Edited by Colin Burrow
INTRODUCTION
Jonson’s extremely literal translation of Horace’s Ars Poetica exists in two versions. Both were posthumously printed. The early version was printed by John Benson in 1640 (Benson12mo) and the revised version appeared in F2 (1640–1). Both versions were composed much earlier. Horace’s treatise was foundational to Jonson’s poetics from the very start of his career as a poet and as a playwright; Horace is highly praised in Discoveries, 1780–3 and 1839–42, and sententiae from his critical writings are scattered through Jonson’s plays. In the early years of the seventeenth century it is likely that Jonson planned to use this translation to make his mark as a critic. He certainly intended, and probably composed, a commentary or preface in about 1605, which may well have taken the form of a dialogue, in which Donne may have been one of the voices. Jonson advertised his ‘observations upon Horace his Art of Poetry . . . with the text translated’ in the preface To the Readers in Sejanus (1605), and read a preface to Horace’s poem to William Drummond in 1618–19 (Informations, 58–9). The latter also may also have contributed to the debate between Campion and Daniel on the merits or otherwise of rhyme (see Und. 29 headnote). The commentary and preface are described in Underwood 43.90 as having been ‘lighted by the Stagirite’, or glossed according to Aristotelian principles, which were thought in this period to have underwritten the whole of Horace’s poem: as one editor put it, Horatius nihil sibi tam proposuisse, quam totum Aristotelem exprimere, ‘Horace’s whole aim seems to have been to render everything Aristotle said’ (Horace, 1584a, 55v; this phrase is underlined in Jonson’s copy). It is impossible to be certain that this commentary and preface were ever completed to Jonson’s satisfaction, since the work(s) were never printed. Jonson typically boasts of the neoclassical exactness of his poetics in order to establish his superiority over his rivals, and his commentary may have been part of a campaign of publicity, and thus a piece of continuing work in progress, rather than a perfected labour. If the preface or commentary (or both) ever existed in final form, they were burnt in the fire of 1623 which destroyed a number of the poet’s unpublished writings (see Und. 43, headnote). At least some of the material gathered for this venture was then probably incorporated in Discoveries, but Jonson’s preface to and commentary on his translation of Horace remain the most tantalizing of the losses recorded in ‘An Execration upon Vulcan’.
Jonson did, however, complete and revise the translation of the Ars. The version which appeared in Q. Horatius Flaccus, His Art of Poetry, Englished by Ben Jonson (1640) is the earlier of the two to have been composed. Drummond records that the translation was ‘done in my Lord Aubigny’s house ten years since, anno 1604’ (Informations, 60–1). This early date would tally with the announcement of the translation in Sejanus, and certainly around 1605 Jonson was at work on a number of extremely literal translations of classical texts; ‘A Speech out of Lucan’ (2.192–3) was almost certainly composed around that time as part of the preparatory work for Sejanus, and manuscript evidence suggests that other translations included at the end of Underwood may have been drafted in the first decade of the seventeenth century. Poetaster clearly indicates that Jonson had Horatian ambitions from the very start of the century, and his announcement (in the dedication of Sejanus) of his plans to print a Horatian poetics was part of a drive to present himself as the most completely classical poet of his generation, outdoing Marlowe (who had produced very literal translations of Ovid’s Amores and of the first book of Lucan’s Pharsalia) and Shakespeare (whose Venus and Adonis is richly indebted to Ovid). It may well be too that he made use of Horace’s description of the role of friendly censure in literary criticism (605–42, this translation) in dialogues with Donne at about this period (see Und. 37 headnote). All of this would fit a starting date for the first version of about 1604–5.
The revised version of the translation was printed in F2(3), which appeared in 1641. Jonson reordered the sequence of lines in this version as a result of having consulted the critical edition of Horace by Daniel Heinsius, which was first printed in 1610 (noted by Briggs, 1914d, 117). Heinsius judged that the argument of the Ars was often elliptical and hard to follow (which indeed it is), and inferred from that that the text had been scrambled by early copyists (which it almost certainly was not). He attempted to make its organization more rational by repositioning a number of passages. Modern scholars have rightly rejected Heinsius’s radical surgery, since sudden leaps of argument are a vital part of the work’s presentation as a relatively informal epistle of advice addressed to the patrician family of the Pisones: it ends, after all, with a jocular description of the poet-as-leech falling off his victims, having made them listen to him until he was full fed. Jonson’s reordering of the translation must have been completed after 1610, but it is not possible to set a terminus ad quem. Since Jonson never published the translation himself, it is possible that he either was unhappy with it or wanted to complete his critical preface before setting it loose on the world in print. Had it been revised and completed in time for the folio of 1616 it is hard to imagine why Jonson would have excluded such a prestigious work from that volume, since it would have contributed so notably to his self-presentation as the heir of the most classical of classical poets. The project as a whole – translation and ancillary materials – was clearly still on his mind and among his papers during his conversations with Drummond in 1618–19. It may well be that he tinkered with the work sporadically for an extended period until the fire of 1623 put paid to his plans to present the translation along with a critical introduction.
