Alcæus; but differing from him in the materials and disposition [of his lines], neither does he seek for a father-in-law whom he may defame with his fatal lampoons, nor does he tie a rope for his betrothed spouse in scandalous verse. Him[1] too, never celebrated by any other tongue, I the Roman lyrist first made known. It delights me, as I bring out new productions, to be perused by the eyes, and held in the hands of the ingenuous.
Would you know why the ungrateful reader extols and is fond of many works at home, unjustly decries them without doors? I hunt not after the applause of the inconstant vulgar, at the expense of entertainments, and for the bribe of a worn-out colt: I am not an auditor of noble writers, nor a vindictive reciter, nor condescend to court[2] the tribes and desks of the grammarians. Hence are these tears. If I say that “I am ashamed to repeat my worthless writings to crowded theaters, and give an air of consequence to trifles:” “You ridicule us,” says [one of them], “and you reserve those pieces for the ears of Jove: you are confident that it is you alone that can distill the poetic honey, beautiful in your own eyes.” At these words I am afraid to turn up my nose; and lest I should be torn by the acute nails of my adversary, “This place is disagreeable,” I cry out, “and I demand a
- ↑ Horace can only mean Alcæus. He hath already said he was the first Roman who had imitated in Latin the iambics of Archilochus, and it were ridiculous to repeat it within eight or nine verses. When he says, "Latinus fidicien," he not only marks his being a lyric poet himself, but that the writer whom he had imitated was so likewise, which can not be said of Archilochus, who was never reckoned in their number. This reason will be more sensible, if we examine the different expressions of Horace with attention. He tells us that he was the first Roman Lyric poet who had imitated Alcæus, "hunc ego, non alio dictum priùs ore, Latinus fidicen;" and ten verses before this he says he was the first who showed the iambics of Archilochus to the Latins, "Parios ego primus iambos ostendi Latio." It is remarkable, that although Horace did not imitate Sappho less than Archilochus and Alcæus, yet he does not say he was the first of the Romans, because Catullus and some other Latin poets had written Sapphic verses before him. Bent.
- ↑ Horace laughts at the meanness of a bad poet who pays his court to schoolmasters, that they may give his works a little reputation by making their scholars read them. Torr.
less harmonious than those of Alcæus or Sappho. They took from him several sorts of verse for their odes, and Horace, by their example, hath taken from each of them whatever might enrich his Latin Lyric poetry. San.
