The focial Glafs went round with Chearfulness, To blefs our Corn, and fill the rising Blade, Then be not with your present Lot depreft, SAT. 123. Ita culmo furgeret alto.] Is of all the Manuscripts, and the Poet means Ita furgeret, ut pura mente Dea colebatur. Horace ufes explicuit for explicabat, and attributes to Ceres the Effects of that Wine, which was drunk in Honour of her. Those Hopes of a plentiful Harveft, with which they were inspired, difpelled their Cares. SAN. 134. Quocirca vivite fortes.] The Conclufion naturally follows from the Principles, which he laid down. Since it is certain, that all Things are perpetually changing, he is a Fool, who imagines or expects, that they shall be fixed for his particular Happiness. That amiable Character, which Horace hath given Ofellus, and the pleafing Picture he hath drawn of him, would engage us to believe, he defigned to do him fome good Office with Auguftus, and to perfuade that Prince to foften the Misfortunes of a Man, fo worthy of his Favour and Protection. I would give fomething valuable, fays Mr, Dacier, that Auguftus had established him in his little Farm. The SA T. III. DAMASIPPUS. HORATIUS. DAMASIPPUS. I rarò fcribes, ut toto non quater anno Membranam pofcas, fcriptorum quæque retexens, Iratus tibi, quòd vini fomnique benignus Nil dignum fermone canas: quid fiet? At ipfis Dic aliquid dignum promiffis. Incipe. HORA The whole World is interested in the prefent Satire. No Man will make the Application himself, but others take Care to render him the charitable Office, and oblige him to take his Place. The Poet intends to prove, that all Mankind are Fools. Such a Propofition is little pleafing in itself, and Horace therefore pleasantly gives it to an Original, who would believe himself a great Philofopher, because he carries a great Beard, has a good Memory to retain, and a Facility of expreffing the Maxims of the Stoic Schools. He is a Kind of Mifanthrope, who draws up a Procefs against Mankind : he is a Fool, who proves very fenfibly, that others are out of their Senfes, and who fhews, that he himself is of the Number. This general Propofition is diftributed into many different Pictures, in which the principal Paffions, that tyrannise over the Heart of Man, are reprefented These Pictures are of exquifite Taste, and Nature appears through them all. The Poet himfelf is equally various. Jovial, ferious, delicate, and even trifling; he amuses, attacks, flatters, and while he trifles, has always fome instructive Moral in View. It appears by the hundred eighty-fifth Line, that Horace wrote this Satire in 720 when he was about one or two and thirty Years of Age. SAN. Verf. 1. Si raro fcribes.] Seven Manufcripts have preferved this Reading, and it hath been received into the Text by fome of our beft Editors. It refers to quid fiet, and ut fignifies adeo ut. This Reproach, which Damafippus makes to Horace, however unjust, is I' SAT. III. DAMASIPPUS. HORACE, DAMASIPPUS. F hardly once a Quarter of a Year, So idle grown, a fingle Sheet appear; Hither you fled. Then try the pleafing Strain: HORACE. very common. From the Moment a Man becomes an Author, he feems to have given a Pledge to a Company of Idlers to find Amusements for their Indolence.. SAN. 2. Retexens.] Is a Term in weaving, and is here metaphorically ufed for correcting, retouching a Work. This Care cofts Authors much Trouble. Nor are they all equally capable of it, nor is it less dangerous to correct too much, than not to correct at all; for it often happens, that the Phlegm of Correction deadens the Fire of Compofition. SAN, 4. At ipfis.] At is here put instead of ab, and the Stop is placed after fobrius. Thus Dr. Bentley, Mr. Cuningham and Sanadon have restored the Text upon Authority of fome excellent Copies. The Sense requires, that fobrius should be separated from fugifti. 5. Saturnalibus.] Horace did not love these noify Diverfions; a better Reafon for his retiring into the Country, than that Sobriety, with which Damafippus compliments him. I SAN. 8. Iratis HORATIUS. Nil eft. Culpantur fruftra calami, immeritufque laborat DAMASIPPUS. Atqui vultus erat multa ac præclara minantis, HORATIUS. Dî te, Damafippe, Deæque Verum ob confilium donent tonfore. Sed unde Tam bene me nofti? DAMASIPPUS. Poftquam omnis res mea Janum Ad 8. Iratis natus paries Dis.] The Walls of a Poet's Chamber feem built with the Curfe of the Gods upon them, fince the Gods have fubjected them to the capricious Paffions of the rhiming Tribe, who curfe and ftrike them in their poetical Fits, as if they were the Caufe of their Sterility. Quintilian describes them in their Heat of Imagination, throwing about their Arms, making a thousand Contortions, and muttering Curfes to themselves. All this, fays he, is very ridiculous if they be not alone. Some of our Interpreters understand this Wall, as a truly poetical Wall, covered with Wax, on which the Poets wrote their Midnight Inspirations. 13. Virtute relicta.] Virtus for labor, as vita melior in the following Verfe for vita laboriofa. Bufinefs is a great Friend to Virtue, and a Life of Idlenefs can hardly be a Life of Innocence. Seneca, paffing by the Houfe of Servilius Vacia, who had retired into the Country, faid not unhappily, Vacia bic fitus eft, Vacia is buried bere; for indeed an Idler's Life hath more of Death than Life in it. DAC. SAN. 16. Damafippe.] Julius Damafippus, a Senator, whom Cicero mentions in his Epiftles. HORACE. Alas! 'tis all in vain, While I with Impotence of Rage abuse My harmless Pens, the guiltlefs Walls accufe; And yet you threaten'd fomething wonderous great, Sage Damafippus, may the Powers divine, When I had loft all Business of my own, And 17. Donent tonfore.] Our Poet knows not better how to exprefs his Gratitude, for the folemn, charitable Advice, that Damafippus had given him, than by wishing him a good Barber; for the Stoics valued nothing fo much, as this wife and venerable Length of Hair. From hence the Proverb, Barba tenus fapientes, and all the pleasant Ridicule in Lucian upon this Mark of Wisdom. We shall find the Beard itself called wife, in the the thirty-fifth Line. 18. Janum ad medium.] The Name of Janus was fometimes given to thofe great Arcades, which croffed the Streets of Rome. Livy tells us there were three of them erected in the Forum, the VOL. III. Ι middle |