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

660 EXPLANAT'.5RY NOTES. EPISTLE TO THE PISOS.
The epithet misera is to be taken ironically, and by arte is meant l.sam-
ing-, stody, application, Ice. The connection in what here succeeds ia
given as follows by Hard. From line 295 to 323, tbe poet ridicules the
false notion into which the Koraans had fallen, ^^t poetry and posses sion
were nearly the same thing; that nothing more was required in a poet
than some extravagant starts and sallies of thonght; that coolness and re-
flection were inconsistent with his character, and that poetry was not to
be scanned by the rules of sober sense. This they carried so far as to af-
fect the outward port and air of madness, and, upon the strength of that
appearance, to set up for wits and poets. In opposition to this mistake,
which was one great hiuderance to critical correctness, he asserts wisdom
and good sense to be the sott/rce and principle of good writing; for the attainment
of which he prescribes, 1. (From line 310 to 312), a careful study
of the Socratic, that is, moral wisdom ; and, 2. (From line 312 to 318), a
thorough acquaintance with human nature, that great exemplar of manner's,
as be finely calls it, or, in other words, a wide, extensive view of
real, practical life. The joint direction of these two, as means of acquiring
moral knowledge, was perfectly necessary. Both together furnish a
thorough and complete comprehension of human life, which, manifesting
itself in the just and affecting^ forms that exquisite degree of perfection in
the charactefof the dramatic poet, the want of which no warmth of genius
can atone for or excuse. Nay, such is the force of this nice adjustment of
manners (from line 319 to 323), that, where it has remarkably prevailed,
the success of a play has sometimes been secured by it, without one sin-
gle excellence or recommendation besides.—296. Et excludit sanos Heli-
'•one poetas. Consult note on Epist. i., 19, 3, and compare the following
remark of the scholiast : " Ingenium .- aitenim DemocHtus, poelicatn. na^
tura magis quam arte constare, et eos solos poetas esse veros, qui insaniant;
in qua persuasions Plato est."
298-300. 298. Balnea. There was always more or less of a crowd at
the public baths.—299. Nanciscetur enim pretium nomenque poeta, &c.
"For one will certainly obtain the recompense and the name of a poet, if
he shall never submit to the barber Licinus a head not to be cured by the
produce of three Anticyras," i. e., one will be a poet as long as he remains
a madman, E^nd allows no barber to meddle with his beard. Enim^ Uke
scilicet, nimirum, Sec, on other occasions, is here made to answer the purposes
of irony. The Licinus here alluded to is said to have been a barber,
advancedto the dignity of senator by Julius Caesar on account of his hatred
toPompey, and subsequently madeprocuratorof Gaul by Augustus. This,
however, can hardly be, unless we suppose that at the time when the
present epistle was written he had lost the favor of the emperor.
Pretium.
Public applause, the recompense of a poet's exertions.—300. Tribuf
Anticyris. There were only two Anticyras in the ancient world, both
famed for producing hellebore, the well-known remedy, in former days,
for madness. (Consult note on Sat. ii., 3, 83.) The poet, however, here
speaks of a head so very insane as not to be cured by the produce o? three
Anticyras, if there even were three places of the name, and not merely two.
301-308. 301. O ego Imvus, quipurgor bilem, &c. "What an unlucky
fellow am I, who am purged of bile at the approach of every spring." U
madness, pleasantly remarks Horace, is sufficient to make a man a poet.
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