The verbal revisions to the earlier version, as distinct from the reordering of its lines, are as careful as Jonson’s other reworkings of his poems. He is keen to regularize the metre of his earlier translation, and is especially active in regularizing, and reducing the number of, its elisions (e.g. at 197, 229, 284, 564, 600). At several points he removes interpolations which he had originally made to the sense of the Latin in order to ensure rhymes. But it would be wrong to suggest that the later version is in a simple sense ‘closer’ to Horace than Jonson’s first attempt. His methods of revision changed as he worked: he, like anyone faced with repeated comparison of English and Latin texts, became weary of the task. He revised the first fifty or so lines very carefully both for accuracy and for fluency. Later alterations (especially from about line 140) do not always make the translation more accurate, and seem to indicate that by this point the poet was thinking more about the English version than the Latin as he worked. Jonson did occasionally revise his translations away from literal accuracy (see, e.g., notes to Und. 85), and certainly did so at a number of points later in the F2 Ars. On occasions he seeks to make Horace speak with a more direct, first-person voice than his original strictly warrants (e.g. 571–2), and in the latter part of the revised version there are signs that he is willing to transpose Roman locations to England (as with the allusion to Westminster Hall in 357). Sometimes this process of revision introduces new errors (e.g. 535–6 and n.). There are occasions too when the poor typesetting of F2 interacts with what may have been new errors in the translation or with errors of transcription which resulted from the repositioning of passages (notably in lines 479–80). In all probability Jonson reordered the sequence of lines to accord with Heinsius’s scheme and then, after a phase of careful, close work, began to revise the English text with only occasional glances back at the Latin.
Jonson’s practice in making his revisions was entirely typical of his period, and showed his usual awareness of the practices of his contemporaries and rivals. Chapman extensively modified his Homer in the light of his growing knowledge of the poet over almost exactly the period that Jonson was probably at work on his Horace, and his revisions too are not always in the direction of simple accuracy. Jonson was also typical of his period in his eclectic use of materials for the translation. Chapman worked from a number of Latin, Greek, and French texts, and made liberal use of a variety of annotations; Marlowe in translating the first book of Lucan worked almost certainly from at least two different annotated texts. The only printed text of the Ars which Jonson is known to have possessed (1584; see Jonson’s Library, Electronic Edition) does not contain notes, and it cannot have been the primary text from which he worked for the translation (see 104n.). Nonetheless Jonson evidently read the 1584a edition carefully, since many lines in his copy are underscored (these are recorded in the commentary). There are moments in the translation which suggest he had dabbled in the annotations of pseudo-Acron (an early commentator whose work is regularly included in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century variorum editions), and perhaps those by Janus Parrhasius (see e.g. 310n.). More intriguing is the fact that at several points there are close analogies between the ways in which he translates particular passages and the annotations on Horace which his friend John Bond appended to his edition of the poet in 1606. The most notable of these (the gloss on the translation of ‘Minerva’ as ‘nature’ in 574 and n.) may give grounds for easing the date of the Benson version towards 1606, a little later than is supposed above. Against this, however, is the possibility that Jonson saw Bond’s commentary or discussed with him points of difficulty in Horace before it was published. This would resolve any conflict with the most probable date for the first stage of composition of c. 1604–5. Jonson was always keen to stay in touch with, and to respond to, specifically English classical scholarship. He appears to have had advance knowledge of his friend Thomas Farnaby’s edition of Martial, for instance (see, e.g., Epigr. 101.42n.), and he worked on his vernacular versions of both Horace and Martial at the same time as his friends were labouring over glossing the originals.
But Jonson, for all his reputation as a classicist, did not work systematically. On several occasions he followed his own instincts into errors which he could have avoided had he checked his translation against one of the many variorum editions available from the 1560s onwards (see e.g. 285n., 370n.). On other occasions he added to the Latin: the most notable example is his insistence that ‘being a poet, thou mayst feign, create’ (189). This comes in a passage where Horace is decrying slavish imitation. It suggests that Jonson’s own energy, and his experience as a creative imitator, was bursting out of the shackles of literal translation at the very moment that he was rendering a passage about the need to burst out of literal translation. If Jonson often missed the wryness of Horace (even cutting out one of his author’s ‘smiles’ at 535, and missing a piece of deliberate bathos at 555) this is because he regarded the work as a source of precepts which would fuel his own engagements with classical literature.
Editors of the text as well as critics have generally regarded the Art of Poetry as a misguided experiment, and the lack of favourable comment has meant that there has been very little discussion of its date, sources, or role in Jonson’s intellectual development. Several editions of his poems simply omit it, taking their cue from the almost uniformly negative critical observations which it has elicited: Herford and Simpson call it ‘wooden’ (11.110), and Dryden classed it among the ‘metaphrases’, or word-for-word translations, which confine themselves ‘to the compass of numbers, and the slavery of rhyme. ’Tis much like dancing on ropes with fettered legs . . . We see Ben Jonson could not avoid obscurity in his literal translation of Horace’ (Dryden, Essays, ed. Kerr, 1.238). Roscommon says ‘with all the respect due to the name of Ben Jonson, to which no man pays more veneration than I, it cannot be denied that the constraint of rhyme, and a literal translation (to which Horace in this book declares himself an enemy) has made him want a comment [i.e. need a gloss] in many places’ (Roscommon, 1684, A2). Henry Ames made a similar complaint, declaring that Jonson has ‘trod so close upon the heels of Horace, that he has not only cramped, but made him halt [limp] in (almost) every line’ (Ames, 1747, iv). Whalley dryly, but more generously, comments: ‘We are not to look for grace and beauty in this translation . . . Jonson will be found perfectly to understand his author, and to exhibit his meaning with his usual vigour and conciseness of style’ (7.164–5). The translation of the Ars Poetica, for good or ill, is the central example of a mode of work which, from Und. 85–9 to ‘Lucan’, preoccupied Jonson for the greater part of his earlier career as a poet: it shows him as a translator who chisels English into a form that implicitly values density and Latinity above elegance. It is easy to single out moments when this programme leads to absurdities (the worst is when Jonson has the would-be poet looking at the weight on his shoulders: ‘Take, therefore, you that write, still, matter fit / Unto your strength, and long examine it / Upon your shoulders’ (53–5) – surely a recipe for a stiff neck, even though ‘examine’ means something more like ‘test’ than ‘look closely at’). In mocking or niggling at Jonson’s version, however, one should be aware that it strikes our ears as so rugged because it is so unlike the more expansive and freer idiom of classical paraphrase and imitation favoured by Dryden and Pope, and indeed on the whole so unlike Jonson’s own creative imitations of classical originals. Roscommon could not have produced his freer Englishing of Horace’s Ars Poetica if he had not thought hard about Jonson’s other, less painstakingly close, imitations of Horace.
