An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams

by Pierre Nicole

The conclusion is pleasantly witty, but the special charm of the poem derives from the preceding enumeration.

This finishes the account of what we looked to in selecting these epigrams. You will find what else is pertinent to this book in the preface.

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Notes

I have silently emended a few passages; otherwise the text translated is that of Epigrammatum Delectus, Paris, 1659. It is regrettable that the Latin text, at least of the poems cited, could not be printed with the translation.

[1] De nat. deor. 2.2.5

[2] Aen. 5.481 and 8.596

[3] 177-8, 173

[4] All three passages are from epigrams by Gaspar Conrad in Janus Gruter, Delitiae poetarum germanorum, 6 v., Frankfort, 1612: II, 1065-6, lines 1-6 of a twelve line epigram, "In symbolum Iacobi Monavi"; II, 1077, the concluding lines of an eight line epigram, "Ad Valentinum Maternum"; and II, 1079, the concluding couplet of a six line epigram, "Ad Georgum Menhadum Philophilum." The second passage is hardly construable.