THE ART OF POETRY. TO THE PISOS, FATHER AND SONS. HE name, Ars Poetica, very early given to this Epistle, is calculated to mislead. There is nothing in its character to distinguish it from the other Epistles of Horace, especially those of the Second Book, except that it goes with more detail into the question how and by whom poetry, worthy of the name, is and can alone be written. It makes no pretension to the character falsely assigned to it of a treatise on the art of poetry-a subject, the mere fringes of which in many departments it either does not touch at all or touches only very slightly. Easy, rambling, conversational, it was clearly composed, like the other Epistles, from an impulse directly personal, and with a purpose also personal, which it is not difficult to divine. As we have seen from the language of both the Epistles of the Second Book, a mania for writing poetry, particularly dramatic poetry, had taken a wide hold upon society in Rome. Horace had ridiculed it in his easy playful way in these Epistles,-and perhaps with no serious end in view. But the present Epistle was written with an obvious determination to show the difficulties of the poet's art in so much detail, and in colours so forcible, that he might reasonably hope to bring to their senses some of those who were boring their friends, and preparing failure for themselves by compositions written invitâ Minervâ, and stamped with the mediocrity which neither gods nor men nor booksellers endure. Among the young men who had caught the prevailing epidemic was the elder of Piso's two sons, who apparently thought his peculiar gift lay in writing plays. Rich and of good family, he had no doubt plenty of parasitical friends to listen to what he wrote, and to flatter him with praises of his genius. To counteract this malign influence, and to bring him to a true appreciation of the difficulty of an art which is not to be dabbled in by a mere amateur, was obviously the main object of Horace, and one to which most probably he had been instigated by the young man's father. Only because he held the youth in high regard, and felt that there was a vein of strong sense in him to which he might appeal, would Horace have been at pains to treat his subject at such length, and with so much earnestness. He seems to have been determined that the young man, who was then only about seventeen or eighteen years old, should not lose caste by mistaking the "puffs of dunces" for fame, and incurring the ridicule of that large class who, in what is called society, have a cynical delight in dwelling on the follies of the wise." 66 "Cur ego amicum Offendam in nugis?' Hæ nugæ seria ducent In mala derisum semel exceptumque sinistre." These were words (lines 450-452), especially coming after what preceded them, to give young Piso pause. It is characteristic of Horace that, having written them, he at once glances off into a ludicrously exaggerated picture of a crack-brained poet, and advocates the propriety of letting him indulge his madness in suicide if he likes ; ---a very skilful way of winding up a letter written with the object above indicated, but which Horace would have felt to be a most lame and impotent conclusion to a purely didactic essay on the art which, of all arts, he prized the most. One would like to know how Horace's advice was taken by the poet of the Piso family. If he kept his verses by him, as suggested, for nine years, we may feel sure that by that time he admired them as little as Horace appears to have done what he had seen of them. Of all Horace's writings, none probably presents so many difficulties to the translator,- -none has been so often translated in all the languages of Europe, or afforded so much scope for critical comment and illustration. Its leading maxims can never be obsolete or out of place.] UPPOSE, by some wild freak of fancy led, To neck of horse, cull here and there a limb, Went tailing off into a loathsome fish, Could you, although the artist's self were there, From laughter long and loud, my friends, forbear? |