Non agimur tumidis velis Aquilone secundo, "Non es avarus: abi." Quid? cetera jam simul isto 205 Quid te exempta levat spinis de pluribus una? 210 - 215 here is income. Unus et idem, consistently.'-204. Hence Horace belongs to the upper part of the middle class.-205. Transition to other vices, leaving avarice. A philosopher says to Horace abi, as if he had nothing more to do with him. 209. The lemures are departed spirits, who appear to the living, and trouble them during the night. The Romans had a festival called Lemuria in the month of May.-210, Natales, etc., dost thou count thy birthdays with gratitude to the gods?' and hence, art thou not afraid of death? 212. Spinis = vitiis. -213. Decede peritis; that is, die and make room for wiser men.-216. Lasciva decentius aetas; that is, youth, young people, who may frolic with more propriety than Horace, who is now advancing in years. - DE ARTE POETICA LIBER. AD PISONES. THIS poem has caused more difference of opinion among the commentators than any other of Horace's writings. Some have considered it as intended to be a complete system of the principles of poetical composition; others as merely a friendly letter; and both parties have found something to censure in it. The truth lies between the two opinions. As Horace in several of his epistles has treated of philosophical doctrines, particularly those of the Stoics, and in others has pronounced some judgments regarding the art of poetry, so here, in the easy form of a letter to friends, he gives his views of the art, formed by the experience of a life dedicated to the Muses. Hence this book is a satirical didactic poem, in which need be expected neither philosophical form and arrangement, nor any great flight of fancy. This epistle, if not the last of our poet's writings, is at least a work of his mature age, composed probably between 11 and 8 B. C., and we may suppose him to have left it as a kind of rule by which he wished posterity to try his poetry. The epistle is addressed to L. Piso, consul in 15 B. C., a man distinguished as a general and statesman, and particularly for the ability with which he discharged the duties of praefectus urbi; and to his two sons, the elder of whom was from seventeen to twenty years of age at the time that Horace wrote ita period of life at which interest in poetry very commonly develops itself. HUMANO capiti cervicem pictor equinam 1. From the beginning to line 45 Horace speaks of the necessity of preserving unity and harmony in a poem, and of the choice and arrangement of the subject. 2. Inducere, to lay on' with the pencil. The dative membris is governed by this verb.-3. Con nect turpiter atrum. We often find on ancient wall-paintings such monsters as Horace here describes. 5. Spectatum is the supine. 25 * (293) Credite, Pisones, isti tabulae fore librum Quidlibet audendi semper fuit aequa potestas.' Scimus, et hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim, Decipimur specie recti: brevis esse laboro, 10 15 20 25 30 7. Vanae species =monstra.-8. Uni formae, 'so as to make it a form of one kind.'—9. An objection.-10. Aequa, 'just, reasonable.' -12. Coëant = conjungantur.-15. The poet alludes to the practice of inserting magniloquent passages unconnected with the main subject, to serve the purpose of show, like a purple patch in a garment of less gaudy colour. He now furnishes examples.-18. Flumen Rhenum. Compare Sat. i. 10, 37; and Gram. § 210, note 1.-19. Et fortasse cupressum, etc., a proverbial expression, taken from a painter who could not paint anything well but a cypress. A shipwrecked person engaged him to paint the shipwreck, and he asked whether he might not introduce a cypress.-21. Amphora, etc., another illustration. A potter intends to make an amphora, but after he has put his wheel in motion, a jar comes forth. 28. Tutus, he who seeks to remain on safe ground, and abstains from any flight of fancy.29. Prodigialiter, so that the readers may think him a prodigy of genius.'-32. A person, to excel, must be skilled not in one branch of an art merely, but in the whole. The Aemilius ludus was a fencing-school not far from the Circus Maximus, which had been built by an Aemilius Lepidus. Unus (= unice, more skilfully than Nesciet. Hunc ego me, si quid componere curem, Si forte necesse est Indiciis monstrare recentibus abdita rerum, = 35 40 45 50 55 any other') belongs to the verbs. - 37. Spectandum, 'beautiful.'— 39. Versate, scil. animo cogitate. - 40. Potenter ita ut potens ejus sit, suitable to his powers.' 46. From this line to line 72 Horace speaks of the mode of expression and choice of words. In verbis serendis; that is, in construction.-49. Indiciis = verbis: if it be necessary to form a new word, because the idea to be expressed was unknown before (abdita rerum.)-50. Cinctutis Cethegis. Compare Epist. ii. 2, 115, and following, where the Cethegi and the Catones are named as representatives of the ancient Romans. Cinctutus is one who wears the cinctus, a sort of apron stretching from below the breast to the knee: it supplied the place of a tunica, and was in so far more convenient than it, that it allowed free motion to the hands. Hence verba non exaudita cinctutis Cethegis are words which the ancient Romans did not know. -51. Dabitur = excusabitur.-52. Habebunt fidem; that is, will meet with approval. Connect si cadent detorta (= deducta) Graeco fonte, if they shall be formed on the analogy of the Greek language.' This has reference chiefly to compounds. But this must be done parce, sparingly.' -54. Caecilio. See Epist. ii. 1, 59. The sense is: if the older poets were allowed to coin new words, modern poets have the same privilege.-56. Invideor for the regular mihi invidetur. See Gram.264, note 1, and Zumpt, 413.59. Signatum praesente nota, marked with the stamp of the present day;' a figure taken Ut silvae foliis pronos mutantur in annos, 60 65 70 75 80 from money.-60. Pronos in annos, as the years draw to an end;' that is, in autumn.-61. Before prima cadunt supply et ut.-63. The sense is: we and our works must perish, even though they are as great as those of Augustus and Julius Caesar. Augustus, in 37 B. C., that he might exercise and prepare his fleet for the war with Sextus Pompeius, free from the danger of storms, connected the Lacus Lucrinus and Avernus with the sea, and thus formed a most secure haven. The form of the land has now been quite altered by earthquakes. Caesar had formed the design of draining the Pomptine marshes, and had made a beginning. Finally (line 67), Augustus had made improvements in the course of the Tiber, which formerly used often to overflow its banks and lay waste the fields. -69. Connect stet vivax. See Sat. ii. 1, 53.-73. From this line to line 98 Horace speaks of the kind of verse which must be suitable to the character of the poetry.-75. Versibus impariter junctis; that is, a hexameter followed by the shorter pentameter. The adverb impariter is an ἅκαξ λεγόμενον. This metre was at first used only in the elegy proper-that is, only in poems of lamentation; for the word you is derived from the old Greek wail eye. Afterwards, both the metre and the name were applied also to cheerful poetry (sententia voli compos.)-77. That is, who was the first writer of elegies, a kind of poetry in which no high flight is allowed (hence exiguos), is uncertain.-79. Compare Epode 6, 13, and Epist. i. 19, 25.-80. See Epist. ii. 1, 174.-81. Alternis sermonibus; that is, for the dialogue. The chorus has lyric measures. -83. Horace goes |