=23. DA VENIAM FASSO.= As a poet himself, Severus would be particularly shocked at Ovid's admission he has virtually ceased to write poetry. Similar phrasing at III ix 45-46 'confesso ignoscite, docti: / uilior est operis fama salute mea'. =23. FRENA REMISI.= 'I have let go of the reins' = 'I have stopped writing poetry'; for the sense, compare _Aen_ VII 599-600 (of Latinus) 'nec plura locutus / saepsit se tectis rerumque reliquit habenas'. The metaphor of the poet as driver is found as early as Bacchylides (V 176-78) and Pindar (_Ol_ VI 22 ff). A full list of Greek and Latin passages is included in Henderson's note on _RA_ 397-98; the image is particularly frequent in Roman didactic poetry, being found even at Columella X 215-16. See as well Kenney _Nequitiae Poeta_ 206. In Ovid the image is found at _AA_ I 39-40 & 264, II 426, III 467-68 & 809-10, _RA_ 397-98, _Fast_ I 25-26, II 360, IV 10, and VI 586. The only instances I have found that are not from Ovid's didactic verse are the present passage and xii 23-24 'tu bonus hortator, tu duxque comesque fuisti, / cum regerem tenera frena nouella manu'. =24. DVCITVR.= 'Is formed, written'. The same sense at _Met_ I 649 (of Io) '_littera_ ... quam pes in puluere _duxit_' and _Met_ X 215-16 'AI AI / flos habet inscriptum, funestaque _littera ducta_ est'. =25. IMPETVS ILLE SACER.= 'The famous divine impulse'. Similar phrasing at _Fast_ VI 5-6 'est deus in nobis; agitante calescimus illo: / impetus hic sacrae semina mentis habet'. =25. VATVM PECTORA NVTRIT.= _Nutrit_ here seems to mean 'sustain'. Its usual transferred sense is 'cause to grow', as at III iv 26 (the only other passage I have found where the verb is used of poetry) and Hor _C_ IV iv 26. =27. VIX VENIT AD PARTES ... MVSA.= 'My Muse with difficulty performs her functions'. _Partes_ in the sense of 'theatrical role' (Ter _Ph_ 27) early acquired the extended sense of 'role', 'function', or 'duty'. Burman cites as parallels _Am_ I viii 87 'seruus et _ad partes_ sollers ancilla parentur' and _Nux_ 68; compare as well _AA_ II 546 'cum, tener, _ad partes_ tu quoque, somne, uenis' and _EP_ III i 41-42 'utque iuuent alii, tu debes uincere amicos, / uxor, et _ad partes_ prima uenire tuas'. =27. SVMPTAE ... TABELLAE.= Compare _Met_ IX 523-25 'scribit damnatque _tabellas_ ... inque uicem _sumptas_ ponit positasque _resumit_'. =29. NE DICAM.= I have found no other instance of the expression in verse, but it is common in Cicero (Kühner-Stegmann II i 825). =30. NVMERIS NECTERE VERBA.= 'Bind words to metre'. I take _numeris_ as a dative; no close parallel presents itself, but compare _Aen_ IV 239-40 'pedibus talaria nectit / aurea'.