"Blest with each talent, and each art to please, Mr Dewes was the highly esteemed friend of Dr Parr, Mr Grove of Lord Sheffield. A beautiful epitaph in verse, written by Mr Grove, on his beloved wife, is one of the chief ornaments of Lichfield Cathedral. The imitation of the Ode to Delius, applied to Mr Erskine, was written since the lamented death of those gentlemen, which happened in the meridian of their days. All the other Paraphrases had been submitted to their revision and correction, and had been honoured by their warm praise. That consciousness makes me indifferent to the expected' cavils of illiberal criticism. Men of letters have often observed to me, that in paraphrasing Horace, my sex would be an unpardonable crime with every Pedant, whether within, or without the pale of professional criticism. It is not in their power to speak or write more contemptuously of my Horatian Odes than the critics of Dryden's and Pope's time, in the literary journals of that period, wrote of their Translations from Homer, Virgil, Horace, Boccace, and Chaucer. Instances of that public abuse are triumphantly inserted by Warburton in his Edition of Pope's works. See appendix to the Dunciad. It is re-published there, to justify some of the personal severities of Pope's celebrated Satire. Most of the notes to the ensuing Paraphrases are addressed to their unlearned readers, since no allusion can interest which is not perfectly comprehended. ODES FROM HORACE. TO MÆCENAS. BOOK THE FIRST, ODE THE FIRST. I. MECENAS, from Etrurian princes sprung, Proud of Olympic dust, that soils His burning cheek and tangled hair! Mark how he spreads the palm, that crown'd his toils! Each look the throbbing hope reveals That his fleet steeds and kindling wheels, Swept round the skilfully-avoided goal, Shall with illustrious chiefs his echo'd name enrol. II. Who the civic crown obtains, Or bears into his granaries large Sees his own fruitage load the bough; These would'st thou tempt to brave the faithless main, And tempt with regal wealth, thy effort should be vain. I. The stormy south howls thro' the sullen cloud, The merchant sees the gathering danger rise, To his dear shelter'd home. Its shades receive him; but the tides Nor casts one look behind to the safe, sylvan vale. II. The youth of gay, luxurious taste, While in vain the purer stream Courts him, as gently the green bank it laves waves. I. Th' uplifted trumpet, and the clarion, send, Confus'd, the mingled clang afar; Lo! while the matron's tender breast they rend, The wood-land Chase desired, Far other sound the hunter charms; By the enlivening shout inspired, He breaks from his young bride's encircling arms; Nor heeds the morning's wintry gale, While his deep-mouth'd hounds inhale The tainted breeze, or hold the stag at bay, Or while, from his strong toils, the wild boar bursts away. 1. 1, Luxurious taste-The Romans, in general, made no regular meal till the business of the day was over. They considered a mid-day feast as a mark of indolence and luxury. II. Thee bright Learning's ivy crown Exalts above a mortal fate; Me shady groves, light nymphs, and satyrs brown, Raise o'er the crowd, in sweet sequester'd state. And there is heard the Lesbian lute, And there Euterpe's Dorian flute; But, should'st thou rank me with the Lyric Choir, To Glory's starry heights thy Poet would aspire. 1. 1.—" Diis miscent superis.] A manner of expression not " unusual amongst the Greeks and Latins, for any eminent degree of happiness. Unless we adopt this explanation of the "words, says Dacier, we shall make Horace guilty of a mani"fest contradiction, since a few lines farther he tells his pa"tron, that his suffrage, not the ivy crown is that, which will "exalt him to the skies. The judicious emendation of the late "6 Bishop of Chichester, who for Me doctarum, reads Te docta"" rum, removes all objection; and adds beauty to the Ode by "the fine compliment it contains to Mæcenas."-Brom. Hor. |