USE OF THE COMPLEMENTARY INFINITIVE. 499 It seems useless to seek a full explanation of each case in the doctrine that the infinitive was truly a substantive, which involves the further difficulty that we must explain in what relation (or 'case') it stands to the leading verb (see Conington's note on Virg. G. 1. 213). A Roman poet felt at once the influence of Greek usage, in which the infinitive never lost its substantival character, and of Latin precedents, which, if they may be traced ultimately to a similar source, had yet ceased to be coloured by any consciousness of it. That the infinitive is treated at times by Horace as a substantive is clear from such sentences as 'dulce et decorum est pro patria mori,' and from its conjunction with a substantive in the instances quoted below from Od. 2. 16. 39, Epp. 1. 19. 9. The leading instances in Horace are, besides such common verbs as 'valeo,' ' mitto,' 'parco,' 'fugio,' 'certat tollere,' Od. 1. 1. 6 (cp. Virg. Aen. 2. 64 certant illudere '). 'furit reperire,' Od. 1. 15. 27. 'trepidavit claudere,' Od. 2. 4. 23. 'laborat trepidare,' Od. 2. 3. 11 (cp. S. 1. 1. 112, 2. 3. 269, 2. 8. 19, E. 1. 3. 2, 1. 20. 16, 2. 2. 196, A. P. 25, 168, 192, 435). 'occupat rapere,' Od. 2. 12. 28 (so 'occupat in agrum Sabinum transire,' Liv. 1. 30). urges summovere,' Od. 2. 18. 21. 'coniurata rumpere,' Od. 1. 15. 7 (cp. Sall. Cat. 52 'coniuravere cives patriam incendere'). 'dolens vinci,' Od. 4. 4. 62. 'invidens deduci,' Od. 1. 37. 30. ' dedit spernere,' Od. 2. 16. 39 (cp. Epp. 1. 16. 61, etc.). 6 fingit equum ire,' Epp. 1. 2. 64. In the following instances the leading verb seems to be still more complete in itself, and the sense of 'purpose' (which in prose would have been expressed by means of a gerundive or supine or final clause) to be thrown more entirely upon the infinitive : 'te persequor frangere,' Od. 1. 23. 10. 'pecus egit visere montes,' Od. 1. 2. 8. 'quem virum sumis celebrare,' Od. 1. 123 (cp. 'res gestas sumis scribere,' Epp. I. 3. 7). 'tradam ventis portare,' Od. 1. 26. 3 (cp. Virg. Aen. 1. 319 'dederatque comam diffundere ventis '). 'me expetit urere,' Epod. 11. 5. 2. With Adjectives. It is this use which, though by no means confined to Horace among the poets (cp. Virg. E. 5. I 'boni inflare,' Aen. 6. 164 'praestantior ciere,' etc.), and not without precedent even in the best Latin prose (for Cicero uses 'paratus' [cp. Hor. Epod. 1. 3] with an infinitive), is yet sufficiently frequent with him to form a noticeable feature of his style. The easiest cases are those of a participle (which passes into a verbal adjective) from a simple verb which would require or readily admit a complementary infinitive. Such are 'sciens flectere,' Od. 3. 7. 25, compared with 'nescius cedere,' Od. 1. 6.6. 'metuens solvi,' Od. 2. 2. 7, with 'timidus perire,' Od. 4. 9. 52 ; cp. ' audax perpeti,' Od. 1. 3. 25. 'doctus,' as a participle, Od. 3. 6. 27 ('institutus,' Od. 3. 8. II); as an adj. in 'docta psallere,' Od. 4. 13. 7, ‘ludere doctior,' Od. 3. 24. 56. Then we have 'indoctus ferre,' Od. 2. 6. 2, 'indocilis pati,' Od. 1. 1. 18. 'dignus' (= 'qui meret'), with an active infinitive, Epp. 1. 10. 48, with a passive, Od. 3. 21. 6, Sat. 1. 3. 24, I. 4. 3, 25, I. 10. 72, A. P. 183, 283; 'indigna,' A. P. 231. 'idoneus dare,' Epp. 1. 16. 12. 'Fruges consumere nati' (Epp. 1. 2. 27) is a step beyond this. 'Leviora tolli,' Od. 2. 4. II, and cereus flecti,' A. P. 163, also belong here, the adjectives being only more or less coloured forms of 'facilis,' and the construction arising from the conversion of the impersonal 'facile est hunc flectere' into a personal 'hic facilis est flecti.' We may add, perhaps, 'vultus nimium lubricus aspici,' Od. 1. 19. 