THE ART OF POETRY OF HORACE WITH TRANSLATIONS IN PROSE AND VERSE BY THE VERY REV. DANIEL BAGOT, B.D. DEAN OF DROMORE, VICAR-GENERAL OF NEWRY AND MORNE, AND CHAPTAIN TO THE ARS POETICA. HUMANO capiti cervicem pictor equinam 5 IF a painter should take a fancy to join a horse's neck to a human head, and to spread the plumage of variously coloured birds over limbs collected from animals of every country, so that a comely woman above should disgustingly terminate in a horrible-looking fish; if admitted to see the sight, could you, my friends, refrain from laughter? Believe me, Pisos, that a book would be very similar to a painting like that, of which the constituent ideas shall be formed so fanciful and absurd, like a sick man's dreams, as that neither foot nor head, neither end nor beginning, can be reduced to an agreement with one uniform and consistent model. To painters and to poets, you will say, there THE ART OF POETRY. IF some mad painter, by his fancy led, Should join a horse's neck and human head, Could you, this picture if allowed to see, Gaze on the sight from boisterous laughter free? ΙΟ Filled with absurd fantastic thoughts that seem Like the vain spectres of a sick man's dream, So that the critic cannot judge nor scan A work like this as one consistent plan. |