Part 10 (1/2)
Fairly well, as tio I trust all is ith you? [_As the Bore follows him up, Horace attempts to forestall conversation, and to dismiss his companion with the question of for I can do for you is there? _Bore_ Yes, ; I' to et rid of the Bore, goes faster, stops, whispers in the slave-boy's ear; while the sweat pours down his face, which he mops desperately He exclaims aside:_] O Bolanus, hoish I had your hot tes, praises the scenery, the buildings, etc As Horace continues silent, he says:_] You're terribly anxious to get rid ofBut it's no use, I'll stay by you, I'll follow you Where are you going froe hi to visit a er to you He lies sick at his house away over beyond the Tiber, near Caesar's gardens _Bore_ O, I have nothing else to do, and I' with you [_As Horace keeps on doggedly in sullen silence, he continues:_] Unless I am much mistaken in myself, you will find me a more valuable friend than Viscus or Varius There's no one can write racefully; and as for singing, Her, tries to frighten hi to visit ious disease_] Have you a mother or other relative dependent on you? _Bore_ No, I have no one at all I've buried every one of thes! Now I'm the only victi my steps, which an old Sabine fortune-teller once warnedshall carry this boy off, nor deadly sword, nor wasting consuout; in the fulness of time some chatterbox will talk him to death So then, if he be wise, when he shall come to man's estate, let him beware of all chatterboxes” [_They have now come opposite the Temple of Vesta in the south end of the Forum, near which the courts of justice were held The hour for opening court has arrived_] _Bore_ [_suddenly reiven bond to appear in a certain suit, and that if he fails to appear this suit will go against him by default_] Won't you kindly attend me here in court a little while? _Horace_ I can't help you any Hang it, I' about law, anyhow Besides, I'et--you knohere _Bore_ I'm in doubt what to do, whether to leave you or my case _Horace_ Leave me, by all means _Bore_ [_after a brief meditation_] No, I don't believe I will [_He takes the lead, and Horace helplessly follows The Bore starts in on the subject which is upperet on? He's a very exclusive and level-headed fello, isn't he? No one has made a better use of his chances You would have an excellent assistant in that quarter, one who could ably support you, if only you would introduce yours truly Strike me dead, if you wouldn't show your heels to all competitors in no time
_Horace_ Why, we don't live there on any such basis as you seem to think There is no circle in Ro on the part of itsIt makes no difference to me if another man is richer or more learned than I Every man has his own place there _Bore_ You don't really mean that? I can scarcely believe it _Horace_ And yet such is the case _Bore_ You only er to be admitted _Horace_ [_with contemptuous sarcasm_] O, you have only to wish it: such is your excellence, you'll be sure to gain your point To tell the truth, Maecenas is a soft-hearted fellow, and for this very reason guards the first approach to his friendshi+p estion in earnest_] O, I shall keep et in to-day, I'll try again I'll lie in wait for chances, I'll meet him on the street corners, and walk doith hi for it [_Enter Aristius Fuscus, an intis_] _Horace_ [_to Fuscus_] hello!
where do you co? [_Horace slyly plucks his friend's toga, pinches his aret Fuscus to rescue him from the Bore But Fuscus pretends not to understand_] _Horace_ [_to Fuscus_] Didn't you say that you had so to say to me in private? _Fuscus_ Yes, but I'll tell you some other time To-day is a Jewish festival
You wouldn't have me insult the Jeould you? _Horace_ O, I have no such scruples myself _Fuscus_ But I have I'-minded as you are You really must excuse me; I'll tell you some other ti his friend in the lurch_]
_Horace_ [_in a despairing aside_] O, to think that so dark a day as this should ever have dawned for me! [_At this juncture the Bore's adversary at law co up_] _The Adversary_ [_to Bore, in a loud voice_] Where are you going, you bail-breaking rascal? [_To Horace_] Will you coives him his ear to touch in token of his assent, and the Bore is hurried off to court, with loud expostulations on both sides, and with the inevitable jeering street crowd following after_]
_Horace_ [_left alone_] Saved, by the grace of Apollo!
