19. A PVDET, ET GETICO SCRIPSI SERMONE LIBELLVM. The rest of the distich after a pudet explains the exclamation ('I have even written ...'), and so the punctuation should mark the break. The idiom is different from the et pudet et construction seen at xv 29 'et pudet et metuo ['I am both embarrassed and afraid'] semperque eademque precari' and Tr V vii 57-58 'et pudet et fateor ['I confess with embarrassment'], iam desuetudine longa / uix subeunt ipsi uerba Latina mihi'.
The only other instance of independent a pudet in Ovid is AA III 803-4 'quid iuuet et uoces et anhelitus arguat oris; / a pudet, arcanas pars habet ista notas', which, however, Professor R. J. Tarrant suspects is part of an interpolation.
19. GETICO ... SERMONE. Ovid repeatedly claims to have learned Getic and Sarmatian: compare Tr III xiv 47-48 'Threicio Scythicoque fere circumsonor ore, / et uideor Geticis scribere posse modis', Tr V vii 55-56 'ille ego Romanus uates—ignoscite, Musae!— / Sarmatico cogor plurima more loqui', Tr V xii 58 'nam didici Getice Sarmaticeque loqui', and EP III ii 40 (identical to Tr V xii 58).
It is of course not possible to prove that Ovid did or did not learn Getic and write poetry in that language. But in the absence of other evidence, it seems better to suppose that he did learn the language since (a) he claims to have do so, (b) Latin and Greek would hardly have been widely spoken in the region, and (c) a man with Ovid's linguistic facility would have had little difficulty in learning the languages of the region.
20. STRVCTAQVE ... VERBA. Compare Cic de Or III 171 'struere uerba', and see at 4 structura ([p 393]).
20. NOSTRIS ... MODIS. Ovid did not use native rhythms, but instead used Latin metres.
21. ET PLACVI. Luck compares EP I v 63-64 'forsitan audacter faciam, sed glorior Histrum / ingenio nullum maius habere meo', but it is clear enough from the context that Ovid was there speaking of his Latin poetry.
21. GRATARE. Gratari is extremely rare in Latin, being found only in the poets and historians; grātŭlāri was of course not available (except for grātŭlŏr) for use in dactylic verse. Other instances of the word in Ovid at ix 13 'gratatusque darem cum dulcibus oscula uerbis', Her VI 119 'nunc etiam peperi; gratare ambobus, Iason!', Her XI 65, Met I 578, VI 434, IX 244 & 312, and Fast III 418.
22. INTER INHVMANOS ... GETAS. The same phrase in the same metrical position at EP I v 65-66 'hoc ubi uiuendum est satis est si consequor aruo / inter inhumanos esse poeta Getas' and EP III v 27-28 'quem ... fatum ... inter inhumanos maluit esse Getas'.
23. LAVDES DE CAESARE DIXI. In 1896 J. Gilbert ingeniously proposed the punctuation 'laudes [potential subjunctive]: de Caesare dixi'. But laus de + ablative instead of the more usual objective genitive construction is supported by Tac Ann I 12 'addidit laudem de Augusto'. Nipperdey there explains de by equating laus with oratio and sermo, both of which take de as a normal construction; but it appears from the present passage that laus de may have been a special term for panegyric. Professor E. Fantham notes that Ovid may have been seeking a synonym for laudātĭō.