Horatius ex Pyrrha illecebris tanquam è naufragio enataverat, cujus amore irretitos, affirmat effe miferos,

QUIS

UIS multa gracilis te puer in rofa

Perfufus liquidis urget odoribus,

Grato Pyrrha fub antro?

Cui flavam religas comam Simplex munditiis? heu quoties fidem Mutatofque deos flebit, & afperâ Nigris æquora ventis

Emirabitur infolens,

Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea :
Qui femper vacuam, femper amabilem
Sperat, nefcius auræ
Fallacis. Miferi quibus

PROSE INTERPRETATION.

O Pyrrah, what* fpindle-shanked youth, bedewed with liquid odours, preffes you now in fome delightful grot, amidst a multitude of rofe-bufhes? For whom do you bind back your golden hair in fuch a fimplicity of neatness? Alas! how often fhall he deplore your perfidy and the altered Gods, and in his noviciate be aftonished at the feas rough with lowering

Horace, who was a corpulent man, seems to deride a lean rival particularly.

Horace has efcaped from the allurements of Pyrrha, as from a fhip-wreck. He affrms fuch as are ensnared by her love to be in a state of wretchedness.

SAY what flim youth, with moist perfumes
Bedaub'd, now courts thy fond embrace,
There, where the frequent rofe-tree blooms,
And makes the grot so sweet a place?

Pyrrha, for whom with such an air
Do you bind back your golden hair?

So feeming in your cleanly vest,

Whose plainness is the pink of taftę –

Alas! how oft shall he protest

Against his confidence misplac't,

And love's inconstant pow'rs deplore,
And wondrous winds, which, as they roar,

Throw black upon the alter'd scene —
Who now fo well himself deceives,

And thee all sunshine, all ferene

For want of better skill believes,

And for his pleasure has prefag'd
Thee ever dear and difengag'd.

PROSE INTERPRETATION.

lowering ftorms, who credulous poffeffes you all gold, who hopes you will be ever disengaged, ever loving, inexpert of

the

Intentata nites. Me tabulâ facer

Votivâ paries indicat uvida
Sufpendiffe potenti

Veftimenta maris Deo.

PROSE INTERPRETATION.

the faithlefs gale! Miferable are thofe, to whom you, untried, appear fo bright. The confecrated wall of Neptune's temple demonftrates by a votive tablet, that I have hung up my dropping garments to the God, who has power over the fea.

ODE

Wretched are all within thy fnares,

The inexperienc'd and the young!

For me the temple witness bears

Where I my dropping weeds have hung,
And left my votive chart behind
To him that rules both wave and wind.

ODE

O DE VI.

AD AGRIPPAM.

Varius tragadiographus bella ab Agrippâ gefta decantabit. Horatius vero conviviis tantum & moribus defcribendis aptus idoneus.

SCRIBERIS Vario fortis, & hoftium

Victor, Mæonii carminis alite,

Quam rem cunq; ferox navibus aut equis
Miles te duce gefferit.

Nos, Agrippa, neq; hæc dicere, nec gravem
Peleidæ ftomachum, cedere nescii,

Nec curfus duplicis per mare Ulyffei,
Nec fævam Pelopis domum

Conamur, tenues grandia: dum pudor,
Imbellifque lyræ mufa potens vetat
Laudes egregii Cæfaris & tuas
Culpâ deterere ingenî.

PROSE INTERPRETATION.

You fhall be described by Varius in all the fublimity of the Homeric verse, as valiant and a vanquisher of your enemies, whatever atchievements your fierce foldier fhall have accomplished under your command, either with fhips or warhorses. I as a mean writer, O Agrippa, neither attempt thefe grand fubjects, nor the deftructive wrath of Achilles, incapable of being perfuaded, nor the voyages of the doubling Ulyffes, nor the brutal houfe of Pelops while defidence, and the muse that prefides o'er the unwarlike lyre, forbids me

to