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

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EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK II., EPISTLE 1, 617
The yoang listened to the old, the old, on their part, tanght the young,"
*c.—108. Mutavit mentem populus levis, 4o. Bach were we, says the
poet, in the good old times, when we were almost constantly at war j now
Bee the effects of paces bona and venti secundi. Compare note on verse
90.— ^109. Patresque severi. The epithet seeeriia ironical.—110. Dictant.
"Dictate," i. e., to their amanaenses.— ^112. Parthis mendaeior. The
Parthians were a false and lying nation. Their very mode of lighting
proved this, by their appearing to fly while they actually fought ; nor is
the allusion a bad one in reference to a poet who renounces rhyming and
yet continues to write.—113. Vigil. " Awake," i. e., leaving my couch.
—Calamum et chartas, &x. The ancients, when they wrote on paper or
parchment, used a reed slit and cut like our pens. Scrinia. A kind of
case or portfolio to hold writing materials.—114. Ignarua navis. Supply
agenda.—Atrototvum. " Southern-wood." An odoriferous shnAi, which
grows spontaneously in the southern parts of Europe, and is cultivated
elsewhere in gardens. It was used very generally in medicine before
the introduction of chamomile. {PUn., H. N., xsi., 10.) Wine, in which
southern-wood had been put (olvoc &l3poToviTric), was thought to possess
very healthful properties.—115. Medicorum. . . . medici. Bentley conjectured
melicorum .... melid, which Sanadon, Wakefield, Voso, and
Bothe adopt.—116. Promittunt. In the sense oi projitentur.—117. Saribimus
indocti doctique poemata passiirb. Compare note on verse 90.
118-124. 118. Hic error iamen, et leeis hisc insania, &.c. Having suf
ficiently obviated the popular and reigning prejudices against the modera
poets, Horace, as the advocate of their fame, now undertakes to set forth
in a just light their real merits and pretensions. In furtherance of this
view, and in order to impress the emperor with as advantageous an idea
as possible of the worth and dignity of the poetic calling, he proceeds to
draw the character of the tme bard in his civil, moral, and religious virtues;
for the muse, as the poet contends, administers in this threefold
capacity to the service of the state.—119. Vatis avarus non temereest animus.
" The breast of the bard is not easily swayed by avaricious feelings."
In general, a powerful inclination for poetry mollifies and subdues all other
passions. Engaged in an amusement which is always innocent, if not
laudable, while it is only an amusement, a poet wishes to entertain the
public, and usually does not give himself too much pain to raise his own
fortune, or injure that of others.—132. Nonfraudem socio, puerove inco-
gitat uUam pupillo. " He meditates nothing fraudulent against a part-
ner, nor against the boy that is his ward." As regairds the term socio,
consult note on Ode Hi., 24, 60. Incogitat is analogous to the Greek liri-
voel or imPovXeist. Horace appears to have been the first, if not the
only writer, that has made use of this verb.—123. Vivit sUiguisetpanesecundo.
"He lives on pulse and brown bread." Siligua is the fod or eheU
of beans, peas, &o. It is here put for those pulse themselves. Pane se
cundo. Literally, "bread of a secondary quality." 12i. Malus. "Unfit."
126-131. l^e. Os tenerum paeri balbumgue poetafigurat. "The poet
fashions the tender and lisping accents of the boy." Horace now begins
to enumerate the positive advantages that flow from his art. It fashions
the imperfect accents of the hoy,,for children are first made to read the
works of the poets ; they get their moral sentences by heart, and are in
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