8,='quem lubricum est aspicere.' The following are the chief remaining instances :— 'callidus condere,' Od. 1. 10. 7; 'resonare,' 3. II. 4. " cautus dignos assumere,' Sat. 1. 6. 51. 6 catus iaculari,' Od. 3. 12. 10. ‘prudens dissipare,' Epod. 17. 47. efficax eluere,' Od. 4. 12. 20. 'praesens tollere,' Od. 1. 35. 2. 'celer sequi,' Od. 1. 18. 18; ‘volvere,' Od. 4. 6. 59; ‘irasci,' Epp. 1. 20. 25. 'fortis tractare,' Od. 1. 37. 27 ; 'fortior spernere,' Od. 3. 3. 50. 'firmus pascere,' Epp. 1. 17. 47. 'piger ferre,' Sat. 1. 4. 12 ('impiger vexare,' Od. 4. 14. 23). segnis solvere,' Od. 3. 21. 22. 'dolosus ferre,' Od. 1. 35. 28. durus componere,' Sat. 1. 4. 8. 6 veraces cecinisse,' Carm. Sec. 25. 'blandus ducere,' Od. 1. 12. 10. 'largus donare,' Od. 4. 12. 19. 'lenis recludere,' Od. 1. 24. 17; 'aperire,' Carm. Sec. 13. 'saevus fingere,' Epp. 1. 15. 30. 'impotens quidlibet sperare,' Od. 1. 37. 10. 'nobilis superare,' Od. 1. 12. 26. 'ridiculus absorbere,' Sat. 2. 8. 24. 'utilis aspirare,' A. P. 204. The broad resemblance holds between all these that the infinitive names the action in relation to which the adjective is applicable. There is room, however, for considerable difference in the closeness of the relation between them, and even in its character. 502 USE OF THE COMPLEMENTARY INFINITIVE. On the first point we may compare 'celer irasci' or 'praesens tollere' with 'blandum quercus ducere.' In either of the first two cases the adjective and the infinitive are essential to one another—it is a mere accident of language that the 'irascibility' or the 'power of lifting' is not expressed in a single word—but in the third case the idea of each is complete the infinitive adds an illustration, almost a result, of the quality named by the adjective, it is almost = 'tam blandus ut ducat.' On the second point we may notice the change in the relation of the infinitive (a) when the adjective to which it is appended is negative in sense. This is clear in such cases as 'indoctus ferre,' 'timidus perire,' 'piger ferre': it may cause some ambiguity when the negative character of the adjective is less clear, or where it would have been equally open to the poet to regard it from its positive side, and to make the infinitive the complement of the whole, not merely of the positive part, viz. the attribute denied or disparaged. Contrast, e.g. 'ferre iugum pariter dolosi' with 'cautum dignos assumere,' 'callidum condere,' etc.; (b) in such cases as the last three given above, where the adjective and the infinitive seem to have changed places, where it is no longer an internal quality of the subject leading to some action, but an action which is the cause or ground of the attribute, no longer brave so as to conquer,' but 'famous because he conquers.' 'Niveus videri,' Od. 4. 2. 59 (like 'nefas videre,' Epod. 16. 14), seems to be more purely an imitation of a Greek idiom (λevêòs ὁρᾶσθαι, ἀθέμιτον ἰδεῖν). APPENDIX III. INDEX OF METRES USED IN THE ODES AND EPODES. § 1. Asclepiads. Under this system are included five systems, composed of the following verses singly or in various combinations : Tu ne quaesieris scire nefas quem mihi quem tibi. In these two verses the caesura is carefully kept, in a after the first, in ẞ after the second choriambus. The only exception in Horace's writings is Od. 4. 8. 17 'Non incendia Carthaginis impiae.' In 1. 18. 16 and 2. 12. 25, the preposition gives a quasi In two instances, in Od. 1. 15. 24 and 36, Horace returns to the use of Catullus, and has a trochee as the 'basis,' 'Teucer et Sthenelus sciens,' 'Ignis Iliacas domos.' 8. The Pherecratic Grato Pyrrha sub antro. Asclepiad I. employs a alone, Od. 1. 1, 3. 30, 4. 8. II. employs ẞ alone, Od. 1. 11, 18, 4. 10. III. consists of couplets of a and y, Od. 1. 3, 13, 19, 36, 3. 9, 15, 19, 24, 25, 28, 4. I, 3. |