Again:
"Feliciter is sapit, qui periculo alieno sapit."
This passage is assigned to Plautus in the Sylloge of Petrus Lagnerius, Francf. 1610, p. 312., but I cannot find it in this author.
C. H. P.
Brighton, May 12. 1851.
Perhaps it is hardly an answer to EFFIGIES to tell him that the earliest occurrence of this line, with which I am acquainted, is in a rebus beneath the device of the Parisian printer, Felix Balligault, about the year 1496. Thus:
"Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum.
Felici monumenta die felicia felix
Pressit: et hæc vicii dant retinentve nihil."
The device is a fruit-tree, from which a shield is suspended inscribed felix. Two apes are seated at the foot of the tree. The thought is, however, common to the wise and the witty of every age. Menander has it thus:—
"Βλέπων πεπαίδευμ᾽ εἰς τὰ τῶν ἄλλων κακά."