But they who
should be our patrons are for no such expensive ways to fame; they
have much of the poetry of Maecenas, but little of his liberality.
They are for prosecuting Horace and Virgil, in the persons of their
successors; for such is every man who has any part of their soul and
fire, though in a less degree. Some of their little zanies yet go
further; for they are persecutors even of Horace himself, as far as
they are able, by their ignorant and vile imitations of him; by
making an unjust use of his authority, and turning his artillery
against his friends. But how would he disdain to be copied by such
hands! I dare answer for him, he would be more uneasy in their
company, than he was with Crispinus, their forefather, in the Holy
Way; and would no more have allowed them a place amongst the critics,
than he would Demetrius the mimic, and Tigellius the buffoon;
------- Demetri, teque, Tigelli,
Discipulorum inter jubeo plorare cathedras.
With what scorn would he look down on such miserable translators,
who make doggerel of his Latin, mistake his meaning, misapply his
censures, and often contradict their own? He is fixed as a landmark
to set out the bounds of poetry--
------- Saxum antiquum, ingens,--
Limes agro positus, litem ut discerneret arvis.
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