1 Preface - Imitation of Horace, Epodes

[Almeta, co-moderator]

Discuss the Preface and Advertisement here. And if you have such an edition....any thoughts on the introductions and opinions made by others at the beginning of the book.

[Almeta, co-moderator]

Stephen King said "The Monk was a black engine of sex and the supernatural that changed the genre--and the novel itself--forever."

[Ann]

The old English preface was pretty hard to read, but sounded interesting as I read it aloud. That helped!
I didn't have an edition with any modern introductions. The meaning is obscure to me.
"Methinks, Oh! vain ill-judging Book,
I see thee cast a wishful look,
Where reputations won and lost are
In famous row called Paternoster."

[Almeta, co-moderator]

Ann wrote: ""Methinks, Oh! vain ill-judging Book,
I see thee cast a wishful look,
Where reputations won and lost are
In famous row called Paternoster." ..."

"Paternoster Row was a street in the City of London in which clergy of the medieval St Paul's Cathedral would walk while famously chanting the Lord's Prayer (Pater Noster being its opening line in Latin)."


Wikipedia

[Debra]

Hey, thanks for that info about Paternoster Rows; makes more sense with what I know about this book where reputations are won and lost!

[Jonathan]

Paternoster Row figured in the book I just finished "The Meaning of Night". According to that book it was, as Almeta posted, near St. Paul's in London, and it was destroyed during the Blitz in WWII. Weird coincidence...

[Ann]

Thanks, Almeta! As Debra said, that does help ground the story a bit.
Almeta wrote: "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"Paternoster Row was a street in the City of London in which clergy of the medieval St Paul's Cathedral "

[Jonathan]

Paternoster Row was the center of the book trade in London. It is where the "reputations" of books and authors were "won or lost."

[Debra]

Jonathan wrote: "Paternoster Row figured in the book I just finished "The Meaning of Night". According to that book it was, as Almeta posted, near St. Paul's in London, and it was destroyed during the Blitz in WWI..."

I find coincidences like this all the time when I'm reading. I'll read about something new in one book and it will show up in the next one. Sometimes new words I'll have looked up suddenly start showing up all over... or at least I'm notice them more.

[Debra]

So, Lewis isn't the best poet in the world, but then I'm not the best judge, either. There is odd rhyming in places - kinda forced. But it's a fun poem, and not bad for a 20 year old, eh?

[Almeta, co-moderator]

Yeah, I am not a very good judge either.

I particularly don't understand using words that, although spelled with the same final syllable, do not rhyme. Are we supposed to mispronounce them both, in order to twist the words to fit? Are we, in a later century, speaking the words differently than originally spoken?

[Debra]

Almeta wrote: "Yeah, I am not a very good judge either.

I particularly don't understand using words that, although spelled with the same final syllable, do not rhyme. Are we supposed to mispronounce them both, ..."

Yeah, that's what I meant about the odd rhyming. It messes with my mind when I try to make them rhyme by mispronouncing a word. I don't think most of the words were pronounced differently in those days, either.

[Almeta, co-moderator]

Debra wrote: "I particularly don't understand using words that, although spelled with the same final syllable, do not rhyme. Are we supposed to mispronou..."

Apparently in this case it is not the rhyme but the cadence that is important.

[Almeta, co-moderator]

I have assumed that the title "Imitation of Horace" and its refernce Ep. 20 refers to Horace's Epistles. When I try to investigate this further, I find that Horace is considered an imitator of Archilochus.

I wonder, did Matthew Lewis know that he was imitating an imitator?

"Whatever his unique contribution may have been, Horace still managed to recreate something of the ancient spirit of the genre (iambic poetry), alerting his companions to threats facing them as a group, in this case as Roman citizens of a doomed republic..."from Wikipedia

By-the-way here is Horace's ...

