--- has it, "mire mixtus ex ebrietate et sapientia jocosa," yet should use language somewhat different from that of regular comedy. —— 240. Ex noto. These words, as well as de medio 1. 243, refer, as the context plainly requires, to the language of the play, not to its argument. Quivis, etc. Orelli aptly compares Pascal, in his Pensées, i., 3: Les meilleurs livres sont ceux que chaque lecteur croit, qu'il aurait pu faire. -242. Junetura. Comp. n. above, on 1. 48. 245. Triviis; opposed to silvis; in the streets of the city; to which is added by ac, the more special and forcible paene forenses, well nigh ¡iving in the forum, as the forum was the centre of Roman life. 246. Juvenentur; a word peculiar to Horace in this one place; it is like the Greek veavievoμai; talk like young men. 248. Quibus est equus, etc.; i. e. equites, ingenui, divites, men of rank, birth, and property. To these is opposed in the next line fricti-emptor, to designate the poor, who buy and eat in the streets, parched peas and nuts. 251-274. Having prescribed the rules necessary to be observed in Tragedy and the Satyric Drama, the poet now treats of the laws of Iambic verse, the measure in which they are written; thence he passes to a censure of the Roman poets for not duly observing these laws; and holds up the Greek writers as models for imitation. -252. Unde; refers to pes citus. -Trimetris ; in apposition with iambeis, instead of with nomen. See A & S. § 204, Rem. 8.; bade the name of Trimeter be added to Iambics; so that they were called Trimeter Iambics. 253. Iambeis; instead of the usual versibus. Cum-ictus; though it word iambicis; it is an adj.; sc. gave six beats; i. e. as the pure iambic line has six iambi, each foot would have its ictus or arsis, and there would be six beats; whence called senarius. · 254. Non ita pridem; literally not so long ago; i. e. not very long ago; ita is elliptical, sc. ut quis putet; See Hand, Turs., iii., p. 491. The whole expression is here used for an indefinite time. -256. Stabiles; so called, in distinction from the iambi, from the slowness of the spondee, owing to its two long syllables. La jura paterna; into its hereditary rights; the image being drawn from one who inherits property, and shares it with another. The whole passage has a poetical complexion, from the personification of the iambus. –257. Non ut; restrictive of the two preceding adjectives. The iambic admits the spondees, into the line, but not into the second and fourth places; these it retains exclusively for itself. -258. Socialiter; after the manner of a socius or comrade; “like a good comrade." Osborne. The word is peculiar to Horace. 258. Hic; i. e. iambus in secunda aut quarta sede; as those poets thought it enough to secure the sixth place to the iambus. Hic is the subject of apparet and of premit. The fault of the verses of these poets was, that they were made heavy or ponderous by the great number of spondees. 259. Nobilibus; famous; ironical. - 262. Premit-crimine; presses (the verses) with the charge i. e. brings upon (them) the heavy charge. 265. Idcircone, etc. The poet means to indicate two courses which poets might pursue, relying on the indulgence of the public; both of them censurable, but the latter less than the former. The former is a total disregard of rules; the latter only so much regard for rules, as may secure freedom from positive faults.. 268. Non laudem merui; i. e. my merit is a mere negative one. Osborne aptly quotes from Pope's Essay on Criticism: "But in such lays as neither ebb nor flow, Correctly cold, and regularly low, That shunning faults one quiet tenor keep, 270. Plautinos numeros et Sales. Here again, as in Epist. ii., 1, 170, Horace criticises Plautus. His severe taste was offended by the roughness of his numbers and of his wit. It is singular that Cicero, on the other hand, speaks of Plautus as illustrating that “jocandi genus,” which he styles "elegans, urbanum, ingeniosum, facetum." See De Offic. i., 29. -275-284. Notices of the Greek Tragedy,- Thespis, —Aeschylus (to 1. 280), and of the Old Comedy (to 284).· - 275. Ignotum-genus. The merit of Thespis, which gained for him the distinction of the inventor of tragedy, was this: he combined with the songs of the chorus the recitations of an actor. This introduction of an actor gave a dramatic character to the performance, and was the first decided step in the formation of tragedy, properly so called. Whether the actor was the choragus, and his part was only the narration of some story, or whether he was a person independent of the chorus, and his part consisted both of narration and of dialogue with the chorus, are points not fully settled. The latter view, however, is probably the true one. Thespis was a native of Icarus, one of the country demes of Athens, and he first appeared upon the stage in the beginning of the 61st Olympiad, 536-534 B. C.-For further details, see Dict. Antiqq., under Tragoedia. 