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

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EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK I., EPISTLE XX. G05
plaase of the populace, courted them with entertainineuts and presents of
cast-off clothing. Siiffragia is here equivalent to gratiam orfavorem.—
39. Non ego, liobilium auctorum auditor et nltor, Sco.
" I do not deign,
as the auditor and defender of nohle writers, to go around among the tribes
and stages of the grammarians." It was customary, about this period, at
Rome, for many who aspired to the reputation of superior learning to
open, as it were, a kind of school or auditory, in which the productions oi'
living writers were read by their authors, and then criticjsed. Horace
styles this class of persons grammatici, and informs us that he never
deigned to approach such hot-beds of conceit, either for the purpose of
listening to these distinguished effusions, or of defending them from the
attacks of Criticism, and hence the odinm which he incurred among these
impudent pretenders to lit j.ary merit. It is evident that nohilium is here
ironical. Ultor. Compare the explanation of Doring : " TJltor, qui aliquem
a reprehe-nsioTie, criminatioTie vet injuria aliqua defendit, is ejus est
quasi ultor, vindex, patronus."—40. Pulpita. The stages from which the
recitations above referred to were made.—41. Hinc illce lacrima. A proverbial
expression, borrowed from the Andria of Terence (i., 1, 91), and
there used in its natural meaning, but to be rendered here in accordance
with the spirit of the present passage, " Hence all this spite and malice."
42-48. 42. at nugis addere pondus, " And to give an air of importance
to trifles."—43. Rides, ait. " Thou art laughing at us, says one of
these same grammarians." Jovis. Referring to Augustus.—44. Manure.
"Distill." Used here transitively, in the sense o{emittere or exsudare.—
45. Tibi pulcher. " Wondrous fair in thine own eyes," «'. c, extremely
well pleased with thyself. Ad kcec ego naribus utiformido. " At these
words I am afraid to turn up my nose." Our poet, observes Dacier, was
afraid of answering this insipid raillery with the contempt it deserved for
fear of being beaten. He had not naturally too much courage, and bad
poets are a choleric, testy generation.—46. Luctantis. " Of my antagonist."
Literally, " of one struggling (with me)."—47. Et diludia posco.
"And I ask for an intermission." The Latins used diludia to denote an
intermission of fighting given to the gladiators during the public games.
Horace, therefore, pleasantly begs he may have time allowed him to cor-
rect his verses before he mounts the stage and makes a public exhibition
of his powers. iS. Germit. The aorist. Equivalent to g^g'wero sofei.
Epistle XX. Addressed to his book. The poet, pretending that this,
the first book of his epistles, was anxious to go forth into public, though
against his will, proceeds to foretell, like another prophet, the fate tliat
would inevitably accompany this rash design. It is evident, however,
from what follows after the 17th verse, that all these gloomy forebodings
had no real existence whatever in the poet's imagination, hut that his eye
rested on clear and distinct visions of future fame.
1-5. 1. Vertumnum Janumque, Sco. Near the temples of Vertumnus
and Janus were porticoes, around the colnm-ns of which the booksellers
were accustomed to display their hooks for sale. Consult note on Sat. i.,
i,71.—Speatare. " To look wistfully toward."—2. Scilicet. "Porsooth."
Ironical.—Presses. " Thou mayest stand forth for sale." Sosiorwm promice
mundus. " Smoothed by the pumice of the Sosii.'' A part of the
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