EPISTLE XX.
TO HIS BOOK.
You seem, my book, to look wistfully at Janus and Vertumnus; to the end that you may be set out for sale, neatly polished by the pumice-stone of the Sosii. You hate keys and seals, which are agreeable to a modest [volume]; you grieve that you are shown but to a few, and extol public places; though educated in another manner. Away with you, whither you are so solicitous of going down: there will be no returning for you, when you are once sent out. “Wretch that I am, what have I done? What did I want?"–you will say: when any one gives you ill treatment, and you know that you will be squeezed into small compass, as soon as the eager reader is satiated. But, if the augur be not prejudiced by resentment of your error, you shall be caressed at Rome [only] till your youth be passed. When, thumbed by the hands of the vulgar, you begin to grow dirty; either you shall in silence feed the grovelling book-worms, or you shall make your escape to Utica, or shall be sent bound to Ilerda. Your disregarded adviser shall then laugh [at you]: as he, who in a passion pushed his refractory ass over the precipice. For who would save [an ass] against his will? This too awaits you, that faltering dotage shall seize on you, to teach boys their rudiments in the skirts of the city. But when the abating warmth of the sun shall attract more ears, you shall tell them, that I was the son of a freedman, and extended my wings beyond my nest; so that, as much as you take away from my family, you may add to my merit: that I was in favor with the first men in the state, both in war and peace; of a short stature, gray before my time, calculated for sustaining heat, prone to passion, yet so as to be soon appeased. If any one should chance to inquire my age; let him know that I had completed four times eleven Decembers, in the year in which Lollius admitted Lepidus as his colleague.

[Debra]

Hey, thanks for looking that up, Almeta. I was too lazy to look up many of the referenced persons, places, and things in this book that were unknown to me!

[Almeta, co-moderator]

Ann wrote: "The old English preface was pretty hard to read, but sounded interesting as I read it aloud. That helped!..."

I think that hearing it out loud might be the key. It is the rhythm that makes it easier.

I like how the poem speaks to the book itself. How it must be wishing to be in a bookstore window; how it may well be condemned, despised, criticized (little did he know☻); how once its no longer a novelty it will fade to obscurity (and we are reading it in 2012 from a 1794 edition); how the book can make excuses for itself because of the author's character and young age. AND then he sends it out into the world with a goodbye (but it never really left him alone for the remainder of his life).

[Almeta, co-moderator]

Jonathan wrote: "Paternoster Row was the center of the book trade in London. It is where the "reputations" of books and authors were "won or lost.""

AND
Stockdale, Hookham, and Debrett were comptemporary booksellers.

[Almeta, co-moderator]

Debra wrote: "Hey, thanks for looking that up, Almeta. I was too lazy to look up many of the referenced persons, places, and things in this book that were unknown to me!"

I have anotherfor you: "olio". When my eyes scanned that word all I could think of was "butter imitation".☺

o·li·o (l-)
n. pl. o·li·os
1. A heavily spiced stew of meat, vegetables, and chickpeas.
2.
a. A mixture or medley; a hodgepodge.
b. A collection of various artistic or literary works or musical pieces; a miscellany.
3. Vaudeville or musical entertainment presented between the acts of a burlesque or minstrel show....
www.thefreedictionary.com

[Debra]

Almeta wrote: "Ann wrote: "The old English preface was pretty hard to read, but sounded interesting as I read it aloud. That helped!..."

I like how the poem speaks to the book itself.i>

I really liked that poem. It was the only one in the book I really appreciated.

[Debra]

Almeta wrote: "I have anotherfor you: "olio".i>

I remember seeing the word, but can't remember the context. I know I saw it several times. Was 2b, as in folio?

[Almeta, co-moderator]

Debra wrote: "Almeta wrote: "I have anotherfor you: "olio".i>

I remember seeing the word, but can't remember the context. I know I saw it several times. Was 2b, as in folio?"

"Methinks, Oh! vain ill-judging Book,
I see thee cast a wishful look,
Where reputations won and lost are
In famous row called Paternoster.

Incensed to find your precious olio
buried in unexpected port-folio.


I think he means "a hodgepodge of stories
in a gathered collection of papers"?

[Debra]

Makes sense!