(a)

ODE XXX

To VENUS.

Horace invokes Venus to be prefent at Glycera's private facrifice.

VENUS, queen of Cnidos and Paphos, neglect your favourite Cyprus, and tranfport yourfelf into the beautiful temple of Glycera, who is invoking you with abundance of frankincenfe. Let your fervid fon haften along with you, and the graces, with their zones loofed, and the nymphs, and youth difagreeable without you, and Mercury.

ODE XXXI.

To APOLLO.

That a found fate of body and mind, together with a tafte for poetry, exceeds all other blefings of life.

WHAT does the poet beg from the confecrated Shrine of Phoebus? What does he pray for, while he pours from the flagon the first libation of wine? Not the rich crops of fertile Sardinia: not the goodly flocks of the fcorched Calabria: not gold, or Indian ivory: not thofe countries, which the still river Liris eats away with its filent

ftreams.

Premant [a] Calena falce, quibus dedit
Fortuna vitem: dives [b] & aureis
Mercator exficcet culullis

Vina Syra reparata merce,

Dis carus ipfis ; quippe ter & quater
Anno revisens æquor Atlanticum
Impune. Me pafcunt olivæ,

Me cichorea, levefque malvæ.

Frui paratis & valido mihi,
Latoe, dones, &, precor, integra

Cum mente; nec turpem fenectam
Degere, nec cithara carentem.

CARMEN XXXII.

AD LYRAM.

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20

Rogatus feculare carmen fcribere, lyram fuam precatur Horatius ut cantus argumento pares fibi fuggerat. Poscimus [c] Si quid vacui fub umbra

Lufimus tecum, quod & hunc in annum

Vivat & plures, age, dic Latinum,

Barbite, carmen,
Lefbio primum, modulate civi:
Qui ferox bello, tamen inter arma,
Sive Jactatam religarat udo

Litore navim;

Liberum, & Mufas, Veneremque, & illi
Semper hærentem puerum canebat,
Et Lycum nigris oculis nigroque

Crine decorum.

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O decus

[a] Premant Calenem. BENTL. [b] Divet ut aureis. [c] Pofcimus.-vacui tub antro.

ftreams. Let thofe, to whom fortune has given the Calenian vineyards, prune them with a hooked knife: and let the wealthy merchant drink out of ́ golden cups, the wines procured by his Syrian merchandize, favoured by the gods themselves, for as much as without lofs he vifits three or four times a year the Atlantic fea. Me olives fupport, me fuccories and emollient mallows. O thou fon of Latona, grant me to enjoy my acquifitions, and to have my health, together with an unim~ paired understanding, I befeech thee; and that I may not lead a dishonourable old age, nor one deprived of a tafte for mufic.

dects

Being defired to write a fecular ode, Horace invokes
his lyre to affift him with firains equal to the subject.

WE E are now called upon. If in idle amufe-
ment in the fhade with 'you, we have played
any thing that may live for this
year and many,
come on, affift me with a lyric ode in latin, my
dear lyre,-first turned in Greek by the Lefbian citi-
zen Alcaus: who fierce in war, yet amidst arms,
or if he had made faft to the watery fhore his tolled
veffel, fung Bacchus, and the mufes, and Venus,
and the boy her ever close attendant, and Lycus,
lovely for his black eyes and jetty locks, thou
VOL. I.
E

Oinament

O decus Phœbi, & dapibus fupremi
Grata teftudo Jovis, o laborum
Dulce lenimen, mihi [a] cunque falve
Rite vocanti.

CARMEN XXXIII.

AD ALBIUM TIBULLUM.

15

Solatur eum aliorum exemplo, qui amantes non reda

Α'

mentur,

LBI, ne dolea's plus nimio, memor
Immitis Glyceræ, neu miferabiles

Decantes elegos, cur tibi junior

Læfa præniteat fide.

Infignem tenui fronte Lycorida
Cyri torret amor: Cyrus in afperam
Declinat Pholoen: fed prius Appulis
Jungentur capreæ lupis,

Quam turpi Pholoe peccet adultero.
Sic vifum veneri; cui placet impares
Formas atque animos fub juga ahenea
Sævo mittere cum joco.

Ipfum me melior cum peteret Venus, !
Grata detinuit compede Myrtale

Libertina, fretis acrior Adria

Curvantis Calabros finus.

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15

CARMEN

[a] Mihi, cuique, falve. BENTL.

ornament of Apollo, charming fhell, agreeable even at the banquets of fupreme Jupiter! O thou fweet alleviator of anxious toils, be propitious to me, whenever I duly invoke thee.

ODE XXXIII.

To ALBIUS TIBULLUS.

He endeavours to comfort him by inftancing others who were in love without a mutual return.

GR

RIEVE not too much, my Albius, thoughtful of cruel Glycera; nor chant your mournful elegies, because having forfeited her faith, a younger man is more agreeable than you in her eyes. Behold a love for Cyrus inflames Lycoris, diftinguished for her delicate little forhead :* Cyrus follows the rough-fpun Pholoe; but fhe-goats fhall fooner be united to the Apulian wolves, than Pholoe fhall commit a crime with a bafe adulterer. Such is the will of Venus, who delights in cruel fport to fubject to her brazen yokes perfons and tempers ill-fuited to each other. As for myself, the flave-born Myrtale, more untractable than the Adriatic fea, that forms the Calabrian gulfs, intangled me in a pleafing chain, at the very time a more eligible love courted my embraces.

* The ancients thought a small forhead a great beauty,

and the ladies affected it in their drefs.