The fourth and tenth satires of the first book are of especial value to us, because they contain Horace's own estimate of his predecessor, Lucilius; answers to popular criticiseneral literary criticism; and many personal comments by the poet upon his ownis an abstract of the tenth:
Yes, Lucilius _is_ rough--anybody will adreat wit But wit of itself does not constitute great poetry There htliness and versatility This is what caused the success of the old Greek co Latin and Greek” That, I reply, neither requires any great skill, nor is it a thing to be desired This last assertion is at once apparent if you take the discussion into other fields of literature than poetry I myself have been warned by Quirinus not to attempt Greek verse
I have looked over the literary field and found it occupied by men who could write better than I in each departedy, epic, pastoral Satire alone promised success to me; but still I do not profess to excel Lucilius I freely leave the crown to hi his faults which I hness In criticizing him I take the same license which he himself used toward his predecessors, and which he would use noard his own extant works were he alive to-day He surely would be more careful, and takeus
And that is just the point One must write and rewrite, and polish to the ut He er to rush into print and cater to the public taste Let him be content with the applause of men of culture, and strive to win that; and let him leave popular favor to men who are themselves no better than the rabble whom they court
Few Roraphical than Horace His odes, epodes, satires, and epistles are full of his own personality and history From various references in these poems, we learn that he was born in 65 B C, in Venusia, a municipal town in Apulia; that his father was a freedman, a small farmer, and debt collector by trade; that he was educated in Rome under his father's personal care; that he finished his education in Athens, where he eagerly i storm of civil hich had attended the rise of Julius Caesar and the struggle between that leader and Pompey for supremacy, and which had been temporarily allayed by the complete ascendency of Caesar, broke out afresh with renewed violence upon the assassination of the great dictator The verse of Horace, especially in his odes, is full of the consciousness of this civil strife, and of deep and sincere regret for its consequence to the state
The young student was just twenty-one years of age when the fall of Caesar startled the world And when Brutus reached Athens on his way to Macedonia, and called upon the young Romans there to rally to the republic and liberty, the ardent heart of the youthful Horace responded to the summons He joined the ill-fated army of the liberators, was made a military tribune, and served as such until the disastrous day of Philippi, when Horace's ether with all hope which he may have cherished of the lost cause He made his way back to Rome under shelter of the aranted, and there found hiht indeed; for his father was now dead, his eneral confiscations, and he hied in some way, however, to secure a small clerkshi+p, the income from which served to keep the wolf from his humble door
But in this obscure, unfriended clerk one was noalking the streets of Rome to whom Rome's proudest and most princely uest For he carried within him, concealed in a most unpretentious personality, a rich store of education, experience, and genius, which was to prove the open sesaifts To the exercise of this genius he now turned; and the appearance of the earliest of his satires, with perhaps some of his odes and epodes as well, was the result All these things andthe whole of his story with neither boasting on the one hand nor false pride on the other
And now the event occurred which was the first link that bound Horace tangibly to his future greatness--his il, as at this time famous and powerful in the friendshi+p of Maecenas, Pollio, and even the enizing the kindred spirit of genius in the youthful Horace, straightway admitted him to his own friendshi+p, a friendshi+p which is one of the e, and which was destined to endure unbroken until parted by the death of Vergil hiil who in due time introduced Horace to another friend, astatesenerous patron of letters--Maecenas, under whose sheltering patronage our poet grew and expanded to the full developnition
From this shelter Horace writes a satire addressed to Maecenas, in which he recounts, a other circumstances of his life, the occasion of his introduction to his patron; and takes occasion to answer the envious criticisainst him, that he, a mere freedh social position The theme of this satire, which he sturdily maintains, is, that in social, even if not in political matters, character, not faifted son of poverty:
The rank is but the guinea's staive quotations from this satire in the translation of Francis
The poet feels justified in addressing it to his patron, because, though Maecenas is of noble birth himself, he does not hold in contempt the worthy of lowly descent Horace says that it is all very well to deny a man political advance social advancement upon this score to a htly be envied or criticized for his friendshi+p with Maecenas, for this ca picture is given of his first introduction to Maecenas, and his final admission to that nobleman's charmed circle of friends
As for myself, a freedman's son confessed; A freedman's son, the public scorn and jest, That noith you I joy the social hour,-- That once a Roh they envied my coain your friendshi+p, where no servile art Where only men of merit claim a part
Nor yet to chance this happiness I owe; Friendshi+p like yours it had not to bestow
Firstmy friends what character I hold; When introduced, in few and faltering words (Such as an infant reat, Or that I wandered round my country seat On a proud steed in richer pastures bred; But what I really was I frankly said
Short was your answer, in your usual strain; I take ed and bid to hold A place a your nearer friends enrolled
An honor this, methinks, of nobler kind, That, innocent of heart and pure of ained his love, Whose judgment can discern, whose choice approve
The poet here pays a glowing tribute of filial affection to his father, to whose faithful care and instruction he owes it that he has been shi+elded frorosser sins and defects of character
If some few venial faults deform my soul (Like a fair face when spotted with a mole), If none with avarice justly brand my fame, With sordidness, or deeds too vile to naive These little praises) to h maintained By a lean farm but poorly, yet disdained The country schoolh-born heir, With satchel, copy-book, and pelf to pay The wretched teacher on th' appointed day
To Roht, To learn those arts which well-born youth are taught; So dressed and so attended, you would swear I was souardian, of unble my tutors would attend my youth, And thus preserved hest kind) Not only pure froht with vile suspicion hurt h my fate Should fix my fortune in some meaner state, From which some trivial perquisites arise, Or make me, like himself, collector of excise
For this ratitude and praise; Nor, while my senses hold, shall I repent Of such a father, nor with pride resent, As race Not to be born of an illustrious race
But not with theirs e; for if Nature should decree That we froht live Our forive The sires to ished to be allied, Let others choose to gratify their pride; While I, contented with n The titled honors of an ancient line
Horace proceeds to draw a strong contrast between the very onerous duties and social obligations which fall to the lot of the high-born, and his own simple, quiet, independent life
This friendshi+p with Maecenas, of which the preceding satire relates the foundation, began in the year 38 B C, when Horace enty-seven years of age From this time on the poet received ard for hi the Sabine hills about thirty ift ery of the workaday world, consequent leisure for the develop and atmosphere for the rustic moods of his muse; while his intiave hi his urban tastes