On spiteful epigrams.
Men with some gentleness of nature have an inborn hatred of spite, especially of such as mocks bodily flaws or reversals of fortune, or, finally, anything that happens beyond the individual's responsibility. For, since no man feels himself free of such strokes of chance, he will not take it easily when they are torn down and laughed at. The Vergilian Dido spoke with human feeling when she said: Not unaware of ill I learned to aid misfortune.[23] and the good will of the reader rises quietly in her favor. Likewise, Seneca says nicely: It is not witty to be spiteful.[24] On the other hand they act inhumanely who triumph over misfortune and upbraid what was not guiltily effected, to such an extent that they arouse a feeling of aversion and alienation in the hearts of their readers.
Accordingly we have admitted only a few of this kind, and have rejected a great many, as, for example, Owen's frigid and spiteful epigram:
Look, not a hair remains on your bright skull.
The hairs on your inconstant brow are null.
With every last hair lost behind, ahead,
What has the bald man left to lose? His head.[25]
Nor do we greatly care for many of the same kind in Martial, which nevertheless were not omitted for the reasons given above.[26]