Tardior ut paulo graviorque veniret ad aures, Spondæos stabiles in jura paterna recepit Commodus, et patiens: non ut de sede secunda Cederet, aut quarta socialiter: hic et in Accî Nobilibus trimetris apparet rarus, et Ennî. 270 In scenam missos magno cum pondere versus, Aut opera celeris nimium, curaque carentis, Aut ignorata premit artis crimine turpi. Non quivis videt immodulata poëmata judex: Et data Romanis venia est indigna poëtis, Idcircòne vager, scribamque licenter? an omnes Visuros peccata putem mea? tutus, et intra Spem venia cautus? vitavi denique culpam, Non laudem merui. Vos exemplaria Græca Nocturna versate manu, versate diurnâ.
At nostri proavi Plautinos, et numeros, et
Laudavere sales: nimium patienter utrumque,
Ne dicam stultè, mirati; si modò ego, et vos
Scimus inurbanum lepido seponere dicto,
Legitimumque sonum digitis callemus, et aure.
Nil intentatum nostri liquere poëta,
Nec minimum meruêre decus, vestigia Græca
Ausi deserere, et celebrare domestica facta:
Vel qui prætextas, vel qui docuêre togatas.
Nec virtute foret, clarisve potentius armis,
Into their birth-right, and for fitness sake,
The steady Spondees; so themselves do bear
More slow, and come more weighty to the ear:
Provided, ne'er to yield, in any case
Of fellowship, the fourth or second place.
This foot yet, in the famous Trimeters
Of Accius and Ennius, rare appears :
So rare, as with some tax it doth engage
Those heavy verses sent so to the stage,
Of too much haste, and negligence in part,
Or a worse crime, the ignorance of art.
But every judge hath not the faculty
To note in poems breach of harmony;
And there is given too unworthy leave
To Roman poets. Shall I therefore weave
My verse at random, and licentiously?
Or rather, thinking all my faults may spy,
Grow a safe writer, and be wary driven
Within the hope of having all forgiven.
'Tis clear this way I have got off from blame,
But, in conclusion, merited no fame.
Take you the Greek examples for your light,
In hand, and turn them over day and night.
Our ancestors did Plautus' numbers praise,
And jests; and both to admiration raise
Too patiently, that I not fondly say,
If either you or I know the right way
To part scurrility from wit; or can
A lawful verse by th' ear or finger scan.
Our poets too left nought unproved here;
Nor did they merit the less crown to wear,
In daring to forsake the Grecian tracts,
And celebrating our own home-born facts;
Whether the garded tragedy they wrought,
Or 'twere the gowned comedy they taught.
Nor had our Italy more glorious been
In virtue, and renown of arms, than in
Quàm lingua, Latium, si non offenderet unum-
Quemque poëtarum lima labor, et mora. Vos, ô
Pompilius sanguis, carmen reprehendite, quod non
Multa dies, et multa litura coërcuit, atque
Perfectum decies non castigavit ad unguem.
Ingenium misera quia fortunatius arte
Credit, et excludit sanos Helicone poëtas
Democritus, bona pars non ungues ponere curat,
Non barbam; secreta petit loca, balnea vitat.
Nanciscetur enim pretium, nomenque poetæ,
Si tribus Anticyris caput insanabile nunquam
Tonsori Licino commiserit. O ego lævus,
Qui purgor bilem sub verni temporis horam.
Non alius faceret meliora poëmata: verùm,
Nil tanti est: ergo fungar vice cotis, acutum
Reddere quæ ferrum valet, exsors ipsa secandi.
Munus et officium, nil scribens ipse, docebo;
Unde parentur opes: quid alat formetque poëtam :
Quid deceat, quid non: quò virtus, quò ferat error.
Scribendi rectè sapere est et principium et fons.
Rem tibi Socraticæ poterunt ostendere charta:
Verbaque provisam rem non invita sequentur.
Qui didicit, patriæ quid debeat, et quid amicis:
Quo sit amore parens, quo frater amandus, et hospes :
Her language, if the stay and care t' have mended,
Had not our every poet like offended.
But you, Pompilius' offspring, spare you not
To tax that verse, which many a day and blot
Have not kept in; and (lest perfection fail)
Not ten times o'er corrected to the nail.
Because Democritus believes a wit
Happier than wretched art, and doth by it
Exclude all sober poets from their share
In Helicon; a great sort will not pare
Their nails, nor shave their beards, but to byepaths
Retire themselves, avoid the public baths;
For so they shall not only gain the worth,
But fame of poets, they think, if they come forth
And from the barber Licinus conceal
Their heads, which three Anticyras cannot heal.
OI left-witted, that purge every spring
For choler! if I did not, who could bring
Out better poems? but I cannot buy
My title at the rate, I'd rather, I,
Be like a whetstone, that an edge can put
On steel, though't self be dull, and cannot cut.
I writing nought myself, will teach them yet
Their charge and office, whence their wealth to fet,
What nourisheth, what formed, what begot
The poet, what becometh, and what not,
Whither truth may, and whither error bring.
The very root of writing well, and spring
Is to be wise; thy matter first to know,
Which the Socratic writings best can show :
And where the matter is provided still,
There words will follow, not against their will.
He that hath studied well the debt, and knows
What to his country, what his friends he owes,
What height of love a parent will fit best,
What brethren, what a stranger, and his guest,
Quod sit conscripti, quod judicis officium: quæ Partes in bellum missi ducis, ille profectò Reddere persona scit convenientia cuique. Respicere exemplar vitæ, morumque jubebo Doctum imitatorem, et veras hinc ducere voces. Interdum speciosa locis, morataque rectè 3Fabula, nullius Veneris, sine pondere, et arte, Valdius oblectat populum, meliusque moratur, Quàm versus inopes rerum, nugæque canora. Graiis ingenium, Graiis dedit ore rotundo Musa loqui, præter laudem, nullius avaris. Romani pueri longis rationibus assem Discunt in partes centum diducere. Dicat Filius Albini, si de quincunce remota est Uncia, quid superat? poteras dixisse triens: eu, Rem poteris servare tuam: redit uncia: quid fit? Semis: ad hæc animos ærugo, et cura peculi, Cum semel imbuerit, speramus carmina fingi Posse linenda cedro, at lævi servanda cupresso? Aut prodesse volunt, aut delectare poëtæ, Aut simul et jucunda, et idonea dicere vitæ. Sylvestres homines sacer, interpresque deorum, Cadibus et victu fœdo deterruit Orpheus, Dictus ob hoc lenire tigres, rabidosque leones: Dictus et Amphion, Thebana conditor arcis, Saxa movere sono testudinis, et prece blanda
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