Tu vina Torquato move Consule pressa meo.1 Cetera mitte loqui: deus hæc fortasse benigna Reducet in sedem vice. Nunc et Achæmenio Perfundi nardo juvat, et fide Cyllenea2 Levare diris pectora sollicitudinibus; Nobilis ut grandi cecinit Centaurus alumno : 'Invicte, mortalis dea nate puer Thetide,3 Te manet Assaraci tellus, quam frigida parvi1 Findunt Scamandri flumina lubricus et Simoïs, Unde tibi reditum certo subtemine Parcæ Rupere; nec mater domum cærula te revehet. Illic omne malum vino cantuque levato, Deformis ægrimoniæ dulcibus alloquiis.' EPODE XIV. TO MÆCENAS IN EXCUSE FOR INDOLENCE IN COMPLETING THE VERSES HE HAD PROMISED. It is impossible to say whether the verses thus promised and deferred were, as commonly supposed, the collection composed in this Book of Epodes, or some single iambic poem. The context seems to favour the latter supposition. The Why this soft sloth, through inmost sense diffusing As if with parched lip I had drained from Lethe Thou kill'st me with that question oft-repeated-- A song I promised thee; to keep my promise Forbids the iambics, for I have begun them, Thus it is said, by love inflamed, the Teian Lost his diviner art: And on the shell to which he wailed his sorrow, Music imperfect died. Thou too art scorched; enjoy thy lot; no fairer Fired Troy-me Phryne burns-a wench too glowing Candide Mæcenas.' 'Candide' here has the signification of honourable or truthful. You kill me-you, a man of honour-asking me so often why I do not fulfil my promise. Ad umbilicum adducere,' is to bring a volume to the last sheet. -MACLEANE, The beauty who inflames Mæcenas, so gracefully mentioned at the close of the poem, is, according to the scholiasts, certainly Terentia, whom Mæcenas was then either married. to or courting. And, that assumption is generally adopted by modern critics. Still it scarcely seems consistent with Roman manners, or with Horace's good breeding and knowledge of the world, that he should imply a comparison between his passing caprice for a public wanton, and the honourable love of a man of the highest station to the lady he had married, or was wooing in marriage. CARM. XIV, Mollis inertia cur tantam diffuderit imis Pocula Lethæos ut si ducentia somnos Candide Mæcenas,1 occidis sæpe rogando: Inceptos, olim promissum carmen, iambos Non aliter Samio dicunt arsisse Bathyllo Anacreonta Teïum, Qui persæpe cava testudine flevit amorem, Ureris ipse miser: quod si non pulchrior ignis Accendit obsessam Ilion, Gaude sorte tua; me libertina, neque uno H H EPODE XV, TO NEÆRA, This poem may have been an imitation of the Greek, but as Horace pointedly introduces his own name as that of the complainant, it must be inferred that, at all events, he meant to be understood as speaking in his own person. The probability 'Twas night-the moon shone forth in cloudless heaven Amid the lesser stars, When thou didst mock, in vows myself had taught thee, The great presiding gods; Closer than round the ilex clings the ivy, Clasping me with twined arms: 'Long as the wolf shall prey upon the sheepfald Long as the seaman's foe, Baleful Orion, rouse the wintry billows Or the caressing breeze Ripple the unshorn ringlets of Apollo, Our mutual love shall be!' Ah! thou shalt mourn to find me firm, Neæra ; For if in Flaccus aught Of man be left, he brooks not halved embraces ; His love shall leave thee, and explore its equal, Of the last treason once makes sure its entry, To charms which perfidy has rendered hateful, Whoe'er thou art, in my defeat exulting, Be rich in herds and lands; bability is in favour of the supposition that it was the expression of a genuine sentiment, and addressed to a real person. Macleane pushes too far his sceptical theory that Horace's love-poems are merely artistic exercises, like those of Cowley. CARM. XV, Nox erat, et cælo fulgebat Luna sereno Inter minora sidera, Cum tu, magnorum numen læsura deorum, Artius atque hedera procera adstringitur ilex, 'Dum pecori lupus, et nautis infestus Orion Intonsosque agitaret Apollinis aura capillos, O dolitura mea multum virtute Neæra ! Non feret assiduas potiori te dare noctes, Nec semel offensæ cedet constantia formæ, Et tu, quicunque es felicior atque meo nunc |