VIII.?TO HORATIUS FLACCUS [92] |
O thou whom the Italian world hails as prince of the lyric song, to whom the Lesbian muse entrusted her lyre with its harmonious strings; O thou whom the Tyrrhenian Sea stole from the Adriatic, and Etruria from Apulia, and whom the Tiber claimed as its own, heeding not the cries of the Aufidus, nor spurning thy obscure and humble origin; sweet is it now to follow thee through secluded woodlands, to gaze upon the spring water bubbling up in the dimly lighted dales, to admire the purple hills and the verdant meadows, the cool lakes and the dewy grottos.[93] It is sweet to go with thee, whether thou dost propitiate Faunus with his roaming flocks; or eagerly hasten to visit the impetuous and fiery Bromius; or perform the secret rites of the golden goddess related to the ivy-crowned Bacchus; or sing of Venus ever in need of both. ’Tis a joy to accompany thee when thou singest of the playful Nymphs and nimble Satyrs and of the Graces with their rosy, naked bodies; or when thou dost sing the name and labors of the indomitable Hercules; or of the helmeted Mars, another offspring of incestuous Jove. ’Tis joyful to hear thee sing of the Aegis of Minerva, spreading terror far and wide with its Gorgon-head; or of the children of Leda, who sink beneath the waves and are the kind, protecting constellation of mariners; or of Mercury, the illustrious inventor of the lyre. How pleasing is it, when thou dost strike the praises of golden-haired Apollo, and dost bathe his glorious locks in the waters of the Xanthus; to hearken when thou dost extol his sister, distinguished by the quiver and striking terror to the hearts of the forest denizens, and when thou dost disclose the sacred dances of the Pierides.[94] Thou dost chisel out the characters of the ancient heroes as though in material more lasting than marble. If thou but befriendest one, thou dost pen in his behalf fresh words of everlasting and enduring praise, such as time cannot erase. The spiritual spark of poets is of itself sufficient, when kindled by favorable impulses, to create undying pictures of men. It is due to these pen pictures that we see, as though yet alive, those demigods Drusus and Scipio and the rest through whose agency far-renowned Rome imposed her yoke upon subjugated races. Among these heroes, like a sun gleaming with living light, there shines forth pre-eminently the race of the Caesars.[95] Be thou my leader, for I am eager to hear thee sing these strains. Take me whither thou wilt. Lead me over the broad expanse of the sea dotted with sails; to the cloud-encompassed peaks of mountains. Take me from the channel of the flowing Tiber to where the Anio with its banks cuts its way through the fields—a region pleasing to thee formerly, when thou wert still of the living, and where I, musing, am weaving this chaplet for thee, O Flaccus, our glory. Lead me whither thou wilt: through forbidding forest darknesses, to the cold Algidus, to the warm waters of Baiae, the Sabine Lake, the fields strewn with flowers, and to Soracte’s peak white with snows. Bear me with thee to Brundisium by the devious by-paths. I shall weary not; I shall gladly guide my slow footsteps in the company of such bards. Neither time nor tide will swerve me from my purpose. I shall march with equal vigor, if mother Earth be great with crops yet unharvested, or the dew be dried by the scorching rays of the sun, or the branches bend beneath their weight of fruit, or the earth be stiff and slow with cold. Under thy leadership I shall visit the shores of the Cyclades, the roaring waves of Thracian Bosporus, the lonely deserts of torrid Lybia, and the cold, stormy regions of far-off Caucasus.