NOTE (C) to ESSAY V. (See p. 144.) Ode I. 20. Having had occasion to cite this poem, I am tempted to offer my suggestion as to the well-known difficulty in v. 10. 66 Vile potabis modicis Sabinum cantharis, Graeca quod ego ipse testa cum tibi plausus, care Maecenas eques, ut paterni fluminis ripae simul et iocosa montis imago. Caecubum et prelo domitam Caleno That something is wrong in the words tu bibes is generally agreed. If it stands," writes Mr Wickham, "it must mean 'I must leave you to drink', that is, at home." But the "great awkwardness in the difference of sense which we are thus obliged to put on the future here and in v. 1, potabis" is a blemish incredible in a miniature poem of this kind, and a poem of Horace nor is this blemish, in my opinion, the strongest objection. Considering that Horace is inviting Maecenas to the retreat which he enjoyed by Maecenas' liberality, is there not a singular want of taste in this emphatic contrast between the entertainment he could offer and such as the minister could enjoy at home? Come' says Horace, 'to the Sabine farm which you gave me; but remember' he adds in effect, 'that you have not provided for me as you do for yourself.' It is a very different thing when in the other like invitation (III. 29) he dwells on the relief which the statesman, tired of noise and pomp and care, would find in a more simple life— plerumque gratae divitibus vices mundaeque parvo sub lare pauperum sollicitam explicuere frontem, This is to say 'You have provided for me what is in truth more delightful than your necessary burden of splendour', and enhances the value of the gift, which is only depreciated by the contrast of the Caecubum with the vile Sabinum. For this reason, with others of less weight, I am not satisfied even with Mr Munro's Tu vides you provide" (derived from the reading of one MS Tu bides through the common writing of v as b); though I am indebted to it for what I am going to propound. The MS in question is not of much authority in general, but it ought in this reading to have great weight, for the simple reason that it offers us nonsense. Tu bides means nothing; and the presumption is therefore strong that it is not an arbitrary invention, as Tu bibes well may be; nor is it at all likely to be an error for Tu bibes. The starting-point for us is Tu bides and the question is-What original reading produced this? I suggest that it was Invides, in the sense of you look at askance, enviously, with an evil eye, for which and the construction with the accusative see the Dictionary s.v." The second stanza, by the allusion to Maecenas' recovery from a dangerous illness, recalls his weak health. His specific complaint is described as a tendency to fever and consequent loss of sleep; Pliny says of him that he lived as in a perpetual fever, and towards the close of his life scarcely slept at all. In Roman medicine prescription and prohibition of wine or of particular wines played a great part. Pliny, beside many single references, gives a copious review of the subjects, and among other 1 Journal of Philology, Vol. I. p. 349. 2 Horace has the corresponding passive invideri in Ars Poet. 56, Od. II. 10. 7, Od. III. 1. 45: Cicero cites the active from Accius (Tusc. 3. 9) and de fends it. Here the accusative is par- things describes the treatment of fevers-that wine must not be given in general, and in what cases and when it is required, for example in a sleeping draught'. Now the Latian and Campanian growths mentioned by Horace were among the strongest and most spirituous in the Roman list, as he indicates by the picturesque epithet domitam; and moreover those to which he gives prominence were special fever medicines. The Caecuban, in particular, a growth small in quantity, was already in the time of Horace extremely precious, a wine to be kept with 'a hundred keys', and laid up for the highest occasions of festivity, or for medical use. A century later, according to Pliny, it was no longer grown at all3; but Caecuban, or something which passed under that name, was still in request, as well as Falernian, for patients with fever, to whom small doses of it were sent as a present by sympathising friends. In Martial a certain Tongilius, who has a taste for such doses, shams fever to get them— uri Tongilius male dicitur hemitritaeo. novi hominis mores; esurit atque sitit ;... Caecuba saccentur, quaeque annus coxit Opimi; There was therefore every reason why Maecenas should now 'look askance at' these much-prized delicacies, which he was probably forbidden to take in the ordinary way, and would receive with about as much appetite as a child feels for the particular jam in which he is accustomed to take powder. Others might enjoy them, but he could not; and this is precisely the attitude of mind which invidet. Nor with the best intentions was it easy at a Roman table to be sure that you took no Falernian or Formian; for a wine with a safe name might have been flavoured with another, a bad practice at which Horace perhaps glances with his temperant (mix)', a word also in medical use and so under the circumstances 1 ib. 24. 2 Epod. Ix. 1, ib. 36 (note the word metire here), Od. 1. 37. 5 (with direct allusion to Epod. Ix. 1), Od. II. 14. 25. 3 Hist. Nat. XXIII. 20, Caecuba iam non gignuntur. 4 Mart. II. 40. unpleasantly suggestive'. On the other hand a pure vin ordinaire taken moderately, such as the 'cheap Sabine in not too large a jug', which Horace offers, is the most wholesome beverage or at least commonly so regarded. Moreover Horace is careful to note that he bottled and sealed it himself, so that there would be no danger of such abominations in the way of sealing as Pliny mentions with horror-saluberrimum, cui nihil in musto additum est; meliusque, si nec vasis pix affuit: marmore enim et gypso aut calce condita, quis non etiam validus expaverit?' The 'Greek bottle' is probably used for flavour, but it at all events warrants immunity from the Latian poison and perhaps was supposed useful in itself. Thus here, as in III. 29, Horace contrives to make the limit of his means an attraction in itself to one situated as Maecenas. 'I shall not offer you', he says, 'the Caecuban and the Falernian, which they mix with their drink in the great houses of Rome; and you will not therefore be spectator of enjoyments which you dare not partake.' It is not really inconsistent with this that in Epode IX. Horace looks forward to drinking Caecuban in Maecenas' company. The occasion is so extraordinary that no common rules would apply to it. 1 misceri plura genera omnibus inutile is Pliny's prescription, ib. 24. VENUS AND MYRTALE. THE time is long past when the love-poems of Horace were taken for so many personal revelations, and Glycera, Barine, or Myrtale were thought deserving of a place in historical biography. It is now recognized that Horace must be interpreted like other lyric poets, and not supposed to mean "Flaccus wherever he writes an "ego". But errors-the comparison is becoming trite-are like the useless parts in a species which is developing under changed conditions; they disappear gradually, and leave a rudiment. It may be useful therefore to enquire exactly how much remains of the "Amores Horatiani" when the Odes are rationally read, and what really is the attitude of the poet towards the subject which he declares to be the chief theme of his kind. We will follow, here as elsewhere, the historical division, and speak first of the Three Books separately. The truth is that in the Three Books Horace never writes of himself as actually in love, and hardly mentions his love affairs at all. Not much less than half the pieces bear on the relations of men to women; about a third contain evidence more or less clear that the poet speaks in his proper person; but these lists are mutually exclusive, except in two or three cases at most. Some, which the influence of old mistakes might pass off for such, will not bear examination. Such are the two Sabine idylls, the invitation to Tyndaris (I. 17) and the praise of Lalage (1. 22), a pair very like each other and very unlike anything else in the work. They are poems of love in the same sense that the bergeries of porcelain are pictures of love, but the shepherd is no more Horace, or any other creature of the common clay, |