Erasmus, Adagia 766
TO SCRAPE THE SCAR. THE WOUND IS REFRESHED.
As we say proverbially of pain once alleviated by the delay of time but now renewed that ‘the scar is scraped again’, so too when the vexation of our mind comes back to us, we say ‘the wound is fresh again’ – with an easy transference of these sayings either way. The examples of this are so frequent that none of them ought to be repeated. Cicero in his most charming way brought out that metaphor against Clodius, who was at the time stirring up a people, already exasperated by famine, with his various seditious meetings. He said, ‘As you stand here like a nail upon this ulcer.’
REFRICARE CICATRICEM. VVLNVS RECRVDESCERE
Vt dolor iam temporis mora lenitus, quum renouatur, refricari cicatrix prouerbio dicitur, ita quum redintegratur animi molestia, vulnus recrudescere dicimus, pulcherrima vtrinque translatione. Quae exempla frequentiora sunt, quam vt vllum repeti debeat. Eam metaphoram <M. Tullius•> venustissime extulit in Clodium, qui populum fame iam exasperatum concionibus insuper seditiosis in rabiem agebat: Vt tu, inquit, in hoc vlcere tanquam vnguis existeres.
