If any one remarks as inconsistent with this plan the
inclusion of the more considerable fragments of Ennius and the early
tragedians, I will only say that I have not thought it worth while to be
wiser here than Time and Fate, which have of their own act given us
these poets in lamentable excerpt.
inclusion of the more considerable fragments of Ennius and the early
tragedians, I will only say that I have not thought it worth while to be
wiser here than Time and Fate, which have of their own act given us
these poets in lamentable excerpt.
Oxford Book of Latin Verse
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Oxford Book of Latin Verse, by Various
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www. gutenberg. net
Title: The Oxford Book of Latin Verse
From the earliest fragments to the end of the Vth Century A. D.
Author: Various
Editor: Heathcote William Garrod
Release Date: January 6, 2012 [EBook #38503]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OXFORD BOOK OF LATIN VERSE ***
Produced by Charlene Taylor, Ted Garvin, Rory OConor and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www. pgdp. net
The Oxford Book Of Latin Verse
From the earliest fragments to the end of the Vth Century A. D.
Chosen by
H. W. Garrod
Fellow of Merton College.
Oxford
At the Clarendon Press
FIRST PUBLISHED 1912
REPRINTED 1921, 1926, 1934, 1940 1943, 1947, 1952, 1964, 1968
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
PREFACE
The plan of this book excludes epic and the drama, and in general so
much of Roman poetry as could be included only by a licence of excerpt
mostly dangerous and in poetry of any architectonic pretensions
intolerable. If any one remarks as inconsistent with this plan the
inclusion of the more considerable fragments of Ennius and the early
tragedians, I will only say that I have not thought it worth while to be
wiser here than Time and Fate, which have of their own act given us
these poets in lamentable excerpt. A more real inconsistency may be
found in my treatment of the didactic poets.
If any one remarks as inconsistent with this plan the
inclusion of the more considerable fragments of Ennius and the early
tragedians, I will only say that I have not thought it worth while to be
wiser here than Time and Fate, which have of their own act given us
these poets in lamentable excerpt. A more real inconsistency may be
found in my treatment of the didactic poets. It seemed a pity that
Didactic Poetry--in some ways the most characteristic product of the
Roman genius--should, in such a Collection as this, be wholly
unrepresented. It seemed a pity: and it seemed also on the whole
unnecessary. It seemed unnecessary, for the reason that many of the
great passages of Lucretius, Vergil, and Manilius hang so loosely to
their contexts that the poets themselves seem to invite the gentle
violence of the excerptor. These passages are 'golden branches' set in
an alien stock--_non sua seminat arbos_. The hand that would pluck them
must be at once courageous and circumspect. But they attend the fated
despoiler:
Ergo alte uestiga oculis et rite repertum
carpe manu, namque ipse uolens facilisque sequetur
si te fata uocant.
Even outside Didactic Poetry I have allowed myself an occasional
disloyalty to my own rule against excerpts. I have, for example,
detached one or two lyrics from the Tragedies of Seneca. And, again,
from the long and sometimes tedious _Itinerarium_ of Rutilius I have
detached the splendid apostrophe to Rome which stands in the forefront
of that poem. These are pieces without which no anthology of Latin
poetry would be anything but grotesquely incomplete. And after all we
should be the masters and not the slaves of our own rules.
Satire finds no place in this book. Horace is represented only by his
lyrics. Juvenal and Persius are not represented at all.
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www. gutenberg. net
Title: The Oxford Book of Latin Verse
From the earliest fragments to the end of the Vth Century A. D.
Author: Various
Editor: Heathcote William Garrod
Release Date: January 6, 2012 [EBook #38503]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OXFORD BOOK OF LATIN VERSE ***
Produced by Charlene Taylor, Ted Garvin, Rory OConor and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www. pgdp. net
The Oxford Book Of Latin Verse
From the earliest fragments to the end of the Vth Century A. D.
Chosen by
H. W. Garrod
Fellow of Merton College.
Oxford
At the Clarendon Press
FIRST PUBLISHED 1912
REPRINTED 1921, 1926, 1934, 1940 1943, 1947, 1952, 1964, 1968
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
PREFACE
The plan of this book excludes epic and the drama, and in general so
much of Roman poetry as could be included only by a licence of excerpt
mostly dangerous and in poetry of any architectonic pretensions
intolerable. If any one remarks as inconsistent with this plan the
inclusion of the more considerable fragments of Ennius and the early
tragedians, I will only say that I have not thought it worth while to be
wiser here than Time and Fate, which have of their own act given us
these poets in lamentable excerpt. A more real inconsistency may be
found in my treatment of the didactic poets.
If any one remarks as inconsistent with this plan the
inclusion of the more considerable fragments of Ennius and the early
tragedians, I will only say that I have not thought it worth while to be
wiser here than Time and Fate, which have of their own act given us
these poets in lamentable excerpt. A more real inconsistency may be
found in my treatment of the didactic poets. It seemed a pity that
Didactic Poetry--in some ways the most characteristic product of the
Roman genius--should, in such a Collection as this, be wholly
unrepresented. It seemed a pity: and it seemed also on the whole
unnecessary. It seemed unnecessary, for the reason that many of the
great passages of Lucretius, Vergil, and Manilius hang so loosely to
their contexts that the poets themselves seem to invite the gentle
violence of the excerptor. These passages are 'golden branches' set in
an alien stock--_non sua seminat arbos_. The hand that would pluck them
must be at once courageous and circumspect. But they attend the fated
despoiler:
Ergo alte uestiga oculis et rite repertum
carpe manu, namque ipse uolens facilisque sequetur
si te fata uocant.
Even outside Didactic Poetry I have allowed myself an occasional
disloyalty to my own rule against excerpts. I have, for example,
detached one or two lyrics from the Tragedies of Seneca. And, again,
from the long and sometimes tedious _Itinerarium_ of Rutilius I have
detached the splendid apostrophe to Rome which stands in the forefront
of that poem. These are pieces without which no anthology of Latin
poetry would be anything but grotesquely incomplete. And after all we
should be the masters and not the slaves of our own rules.
Satire finds no place in this book. Horace is represented only by his
lyrics. Juvenal and Persius are not represented at all.
