hat's left thee to be lost? thine Head
at last."

[26] In the preface, _Delectus_, Paris, 1659, ch. 2. The problem was
whether to print a large collection of epigrams, rejecting merely the
obscene ones, or to choose only the best. A middle way was taken for
these reasons: 1) there are so few first-class epigrams that a reader
who had his own opinions might think the selection too choosy; 2) the
best shines out only in comparison with what is not so good, and
examples of vice are as useful as examples of virtue, since judgement
in large measure consists in knowing what to avoid; 3) finally and
principally, the curiosity of young men would not be sufficiently
satisfied by the selection if they knew that a good many witty and
polished epigrams were to be found elsewhere. Since it was especially
necessary to keep youth from the unspeakable filth of Catullus and
Martial, who are at the same time the best writers, everything of
theirs is included except the cheapest odds and ends and filthiest
obscenities. For the writers after Martial stricter standards were
applied, for the book would have grown beyond bounds if everything
tolerable had been admitted.

[27] Martial 5.37, 1, 4-6, 9, 12-14. The lines that Nicole cuts
contain only more of the same.

[28] Martial 1.76

[29] Epig. libri tres ad Henricum ... ded. 1.67, _op. cit._, p. 131.

[30] Unidentified. The text reads: "In nive nocte vagans nuceo cado
stipite nectus, / Sic mihi nix, nox, nux, nex fuit ante diem."

[31] 1.8. 5-6.

[32] The conclusion of an epigram of ten lines, ascribed to Seneca in
_Delectus_, pp. 326-7. Lines 1-8 correspond to _Anth. Lat._, _op.
cit._, 407. 5-12. The younger Scaliger had begun a new epigram with
line 5, as also with lines 9 and 11 (ed., Vergil, _Appendix, cum
supplemento_ ..., Lyons, 1572, pp. 196-7.) The concluding sententia,
however, which Nicole quotes here and praises later in the notes to
the anthology, is from the conclusion of the next epigram, _Anth.
Lat._, 408. 7-8, which is a response to the preceding one. But the
first two-thirds of the couplet has been rewritten with the aid of
something like a _Gradus ad Parnassum_. The ms reads, "nunc et reges
tantum fuge! vivere doctus / uni vive tibi nam moriare tibi." Nicole
reads, "Mitte superba pati fastidia, spemque caducam / Despice: vive
tibi, nam moriere tibi." _superba pati fastidia_ corresponds to
Vergil, _Ecl._ 2.15; _spem ... caducam_ to Ovid, _Epist._ 15 (sive 16,
"Pari