Horace walpole
One of the greatest writers to have ever lived and his satires and Epistles are flashes of his brilliance and they are so hot that they still seer the flesh of the new reader Paperback Horace enjoys the reputation of being among the foremost of lyrical poets as preeminent in Latin letters as Sappho is in Greek This recensionist must confess that Horace s literary Latin makes for much tougher going than does your typical scientific or theological Latin Fortunately in the editor of the version presently under review we have a thoughtful tutor who takes care to point out for his intended audience of college students a multitude of grammatical and stylistic considerations so as to facilitate a deeper appreciation of the text Indeed Edward P Morris notes are so extensive as to cause this printing to run to almost five hundred pages on most of which the space devoted to the footnotes exceeds the original text To be compared with the Loeb classical edition by H Rushton Fairclough whose introductions are brief and perfunctory scarcely going beyond paraphrase and whose notes as is the rule with the Loeb series confine themselves to identifying personages or places named in the text and little else certainly nothing on Latin resp Greek usage to draw the reader s attention to the literary quality of the text But Morris is to be praised above all for his exquisite introductions both to the collections of sermons resp epistles as a whole and to each individual piece He relates at some length the circumstances of Horace s life and the motives to his art with the ease and care of a thoughtful spectator not only versed in Roman history and Latin letters but also imbued with an educator s understanding of human nature itself in particular as it pertains to a young man harboring a literary ambition. Pdf horaire A succinct report on Horace s literary career first let us review the stages of his personal development as a young man he fought with Brutus on the losing side in the civil war forfeited his property returned to Rome where he reinvented himself as a poet and secured the patronage of Maecenas who gave him a country estate in the Sabine territory not too far from Rome and after mastering the satire turned later in his life to the composition of epistles and the odes in which rests his reputation as one of the great poets of the Augustan age In this elliptically sketched trajectory we can discern the cross cultural pattern of the ordeal which entails separation from the happy surroundings in which one grows up an initiation through suffering into the secrets of a higher order and ideally following this reincorporation into society As Morris notes one can trace the softening of Horace s acerbic character consequent to his attainment of a degree of recognition The satires which followed the admission of Horace to the friendship of Vergil and Varius and Maecenas need no specific commentthey are not the work of an obscure beginner but of a man tempered by association with men of taste mellowed by friendly recognition and already master of an easy style and a sane and humorous philosophy of life p 10. Horace freeman Now to the actual contents of the work under review Horace s literary production illustrates well the contrast between the Roman and the Greek temper He is not much given to lofty contemplation or to systematic philosophical speculation but oriented to public life and the virtues attendant thereunto. Horace silver Ergo sermo oritur non de villis domibusve alienis nec male necne Lepos saltet sed quod magis ad nos pertinet et nescire malum est agitamus utrumne divitiis homines an sint virtute beati quidve ad amicitias usus rectumne trahat nos et quae sit natura boni summumque quid eius Satires II 6 70 74 And so begins a chat not about other men s homes and estates nor whether Lepos dances well or ill but we discuss matters which concern us and of which it is harmful to be in ignorance whether wealth or virtue makes men happy whether self interest or uprightness leads us to friendship what is the nature of the good and what is its highest form Therefore one must adjudge Horace not especially profound when he touches on philosophical topics often with clearly ironical intent rather he mostly likes gently to ridicule the figure of the Stoic sage for his rigorist pretensions and sententiousness Elsewhere we become acquainted with Horace s philosophy of life so to speak he stands for moderation favoring rustic simplicity over ceaseless striving for wealth or betterment of social position see for instance Satires I 1 2 and 6 Satires II 2 So Horace is not avowedly analytical like Aristotle as in the Nicomachean ethics but a perceptive observer of men at least in what pertains to everyday life and its situations unlike Plutarch he eschews great affairs of state and the conduct exhibited therein Morris captures the tenor of Horace s personality in the following passage The character of a writer or an artist as it shows itself in his work must be learned by indirection by impressions repeated and deepened into familiarity For this kind of personal acquaintance Horace gives abundant material Enough has been said above to correct the notion that he was a dilettante playing with life He was it is true fundamentally an observer rather than an actor and he was by temperament genial and tolerant these are the qualities upon which the charm of his personality rests but a merely temperamental tolerance is like temperamental optimism a very superficial and uninteresting quality Horace was a man of warm feeling and of strong convictions though his convictions are in part alien to our thought and the lightness with which he sometimes touches serious things is not the lightness of carelessness He had learned early not without struggle and pain the lesson of adjustment to the limitations of life had learned that the secret of a composed and dignified life lies in the acceptance of the inevitable Even in his less cheerful moods he faced his heaviest losses with steadfastness durum sed levius fit patientia quidquid corrigere est nefas But his ordinary mood was not tragic he preferred to meet life with a smile not underestimating the possibilities of loss and trouble but also not overestimating them And it is the fact that his genial acceptance of life rests upon a foundation of cool judgment and shrewd comprehension that gives it meaning It is this combination that makes him the philosopher for men of the world For the man of affairs if he is conscious of life at all is seeking for a formula which will include all the follies and weaknesses of men and will