Jonson’s Horace is trying to achieve something different from those much later examples of classical translation. He is likely to have thought it important to translate in the way he did because of his humanistic belief that language, virtue, and civil society were intimately interconnected. Hence if you wrote with the density, sharpness, and obliquity of Horace you might become like him, and your culture, by adapting the stylistic virtues of the ancients, might perhaps take on some of the virtue of early imperial Rome. Although Jonson takes a pessimistic position in this debate, believing that educated individuals can rarely influence the mores of their society (see Elsky, 1989, 81–109), he nonetheless was committed to the view that language, ethics, and the nature of society were inseparably connected. A translation which was rooted closely in a classical text, and yet which appeared rough and crabbed to its readers, might serve as a means of drawing attention to the disparity between Augustan Rome and early Jacobean England. With the jaundiced eye of retrospect this work appears flawed by its failure to recognize that translation must involve cultural transposition as well as literal exactness; but there are also moments of electric sharpness, many of which derive from Jonson’s keenness to press monosyllabic words (identified with English strength and solidity in the work of many of his contemporary literary critics) into Latinate syntax, and to work them artfully against polysyllables:
(503–5)Be brief in what thou wouldst command, that so
The docile mind may soon thy precepts know,
And hold them faithfully; . . .
‘Faithfully’ puts the brake on the line, holding it firmly at the caesura; ‘Be brief’ crisply enacts its own injunction to be telegraphic. The translation is usually at its best at moments of dialogue, a feature which can be muted in editions which do not supply quotation-marks:
(633–8)A wise and honest man will cry out ‘Shame’
On artless verse. The hard ones he will blame,
Blot out the careless with his turnèd pen,
Cut off superfluous ornaments, and when
They’re dark bid ‘Clear this’; all that’s doubtful wrote
Reprove, and what is to be changèd note . . .
The obscure detail of the ‘turnèd pen’ (which comes straight from Horace’s Latin) is a roughly embedded element of another culture (it probably means that correctors turn over their stylus to smooth the wax of a tablet on which a Latin poem might be written, but commentators have argued over the sense). The phrase grates audibly against the ‘Blot’, which clearly comes from an age of pen and ink; but the measured shift from the monosyllables of ‘The hard ones he will blame’ to the carefully mimicked superfluity of ‘superfluous ornaments’ shows that Jonson is not simply nodding at this point. His revisions to the Benson version here strive to emphasize the vocal presence of Horace: ‘cry out “Shame”’ replaces the indirect speech of ‘cry open shame’ in the earlier version, and ‘Clear this’ replaces the implicitly indirect speech of ‘bid cleare ’hem’ in the Benson version. Jonson is attempting to make curt English words and the syntax of an uninflected language grasp the fluid, compressed style of one of the most dense of Latin poets. He is trying to make Horace speak.
The translation has given rise to unease and neglect among Jonson’s editors not just because it is so close, so dense, and at times so crabbed. It also poses practical problems. Jonson’s final version was based on a reordering of Horace’s text which derived solely from the conjecture of a Renaissance editor, and which modern editors of Horace would regard as misguided. Should one therefore print the earlier version (Benson), which follows the received ordering of lines in Horace? Should one, as W. B. Hunter does, print the two texts in parallel with the later text returned to the orthodox order, so that one can see at a glance both Jonson’s revisions and its correspondence to the Latin? This must be misleading: Jonson’s last thoughts lie in the reordered text, and the question of whether or not those thoughts were misguided must be secondary to the manifest fact that they were his last thoughts. Printing the two texts in parallel also runs the risk of overstating the distinction between the two versions, which are not significantly more different from each other than, say, the Benson and F2 versions of ‘An Execration upon Vulcan’. The text printed here is based on the revised and reordered text of F2. The collation records variants in the Benson version. The line references in square brackets in the Latin text and in the commentary record the points at which Jonson has followed Heinsius in transposing the Latin. This makes it possible for readers to follow Jonson’s efforts against a modern prose translation, and to appreciate the ingenuity and concision, as well as the occasionally cramping severity, with which he has performed this demanding task. (A modernized version of the Benson text is reproduced in the Electronic Edition.)
HORACE, OF THE ART OF POETRY
If to a woman’s head a painter would
Presenting upwards a fair female feature,
Could you contain your laughter? Credit me,
With doves, or lambs with tigers coupled be.
The pleasant grounds, or when the river Rhine
Or rainbow is described. But here was now
No place for these. And, painter, haply thou
What’s this? If he whose money hireth thee
Was meant at first. Why, forcing still about
His matter to his power, in all he makes,
Nor language, nor clear order e’er forsakes —
Till fitter season. Now to like of this,
Right spare and wary; then thou speak’st to me
Yet, if by chance in uttering things abstruse
Thou need new terms, thou mayst, without excuse, 70
Of the Cethegi; and all men will grace
And those thy new and late-coined words receive,
Or Varius? Why am I now envied so
And wealth unto our language, and brought forth
And ever will, to utter terms that be
Of words decay, and phrases born but late
In neighbour towns, and feels the weighty plough; 95
Or the wild river, who hath changèd now
His course so hurtful both to grain and seeds,
And much shall die that now is nobly lived,
All the grammarians strive, and yet in court
Before the judge it hangs and waits report.
The conquering champion, the prime horse in course, 115
Of poems here described I can nor use
The angry brow; the sportive, wanton things; 150
And the severe, speech ever serious.
For nature first within doth fashion us
Or urgeth us to anger; and anon
If now the phrase of him that speaks shall flow
Or with the milk of Thebes or Argus fed.
Honoured Achilles chance by thee be seized,
Keep him still active, angry, unappeased,
Unto the last, as when he first went forth,
Still to be like himself, and hold his worth.