276. Plaustris vexisse. It is generally supposed, that this story of actors being carried about in wagons, which were used as a kind of stage, belongs to the beginnings of Comedy, not of Tragedy; and that Thespis really used a platform for his representations. See Dict. Antiqq., under Tragoedia and Comoedia. -277. Faecibus; the lees of wine, used as a kind of pigment, probably formed the first species of disguise for the performers of Thespis's plays; Thespis afterwards introduced linen masks.. – 279. Aeschylus, etc. This great tragic writer began his career B. c. 500, being then in the 25th year of his age. In this passage Horace touches upon the improvements made by him in Tragedy. They were chiefly these: He added a second actor, and thus further developed the dialogue. He entirely changed the relative proportions of the two elements of the drama, viz., the choruses and the recitations, by abridging the former, and expanding the latter into a regular plot. He also improved the theatrical apparatus, by furnishing the actors with the cothurnus (see n. O. ii., 1, 11), and with better and more various masks and dresses. In what respect he modified for the better the construction of the stage, we are not informed; as the words modicis-tignis can hardly refer to the stage of the new stone theatre, the building of which was commenced soon after his first appearance. (See Dict. Antiqq., under Theatrum.) The fall of the old wooden fabric on the occasion of Aeschylus's first representation, and the consequent erection of the magnificent theatre on the S. E. descent of the Acropolis; may be regarded as emblematic of the fortunes of Attic Tragedy before and after the time of Aeschylus.281. Vetus-comoedia. (See n. Sat. i., 4, 2.) The old Athenian Comedy, of which Aristophanes was the master, flourished from 458-404. Its chief characteristic, to which Horace here alludes, was the unbounded freedom with which it satirized distinguished Athenian citizens, poets, philosophers, statesmen, and the parties and measures, political, social, literary, with which such citizens were associated. The Middle Comedy succeeded the Old, and continued to B. c. 340. It was less personal, and satirized classes rather than individuals, or if it satirized individuals, represented them under fictitious names. The New Comedy continued from B. C. 340 to B. C. 260. This was like the comedy of modern times; it aimed at an imitation of ordinary life, and its subjects and characters were alike fictitious. 283. Lex est accepta. A law restrictive of the freedom of comedy was passed B. c. 440; a similar one, forbidding the ridicule of persons by name was passed B. C. 415. The political changes of the times were directly felt by the Old Comedy; political freedom was essential to its being and life; and accordingly it flourished and fell, along with Athenian democracy. Obticnit. The Middle and the New Comedy had no chorus. 284. III. 285-476. Critical Instruction for the poet. (See Introduction. The details will be given below, in their place.) 285-294. Horace commends the emulous spirit of Roman poets, and their adoption of Roman subjects, but declares that they have failed of literary excellence through their haste and their impatience of laborious composition; and he inculcates upon the young Pisos the utmost care and correctness in writing. 287. Domestica; opposed to foreign; nation al. 288. Praetextas; (sc. fabulas) for praetextatas; that is, tragedies, which represented a higher and nobler life; so named, because the praetexta was the dress of magistrates, of priests, and of senators on festival days; togatas, comedies, which represent ordinary life; from the toga, the ordinary Roman dress. Docere is used with fabulam, like the Gr. didáσkeiv, because the poet instructed the actors and == chorus in their parts; hence exhibit or compose a play, by which latter word we may here translate. 293. Litura. See n. Sat. i., 10, 72 294. Perfectum; agrees with quod; "ita ut perfectum sit." Dillenb. -Ad unguem. See n. Sat. i., 5, 32. 295-304. Horace proceeds to ridicule those poets who affect to despise art and rely solely upon genius, and who, in their reliance upon genius, confound vulgar madness with poetic frenzy, and mere eccentricity with poetic genius.· 296. Sanos; i. e. those who have not the true insania or furor-poeticus; comp. n. O. iii., 4, 6. - 297. Democritus; he wrote Teρi Toihσews and TEρt 'Oμhpov. Cicero alludes to his words in De Divin., i., 37; Negat sine furore Democritus quemquam poetam magnum esse possc; and also in De Orat., ii., 46: Saepe audivi poetam bonum neminem (id quod a Democrito et Platone in scriptis relictum esse dicunt) sine inflammatione animorum existere posse et sine quodam afflatu quasi furoris. Comp. Cic. pro Archia, c. 8. 