teach him how to accept them with a smile The real meaning of Horace s philosophy is poorly expressed by nil admirari as the words are commonly understood and not very well by aurea mediocritas it is a philosophy of comprehension and tolerance and the charm of his personality is such that he so perfectly embodies his own doctrine pp 18 19 The Ars poetica deserves extended comment What can we learn from Horace approaching what is really an essay in epistolary form from the point of view of an aspiring poet who wishes to perfect his craft Our normally trustworthy guide Morris appraises it somewhat deflatingly The fact that the course of thought is rambling is key to an understanding of the Epistle For this arrangement is not the result of carelessness Horace followed this unsystematic and yet closely knit succession of topics from deliberate choice He was not trying to compose a treatise but to write an epistula a sermo Like any epistle it is addressed to certain persons and like any sermo it follows the line of easy transition by suggestion from one topic to another. The charity committee book horace silver That this intentionally unsystematic poem should have been taken for a formal treatise on the art of poetry is indeed surprising the error was due in part to a too literal understanding of the traditional title not stemming from the author himself in part due to a general tendency among early scholars to overvalue the content of classic literature Is should be valued rather as a beautifully finished sermo to be studied for its skillful turns of thought and expression its perfect phrasing its easy and mellow tone pp 190 191 But he exaggerates An aesthetic theory does not need to be tricked out in stark bullet points and strictly logical sequence as if we could never tolerate a little indirection Precisely what we admire in Horace is his suppleness and finesse what has always endeared him to those of a humanistic temper in contrast to the woodenness of Aristotle Nevertheless his writing however graceful would prove insipid in the end had he no substantial content to convey The Ars poetica falls into three parts an opening section on general principles of composition followed by several specific stylistic maxims in the various genres of tragedy satyric drama and comedy and lastly the closing with counsels on the personal character necessary to the poet if he is to achieve greatness No need to enter into the second of these Horace s points can only be weighed on a case by case basis by those in the know As to the first corresponding to the first 178 lines without being overly concerned to frame abstract rules Horace reviews a multitude of illustrative cases having to do with unity and fittingness of style or its breakdown If the poet has first an integral conception of his work in mind and the subject lie within his powers the composition should work itself out naturally and suitably About the third part from lines 295 onwards on the poet s qualifications Horace s recommendations are timeless what is not altogether supererogatory to point out since many in our day would want to decry them as outmoded and elitist But one cannot get something for nothing those who under the stultifying influence of the overwhelmingly dominant progressive liberal educational establishment scorn self discipline and self critique can only condemn themselves to mediocrity. Horace epubs air Anyone wishing to win distinction as a poet ought to heed Horace s advice in the Ars poetica pore over his suggestions as to style and weigh their application to what one has in mind to write and no less important reform his lifestyle so as to acquire that nobility of character which cannot but in due time issue in a sublime work of art. Book horse by geraldine brooks Silvestris homines sacer interpresque deorumcaedibus et victu foedo deterruit Orpheusdictus ob hoc lenire tigris rabidosque leones dictus et Amphion Thebanae conditor urbissaxa movere sono testudinis et prece blandaducere quo vellet Fuit haec sapienta quondampublica privatis secernere sacra profanisconcubitu prohibere vago dare iure maritisoppida moliri leges incidere ligno. Horace brooklyn nyc jab boxing Sic honor et nomen divinis vatibus atquecarminibus venit Post hos insignis HomerusTyrtaeusque mares animos in Martia bellaversibus exacuit dictae per carmina sorteset vitae monstrata via est et gratia regnumPieriis temptata modis ludusque repertuset longorum operum finis ne forte pudorisit tibi Musa lyrae sollers et cantor Apollo Epistles II 3 391 407 While men still roamed the woods Orpheus the holy prophet of the gods made them shrink from bloodshed and brutal living hence the fable that he tamed tigers and ravening lions hence too the fable that Amphion builder of Thebes citadel moved stones by the sound of his lyre and led them whither he would by his supplicating spell In the days of yore this was wisdom to draw a line between public and private rights between things sacred and things common to check vagrant union to give rules for wedded life and so honor and fame fell to bards and their songs as divine After these Homer won his renown and Tyrtaeus with his verses fired manly hearts for battles of Mars In song oracles were given and the way of life was shown the favor of kings was sought in Pierian strains and mirth was found to close toil s long spell So you need not blush for the Muse skilled in the lyre and for Apollo god of song Paperback
Horace recognized as the greatest of Roman lyric poets of the Augustan Age is perhaps best remembered for his Odes which constitute the height of his literary achievement However the Satires and Epistles which span his life as a poet are not to be neglected Horace began his literary career as a writer of satires which fitted his personality as an acute observer of men Restriction to the traditional form of satire established by Lucilius did not stifle Horace s originality He adapted the heroic measure very harsh and rude in Lucilius to fit this theme thus creating a new art form the sermo The Epistles provided a quiet ending to Horace s poetic career Their grace polish and wit reveal a man who has mellowed The editor has provided introductions to the Satires and Epistles tracing the history of both art forms The emphasis is on the thought and artistry of Horace rather than the structure of the language The carefully edited text and well chosen notes tastefully preserve the full flavor of Horace s pungent social criticism in the Satires and his gentler but serious reflection in the Epistles Horace Satires and Epistles
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