The author
whose exclusion I most regret is Prudentius.
whose exclusion I most regret is Prudentius.
Oxford Book of Latin Verse
By their large temper and by their complete
freedom from cant they have achieved a place in the regard of men from
which they are not likely to be dislodged by any changes of literary
fashion or any fury of the enemies of humane studies. I am content to
leave them in this secure position, and not to intrude them into a
Collection where Horace himself would have known them to be out of
place. Indeed, he has himself said upon this subject all that needs to
be said. [1] Persius similarly, in the Prologue to his _Satires_,
excludes himself from the company of the great poets. Nor can I believe
that Juvenal has any place among them. In the rhetoric of rancour he is
a distinguished practitioner. But he wants two qualities essential to
great poetry--truth and humanity. I say this because there are critics
who speak of Juvenal as though he were Isaiah.
My Selection begins with fragments of the Saliar hymns, and ends with
the invocation of Phocas to 'Clio, reverend wardress of Antiquity. ' If I
am challenged to justify these _termini_, I will say of the first of
them that I could not begin earlier, and that it is commonly better to
take the beginnings offered to us than to make beginnings for ourselves.
The lower _terminus_ is not so simple a matter. I set myself here two
rules. First, I resolved to include no verse which, tried by what we
call 'classical' standards, was metrically faulty. Secondly, I judged it
wiser to exclude any poetry definitely Christian in character--a rule
which, as will be seen, does not necessarily exclude all the work of
Christian poets. Within these limits, I was content to go on so long as
I could find verse instinct with any genuine poetic feeling.
The author
whose exclusion I most regret is Prudentius. If any one asks me, Where
is Merobaudes? where Sedulius? where Dracontius? I answer that they are
where they have always been--out of account. Interesting, no doubt, in
other ways, for the student of poetry they do not count. Prudentius
counts. He has his place. But it is not in this Collection. It is among
other memories, traditions, and aspirations, by the threshold of a world
where Vergil takes solemn and fated leave of those whom he has guided
and inspired:
Non aspettar mio dir più nè mio cenno.
I have spent a good deal of labour on the revision of texts: and I hope
that of some poems, particularly the less known poems, this book may be
found to offer a purer recension than is available elsewhere. I owe it
to myself, however, to say that I have sometimes preferred the
convenience of the reader to the dictates of a rigorous criticism. I
have thought it, for example, not humane to variegate the text of an
Anthology with despairing _obeli_: and occasionally I have covered up an
indubitable lacuna by artifices which I trust may pass undetected by the
general reader and unreproved by the charitable critic.
H. W. G.
freedom from cant they have achieved a place in the regard of men from
which they are not likely to be dislodged by any changes of literary
fashion or any fury of the enemies of humane studies. I am content to
leave them in this secure position, and not to intrude them into a
Collection where Horace himself would have known them to be out of
place. Indeed, he has himself said upon this subject all that needs to
be said. [1] Persius similarly, in the Prologue to his _Satires_,
excludes himself from the company of the great poets. Nor can I believe
that Juvenal has any place among them. In the rhetoric of rancour he is
a distinguished practitioner. But he wants two qualities essential to
great poetry--truth and humanity. I say this because there are critics
who speak of Juvenal as though he were Isaiah.
My Selection begins with fragments of the Saliar hymns, and ends with
the invocation of Phocas to 'Clio, reverend wardress of Antiquity. ' If I
am challenged to justify these _termini_, I will say of the first of
them that I could not begin earlier, and that it is commonly better to
take the beginnings offered to us than to make beginnings for ourselves.
The lower _terminus_ is not so simple a matter. I set myself here two
rules. First, I resolved to include no verse which, tried by what we
call 'classical' standards, was metrically faulty. Secondly, I judged it
wiser to exclude any poetry definitely Christian in character--a rule
which, as will be seen, does not necessarily exclude all the work of
Christian poets. Within these limits, I was content to go on so long as
I could find verse instinct with any genuine poetic feeling.
The author
whose exclusion I most regret is Prudentius. If any one asks me, Where
is Merobaudes? where Sedulius? where Dracontius? I answer that they are
where they have always been--out of account. Interesting, no doubt, in
other ways, for the student of poetry they do not count. Prudentius
counts. He has his place. But it is not in this Collection. It is among
other memories, traditions, and aspirations, by the threshold of a world
where Vergil takes solemn and fated leave of those whom he has guided
and inspired:
Non aspettar mio dir più nè mio cenno.
I have spent a good deal of labour on the revision of texts: and I hope
that of some poems, particularly the less known poems, this book may be
found to offer a purer recension than is available elsewhere. I owe it
to myself, however, to say that I have sometimes preferred the
convenience of the reader to the dictates of a rigorous criticism. I
have thought it, for example, not humane to variegate the text of an
Anthology with despairing _obeli_: and occasionally I have covered up an
indubitable lacuna by artifices which I trust may pass undetected by the
general reader and unreproved by the charitable critic.
H. W. G.
