Ode XXIV
A poetic 'consolation.' Cf. on 2. 9. Consolatur Vergilium impatienter amici sui mortem lugentem (pseudo-Acron). For (Quintilius) Varus, cf. 1. 18. The date is given, by entry in Jerome's (Eusebius') Chronicon, B.C. 24. Quintilius Cremonensis Vergilii et Horatii familiaris moritur.On the technique of the poem and its relation to the formal consolatio see Reitzenstein, Horaz und die hellenistisehe Lyrik, Neue Jahrbücher 21(1908). 81-82; Siebourg, ibid. 25 (1910), 267-278. The sentiment is that of Malherbe's Consolation A Monsieur du Périer: 'La Mort a des rigueurs à nulle autre pareilles; | On a beau la prier, | La cruelle qu'elle est se bouche les oreilles, | Et nous laisse crier. . . . De murmurer contre elle, et perdre patience, | Il est mal ă propos; | Vouloir ce que Dieu veut, est la seule science | Qui nous met en repos.' Cf. Arnold, ScholarGipsy, 'and try to bear; | With close-lipp'd patience for our only friend.' Vergil himself wrote, superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est (Aen. 5. 710), and, according to Donatus (Life of Vergil, chap. 18), praised patience as the chief virtue of our mortal state: solitus erat dicere: nullam virtutem commodiorem homini esse patientia; ac nullam adeo asperam esse fortunam quam prudenter patiendo vir fortis non vincat. Cf. Sellar, p.189; Lang, Letters to Dead Authors, Horace, init.The Ode has been a favorite with poets. Cf., however, the petulant criticism which Landor puts in the mouth of Boccaccio (Pentameron): 'What man imniersed in grief cares a quattrino about Melpomene, or her father's fairing of an artificial cuckoo and a gilt guitar? What man on such an occasion is at leisure to amuse himself with the little plaster images of Pudor and Fides, of Justitia and Veritas, or disposed to make a comparison of Virgil and Orpheus?'There is a translation by Hamilton, Johnson's Poets, 15. 637.
quis, etc.: cf. Swinburne, Erechth. 757, 'Who shall put a bridle in the mourner's lips to chasten them, | Or seal up the fountains of his tears for shame?¹—desiderio: to my yearning.—For modus, cf. 1. 16. 2, 1. 36. 11, 3. 15. 2; with pudor, Martial, 8. 64. 15, sit tandem pudor et modus rapinis.
tam cari capitis: for one so dear. This use of caput is warm with feeling, whether of love or hate. Cf. Shelley, Adonais, 'Oh weep for Adonais, though our tears | Thaw not the frost which binds so dear a head!' Cf. Epode 5. 74; Verg. Aen. 4. 354; Martial, 9. 68. 2; Jebb on Soph. Antig. 1; 11. 18. 114; Od. 1. 343,τοίην γὰρ κεφαλὴν ποθέω.—praecipe: teach, begin, start.
Melpomene: strictly the muse of tragedy; but see 1. 12. 2. n. Keats, Isabella, 56, 'Moan hither all ye syllables of woe | From the deep throat of sad Melpomene'; Tenn. In Mem., 'And my Melpomene replies.'—liquidam: Lucret. 2. 145, volucres . . . liquidis loca vocibus opplent; Ov. Am. 1. 13. 8; Tenn. Geraint and Enid, 'the liquid note beloved of men' (= the nightingale).—pater: both father of the muses (Hes. Theog. 52) and All-father (1. 2. 2).
ergo: I; a conclusion forced upon the reluctant heart. Cf. G. L. 502. n. 1; Sat. 2. 5. 101, ergo nunc Dama sodalis nusquam est; Ov. Trist. 3. 2. 1, Ergo erat in fatis Scythiam quoque visere nostris. Differently used, 2. 7. 17. Many critics think the poem ought to have begun here, which would meet most of Landor's strictures.—perpetuus sopor: Catull. 5. 5, Nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux, | nox est per petua una dormienda; Moschus, 3. 111, ἀτέρμονα νήγρετον ὕπνον.
urget: lies heavy on, weighs down (his eyelids). Cf. 4. 9. 27; premet, 1. 4. 16; Verg. Aen. 10. 745, dura quies oculos et ferreus urget | somnus, etc.; Lucret. 3. 893, urgerive superne obtritum pondere terrae.—cui: his peer. The emphasis of the introductory relative italicizes the English demonstrative that must take its place.—Pudor: Αἰδώς. The Greek and Roman religion made these capitalized abstractions more real to the ancients than they can be to us, disgusted with their rhetorical use in eighteenth century poetry. Cf. C. S. 57. Cf. Preller-Jordan, 1. 250, for Fides; Gaston Boissier, Relig. Rom. 1. 8; Axtell, Deification of Abstract Ideas, 20.—soror: so Pind. O. 13. 6.
