FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32  
33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   >>   >|  
t be expected from one who left so few themes untouched, Apuleius is one of the most superficial of ancient writers. It has been well said of him by M. Paul Monceaux, 'Apulee est un de ces esprits encyclopediques, apres a la curee de toutes les connaissances, qui se rencontrent au commencement et a la fin des civilisations.' For the acquisition of his extraordinary reputation he needed an age and an audience in which learning and literature alike were decadent, though far from forgotten. He has none of the scientific spirit. He does not really understand the authors he quotes; he has no critical spirit, and his own investigations are prompted by indiscriminate curiosity. But he has vast stores of miscellaneous knowledge such as might delight the half-educated, and as a rhetorician he possesses a strange and debased brilliance, fired by an astonishing if disorderly imagination. The verve, the humour, and above all the welter of warmth and colour that characterize the _Golden Ass_ make us forgive the palpable degradation of the Latin language. Not less remarkable is the _Apologia_. There are few speeches of antiquity that give such a vivid impression of the character of the author and of the life of the society in which he moved. The style, it is true, is often bombastic and affected, many of the arguments are almost more puerile and absurd than the accusations, while the intense conceit and complacency of the author often make him ridiculous. A man of wide and varied knowledge, he has no depth of intellect. He is always half charlatan, and the reader is rarely free from the impression that he is taking liberties with the uncertain taste and ignorance of his provincial audience. But even the weaknesses of style and argument have their charm for the modern reader. For, if he never entirely fails to laugh with Apuleius, he certainly indulges in many a hearty laugh at him. The _Florida_ are no less superficial and bombastic, and the vanity of Apuleius is revealed even more remarkably than in the _Apologia_. But they are never long enough to be tedious, and contain much that is amusing, be the humour unconscious or intentional; and even if we can rarely give whole-hearted admiration to the style, we cannot but marvel at its dexterity, while its very _bizarrerie_ is not without its charm. This is hardly the place for a disquisition upon African Latin. It is sufficient here to say that the two main features of the style of
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32  
33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Apuleius
 

humour

 

rarely

 

audience

 

knowledge

 
reader
 
spirit
 

superficial

 

Apologia

 

bombastic


impression

 
author
 

liberties

 

taking

 

society

 

absurd

 

ridiculous

 

complacency

 

intense

 

conceit


varied
 

intellect

 

accusations

 
affected
 
arguments
 
puerile
 
charlatan
 

marvel

 

dexterity

 

bizarrerie


admiration

 
intentional
 

hearted

 

features

 

sufficient

 
African
 

disquisition

 

unconscious

 

modern

 
character

argument

 

ignorance

 

provincial

 
weaknesses
 

indulges

 

hearty

 

tedious

 

amusing

 

Florida

 
vanity