Even now Pall her chariot, and h patronage of Venu upon the effemi In vain will yo

80

winds in an unpleasant calm, that he might sing" the di fates. "With unlucky omen art thou conveying home h whom Greece with a numerous army shall demand back agai having entered into a confederacy to dissolve your nuptia and the ancient kingdom of Priam. Alas! what sweat horses, what to men, is just at hand! What a destructio art thou preparing for the Trojan nation! is fitting her helmet, and her shield, and fury. In vain, looking fierce through the will you comb your hair, and run divisions ate lyre with songs pleasing to women. escape the spears that disturb the nuptial bed, and the poin of the Cretan dart, and the din [of battle], and Ajax swi in the pursuit. Nevertheless, alas! the time will come, thoug late, when thou shalt defile thine adulterous hairs in the dus Dost thou not see the son of Laërtes, fatal to thy nation, an Pylian Nestor, Salaminian Teucer, and Sthenelus skilled i fight (or if there be occasion to manage horses, no tard by Virgil he is called Grandævus. Nereus is also sometimes taken fo the sea. WATSON.

79

"Canere" is commonly used of uttering predictions.

80 The expression carmina dividere feminis, according to Anthor means nothing more than to execute different airs for different females in succession; but Paris would hardly do this in the presence of Helen Orelli's view is, "that the whole piece consists of two parts, the voca and the instrumental. The symphony of the lyre breaks (dividit) th= continuity of the song. The song divides the symphony," i. e. you sing and alternately play upon your amorous lyre, strains, etc. "We should

I think, construe divides with carmina, and grata with feminis, as ex pressive of their effeminacy. The phrase means simply to execute various soft airs upon the lyre. The word "division" in our own language derived, of course, from the Latin dividere, was used in the sixteenth century, technically for musical compositions. Thus Shakespeare, Rome and Juliet:

Again,

Some say the lark makes sweet division,
This is not so.

And all the while sweet music did divide
Her looser strains with Lydian harmonies."

SPENC. F. Q., quoted by Howell.-M'CAUL 81 Calami spicula Gnossii. It is probable, from this expression, that the Cretans, who were excellent archers, instead of arrows, made use of a kind of hard, slender, pointed reed, which grew in the sands of their island. Thus Ovid; "Nec Gortiniaco calamus levis exit ab arcu." SAN.

82

Sthenelus, the son of Capaneus and Evadne, one of the Greek captains that was at Troy, and was also shut up in the wooden horse. WATSON.

Meriones also

charioteer), pursue thee with intrepidity? shalt thou experience. Behold! the gallant son of Tydeus," a better man than his father, glows to find you out: him, as a stag flies a wolf, which he has seen on the opposite side of the vale, unmindful of his pasture, shall you, effeminate, fly, grievously panting:-not such the promises you made your mistress. The fleet of the enraged Achilles shall defer for a time that day, which is to be fatal to Troy and the Trojan matrons: but, after a certain number of years, Grecian fire shall consume the Trojan palaces."

ODE XVI.

TO A YOUNG LADY HORACE HAD OFFENDED.

O DAUGHTER, more charming than your charming mother, put what end you please to my insulting iambics; either in the flames, or, if you choose it, in the Adriatic. Nor Cybele, nor Apollo, the dweller in the shrines,85 so shakes the breast of his priests; Bacchus does not do it equally, nor do the Corybantes so redouble their strokes on the sharp-sounding cymbals, as direful anger; which neither the Noric sword can deter, nor the shipwrecking sea, nor dreadful fire, nor Jupiter himself rushing down with awful crash. It is reported that Prometheus was obliged to add to that original clay [with which he formed mankind], some ingredient taken from every animal, and that he applied the vehemence of the raging lion to the human breast. It was rage that destroyed Thyestes with horrible perdition; and has been the final cause that lofty cities have been entirely demolished, and that an insolent army has driven the hostile plowshare over their walls.8" 83 Meriones, a brave captain, who went out of Crete to the siege of Troy. WATSON.

84 Diomedes, king of Ætolia, the son of Tydeus and Deipyle, one of the Grecian worthies in the Trojan wars. WATSON.

85 See Orelli.

Anthon and others take "incola" as meaning "hab

itans quasi in pectore."

86 Imprimeretque muris. It was a custom among the Romans, to drive a plow over the walls of a city which they destroyed, to signify that the ground upon which it stood should be forever employed in agriculture. TORR.

Compose your mind. An ardor of soul attacked me also in blooming youth, and drove me in a rage to the writing of swift-footed iambics.87 Now I am desirous of exchanging severity for good nature, provided that you will become my friend, after my having recanted my abuse, and restore me your affections.

ODE XVII.

TO TYNDARIS.

88

THE nimble Faunus often exchanges the Lycæan mountain for the pleasant Lucretilis," and always defends my she-goats from the scorching summer," and the rainy winds. The wandering wives of the unsavory husband' seek the hidden strawberry-trees and thyme with security through the safe grove: nor do the kids dread the green lizards, or the wolves sacred to Mars; whenever, my Tyndaris, the vales and the smooth rocks of the sloping Ustica have resounded with his melodious pipe. The gods are my protectors. My piety and my muse are agreeable to the gods. Here plenty, rich with rural honors, shall flow to you, with her generous horn filled to the brim. Here, in a sequestered vale, you shall avoid the heat of the dog-star; and, on your Anacreontic harp, sing of Penelope and the frail Circe striving for one lover; here

87 Celeres iambos. The poet calls this kind of verse swift, or rapid, because the first syllable of each foot was short, by which the cadence was quicker. SAN.

