Wilhelm Siegmund Teuffel

Wilhelm Siegmund Teuffel

Wilhelm Siegmund von Teuffel (C.E.1820 – 1878), German classical philologist.

History of Roman literature:

First lines:

The Romans lacked the agility, versatility and imagination of the Greeks; their merits consist in the sobriety and sharpness of thought, in the firmness and constancy of the will. Their ingenuity was directed towards the useful and also degenerated into selfishness and cunning, as their firmness into obstinacy and rigidity. In the field of politics and law these qualities produced great and lasting things; they were absolutely unfavorable to art and literature.

Quotes:

• Among the various types of poetry, drama portrays most of the Roman popular character. Like all Italians, the Romans also had a keen eye for what falls under the senses, the gift of fine observation, of lively imitation and rapid reproduction. Improvising, songs for mockery and ridicule, as well as the form of dialogues and songs reciprocally, are therefore very ancient things in Italy. (vol. I, p. 3)
• The [[Fescennino|^[sic]]] took their name from Fescennio, a village located in the south of Etruria, but are generally typical of middle Italy. They were an element of country entertainment, they were performed on happy occasions, and those who took part in them came out in mutual jokes, in rude jokes according to the coarse taste of the people and the like. This custom, which was originally also practiced at country festivals (e.g. after the harvest, at the festival of the goddess Tellure and the god of the woods), was gradually reduced to a smaller circle and limited to weddings. When, after the fall of the republic, artistic poetry appropriated the Fescennini, it removed them partly from their burlesque side, partly from their use in weddings. (vol. I, p. 4)
• [...] also the orators Asinius Pollio and [[Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus|M. ^[sic]]], who had survived the republic, one more than the other could be seen disappearing before their camp; now there was no longer any means: either one had to remain silent, or adapt to the new form of artificial eloquence that had no purpose or gravy, that is to say, declamations. (vol. I, p. 482)
• As for Asinius Pollio, he gave himself the air of being superior, especially with his criticism; and his color of political opposition meant that none of the members of the other circles, except some of the least dutiful, such as Orazio, risked meddling with him. (vol. I, p. 487)
• Domitius Afro of Nimes [...] held high offices under Tiberius and Caligula and Nero and had previously practiced in the forum, better speaker than man, although even the reputation of a good speaker abandoned him before his life. (vol. II, p. 23)
• Partly under Tiberius and partly under his successors, Phaedrus of Pieria, a freedman, published five books of Aesopian fables in well-constructed iambic senarii. The fairy tales themselves are also interspersed with anecdotes of things that happened then or not long before. The various persecutions that the author suffered caused him here and there to burst into ^[sic] of resentment. The style is fluent, in the latest books often even verbose; the serene, sometimes resentful ^[sic]; the correct language, but not without traces of time. Moreover, this collection did not come to us in its entirety. (vol. II, p. 50)
• Seneca is the most notable subject of this time. In the liveliness and agility of form he has no one similar to him, apart from Ovid: but Seneca had at the same time a lively feeling of these qualities in him; and his strength was so great that at every opportunity that was offered to him, he could not refrain from showing it, nor did it even occur to him that he would seize it. . However, it can only rarely be said that he made blameworthy use of his great talents and high status; and if his life often shows a wisdom lowered to the level of prudence, his death has the imprint of a deliberate renunciation of the goods of this life. (vol. II, p. 61)
• Even as a writer, Seneca is a faithful ^[sic] of his time, who valued splendor more than depth. He wrote in that way out of intimate conviction of his goodness, and for this he gambled the approval of the following age. (vol. II, p. 63)

Bibliography:

• G. S. Teuffel, History of Roman literature, first translation from German by the abbot prof. Domenico Favaretti, vol. I, Establishment of P. Prosperini, Padua, C.E.1873.
• G. S. Teuffel, History of Roman literature, first translation from German by the abbot prof. Domenico Favaretti, vol. II, Establishment of P. Prosperini, Padua, C.E.1873.