Bernardo Tasso's _Ode_, for example, and Giovanni Prati's _Song of
Hygieia_, while really independent poems, are so charged with Horatian
matter and spirit that one hesitates to call them original. The same is
true of the many inspirations traceable to the famous _Beatus Ille
Epode_, which, with such _Odes_ as _The Bandusian Spring_, _Pyrrha_,
_Phidyle_, and _Chloe_, have captured the fancy of modern poets. Pope's
_Solitude_, on the other hand, while surely an inspiration of the second
_Epode_, shows hardly a mark affording proof of the fact.
To some of the most manifest imitations and adaptations, it is
impossible to deny originality. The _Fifth Book of Horace_, by Kipling
and Graves, is an example. Thackeray's delightful _Ad Ministram_ is
another example which must be classed as adaptation, yet such is its
spontaneity that not to see in it an inspiration would be stupid and
unjust:
AD MINISTRAM
D_ear Lucy, you know what my wish is_--
I_ hate all your Frenchified fuss_:
Y_our silly entrees and made dishes_
W_ere never intended for us_.
N_o footman in lace and in ruffles_
N_eed dangle behind my arm-chair_;
A_nd never mind seeking for truffles_
A_lthough they be ever so rare_.
Pages:
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145