Et stellis nebulam spargere candidis. Non, si quid Pholoën satis,

Et te, Chlori, decet; filia rectius Expugnat juvenum domos,

Pulso Thyias uti concita tympano.

Illam cogit amor Nothi

Lascivæ similem ludere capreæ ;

Te lanæ prope nobilem

Tonsæ Luceriam, non citharæ, decent, Nec flos purpureus rosæ,

Nec poti, vetulam, fæce tenus cadi.

NOTES.

6. Stellis candidis.] The young and brilliant forms of your daughter and her companions.

7. Non, si quid, &c.] Not, what becomes Pholoe well enough, also becomes you.

8. Filia.] Meaning Pholoe. Filia emphatically, after her name had been mentioned.

Filia rectius, &c.] Your daughter, from her years and charms, is fitter to break, like a maddened Bacchante, into the houses, &c. 10. Concita.] Scil. furore Bacchico-or

wine.

Pulso.] Beaten by herself.

Tympano.] The head only of a drumwhat is now called a tambourine.

11. Illam.] Her, your daughter-love for

atque pulchris sideribus caliginem inspergere. Si quidpiam Pholoë convenit, haud etiam tibi, O Chlori. Nata tua aptiùs aggreditur ædes adolescentium, velut Baccha pulsato tympano 10 concitata. Eam Nothi amor adigit lascivire capræ instar petulantis. Tibi exoletæ convenit lana ad celebrem Luceriam detonsa, minimè verò lyra, aut sertum è rosis rubicundis, vel 15 amphora ad fundum exhausta.

Nothus makes her, &c.-but you have no such excuse.

13. Te lanæ, &c.] Wools shorn at Luceria become you, old as you are not lyres, nor roses, nor amphora drunk to the dregs. Lane.] Implying the labours of spinning and carding as if these were the only employments suited to old women.

14. Luceriam.] A town of Apulia-now Lucera-famed for the fineness of its fleeces. 15. Flos purpureus.] The brilliant flower of the roses-wreaths of roses at festivities.

16. Poti.] Instead of epoti-drained, especially by the music-girls, who attended festivities and were notorious for their drinking powers.

Face tenus.] 'Es rрúya. Od. i. 35. 27.

Horace again descants upon the old theme, that happiness depends not upon large possessions, but upon a mind content with a simple competency. Gold has done a world of mischief-the passion for it is insatiable, and the possession of it attended with endless anxieties. Well therefore may he shrink from enlarging his property, and be contented with his own little farm, where, though he has no luxuries, he is screened from the sordidness of poverty. Much better to contract desires than extend the supplies, &c.

1. Inclusam, &c.] Nothing is inaccessible to gold. The case of Danae is evidence of

this truth.

Turris ex ære, et validæ januæ, necnon vigilantium canum mæsta custodia clausam Danaën abundè tuebantur noctu à mœchis,

Though her father shut her up in a brazen tower, a lover forced an entrance with gold, &c. 2. Robusta.] strength.

Doors of oak-of great

-

3. Tristes.] What occasions sadness either to Danae so guarded and excluded from the approach of lovers-or to her lovers so precluded from getting to her.

Munierant, &c.] Would have protected her against lovers, &c. This use of the indicative is not uncommon, and may, in this instance, be thus explained. These things had protected her, and would still have protected her, had not Jupiter and Venus laughed at Acrisius for his pains, knowing, &c.

K

*

nisi Jupiter et Venus irrisissent Si non Acrisium, virginis abditæ Acrisium inclusæ puellæ meti- Custodem pavidum, Jupiter et Venus

culosum observatorem: quippe

viam fore securam opertamque Risissent; fore enim tutum iter, et patens

numini in aurum mutato. Au

5

Converso in pretium Deo.

10

rum solet pervadere medios cus- Aurum per medios ire satellites,

Et

todes, ac rupes frangere, vi fulminis validius. Vatis Argolici perrumpere amat saxa potentius familia interiit propter quæs- Ictu fulmineo. Concidit auguris tum. Vir Macedonius portas Argivi domus, ob lucrum civitatum perrupit, ac Reges inDemersa exitio. Diffidit urbium vidos profligavit donis. Dona irretiunt feroces navarchos. Au- Portas vir Macedo, et subruit æmulos gescentes opes comitatur solici- Reges muneribus. Munera navium tudo, et cupiditas ampliorum. O Mæcenas, equitum gloria, non sine causâ timui caput eri- Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam, gere valdè splendidum. Quò Majorumque fames. Jure perhorrui eò ampliora consequetur à Nu- Late conspicuum tollere verticem,

majora sibi quisque ademerit,

minibus.

