AN HOUR WITH MAECENAS.

One, two, three—five men that call themselves my friends, all wishful to borrow money! Statilius, you will please to make a note of these five gentlemen, and give orders that on no account are they to pass my vestibule again. The settlement of society under our Prince has done much to stamp out the dangerous classes, but we have not yet got rid ofthe borrowers. I think it a little hard that after I have neglected my estate for half my life to expel roguery by the front door that it should creep in at the back.

Did you inquire, Statilius, why my cook served white sauce with quails last night? Very well; I have made it a rule to deal with my people in person: send for him. It is not possible to maintain a household well regulated, unless the servants come personally into touch with the master.

Plato, you served me last night a dish which, had any of my friends been present, would have shamed me forever. As it was, my dinner was ruined. It is incompetence such as yours whose ill effects Rome has struggled these eight lustrums to efface. You will be sold in the market tomorrow. Go.

You see now, Statilius, the wisdom of my rule to permit no freedman in my household: all my servants are my own property. You will buy me the best cook in Rome in three hours. What, sir? You are a free man, and I employed you only to work at my pedigree and my library? True: I am satisfied with you. But understand that if I bid you litter my horses you will do it, or I sell you up tomorrow. Now, sir, the best cook in Rome is Iulus Antonius’s Dama: buy him. Antonius is a rich man? Very true, but I think we need not be afraid of that. Wecan tempt him, I imagine, Statilius. At any price whatever: do you understand? And not a penny more than he will sell at: understand that also. If he is stubborn, hint at my influence with the Prince; that will be sufficient. Go.

Iulus knows that he is whispered against, and he looks to me to prop him up. I shall not do so. Again and again I have urged on Octavian the necessity of putting these malcontents out of the way. His father’s son cannot but be a danger to a settled State, however soundly disposed himself. It appears to me that Octavian is losing his aptitude for politics, and Agrippa exercises the worst possible influence upon him. This stupid, expensive system of banishment: it should never have had my voice had I remained in politics.

Thucydides, I have told you once already I am not to be disturbed in meditation. The poet Horace is in attendance? Horatius, I think you mean; avoid these vulgarisms, Thucydides. Bid Horatius wait. Indeed, I doubt not whether Octavian had at any time any real grasp of the principles of government. I was deceived by the facility with which he lent himself to my views. He is a man incapable of understanding any system between militarism and license. Of the finer arts of statecraft I am afraid he knows very little. How often have I explained tothat man how the law of treason might be developed into an infallible engine of sound government! Yes: I was wise to leave politics, though Octavian is ungrateful to his Mentor. Well, I will see Horatius. He, at least, with all his faults, is a faithful soul. A man I have made.

Good-day, Horatius. I hope you are well and keeping sober. Have you brought the work I commissioned? Very well; let me see it. There has been a very great improvement in your manner of writing, Horatius, since I took you up: the large P’s are very much bolder than they were. But what is this? This is not the Epistle Dedicatory I ordered. That comes second? Ah! yes, here it is; you should have given it to me first.

Maecenas, born of grandsire kings—

Quite right: “grandsire kings” is very good. It is not, of course, literally correct, but one may, in poetry, fairly write the particular term “grandsire” for the general “ancestor”—

O my defense and proud delight!

“Proud delight.” Now I think I shall correct that to “dear delight.” I think the alliteration is well worth securing, and you may allow yourself a familiarity in literature, Horatius, where all men are equal, which, as I have no doubt you felt in writing, would be highly unbecoming in society. “Proud delight”does you credit as a man, my good Horatius; as a poet I permit—nay, I invite you to write “dear.”

To hug the post with wheels afire

The piece gets a little tame in the middle, Horatius, ... ah! what is this?

But deign me so to canonize,O’er highest heaven my fame will rise.

But deign me so to canonize,

O’er highest heaven my fame will rise.

