choly which characterizes Vergil's poetry; his melancholy is personal, that of a sensitive individual, who has learned not to expect too much of this life, and has no hope beyond. Yet Horace avoids intruding his melancholy on his audience, as he shrinks from preaching, even in his most earnest moods. The highest enthusiasms and deepest feelings were not given to Horace; but this very fact has in no slight degree made him a place in the affections of ordinary men, who feel that he is one of them. 14. Fame. - While Horace never gained among his contemporaries the honor enjoyed by Vergil, whose imperial epic appealed to the pride, as well as the imagination, of the Romans, still he lived to see himself pointed out by the passers on the street as the lyric poet of Rome, a fact to which he refers in C. 4, 3, 22 f., not without a touch of pride. Augustus' requests (cf. § 9), too, show the position in which Horace stood. Many lesser poets honored him as their master and model, but their verses have all disappeared; also the spurious works which Suetonius says were circulated under his name. His poems were early used in schools, certainly before Quintilian's day; in Juvenal's time, busts of Vergil and Horace adorned schoolrooms; so that for nearly nineteen centuries the works of Horace have formed part of liberal education in western Europe. Learned criticism and interpretation by grammarians began at least as early as Nero's reign. But the best proof of Horace's influence in antiquity is to be seen in the numerous reminiscences, conscious and unconscious, of his verses that are found in almost every Roman writer after him. In the commentary of this book only a few such reminiscences are quoted, but enough to suggest how constantly his phrases reappear in later writers. In fact no other Roman poet but Vergil influenced posterity to any like degree. Even in the period of readjustment, which we call the Middle Ages, the works of Horace were still read in schools, especially the Satires and Epistles, and verses of moral import were learned by heart; the Odes and Epodes were less used, and the Carmen Saeculare not unnaturally FAME, MANUSCRIPTS, ETC. [§§ 14-15 was almost entirely neglected.' Yet the number of Mss. earlier than the thirteenth century—nearly twenty date from the eighth, ninth, and tenth attest the esteem in which all the works were held in mediaeval cloisters. In the Renaissance and modern times Horace's popularity has been great. Over seventy editions, partial or complete, were printed before 1500. There have been many would-be imitators of Horace's lyric verse in the last four centuries, but no better proof of the perfection of his art can be found than in the marked inferiority of all attempts, both ancient and modern, to repeat his measures. It is not exaggeration to say that no one since Horace's day has written Latin Alcaics or Sapphics that deserve to be compared with their models. Naturally Horace's influence on modern writers of lyric verse has been marked. To illustrate this here is not possible, but there is hardly a lyricist who has not felt his spell. Among contemporary English writers, Austin Dobson's methods and verses remind us most of the Roman bard. Yet Horace's lasting popularity is attested, not so much by literature, as by the regard in which men of varied pursuits hold him. His wisdom, his moderation and good-humored satire, coined into perfect form, have won him an unique place in the affections of mankind. 15. Manuscripts, Scholia, and Editions. (a) Mss. —- There are more good manuscripts of Horace preserved than of any other Latin writer except Vergil; they number about 250, dating from the eighth (or ninth) to the fifteenth century. All seem to come from a common early archetype, but the cross lines of tradition are so numerous that it is impossible to classify them satisfactorily. The most important are :— (1) Codex Blandinius Vetustissimus. This manuscript was formerly in the Abbaye de St. Pierre on Mt. Blandin, near Ghent, but was burned when the Abbey was destroyed by fire in 1566. It was one of the four manuscripts borrowed from the monastery 1 On Horace in the Middle Ages, see the interesting monograph by M. Manitius, Analekten zur Geschichte des Horaz im Mittelalter, Göttingen, 1893. in 1565, and collated for his edition of Horace by Cruquius (Jacques de Crusque), professor at Bruges. He states in his edition of 1578 that this manuscript dated from the seventh century, and the readings which he gives from it show that, whatever its age, it was of prime importance for the text. Keller and Holder deny its very existence, and charge Cruquius with falsehood, but the evidence against them is such that we cannot doubt the existence and value of the codex. Cruquius was at times careless, but his account can in the main be