Page:Satires, Epistles, Art of Poetry of Horace - Coningsby (1874).djvu/211

 For what (said men) should jovial rustic, placed At random 'mid his betters, know of taste?
 * So graceful dance went hand in hand with song,

And robes of kingly splendour trailed along: So by the side of music words upgrew, And eloquence came rolling, prompt and new: Shrewd in things mundane, wise in things divine, Its voice was like the voice of Delphi's shrine.
 * The aspiring bard who served the tragic muse,

A paltry goat the summit of his views, Soon brought in Satyrs from the woods, and tried If grave and gay could nourish side by side, That the spectator, feasted to his fill, Noisy and drunk, might ne'ertheless sit still.
 * Yet, though loud laugh and frolic jest commend

Your Satyr folk, and mirth and morals blend, Let not your heroes doff their robes of red To talk low language in a homely shed, Nor, in their fear of crawling, mount too high, Catching at clouds and aiming at the sky. Melpomene, when bidden to be gay, Like matron dancing on a festal day, Deals not in idle banter, nor consorts Without reserve with Satyrs and their sports.
 * In plays like these I would not deal alone

In words and phrases trite and too well known, Nor, stooping from the tragic height, drop down To the low level of buffoon and clown, As though pert Davus, or the saucy jade Who sacks the gold and jeers the gull she made,