567.—But grant you should hereafter write. Si quid tamen olim scripseris.]
"This," says Dacier, "was some time afterwards actually the case, if we may believe the old Scholiast, who writes that _this _PISO composed Tragedies."
568.—Metius.] A great Critick; and said to be appointed by Augustus as a Judge, to appreciate the merit of literary performances. His name and office are, on other occasions, mentioned and recognized by Horace.
570.—Weigh the work well, AND KEEP IT BACK NINE YEARS! nonumque prematur in annum!]
This precept, which, like many others in the Epistle, is rather retailed, than invented, by Horace, has been thought by some Criticks rather extravagant; but it acquires in this place, as addressed to the elder Piso, a concealed archness, very agreeable to the Poet's stile and manner. Pope has applied the precept with much humour, but with more open raillery than need the writer's purpose in this Epistle.
I drop at last, but in unwilling ears,
This wholesome counsel——KEEP YOUR PIECE NINE YEARS!
Vida, in his Poeticks, after the strongest censure of carelessness and precipitation, concludes with a caution against too excessive an attention to correctness, too frequent revisals, and too long delay of publication. The passage is as elegant as judicious.
Verùm esto hic etiam modus: huic imponere curae
Nescivere aliqui finem, medicasque secandis
Morbis abstinulsse manus, & parcere tandem
Immites, donec macie confectus et aeger
Aruit exhausto velut omni sanguine foetus,
Nativumque decus posuit, dum plurima ubique
Deformat sectos artus inhonesta cicatrix.
Tuque ideo vitae usque memor brevioris, ubi annos
Post aliquot (neque enim numerum, neque temporar pono
certa tibi) addideris decoris satis, atque nitoris,
Rumpe moras, opus ingentem dimitte per orbem,
Perque manus, perque ora virûm permitte vagari.
POETIC. lib 3.