The Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry of Horace Part 22

PAGE 136.

The wise and good, like Bacchus in the play.

Borrowed from Francis, with a slight change in the order of the words.

PAGE 140.

In sing-song drawl, or Gnatho in the play.

"Partes mimum tractare secundas" seems to mean "to act the stage parasite," who, according to Festus, wag the second character in almost every mime. I thought therefore that I might subst.i.tute for the general description the name of a particular parasite in Roman comedy.

PAGE 144.

Let temperate folk write verses in the hall Where bonds change hands.

Strictly speaking, there does not seem to have been a hall of exchange at the Puteal, which was apparently open to the sky: but the inaccuracy is not a serious one.

PAGE 151.

While all forlorn the baffled critic stands, Fumbling a naked stump between his hands.

I had originally written

By the old puzzle of the dwindling mound Bringing at last the critic to the ground,

which of course represents the Latin better: but it occurred to me that the allusion to the sophism of the heap, following immediately on the similar figure of the horse's tail, could only embarra.s.s an English reader, and would therefore be out of place in a pa.s.sage intended to be idiomatic. Howes has got over the difficulty neatly:--

Till my opponent, by fair logic beat, Shall find the ground sink fast beneath his feet.

PAGE 151.

Enjoys his ease, nor cares how he redeems The gorgeous promise of his peac.o.c.k dreams.

I suppose the meaning to be this: Ennius, as appears from his own remains and the notices of him in other writers, began his Annals with a dream in which the spirit of Homer appeared to him, and told him that, after pa.s.sing through various other bodies, including those of Pythagoras and a peac.o.c.k, it was now animating that of the Roman poet himself. How this was connected with the subject of the Annals we do not know; probably not very artificially: Horace, as I understand him, means to ridicule this want of connexion, while he says that the critics are so indiscriminate in their praises that Ennius may well repose on his laurels, and not trouble himself as to whether there is any real connexion or no.

PAGE 152.

Just as an unfair sample, set to catch The heedless customer, mil sell the batch.

I believe I have given the exact force of the original, though the metaphor there is from a gang of slaves, where the best-looking is placed in front to carry off the rest.

This interpretation, which the phrase "ducere familiam"

seems to place beyond doubt, is as old as Torrentius: but the commentators in general reject or ignore it.

PAGE 157.

For, so he fills his pockets, nought he heeds Whether the play's a failure or succeeds.

Modern readers may wonder how the poet comes to fill his pockets if the play does not succeed. The answer is that he sold his play to the aediles before its performance.

For the benefit of the same persons it may be mentioned, with reference to a pa.s.sage a few lines lower down, that in a Roman theatre the curtain was kept down during the representation, raised when the play was over.

PAGE 166.

New phrases, in the world of books unknown, So use but father them, he makes his own.

I understand "quae genitor produxerit usus" not, with Orelli, "which shall be adopted into use at once, so that people shall fancy that they have been in use long before,"

but, with Ritter, "which shall have been already sanctioned by usage," the distinction being between words not only in common use but used in literature, and words in use, but not yet adopted into literature, and so relatively "nova."

"Father" of course I use less strictly than Pope uses it in his well-known imitation of the pa.s.sage, "For use will father what's begot by sense."

PAGE 172.

Attempts at ease emasculate my verse.

I find Dean Bagot has a line, "A want of nerve effeminates my speech."

PAGE 173.

In words again be cautious and select, And duly pick out this, and that reject.

I have adopted Bentley's transposition, simply because it happened to be convenient in translating.

PAGE 177.

Than alter facts and characters, and tell In a strange form the tale men know so well.

Many years ago I proposed this solution of a pa.s.sage of admitted difficulty in the Cla.s.sical Museum. I take "Difficile est proprie communia dicere" in its ordinary sense, "It is hard to treat hackneyed subjects with originality."

Horace then goes on to say that it is better to give up the attempt altogether and simply copy (say) Homer, than to run the risk of outraging popular feeling by a new treatment of (say) the Trojan story, or a new view of the chief characters: but that if a writer still wishes to make the attempt, he may succeed by attending to certain rules, "si nec circa vilem," &c. &c. Thus I make "publica materies" identical with "communia," and "privati juris"

with "proprie," contrary to Orelli's opinion.

PAGE 179.

Yet haste and chance may blink the obvious truth.

I am not sure whether this was the connecting link in Horace's mind; but I felt that the absence of any link would make the transition between the two sentences intolerably abrupt in English, and go I supplied a link as I best could. Macleane seems right in remarking that the remark "multa ferunt" &c. seems to be drawn forth by the dark picture of old age contained in the preceding verses, and has not much otherwise to do with the subject.

Horace doubtless felt that he was pa.s.sing middle life himself.

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