The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-11-01
sonE VIEW ROOFS.


The third OF the volumes on Roman Poets OF
q the Republic and Augustan Age. planned by
Prof. w. Y. skLIAR, 10 allotted to Horace and
The Eteotdc Poets Macmillansh This 70 a pont-
luminous work, and was left uncompletod at tho
authors death. Eevertheless, the chapters on
= Horace and four chapters on the eleRiac poets,
although they doubtless would have received
some revisional touches. had the author lived,
had been written out continuously for the
4. printers. Tho pages devoted to Ovid. on tho
upther hand, represent only notes made for chap
tiers which were intended d. to be on tho same scale
as the others. These notes leave parts of the
subject untouched, the biography OF Ovid.
for example, and his later poems. These
shortcomings might have .been made good
10 somo extent by reprintinG the essay
on Ovid contributed by Mr.. Sollar to tho
Encyclopedias Britannica. But, upon the whole.
IL was thought better to add nothing except the
merely formal notifications needed to pieceout
or arrange somo of the more fragmentary pas
naRes. In the present notice we shall pass over
the elegiao poets and conhne ourselves to two
or three of tho more striking features of that
+. part Of the book. comprising some 200 pages, in
which the writings.o of Horace are discussed. In
tho six chapters devoted to this purpose. the
satlres, Epistles. the Ars Pootica, the Epodes.
and the Odes are separately examined, and their
author, after the facts relating TO his life have
been set forth. 10 carefully considered in his
several capacitios Of ironical observer, moralist
literary critic, and lyrical poet 1t is the per-
sonal characteristics of Horace, as these may
DO gathered from his compositions, on which We
shall chiefly dwell. promising. however. that, In
his various works. we have pictures Of himself,
painted at different periods. inasmuch a. his
literary activity began in Al B. c., whom he was
t.,t "a y,ara old and continued until he hted In
che year 8 B. c.. only q few weeks after the
death of his friend. Meeenas. There Is, no
dous. q certain amount Of apparent discrep-
ancy between these pictures. 1t 10 hard to roal-
izc, for instance, that the author of some
of the Epodes is the samo man who wrote
the first book of the Epistles. In trying to
call up to ourselves his personal appear
ance, We must take into account not only his
ironical Observation-Disclosures dertsor, al
ways q mocker.' was his own comment on
himself-but the outward changes which time
produced upon him. Thus when he speaks Of
himself at the age of 40 or AS as ptn0uem ct
,aftidum, benz ourutd cute, Z" fat and sleek. with
skin we'll groomed, - and Is corports erfout. pro-
cdnurn. "of slender frame, and prOmaturely
bald" and hints at his indolent and valetudi-
marian habits, VIZ do not easily associate suoh q
figure with the enthusiasm of . great lyrical
poet, or with the wreaths of flowers which play
30 conspicuous y part In MS conVlVlhl ooeb.
can correct this picture. however. by
glimpses which no affords us of his appear
ance in youth, of tho black hair clustering
round his narrow forehead 3" Il trait of beauty
in o Roman, as their bunts show that their
were generally low and broad, and
by the thought of ths-days when his soft
accents and sunny smile" were welcome at tho
banquet, and when It became him to wear .
toga Of delicate texture" and to have his hair.
after the fashion of the time. "glistening with
unguents." We have to remember also that,
II 1t was not in his graceful youth that he sang
Of love and wine. it WAS then, at least. that
ho lived tho life which he was after
ward to reproduce in his lyrical compositions.
tho stage when It 10 possible TO know him
Is. in the maturity of his productive
powers-ho had lost together with the grace and
activity Of youth, much. also. of Its
fire and passion; but no regarded the loss a.
we'll compensated by the phuoeophio mind
years had brought and by the conscious
mesa of becoming lentor ct mettor. akindlier and
better man" It II At this stage that one gains
the BEST image of Horace, though It 10 possible
to trace through al the previous stages how he
came to b what he then was.