Horace a la Mode
Portrait of Horace. By Alfred Noyes. (Sheed and Ward. 16s.)
MR. NOYES is steeped in Horace : he writes with an enthusiasm and a mellow affection which will make many former classics take Horace down from the shelf again and look out for Horatian echoes such as Mr. Noyes is quick to notice in Thackeray and Tennyson and R. L. Stevenson. But those who cannot check the accuracy of Mr. Noyes' Portrait by the original sources may be misled. The author sees his hero through romantic and highly imaginative spectacles. One would cavil less at this treatment of one poet by another were not Mr. Noyes himself so ready to criticise other inter- preters, with their neglect of "historical accuracy" and their "modern fashion of attempting to bring the classics nearer by anglicising them." Mr. Noyes translates a familiar form of greeting in Roman letters, abbreviated as S.V.B.E.V., by "And now I hope you are feeling well. I am just beginning to sit up and take nourish- ment." Again_, referring to the Ode welcoming Augustus home, Mr. Noyes imagines that Horace "will just stand in the crowd and shout, in the very tones of a modern nonsense rhyme- ' 0 frabjous day! calico, callay ! ' ", and the Latin, of which this is said to be the equivalent, follows.
" Horace's early biographers have not exercised much imagina- tion," we are told. Here certainly is a charge to which Mr. Noyes is not liable. We begin with Horace in his garden looking out on "those two tall emblematic cypresses, like motionless black flames In the niche between those dark remembrances (? remembrancers) there was one slender white figure—a Bacchante perhaps with vine leaves in her hair." We know a little about Horace's father. Mr. Noyes fills in the outline : "The little boy would squeeze his father's hand as if he understood, neither of them knowing in the least what the effect of these words . . would be later on."
This affectionate exercise of the imagination is innocuous in a general way, but may be misleading when used to interpret the poems. Mr. Noyes believes that in the famous journey to Brundisium Horace allowed himself a coarse interpolation because on nearing his native land he was so much moved that he could not trust his own emotions and hid them by making a broad jest. Had Rudyard Kipling been there, says Mr. Noyes rather unexpectedly, he would have understood : "He would simply lay a hand on the little man's shoulder, and say quietly, 'I think I shall call you Smoke-in-the eyes '." This is carrying sympathetic imagination rather far.
Mr. Noyes gives us some spirited versions of his own in the original metres. He finds the lines of R. L. Stevenson "by far the best Alcaics in the language."
"Brave lads in olden musical centuries Sang night by night in adorable choruses."
"Not a syllable goes astray from the strict laws of the metre." This is not true ; the fifth syllable should be long and not short. Mr. Noyes' own versions run well; but he adds his own romantic colour. In the ode to Faunus Horace says : "Spargit agrestes tibi silva frondis," which Mr. Noyes renders by: "Autumn beech-leaves flying in gold and crimson Fall, at thy feet, Faun."
In the Latin there is no equivalent to autumn or beech or gold or crimson. It is rash in such a free translator to refer to another poet's "appalling version" and to praise Horace for his "disciplined style."
In spite of this, the book is full of very real affection for Horace; and the ,modern man perhaps prefers his classics with a seasoning of romantic imagination. If a lover of Horace is wondering whether or not to spend his 16s. on this Portrait, he will know at any rate what sort of book to expect. For a second edition it may be noted that there are misprints in the Latin on pages 73, 74 and 232.
J. T. CHRISTIE.
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