Ludere qui nescit, campestribus abstinet armis, 380 385 Id tibi judicium est, ea mens. Si quid tamen olim Et patris et nostras, nonumque prematur in annum, Quod non edideris; nescit vox missa reverti. 390 395 Publica privatis secernere, sacra profanis, Concubitu prohibere vago, dare jura maritis, Sic honor et nomen divinis vatibus atque 400 Carminibus venit. Post hos insignis Homerus, served up with honey.-379. Campestribus, of the Campus Martius.' -382. Nescit, scil. versus fingere.—383. Census equestrem summam. The accusative is unusual, but the construction must be explained on the analogy of the construction of induo, exuo, and the like. See Gram. § 259, 1, with note.-385. From this line to line 407 Horace shews that a poet must have talent, without which nothing truly great can be produced, and must also strive after the highest excellence. Invita Minerva, a proverbial expression of one who attempts anything for which nature has not given him capacity.-386. Tibi. He is addressing the elder Piso.-390. Nescit : = non potest.-391. Examples of the sublime power and influence of poets.-392. Victu foedo, eating raw flesh.-394. Dictus, scil. est.-397. Publica privatis secernere, to establish the notion of property.-399. Leges incidere ligno. Laws were engraved on wood in the earliest times; as, for instance, in the oldest legislative enactments at Athens. Afterwards tables of stone and brass were used.401. Insignis, scil. fuit.-402. Tyrtaeus, an Athenian poet, who, during the second Messenian war, was sent to help the Spartans, and by his war-songs so raised their courage and enthusiasm that they were victorious. Mares fortes.-403. Sortes, the answers of oracles," = Et vitae monstrata via est, et gratia regum 405 410 Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam, 415 Nec satis est dixisse: Ego mira poëmata pango; 420 Ut praeco, ad merces turbam qui cogit emendas, 425 430 particularly that of Delphi.-404. Gratia regum, etc. Pindar, for instance, gained Hiero's favour.-405. Ludus, dramatic poetry, which is an end of--that is, a recreation after-labour.-406. Ne forte pudori, etc. It appears that the elder of the young Pisones, after having made some not very successful attempts in poetry, was beginning to despise the art as unworthy of a statesman.-408. From this line to the end Horace shews that talent alone, without art, is insufficient to make a man a poet. An author, in forming his own opinion of his work, must beware of flatterers.-409. Vena, scil. ingenii.-414. Pythia cantat,' sings in the Pythian games.'-417. Occupet extremum scabies. The phrase is taken from boys at play, who, when starting in a race, used to declare that the winner should be embraced, and the hindmost should take scabies; that is, be disgraced.-418. Sane, 'really.'-427. Tibi: = a te.429. Very humorous. Pallescet, he will turn pale with horror,' when the hero of the poem is in misfortune; stillabit rorem; that is, will weep; and when the hero is successful, he will leap and dance.-431. It was U Et faciunt prope plura dolentibus ex animo, sic 435 440 Si defendere delictum quam vertere malles, Nullum ultra verbum aut operam insumebat inanem, Quin sine rivali teque et tua solus amares. 445 Vir bonus et prudens versus reprehendet inertes, 450 customary at Roman funerals to hire mourning women (praeficae), who wept and lamented more than the real mourners (quam qui dolent ex animo.) As to the custom, compare Carm. ii. 20, 22.-433. Derisor; namely, the flatterer just described; for he is inwardly laughing at your poem.-434. Urgere and torquere, expressions properly used of tyrants, who torture their victims; here, to try,' or prove.' 437. Sub vulpe. Those flatterers, like the fox, have a smooth face, but a bad heart.-438. Quintilius, a sincere and upright critic, is contrasted with the flatterers.-439. Negares si negares.-444. Quin is used, because the idea of hinderance-or rather of non-hinderance-is contained in the preceding line.-445. Inertes, which have no strength of thought.'-447. Signum is the mark called obelus, which the Alexandrian grammarians used to put at such passages of the ancient authors as they thought unworthy of the writer, and consequently deserving to be struck out. It is called ater, as indicating a sentence of condemnation. To make the obelus, the stylus had to be held crosswise: hence traverso calamo. 450. Aristarchus of Samothrace, who lived in Alexandria about 154 B.C., was so celebrated as a commentator on the Homeric poems, that his name was used for critic' in general.-453. Morbus regius, jaundice.' The origin of the name is uncertain.-454. Fanaticus error, frenzy,' such as that of the priests of Cybele. Quem urget iracunda Diana (here as goddess of the moon); that is, a lunatic. 6 Vesanum tetigisse timent fugiuntque poëtam, 455 In puteum foveamve; licet 'Succurrite' longum 460 Nec semel hoc fecit, nec si retractus erit, jam = 6 470 475 456. Agitant exagitant.-457. Sublimis, with his head raised proudly erect.' Errat, to be taken literally, 'goes up and down.'-459. Longum clamet, a poetical expression for multum clamet.-462. Qui scis an, 'how do you know whether.... not?'-465. Empedocles of Agrigentum, a Pythagorean philosopher and a poet. It is said that, in order that he might be supposed to have become a god, he leaped into the crater of Etna, but that unfortunately one of his shoes was thrown up, and revealed the manner of his death.-467. Occidenti = atque is qui occidit. See Zumpt, § 704.-469. Fiet homo, an allusion to Empedocles, who wished to be a god, and not to die like other men.-470. Perhaps the mad poet was driven by the gods to his rage for writing verses as a punishment for some crime.-471. Bidental, properly a place struck by lightning, and therefore enclosed as sacred.-472. Moverit = violarit. THE END. |