Ode 1
Collecting at the age of fifty this little aftermath of occasional poems, the chief of which were written in the quasi-official capacity of poet laureate at the request of Augustus, Horace in phrases reminiscent of the earlier odes gracefully warns the friendly reader that he must no longer be regarded as the light singer of the loves. Cruel Venus shall spare him. He is too old for Cupid's wars. Paulus Maximus, young, handsome, eloquent, all accomplished, will grace her service more. Horace has ceased to dream that 'two human hearts can blend in one.' And yet . . . For the main occasion of the book, see the introductions to 4, 5, 14, and 15. Ode 2 is a second deprecatory preface--Horace does not claim to be a Pindar. Odes 3,6,8, 9 proclaim the poet's proud consciousness of his own fame and the power of poetry. Ode 11 shows him still loyal to the old friendship for Maecenas. Odes 10 and 13 recall old erotic motifs. Ode 7 is an exquisite summary of his gentle Epicureanism tinged with poetic melancholy. There is a translation of this ode by Jonson, Works, 3.385; by Rowe, Johnson's Poets 9.472; by Hamilton, ibid. 15.639. It is imitated by Pope and by Prior (Cantata).
intermissa: with bella. Again ! after so long a respite.
bella: cf. on 3.26. 2.--moves: cf. on 1.15.10.--parce: 2.19. 7.--non sum qualis eram: I am not the man I was; cf. 3.14.27; Epp. 1.1.4.
regno: metaphorical. Cf. regit, 3. 9. 9.--Cinarae: apparently the only creature of flesh and blood among all Horace's Lydes and Lydias. Cf. on 4.13.21; Epp. 1.14.33, 1.7.28.
= 1.19.1. The love Leitmotiv is faintly heard again.
dulcium . . . saeva: cf. Sappho's γλυκύπικρον, and Catull. 68. A. 17, dea . . . quae dulcem curis miscet amaritiem; Theog. 1353; cf. 1.27.11. n.
circa: the prepositional phrase without pronoun (me) or participle is somewhat harsh. Latin has no definite article or pres. part. of sum.--lustra decem: Horace was 50, B.C. 15. Cf. on 2.4.24.--flectere: to try to sway; 3.7.25.--mollibus: antithesis with durum.
imperiis: dat. with durum rather than abl. with flectere. So durus ad and durus with complementary inf.
tempestivius: cf. tempestiva, 3.19.27.
Paulus Fabius Maximus, consul B.C. 11, a friend of Ovid (ex Ponto, 1.2; 2.3.75) and of Augustus (Tac. Ann. 1.5). --purpureis: little more than bright. Cf. El. in Maec. 62, Bracchia purpurea candidiora nive; Vergil's lumen que iuventae purpureum (Aen. 1.590); Gray's 'purple light of love,' etc.--ales: winged, i.e. charioted by. Venus' chariot was drawn by swans. --oloribus: cf. on 3.28.15.
comissabere: κωμάζειν hie with joyous revelry. Hence in domum, like κ. εἰς or ποτί.
torrere: 1.33.6, 3.19. 28.--iecur: 1.13.4.-quaeris with inf., 3.24.27. 13 sqq. et . . . et: the polysyndeton draws out the list of his qualities. Cf. 2.1.1-5; 3.11.25 sqq.; 1.36.11 sqq., neu. --nobilis: Ov. ex Ponto, 1.2.1, Maxime qui tanti mensuram nominis imples.
Cf. 2.1.13; Ov. Pont. 1.2.118. non tacitus: cf. Intr.
centum: 2. 14. 26.--artium: accomplishments. cf. Catull. 12, 8, est enim leporum disertus puer ac facetiarum.
signa feret: cf. Merry Wives, 3.4, 'I must advance the colors of my love.'
And when by the grace of Venus he shall have smiled in triumph over the gifts of a lavish rival, he will dedicate her marble image in a shrine (possibly at his villa), by the lovely lakes of the Alban Hills.--quandoque: cf. 4.2.34; A. P.359.
muneribus: 3. 10. 13. Abl. comp. with potentior.--riserit . . . potentior: like risit . . . viduus, 1.10.12.
See description of the Lago d' Albano and the Lago di Nemi in Hare's Days Near Rome.
ponet: cf. Sat. 2.3.183, aëneus ut stes; Verg. Ecl. 7.31. So in Gk. ἱστάναι.--citrea: cedar. The Romans misapplied the name citrus (Vergil's Medic apple) to the African cedar. Cf. Hehn, Kultur Pflanzen, p.431. Milt. P.R. 4, 'Their sumptuous gluttonies and gorgeous feasts | On citron tables.'
The worship of Venus in the temple of the Poet's imagination. Cf. the Temple of Augustus, Verg. G.3.13; of Venus, Chaucer, Knightes Tale, 1939 sqq.; of Pysche in Keats' Ode.
duces: so ducere aerem, spiritum.--tura: 1. 19. 14, 1.30.3.--lyrae . . . tibiae: gen. with carminibus (strains). --Berecyntiae: 1.18.13; 3.19.18.
fistula: 1.17.10; 3.19.20.
At morning song and even song. teneris: 1.21.1.
candido: the naked foot gleams white in the dance, as in Homer. Cf. on 3.20. 11.
Salium: 1.36. 12.--ter: 3.18. 16.--humum: 1. 4.7, 1.37. 2.--me: cf. on 1.1.29. 30 sqq. Cf. Sellar, p.173.--credula: 1.5.9. --mutui: 3.9. 13. Cf. Arnold, To Marguerite, 'And love, if love, of happier men.| Of happier men, for they at least| Have dreamed two human hearts might blend |In one, and were through faith released |From isolation without end.'
certare: like femima, puer, spes and vincire, subject of iuvat; 2.12.18; certare mero, Epp. 1.19.11. Cf. 1.36.13.
vincire: 1.7.23; 1.4. 9.--novis: of spring, 1.4.10; or fresh-plucked, 3.4.12. Cf. 3.27.43, recentes,
The playful inconsistency of 3.26.11.
Ligurine: the imaginary personage of 4.10.
rara: cf. 1.13. 6, furtim; contrast plurima lacrima (Epp. 1.17.59). Or can it be, as a German editor suggests, that years have dried the source? Cf. Tenn. The Grandmother, 'Nor can I weep for the rest;| Only at your age, Annie, I could have wept with the best.'
Cf. Epode 11.9; Catull. 51.9, lingua sed torpet; Dido in Verg. Aen. 4.76, incipit effari, mediaque in voce resistit. --decora . . . inter: synapheia. Cf. 3.29.35.
aquas: cf. on 3.7.26.--volubilis: cf. Epp. 1.2.43, labitur et labetur in omne volubilis aevum.
