Art of Poetry an Epistle to the Pisos | Page 5

characters would not be disgraced by the cultivation of it.
_Ne forte pudori?Sit tibi _Musa, lyrae solers, & cantor Apollo.
It is worthy observation, that in the satyrical picture of a frantick bard, with which Horace concludes his Epistle, he not only runs counter to what might be expected as a Corollary of an Essay on _the Art of Poetry_, but contradicts his own usual practice and sentiments. In his Epistle to Augustus, instead of stigmatizing the love of verse as an abominable phrenzy, he calls it (_levis haec insania) a slight madness_, and descants on its good effects--quantas virtutes habeat, sic collige!
In another Epistle, speaking of himself, and his addiction to poetry, he says,
_----ubi quid datur oti,?Illudo chartis; hoc est, mediocribus illis?Ex vitiis unum, _&c.
All which, and several other passages in his works, almost demonstrate that it was not, without a particular purpose in view, that he dwelt so forcibly on the description of a man resolved
_----in spite?Of nature and his stars to write._
To conclude, if I have not contemplated my system, till I am become blind to its imperfections, this view of the Epistle not only preserves to it all that unity of subject, and elegance of method, so much insisted on by the excellent Critick, to whom I have so often referred; but by adding to his judicious general abstract the familiarities of personal address, so strongly marked by the writer, not a line appears idle or misplaced: while the order and disposition of the Epistle to the Pisos appears as evident and unembarrassed, as that of the Epistle to Augustus; in which last, the actual state of the Roman Drama seems to have been more manifestly the object of Horace's attention, than in the Work now under consideration.
Before I leave you to the further examination of the original of Horace, and submit to you the translation, with the notes that accompany it, I cannot help observing, that the system, which I have here laid down, is not so entirely new, as it may perhaps at first appear to the reader, or as I myself originally supposed it. No Critick indeed has, to my knowledge, directly considered the whole Epistle in the same light that I have now taken it; but yet particular passages seem so strongly to enforce such an interpretation, that the Editors, Translators, and Commentators, have been occasionally driven to explanations of a similar tendency; of which the notes annexed will exhibit several striking instances.
Of the following version I shall only say, that I have not, knowingly, adopted a single expression, tending to warp the judgement of the learned or unlearned reader, in favour of my own hypothesis. I attempted this translation, chiefly because I could find no other equally close and literal. Even the Version of Roscommon, tho' in blank verse, is, in some parts a paraphrase, and in others, but an abstract. I have myself, indeed, endeavoured to support my right to that force and freedom of translation which Horace himself recommends; yet I have faithfully exhibited in our language several passages, which his professed translators have abandoned, as impossible to be given in English.
All that I think necessary to be further said on the Epistle will appear in the notes.
I am, my dear friends,
With the truest respect and regard,
Your most sincere admirer,
And very affectionate, humble servant,
GEORGE COLMAN.
LONDON,?March 8, 1783.
Q. HORATII FLACCI
EPISTOLA AD PISONES.

Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam?Jungere si velit, et varias inducere plumas?Undique collatis membris, ut turpiter atrum?Definat in piscem mulier formosa supernè;?Spectatum admissi risum teneatis, amici??Credite, Pisones, ifti tabulae fore librum?Persimilem, cujus, velut aegri somnia, vanae?HORACE'S EPISTLE TO THE PISOS.

What if a Painter, in his art to shine,?A human head and horse's neck should join;?From various creatures put the limbs together,?Cover'd with plumes, from ev'ry bird a feather;?And in a filthy tail the figure drop,?A fish at bottom, a fair maid at top:?Viewing a picture of this strange condition,?Would you not laugh at such an exhibition??Trust me, my Pisos, wild as this may seem,?The volume such, where, like a sick-man's dream,?Fingentur species: ut nec pes, nec caput uni?Reddatur formae. Pictoribus atque Po?tis?Quidlibet audendi semper fuit aequa potestas:?Scimus, et hanc veniam petimusque damusque *viciffim:?Sed non ut placidis co?ant immitia, non ut?Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni.

Incoeptis gravibus plerumque et magna professis?Purpureus latè qui splendeat unus et alter?Assuitur pannus; cùm 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?Extravagant conceits throughout prevail,?Gross and fantastick, neither head nor tail.?"Poets and Painters ever were allow'd?Some daring flight above the vulgar croud."?True: we indulge them in that daring flight,?And challenge in our turn, an equal right:?But not the soft and savage to combine,?Serpents to doves, to tigers lambkins join.
Oft works of promise large, and high attempt,?Are