Horace

Relevant Work
(NATC, 3rd ed.)

## Biography

Quintus Horatius Flaccus was born 65 **B.C.E**. in Venusia, Italy—died Nov. 27, 8 **B.C.E**., Rome and is known as **Horace** in the English-speaking world. He was regarded as an outstanding Latin lyric poet and satirist under the emperor Augustus. Horace is attributed to the crafting of elegant hexameter verses and caustic iambic poetry. The most frequent themes of his *Odes* and verse *Epistles* are love, friendship, philosophy, and the art of poetry.

 A slave for part of this childhood, Horace managed to gain his freedom and improve his social position. His education was a result of his father's hard work and sacrifice who spent a small fortune to send Horace to school. Horace left Rome to gain a formal education in Athens, a great center of learning in the ancient world, where he arrived at nineteen years of age, enrolling in The Academy. Founded by Plato, The Academy was now dominated by Epicureans and Stoics, whose theories and practices made a deep impression on the young man from Venusia. Meanwhile, he mixed and lounged about with the elite of Roman youth, such as Marcus, the idle son of Cicero, and the Pompeius to whom he later addressed a poem. It was in Athens too that he probably acquired a deep familiarity with the ancient tradition of Greek lyric poetry, at that time largely the preserve of grammarians and academic specialists (access to such material was easier in Athens than in Rome, where the public libraries had yet to be built by Asinius Pollio and Augustus).

## *Ars Poetica*

### **Background and Historical Context**

The *Ars Poetica* was written somewhere around 10 B.C.E. though the exact date is unknown. This poem was written during the age of Augustan Age, as it was written during Emperor Augustus' reign from 27 B.C.E.- 14 C.E. Augustan Age will become a term to describe the second of three literary eras within Neoclassical Period in English literature. These works emphasized the importance to society of order, balance, propriety, civility, and wit (Murfin, 32-33).

Horace’s *Ars Poetica* is an epistle presented as an informal letter to members of the Piso family. Originally written in dactylic hexameter, the piece is typically translated into prose. *Ars Poetica* serves as a conversation on advice to beginning poets. Horace maintains an intimate tone while sharing many of the notions that continue to frame our approach to poetry. It would be impossible to overestimate the importance of Horace's *Ars Poetica (Art of Poetry)* for the subsequent history of literary criticism. Since its composition in the first century BCE, this epigrammatic and sometimes enigmatic critical poem has exerted an almost continual influence over poets and literary critics alike – perhaps because its dicta, phrased in verse form, are so eminently quotable. Horace's injunction that poetry should both "instruct and delight" has been repeated so often that it has come to be known as the Horatian platitude.

### **Key Terms**

**Deus Ex Machina** - Literally translated from Latin as "God from the machine" is a reference to the Greek practice of a divine character being "lowered from above the stage to conveniently resolve the action at the end of a play" (138) Horace makes reference to such a practice when he states "there should be no god to intervene" (138).

**Decorum** -"The discernment and use of appropriateness, propriety, proportion, and unity in the arts, whether in painting, sculpture, or poetry" (133).

**Satyr-Plays** -"[T]hese featured Silenus and satyrs in burlesque episodes of myth: style and meter were those of tragedy, not comedy. The piece was commonly performed as a fourth play after three tragedies" (138).

**Old Comedy** -Initial phase of ancient Greek comedy (*c.* 5th century bc).  Aristophanes was the most important playwright of Old Comedy (139).

### **Key Quotations**

"The point is, whatever you're making, it should be unified and coherent" (134).

"When you write, choose material to match your strengths . . . The writer who selects according to his abilities will lack neither style nor a clear arrangement" (134).

"Just as woods change their leaves in the fullness of the years, falling one by one . . . so perish words with age, after flourishing and thriving when newly born, like youths (135).

"It is not enough that poetry be noble: it should impart delight, and transport the listener as it likes. As people's faces respond with laughter to those who laugh, so do they cry in response to those who cry. If you want me to cry you must first cry yourself" (136).

"Nor would Latium have greater might in virtue's field or arms' renown than with its tongue, if all our poets were not repelled by labour and patience with the file" (140)

"Correct writing finds its beginning and source in discernment" (140).

"From time to time a piece which has splendid maxims and a fine moral tone, even though lacking charm and without weight and craftsmanship, will give more pleasure and interest to people than verses devoid of substance, and musical trifles. To the Greeks the Muse gave talent and a full-throated utterance" (140).

“The avoiding of an error leads to a fault, if it lack skill.”

“To have good sense, is the first principle and fountain of writing well.”

“It is not enough that poems be beautiful; let them be tender and affecting and bear away the soul of the auditor whithersoever they please."

“Poets wish either to profit or to delight; or to deliver at once both the pleasures and the necessaries of life. Whatever precepts you give, be concise; that docile minds may soon comprehend what is said, and faithfully retain it.”

### **Discussion**

#### *Poetry's Uses*

Horace is ultimately concerned with how we derive pleasure from poetry. Though, in the section "*Choice and Handling of Myth,*" Horace focuses on the poets handling of famous myths. He makes several salient points about the formation of characters in literature. In stating, "Let Medea be proud and indomitable, Ino full of tears, Ixion, treacherous, Io never at rest, Orestes full of gloom," Horace expresses a need for characters to remain "true to form" (124, 125).

#### *Limiting Poetry*

A noteworthy component of this piece is that Horace is taking some thinking from Plato. For example, when it comes to what should or should not be added to plays, poetry, dramas, etc, it is all about what Horace wants to see. Several times he gives advice to people writing these things and says, "Do these things and you'll make me happy." It's utopian, but unoriginal. What he is trying to do is keep people in a box that they can't step out of without being disregarded.

While Horace is very much focused on Plato's ideas of what should and shouldn't be included in poetry, he also carries some of Aristotle's ideas regarding categories and classification. Horace insists that writers follow the structures and characteristics that were set in place long ago by the Greeks. He believes firmly that playwrights should have the "ability [and] knowledge to keep the duly assigned functions and tones of literature" (124).  With that kind of perspective, there is little room for exploration or creativity, even of language. He also argues that, "everything must keep the appropriate place to which it was allotted" (124).  Both of these quotes demonstrate Horace's emphasis on categorizing written works and following predetermined rules, which shows a blend of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy.

#### *Codification of Principles vs Disorganization*

"Horace critics have complained that the long epistle is disorganized, that it sometimes sacrifices sense for the sake of wit, and that it lacks grandeur, being preoccupied with audience response. Since its appearance, however, the *Ars Poetica*has appealed to those literary critics interested in codifying the principles of poetic composition, in arguing the relative merits of craft and genius in poetry, and in debating whether the primary goal of literature is pleasure or instruction" (133).

### **Related Works**

* Aristotle. *Poetics.*
* Plato. *Republic*.

## References

1. ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica. (2017). *Horace | Roman Poet*. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Horace-Roman-poet [Accessed 29 Oct. 2017]
2. ↑ Murfin, Ross C., and Supryia M. Ray. *The Bedford glossary of critical and literary terms*. 3rd ed., Bedford/St. Martins, 2009.
3. ↑ Horace. “Ars Poetica by Horace | Poetry Foundation.” *Poetry Foundation*, 2020, www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69381/ars-poetica.

‌
4. ↑ *The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism,* p. 121.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Leitch, Vincent B., editor. *The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism*. 2nd ed., W.W. Norton & Co., 2010.
6. ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica. (2017). *Old Comedy* [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/art/Old-Comedy [Accessed 02 Oct. 2017].