Stories of Paris and Helen, and of Jupiter and Alcmena. Peccare is here the proper Word. ACIER.

4 Primá nocte.] The Romans made use of the Words primus and poftremus, to fignify the Beginning and the End of one and the fame thing. Virgil has faid, in like manner, primus menfis, the Beginning of the Month; prima urbs, the Entry or Skirts of the City. Thus primâ nocte here fignifies, in the Beginning, or, at the Approach, of Night. DACIER.

The SAME ODE Imitated.

By another Hand.

To Mrs.

EEP not, O peerless Wife! in vain,

WEE

Your Dear, whom diftant Lands detain,

Your kind, your conftant Spoufy;

Bless'd with the forfeit Wealth of Spain,
Kind Gales will give him us again,
And from Affliction roufe ye.

Still, though remote, his Love is true,
Sole Emprefs of his Heart are you,
No other She can win him;
For you he waftes cold Nights, I know,
In Tears, and toffing to and fro,
As if old Nick was in him.

The Toilet-Damfel, where he lives,
Tells him how fore her Lady grieves,
At his unkind difdaining;

Says,

Says, ill-tim'd Virtue never thrives,
Decries the homely Love of Wives,
And deafs him with complaining.

She fets before his Eyes by rote,
How prudish Joseph loft his Coat,
And far'd yet worse, refufing;
Nor is poor Peleus' Cafe forgot,
Who (troth!) had well nigh gone to pot,
For proffer'd Love mifufing.

With Tales encouraging to Sin,
She thus eternally puts in;

He fighs for you, and hears 'em ;
Yet never fhe his Heart could win,
Firm as a Rock he yet has been,

And Dangers, he ne'er fears 'em.

You, in Return, his Wife fo fair,
Of Neighbour Tinsel should beware,
That conftant, civil Teaser;
A Wife like you, oblig'd so far,
Your abfent Harry's only Care,

No foreign Vows fhould please her.

His 'broider'd Coat, his clouded Cane,
His Air in taking Spanish plain,

His most prodigious Breeding;

Full many a Dame these Arts have ta❜en,
Forgetful of her absent Swain,

For want of timely heeding.

Shut

Shut then the Door, at early Night,

Nor give a Look, nor fhow a Light,
Though forty Kits are squeaking:
Here, to be cruel still is right;

Ev'n though he raves, and fwears downright
His very Heart is breaking.

ODE VIII.

To MACENAS.

By Mr. DUNCOMBE, fen.

N' Greek and Roman Writings skill'd,

IN

You wonder what these 2 Vafes, fill'd

With Incenfe, mean; and why my Head 3 Flowers on this 4 Festival adorn;

And why on verdant Turf I burn

These 5 Coals, a Stranger to the genial Bed!

6

To Bacchus' Guardian Power, the Blood

Of a white Goat I grateful vow'd,

When 7 juft efcap'd the falling Oak : And now, as Years renew the Feast,

Of all my Casks will pierce the beft,

Since Tullus rul'd, improv'd with mellowing
Smoke.

A hundred Glaffes to a Friend

Sav'd from fuch Peril, fhould commend

Your

10

Your Love, Mecenas!-To our Joys, Prolong'd by watchful Lamps 1 till Light, Devote we this aufpicious Night

Of focial Mirth, but " free from Jars andÑoife.

Awhile forget 12 your Civil Cares ;
Discard each Thought of State-Affairs ;
The 13 Dacian Chief is overthrown;
The 14 Medes confpire against their Lords,
Frantic they fight, nor wait our Swords,
But fall in Crowds, the Victims of their own.

To Rome, our 15 old Cantabrian Foes,”
And 16 Scythians yield, with 17 loosen'd Bows.
Let Sages future Fate foretell,
And o'er the public Safety watch,

While we the present Moment fnatch,

And, high in Spirits, bid our Cares farewell.

NOTES.

Sanadon fixes the Date of this Ode to the Year of Rome 735, after the fubduing of the Cantabrians, mentioned by Horace in the 22d Verfe, which happened in 734.

1 Docte fermones utriufque linguæ.] Dacier fuppofes thefe Words to mean the Greek and Roman Languages; and fays, that this was paying Mecenas a great Compliment; for, though Latin was the native Language of the Romans, they were very careful to ftudy it; and there were public Schools at Rome for That, as well as ⚫ for the Greek. What he adds concerning France, may be justly applied to England; viz. We fhould be glad if We had Schools for the fame Purpofe; for our native Language is not fo eafy to be understood as fome

imagine:

imagine: And on this Account it were to be wifhed, that a proper Ufe were made of fome excellent Obfervations on that Subject in Mr. Sheridan's Treatise on British Education. Dacier thinks his Conftruction of thefe Words so very clear, that he is surprised how any one can doubt the Truth of it.

On the other hand, Bentley and Sanadon understand, by the Word fermones, the Learning and Philofophy of the Greeks and Romans, as Horace elsewhere ufes the Phrafe Socratici fermones to the fame Purpose: And this is the only Senfe, which has any Relation to the Subject. The Surprife of Mecenas arofe from his exact Knowledge of the Feftivals and Ceremonies of the Greeks and Romans.

2 Acerra thuris plena.] It has been doubted, whether acerra fignifies a little Altar, or a Vafe. But it appears by the ancient Marbles, that it was a Vafe, in which In cense used to be burned. It was alfo placed at the Feet of the Deceased, while they were laid out at the Gate; as the Holy-water Pot is now used.

He fays, the Vafe was plena thuris, full of Frankincenfe, to intimate the Ardor of his Devotion. Thus Virgil, in the 5th Eneid:

Et plena fupplex veneratur acerrâ.

DACIER.

3 Quid velint flores.] Horace conforms himfelf to the Ceremonies of the Day; for the Women then offered Flowers to Juno, and wore also flowery Chaplets. Thus Ovid, in his 3d Book de Faftis ;

Ferte Dea flores; gaudet florentibus herbis
Hæc Dea; de tenero cingite flore caput.

4 Martiis Calendis.] The Calends of March, i. e. the first of March. The first Day of March was held as a Feftival by the Roman Ladies, because on that Day the Sabines, who had been ftolen by the Romans, made a Reconciliation between their Husbands and their Fathers, when the two Armies were just going to engage, and because on the fame Day they dedicated a Temple to Juno on Mount Efquiline. They therefore kept it with a great deal of Pomp. In the first place, they facrificed to Juno in that Temple, and offered Flowers to her. All the rest of the Day they stayed at home, richly adorned, and there expected the Prefents which their Friends and Hufbands fent them, as it were by way of Acknow