ABSTRACT
Horace, the Best of Lyrick Poets ran the title of a volume of trans lations of selected odes and epodes of Horace which was pub lished in 1652, echoing The Lyrick Poet of John Smith three years earlier. The title seems in no way remarkable to those of us who have learned to love Horace’s lyric poetry even in our schooldays. But it is a significant title for it marks a change in attitude to Horace, for from the beginning of the Christian era until the early seventeenth century Horace was read (when he was read at all) as a moralist, not as a lyric poet. This essay surveys the vicissitudes of Horace’s reputation in England, from the early period in which he was regarded primarily as a satirist until his final acceptance as a lyric poet in the seventeenth century, and discusses the English translations produced before 1670.