[96] Wherever thou goest, whatever thou doest, pleases me. I am pleased when thou dost so carefully rouse thy faithful friends by giving virtue its due reward; when thou rendest vice with gnashing teeth, and when, smiling, thou dost artfully peck at folly. I am pleased when, singing sweetly, thou fillest thy song with tender words of love; when with sharp and vigorous pen thou upbraidest the riotous living of the old wanton; or when thou dost arraign the guilty city and dost accurse the drawn swords and savage frenzy of the Quirites. I rejoice when Maecenas is the burden of thy song—throughout thy work the first and last; when thou dost criticise the poets of the older school and dost disdain to tread in their footsteps; when thou pourest into the ears of magnanimous Caesar praises of his newly won honors. I am glad when, in one of thy poems, thou explainest to Florus thy reasons for declining to write any more satires or lyrics; when thou describest to Fuscus the joys of a country life and the evils of a turbulent city, and explainest to him why the warlike steed is the servant of man; glad, when thou teachest Crispus the true use of wealth. I am pleased when thou dost tear Vergil away from his unending grief and gently dost urge him to enjoy some relaxation and a few moments of pleasure at the coming of spring; when thou admonishest Hirpinus of the flight of time. I am pleased when thou remindest Torquatus and, in a similar ode, Postumus of the fleeting days and nights; when thou writest of old age stealthily creeping upon us all with noiseless tread, of the shortness of life which is gone even as we write, or of death which hastens after us with flying feet.[97] Who would not enraptured listen when thou assignest Augustus (though still alive) to a place among the stars? or when, in accoutering Mars, thou declarest the inadequacy of iron and hast recourse to adamant? or when, as a conqueror, thou drivest along the Sacred Way and Hill, dragging bands of foreign princes bound to the triumphal chariots with fetters of gold, a victorious pomp which, feared and detested by a certain proud queen, caused her to welcome the inexorable sting of the asp? Who would not lend thee a willing ear, when thou recountest how the laws of hospitality were dishonored by the treacherous shepherd of Phrygia, and how from the quieted waves there came to Paris the threatening prophecy of Nereus? or how Danae is deceived by the shower of gold? or how the royal maiden, in spite of her grievous laments, is borne away on the back of the horned adulterer?[98] Whether happy or alarmed, whether sad or angered, under any and all conditions thou dost give pleasure: either when thou frettest the anxious lover with manifold suspicions; or hurlest just imprecations on the snake-haired, poisonous hags and on the vulgar herd; when, free from cares, thou singest of Lalage; or when alone and with unruffled brow thou dost put to flight that desperate wolf; or when thou escapest the fall of the ill-omened tree, and the waves which had been lashed to fury by Aeolian winds.[99] When I saw thee reclining upon the fresh turf, hearkening to the bubbling of the springs and to the songs of the birds, when I saw thee plucking the flowerets from the matted field, weaving the vinesprigs with the pliant osiers, touching the lyre with gentle fingers, changing the measures with splendid mastery, and soothing heaven itself with thy varied song—when I saw all this my eager mind suddenly became the prey of a noble desire, which spared me not till I had followed thee through all the recesses of the heaving sea, over cliffs and crags, ’mid the perils of sea and land. On the remotest confines of India I saw arise the gleaming steeds of the sun, and then did I behold them sink in the Western Ocean. In thy company I have roamed across the regions of the north wind and across the regions of the south wind. And now, whether thou leadest me to the Islands of the Blessed, or draggest me to wave-resounding Antium, or takest me to the citadels of Romulus, I shall follow thee with most eager mind, so happily am I drawn captive by the chords of thy lyre, so soothing is to me the bitter sweetness of thy pen.[100]
