Ode

And I, therefore, who sit not at the blessed table, but having fled the pasture of the common herd, gather at the feet of them who sit at meat of that which falls from them, and who, by reason of the sweetness which I experience in that which little by little I gather, recognize the wretched life of those whom I have left behind me, moved to compassion, though not forgetting myself, have reserved somewhat for the wretched.

which somewhat already some time agone I have displayed to their eyes and thereby have made them the more eager wherefore desiring now to make provision for them I purpose to make a general banquet of that which I have already displayed to them and of the bread which is needful for such like viand without which they might not eat it at this banquet such bread to wit as is worthy of the viand which I well understand to have been offered them in vain and therefore I would not have any take his seat who is ill-disposed as to his organs inasmuch as he has neither tooth nor tongue nor palate nor any addicted to vice inasmuch as his stomach is full of poisonous and contrary humours so that it would not retain my viands but let come whosoever because of family and civil care has been kept in human hunger and let him seat himself at the same table with others impeded in like manner and at their feet let all place themselves who have been excluded by their sloth for they are not worthy to sit more high and let these and those take my viand together with the bread which will enable them both to taste and to digest it the viands of this banquet will be served in fourteen fashions that is to say fourteen odes treating as well of love as of virtue which without the present bread had the shadow of a certain obscurity so that to many their beauty was more in favour than their excellence but this bread to wit the present exposition will be the light which shall make apparent every hue of their significance and if in the present work which is entitled and which i wish to be the banquet the handling be more virile than in the new life i do not intend thereby to throw a slight in any respect upon the latter but rather to strengthen that by this seeing that it conforms to reason that that should be fervid and impassioned this temperate and virile for a different thing is comely to say and to do at one age than at another wherefore certain ways are suitable and laudable at one age which are foul and blameworthy at another as will be shown on its own account further on in the fourth treatise of this book and in that i spoke before entrance on the prime of manhood and in this when i had already passed the same and inasmuch as my true purport was other than the aforesaid odes outwardly display i intend to set them forth by allegorical exposition after having discussed the literal story so that the one account and the other will supply a relish to those who are invited to this feast whom i pray one and all that if the banquet be not so magnificent as consorts with the proclamation thereof they shall impute every defect not to my will but to my power because what my will herein aims at is a full and hearty liberality chapter two at the beginning of every well-ordered banquet the servants are wont to take the bread that is set out and cleanse it from every blemish wherefore i who in this present writing am taking their place purpose at the outset to cleanse this exposition which counts for the bread in my repast from two blemishes the one is that for any one to speak of himself seems unjustifiable and the other that for an expounder himself to discourse too profoundly seems unreasonable and this appearance of what is unjustifiable and unreasonable the knife of my judgment cleanses away in the fashion that follows rhetoricians forbid a man to speak of himself except on needful occasion and from this a man is prohibited because it is impossible to speak of any without the speaker either praising or blaming him of whom he speaks and there is a want of urbanity in either of these kinds of discourse finding a place on a man's own proper lips and to solve a doubt which rises here i say that it is worse to blame than to praise though neither the one nor the other should be done the reason is that what is directly blameworthy is fouler than what is incidentally so to dispraise oneself is directly blameworthy because a man should tell his friend a fault in secret and there is no closer friend to a man than himself Wherefore it is in the chamber of his own thoughts that he should take himself to task and bewail his faults, not openly Again, for lacking the power or the knowledge to conduct himself rightly a man for the most part is not blamed but for lacking the will he always is for it is by willing and not willing that our badness and goodness is judged and so he who blames himself by showing that he knows his fault exposes his lack of goodness and therefore a man must refrain on his own account from speaking in blame of himself Self-praise is to be avoided as evil by implication inasmuch as such praise cannot be given without its turning to yet greater blame It is praise on the surface of the words it is blame if we search into their entrails for words are produced to demonstrate what is not known wherefore whosoever praises himself shows that he does not believe himself to be well thought of which will not happen unless he has an evil conscience which in his self-praise is revealed and when revealed is blamed And further self-praise and self-blame are to be shunned for one common reason bearing of false witness for there is no man who is a true and just measurer of himself so does our kindness to ourselves deceive us whence it happens that everyone has in his judgment the measures of the unjust trader who sells with one and buys with another and each one takes stock of his evil doing with a large measure and takes stock of his good with a little one so that the number and quantity and weight of the good seems to him greater than if it were assayed with a just measure and that of the evil less Wherefore when speaking of himself in praise or the contrary either he speaks falsely with respect to the thing of which he speaks or he speaks falsely with respect to his own belief and the one and the other is falsity And this is why inasmuch as assenting to an opinion is a way of professing it he is guilty of discourtesy who praises or blames another to his face because he who is thus estimated can neither assent nor protest without falling into the error of praising or blaming himself Save be it understood in the way of due rebuke which cannot be without blame of the fault which is to be corrected and save in the way of due honouring and magnifying which cannot come about without mention made of the virtuous deeds or of the dignities virtuously acquired But returning to the main purport I say as indicated above that speaking of himself is permitted on needful occasions and amongst other needful occasions two are most manifest The one is when it is impossible without speaking of himself to quash great infamy and peril and then it is allowed by reason that taking the least evil path of two is in a way taking a good one And this necessity moved Boethius to speak of himself so that under cover of consolation he might ward off the perpetual infamy of his exile showing that it was unjust since no other arose to ward it off The other is when by a man discoursing of himself the highest advantage in the way of instruction follows therefrom to others and this reason moved Augustine in the Confessions to speak of himself for by the progress of his life which was from bad to good and from good to better and from better to best he gave example and instruction which could not have been received otherwise on such sure testimony Wherefore if the one and the other of these occasions excuses me the bread of my leavening is purged from its first blemishes I am moved by the fear of infamy and I am moved by the desire to give instruction which in very truth no other can give I fear the infamy of having pursued so great a passion as he who reads the above-named Odes conceives to have had dominion over me which infamy is entirely quenched by this present discourse concerning myself which shows that not passion but virtue was the moving cause I purpose also to reveal the true meaning of the said Odes which none may perceive unless I relate it because it is hidden under figure of allegory And this will not only give fair delight to hear, but subtle instruction, both in discoursing after this fashion and in understanding after this fashion the writings of others.