nuda Veritas: Ov. Amor. 1. 3. 14, has nuda simplicitas. Shaks. 'naked truth' (Hen. VI. 2. 4. ); L. L. L. 5. 2.
inveniet: for sing. verb with pl. subject, cf. 1. 2. 38; 1. 3. 3; 1. 4. 16; 1. 6. 10; 1. 35. 21, etc.—parem: 'For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prune, | Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer.' Verg. Aen. 6. 878, of Marcellus, Heu pietas, heu prisca fides, etc.
multis . . . flebilis: lamented by many good men; G. L.355 n.; A. G. 384; 11. 434; cf. Solon's wish, fr. 19.
frustra pius: cf. 2. 14. 2. n.; Ovid's vive pius moriere pius; Verg. Aen. 2. 428, dis aliter visum; 11. 157. See Lang's comment: 'Ah, not frustra pius was Vergil, as you say, Horace, in your melancholy song. In him, we fancy, there was a happier mood than your melancholy patience.'—non ita creditum: not thus (i.e. to this sad end) commended (in thy prayers) to their keeping. Cf. 1. 3. 5; 1. 36. 3, custodes Numidae deos. It has been taken, 'not lent to thee on such terms' that thou couldst rightfully demand him when withdrawn. That is rather a Christian thought. Yet cf. Cic. Tusc. 1. 93; Sen. Dial. 11. 10. 4.
poscis . . . deos: dost demand back Quintilius from the gods.
blandius: with more charm; 3. 11. 15. n.; 4. 1. 8.—Orpheo: cf. 1. 12. 7. n. For his descent into Hades in quest of Eurydice, cf. further Eurip. Alcest. 357; Ov. Met. 10. 1-77; Verg. G. 4. 453-527, Aen. 6. 119; Milton, Il Penseroso, 'Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing| Such notes as warbled to the string, | Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, | And made Hell grant what love did seek'; L'Allegro sub finem; Spenser, Vergil's Gnat, 55; Ruins of Time, 392; Arnold, Thyrsis, 'And flute his friend like Orpheus from the dead'; Pope, Ode on St. Cecilia's Day.
moderere: so 4. 3. 18, temperas. Milton, P. L. 7, 'All sounds on fret by string or golden wire, | Temper'd soft tunings.'
vanae . . . imagini: hollow wraith, empty shade. Verg. Aen. 6. 293, tenues sine corpore vitas . . . volitare cava sub imagine formae. Wordsworth, Laodamia, 'But unsubstantial form eludes her grasp,' etc. Homer's νεκύων εἴδωλα καμόντων; Verg. Aen. 2. 785-95.—sanguis: the blood is the life. Cf. the revival of the dead by draughts of blood (Odyss. 11. 98).
virga . . . gregi: cf. 1. 10. 18. n.
semel: 4. 7. 21, once for all, irrevocably. ἕνα χρόνον (11. 15. 511); ἅπαξ (Odyss. 12. 350); Aesch. Ag. 1019; Eumen. 648; εἰς ἅπαξ (Prom. 750); Tenn. Two Voices, "'This is more vile," he made reply, | "To breathe and loathe, to live and sigh, | Than once from dread of pain to die"'; Verg. Aen. 11. 418.
non . . . recludere: not gentle enough to unlock the fates in answer to our prayers. For inf. with lenis cf. C. S. 14; non leni occurs 2. 19. 15.—precibus: dat. Cf. Propert. 5. 11. 2, panditur ad nullas ianua nigra preces. For recludere in literal sense with dat. of person, cf. 2:18. 33; 3. 2. 21. Valer. Flaccus, 4. 231, has reclusaque ianua leti of the gate opened to admit the dead. The gates and gatekeeper of Hades and of death are commonplaces. Cf. 3. 11. 16. n.; Il. 8. 367.
nigro: death and all that suggests death is niger or ater. Cf. 4. 2. 24; 4. 12. 26.—compulerit: cf. coercet (1. 10. 18); cogimur (2. 3. 25); egerit Orco (Sat. 2. 5. 49); Ἀΐδης ἀγησίλαος (Aesch. fr. 406).
patientia, etc.: 'but patience lighteneth what heaven forbids us to undo' (Lang). Cf. Otto, p.134; Archil. fr. 9. 5.
nefas: 1. 11. 1.
