It is not
necessary to this purpose, nor would it be possible, within ordinary
limits, to enter into a detailed account. It will be appropriate to
begin with Italy.
_i_. IN ITALY
Horace did not spring immediately into prominence with the coming of the
Renaissance, whether elsewhere or in Italy. As might be expected, the
essentially epic and medieval Dante found inspiration in Virgil rather
than in Horace, though the _Ars Poetica_ was known to him and quoted
more than once as authority on style. "This is what our master Horace
teaches," runs one of the passages, "when at the beginning of _Poetry_
he says, 'Choose a subject, etc.'" The imperfect idea of Horace formed
in Dante's mind is indicated by the one verse in the _Divina Commedia_
which refers to him:
L' altro e Orazio satiro che viene,--
T_he other coming is Horace the satirist_.
With Petrarch, the first great figure to emerge from the obscure vistas
of medievalism, the case was different. The first modern who really
understood the classics understood Horace also, and did him greater
justice than fell to his lot again for many generations.
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