_Ne forte pudori
Sit tibi_ MUSA, _Lyrae solers, & Cantor Apollo._
The author of the English Commentary agrees, that this noble encomium on
Poetry is addressed to _the Pisos_. All other Commentators apply it, as
surely the text warrants, to _the_ ELDER PISO. In a long controversial
note on this passage, the learned Critick abovementioned also explains
the text thus. "In fact, this whole passage [from _et vitae_, &c.
to _cantor Apollo_] obliquely glances at the two sorts of poetry,
peculiarly cultivated by himself, and is an indirect apology for his own
choice of them. For 1. _vitae monstrata via est_, is the character of
his _Sermones_. And 2. all the rest of his _Odes_"--"I must add, the
very terms of the Apology so expressly define and characterize Lyrick
Poetry, that it is something strange, it should have escaped vulgar
notice." There is much ingenuity in this interpretation, and it is
supported, with much learning and ability; yet I cannot think that Horace
meant to conclude this fine encomium, on the dignity and excellence of
the Art or Poetry, by a partial reference to the two particular species
of it, that had been the objects of his own attention. The Muse, and
Apollo, were the avowed patrons and inspirers of Poetry in general,
whether Epick, Dramatick, Civil, Moral, or Religious; all of which are
enumerated by Horace in the course of his panegyrick, and referred to
in the conclusion of it, that Piso might not for a moment think himself
degraded by his attention to Poetry.
In hoc epilago reddit breviter rationem, quare utilitates à poetis
mortalium vitae allatas resenfuerit: ne scilicet Pisones, ex nobilissimd
Calpurniorum familiâ ortos, Musarum & Artis Poeticae quam profitebantur,
aliquando paniteret.