Of Homer’s forth in acts than of thine own 185
First publish things unspoken and unknown.
If thou the vile, broad-trodden ring forsake.
To render word for word; nor with thy sleight
Forbids thee forth again thy foot to draw.
He thinks not how to give you smoke from light,
But light from smoke, that he may draw his bright
Of Maleager, brings he the return
And so well feigns, so mixeth cunningly 215
The last doth from the midst disjoined appear.
If such a one’s applause thou dost require, 220
And can tread firm, longs with like lads to play;
Soon angry and soon pleased, is sweet or sour;
He knows not why, and changeth every hour.
Loves dogs and horses, and is ever one 230
To endure counsel, a provider slow
For his own good, a careless letter-go
Of money, haughty, to desire soon moved, 235
What straightway he must labour to retract. 240
Either because he seeks, and, having found,
Doth wretchedly the use of things forbear,
Or does all business coldly, and with fear;
With sloth, yet greedy still of what’s to come;
Of the times past when he was a young lad,
At his departing take much thence; lest, then,
In fitting proper adjuncts to each day.
The business either on the stage is done, 255
In at the ear do stir the mind more slow
And the beholder to himself doth render.
Yet to the stage at all thou mayst not tender 260
Her sons before the people, nor the ill-
Upon the stage the figure of a snake.
What so is shown I not believe and hate.
Once seen to be again called for and played,
Worth his untying happen there; and not
Between the acts a quite clean other thing
It still must favour good men, and to these 280
Be won a friend; it must both sway and bend
The angry, and love those that fear t’offend,
Praise the spare diet, wholesome justice, laws,
Fortune would love the poor and leave the proud.
And rival with the trumpet for his sound,
But soft and simple, at few holes breathed time
So over-thick, but, where the people met,
They might with ease be numbered, being a few
Chaste, thrifty, modest folk that came to view.
But, as they conquered and enlarged their bound 295
Steep the glad genius in the wine whole days,
Both in their tunes the licence greater grew,
And in their numbers; for, alas, what knew 300
Clown, townsman, base and noble mixed, to judge?
Thus to his ancient art the piper lent
The rash and headlong eloquence brought forth
Unwonted language, and that sense of worth
That found out profit and foretold each thing,
The tragedy, and carried it about,
Those that did sing and act, their faces dyed
How he could jest, because he marked and saw
The free spectators, subject to no law,
With something that was acceptably new.
Or semi-god, that late was seen to wear
And far unworthy to blurt out light rhymes;
Nor I, when I write satires, will so love
And toil in vain; the excellence is such
Of order and connection; so much grace
There comes sometimes to things of meanest place.
And not without much praise; till liberty
A foot whose swiftness gave the verse the name
But mere iambics all, from first to last.
Not is’t long since they did with patience take 375
Into their birthright and for fitness’ sake
Of fellowship the fourth or second place. 380
This foot yet, in the famous trimeters
Those heavy verses sent so to the stage
Of too much haste and negligence in part, 385
Or a worse crime, the ignorance of art.
To note in poems breach of harmony;
To Roman poets. Shall I therefore weave 390
My verse at random and licentiously?
Within the hope of having all forgiven?
’Tis clear this way I have got off from blame, 395
But in conclusion merited no fame.
In hand, and turn them over day and night.
To part scurrility from wit, or can
In virtue and renown of arms than in
Have not kept in, and (lest perfection fail)
For so they shall not only gain the worth 425
Be like a whetstone, that an edge can put
On steel, though ’tself be dull and cannot cut.
I, writing naught myself, will teach them yet 435
What nourisheth, what formèd, what begot
Is to be wise; thy matter first to know,
And, where the matter is provided still,
What brethren, what a stranger and his guest;
Can tell a statesman’s duty, what the arts
On life and manners, and make those his book,
More strongly takes the people with delight,
He cries ‘Good boy; thou’lt keep thine own. Now add 470
An ounce, what makes it then?’ ‘The half-pound just,
And care of getting thus our minds hath stained,
Think we, or hope, there can be verses feigned
From slaughters and foul life, and for the same
Was said to move the stones by his lute’s powers,
The public from the private; to abate
And thus at first an honour and a name
To divine poets and their verses came.
The oracles, too, were given out in verse;
Attempted by the muses’ tunes and strings;
Of their long labours, was in verse set down: 500
The docile mind may soon thy precepts know,
And hold them faithfully; for nothing rests, 505
But flows out, that o’er-swelleth in full breasts.
It would must be; lest it alive would draw
As doctrine and delight together go.
With honour make the far-known author live.
For neither doth the string still yield that sound
Oft-times a sharp when we require a flat;
Offended with few spots, which negligence
Hath shed, or human frailty not kept thence.
Still in the same, and warnèd will not mend, 530
May with some right upon an author creep.
Will take you more the nearer that you stand, 540
This, fearing not the subtlest judge’s mark,
Will in the light be viewed; this once the sight
Doth please; this ten times over will delight.
Informèd rightly, by your father’s care,
And of yourself, too, understand, yet mind
This saying: to some things there is assigned
Or pleader at the bar, that may come short
Yet there’s a value given to this man.
Or thick gross ointment, but offend the guests;
So any poem fancied or forth-brought
To bett’ring of the mind of man, in aught
Yet who’s most ignorant dares verses make. 570
But if hereafter thou shalt write, not fear 575
And to your father’s and to mine, though’t be
To change and mend what you not forth do set.
Into the profits, what a mere rude brain
The wishèd goal both did and suffered much
While he was young; he sweat and freezed again,
And both from wine and women did abstain. 590
Did learn them first, and once a master feared.
But now it is enough to say ‘I make
Or of the things that ne’er came in my mind
That to the sale of wares calls every buyer,
Make a great supper, or for some poor man
Will be a surety, or can help him out
You do not bring, to judge your verses, one
He’d bid blot all, and to the anvil bring
Those ill-turned verses, to new hammering.
