Tu vina Torquato move Consule pressa meo.1 Cetera mitte loqui: deus hæc fortasse benigna Reducet in sedem vice. Nunc et Achæmenio Perfundi nardo juvat, et fide Cyllenea2

Levare diris pectora sollicitudinibus; Nobilis ut grandi cecinit Centaurus alumno : 'Invicte, mortalis dea nate puer Thetide,3 Te manet Assaraci tellus, quam frigida parvi1 Findunt Scamandri flumina lubricus et Simoïs, Unde tibi reditum certo subtemine Parcæ

Rupere; nec mater domum cærula te revehet. Illic omne malum vino cantuque levato,

Deformis ægrimoniæ dulcibus alloquiis.'

EPODE XIV.

TO MÆCENAS IN EXCUSE FOR INDOLENCE IN COMPLETING THE VERSES HE HAD PROMISED.

It is impossible to say whether the verses thus promised and deferred were, as commonly supposed, the collection composed in this Book of Epodes, or some single iambic poem. The context seems to favour the latter supposition. The

Why this soft sloth, through inmost sense diffusing
Oblivion as complete

As if with parched lip I had drained from Lethe
Whole beakers brimmed with sleep?—

Thou kill'st me with that question oft-repeated--
Mæcenas, truthful man,1

A song I promised thee; to keep my promise
A god, a god forbids-

Forbids the iambics, for I have begun them,
To shape themselves to close."

Thus it is said, by love inflamed, the Teian

Lost his diviner art:

And on the shell to which he wailed his sorrow,

Music imperfect died.

Thou too art scorched; enjoy thy lot; no fairer
Flame, shot from Helen's eyes,

Fired Troy-me Phryne burns-a wench too glowing
To stint her warmth to one.

Candide Mæcenas.' 'Candide' here has the signification of honourable or truthful. You kill me-you, a man of honour-asking me so often why I do not fulfil my promise.

Ad umbilicum adducere,' is to bring a volume to the last sheet. -MACLEANE,

The beauty who inflames Mæcenas, so gracefully mentioned at the close of the poem, is, according to the scholiasts, certainly Terentia, whom Mæcenas was then either married. to or courting. And, that assumption is generally adopted by modern critics. Still it scarcely seems consistent with Roman manners, or with Horace's good breeding and knowledge of the world, that he should imply a comparison between his passing caprice for a public wanton, and the honourable love of a man of the highest station to the lady he had married, or was wooing in marriage.

CARM. XIV,

Mollis inertia cur tantam diffuderit imis
Oblivionem sensibus,

Pocula Lethæos ut si ducentia somnos
Arente fauce traxerim,

Candide Mæcenas,1 occidis sæpe rogando:
Deus, deus nam me vetat

Inceptos, olim promissum carmen, iambos
Ad umbilicum adducere.2

Non aliter Samio dicunt arsisse Bathyllo

Anacreonta Teïum,

Qui persæpe cava testudine flevit amorem,
Non elaboratum ad pedem.

Ureris ipse miser: quod si non pulchrior ignis

Accendit obsessam Ilion,

Gaude sorte tua; me libertina, neque uno
Contenta, Phryne macerat.

H H

EPODE XV,

TO NEÆRA,

This poem may have been an imitation of the Greek, but as Horace pointedly introduces his own name as that of the complainant, it must be inferred that, at all events, he meant to be understood as speaking in his own person. The probability

'Twas night-the moon shone forth in cloudless heaven Amid the lesser stars,

When thou didst mock, in vows myself had taught thee, The great presiding gods;

Closer than round the ilex clings the ivy,

Clasping me with twined arms:

'Long as the wolf shall prey upon the sheepfald

Long as the seaman's foe,

Baleful Orion, rouse the wintry billows

Or the caressing breeze

Ripple the unshorn ringlets of Apollo,

Our mutual love shall be!'

Ah! thou shalt mourn to find me firm, Neæra ;

For if in Flaccus aught

Of man be left, he brooks not halved embraces ;
Stooped to no second rank,

His love shall leave thee, and explore its equal,
The heart, in which the pang

Of the last treason once makes sure its entry,
Is ever henceforth proof

To charms which perfidy has rendered hateful,
And thou, O happier one!

Whoe'er thou art, in my defeat exulting,

Be rich in herds and lands;

bability is in favour of the supposition that it was the expression of a genuine sentiment, and addressed to a real person. Macleane pushes too far his sceptical theory that Horace's love-poems are merely artistic exercises, like those of Cowley.

CARM. XV,

Nox erat, et cælo fulgebat Luna sereno

Inter minora sidera,

Cum tu, magnorum numen læsura deorum,
In verba jurabas mea,

Artius atque hedera procera adstringitur ilex,
Lentis adhærens brachiis:

'Dum pecori lupus, et nautis infestus Orion
Turbaret hibernum mare,

Intonsosque agitaret Apollinis aura capillos,
Fore hunc amorem mutuum.'

O dolitura mea multum virtute Neæra !
Nam, si quid in Flacco viri est,

Non feret assiduas potiori te dare noctes,
Et quæret iratus parem,

Nec semel offensæ cedet constantia formæ,
Si certus intrarit dolor.

Et tu, quicunque es felicior atque meo nunc
Superbus incedis malo,