In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Ariel Medina <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes >Salvete! > >Let's not judge Horace nor Virgil per our standards. Kings supporting >poets go along way back and kings and queens' support for poets >contributed greatly to the flowering of poetry.
Exactly: where does all this guff about poets' rightful place being in opposition, this restriction of their rights of free speech to anti- government or anti-establishment activities, come from? From the decision by the holders of power, wealth, and influence in the eighteenth and later centuries that they did not need poets' praises in order to maintain their standing, and therefore weren't going to pay for it, or in the case of monarchs after the Glorious Revolution had no interest in the talents of their Poets Laureate, only in their loyalty. (Contrast the first Laureate Dryden, as great a poet and as unscrupulous a Minster of Propaganda as Claudian himself.) They were still prepared to pay for portraits, however, which is why painters, by this curious pseudomorality, are allowed to paint favourable pictures of persons whom poets are expected either to ignore or to denounce. The rulers and commanders who killed thousands on the battlefield had their panegyrists, because they wanted them; the businessmen who make killings on the Stock Exchange are reviled because none of that money comes the poets' way. Poets will forgive everything except being ignored; and even if Augustus was not so deeply involved in Vergil's and Horace's projects as some have thought, he certainly did not ignore them. It would be absurd to expect, as a matter of principle, that they should not praise him, when real despots, far worse than the most embittered Republican or Antonian ever thought Augustus, still have their laureates if they seek them: Ceaus,escu in Romania had his court poets, who lived rather better than most of their compatriots. As Brecht put it in 'Die Musen' Wenn der Eiserne sie pr�gelt Singen die Musen lauter. Aus gebl�uten Augen Himmeln sie ihn h�ndisch an. Der Hintern zuckt vor Schmerz Die Scham vor Begierde. When the Man of Iron thrashes them, the Muses sing louder. Out of blackened eyes they gaze on him in canine adoration. The backside twitches with pain, the pudendum with lust. Augustus had a much better right to their praise than that. Leofranc Holford-Strevens *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* Leofranc Holford-Strevens 67 St Bernard's Road usque adeone Oxford scire MEVM nihil est, nisi ME scire hoc sciat alter? OX2 6EJ tel. +44 (0)1865 552808(home)/267865(work) fax +44 (0)1865 512237 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (home) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (work) *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
