius."Martial, ii. 30.
Martial, ii. 30.
'Tissaid that some bold advocateHas dared to criticise my poem,His name I have not learned, his fateWill be a warning when I know him.Martial, v. 33.
'Tissaid that some bold advocateHas dared to criticise my poem,His name I have not learned, his fateWill be a warning when I know him.Martial, v. 33.
Martial, v. 33.
Noclaim for trespass do I bring,Or homicide, or poisoning.I claim that by my neighbour's theftOf she-goats three I was bereft.The judge of course wants evidence,But you go wandering far from thence,And with a mighty voice declaimOf Mithridates and the shameOf Cannæ, and the lies of oldThat Punic politicians told.And why should you pass Sylla by,The Marii and Mucii?When, Postumus, d'ye hope to reachMy stolen she-goats in your speech?Martial, vi. 19.
Noclaim for trespass do I bring,Or homicide, or poisoning.I claim that by my neighbour's theftOf she-goats three I was bereft.The judge of course wants evidence,But you go wandering far from thence,And with a mighty voice declaimOf Mithridates and the shameOf Cannæ, and the lies of oldThat Punic politicians told.And why should you pass Sylla by,The Marii and Mucii?When, Postumus, d'ye hope to reachMy stolen she-goats in your speech?Martial, vi. 19.
Martial, vi. 19.
Isthis advocacy, Cinna, this a type of lawyers' powers,This immense oration, Cinna, some nine words in some ten hours?Waterclocks I grant you asked for, Cinna, yes, you called for four;There you stopped, such wealth of silence, Cinna, ne'er was seen before.Martial, viii. 7.
Isthis advocacy, Cinna, this a type of lawyers' powers,This immense oration, Cinna, some nine words in some ten hours?Waterclocks I grant you asked for, Cinna, yes, you called for four;There you stopped, such wealth of silence, Cinna, ne'er was seen before.Martial, viii. 7.
Martial, viii. 7.
A thousanddoubts and pleadings in a dayAre filed in Empress Reason's court supremeBy angry Love—his eyes with anger gleam."Which of us twain hath been more faithful, say.'Tis all through me that Cino can displayThe sail of fame on life's unhappy stream.""Thee," quoth I, "root of all my woe I deem,I found what gall beneath thy sweetness lay."Then he: "Ah, traitorous and truant slave!Are these the thanks thou renderest, ingrate,For giving thee a maid without a peer?""Thy left," cried I, "slew what thy right hand gave.""Not so," said he. The judge, "Your wrath abate.I must have time to give true judgment here."Cino da Pistoia.
A thousanddoubts and pleadings in a dayAre filed in Empress Reason's court supremeBy angry Love—his eyes with anger gleam."Which of us twain hath been more faithful, say.'Tis all through me that Cino can displayThe sail of fame on life's unhappy stream.""Thee," quoth I, "root of all my woe I deem,I found what gall beneath thy sweetness lay."Then he: "Ah, traitorous and truant slave!Are these the thanks thou renderest, ingrate,For giving thee a maid without a peer?""Thy left," cried I, "slew what thy right hand gave.""Not so," said he. The judge, "Your wrath abate.I must have time to give true judgment here."Cino da Pistoia.
Cino da Pistoia.
[Imitated by Petrarch in the conclusion of the Canzone,Quell' antico mio dolce empio signore.]
[Imitated by Petrarch in the conclusion of the Canzone,Quell' antico mio dolce empio signore.]
Tellme, proud Rome, why dost these edicts read,These many laws by prince or people made,Or answers by the prudent duly weighed,When now thou canst the world no longer lead?Thou readest, sad one, of each ancient deedWhere thy unconquered sons their might displayed,Afric and Egypt at thy feet were laid,But slavery, not rule, is now thy meed.What boots it that thou wast of old a queen,And over foreign nations heldest rein,If thou and all thy fame no more exist?Forgive me, God, if all my days have beenDevoted to man's laws, unjust and vainUnless Thy law within the heart be fixed.Cino da Pistoia.
Tellme, proud Rome, why dost these edicts read,These many laws by prince or people made,Or answers by the prudent duly weighed,When now thou canst the world no longer lead?Thou readest, sad one, of each ancient deedWhere thy unconquered sons their might displayed,Afric and Egypt at thy feet were laid,But slavery, not rule, is now thy meed.What boots it that thou wast of old a queen,And over foreign nations heldest rein,If thou and all thy fame no more exist?Forgive me, God, if all my days have beenDevoted to man's laws, unjust and vainUnless Thy law within the heart be fixed.Cino da Pistoia.
Cino da Pistoia.
Ah! justice is a virtue bepraised and full of worth,It castigates the sinner, and peoples all the earth,And kings with care should guard it—instead they now forgetThe gem that is most precious in all the coronet.Some think they may do justice by cruelty, I wist;But 'tis an evil counsel, for justice must consistIn showing deeds of mercy, in knowledge of the truth,And executing judgment it executes with ruth.Pedro Lopez de Ayala.
Ah! justice is a virtue bepraised and full of worth,It castigates the sinner, and peoples all the earth,And kings with care should guard it—instead they now forgetThe gem that is most precious in all the coronet.Some think they may do justice by cruelty, I wist;But 'tis an evil counsel, for justice must consistIn showing deeds of mercy, in knowledge of the truth,And executing judgment it executes with ruth.Pedro Lopez de Ayala.
Pedro Lopez de Ayala.
Gloryand gain thus mixed distract the thought,We owe to honour all, to fortune nought;The poet, like the soldier, scorns for payPeruvian gold, but seeks the wreath of bay.How is the advocate the poet's peer?The poet's glory is complete and clear;He far outlives the advocate's renown,Patru is e'en by Scarron's name weighed down.The bar of Greece and Rome you point me out,A bar that trained great men, I do not doubt,For then chicane with language void of senseHad not deformed the law and eloquence.Purge the tribune of all this monstrous growth,I mount it, and my soul will sink, though loth,Will yield to fortune and will speak in prose.But since reform in this so slowly grows,Leave me my tastes, for I aspire to beBy verse ennobled to posterity,To hold first place in arts above the law,More grave and noble than it ever saw.Fraud in this age of ours unpunished canTread down the equity so dear to man.Can you for spirits just and generous findA fairer cause to plead before mankind?Mother or stepmother let Fortune be,The theatre and not the bar for me;For client virtue, truth for counsel's wage;For judge the present and the coming age.Piron,La Métromanie, Act iii. Sc. 7.
Gloryand gain thus mixed distract the thought,We owe to honour all, to fortune nought;The poet, like the soldier, scorns for payPeruvian gold, but seeks the wreath of bay.How is the advocate the poet's peer?The poet's glory is complete and clear;He far outlives the advocate's renown,Patru is e'en by Scarron's name weighed down.The bar of Greece and Rome you point me out,A bar that trained great men, I do not doubt,For then chicane with language void of senseHad not deformed the law and eloquence.Purge the tribune of all this monstrous growth,I mount it, and my soul will sink, though loth,Will yield to fortune and will speak in prose.But since reform in this so slowly grows,Leave me my tastes, for I aspire to beBy verse ennobled to posterity,To hold first place in arts above the law,More grave and noble than it ever saw.Fraud in this age of ours unpunished canTread down the equity so dear to man.Can you for spirits just and generous findA fairer cause to plead before mankind?Mother or stepmother let Fortune be,The theatre and not the bar for me;For client virtue, truth for counsel's wage;For judge the present and the coming age.Piron,La Métromanie, Act iii. Sc. 7.
Piron,La Métromanie, Act iii. Sc. 7.
MORRISON AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.