Satires of Juvenal and Persius

could those be very clean, whom it so pleases to handle the unclean voluntarily and turn it in every direction? Let them not listen to me: but let them hear the ornament and light of letters, Jul. Scaliger, in his Poetices, book 3, chapter 98, writing thus:

No good man should name filth, let alone commit it to writing. For what can a youth think, who, ignorant of certain obscenities, hears words or terms so nefarious? How monstrous is the genius of those who dare to insert these into their writings? I would rather not rebuke detestable vices than deserve rebuke in execrable speech.

For what is more loathsome than certain verses of Juvenal, on account of whose insolence I would either order or wish a good man to abstain from the whole work?

There are, however, some blameless topics in which you may delight even chaste minds in this type of poem.

He said this, as indeed all other things, excellently. We have obeyed these words from the heart, so that through so many distinguished documents of character, which occur here and there in Juvenal and Persius, each person may henceforth be able to proceed with unhindered foot and mind. Enjoy these for a long time, Reader: and if you happen to notice that we have erred, as often happens, immediately remember that under the sky nothing is blessed in every part. Farewell. But, but; stop for a little while, and hear at least a few things about the Satirists and Satire, from Quintilian, book 10, chapter 1.