In arranging his 7. Arrangement and Character of the Odes. lyrics for publication, Horace placed at the beginning eleven odes, each in a different metre, illustrating all the measures employed by him in the three books with the exception of the unique rhythms in 2, 18; 3, 12.1 Within this group certain other principles of arrangement can be detected. The first word is Maecenas, and the opening poem virtually dedicates the three books to their author's friend and patron, to whom he had already inscribed his Satires and Epodes. The second ode celebrates Octavian as the divine restorer of order in the state; the third is a farewell poem to Vergil; the fourth is addressed to Sestius, consul in the year of publication. The others are arranged to secure variety in subject as well as measure, a principle that is observed generally throughout the three books, so that grave themes are relieved by light, and a succession of similar metres is for the most part avoided. The second book opens with an ode to Asinius Pollio, celebrating his literary powers and touching sadly on the Civil Wars of which Pollio was about to undertake a history. In the first six odes of the third book, Horace comes forward as the teacher of the new generation, and deals earnestly with the problems and dangers of the state. This is the largest group of odes on related themes, and the Alcaic metre is used in all; but, as if to avoid wearying his reader, Horace did not insert another ode in the same measure until the seventeenth. He had also some regard for chronological sequence, but this was always subordinate to the principle of variety. Each book, too, has certain characteristics. In the first there are a larger number of studies from the Greek than in the other two; about half the odes are on themes of love and wine; nowhere is any serious philosophy of life presented; and only five (2, 12, 14, 35, 37) show deep concern with the state. As if to emphasize his character as the singer of light themes, and at the same time to offset the serious notes in odes 35 and 37, Horace 1 The tenth ode, while in Sapphic measure like the second, still exhibits certain metrical peculiarities. placed at the end of his book the dainty verses, Persicos odi, puer, apparatus, which picture him at ease and free from care. The odes of the second book show more reflection, a deeper sense of the poet's personal relationship to his friends, a more serious and a graver attitude toward life. His didactic odes here lay stress on wise conduct, and the checking of untoward desires, rather than on the means of securing enjoyment. The twenty odes, with two exceptions, are composed in the Alcaic and Sapphic measures. In the third book, Horace appears as the poet of the new Rome established by Augustus. He shows a conscious pride in his position as the priest of the Muses, and his didactic odes have a graver and severer tone; yet he relieves his serious themes here, as in the other books, by lighter and charming verses nowhere excelled. The unity of the entire collection he emphasized by the form of his epilogue in which he repeats the lesser Asclepiadic measure used in the opening ode of the first book, but not elsewhere in the first three books. With proud assurance he claims that by his verse he has defeated death itself and won immortal fame. 8. The First Book of Epistles. With the publication of his odes, in 23 B.C., Horace seems to have felt that his great work was done, and for some years he wrote no lyrics; he did, however, return to his earlier habit of recording in verse his observations on life and manners, sermones, which he now presented in the form of epistles. In some the epistolary form is only a cloak, but others. are genuine letters, one a letter of introduction. Some offer a practical philosophy of life, others give rules of conduct, still others celebrate the delights of quiet country life, one is in praise of wine. The opening letter is to Maecenas, and announces Horace's intention to abandon poetry and devote himself to philosophy. The collection, twenty epistles in all, was published after the middle of 20 B.C. Horace 9. The Carmen Saeculare and Fourth Book of Odes. was not allowed to desert the lyric muse, The death of Vergil in 19 B.C. left him the chief poet of his day, and even those who had long scoffed at the freedman's son were at last ready to acknowledge his preeminence. His position received official recognition in 17 B.C. from the Emperor, who commissioned him to write a hymn for the great Secular festival of that year. A little more than two years later, at the personal request of Augustus, he celebrated the victories of the young Neros, Tiberius and Claudius, over the Alpine tribes; in two other odes he sang the praises of the Emperor's beneficent rule. With these he joined eleven other lyrics, mostly reminiscent of his earlier themes; two of them, however, hymn the power of poesy. He published the collection in 13 B.C. It was not dedicated to Maecenas, as all his earlier publications had been; such dedication would have been out of place in a book the most important odes of which celebrated the imperial house. The significant fact is that, while Horace was ready to serve Augustus with his art, he did not dedicate the book to him. That his friendship with his patron was unbroken is abundantly proved by the eleventh ode in honor of Maecenas' birthday. 