Ode XXII.
This famous ode has been translated or imitated by Campion (ed. Bullen, p.20), Daniel: To Countess of Cuinberland; Roscommon, Johnson's Poets, 8. 268; Hughes, ibid. 10. 28; Yalden, ibid. 11. 73; Pitt, ibid. 12. 381; Hamilton, ibid. 15. 635. The gods guard the pure in heart. As I strolled all unarmed . in the Sabine wood singing of Lalage, a wolf fled from me. Place me in the burning zone or at the frozen pole, still will I love my laughing Lalage.There is no real inconsistency between the momentary flush of genuine feeling (1-8) and the mock-heroic continuation and jesting close. 'Vers de société . . . is the poetry . . . of solemn thought which, lest it should be too solemn, plunges into laughter' (Preface to Lyra Elegantiarum). We need not, however, with a worthy German editor, speak of a 'heiliger ernst'! See Hendrickson, Class. Jour. 5. 250; Shorey, ibid. 317. For Horace's witty friend, Aristius Fuscus, cf. Epist. 1. 10; Sat. 1. 9. 61; 1. 10. 83.
'The man of life upright, | Whose guiltless heart is free | From all dishonest deeds, | Or thought of Vanity' (Campion). Cf. 1. 17. 13; 2. 7. 12; 3. 4. 25-32.
integer: without flaw or defect, blameless; cf. Milton, 'For such thou art from sin and blame entire.'—vitae: poetical gen. of respect with integer; sceleris: poetical gen. of separation with purus. Cf. Sat. 2. 3. 220; A. G. 349. d.; G. L. 374. n. 6; H. 452. 2.
non eget: needs not.—Mauris: poetic specification. Cf. 1. 16. 4; 3. 10. 18.
aestuosas: burning, sweltering; refers to the hot sands of the desert in the neighborhood of the Syrtes (two gulfs on the north coast of Africa), rather than to the 'boiling ' waters of the gulfs themselves. Cf. 1. 31. 5; 2. 6. 4; 2. 7. 16; Epode 9. 31. F. Q. 1. 6. 35, 'Through boiling sands of Araby and Ind.'
inhospitalem: Epode 1. 12; Aeschyl. Prom. 20, ἀπάνθρωπον.
fabulosus: cf. 3. 4. 9; storied. From the time of Alexander the tales of Indian travelers were proverbial.
Hydaspes: a river of India.
Lalagen: from λαλεῖν, λαλαγεῖν, to prattle. See Wilhelm in Rhein. Mus. 57 (1902). 606.
terminum: probably the bounds of the Sabine farm. Cf. 3. 16. 29.—expeditis: the cares themselves are said to be freed (thrown off). Cf. Catull. 31. 7, O quid solutis est beatius curis? Cf. Epode 9. 38.
inermem: emphatic position; though I was unarmed.
quale portentum: such a monster as; the wolf, mock heroically, τέρας. Cf. 1. 33. 7-8 for Apulian wolves.
Daunias: (from Daunus (3. 30. 11; 4. 14. 26)), a part of Apulia, Horace's native province, to which he loves to attribute all the old Italian virtues.
Iubae tellus: Mauritania. The elder Juba was defeated at Thapsus; the younger, his son, was made king of Mauritania by Augustus, B.C. 25, by which some date the ode.
arida nutrix: a slight oxymoron. Cf. Homer's μητέρα θηρῶν.
The frigid and the torid zone. For the geographical antithesis, cf. 3. 3. 55; 3. 24. 37.
pone: place.—pigris: barren, from cold. Cf. iners 2. 9. 5; 4. 7. 12; Lucret. 5. 746, bruma nives affert pigrumque rigorem.
recreatur: revived, cf. 3. 20. 13; Catull. 62. 41, quem mulcent aurae.
quod latus mundi: i.e. in eo latere mundi quod, in that quarter of the world which; cf. 3. 24. 38; Sir John Mandeville's 'West syde of the world'; Milton's 'back side of the world.'
malus luppiter: an unkind Jove = sullen sky. Cf. 1. 1. 25.
urget: oppresses. πιεζόμενα (Hdt. 1. 142).
Vergil's plaga solis iniqui (Aen. 7. 227).
domibus: to the abodes (of men).
dulce: cf. on perfidum ridens (3. 27. 67). Cf. ἁπαλὸν γελάσαι (Odyss. 14. 465), and Sappho's ἄδυ φωνείσας, already imitated by Catull. 51. 5. In dulce loquentem Horace has in mind the meaning of the name Lalage; cf. note on 10. Roscommon¹s conceited rendering of these untranslatable lines is a curiosity: 'All cold but in her breast I will despise, | And dare all heat but that in Caelia's eyes.'
