Art of Poetry an Epistle to the Pisos | Page 9

uti;
Vel quòd res omnes timidè
gelidèque ministrat,
Dilator, spe lentus, iners, pavidusque futuri;

The beardless Youth, at length from tutor free,
Loves horses, hounds,
the field, and liberty:
Pliant as wax, to vice his easy soul,
Marble to
wholesome counsel and controul;
Improvident of good, of wealth
profuse;
High; fond, yet fickle; generous, yet loose.
To graver studies, new pursuits inclin'd,
Manhood, with growing
years, brings change of mind:
Seeks riches, friends; with thirst of
honour glows;
And all the meanness of ambition knows;
Prudent,
and wary, on each deed intent,
Fearful to act, and afterwards repent.
Evil in various shapes Old Age surrounds;
Riches his aim, in riches
he abounds;
Yet what he fear'd to gain, he dreads to lose;
And what
he sought as useful, dares not use.
Timid and cold in all he undertakes,

His hand from doubt, as well as weakness, shakes;
Hope makes
him tedious, fond of dull delay;
Dup'd by to-morrow, tho' he dies
to-day;
Difficilis, querulus, laudator temporis acti
Se puero, censor,
castigatorque minorum.
Multa ferunt anni venientes commoda secum,

Multa recedentes

adimunt: ne forte seniles
Mandentur juveni partes, pueroque viriles.

Semper in adjunctis aevoque morabimur aptis.
Aut agitur res In scenis, aut acta refertur:
Segnius irritant animos
demissa per aurem,
Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et quae

Ipse sibi tradit spectator: non tamen intus
Digna geri promes in
scenam: multaque tolles
Ex oculis, quae mox narret facundia praesens:

Ill-humour'd, querulous; yet loud in praise
Of all the mighty deeds
of former days;
When he was young, good heavens, what glorious
times!
Unlike the present age, that teems with crimes!
Thus years advancing many comforts bring,
And, flying, bear off
many on their wing:
Confound not youth with age, nor age with
youth,
But mark their several characters with truth!
Events are on the stage in act display'd,
Or by narration, if unseen,
convey'd.
Cold is the tale distilling thro' the ear,
Filling the soul
with less dismay and fear,
Than where spectators view, like
standers-by,
The deed submitted to the faithful eye.
Yet force not
on the stage, to wound the sight,
Asks that should pass within, and
shun the light!
Many there are the eye should ne'er behold,
But
touching Eloquence in time unfold:
Ne pueros coram populo Medea
trucidet;
Aut humana palam coquat exta nefarius Atreus;
Aut in
avem Procne vertatur, Cadmus in anguem.
Quodcunque ostendis mihi
sic, incredulus odi.

Neve minor, neu sit quinto productior actu
Fabula, quae posci vult, et
spectata reponi
Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus

Inciderit: nec quarta loqui persona laboret.

Actoris partes Chorus, officiumque virile
Defendat: neu quid medios
intercinat actus,
Quod non proposito conducat et haereat apte.
Ille

bonis faveatque, et concilietur amicis,
Et regat iratos, et amet peccare
timentes:
Who on Medea's parricide can look?
View horrid Atreus
human garbage cook?
If a bird's feathers I see Progne take,
If I see
Cadmus slide into a snake,
My faith revolts; and I condemn outright

The fool that shews me such a silly sight.
Let not your play have fewer acts_ than _five,
Nor more, if you
would wish it run and thrive!
Draw down no God, unworthily betray'd,
Unless some great occasion
ask his aid!
Let no fourth person, labouring for a speech,
Make in the dialogue a
needless breach!
An actor's part the Chorus should sustain,
Gentle in all its office, and
humane;
Chaunting no Odes between the acts, that seem
Unapt, or
foreign to the general theme.
Let it to Virtue prove a guide and friend,

Curb tyrants, and the humble good defend!
Ille dapes laudet
mensae brevis, ille salubrem
Justitiam, legesque, et apertis otia portis:

Ille tegat commisia, Deosque precetur et oret,
Ut redeat miseris,
abeat fortuna superbis.
Tibia non, ut nunc, orichalco vincta, tubaeque
aemula; sed tenuis,
simplexque foramine pauco,
Aspirare et adesse choris erat utilis,
atque
Nondum spissa nimis complere sedilia flatu:
Quo fanè
populus numerabilis, utpote parvus
Et frugi castusque verecundusque
coibat.
Postquam coepit agros extendere victor, et urbem
Laxior
amplecti murus, vinoque diurno
Placari Genius sestis impune diebus,
Loud let it praise the joys that Temperance waits;
Of Justice sing, the
real health of States;
The Laws; and Peace, secure with open gates!

Faithful and secret, let it heav'n invoke
To turn from the unhappy
fortune's stroke,
And all its vengeance on the proud provoke!

The Pipe of old, as yet with brass unbound,
Nor rivalling, as now, the
Trumpet's sound,
But slender, simple, and its stops but few,

Breath'd to the Chorus; and was useful too:
For feats extended, and
extending still,
Requir'd not pow'rful blasts their space to fill;
When
the thin audience, pious, frugal, chaste,
With modest mirth indulg'd
their sober taste.
But soon as the proud Victor spurns all bounds,

And growing Rome a wider wall surrounds;
When noontide cups, and
the diurnal bowl,
Licence on holidays a flow of soul;
Accessit
numerisque modisque licentia major.
Indoctus quid enim saperet
liberque laborum,
Rusticus urbano confusus, turpis honesto?
Sic
priscae motumque et luxuriem addidit arti
Tibicen, traxitque vagus
per pulpita vestem:
Sic etiam fidibus voces crevere feveris,
Et tulit
eloquium insolitum facundia praeceps;
Utiliumque sagax rerum, et
divina futuri,
Sortilegis non discrepuit sententia Delphis.

Carmine qui tragico vilem certavit ob hircum,
Mox etiam agrestes
Satyros nudavit, et asper
Incolumi gravitate jocum tentavit: eò quod

A richer stream of melody is known,
Numbers more copious, and a
fuller tone.
----For what, alas! could the unpractis'd ear
Of rusticks, revelling o'er
country cheer,
A motley