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

BOOK II.
EriSTLE I. This is the celebrated epistle to Angastns, who, it seems,
had, in a hind and iriendly manner, chid onr poet for not having addressed
to him any of his satiric or epistolary compositions. The chief object
of Horace, in the verses which he in consequence inscribed to the emperor,
was to propitiate his favor in behalf of the poets of the day. One
great obstacle to their fall enjoyment of imperial patronage, and to their
sncoess with the public in general, arose from that inordinate admiration
which prevailed for the works of the older Boman poets. A taste, whether
real or pretended, for the most antiquated productions, appears to have
been almost universal, and Augustus himself showed manifest symptoms
of this predilection. (Compare Suetonius, vit. Aug., c. 89.) In the age
of Horace, poetry had, no doubt, been greatly improved; but hitherto
criticism had been little cultivated, and as yet had scarcely been professed
as an art among the Bx}mans. Hence the public taste had not kept
pace with the poetical improvements, and was scarcely fitted, or duly prepared
to relish them. Some, whose ears were not yet accustomed to the
majesty of Vir^'s numbers, or the softness of Ovid's versification, were
still pleased with the harsh and rugged measure, not merely of the moat
ancient hexameter, but even of the Satumian lines ; while others, impene-
trable to the refined wit and delicate irony of Horace himself, retained
their preference for the coarse humor and qnibbling jests which disgraced
the old comic drama. A few ofthese detractors may have affected, merely
from feelings of political spleen, to prefer the unbridled scurrility, and
the bold, uncompromising satire of a republican age, to those courtly refinements
which they might wish to insinuate were the badges of servitude;
bat the greater number obstinately maintained this partiolitj'
irom malicious motives, and with a view, by invidious comparison, to disparage
and degrade their contemporaries, who laid claim to poetical renown.
Accordingly, the first aim of Horace, in his epistle to Angnstna
is to lessen this undue admiration by a satirical representation of the
faults of the ancient bards, and the absurdity of those who, in spite of their
manifold defects, were constantly eztolling them as models of perfection.
But it must be admitted that, in pursuit of this object, which was in some
degree selfish, Horace has too much depreciated the fathers of Roman
Bong. He is in no degree conciliated by their strong sense, their vigorous
expression, or their lively and accurate representations of life and
manners. The old Auruncan receives no favor, thongh he was the founder
of that art in which Horace himself chiefly excelled, and had left it to bis
successor only to polish and refine. While decrying the gross jests of
Plautns, he has paid no tribute to the comic force of his Muse ; nor, in the
general odium thrown on his illustrious predecessors, has he consecrated
a single line of panegyric to the native strength of Ennius, the simple
majesty of Lucretius, or even the pure style and unsullied taste of Terence.
His epistle, however, is a master-piece of delicate flattery and critical