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

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EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK I., EPISTLE VII. 567
well between true coin and that which players use upon the stage, or
boys at their games, he means to convey the idea that such a man knows
what he gives, that he can tell whether it be of value or otherwise, wheth
er it be suitable or unsuitable to him on whom it is conferred.—24. Dignumprasiabo
me etiam pro laude merentis. "I, too, as the praise of my
benefactor demands, will show myself worthy of the gifts that I have received,"
i. e., I will show myself worthy of what my generous patron has
bestowed upon me, that he may enjoy the praise of having conferred his
favors on a deserving object.—25, Usquam discedere. " To go any where
from thee," i. e., to leave thy society and Rome.—26. Forte lotus. " My
former vigor." Keigbtley explains this by " strength of wind." Latns
and latera are frequently used in the Latin writers to indicate strength of
body, as both corporeal vigor and decay show themselves most clearly in
that part of the human frame. Nigros angittta fronte eapilloB. "The
black locks that once shaded my narrow forehead." As regards the estimation
in which low foreheads were held among the Greeks and Romans
as a mark of beauty, consult note on Ode 1., 33, 5. In the present case
the reference would seem to be to the hair's being worn so low down as
almost to cover the forehead. The Romans, says Keightley, used to cut
the hair straight across the forehead, so as to let only a narrow strip of it
appear, than which nothing is more unbecoming in our eyes. So the
beauties in the early part of the seventeenth century used to arrange
their hair in small curls all along the forehead. So capricious is fashion
—27. Dulce loqui. " My former powers of pleasing converse." Ridere
decorum. " The becoming laugh that once was mine."—28. Fugam Cinaree
protervas. Horace elsewhere {Ode iv., 1, 3) tells us that he was a
young man when he surrendered his heart to the charms of Cinara.
29-34. 29. Forte per angustam^ &c. The connection in the train of
ideas is as follows : I am not one, MsBcenas, that wishes merely to feed
and fatten in thy abode ; I have not crept into thy dwelling as the fieldmouse
did into the basket of com : for if I am indeed like the field-mouse
in the fable, and if my only object in coming nigh thee has had reference
to self, then am I willing to surrender all the favors that thy kindness
has bestowed upon me. Tenuis vulpeeula. " A lean fox." Vu^ieeula is
the reading of all the MSS., and in ^sop and Bahrius also it is a fox.
Bentley, however, conjectured nitedula, " a field-mouse," and he has been
followed by all the editors, till Jacobs vindicated the original reading {Lect.
Venus., p. 99), who shows that the writers of ancient apologues and fables
were less solicitous about external or physical probability than the moral
lesson which they were anxious to convey. Hence Bentley's objection
that the fox eats no com becomes one of little value.—30. Cumeramfrumenti.
" A basket of corn." il. Plena corpOre. " Being grown fat."—
34. Hoc ego si compeHor imagine, &c. "Ifihe addressed by this simili-
tude, I am ready to resign all that thy favor has bestowed," t. e., if this fable
of the field-mouse be applicable to me, if I have crept into thy friendship
merely to enjoy thy munificent kindness and benefit myself, &c.
Resigno. Consult note on Ode iii., 29, 54.
35-37. 35. Nee somnum pUbis laudo, &c. " Neither do I, sated with
delicacies, applaud the slumbers of the poor, nor am I wiUing to exchange
my present repose, and the perfect freedom that accompanies it, for aU tho
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