Notes on Fam., XXIV, 10, to Horatius Flaccus [92]. This letter (as also the following one to Vergil) is written in verse, and is translated into verse by Fracassetti, who assigns to it the date 1337 or 1350. The chances are in favor of the later date; for Petrarch himself says (in the prefatory letter to Socrates, Vol. I, p. 25) that the letter he addressed to Cicero (Fam., XXIV, 3, dated 1345) served as a precedent for the other letters to the classical authors. The letters to Horace and to Vergil really belong to the Epistolae Poeticae, the collection of which was dedicated to Barbato da Sulmona (Fam., praefatio, I, pp. 15, 16, and Fam., XXII, 3). Their presence here, then, must be due to the subject-matter. A mere glance at the letter will reveal to the reader Petrarch’s intimate knowledge of the complete works of Horace. Fracassetti says in this regard (Vol. 5, p. 177) that he did not trace the many allusions to their sources, because such labor would have proved utterly useless to one already acquainted with the works of Horace, and would have been of very doubtful assistance to one who did not possess such knowledge. The nature of this study, however, demands the presence of the following notes. They will not be read, of course. They are given merely for the sake of reference and of completeness. One word more. The allusions are so numerous that it has been thought best to give at the end of each paragraph the references to all the allusions contained therein. To facilitate identification, each reference is introduced by a caption of one or more words.[93]. “secluded woodlands,” Carm., i, 17, 17; Epod., ii, 11.[94]. “Faunus,” Carm., i, 17; iii, 18; “Bromius,” ibid., ii, 19; iii, 25; “secret rites,” ibid., iii, 2; “ivy-crowned,” ibid., iii, 25, 20; iv, 8, 33; “in need of both,” ibid., i, 18, 6; 32, 9; iii, 21, 21; cf. Terence, Eun., iv, 5, 6; “Nymphs,” Carm., i, 4; “Satyrs,” ibid., i, 1, 31; “naked bodies,” ibid., iii, 19, 17; iv, 7, 6; “Hercules,” ibid., i, 12, 25; iv, 5, 36; 8, 30; “Mars,” ibid., i, 2, 36; “Aegis,” ibid., i, 15, 11; iii, 4, 57; “Leda,” ibid., i, 12, 25; “constellation,” ibid., i, 12, 27, 28; iii, 29, 64; iv, 8, 31; “lyre,” ibid., i, 10, 6; “Xanthus,” ibid., iv, 6, 26; “quiver,” ibid., iii, 4, 72; “terror,” ibid., i, 12, 22.[95]. “Drusus,” Carm., iv, 4, 18; 14, 10; “Scipio,” Sat., ii, 1, 17 and 72; “shines forth,” Carm., i, 12, 46-48.[96]. “glory,” Carm., i, 1, 2; “Algidus,” ibid., i, 21, 6; “warm waters,” Epist., i, 15, 5; “Sabine lake,” Carm., iv, 1, 19; “Soracte,” ibid., i, 9, 1 and 2; “Brundisium,” Sat., i, 5; “slow with cold,” cf. Carm., iii, 23, 5-8; iv, 7, 9-12; “Cyclades,” Carm., i, 14, 20; iii, 28, 14; “Bosporus,” ibid., ii, 20, 14; iii, 4, 30; “Lybia,” ibid., i, 22, 5 and 16; ii, 6, 3 and 4; “Caucasus,” ibid., i, 22, 7; Epod., i, 12.[97]. “wanton,” Carm., i, 25; iii, 15; iv, 13; “drawn swords,” Epod., 7 and 16; “school,” Sat., i, 4 and 10; “footsteps,” Epist., i, 19, 21-25; cf. Carm., iii, 30, 13; “honors,” Carm., iii, 25, 7, 8; “Florus,” Epist., ii, 2; “Fuscus,” Epist., i, 10; “steed,” Epist., i, 10, 34-41; “Crispus,” Carm., ii, 2; “Vergil,” ibid., i, 24; “pleasure,” ibid., iv, 12; “Hirpinus,” ibid., ii, 11; “Torquatus,” ibid., iv, 7; “Postumus,” ibid., ii, 14: “fleeting days,” ibid., iv, 13, 16; cf. iii, 28, 6; “shortness of life,” ibid., iv, 13, 22; Sat., ii, 6, 97; Epist., ii, 1, 144; “as we write,” Carm., i, 11, 7; “flying feet,” ibid., iii, 2, 14; Sat., ii, 1, 58.[98]. “Augustus,” Carm., iii, 3, 11, 12; 25, 6; “adamant,” ibid., i, 6, 13; “sacred hill,” ibid., iv, 2, 35; “fetters,” Epod., vii, 8; “detested,” Carm., i, 37, 32; “asp,” ibid., i, 37, 28; “shepherd,” ibid., i, 15, 1, 2; “quieted waves,” ibid., i, 15, 3; “prophecy,” ibid., i, 15, 5; “Danae,” ibid., iii, 16; “royal maiden,” ibid., iii, 27, 25 ff.[99]. “hags,” Epod., v; “herd,” Carm., ii, 16, 40; iii, 1, 1; “Lalage and wolf,” ibid., i, 22; “tree,” ibid., ii, 13; cf. ii, 17, 27; iii, 4, 27; 8, 8.[100]. “fresh turf,” Carm., i, 1, 21; ii, 3, 6; Epod., ii, 23; “springs,” Carm., i, 1, 22; Epod., ii, 25 and 27; “birds,” ibid., ii, 26; “flowerets,” ibid., 19; “field,” ibid., 24; “lyre,” Carm., i, 1, 34; “India,” Epist., i, 1, 45; cf. Carm., i, 31, 6; iii, 24, 2; “gleaming steeds,” Carm. Saec. 9; “western Ocean,” Carm., i, 31, 14; Epod., i, 13; “Islands of the Blessed,” Carm., iv, 8, 27; Epod., xvi, 42; “Antium,” Carm., i, 35; “citadels,” ibid., ii, 6, 22; Carm. Saec., 65; Carm., i, 2, 3.
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