The majestic plainness of the original is weakened and impaired, by the addition of an antithesis, and a turn of wit, in the last line. 35. Primâ dicte mihi, summâ dicende Camænå, Spectatum satis, & donatum jam rude quæris, Ne populum extremâ toties exoret arenà.† St. * It has been suspected that his affection to his friend was so strong, as to make him resolve not to outlive him; and that he actually put into execution his promise of ibimus, ibimus, Od. xvii. 1. 3. Both died in the end of the year 746 U. C. Horace only three weeks after Macenas, November 27. Nothing can be so different as the plain and manly style of the former, in comparison with what Quintilian calls the calamistros of the latter, for which Suetonius, and Macrobius, c. 86, says Augustus frequently ridiculed him; though Augustus himself was guilty of the same fault. As when he said, Vapidè se habere, for male. The learned C. G. Heyne, in his excellent edition of Virgil, after observing, that the well-known verses usually ascribed to Augustus, on Virgil's ordering his Æneid to be burnt, are the work of some bungling grammarian, and not of that Emperor, adds, "Videas tamen Voltairium, horridos hos & ineptos versus non modo Augusto tribuere, verum etiam magnopere probare; ils sont beaux & semblent partir du cœur. Essai sur la Poesie Epique, c. 3. Ita vides, ad verum pulchrarum sententiarum sensum & judicium, sermonis intelligentiam aliquam esse necessariam." P. V. Maronis Opera, tom. i. p. 131. Lipsiæ, 1767. † Ep. i. lib. i. v. 1. St. John, whose love indulg'd my labours past, There is more pleasantry and humour in Horace's comparing himself to an old gladiator, worn out in the service of the public, from which he had often begged his life, and has now at last been dismissed with the usual ceremonies, than for Pope to compare himself to an old actor, or retired general. Pope was in his fortyninth year, and Horace probably in his forty-seventh, when he wrote this epistle. Bentley has arranged the writings † of Horace in the following order. He composed the first book of his Satires, between the twenty-sixth and twentyeighth years of his age; the second book, from X 3 * Ver. 1. ep. i. the † J. Masson, author of the Latin Life of Horace, does not agree to this arrangement of Horace's works; but does not seem to be able to substitute a more probable chronological order, See Hist. Crit. Repub. Lit. tom. v. p. 51. the years thirty-one to thirty-three next, the Epodes, in his thirty-fourth and fifth years: next, the first book of his Odes, in three years, from his thirty-sixth to his thirty-eighth year; the second book in his fortieth and forty-first year; the third book, in the two next years: then, the first book of the Epistles, in his forty-sixth and seventh year next to that, the fourth book of his Odes, in his forty-ninth to his fifty-first year. Lastly, the Art of Poetry, and second book of the Epistles, to which an exact date cannot be assigned. 36. Est mihi purgatam crebro qui personet aurem, A voice there is that whispers in my ear,t ('Tis Reason's voice, which sometimes one can hear,) Friend ver. 44. * Ver. 7. + He has excelled Boileau's imitation of these verses, Ep. x. And Boileau himself is excelled by an old poet, whom, indeed, he has frequently imitated, that is, Le Fresnaie Vauquelin, who was the father of N. V. des Yvetaux, the preceptor of Louis XIII. whose poems were published towards the end of his life, 1612. He says that he profited much by Friend Pope, be prudent; let your muse take breath, Lest, stiff and stately, void of fire and force, You limp like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's horse.* HORACE plainly alludes to the good genius of Socrates, which constantly warned him against approaching evils and inconveniencies. POPE has happily turned it to Wisdom's voice; and as happily has added, "which sometimes one can hear." The purged ear is a term of philosophy. The idea of the jaded Pegasus, and the Lord Mayor's horse, are high improvements on the original. A Roman reader was pleased with the allusion to two well-known verses of Ennius.† the satires of Ariosto. Boileau has borrowed much from him. He also wrote an Art of Poetry. One of his best pieces is an imitation of Horace's Trebatius, being a dialogue between him. self and the Chancellor of France, * Ver. 11. + Sicut fortis equus spatio qui forte supremo Ennius, poeta antiquus (says Jos. Scaliger, with his usual bluntness) in Scaligeriana) magnifico ingenio. Utinam hunc haberemus 37. Virtutis veræ custos, rigidusque satelles.* Free as young LYTTELTON, her cause pursue; A just and not over-charged encomium on an excellent man, who always served his friends with warmth, (witness his kindness to Thomson,) and his country with activity and zeal. His Poems, and Dialogues of the Dead, are written with elegance and ease; his Observations on the Conversion of St. Paul, with clearness and closeness of reasoning; and his History of Henry II. with accuracy, and knowledge of those early times, and of the English constitution; and which was compiled haberemus integrum, & amissemus, Lucanum, Statium, Silium Italicum, & tous ces garçons-la. The learned M. Monoye, to whom we are indebted for so many additions to the Menagiana, reads with great acuteness, Gascons-la, by which term he thinks Scaliger points out the inflated, bombastic style of Lucan and Statius. How elegantly, and even poetically, does Quintilian give his judgment of Ennius: Hunc sicut sacrós vetustate lucos adoremus, in quibus grandia & antiqua robora, jam non tantam habent speciem, quantam religionem. Lib. X, c. 1. * Ver. 17. † Ver. 29, |