PREFACE. ""Tis hard to venture where our betters fail, -BYRON (Hints from Horace). The accompanying "Life of Horace," as compiled from the more strictly biographical features of his writings, is sufficiently explained by the introduction and notes thereto: the longer poems, such as the Epistle to the Pisos, or Art of Poetry, etc. and the fragments of more general character, having been added as appropriately, however partially, illustrating some of his characteristic views and philosophy. Satire 1. V, with the essay thereon, or "The Famous Journey of Horace," is a reprint kindly authorized by the Bibliophile Society: hence its present appearance, with a separate introduction, in somewhat irregular sequence. The metaphrastic method of translation here adopted is novel as regards a faithful adherence not only to the line, but largely to the word, as well as phrase order of the original text, with which a close comparison is invited. In the matter of structure, it has not been sought to do more than fairly approximate the difficult metrical forms of the models, since these appear to be unattainable, in any practicable sense, in English translations. The work, generally, is designed to meet some of the chief objections and difficulties affecting the more conventional translation renderings of Horatian poems which are discussed by the authorities cited in the Appendix. And, in seeking thus to avoid the distortion, personal obtrusion, and irrelevant jingle which, in one form or another, so often attend the rhyming translations, and, as well, the colorless aloofness necessarily characterizing mere prose versions, whatever risk there may be of a certain mechanical effect, or of occasional obscurity, has been frankly accepted. Especially as this latter feature, the obscurity, namely, is equally to be found in the work of both commentators and prose translators-notwithstanding an ample freedom of textual arrangement which the latter enjoy-and, for its correction involves a dangerous, as well as presumptuous, assumption of authority. Drawbacks of the kind last here referred to inevitably attend metaphrastic renderings of the classic structures, but nevertheless such renderings would seem to be most consistent with loyalty to the author, or, at worst, the better choice between necessary evils. The more so if the work of the translator is carried out in a consistently faithful and self-effacing spirit; with due rejection of his everpresent temptation to convert the model into either a personal gloss, or a palimpsest. Such treatment, aside from any shortcomings of its present experimental application, would seem to be reasonably workable with the longer poems--what Horace styled his sermoni propiora, or nearer prose than verse— however doubtful its sufficiency where the more compact and dainty exhibitions of his art are concerned. But, in any case, it should afford assistance to beginners, and to those who seek a revival of half-forgotten acquaintance with the Horatian masterpieces, however inadequate as reproductions these or any translations must necessarily be. In point of fact, the lack of material of this sort to assist my own beginnings or further wanderings in classical poetic literature, together with an increasing impatience over the fantastic inadequacy of the accepted rhyming translations, may account for and perhaps excuse the work here found. A work which has none the less been an agreeable diversion in the course of somewhat active professional occupations, and chiefly possible during the comparative leisure of "a chance of travel" of recent years in remote regions. The present collection and printing of my efforts is in the nature of a ballon d'essai; for better scrutiny, and as a test of practicability and usefulness, before considering a like but more comprehensive treatment of the same material now invited by publishers, and which may be a possibility, amid the chances of the future. Whether translations of the kind are worth doing, is, of course, the essential element of my present experiment, but that the Horatian matter which they concern is of ever fresh and continuing interest, and that any simplification of its use and approach is desirable, will hardly be gainsaid. For truly, of all the ancients who are measurably within our reach, Quintus Horatius Flaccus is the most agreeable and remunerative. Grant that his philosophy--other, perhaps, than of criticism--was not profound: his own convictions equally fathomable; that his dramatis personae were few, with sentiments of somewhat monotonous reiteration; even his love affairs-like the mellifluous names of those concerned therein—of but postiche suggestion, and yet the charm, wit, interest and other attractions of our ancient poet remain. Or grant, further, that what he himself took chiefest pride in—his deft and dainty transplanted Grecian metres, are now, for most of us, unattainable, or of but academic interest; that personally he was unstrenuous-as having left his shield on the danger line, and thereafter sheltering behind a patron—that he may be said to have napped, where Homer would have been content with the nod, and yet, there still