Sævos illaqueant duces.

15

Mæcenas, equitum decus. 20
Quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit,
Ab Dîs plura feret. Nil cupientium

NOTES.

5. Acrisium.] King of Argos, who learning from an oracle that his life would be perilled by the birth of a grandson, shut up his daughter in a brazen tower. But Jupiter made his way through the roof in a shower of gold, and became the father of Perseus, who finally fulfilled the oracle by killing Acrisius, undesignedly, with a quoit. Apoll. ii. 1.

6. Pavidum.] Alarmed lest his daughter should have a son, and the fatal prophecy be fulfilled.

7. Fore enim, &c.] Supply bene norant, or something similar. For they knew well enough, that there was a sure and ready way for a divinity turned into money.

8. Pretium.] By this word, used instead of gold, the poet hints that the lover had made his way by corrupting the keepers. 9. Per medios satellites.] By bribing them, of course.

10. Amat.] As shewing its power. loves to make its way through the midst of guards, as it did through those of Acrisius; and to break through rocks and stone walls, as it did through the tower of Danae-more potently than a thunder-bolt.

11. Auguris Argivi, &c.] Amphiaraus of Argos a prophet, who knowing he should perish if he accompanied the expedition of Adrastus and Polynices against Thebes, endeavoured to conceal himself; but being betrayed by his wife Eriphyle, unable to resist a golden necklace, offered by Polynices, he finally fulfilled his fate. Alemæon avenged his father's death by killing his mother, and was himself killed by the brothers of his wife Alphesiboa, to whom he had given the same necklace, and whom, on divorcing her, he had compelled to return it.

13. Diffidit.] It splits open gates-more effectually than battering-rams.

14. Vir Macedo, &c.] The poet confirms the tales of mythology, by historical facts. Vir Macedo is Philip, the father of Alexander. It was his boast that he could take any fortress into which he could get an ass laden with gold. Hence in Val. Max. vii. 2. 10. he is said to have been majore ex parte mercator Græciæ quam victor.

Emulos reges.] Those of Epirus and Molossi especially. Justin. lib. 8 et 9.

15. Navium duces.] Alluding, apparently, to persons of his own times. Menas, for money, delivered up the fleet which he commanded on the part of the younger Pompey, to Augustus, and betrayed him in turn. 16. Savos.] Brave.

17. Crescentem, &c.] Od. ii. 2. 13.

18. Majorum.] Scil. bonorum. "Iμepos πλεόνων. Theoc. 16. 65.

Jure perhorrui, &c.] With good reason have I shrunk from, &c. To lift up my

19. Late conspicuum, &c.] head-make it visible from a great distanceto be distinguished for wealth. People are said also to carry their heads high, who are proud of their advantages, and look down with contempt upon inferiors-vavɣever.

20. Equitum decus.] Od. i. 20. 3. et Od. i. 1.

21. Quanto quisque, &c.] The more any man shall have controlled his desires, the greater felicity will he gain from the Godsthat is, the man who is content with his lot, is richer than the richest. Non esse cupidum, pecunia est-contentum vero suis rebus esse, maximæ sunt certissimæque divitiæ, &c. Cic. Paradox. vi. 3.

22. Nil cupientium, &c.] I, who have no

10" amat " has two power. as grase socase. In freek.

14. "crescentem" od 2.2.13

"beseit indulgens sibi dires by drops?

26. The at in "arat" is long bag. Jeless metrices

27.

"horreis". od. i.i.9.

"Illum, di proprio condidit hores,
"Quicquid de Lily is venitusareis?

falener

andes?

"Bandus imm. odiil. 18./

"6 fous Bandurid, plendidion votes":

silva. Sat ii. 6.2.3.

Nudus castra peto, et transfuga divitum
Partes linquere gestio,

Contemtæ dominus splendidior rei
Quam si, quidquid arat impiger Appulus,
Occultare meis dicerer horreis,

Magnas inter opes inops.
Puræ rivus aquæ, silvaque jugerum
Paucorum, et segetis certa fides meæ,
Fulgentem imperio fertilis Africæ

Fallit. Sorte beatior,

Quamquam nec Calabræ mella ferunt apes, Nec Læstrygoniâ Bacchus in amphorâ Languescit mihi, nec pinguia Gallicis

Crescunt vellera pascuis;

Importuna tamen Pauperies abest;
Nec, si plura velim, tu dare deneges.
Contracto melius parva cupidine

40 Vectigalia porrigam, Quam si Mygdoniis regnum Alyatteï Campis continuem. Multa petentibus Desunt multa. Bene est, cui Deus obtulit Parcâ, quod satis est, manu.

NOTES.