Aut si tantus amor scribendi te rapit, aude declines the task with much elegance and address, on the ground of inability to describe the scenes of heroic warfare. cupidum, pater optime, vires The Parthians and Gauls, from having been the principal objects of dread to the Roman armies, are the nations selected to furnish, each of them, a very tremendous image of battle; with a tacit reference perhaps to the exploits of Marius at a distant period and of Ventidius on a later occasion, B. c. 39. What is the remark of Baxter on this passage? "15. Bene labentis equo: nam Parthorum pugna fere erat equestris. Apposuit autem ista, quo gratificaretur Augusto, ob recepta signa Marco Crasso adempta." Anachronism and confusion like this might be expected from Baxter. O may wonder that the cautious and accurate Gesner should interpose no correction of it. But neither is he found always faithful to his qualified declaration of agreement with Bentley. Hoc certe confirmare possum, me, dum recenseo singulas Eclogas, diligenter attendisse, si quid esset Bentleianis temporum rationibus adversum, nec depre hendisse quidquam, quod momentum aliquod ad eam evertendam haberet; licet quibusdam Eclogis non improbabili ratione forte tempus etiam aliud, recentius præsertim, possit adscribi. THE clearness of view which arises from placing the Satires before the Epodes, and the Epodes before the Odes, cannot be denied. The advantage to be derived from Bentley's arrangement in placing the 4th book of Odes after the 1st book of Epistles, may not perhaps be quite so evident. One example One example or two will serve to show the importance of that distribution. There is an intellectual as well as a linear perspective. And some space for time and thought must be allowed to intervene or in the case of great moral and political changes taking place, without the aid of that interval very often all the probabilities of expectation will be shocked. Thus, if seven or eight years are considered to elapse betwixt the average date of the 3d book of Odes and the publication of the 4th; even in the omens of moral improvement displayed in the latter we shall see nothing extravagant, in those of political alteration we shall see the highest credibility. (1). In the vith Ode of the 3d book, Horace traces the vice and immorality which he there laments, to the predominance of luxury and avarice, which no Cen sorian regulations could control: and in the XXIVth Ode, impressed with the very same feeling (vv. 35. 6.) he exclaims. Quid leges sine moribus Vanæ proficiunt? But in the vth Ode of the 4th book (addressed to Augustus) he piously exults in the blessings of a new era; and by the very phrase (v. 22.) adopted there, he recalls in contrast that vicious state of social life which now seemed to be past or to be passing away. Mos et lex maculosum edomuit nefas. Then again, in the xvth Ode of the same book, with what energy does he hail the return of the virtues under the reign of a reforming Prince! (2). Tua, Cæsar ætas et ordinem Rectum evaganti fræna licentiæ Injecit, emovitque culpas, Et veteres revocavit artes. Herculis ritu modo dictus, O Plebs, Morte venalem petiisse laurum Cæsar, Hispanâ repetit penates Victor ab orâ. 3 C. XIV. Sanadon condemns at once the opening line of this Ode; and betrays exactly what Dr Parr would call the coxcomb, in the following remark. O Plebs.] On ne peut disconvenir que ce vers n'est pas le meilleur de la piéce. Cette chute est assom mante, et je ne pardonne point à nôtre Poète d'avoir si mal débuté. The fact is, that Sanadon saw nothing here beyond the surface. Augustus, tribunus plebis, et plebi gratior quam optimatibus, had been very dangerously ill in Spain: that rumour of course plebem maxime terruit: the commons were trembling for the loss of their protector: the nobility caught at the chance of regaining their old ascendancy in the state. Or take it from the Argumentum of the Ode, as it stands in Gesner's edition. Bello Cantabrico maximus erat novorum tumultuum a partibus Optimatium metus, ob diuturnam Augusti Tarracone decumbentis valetudinem. Illo igitur jam domum reverso, publicas ferias Palatio universæque PLEBI Horatius indicit. Several conspiracies' formed against the life of that Prince are recounted by Suetonius in D. Oct. Cæs. Augusto, §. XIX. But the most affecting story of the kind is that related by Seneca, of Cinna's desperate design...non occidere, sed immolare: nam sacrificantem placuerat adoriri. The recorded exclamation of Augustus carries a point with it, which renders all comment unnecessary. Ego sum NOBILIBUS adolescentibus expositum caput, in quod mucrones acuant! Seneca de Clementiâ, 1. 9. Turn now to the 4th book of Odes: imagine the lapse of a few eventful years; and then, in the ab 1 For "the conspiracy and death of Murena," &c. &c. vide Fast. Hellen. B. C. 22. sence of all alarm, mark the lofty tone of pride and security. ii. 50. Non semel dicemus, Io triumphe! | Civitas omnis. v. 1-8. Divis orte bonis, optime Romulæ Custos gentis, abes jam nimium diu: Lucem redde tuæ, dux bone, patriæ: xiv, 1-5. Quæ cura Patrum, quæve Quiritium, Per titulos memoresque fastos 2 To understand the writings of Horace with complete satisfaction in those parts which at all involve his personal history, the knowledge of his actual residences will be found similarly useful, if not equally necessary, as the correct distribution of his books in their original order. His localities, indeed, when rightly ascertained, are so directly connected with the Chronology and just arrangement of his works; that even Bentley's masterly calculation may derive support from a careful developement of the scenes of his residence, hitherto partially or erroneously stated. |