Rebus angustis animosus atque Fortis appare; sapienter idem Contrahes vento nimium secundo Turgida vela. ODE XI. TO QUINTIUS HIRPINUS. Who this Hirpinus was we do not know. Orelli considers it probable that he is the Quintius to whom Ep. I. xvi. is addressed. But Macleane observes that the latter appears to have been younger than the former, whom Horace addresses (v. 15) as if he were a contemporary.' But the question is immaterial; for we know no more about the Quintius of the Epistle than the Hirpinus of the Ode. What the warlike Cantabrian or Scythian, From ourselves by an ocean disparted, Take it into their heads to devise, Do not class with the questions that press. Be not over-much anxious, Hirpinus, With her beardless twin playfellow Youth. Grizzled Age, dry and sapless, comes chasing Not the same glowing face to the moon: Why to fathom the counsels eternal Strain the mind without strength for such labour? While we may; letting locks whiten under This Falernian in yon running waters? CARM. XI. Quid bellicosus Cantaber et Scythes, Quærere: nec trepides in usum Canitie facilemque Somnum. Non semper idem floribus est honor Cur non sub alta vel platano vel hac Dum licet, Assyriaque nardo Pocula prætereunte lympha ? Quis devium scortum eliciet domo Lyden? Maturet, in comptum Lacænæ More comas religata nodum. ''Levis' here means beardless,' as in Levis Agyieu,' Book IV. Ode vi. 28. 2 Quis devium scortum eliciet domo It need scarcely be said the word 'scortum' is not used here in its most uncomplimentary sense. 'Devium '-'one who lives out of the way,' as Ovid, Heroid. ii. 118, Et cecinit mæstum devia carmen avis.'ORELLI, MACLEANE. ODE XII. TO MECENAS. The Licymnia (or, as the scholiasts spell it, Licinia) celebrated in this ode was most probably Terentia, the wife of Mæcenas; and if so, the poem was evidently written within a few years after their marriage. It is not pleasant to think that the wedded happiness so charmingly described was of brief duration, and that the faults laid to the charge of the lady embittered the life of Mæcenas at its close. Some of the Ask not thou to attune to this lute's relaxed numbers Or of Lapithæ fell, and the great drunken Centaur ; And far better thy prose than my verse, O Mæcenas, Me the Muse has enjoined for the theme of my praises, Graced alike, whether joining at home in the dances, With virgins entwining the arm. the commentators have, however, doubted whether Horace could have ventured to speak so freely, as in the concluding lines, of a Roman matron of rank so illustrious as Terentia, and would therefore assume Licymnia to have been rather the mistress than the wife of Maecenas. This supposition is incompatible with the description of Licymnia joining in the festivals of Diana; and probably Horace sufficiently preserved such respect to the wife of his patron as the manners of the time required by substituting a feigned name for her own. CARM. XII. Nolis longa feræ bella Numantiæ, Aptari citharæ modis, Nec sævos Lapithas, et nimium mero Saturni veteris; tuque pedestribus Me dulces dominæ Musa Licymniæ Quam nec ferre pedem dedecuit choris, Dianæ celebris die. |