Then, if your fault you rather had defend
In vain, but you and yours you should love still
On artless verse. The hard ones he will blame,
Cut off superfluous ornaments, and when
These trifles into serious mischiefs lead
And stalketh like a fowler round about, 650
Busy to catch a black-bird; if he fall
Into a pit or hole, although he call
And cry aloud ‘Help, gentle countrymen!’
There’s none will take the care to help him then;
Himself there purposely or no, and would
Not thence be saved, although indeed he could?
He, while he laboured to be thought a god
Conceit, and into burning Etna leaped.
He that preserves a man against his will 665
And, as a bear, if he the strength but had
All; so this grievous writer puts to flight
FINIS
HORATIUS DE ARTE POETICA
Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam
Iungere si velit, et varias inducere plumas,
Undique collatis membris, ut turpiter atrum
Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne,
Spectatum admissi risum teneatis, amici? 5
Credite, Pisones, isti tabulae fore librum
Persimilem, cuius, velut aegri somnia, vanae
Fingentur species, ut nec pes, nec caput, uni
Reddatur formae. Pictoribus atque poetis
Quidlibet audendi semper fuit aequa potestas. 10
Scimus, et hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim;
Sed non ut placidis coeant immitia, non ut
Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni.
Inceptis gravibus plerumque et magna professis,
Purpureus, late qui splendeat, unus et alter 15
Adsuitur pannus, cum lucus et ara Dianae,
Et properantis aquae per amoenos ambitus agros,
Aut flumen Rhenum, aut pluvius describitur arcus.
Sed nunc non erat his locus: et, fortasse, cupressum
Scis simulare: quid hoc, si fractis enatat exspes 20
Navibus, aere dato qui pingitur? amphora coepit
Institui; currente rota, cur urceus exit?
Denique sit quodvis, simplex dumtaxat, et unum.
Maxima pars vatum, pater et iuvenes patre digni,
Decipimur specie recti: brevis esse laboro,25
Obscurus fio; sectantem levia, nervi
Deficiunt animique; professus grandia, turget;
Serpit humi, tutus nimium, timidusque procellae:
Qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam,
Delphinum silvis appingit, fluctibus aprum. 30
In vitium ducit culpae fuga, si caret arte.
Aemilium circa ludum faber imus, et unguis
Exprimet, et mollis imitabitur aere capillos;
Infelix operis summa, quia ponere totum
Nesciet. Hunc ego me, si quid componere curem, 35
Spectandum nigris oculis, nigroque capillo.
Sumite materiam vestris, qui scribitis, aequam
Viribus, et versate diu, quid ferre recusent,
Quid valeant umeri. Cui lecta potenter erit res, 40
Ordinis haec virtus erit et Venus, aut ego fallor,
Ut iam nunc dicat, iam nunc debentia dici,
Pleraque differat; et praesens in tempus omittat.
Hoc amet, hoc spernat promissi carminis auctor. 45
In verbis etiam tenuis cautusque serendis
Dixeris egregie, notum si callida verbum
Reddiderit iunctura novum. Si forte necesse est
Indiciis monstrare recentibus abdita rerum;
Fingere cinctutis non exaudita Cethegis, 50
Continget dabiturque licentia, sumpta pudenter.
Et nova fictaque nuper habebunt verba fidem, si
Graeco fonte cadant, parce detorta. Quid autem
Caecilio Plautoque dabit Romanus, ademptum
Vergilio Varioque? Ego cur, adquirere pauca 55
Si possum, invideor: cum lingua Catonis et Enni
Sermonem patrium ditaverit, et nova rerum
Nomina protulerit? Licuit, semperque licebit,
Signatum praesente nota producere nomen.
Ut silvae foliis pronos mutantur in annos, 60
Prima cadunt; ita verborum vetus interit aetas,
Et iuvenum ritu florent modo nata, vigentque.
Debemur morti nos, nostraque: sive receptus
Terra Neptunus, classes Aquilonibus arcet,
Regis opus, sterilisve diu palus, aptaque remis, 65
Vicinas urbes alit, et grave sentit aratrum:
Seu cursum mutavit iniquum frugibus amnis,
Doctus iter melius. Mortalia facta peribunt:
Nedum sermonum stet honos, et gratia vivax.
Multa renascentur, quae iam cecidere, cadentque 70
Quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus;
Res gestae regumque, ducumque, et tristia bella
Quo scribi possent numero, monstravit Homerus.
Versibus impariter iunctis querimonia primum, 75
Post etiam inclusa est voti sententia compos.
Quis tamen exiguos elegos emiserit auctor,
Grammatici certant, et adhuc sub iudice lis est.
Musa dedit fidibus divos puerosque deorum, [83]
Et pugilem victorem et equum certamine primum, [84] 80
Et iuvenum curas et libera vina referre: [85]
Archilochum proprio rabies armavit iambo. [79]
Hunc socci cepere pedem, grandesque cothurni, [80]
Vincentem strepitus, et natum rebus agendis. [82] 85
Versibus exponi tragicis res comica non vult. [89]
Indignatur item privatis, ac prope socco [90]
Singula quaeque locum teneant sortita decenter. [92]
Descriptas servare vices operumque colores, [86] 90
Cur ego, si nequeo, ignoroque, poeta salutor? [87]
Cur nescire pudens prave, quam discere malo? [88]
Interdum tamen, et vocem comoedia tollit,
Iratusque Chremes tumido delitigat ore,
Et tragicus plerumque dolet sermone pedestri 95
Telephus, et Peleus, cum pauper, et exsul uterque
Proicit ampullas, et sesquipedalia verba,
Si curat cor spectantis tetigisse querella.
