Page:The works of Horace - Christopher Smart.djvu/132

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EPODES OF HORACE.

ODE II.

in a greater dread of serpents’ approaches, when they are left:—not that, if she should be present when they came, she could render more help. Not only this, but every other war, shall be cheerfully embraced by me for the hope of your favor; [and this,] not that my plows should labor, yoked to a greater number of mine own oxen; or that my cattle before the scorching dog-star should change the Calabrian^[1] for the Lucanian^[2] pastures: neither that my white country-box should equal the Circæan walls of lofty Tusculum.^[3] Your generosity has enriched me enough, and more than enough: I shall never wish to amass, what either, like the miser Chremes, I may bury in the earth, or luxuriously squander, like a prodigal.

ODE II.

THE PRAISES OF A COUNTRY LIFE.

Happy the man,^[4] who, remote from business, after the man-

↑ Pecusve Calabris. The wealthier Romans had different pastures for summer and winter. The poorer sort sent their flocks into the public pastures, paying a certain rent to farmers of the revenues. Thus Calabria was chosen for its warmth and temperature in winter, and Lucania for its coolness and verdure in summer, occasioned by its mountains. But the difficulty of the sentence depends upon the construction, which must be directly contrary to the poet's arrangement of the words. Mutat Lucana Calabris pascuis, for mutat Calabra pascua Lucanis. In the same manner in the first book, Mutat Lucretilem Lycœo. for mutat Lycœum Lucretili. Schol.
↑ Lucania, a country of Italy, in the kingdom of Naples, between Apulia and the Tuscan Sea, famous for pastures. Calabria, the most southern part of the kingdom of Naples, called also Magna Græcia; lying between the Sicilian and Ionian Seas; it brings forth fruit twice in a year. Watson.
↑ Tusculum is a city of Italy, about twelve miles from Rome, built on an eminence, where many of the Roman nobility, and Virgil, and Horace also, had country-seats. Watson.
↑ The object of the poet is to show with how much difficulty a covetous man disengages himself from the love of riches. He, therefore, supposes an usurer, who is persuaded of the happiness and tranquillity of a country life, to have formed the design of retiring into the country and renouncing his former pursuits. The latter calls in his money, and is ready to depart, when his ruling passion returns, and once more plunges him in the vortex of gain. Anth.

[1] Pecusve Calabris. The wealthier Romans had different pastures for summer and winter. The poorer sort sent their flocks into the public pastures, paying a certain rent to farmers of the revenues. Thus Calabria was chosen for its warmth and temperature in winter, and Lucania for its coolness and verdure in summer, occasioned by its mountains. But the difficulty of the sentence depends upon the construction, which must be directly contrary to the poet's arrangement of the words. Mutat Lucana Calabris pascuis, for mutat Calabra pascua Lucanis. In the same manner in the first book, Mutat Lucretilem Lycœo. for mutat Lycœum Lucretili. Schol.

[2] Lucania, a country of Italy, in the kingdom of Naples, between Apulia and the Tuscan Sea, famous for pastures. Calabria, the most southern part of the kingdom of Naples, called also Magna Græcia; lying between the Sicilian and Ionian Seas; it brings forth fruit twice in a year. Watson.

[3] Tusculum is a city of Italy, about twelve miles from Rome, built on an eminence, where many of the Roman nobility, and Virgil, and Horace also, had country-seats. Watson.

[4] The object of the poet is to show with how much difficulty a covetous man disengages himself from the love of riches. He, therefore, supposes an usurer, who is persuaded of the happiness and tranquillity of a country life, to have formed the design of retiring into the country and renouncing his former pursuits. The latter calls in his money, and is ready to depart, when his ruling passion returns, and once more plunges him in the vortex of gain. Anth.

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