OPERA OMNIA. WITH A COMMENTARY BY THE REV. ARTHUR JOHN MACLEANE, M.A. TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. Third Edition. REVISED BY GEORGE LONG, M.A. LIBR UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. LONDON: WHITTAKER & CO., AVE MARIA LANE; GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN 1874. THIS commentary is longer than I intended, but it might have been much longer than it is if I had filled the notes with quotations as some editors have done, or with exclamations as others. I have had but one object in view, that of helping students and general readers, of whom no Latin writer has more than Horace, to understand his poems in their letter and spirit, so far as I understand them myself. The author is much mixed up with his poetry, to comprehend which therefore it is necessary to enter into the character of the man. It is this, in fact, that makes Horace so many admirers, the continual presence, or supposed presence of the author in every page. I have tried to show the limitations with which this opinion must be received by pointing out the purely artistic, artificial character of much that he has written, and in which his own feelings have by many been supposed to be drawn. I shall probably be thought deficient in warmth and taste by some who, having only a general and dreamy acquaintance with Horace, the reflection in many instances of slovenly teaching in boyhood, have been accustomed to find beauties where I have seemed to find defects, and have invested some of his poems with charms which a closer inspection dispels. I can only say that I have tried to look at every poem and every word dispassionately, and to realize as far as possible the author's mind while he was writing it, and I believe no editor discharges his duty who does not take that course. The result I have given, in each case, in the notes or introduction, or and in order to help the reader to form his own judgment, I have added, in such cases as admitted of it, the substance of each both; |