Non satis est pulchra esse poemata: dulcia sunto,
Et quocumque volent animum auditoris agunto. 100
Humani voltus. Si vis me flere, dolendum est
Primum ipsi tibi: tunc tua me infortunia laedent
Telephe, vel Peleu. Male si mandata loqueris,
Aut dormitabo, aut ridebo. Tristia maestum 105
Voltum verba decent: iratum, plena minarum:
Ludentem, lasciva: severum, seria dictu.
Format enim natura prius nos intus ad omnem
Fortunarum habitum: iuvat, aut impellit ad iram,
Aut ad humum maerore gravi deducit, et angit: 110
Post effert animi motus interprete lingua.
Si dicentis erunt fortunis absona dicta,
Romani tollent equites peditesque cachinnum.
Maturusne senex, an adhuc florente iuventa 115
Mercatorne vagus, cultorne virentis agelli:
Colchus, an Assyrius: Thebis nutritus, an Argis.
Aut famam sequere, aut sibi convenientia finge
Scriptor. Honoratum si forte reponis Achillem, 120
Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer,
Iura neget sibi nata, nihil non adroget armis.
Sit Medea ferox, invictaque; flebilis Ino,
Perfidus Ixion, Io vaga, tristis Orestes.
Siquid inexpertum scaenae committis, et audes, 125
Personam formare novam, servetur ad imum,
Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet.
Difficile est proprie communia dicere, tuque
Rectius Iliacum carmen deducis in actus,
Quam si proferres ignota, indictaque primus. 130
Publica materies privati iuris erit, si
Interpres; nec desilies imitator in artum,
Unde pedem proferre pudor vetet aut operis lex, 135
Nec sic incipies, ut scriptor cyclicus olim:
‘Fortunam Priami cantabo, et nobile bellum.’
Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu?
Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.
Quanto rectius hic, qui nil molitur inepte: 140
‘Dic mihi, Musa, virum, captae post tempora Troiae
Qui mores hominum multorum vidit et urbes.’
Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem
Cogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat,
Antiphaten Scyllamque et cum Cyclope Charybdim; 145
Nec gemino bellum Troianum orditur ab ovo:
Semper ad eventum festinat, et in medias res
Non secus ac notas, auditorem rapit et quae
Desperat tractata nitescere posse relinquit. 150
Atque ita mentitur, sic veris falsa remiscet,
Primo ne medium, medio ne discrepet imum.
Tu, quid ego et populus mecum desideret, audi,
Si plausoris eges aulaea manentis et usque
Sessuri, donec cantor ‘vos plaudite’ dicat, 155
Aetatis cuiusque notandi sunt tibi mores,
Mobilibusque decor naturis dandus et annis.
Signat humum, gestit paribus conludere et iram
Colligit ac ponit temere, et mutatur in horas. 160
Gaudet equis, canibusque et aprici gramine campi,
Cereus in vitium flecti, monitoribus asper,
Utilium tardus provisor, prodigus aeris,
Sublimis cupidusque, et amata relinquere pernix. 165
Conversis studiis aetas, animusque virilis
Quaerit opes et amicitias, inservit honori,
Commisisse cavet, quod mox mutare laboret.
Multa senem circumveniunt incommoda, vel quod
Quaerit et inventis miser abstinet ac timet uti: 170
Vel quod res omnis timide gelideque ministrat,
Dilator, spe longus, iners, avidusque futuri,
Difficilis, querulus, laudator temporis acti
Multa ferunt anni venientes commoda secum: 175
Multa recedentes adimunt: ne forte seniles
Mandentur iuveni partes pueroque viriles,
Semper in adiunctis, aevoque morabimur aptis.
Aut agitur res in scaenis, aut acta refertur.
Segnius inritant animos demissa per aurem,180
Quam quae sunt oculis subiecta fidelibus et quae
Ipse sibi tradit spectator: non tamen intus
Digna geri promes in scaenam multaque tolles
Ex oculis, quae mox narret facundia praesens:
Nec pueros coram populo Medea trucidet,185
Aut humana palam coquat exta nefarius Atreus;
Aut in avem Procne vertatur, Cadmus in anguem.
Nec deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus
Inciderit: nec quarta loqui persona laboret.
Defendat, neu quid medios intercinat actus
Quod non proposito conducat et haereat apte. 195
Ille bonis faveatque et consilietur amice
Et regat iratos, et amet peccare timentis.
Ille dapes laudet mensae brevis: ille salubrem
Iustitiam legesque et apertis otia portis,
Ille tegat commissa deosque, precetur et oret, 200
Ut redeat miseris, abeat Fortuna superbis.
Tibia non, ut nunc, orichalco vincta tubaeque
Adspirare, et adesse choris erat utilis, atque
Nondum spissa nimis complere sedilia flatu;205
Quo sane populus numerabilis, utpote parvus,
Et frugi castusque verecundusque coibat.
Latior amplecti murus, vinoque diurno
Placari Genius festis impune diebus, 210
Accessit numerisque modisque licentia maior.
Indoctus quid enim saperet, liberque laborum,
Rusticus urbano confusus, turpis honesto?
Tibicen, traxitque vagus per pulpita vestem; 215
Sic etiam fidibus voces crevere severis,
Et tulit eloquium insolitum facundia praeceps:
Utiliumque, sagax rerum, et divina futuri
Sortilegis non discrepuit sententia Delphis.
