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Page 5
A very few words will serve to conclude this somewhat protracted
Preface. I have not sought to interpret Horace with the minute accuracy
which I should think necessary in writing a commentary; and in general
I have been satisfied to consult two of the latest editions, those by
Orelli and Ritter. In a few instances I have preferred the views of the
latter; but his edition will not supersede that of the former, whose
commentary is one of the most judicious ever produced, within a
moderate compass, upon a classical author. In the few notes which I
have added at the end of this volume, I have noticed chiefly the
instances in which I have differed from him, in favour either of
Hitter's interpretation, or of some view of my own. At the same time it
must be said that my translation is not to be understood as always
indicating the interpretation I prefer. Sometimes, where the general
effect of two views of the construction of a passage has been the same,
I have followed that which I believed to be less correct, for reasons
of convenience. I have of course held myself free to deviate in a
thousand instances from the exact form of the Latin sentence; and it
did not seem reasonable to debar myself from a mode of expression which
appeared generally consistent with the original, because it happened to
be verbally consistent with a mistaken view of the Latin words. To take
an example mentioned in my notes, it may be better in Book III. Ode 3,
line 25, to make "adulterae" the genitive case after "hospes" than the
dative after "splendet;" but for practical purposes the two come to the
same thing, both being included in the full development of the thought;
and a translation which represents either is substantially a true
translation. I have omitted four Odes altogether, one in each Book, and
some stanzas of a fifth; and in some other instances I have been
studiously paraphrastic. Nor have I thought it worth while to extend my
translation from the Odes to the Epodes. The Epodes were the production
of Horace's youth, and probably would not have been much cared for
by posterity if they had constituted his only title to fame. A few of
them are beautiful, but some are revolting, and the rest, as pictures
of a roving and sensual passion, remind us of the least attractive
portion of the Odes. In the case of a writer like Horace it is not easy
to draw an exact line; but though in the Odes our admiration of much
that is graceful and tender and even true may balance our moral
repugnance to many parts of the poet's philosophy of life, it does not
seem equally desirable to dwell minutely on a class of compositions
where the beauties are fewer and the deformities more numerous and more
undisguised.
I should add that any coincidences that may be noticed between my
version and those of my predecessors are, for the most part, merely
coincidences. In some cases I may have knowingly borrowed a rhyme, but
only where the rhyme was too common to have created a right of
property.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
I am very sensible of the favour which has carried this translation
from a first edition into a second. The interval between the two has
been too short to admit of my altering my judgment in any large number
of instances; but I have been glad to employ the present opportunity in
amending, as I hope, an occasional word or expression, and, in one or
two cases, recasting a stanza. The notices which my book has received,
and the opinions communicated by the kindness of friends, have been
gratifying to me, both in themselves, and as showing the interest which
is being felt in the subject of Horatian translation. It is not
surprising that there should be considerable differences of opinion
about the manner in which Horace is to be rendered, and also about the
metre appropriate to particular Odes; but I need not say that it is
through such discussion that questions like these advance towards
settlement. It would indeed be a satisfaction to me to think that the
question of translating Horace had been brought a step nearer to its
solution by the experiment which I again venture to submit to the
public.
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.
The changes which I have made in this impression of my translation are
somewhat more numerous than those which I was able to introduce into
the last, as might be expected from the longer interval between the
times of publication; but the work may still be spoken of as
substantially unaltered.
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