- 著者
-
飛ヶ谷 美穂子
- 出版者
- 日本比較文学会
- 雑誌
- 比較文学 (ISSN:04408039)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.52, pp.137-151, 2010-03-31 (Released:2017-06-17)
In Chap.14 of Soseki's Sorekara (And Then) it is related that Daisuke, the protagonist, was once given the nickname ‘arbiter elegantiarum' by Michiyo's brother. Although the term not only indicates Daisuke's character but also works as a keyword to the novel, its immediate source has not been identified so far. This Latin phrase literally means ‘a judge of matters of taste’, and its origin is traced back to Tacitus’ Annals, Bk.XVI, Chap.18, as ‘elegantiae arbiter’ , the epithet of Petronius, the consul elect and chosen companion of Nero. He is also known as the author of Satyricon, a marvellous piece of Menippean satire. Soseki's library includes five works with the phrase in the text: Life of Addison by Dr Johnson, A History of Criticism by Saintsbury, Quo Vadis by Sienkiewicz, Gryll Grange by T. L. Peacock, and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Marginalia in these copies, as well as lectures and comments by Soseki, prove his close reading of them. Also he took much interest in the personality of Petronius, and was deeply impressed by his way of death depicted in the last chapter of Quo Vadis. It is to be noted that this novel and Sorekara show remarkable resemblance in some important passages. This paper aims to clarify what Soseki implied with the phrase in Sorekara, and to consider the influence of Quo Vadis, among others, on Soseki's portrayal of Daisuke as an ‘arbiter elegantiarum’ .