Ignotum tragicae genus invenisse Camenae [275] 220
Dicitur, et plaustris vexisse poemata Thespis, [276]
Quae canerent agerentque peruncti faecibus ora. [277]
Post hunc personae pallaeque repertor honestae [278]
Aeschylus et modicis instravit pulpita tignis [279]
Et docuit magnumque loqui nitique cothurno. [280] 225
Carmine qui tragico vilem certavit ob hircum, [220]
Mox etiam agrestis satyros nudavit et asper [221]
Incolumi gravitate iocum temptavit: eo quod [222]
Inlecebris erat, et grata novitate morandus [223]
Spectator, functusque sacris, et potus, et exlex. [224] 230
Verum ita risores, ita commendare dicacis [225]
Conveniet satyros, ita vertere seria ludo, [226]
Regali conspectus in auro nuper, et ostro, [228]
Migret in obscuras humili sermone tabernas; [229] 235
Aut, dum vitat humum, nubis, et inania captet. [230]
Effutire levis indigna tragoedia versus, [231]
Ut festis matrona moveri iussa diebus, [232]
Intererit satyris paulum pudibunda protervis. [233]
Non ego inornata et dominantia nomina solum [234] 240
Verbaque, Pisones, satyrorum scriptor amabo: [235]
Nec sic enitar tragico differre colori [236]
Pythias, emuncto lucrata Simone talentum; [238]
Ex noto fictum carmen sequar, ut sibi quivis [240]
Speret idem: sudet multum frustraque laboret [241]
Ausus idem: tantum series iuncturaque pollet: [242]
Tantum de medio sumptis accedit honoris. [243]
Silvis deducti caveant me iudice Fauni, [244] 250
Ne velut innati triviis ac paene forenses [245]
Aut nimium teneris iuvenentur versibus umquam, [246]
Aut immunda crepent ignominiosaque dicta. [247]
Offenduntur enim, quibus est equus et pater et res, [248]
Nec, siquid fricti ciceris probat et nucis emptor, [249] 255
Aequis accipiunt animis, donantve corona. [250]
Successit vetus his comoedia, non sine multa [281]
Laude; sed in vitium libertas excidit et vim [282]
Dignam lege regi: lex est accepta chorusque [283]
Turpiter obticuit sublato iure nocendi. [284] 260
Syllaba longa brevi subiecta, vocatur iambus, [251]
Pes citus: unde etiam trimetris accrescere iussit [252]
Nomen iambeis, cum senos redderet ictus, [253]
Tardior ut paulo graviorque veniret ad auris, [255] 265
Spondeos stabilis in iura paterna recepit [256]
Commodus et patiens, non ut de sede secunda [257]
Cederet, aut quarta socialiter. Hic et in Acci [258]
Nobilibus trimetris apparet rarus, et Enni [259]
Aut operae celeris nimium, curaque carentis, [261]
Aut ignoratae premit artis crimine turpi. [262]
Non quivis videt immodulata poemata iudex; [263]
Et data Romanis venia est indigna poetis. [264]
Idcircone vager scribamque licenter? An omnis [265] 275
Visuros peccata putem mea, tutus et intra [266]
Spem veniae cautus? vitavi denique culpam, [267]
Non laudem merui. Vos exemplaria Graeca [268]
Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna. [269]
Laudavere sales, nimium patienter utrumque, [271]
Ne dicam stulte, mirati; si modo ego, et vos [272]
Scimus inurbanum lepido seponere dicto, [273]
Legitimumque sonum digitis callemus, et aure. [274]
Nil intemptatum nostri liquere poetae, 285
Nec minimum meruere decus, vestigia Graeca
Ausi deserere, et celebrare domestica facta:
Vel qui praetextas vel qui docuere togatas.
Nec virtute foret, clarisve potentius armis,
Quemque poetarum limae labor et mora. Vos, o
Pompilius sanguis, carmen reprehendite, quod non
Multa dies, et multa litura coercuit atque
Ingenium misera quia fortunatius arte 295
Credit, et excludit sanos Helicone poetas
Democritus, bona pars non unguis ponere curat,
Non barbam, secreta petit loca, balnea vitat.
Nanciscetur enim pretium, nomenque poetae,
Si tribus Anticyris caput insanabile numquam 300
Tonsori Licino commiserit. O ego laevus,
Qui purgor bilem sub verni temporis horam.
Non alius faceret meliora poemata; verum
Nil tanti est: ergo fungar vice cotis, acutum
Reddere quae ferrum valet exsors ipsa secandi. 305
Munus et officium, nil scribens ipse, docebo;
Unde parentur opes: quid alat formetque poetam,
Quid deceat, quid non: quo virtus, quo ferat error.
Scribendi recte sapere est et principium et fons.
Rem tibi Socraticae poterunt ostendere chartae: 310
Verbaque provisam rem non invita sequentur.
Qui didicit, patriae quid debeat, et quid amicis,
Quo sit amore parens, quo frater amandus et hospes,
Quod sit conscripti, quod iudicis officium; quae
Partes in bellum missi ducis, ille profecto 315
Reddere personae scit convenientia cuique.
Respicere exemplar vitae morumque iubebo,
Interdum speciosa locis morataque recte
Fabula nullius veneris, sine pondere et arte, 320
Valdius oblectat populum, meliusque moratur,
Quam versus inopes rerum, nugaeque canorae.
Grais ingenium, Grais dedit ore rotundo
Musa loqui, praeter laudem, nullius avaris.
Romani pueri longis rationibus assem 325
Discunt in partis centum diducere. ‘dicat
Filius Albini: si de quincunce remota est
Rem poteris servare tuam. redit uncia, quid fit?’
Cum semel imbuerit, speramus carmina fingi
Posse linenda cedro et levi servanda cupresso?
Aut prodesse volunt, aut delectare poetae,
Aut simul et iucunda et idonea dicere vitae.