Yes, very happy. A very good ode, Horatius. You have distinctly added to your reputation. I am very glad to note that you disavow that most dangerous tendency, which I am sorry to see is growing among some of my poets, to defer to the popular judgment. Even poor Virgil is tainted by it in this last epic, as he calls it, published in one of those measly magazinelets. I am afraid Virgil is coming to think more of the so-called glories of Rome than of his truest friends. Such defection on your part, I warn you candidly, I should feel very deeply. Now what is this other? I hope none of that Epicurean stuff which is such a handicap, if I may so phrase it, upon your best powers for good....

Ah, Postumus, how fleet, how fleet,The years slip by no prayers may staySince beldame Age knows not delay,Since Death pursues with ruthless feet—

Ah, Postumus, how fleet, how fleet,

The years slip by no prayers may stay

Since beldame Age knows not delay,

Since Death pursues with ruthless feet—

I think you might have found a fitter name than Postumus; but it is very passable. I suppose you haveverified all these mythological allusions in the Greek; it is not your industry I need ever distrust.

Your land, your house, your yielding wifeRenounce; and of these trees you trim;None follows, save the cypress grim,The lordling of the little life.

Your land, your house, your yielding wife

Renounce; and of these trees you trim;

None follows, save the cypress grim,

The lordling of the little life.

Yes, the tone of the work is quite good.... And then—really Horatius, you are too annoying—then you must spoil all again in the last stanza. I have warned you a thousand times against that, Horatius. Listen, sir, to what you say here—

He breaks your seals, the worthier heir,He sweeps your bins, the worthier lord,Dashing imperial winds abroad,While Pontiffs envy and despair.

He breaks your seals, the worthier heir,

He sweeps your bins, the worthier lord,

Dashing imperial winds abroad,

While Pontiffs envy and despair.

Now, understand once and for all, Horatius, that I will not have such pernicious and disloyal trash as this put out to pollute the State. You say you meant nothing impious? Well, then I will ask you, Horatius, who is Chief Pontiff? The prince; so I had thought. And then you say you had no intention of disloyalty? In that case I will merely answer that you have expressed yourself very badly. You will agree, I suppose—even you who were out with Brutus, when I understand you threw away your shield—that what we must all work for in Rome, is a settled social order? And I suppose that you are not incapableof perceiving that this is impossible without the maintenance of religion? And perhaps you may have heard that His Highness is supreme head of our religion? And then, do you tell me, sir, that you did not see that this last stanza—this Pontiff’s ambition, or whatever it is—is pernicious in the highest degree? Now this is what I shall do. I shall make you, Horatius, write an ode of fourteen stanzas in praise of His Highness as Chief Pontiff. Take your tablets and write down the heads of the poem, as I dictate them.

First: The deplorable desuetude.

I beg your pardon: I think I was asking you to take down the heads of the ode. What! I? You say that I gave you the subjects of this one? Very possibly, though I do not remember: with the ode as a whole I am very well satisfied. You say I gave the hint of the Pontiff? Very true; I recollect it quite well, but it was not to be used, or wasted, in the spirit in which you have used it here. Perhaps, however, you meant it to refer to the Pontiffs of the old regime, whose unworthy excesses I may have doubtless mentioned to you at some time? I could wish, Horatius, that your execution were on a level with your intention: you lay yourself open to a great deal of misconstruction. I think we must substitute “late” for “while.”

What is that you are sputtering about Minucius? I told you to glance at Minucius? Well, in one respect you are quite right. I do not remember that I ever spoke of him to you, but the extravagance of Minucius not only makes him a man impossible to be seen abroad with, but constitutes a great scandal on the pontificate. And I tell you, sir, I tell you that that man’s insolence to his betters is more than any well-ordered State could endure. He has got the Prince’s ear, and presumes upon it. Yes, you may jab at Minucius whenever you can, and as hard as you can. I am very glad I suggested that, and you have taken up the hint very cleverly. Sit down, my good Horatius; you must be tired of standing, and we men of letters are all equal, whatever our social position. I will read you a chapter of my own history that I threw off last night. You will remember, of course, what happened while I was Urban Prefect.

G. W. Stevens.

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