BOOK I. [The references are to the pages of the First Volume.] ODE I., page 3. Macenas, scion of a race of kings, &c. CILNIUS MÆCENAS belonged to the family of the Cilnii, descendants of Cilnius of Arretium, one of the Lucumones, or princes of Etruria. It is to this circumstance that Horace alludes here, and in the Ode xxxix. B. III. line I. Mæcenas never accepted any of the high offices of state, preferring to remain a mere knight—a rank of which, to judge by the emphasis with which Horace dwells upon it in more than one poem, he appears to have been proud. In the words of Mr Newman, he was the chief commoner of Rome;" but, "whatever his nominal relation to the state, was more powerful than senators and magistrates."."— 'The Odes of Horace,' Translated by F. W. Newman. London, 1853. P. 3. 86 Golden Attalus. Attalus, one of the kings of Pergamus, who were celebrated for their munificent patronage of art, and the habit of giving immense sums for books, statues, and pictures, to decorate their palaces. Attalus II. (B.C. 159-138) gave, according to Pliny (Hist. Nat., vii. 39), a hundred talents for a single picture by Aristides of Thebes. Attalus III., last king of Pergamus, bequeathed his possessions to the Roman people (B.C. 133). With strong-ribbed Cyprian keel to creep, &c. Cyprus was famous for the excellence of its timber. Myrtos is one of a group of islands which almost landlock a portion of the Ægean. Horace, therefore, means to say emphatically, that the timorous landsman would refuse, on any terms, to sail in the most seaworthy ship in the most shel tered of bays. Professor Pillans, of Edinburgh, to whom the author owes much of the love of classic literature which has accompanied him through life, was the first to throw this happy light upon these lines. This is one of many passages in Horace, the force of which is lost to us from our ignorance of circumstances with which every educated Roman of his day was familiar. Africus. The W.S. W. wind, or sirocco, which blew with great violence from the coast of Africa. The other winds, of which mention occurs in these Odes, are Iapyx, W.N. W., Favonius, W., Auster, S., Eurus, S. E., and Aquilo or Boreas, N.E. Massic old. The Massic wine, the produce of Mons Massicus (Monte Massico), in Campania, like the Falernian, which came from another part of the same ridge of hills, was highly esteemed. See Pliny (Hist. Nat., xiv. 6). "The Massic wines, which come from the Gaurane hills looking towards Puteoli and Baiæ, come nothing behind the rest, but strive to match them every way."-Philemon Holland's Translation. ODE II., page 6. Rising in ire, to avenge his Ilia's plaint. Ilia, the mother by Mars of Romulus and Remus, was drowned in the Anio, a tributary of the Tiber, to the god of which latter river Horace here assumes her to have been wedded. Her “plaint" is for the death of her descendant, Julius Cæsar. “The monuments of regal eld," &c. (monumenta regis Templumque Vesta), to which the poet refers, were the Domus Vestæ Regia, and the Temple of Vesta, in the Forum, the sites of which have been identified since the recent excavations. The part of the Forum on which they stand was inundated by the Tiber so lately as De. cember 1870. The Marsi, the The Marsian's flashing eye and fateful port. most warlike people of Italy, are named here as representative of the Roman soldiery in general. ODE III., page 8. There can be no reasonable doubt that this poem was addressed to the poet Virgil, who was for many reasons peculiarly dear to Horace, and of whom he never speaks but in terms of admiration. The remarks of Professor Sellar on this subject, in his 'Roman Poets of the Augustan Age,' p. 99, are sure to be valued by all lovers of Horace: "Of the contemporary poets and critics," he says, "whose works are extant, Horace is much the most important witness, from the clearness of his judgment, the calmness of his temperament, and the intimate terms of friendship on which he lived with the older poet. Unlike Virgil, who, from reasons of health or natural inclination, or devotion to his art, had chosen the 'secretum iter et fallentis semita vita,' and cherished few, but close, intimacies, Horace lived in the world, enjoyed all that was brilliant, genial, and illustrious in the society of his time, and while still constant to the attachments of his earlier years, continued through all his life to form new friendships with younger men, who gave promise of distinction. His Odes and Epistles are addressed to a great variety of men to those of highest social and political position, such as Agrippa, Pollio, Munatius, Flavius, Sallustius, Crispus, Lollius, &c.; to old comrades of his youth, or brother-poets, such as Pompeius Grosphus, Septimius, Aristius Fuscus, Tibullus; to the men of a younger generation, such as Iulus, Antonius, Julius Florus, and the younger Lollius;—and to all of them he applies language of discriminating but not of excessive appreciation. To the men of eminence in the state he uses expressions of courteous and delicate compliment, never of flattery or exaggeration. His old comrades and intimate associates he greets with hearty friendliness or genial irony; to younger men, without assuming the airs of a Mentor, he addresses words of sympathetic encouragement or paternal advice. But amongst all those whom he addresses there are only two—unless, from one or two words implying strong attachment, we add one to the number, Ælius Lamia-in connection with whom he uses the language of warm and admiring affection. These are Mæcenas and Virgil. Whatever may have been the date or circumstances connected with the composition of the Third Ode of Book I., the simple words 'animæ dimidium meæ' establish the utility of the notion that the subject of this Ode is not the poet, Out only the same merchant or physician whom Horace in the Twelfth Ode of Book IV. invites, in the style which he uses when he is most of an Epicurean, to sacrifice for a time his pursuit of wealth for the more seasonable claims of the wine of Cales." The occasion of the poem obviously was the voyage made by Virgil to Greece, for the purpose of meeting Augustus on his return from the East. His delicate health naturally filled Horace with anxiety, if not foreboding, which proved well founded. After meeting Augustus at Athens, Virgil was taken ill at Megara. He had to return to Italy, landed at Brundusium in a very feeble state, and died there a few days afterwards, B.C. 19. Wordsworth had this poem in his mind, consciously or unconsciously, when he wrote his fine sonnet "On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford for Naples." It is pleasant to read the two poems in connection. "A trouble, not of clouds, or weeping rain, Lift up your hearts, ye Mourners ! for the might Blessings and prayers, in nobler retinue Be true, Our own poet Carew had this Ode, and the Seventh Ode of the Fourth Book (ante, vol. i. p. 195) in view, when he wrote the following lines on the Spring : "Now that the winter's gone, the earth hath lost Her snow-white robes; and now no more the frost Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream Upon the silver lake or crystal stream: But the warm sun thaws the benumbèd earth, The valleys, hills, and woods in rich array Malherbe, in his beautiful poem of condolence to his friend, M. du Perrier, on the loss of a daughter, adopts in one stanza the thought and almost the words of Horace. But indeed the whole poem is so thoroughly Horatian in spirit and expression, that it might almost seem to have flowed from the pen of the Venusian bard. To those who are not already familiar with the poem, the following stanzas of it will be welcome : "Je sais de quels appas son enfance était pleine, Injurieux ami, de soulager ta peine Mais elle était du monde, où les plus belles choses Et, rose, elle a vécu ce que vivent les roses, Ne te lasse donc plus d'inutiles pleintes ; Mais sage à l'advenir, Aime une ombre comme ombre, et des cendres éteintes La mort a des rigueurs à nulle autre pareilles ; On a beau la prier; La cruelle qu'elle est se bouche les oreilles, Et nous laisse crier. |