exists for us the genial, enlightened man of the world-the guide, companion, friend and gentleman. It is in these agreeable and highly sufficient aspects, that, throughout the centuries, men of any and every day, and under all circumstances, have turned, and will continue to turn to Horace with interest and affection, and with reward. This too, whether in moments of mere ennui, or of actual strain; in distress, or even under more tragic conditions, as for example, Cornelius De Witt, when confronting his murderous mob; Condorcet, perishing in the straw of his filthy cell; Herrick, at his far-away old British revels; Leo, during his last days of the Vatican, and a thousand others, in numberless instances. Horace's famous Monument will doubtless long survive, in spite of the destructive vagaries of the rhyming translators: perhaps even without the aid of some of us, of different and more respectful practice, who seek to correct their ill doings. But surely the kind old Poet will never take it amiss, if any who wander near his shrine may lend a sympathetic hand in effort to keep down some of the rampant weeds that clog its better view. Various ancient MSS. of Horace have been preserved, but none apparently of earlier date than the ninth century. The Scholia—of Helenius Acron, Pomponius Porphyrion, etc.-although extant in comparatively late MSS., are commonly accepted as dating in their original form from the third to the fifth century; the Vita Horatii, attributed to Suetonius belonging to the period of about a century after the death of its subject. The Blandinius Vetustissimus, or well-known "V" of commentators, was one of four MSS. of Horace, attributed to the early part of the ninth century, which perished in the sack of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter in monte Blandino (Blankenberg, near Ghent) in 1566 and to which Cruquius, a professor at Bruges, had access in preparing his editions-issued from 1565 to 1578. The title editio princeps is usually conferred upon an unnamed and undated edition of the poet which is supposed to have been published by Zarotus at Milan in 1470. What is now in general acceptance as the proper arrangement of Horace's various works begins with the four books of Odes (Carmina) and follows with the Sacred Hymn (Carmen Saeculare) one book of Epodes (Epodon) two of Satires (Satirae) two of Epistles (Epistulae) and the Art of Poetry, or Epistle to the Pisos (Ars Poetica, or Liber De Arte Poetica) although in some of the earlier editions the epistles are placed before the satires and the present order otherwise varied. Of these works the Satires-from Satura, a sort of medley, although Horace himself chiefly called them Sermones-are accepted as having been the first to be written and published; the three first books of odes being grouped together, and the third of these assumed to mark the poet's maturest work and highest flight. The Epodes, although styled by Horace Iambi, have acquired their present name 66 from the brevity of the alternate verse of the couplet (as of an echo of the longer, next preceding one) and are classified in period of composition with the less-finished Satires. Both Satires and Epodes thus appear to have been published between B. C. 35 and 30-when Horace was in the period of his sermoni propiora, or poems nearer prose than verse"-and the three first books of the Odes to have followed about B. C. 27, with the Epistles coming somewhat irregularly thereafter. The Carmen Saeculare, a sort of poet-laureate-composition, at Imperial command, is readily assigned to B. C. 17,* and, as will be seen, the Ars Poetica is by some authorities deemed to have been the latest, as well as an unfinished work, perhaps first published after the author's death. This latter poem indeed is often classified as the third of the Epistles of the second book, although apparently without sufficient grounds for certainty in such definition. On the general subject of Horace, and the evolution of his poetical product, Dean Wickham finds it "characteristic of the man that his Satires should mellow and humanize into the Epistles, and that the Epodes should drop so early their ΐαμβικη ιδέα, and soften and generalize into the Odes. The process in both cases is nearly complete before the name of the composition is changed." It will be observed that the Exegi Monumentum Ode (3. XXX)here used by way of introduction-appears at the end of the third book of Odes, and, in its terms, indicates a completed work or finished group of poems. This latter collection is appropriately preceded by an introductory dedication to Maecenas who by this time-fortunately for the world at large, as well as for our poet-had assured to the latter, by the gift of the Sabine Farm and otherwise, an ease of circumstance compatible with leisurely and finished production. * Vide the inscription in regard to the Secular Games which was discovered at Rome while excavating near the bank of the Tiber in 1890; a record containing, among other details in addition to the above date, the statement that the famous hymn of the ancient occasion was the work of Horace: "carmen composuit Q. Horatius Flaccus". |