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

EXPLANATORY NOTES. EPISTLE TO THE PISOS. 645
Ihem was depicted. In the present case, therefore, Horace supposes a
shipwrecked mariner to have employed a painter for this purpose who
knew only how to draw a cypress, and he asks of what value such an object
would be in the intended picture, or how it could have any effect in
exciting the compassion of others.
31-25. SI. Amphora capit institui ; currente rata cUr wcms exit 1 A
bad poet opens his poem with something great and magnificent, but amuses
himself with trifles. A bad potter begins a large and beautiful vase,
but produces only a pitcher, llota is here the jiotter's wheel.—23. Denique
sit quidvis, simplex duntaxat el unum. " In a word, be the object
what it may, let it only be simple and uniform."—34. Maxima pars vatwm
deeipimur specie recti, tec. "The greatest part of us poets, O father, and
ye youths worthy of such a father, are misled by an appearance of correctness."
The idea intended to be conveyed is as follows : These and other
faults, which have just been mentioned, are therefore to be carefully avoided,
but we must, at the same time, guard against passing to the other extreme.
And this advice becomes the more important, since the fault it-
self wears the appearance of a virtue, and is'therefore but too apt to mislead.—
^25. Brevis esse laboro, &c. " For example, I strive to be concise."
In striving to avoid difEnseness, we often, from want ofjudgment, become
obscure.
26-37. 26. Sectantem tenia nervi, Ice. " Strength and spirit fail him
who seeks after a subdued mode of expression," i. e., smoothness and refinement.—
27. Professus grandia. "He who aims at the sublime."
Literally, " one having professed great things.'' Horace is thought by
some to mean himself here.— 29. Prodigialiter. "After a marvellous
manner," i. e., so as to amaze people. This word occurs only-here and in
Columella (iii., 3).—33. jSmilinm circa ludumfaber unus, &c. "An art-
ist about the .^milian school shall, in a manner superior to all others,
both express the nails, and imitate in brass the soft and flexible hair, yet
will hefaU in the comjiletion of bis work, because he will not know how
to give a just proportion to the whole." The commencement of this sentence,
when paraphrased, will run as follows ; Among the artists who
dwell around the .^milian school, there will probably be some individual
or other who, &c. According to the scholiast, .^milius Lepidns had a
school of gladiators where was subsequently the public bath of Polyoletes.
In the neighborhood of'this school many artists appear to have resided.—
Unjis. We have followed Bentley, Fea, and Orelli in making unus here
equivalent to unus omnium, i. e., prater ceteros. (Compare Epode xii., 4
Sat. i., 10, 42 ; ii., 3, 24.) Fea shows from various places of Pliny that to
imitate the hair well was a great point of excellence.—35. Si quid componere
cwrem. " If I should care to compose any thing," i. e., were I about
to bestow labor upon any work.—36. Naso prated.- "With a deformed
nose," ». e., one ont of shape, crooked, ugly.^37. Spectandum. " To be
gRzed at," i. e., remarkable.
38-47. 38. Sumite materiam vestris, &c. " Do ye who write take *'
subject equal to your powers, and consider long," &c. The poet here lays
down another precept, which results directly from what has just preceded.
If in the labor of literature as well as in the works of art it is all import
;