THE FIRST EPISTLE OF THE SECOND BOOK OF HORACE.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The Reflections of Horace, and the Judgments past in his Epistle to
Augustus, seemed so seasonable to the present Times, that I could not help
applying them to the use of my own Country. The Author thought them
considerable enough to address them to his Prince; whom he paints with all
the great and good qualities of a Monarch, upon whom the Romans depended
for the Increase of an Absolute Empire. But to make the Poem entirely
English, I was willing to add one or two of those which contribute to the
Happiness of a Free People, and are more consistent with the Welfare of our
Neighbours.
This Epistle will show the learned World to have fallen into Two mistakes:
one, that Augustus was a Patron of Poets in general; whereas he not only
prohibited all but the Best Writers to name him, but recommended that Care
even to the Civil Magistrate: Admonebat Praetores, ne paterentur Nomen
suum obsolefieri, etc. The other, that this Piece was only a general
Discourse of Poetry; whereas it was an Apology for the Poets, in order to
render Augustus more their Patron. Horace here pleads the Cause of his
Contemporaries, first against the Taste of the Town, whose humour it was to
magnify the Authors of the preceding Age; secondly against the Court and
Nobility, who encouraged only the Writers for the Theatre; and lastly
against the Emperor himself, who had conceived them of little Use to the
Government. He shows (by a View of the Progress of Learning, and the
Change of Taste among the Romans) that the Introduction of the Polite Arts
of Greece had given the Writers of his Time great advantages over their
Predecessors; that their Morals were much improved, and the Licence of
those ancient Poets restrained: that Satire and Comedy were become more
just and useful; that, whatever extravagances were left on the Stage, were
owing to the Ill Taste of the Nobility; that Poets, under due Regulations,
were in many respects useful to the State, and concludes, that it was upon
them the Emperor himself must depend for his Fame with Posterity.
We may farther learn from this Epistle, that Horace made his Court to this
great Prince by writing with a decent Freedom toward him, with a just
Contempt of his low Flatterers, and with a manly Regard to his own
Character. P.
Read next: EPISTLE I. TO AUGUSTUS.
Read previous: THE SIXTH EPISTLE OF THE FIRST BOOK OF HORACE
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