Art of Poetry an Epistle to the Pisos | Page 5

Poet, however,
in reverence to the Muse, qualifies his exaggerated description of an
infatuated scribbler, with a most noble encomium of the uses of Good
Poetry, vindicating the dignity of the Art, and proudly asserting, that
the most exalted 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 Poëtis
Quidlibet audendi semper
fuit aequa potestas:
Scimus, et hanc veniam petimusque damusque
*viciffim:
Sed non ut placidis coëant 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
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