88 Lycæus, a mountain in Arcadia, sacred to Faunus, who is the same with Pan. So Virgil, Eclog. ii. "Pan Primus Calamos cera conjungere plures instituit: Pan curat oves oviumque magistros." Pan, who first taught us to conjoin our reeds: Pan, who protects the sheep and their masters. WATSON.

89 Lucretilis, a mountain in the country of the Sabines, not far from Rome, where Horace had a country-house. Mutat Lucretilem Lycao, by the figure hyperbaton, which puts that first which should be last, for Mutat Lyceum Lucretili, he interchanges Lycaus for Lucretilis. WATSON. 90 Literally, "wards off the summer from the goats." So Virg. Ecl. vii. 47, "solstitium pecori defendite."

91 See note on Virg. Ecl. vii. 7.

92 Penelope, the daughter of Icarus; the wife of Ulysses, a woman of rare chastity. WATSON.

93 Circe, the daughter of Sol, and nymph of Perse; a sorceress, and skillful in the nature of herbs. WATSON,

you shall quaff, under the shade, cups of unintoxicating Lesbian. Nor shall the raging son of Semele enter the combat with Mars; and unsuspected you shall not fear the insolent Cyrus, lest he should savagely lay his intemperate hands on you, who are by no means a match for him; and should rend the chaplet that is platted in your hair, and your inoffensive garment.

ODE XVIII.

TO VARUS.

O VARUS, you can plant no tree preferable to the sacred vine, about the mellow soil of Tibur, and the walls of Catilus. For God hath rendered every thing cross to the sober; nor do biting cares disperse any otherwise [than by the use of wine]. Who, after wine, complains of the hardships of war or of poverty? Who does not rather [celebrate] thee, Father Bacchus, and thee, comely Venus? Nevertheless, the battle of the Centaurs with the Lapitha," which was fought in their cups, admonishes us not to exceed a moderate use of the gifts of Bacchus. And Bacchus himself admonishes us in his severity to the Thracians; when greedy to satisfy their lusts, they make little distinction between right and wrong. beauteous Bacchus," I will not rouse thee against thy will, nor will I hurry abroad thy [mysteries, which are] covered

94 A people of Thessaly, near Mount Pelion, who first broke horses for war; whence it came to pass that they, being seen by other people on horseback at a distance, were supposed to be but one creature, who had the upper part like a man, and the other part of his body like a horse. WATSON.

95 Lapithæ, a people of Thessaly, near Mount Olympus. Pirithous was their king, who having drank to excess at his wedding, the Centaurs endeavored to ravish Hippodamia, the king's new-married queen; or, as some say, attempted to ravish the wives of the Lapithæ at the wedding, and were therefore all put to death. WATSON.

96 The epithet candide is here very expressive, and refers to the unfading youth and beauty which the mythology of the Greeks and Romans assigned to the deity of wine. Compare Broukhus. ad. Tibull. iii. vi. 1, and Dryden (Ode for St. Cecilia's day), "Bacchus, ever fair and young," and Ovid. Fast. iii. 772:

"Candida formosi venerabimur ora Lyæi." ANTHON.

with various leaves. Cease your dire cymbals, together with your Phrygian horn, whose followers are blind Self-love and Arrogance, holding up too high her empty head, and the Faith communicative of secrets, and more transparent than glass.

ODE XIX.

ΤΟ GLYCERA.

THE cruel mother of the Cupids, and the son of the Theban Semele, and lascivious ease, command me to give back my mind to its deserted loves. The splendor of Glycera, shining brighter than the Parian marble, inflames me: her agreeable petulance, and her countenance, too unsteady to be beheld, inflame me. Venus, rushing on me with her whole force, has quitted Cyprus; and suffers me not to sing of the Scythians," and the Parthian," furious when his horse is turned for flight, or any subject which is not to the present purpose. Here, slaves, place me a live turf; here, place me vervains and frankincense, with a flagon of two-year-old wine. She will approach more propitious, after a victim has been sacrificed.

ODE XX.

TO MÆCENAS.

My dear knight Mæcenas, you shall drink [at my house] ignoble Sabine wine in sober cups, which I myself sealed up in the Grecian cask," stored at the time, when so loud an ap

97 Scythia was a large country, now called Tartary, divided into the Asiatic and European. WATSON.

99 Parthian. Parthia, a country in Asia, lying between Media and Carmania, and the Hyrcanian Sea. The Parthians fought with bows and arrows, and that flying; so that by turning about their horses, they shot and wounded the enemy who was pursuing them. WATSON.

99 When the ancients filled their casks, they closed them with wax, pitch, gum, or plaster, and although the Sabine wine was by no means worthy of so much care, yet as Mæcenas at that time had received some remarkable applause in the theater, the poet preserved on his vessels the remembrance of a day so glorious to his patron. SAN.