And, lastly, Ovid,
“Ennius ingenio maximus, arte rudis.”
Ennius, the first in wit, though wanting art.
Ennius wrote tragedies, comedies, annals, &c., of which some fragments remain: he died of the gout, brought on by drinking. Horace tells us, that Ennius was in the habit of raising his imagination by large draughts of wine, when he intended to write a description of any warlike action.
[NOTE 60.]
Simo. Carry in these things directly.
What “those things” were, though a subject of no great importance, has been discussed with extreme diligence by various learned commentators, who have not a little differed in opinion. The idea of a French commentator, who supposed Simo to allude to furniture bought by him for his son’s wedding, is ridiculed by the learned Madame Dacier, who has herself suffered the same treatment under the hands of some of our English critics, for interpreting them in the sense I have adopted. That Simo should provide furniture for a marriage which he had but slight hopes of negotiating at that time, is not very probable. But Athenian slaves performed all domestic offices in their masters’ houses: and Sosia, even after he became a freedman might have practised cookery, in which, perhaps, he excelled. He uses the words “mea ars,” my art, and Simo answers him with “isthac arte,” that art, by which it is clear that he means some particular art. The word art has in English both a general and particular sense; but, in Latin, “ars” is generally used only in the latter.
“Rara quidem facie, sed rarior arte canendi.”—Ovid.
Her beauty charms us; and oh! how much more
Her matchless skill in arts of melody.
Again,