accepted. (2) Codex Bernensis 363, in the city library at Bern, Switzerland; written by an Irish scribe in the ninth century. The best single extant manuscript of Horace. Reproduced in photographic facsimile under the direction of De Vries, 1897. (3) Codex Sueco-Vaticanus 1703, in the Vatican Library, written in the eighth century. These two manuscripts are considered by Keller to be the most important; some claim high rank for others, especially Parisinus 7900 A, s. IX/X; Parisini 7974 and 7971, s. X; Parisinus 7972, s. IX/X, and Leidensis 28, s. X; but in establishing the text the readings of Cruquius' 'Vetustissimus' are ordinarily of first importance. For a description of the other manuscripts, reference may be made to the critical edition by Keller and Holder, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1864-1870; vol. 1 in 2d ed., 1899. (b) Scholia. Comment on the works of Horace began in the first century of our era, with brief introductory notes, giving in each case the name of the person addressed, the metre, and a brief notice of the contents and character of the poem. Under Nero, M. Valerius Probus prepared a critical edition of Horace's works. Among early commentators were also Modestus and Claranus, who flourished apparently in Domitian's reign; to the time of Hadrian belong the Life, by Suetonius, which is preserved in a fragmentary condition, and the edition in ten books (cf. p. 22), by Q. Terentius Scaurus. Under the Antonines, Helenius Acro wrote an explanatory commentary. The work of all these commentators has been lost, save in so far as it is incorporated in the following scholia : (1) The scholia of Pomponius Porphyrio, a grammarian of the third century apparently, who devoted himself chiefly to grammatical and rhetorical interpretation. (2) The scholia which bear the name of Acro. This collection was drawn from many sources, one of which was Porphyrio, from whom much was taken. Acro's name was not attached to these scholia until the fifteenth century. (3) The scholia of the Commentator Cruquianus. These are the comments gathered together by Cruquius from many sources, and are of slight value. (c) Editions.—The place and date of the editio princeps is unknown, but it was published in Italy before 1471. Bentley's edition in 1711 made a new era in Horatian criticism. Of the modern critical and explanatory editions, the following are important : Keller and Holder, editio maior, 2 vols. Leipsic, 1864-1870; vol. 1 (Odes, Epodes, and C. S.) in 2d ed. by Keller, Leipsic, 1899; editio minor, 1878. Keller, Epilegomena zu Horaz, Leipsic, 1879-1880, is also important for its collection of variant readings and discussion of them. Orelli, 4th ed. by Hirschfelder and Mewes, 2 vols., with Latin commentary and complete word index, Berlin, 1886, 1892. Kiessling, 2d ed., 3 vols. Berlin, 1890-1897; vol. 1 in 3d ed., 1898. Wickham, Odes and Epodes, 3d ed. Oxford, 1896; Satires and Epistles, 1891. L. Müller, Satires and Epistles, Leipsic, 1891-1893. Odes and Epodes, 1900. The scholia are not yet fully available in good editions. A beginning has been made by Keller and Holder, Porfyrionis commentum rec. A. Holder. Innsbruck, 1894. The scholia of the Commentator Cruquianus are now best printed in Keller and Holder's large edition, vol. 1, 2d ed., pp. 343-370. 16. Translations and Important Books. - No classical author has been translated more often than Horace. Among the better complete translations of the Odes and Epodes into English are the following: SIR THEODORE MARTIN, The Odes of Horace translated into English verse, 2d ed., London, 1861. JOHN CONINGTON, The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace, 3d ed., London, 1865. LORD LYTTON, The Odes and Epodes of Horace, London, 1869. W. E. GLADSTONE, The Odes of Horace translated into English, New York, 1894. C. W. COOPER, Horace's Odes Englished and Imitated by Various Hands, London, 1880. Among books useful for criticism, interpretation, and illustration, the following may be named: W. Y. SELLAR, Horace and the Elegiac Poets, Oxford, 1892. This is the most important single book in English on Horace. 1900. This is a work of real genius, the best short history of Latin literature. ANDREW LANG, Letters to Dead Authors, pp. 223-234, London, 1886. GASTON BOISSIER, The Country of Horace and Vergil; translated by D. H. Fisher, London, 1896. SCHREIBER-ANDERSON, Atlas of Classical Antiquities, London, 1895. BAUMEISTER, Denkmäler des klassischen Altertums, 3 vols., Munich, 1889. 17. Language and Style. - Horace was well aware that his poetic genius was not great; but he possessed a highly cultivated sense for poetic form and fitting expression, and a fondness for his art, which led him to take infinite pains in the elaboration of his verses. With wise judgment he therefore chose commonplace |