10. The Second Book of Epistles. Soon after the publication of the first book of epistles, a young friend of Horace, Julius Florus, asked him for some new lyrics. In answer Horace wrote another epistle, in which he says that he has renounced lyric verse; he is too old for it; the distractions of the city prevent composition, and careful work is no longer appreciated; he will therefore devote himself to philosophy, and seek that golden mean which alone can bring happiness. We hear from Suetonius that Augustus chided Horace for having failed to address any of his sermones to him. This reproach Horace could not neglect, and about 14 B.C. he wrote an epistle to the Emperor, in which he discussed popular taste in literary matters, and defended the modern school to which he belonged against those who had a blind admiration only for the ancient and ruder literature. These two epistles he united with a third addressed to the Pisones, father and two sons, naturally putting the letter to Augustus in the first place, and published the three about 13 B.C. This third epistle is of uncertain date, but probably written about 19-17 B.C. It is a didactic treatise on the art of poetry, but deals chiefly with dramatic poetry, and with the qualifications — genius and hard work- essential for the poet. The common name, Ars Poetica (or De Arte Poetica Liber), in all probability was not given it by Horace, but became attached to it before Quintilian's day. By Hadrian's time the epistle had become separated from the two with which it was originally published, and formed the tenth book in an edition of which the four books of Odes, with the Carmen Saeculare, the Epodes, the two books of Satires, and two of Epistles were the first nine. In the Mss. it regularly follows the Odes; H. Stephanus in the sixteenth century restored it to its original position. II. Chronological Table of Horace's Works. 12. Last Years and Death. Of the last years of Horace's life we know nothing. Maecenas died in the spring of 8 B.C.; his dying charge to the Emperor, Horati Flacci ut mei esto memor, bears witness to the unbroken friendship between the two men. Horace survived his patron but a few months, dying after a brief sickness at the close of the same year. He was buried near the tomb of Maecenas on the Esquiline. 13. Personal Characteristics. - Horace has left us at the close of his first book of Epistles an interesting description of himself at the age of forty-four: -- corporis exigui, praecanum, solibus aptum, "Short in stature, prematurely gray, fond of the sun, quick to take offense, but readily appeased." This agrees with the account given in Suetonius' life, where we are told that the Emperor joked the poet on his short, stout figure. In Horace's later years his health was poor. While fond of mixing with society, he had a greater love for quiet country life, and against the protests of Maecenas spent much time on his Sabine farm or at his beloved Tibur. Praeneste, Baiae, and Tarentum were also favorite places of residence. He remained a bachelor, and was never deeply moved by love. Of all his flames named in his verses, only Cinara was certainly a creature of flesh and blood. The rest existed in his fancy only, or were borrowed from some Greek.1 While he can sing very prettily of love, his verses have none of Catullus' fire; they were for Horace pretty works of art, but did not spring from his own passion. Likewise when he calls his friends to a carouse, we may be sure that temperance, not license, was the chief feature of his comissatio. The subjects of his verse, whether lyric or pedestris, as he calls his muse in a passage in his Satires, were of the most varied sort; hardly a feature of the life about him was left untouched, and more proverbial sayings bearing on the ways and weaknesses of men have been drawn from Horace's works than from those of any other Latin writer. Certain aspects of nature appealed to him; and in a number of odes he shows the deepest interest in the welfare of the state. While he frequently shows a jovial spirit, yet there is, especially in the Odes, a melancholy that constantly reappears and overshadows his merrier moods. Many of his lyrics deal with death and the cheerless grave; and his philosophy of enjoyment and moderation has more in it of resignation than of eager anticipation. Horace does not show that pathetic melan 1 See Gildersleeve in Am. Jour. of Phil., 18, 121 f. |