THE CAMBRIDGE MISCELLANY IX HORACE The Lewis Fry Memorial Lectures Unioersity of Bristol, 1932
HORACE A Return to Allegiancu By T. R. GLOVER Ridentem dicere verum l.!!jd vetat? CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1932
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York vvww.cambridge.org Information on this title: /978II07670402 Cambridge University Press '932 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1932 First paperback edition 20II A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library ISBN 978-I-I07-67040-2 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy ofurls for external Of third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, Of will remain, accurate Of appropriate.
To THE TWO BRISTOLIANS WHOM I LIKE THE BEST
PREFACE The invitation to deliver the Lewis Fry Memorial Lectures in the University of Bristol came to me as a surprise, but a welcome one. I am "a citizen of no mean city"; and such a call from my city could not fail to bring pleasure. The name of the foundation itself recalled old memories. The earliest political event I remember was the election of Lewis Fry as Member of Parliament for Bristol in 1878. He and his colleague, Samuel Morley, gave "Members' Scholarships" at the Bristol Grammar School, one of which fell to my lot in the days when I first was reading Horace; and here, after nearly half a century, I was again to be brought into pleasant contact with the name of Lewis Fry. Vll
I was to address myself, I was told, to the University, not to a mere group of students specializing in one line of study. Then my subject? I had to decide that. But I sought advice, and proposed two themes. One was the romantic story of my other home in Canada, a city on lake and river made famous under three names, the Cataraqui of the Indians, the Fort Frontenac of the French, the Kingston of the United Empire Loyalists. The other proposal was Horace, and for Horace all my friends gave their votes, perhaps because he was more familiar to them. But I was further told, you must not be too technical; you must not quote too much Latin; this is a modern University. With what success I have obeyed my instructions, or whether they quite precluded the success he would have wished, the reader must judge. But whatever listeners and readers may say, let me confess that the viii
writer enjoyed his task. And after that there is no more for me to say, unless to explain that the Latin in the text is there for the reader's delight; it was not inflicted on the listeners; and if the reader" wants it translated", let him look again and he will find that he has it all-or at least as much as could be put in prose and in English. For it is rarely possible for anyone but a poet to translate poetry; and I am not a poet, while of poets Horace has always most successfully defied translation. T. R. G. lx
CONTENTS LECTURE I Can anything new, or should it, be said about Horace today? page I I The writer's "confession of faith" as to Horace, and his changes of opinion with years 1-6 The spirit in which a great poet should be read, acceptance before criticism 6-9 R. L. Stevenson's cry "For God's sake, have you a Horace?" 9, 10 II Horace in the centuries; not much read in the Middle Ages; unknown to Chaucer Cervantes, Erasmus, Ben Jonson Horace in the Eighteenth Century Thackeray and Horace The Horatian echo in English life 10, II I I, 12. Xl
III The "'age" of Horace was not the Augustan, but the period of civil war pages 16-18 The uncertainties of the Augustan age during the lifetime of Virgil and Horace 17-20 Their appeal for acceptance of the rule of the Emperor 20 Horace's reminiscences of a life of miracles 20-22 IV His birth, his birthplace and his parentage 22-25 The miracle of the wood pigeons 26, 27 The poet's freedman father and his training 28-30 Athens, Brutus, and the poet in the wars, in Asia and Europe 30-33 V The battle of Philippi and the' miracle of Horace's escape 33-36 Poverty in Rome and the clerkship 36-38 The unpleasant period 38 Xll
Virgil, Varius and Maecenas The poet and Augustus pages 39,40 4Q-4Z The significance of friendship with Maecenas and with Virgil 4Z, 43 The Sabine farm 44 LECTURE II I The miracle of Romulus forbidding Horace to attempt Greek verse 47 The imitation of Lucilius 47,48 Is the "real" Horace found or not found in the Odes?-a German question 48,49 At what age did Horace begin to write lyrics? Was he too old for" love lyrics" at thirty-five?-an American question "A man who welcomes middle age" (Andrew Lang's description of Horace) 49-5 I Neaera, and the change from consule Planco 51-53 5 I II Horace the Boswell of the Augustan age xiii
I1I M. Patin's grouping of the Odes, with some comments page 56 (1) Political odes 56-59 (2) Odes offriendship 59-63 Horace's personal appearance Goethe's comment:furchtbare Realitiit Faunusandthebough (3) Odes "gallant and Bacchic" (with a veiled difference from Dr Verrall) 59,60 60 (4) Moral odes 66-69 Horace, however, is not strictly a philosopher 68 Professor A. Y. Campbell on Horace's recipe 69 (with a comment from Twelfth Night) 70 The difficulty of translating Horace 71 IV 61 63-66 The limited range of theme in Horace's poems: e.g. difference of tastes; frustration of hopes; death unforeseen but inevitable 71-74 XIV 65
Pacing the inevitable, in Homer, Virgil and Horace page.! 74, 75 Horace as a lover of the country 75-77 Horace at home in the town, "and so to bed" 77,78 Books; Homer and the philosophers; the meaning of his making fun of the Stoics 78, 79 The service of the State 79 But quid fles, Asterie? 80 V The manner of Horace's writing Ancient comments, made by Petronius, Q.uintilian and Persius 81,8z Comments borrowed from Horace himself on his work The appeal of his metres (with a hint from Wordsworth) His language, and certain prosaic words His dislike of Alexandrine style Lines which he did not write His" economy" and under-statement Ars Poetica xv 8 I 83 84,85 85 86 86-88 88-90
VI Marcus Aurelius and Horace pages 91-93 Horace's appeal to his friends to be glad and grateful in acceptance of life (with a parallel from George Borrow) 93,94 Let us read him again 95 XVI