ABSTRACT
Date and publication. Printed in 1685 in Sylvae (S R 10 January; advertised in The Observator 1 January); reprinted 1692. See headnote to ‘Preface to Sylvae' for possible date of composition.
Context. Horace had been popular with translators throughout the seventeenth century; in the Restoration the composite translation of The Poems of Horace, edited by Alexander Brome, appeared in 1666 (revised 1671, 1680), and Creech’s complete translation was published in 1684. Writers who translated some of Horace’s Carm. included Cowley, Oldham and Roscommon. For details see Gillespie’s ‘Checklist’ . D .’s translation of Carm. I iii is influenced partly by his revulsion from the political turmoil of the previous years: the emphasis here on the destructive consequences of ambition and audacity echo his charges against the Whig leaders in A A 1. 198n, 11. 304-9; The Medal passim.
