Horace's Art of Poetry (Roscommon)/Preface
PREFACE.
I Have seldome known a Trick succeed, and will put none upon the Reader, But tell him plainly that I think it could never be more seasonable than now to lay down such Rules, as if they be observ'd, will make Men write more Correctly, and judge more discreetly; But Horace must be read seriously or not at all, for else the Reader wont be the better for him, and I shall have lost my labour; I have kept as close as I could, both to the Meaning, and the Words of the Author, and done nothing but what I believe he would forgive if he were alive; And I have often ask'd my self that Question. I know this is a Field
Per quem Magnus Equos Arunci flexit Alumnus.
But with all the respect due to the name of Ben. Johnson, to which no Man pays more Veneration than I, it cannot be deny'd that the constraint of Rhyme, and a literal Translation (to which Horace in this Book declares himself an Enemy) has made him want a Comment in many places.
My chief care has been to Write intelligibly, and where the Latin was Obscure, I have added a Line or two to explain it.
I am below the Envy of the Criticks, but if I durst, I would begg them to remember, that Horace ow'd his favour and his fortune to the Character given of him by Virgil and Varius, that Fundanius & Pollio are still valued by what Horace says of them, and that in their Golden Age, there was a good Understanding among the Injenious, and those who were the most Esteem'd were the best Natur'd.