Chapter Three.

Worthy of much blame is the thing which, being appointed to remove some special defect, itself induces that same.

And this is the reason why the verses of the Psalter are without the sweetness of music and harmony, for they were translated from Hebrew into Greek and from Greek into Latin, and in the first translation all their sweetness perished.

And thus is the conclusion reached, which was promised at the beginning of the chapter immediately before this.

Chapter 8 Now that it has been shown by sufficient reasons how, to avoid undue inversion of order, the aforesaid Odes must needs have a vernacular and not a Latin comment to reveal and expound them, I purpose to show how zealous liberality likewise made me choose the one and drop the other.

Zealous liberality, then, is marked by three things which cleave to this vernacular and would not have cleft to the Latin.

Era for shadowing.

Mira, ni que fuera Oda.

Los tigres de Nintendo.

Es mala, loco.

Oda.

Oda.

Mira, vamos a sentir a los

metróis.

Helen Barnett knew all about love.

Had she not lisped its praises in Odes to the Moon in her high school days? It had to do with flowers and music and angels.

On the old porch back home, what was it that long-haired boy used to read to her? Oh, Tennyson, that was it.

And now it had come to her love.

Unlimited frosted cakes and shotguns had not taught Burke Denby to accept no for an answer, especially for an answer to something he had so set his heart upon as he had this winning of Helen Barnett for his wife.

Burke Denby did not know anything about love.

He had never sung Odes to the Moon or read Tennyson to pretty girls on secluded verandas.

He had not been looking for love to meet him around the bend of the next street.

While conversing one day with a very brilliant young woman, she had occasion to quote from Keats.

The poem was entitled Ode to Apollo, and she recited the following lines.

In thy western house of gold, where thou livest in thy state, bards that once sublimely told prosaic truths that come too late.

She hesitated many times during the recitation, being sure that there was something wrong with the last line.

To her surprise, on referring to the book, she found that not only was the last line misquoted, but that there were many other mistakes.

The correct lines read as follows.

Ode to Apollo.

In thy western halls of gold, when thou sittest in thy state, bards that erst sublimely told heroic deeds and sang of fate.

Thou shalt my pleasure, my employment be, My all I'll make a holocaust to Thee.

The Deity that ever does attend, Prayers so sincere to mine did condescend, I writ, and Thee judicious praised my pen, Could any doubt ensuing glory then? what pleasing raptures fill'd my ravish'd sense how strong how sweet fame was thy influence and thine false hope that to my flatter'd sight didst glories represent so near and bright by thee deceived methought each verdant tree apollo's transformed daphne seem'd to be and every fresher branch and every bough appear'd as garlands to impale my brow thee learn'd in love say thus the wingd boy does first approach drest up in welcome joy at first he too the cheated lover's sight not represents but rapture and delight alluring hopes soft fears which stronger bind their hearts than when they more assurance find emboldened thus to fame i did commit by some few hands my most unlucky wit but ah the sad effects that from it came what ought t have brought me honour brought me shame like aesop's painted jay i seem'd to all adorn'd in plumes i not my own could call rifled like her each one my feathers tore and as they thought unto the owner bore my laurels thus an other's brow adorn'd my numbers they admir'd but me they scorn'd an other's brow that had so rich a store of sacred wreaths that circled it before where mine quite lost like a small stream that ran into a vast and boundless ocean was swallowed up with what it join'd and drown'd and that abyss yet no accession found orinda albion's and her sex's grace Ode not her glory to a beauteous face.

It was her radiant soul that shone within, Which struck a lustre through her outward skin, That did her lips and cheeks with roses dye, Advanced her height, and sparkled in her eye.

Nor did her sex at all obstruct her fame, But higher mong the stars it fixed her name.

And now with her thou leadst thy amorous life, Forgetful and despising of thy wife.

An Epitaph on Herself When I am dead, few friends attend my hearse, And for a monument I leave my verse.

An Ode Arise, my dove! From midst of pots arise.

Thy sullied habitation leave, To dust no longer cleave.

While conversing one day with a very brilliant young woman, she had occasion to quote from Keats.

Keats.The poem was entitled Ode to Apollo, and she recited the following lines: In thy western house of gold, where thou livest in thy state, bards that once sublimely told prosaic truths that come too late.

She hesitated many times during the recitation, being sure that there was something wrong with the last line.

To her surprise, on referring to the book, she found that not only was the last line misquoted, but that there were many other mistakes.

The correct lines read as follows: Ode to Apollo.

In thy western halls of gold, when thou sittest in thy state, bards that erst sublimely told heroic deeds and sang of fate.

The words italicized, emphasized, are those that have been forgotten and replaced by others during the recitation.