Silvestris homines sacer, interpresque deorum, [391] 335
Caedibus et victu foedo deterruit Orpheus,[392]
Ducere quo vellet. Fuit haec sapientia quondam, [396] 340
Publica privatis secernere, sacra profanis, [397]
Concubitu prohibere vago: dare iura maritis, [398]
Oppida moliri, leges incidere ligno. [399]
Sic honor et nomen divinis vatibus atque [400]
Carminibus venit. post hos insignis Homerus [401] 345
Versibus exacuit; dictae per carmina sortes [403]
Et vitae monstrata via est, et gratia regum [404]
Pieriis temptata modis, ludusque repertus, [405]
Et longorum operum finis: ne forte pudori [406] 350
Sit tibi Musa lyrae sollers et cantor Apollo. [407]
Quidquid praecipies, esto brevis, ut cito dicta [335]
Percipiant animi dociles, teneantque fideles: [336]
Omne supervacuum pleno de pectore manat. [337]
Ficta voluptatis causa sint proxima veris: [338] 355
Neu pransae Lamiae vivum puerum extrahat alvo. [340]
Centuriae seniorum agitant expertia frugis: [341]
Celsi praetereunt austera poemata Ramnes:[342]
Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci, [343] 360
Lectorem delectando, pariterque monendo. [344]
Hic meret aera liber Sosiis: hic et mare transit [345]
Et longum noto scriptori prorogat aevum. [346]
Sunt delicta tamen, quibus ignovisse velimus: [347]
Nam neque chorda sonum reddit, quem volt manus et mens, [348] 365
Poscentique gravem persaepe remittit acutum: [349]
Nec semper feriet, quodcumque minabitur arcus. [350]
Verum ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis [351]
Offendar maculis, quas aut incuria fudit, [352]
Ut scriptor si peccat idem librarius usque, [354]
Quamvis est monitus, venia caret, et citharoedus [355]
Ridetur, chorda qui semper oberrat eadem, [356]
Sic mihi, qui multum cessat, fit Choerilus ille, [357]
Haec amat obscurum, volet haec sub luce videri, [363] 380
Iudicis argutum quae non formidat acumen; [364]
Haec placuit semel, haec deciens repetita placebit. [365]
O maior iuvenum, quamvis et voce paterna [366]
Fingeris ad rectum, et per te sapis, hoc tibi dictum [367]
Tolle memor, certis medium et tolerabile rebus [368] 385
Recte concedi: consultus iuris, et actor [369]
Causarum mediocris, abest virtute diserti [370]
Sed tamen in pretio est. Mediocribus esse poetis [372]
Non homines, non di, non concessere columnae. [373] 390
Ut gratas inter mensas symphonia discors, [374]
Et crassum unguentum, et Sardo cum melle papaver, [375]
Offendunt, poterat duci quia cena sine istis: [376]
Sic animis natum inventumque poema iuvandis, [377]
Ludere qui nescit, campestribus abstinet armis [379]
Indoctusque, pilae, discive, trochive, quiescit, [380]
Ne spissae risum tollant impune coronae: [381]
Qui nescit, versus tamen audet fingere. quidni? [382]
Summam nummorum vitioque remotus ab omni. [384]
Id tibi iudicium est, ea mens, siquid tamen olim [386]
Et patris, et nostras, nonumque prematur in annum, [388] 405
Membranis intus positis delere licebit, [389]
Quod non edideris. Nescit vox missa reverti. [390]
Natura fieret laudabile carmen, an arte,
Quaesitum est. Ego nec studium sine divite vena
Nec rude quid prosit video ingenium: alterius sic 410
Altera poscit opem res, et coniurat amice.
Multa tulit fecitque puer: sudavit, et alsit,
Tibicen, didicit prius, extimuitque magistrum. 415
Nunc satis est dixisse ‘ego mira poemata pango;
Et quod non didici, sane nescire fateri’.
Ut praeco ad merces turbam qui cogit emendas,
Assentatores iubet ad lucrum ire poeta 420
Dives agris, dives positis in faenore nummis.
Si vero est, unctum qui recte ponere possit,
Et spondere levi pro paupere et eripere atris
Litibus implicitum, mirabor, si sciet inter-
Noscere mendacem verumque beatus amicum. 425
Tu seu donaris, seu quid donare voles cui,
Nolito ad versus tibi factos ducere plenum
Laetitiae; clamabit enim ‘pulchre, bene, recte’:
Ex oculis rorem, saliet, tundet pede terram. 430
Ut, qui conducti plorant in funere, dicunt,
Et faciunt prope plura dolentibus ex animo, sic
Derisor vero plus laudatore movetur.
An sit amicitia dignus; si carmina condes,
Quintilio siquid recitares, ‘corrige, sodes,
Hoc’ aiebat ‘et hoc’. Melius te posse negares
Bis terque expertum frustra: delere iubebat 440
Si defendere delictum quam vertere malles,
Quin sine rivali teque et tua solus amares.
Culpabit duros, incomptis allinet atrum
Transverso calamo signum, ambitiosa recidet
Ornamenta, parum claris lucem dare coget,
Arguet ambigue dictum, mutanda notabit:
Offendam in nugis?’ Hae nugae seria ducent
Aut fanaticus error, et iracunda Diana,
Vesanum tetigisse timent fugiuntque poetam 455
Qui sapiunt: agitant pueri, incautique sequuntur.
Hic, dum sublimis versus ructatur, et errat,
Si veluti merulis intentus decidit auceps
In puteum, foveamve, licet ‘succurrite’ longum
Clamet, ‘io cives’, non sit qui tollere curet. 460
‘qui scis, an prudens huc se deiecerit atque
Servari nolit?’ dicam Siculique poetae
Narrabo interitum. Deus immortalis haberi
Dum cupit Empedocles, ardentem frigidus Aetnam 465
Insiluit. Sit ius, liceatque perire poetis:
Invitum qui servat, idem facit occidenti.
Nec semel hoc fecit: nec, si retractus erit, iam
Fiet homo, et ponet famosae mortis amorem.
Nec satis apparet, cur versus factitet, utrum 470
Minxerit in patrios cineres, an triste bidental
Moverit incestus: certe furit ac velut ursus,
Obiectos caveae valuit si frangere clathros,
Indoctum, doctumque fugat recitator acerbus;
Quem vero arripuit, tenet, occiditque legendo, 475
Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo.