The works of Horace : with English notes, critical and ... - Cristo Raul

SXXVi LIFE OF HORACE.
The second book of satires foUo-wed the first. It is evident, irom
the first lines of this book, that the poet had made a strong impres-
sion on the public taste. No writer, -with the keen good sense of
Horace, -would have ventured on such expressions as the following,
unless he had felt confident of his position
" Sunt quibus in Satlra videor nimia acer, et ultra
Legem tendere opus ; eine nervis altera, quiequid
Composoi, para esse putat, similesque meorum
Mille die versus deduci posee."—Sat. ii., 1, 1, seggA
This is the language of a privileged egotist; of one who had acquired
a right, by public suffrage, to talk of himself. The victim of
his satire will be an object of ridicule to the whole city
" Nee quiaquam noceat cupido mihi pacia 1 et ille
Qui me commOrit (melius non tongere t
^amo)
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Flebit, et insignia tota cantabitur urbe."— ^Ib., 45, seqq.^
The sixth satire of this book is the most important in the chronology
of the life and works of Horace.^ It was in the eighth year* of
his familiarity with Mascenas that this satire was composed. To
this must be added the nine months after his first introduction. If
Horace returned to Rome in the vrinter after the battle of Philippi
(A.XJ.C. 712, 713), time must be allowed for him to form his friend-
ship with Virgil and with Varius, and to gain that poetic reputation
by pieces circulated in private which would justify their recommenda-
tion of their friend to Msecenas. The first introduction could scarce-
1. I subjoin the iEoitation of his best interpreter, at least, if not commentator
" There are (I acarce can think it^ but am told).
There are to whom my satire seems too bold
Scarce to wise Peter complaisant enough,
And Bomething said of Chartres much too rough
The.lines are weai, another's pleased to say,
Lord Fanny spina a thousand such a day." i'opc.
" Peace is my dear delight, not Fleury'a more !
But touch me, and no minister so sore.
Whoe'er offends, at some unlucky time,
Slides into verse, or bitches in a rhyme
Sacred to ridicule his whole life long.
And the sad burden of a merry song."—Pcipe.
3. See Sat. ii., 6, 40-47. TMb pleasant passage is exquiaiteiy adapted by Swif)
" 'Tis (let me see) three years and more
(October next it will be four)
Since Harley bid me first attend.
And chose me for an humble friend
Would take me in his coach to chat,
And question me of this and that;
As, What's o'clock 1 or How'a the wind ?
Whose chariot's that we left behind !
Or, Have you nothing new to-day
From Pope, from Parnell, or from Gay ?" &c., &c.
4. Some construe "Septimus octavo propior jam fiigerit annus" as only ^n
years and a half, The past, fugerit, surely implies that the seventh year had on
tually elapsed, and above half a year more.
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