Kenney_and_Clausen B.M.W.(eds.) - Get a Free Blog

A CRITIQUE OF THE TRADITIONAL STEREOTYPE
approach, but if so it fails to preserve the poem's unity of intent, for, as we have
seen, a good deal of the A. P. refers directly to the Roman literary situation.
But whatever view we adopt, there can be no doubt that the A.P. covers an
immense historical scope; it handles a variety of topics with lightness, humour
and good sense; and as no one had ever previously written a poem on poetics
it remains a work of impressive originality.
Epist. 2.1, addressed to Augustus about 15 B.C., deals with the role of poetry
in society, and again there is quite a lot of general discussion about drama.
But the spirited defence of contemporary poetry and the complaints about
conservative taste (1—92) are certainly coloured by Horace's own experience:
indignor quicquam reprehendi, non quia crasse
compositum illepideue putetur, sed quia nuper;
nee ueniam antiquis, sed honorem et praemia posci. (76—8)
I find it deplorable that a thing should be criticised not because it's considered coarse or
clumsy in style but because it's modern, and that instead of excusing the poets of the
past [e.g. Plautus, Naevius, and Ennius] we should be expected to honour and reward
them.
Those words crasse and illepide (cf. tenui in 1. 225) recall how Catullus and the
moderns of an earlier generation used to talk about poetry. Horace had never
been totally opposed to them. He accepted the ideals of neatness and craftsmanship
which they had derived from Callimachus, and like them he avoided
the larger genres. But his more extrovert temperament, and perhaps his social
background, led him to choose forms which had less room for affectionate
diminutives, mellifluous Greek words, ' aesthetic' effects of sound and metre,
and the romantic and sentimental use of mythology. More important, Horace
always enjoyed making poetry out of human behaviour and the ideas which
were meant to regulate it. This interest eventually enabled him to respond to
the achievement of Augustus by writing on political themes. Finally, although
he felt incapable of undertaking epic and tragedy himself, he never regarded
these genres as outmoded or impossible; the work of Varius and Virgil
proved the contrary. When all due respect had been paid to Callimachus'
dictum (Hymn to Apollo io8ff.), a large river was not invariably dirty (JEpist.
2.2.I2of.)
Before Epist. 2.1 Horace had already written the Carmen, saeculare to be sung
at the celebrations of 17 B.C., which, as they were supposed to mark the end of
an epoch, were called the Ludi Saeculares. This choral hymn (the only ode
composed for musical performance) was specially commissioned by Augustus.
As a result of its success and of further encouragement from the Emperor,
Horace went back to lyric and eventually in 13 B.C., or perhaps later, published
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