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

EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK II., EPISTLE I. 623
at human affairs. Consult note on Epist. i., 12, 12.—195. Divorsum confusa
genus panfhera camelo. " A panther mixed with a camel, a distinpt
species," i. e., distinct from the common panther. The poet alludes to
the camelopard or giraffe, an animal first brought to Biome hy Julius
Cffisar.—196. Elephas albus. White elephants are as great a rarity, almost,
in oar own days, and their possession isteagerly sought after and
highly prized hy some of the Eastern potentates. Converteret. Supply
in se.—197. Spectaret populum ludis attentius ipsis, &o. "He would
gaze with more attention on the people than on the sports themselves, as
affording him more strange sights than the very actor." Mimo is here taken
in the general signification of histrio.—199. Scriptores autem narrare pittaret,
la:. "'Wliile he would think the writers told their story to a deaf
ass," i, e., while, as for the poets, he would think them employed to about
as much purpose as if they were telling their story to a deaf ass. Scriptores
is eqoivalenthere to poette.—200. Nam qua: pervincere voces epaluere
sonum, &o. " For what strength of lungs is able to surmount the din with
which our theatres resonnd V i. e., for what actor can make himself heard
amid the aproar of our theatres 1—202. Garganum mugire paies nemugy
&c. Thechainof Mount Garganus, in Apulia, on the coast of the Adriatic,
was covered with forests, and exposed to the action of violent winds.
Hence the roaring of the blast amid its woods forms no unapt comparison
on the present occasion. Consult note on Ode ii., 9, 7.—203. Et artes,
divitueque peregrina. " And the works of art, and the riches of foreign
lands." Artes here refers to the statues, vases, and other things of the
kind, that were displayed in the theatrical pageants which the poet condemns.—204.
Quibus oblitus actor quwm stetit in scena, Sec. "As soon
as the actor makes his appearance on the stage, profusely covered with
which, the right hand runs to meet the leftf," «. e., applatise is given by the
clapping of hands. The allusion in quilnls, that is, in divitice, is to purple,
precious stones, costly apparel, &c.—207. Lana Tarentino violas imitata
veTieno. " The wool of his robe, which imitates the hues of the violet by
the aid of Tarentine dye," i. e., his robe dyed with the purple of Tarentum,
and not inferior in hue to the violet. Veneno is here taken in the
same sense that ^dp/iaKov sometimes is in Greek.
208-213. 208. Ac neforte petes, me, qutefacere ipse recusem, &.C. Here,
observes Hurd, the poet should naturally have concluded his defence of
the dramatic writers, having alleged every thing in their favor that could
be urged plausibly irom the state of the Roman stage, the genius of the
people, and the several presailing practices of ill taste, which had brought
them into disrepute with the best judges; but finding himself obliged, in
the course of this vindication of the modem stage-poets, to censure, as
sharply as their very enemies, the vices and defects of their poetry, and
fearing lest this severity on a sort of writing to which he himself had
never pretended might be misinterpreted as the effect of envy only, and
a malignant disposition toward the art itself, under cover of pleading for
its professors, he therefore frankly avows (from line 208 to 214) his preference
of the dramatic to every other species of poetry, declaring the
sovereignty of its pathos over the affections, and the magic of its illusive
scenery on the imagination, to be the highest argument of poetic exoel-
'ence, the last and noblest exercise of human genius.—309 Laudare
maligne. " Condemn by famt praise." More literally, " praise ill-na-
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