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

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EXPLANATORY NOTES. EPISTLE TO THE PISOS. 665
give power and distinctness to the voice. 2. An appropriate costume
3. A regular stage. 4. The thick-soled cothurnus, raising the stature of
the performers to that of the heroes represented. 5. A more dignified
and tragic expression.—880. DocuU. The poet himself taught the actors
their part hy dictation. Compare note on verse 288.
281-288. 281. Successit vetus his Comoedia. With regard to the several
changes in the Greek comedy, and its division into the Old, the Mid
die, and the New, consult note on Sat. i., 4, 2.-282. Sed in vitium, &o.
" But freedom of speech degenerated into licentiousness, and into outi-age
deserving of being corrected by the law."—283. Lex est accepta, &o. According
to Clinton (Fast. Hell., voL xi., Introd., p. liii.), the law merely
prohibited the comic poets from making any living person a character in
the piece. Personal allusions were not forbidden. Horace therefore goes
too far. It would also appear that it was the New Comedy that first dispensed
with a chorus, and that chiefly on account of the expense. (Keightley.adloc.)—288.
Vel quiprretextas,vel qui docueretogatas. "Whether
they have composed tragedies or comedies for the stage." Docere fabur
lam. is analogous to the Gr^eek expression diddoKEtv dpapta, and properly
means to " teach a play" (i. e., to the actors). Since, from the state of
writing materials, the performers could not enjoy the convenience of frequent
transcription of their parts, they studied them by the poefs repeatedly
reading them out, and the chorus was exercised the same way. This
was more particularly the case among the Grreeks. Hence we obtain the
primitive- meaning of SiidaKeiv Spd/ia [docere fabulam), and from this
others of a more general nature result, such as, "to give a play to be acted,"
" to exhibit a piece," or, as. in the present case, simply to " compose"
one. Prtstextas. With this epithet, and also togatas, understand /a£ulas.
The term togatce (sciL/aJute) was used to denote sll plays in which
the habits, manners, and arguments were Koman ; and palliatts, those
of which the customs and subjects were Grecian. When, however, prce-
textce is set in opposition to togatce, as in the present instance, the first
means tragedies, and thi9 second comedies, because the prtetexta was a
robe appropriated to the higher orders, whereas the toga was the common
Koman habit.
291-294. 291. Lima labor et mora. " The labor and delay of correction."
Literally, " af the file."— ^292. PompUius sanguis. "Descendants
of Pompilius." Observe here the employment of the nominative for the
vocative, and consult Zumpt, } 492, The Gens Calpurnia, to which the
family of the Pisos belonged, derived its pedigree, according to Porphyrion,
from Calpus, the son of Numa Pompilius. Carmen reprendite, quod
non multa dies, &c. " Condemn that poem which many a day and many
a blot have not corrected, and castigated ten times to perfect accuracy."
Coercuit is here equivalent to emendando purgavit.—294. Prassectum ad
unguem. Literally, " to the pared nail." A metaphor taken from workers
in marble, who try the smoothness of the marble, and the exactness
of the joinings, by drawing the nail over them. Compare Sat. i., 5, 32.
295,296. z^5. Ingenium misera quia fortunatius arte, &.C. "Because
Democritus believes genius more successful than wretched art, and therfi'
fbre excludes sane poets fi:om Helicon." Compare note on verse 298
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