New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-04-27
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE LYRICS OF HORACE.

THE ODEs AND EPoDEs OF HORACE. Translated
into English verse with an lnrodncu2n ana pn
XII, 1913. g. Z. Putnam's Sons.
Imagine q modern nation in the midst OF civil
war; the people and the popular leader on one sac
and privileged class on the other. with decisive
contest impending, the chances of which seeneu
TO be wholly in favor of victory for the popuiar
leader-call him demagogue. tyrant, emperor VI
what you WILL Suppose, then, that IN ahtlcipa-
ton of defeat q member Of the arlstocratic parry
should write and publish q poem. In that pocn''
we will say, he plainly hints the fears OF the result
which he shares with his party, ana proceeds 10
tell his comrades that there is no longer any nope
for choice spirits such as they are In thelr nou'c
land, advises them to emgratc ana rcuhdlS deciaicS
that bc has heard of a new country which will
inst suit them. This land is one where everything
grows of itself without the labor of cultivation.
where life is a ceaseless round of pleasure, where
the climate every day in the year is just what Is
most agreeable where there are ravcning beasts,
mn posonous creatures no wicked trade, no vent
uresome navigators; nor any human beings save
those who are perfect in virtue-as, of course, thc
poet and his party must be, If the story is not 10
I've spoiled at the outset. Would it be possible for
any sane man on reading poem setting form such
ideas and such promises to take the authOr eerl-
ously? There might be melancholy 1eenng OF
svmuthv for cause plainly so hopeless, but II
would be felt that there more irony than earn
estness in the verses But suppose the poet made
il worse Suppose he said TO his friends III SAD
but tuncful numbers: If YOU think that any of us
are in danger of getting homesick. we Will insure
ourselves against dcsertion by s0lemnly swearing
that we never will go back to our fatherland unles,
rivers run uphill, unless the mountains walk down
to the sea- unless tiges make friends with deerS,
x,.;,1, pal
most incredible of all unless goats voluntarily
take bath"
This is substantially the Sixteenth Epode of
Horace, which translators. including Mr.. Hague,
and commentators generally have pcrSistently
taken TO be a serious production. Youthful as the
poet was at the time the piece was written, ana
anxious as he may have been for the success OF
the party whose cause lie had espoused 1t Is dill
cult TO see how he could have expected 10 enllven
the dropping spirits of his comrades before deieat
or after, with an address, which. CONSIDERED
gravely, was farrago of impossibilitics Horace
did not expect the aristocratic party TO des'rt
Rome for any other place on earth. He preferred
poverty and suffering there himself to life any
where else When it is remembered how infatuated
Romans were with the notion that they were des-
tined to rule the world and that their rule would
mark the return of the golden age IT Is possible 10
see how the momcntary bitterness or deleaI'
whether past or anticipated, led the poet 10 an
ironical outburst 1t just as II he had salu 10
his countrymen in plain words: You talk of rul-
ing the world and you cannot keep peace with each
other You talk Of q golden future. You might
ne we'll look for the Islands of the Blest. But |
am rcodv for any adventure will be your pilot
and we will take a mutual oath as foolish as all
tho rest of our conduct has been. 1t Is lnGh time
we were looking about for those arva beata, those
divites insulas, which pirate so much ABOUT.
What islands he was thinking Of he made PLAIN
enough long afterward in the verses
Ereptum Stygis fuctibus Aeacum
VIRUS ct favor ct lingua p0tentium
Vatum divibus consecrat insults.
When these later lines were written he was about
to seek those Happy Islands in downright earnest
for be died within year.
The traditional view taken Of the sixteenth
rnode ia a mart of the same mediaevalism which
insisted on making Virgil a prophet OF Chrlsu-
oritv Doubtless Horace would have been useu
an tho same way had he been much read In the
Middle Ages The conventional Interpretation
is we'll set forth in Mr.. Hague's translation. Inc
beouty of his volume is TO be found particularly
in its Arrangement. The life and works OF the
noet are discussed with care in q general intro
duction of twenty-eight pages. tach DOCK Oh
odes has predatory note, and over each ode Is
such an account Of its origin, OF the time wheh IL
was written and the occasion which produced It,
as could be given, with brief hint OF the way IL
has been treated by various English transa'ors'
The broad pages give room for printing Horace s
Latin and MI Hagues English side by side IN
stead of alternately from leaf TO leaf The YER
sifcation of the translator is smooth and flowing
The necessities of rhyme are such that 1t wouio
be unfair to expect more than a parapnraSe OIL 'ie
original sense.