300. Tribus; see n. Sat. ii., 3, 83. The poet here means that a case so desperate as this, would not be cured by all the produce even of three Anticyras; or, which is the same thing for the jest, by three times the amount of hellebore produced in Anticyra (in allusion to either of the two). - 301. Licino. The Scholiast tells us, that this was the name of a barber, who was made a senator by Julius Caesar, because he hated Pompey. It must have been a different person from the slave of that name, who was freed by Julius Caesar, and afterwards was made procurator of Gaul by Augustus; mentioned by Dio. Cass., liv., 21. - ·301. Laevus; = stultus, as in Virg. Ecl. i., 16; and Aen. ii., 54. · 302. Bilem; comp. Epist. ii., 2, 137. — 304-308. Horace now, waiving all claim to the title and character of poet, assumes the office of a critic, and undertakes to teach what is necessary to the formation and guidance of the poet. Comp. Intr. 309-322. In opposition to the absurd notion he has just illustrated (in 295 seqq.) Horace insists upon good sense as essential to good writing (309); and recommends, in order to just views and exhibitions of character, the study of the Socratic or moral philosophy, and of human life (to 1. 318) adding, in practical illustration, that a poem, in which the manners are justly delineated, is always successful even if it have no other excellence (to 1. 322). 309. Sapere; a comprehensive word, which expresses the ability to think and judge aright on all subjects whatsoever (“ recte cogitare atque judicare de omnibus rebus;" Orelli); without which no one can be a poet, whatever other gifts and acquirements he may have. - 310. Socraticae—chartae; the teachings of Socrates; as embodied in the works of his disciples, e. g. Plato and Xenophon; in these moral teachings, the writer, especially the dramatist, may find his subjectmatter (rem); the best illustrations of all that belongs to character, of all the various relations and duties of men.. -312. Qui didicit, etc Here follows a mention of particular illustrations of the general word (rem); i. e. of particular relations and duties, of a citizen, a friend, &c. 314. Conscripti; sc. senatoris; from the expression patres conscripti. See Livy, B. II., c. 1. -317. Exemplar vitae morumque; i. e. the model which the life and manners of men present to him who observes and studies them. 318. Vivas; life-like; caught from, and reflecting, real life. So Virg. Aen. vi., 849, vivos ducent de marmore vultus. 319. Morata recte; which rightly depicts the mōres; a different word from moratur, in 1. 321. 323-332. While the Greeks, animated alone by ambition, have excelled in letters, the education of the Romans has formed in them a love of money, which has been fatal to their success in poetry. - 323. Ore rotundo; well-rounded expression; metaphorical for the highest, most perfect style of language; like the Gr. σTPOYYÚλOV σтwμа, OтрOYYÚλn λeğis (see Passow, and Liddell and Sc tt). – 325. Rationibus. Calculations. -325. Dieat, etc. A scene from a Roman school.-In dicat the poet makes the teacher use the third for the second person; = tell me, &c. Comp. O. i., 27, 10. 328. Poteras dixisse. The encouraging words of the master. On the tense dixisse, see n. O. i., 1, 4. -332. Cedro. Manuscripts were rubbed with oil of cedar, for their better preservation.—Cupresso; i. e. in capsae or scrinia, made of cypress. See n. Sat. i., 4, 21; and the cut on p. 204. 333-346. Poets aim either to instruct, or to delight, or both to instruct and delight (333, 334); they who aim to instruct, must study brevity (to 1. 337 inc.); they who aim to delight, must, in fiction, keep to what is probable (to 340 inc.); he who can unite the useful with the agreeable, will win all readers, he is the poet whose works will live (to 346). 335. Cito; join with percipiant. 337. This line furnishes a reason why the didactic writer should aim at brevity. The image seems to be taken from a vessel, from which, when filled full, whatever else is poured in, flows away and is lost; so with the mind, when filled with instruction.339. Ne, etc. These two lines illustrate, negatively, the preceding rule; the former generally, the latter particularly. The subject of credi is in quodcunque.-Lamia is the name of a fabulous creature that was said to devour children. The Scholiast describes it thus: " "est monstrum superne habens speciem mulieris, inferne vero desinit in pedes asininos.". 341. Centuriae seniorum; senes, the old; the expression is taken from the centuries of old men in the classes of the comitia centuriata, instituted by Servius Tullius. See Dict. Antiqq., under comitia. -342. Celsi-Ramnes; the haughty Ramnes; for the younger knights, and then for the young. The Ramnes, because the oldest of the three centuriae equitum (described by Livy, i., 13), here represent the young men of highest nobility. - 343. Punctum; vote; i. e. the favor of every reader. See n.Epist. ii., 2, 99. - Dulci; see n. O. iv., 1, 22. -345. Sostis. See n. Epist. i., 20, 2. -347-365. In a poem of superior excellence, one or two blemishes are pardonable; but the |