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

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EXPLANATORY NOTES. EPISTLE TO THE PlSOg. 667'
what an unlucky ddg I am in removing the bile from my system every
spring, for this might at least increase to the degree that vfouU qualify
me for making verses.^303. Verum nil tanti est. " However, there is
nothing in it of so much value as to be vrorth this price," i. e., the loss of
my senses.—306. Munvs et officium, nil scribens ipse, docebo. "Though
I write nothing myself, I will, notwithstanding, teach the duty and office
(ot one wlio does)." By nil scribens ipse the poet refers to his not having
composed any epic or dramatic poem.—307, Opes. "Proper materials,"
i. e., subject-matter—308. Quo virtus, quoferat error. "Whither an accurate
knowledge of his art, whither an ignorance of it, leads."
309-314. 309. Scribendi rectesapere est et prinoipimnetfons. "Good
sense is both the first principle and the parent-source of good writing.'*
310. Socratica cliartis. "The precepts of Socratio wisdom." The poet
sends us to the precepts of Socrates, as contained in the moral writings
of Plato and others of bis disciples, for Socrates wrote nothing himself.
Charta is therefore taken here, as Doring well explains it, ^^pro eo quod
in charta scriptum est."—311. Provisam rem. "The subject, after having
been previously and carefully reflected upon," i, e., examined in all its
various details, so that we are become full masters of it.—314. Qute partes
in bellum missi duds. "What the part of a leader sent to war," i. e.,
what part a leader sent to war should act. With partes supply sint.
317-324. 317. Respicere exemplar vitte mammqne jubebo, &o. " I will
direct the skillful imitator to attend to the great pattern of Hfe and manners
which nature unfolds tu the view, and to derive from this source the
language of actual life," i. e., living language, such as people actually use,
or, in other words, language that is natural.—3 19. Speciosa locis Viorataqve
rectefabula, &c. " A play striking in its mural topics, and marked by
a just expression of the manners, but of no poetic beauty, without force of
expression and skillful construction of plot."— 322. Nugcsqne eanorte.
" And mere melodious trifles,"—333. Gratis ingenium. Gratis dedit, &o.
The Greeks being eminent for philosophy, the last observation naturally
gave rise to this ; for the transition is easy from their superigrity as philosophers
to their superiority as poets, and the more ea§y as the latter
is shown to be, in part, the effect of the former. Now this superiority of
the Greeks in gcnins and eloquence {which would immediately occur on
mentioning the Socratica charta) being seen and confessed, we are led to
ask whence this arises. The answer is, from their making glory, not