ART. VIII. Q. Horatius Flaccus, cum locis quibusdam è Græcis Scrip toribus collatus, quæ Critici in commentariis suis nondum animadverterunt. Accedit Index perpetuus ad Auctores à Wagnero laudatos ; necnon Ode, O Fons, Intermissa Venus, è Latino in Gracum conversa. Auctore Stephano Weston, S.T.B. R.S.S. S.A.S. Editio altera. 8vo. pp. 170. Payne. T HE Romans, even in the zenith of their literary glory, were so little inclined to pride themselves on originality, that they avowedly looked up to the Greeks as their models, and were satisfied with the merit of successful imitation. Athens was the fashionable school for philosophy and polite learning; and neither the statesman nor the orator, nor the poet, could be esteemed at Rome, if his mind were not imbued with Grecian science. When the Latin writers of the Augustan age afford such ample proofs of this partiality to the Greeks, it would be strange to suppose that Horace could be an exception. Indeed, though only the son of a freedman, he had enjoyed the advantages of an Athenian education, was thus enabled to taste the elegance of the Grecian writers, and felt solicitous of transferring their beauties into his own language. The com plexion of his thoughts, the turn of his expressions, and the structure of his verse, are Grecian; and many of his commentators have been employed in tracing them to their original prototypes: but not so much in pointing them out as plagiarisms, (for they are not to be classed under this denomination,) as in marking them for assiduous imitations of the writings of that people among whom he acquired the love of science and of the Muses, and the study of which he warmly recommended to his countrymen : Vas exemplaria Græca Nocturna versate manu, versate diurná. Mr. Weston conceives that this task has not yet been com pletely executed; and he endeavours to shew, in the work before us, that the poet of Venusium may be tracked still farther among the Greeks. He has no wish, however, to detract from the merit of Horace; he rather gives the Roman poet credit for the free use which he has made of his neighbours, and for his successful efforts to clothe the Latin tongue with the richest Attic prace. Though the opinion of Bentley be indisputable, Horatius de Græcis pendet et totus est in illis, Mr. W. does not intend to assert that every instance of coincidence is to be regarded as necessary imitation; nor does he adduce every com parison with this view: sed (continues he) ut monstrarem, quomodo eadem sententia ad exemplar antiquitatis, et pro dignitate optimorum auctorum in diversis linguis exprimi potuerit. Verum enimvero cum alvearia vicinorum Horatius rapiat, et furetur, non ut fucus hoc facit, sed ut apis, cui latrocinari jus est, quique locum habet in quo furta deponat, quæ adeo modeste transferuntur, ut deducta, non tracta, atque precariò, non vi, venisse videantur? It is no bad compliment to this great poet, to allow that he stole with elegance, and created a kind of right by the happy use to which he applied his stolen goods. In some of the cases of co-incidence here noticed, however, the similarity is so faint, that a jury of critics would not be easily persuaded that Horace really performed an act of theft; or at least they would argue that the thing stolen was so much changed, that the Greek could not with a safe conscience swear to his property. Still, in many cases, Mr. Weston has been fortunate in his detections; and scholars will thank him for the labour which he has bestowed, and for the service which he has rendered: since, independently of the pleasure resulting from the comparison of similar passages, such a collection as Mr. W. suggests may assist, provided that the Greek archetype be pure, in restoring the true reading of an author so dear to the lovers of classical beauty, and the idolaters of the divine attributes of poetry. We transcribe the two following examples, as proofs of the truth of this suggestion : EPIST. LIB. I. XVI. VER. 38. 'mulemve colorem.' Colorem legit Baxter, et nescit cur Rentleius prætulerit colores, sed Bentleii textum firmat locus Plutarchi de Galba ob victimarum signa perterrito, p. 392. 4to. v. 5. Χράς ἀμείβολι πανίοδαπας ὑπὸ δέος. Ed. fol. p. 1064. Lib. 11. Ode v. Ver. 8. • Consenuit socerorum in armis. • Armis, libri omnes. Sic Homerus quem vertit Horatius. V. 197. ἀλλ ̓ οὐχ ὑιὸς ὁ ἔνεσι πατρὸς ΕΓΗΡΑ. 11. • Mihi multo facilius est credere Horatium locum Homeri expressisse, quam omnes codices mendosos esse. Legunt Heinsius et Bentleius arvis. Noune consenuisse potuerunt Romani milites soceris servientes sub rege Melo, tam in armis, quam in arvis, si non contra populares suos, at sal. tem contra alios socerorum hostes ? The passages which we shall next extract possess such a veri-similitude, that it is most probable that the writer of the one had the other in his mind: Αἰπῇ τον Αίδαο πύλαν (ναί μοίρας) άραξεῖ. Theocr. Idyl. ii. v. 160. Γέγωνέ δ ̓ εἰς δόμους, 7 Η σανίδα παίσασ' ἢ λίγες πέμψας ἔσω. Eurip. Orest. v. 1220. · Venientes • Venientes in domum antiqui aut clamabant, aut fores pulsabant. Antiquum adhuc obtinet Sicilia fores pedibus pulsandi ante introitum. (Vide Swinburne's Travels in Sicily.) Mos autem ad fores clamitandi, re inusitata, verbis et loquendi forma tantum apud nos manet. To call upon.' Here is also an instance of the mode of expression surviving the custom in which it originated.-To proceed: Ode XIII. Ver. 12. sive puer furens Impressit memorem dente labris notam. Flora nunquam ab amplexu Pompeii abiit sine morsu, olu ddáx?w; dzikB. Plutarch. in vita Pompeii, p. 419. 4to. Cum Lysimachus brachia et femur dentibus leonis saucia Demetrii legatis ostenderet; legati cum risu aiebant, suum quoque regem morsu lamia in collo non carere. του θηρίου δήγματα ἐν τραχήλω φέρειν. • Δάκνει μοῦ τὸ χεῖλος ἐξωτικῶς.” Plut. Vit. p. 901. fol. 1624. Ismeniæ Amores, p. 86.' Ode XXIV. Ver. 8. Quando ullum invenient parem? Πάντων ἀρισιον ἄνδρα τῶν ἐπὶ χθονό Κτείνασ', ὁποῖον ἄλλον οὐκ ὄψει ποτέ. Soph. Trachin. v.8 1. Notus in fratres animi paterni. Ανὴς ὁμογένης καὶ χάριτας ἔχων παρός. Orestes Eurip. v. 244 Equam memento rebus in arduis Servare mentem, non secus in bonis. Ἐτ ̓ ἔστι πάνων πρῶτον εἰδέναι τουλί Φέρειν τὰ συμπίπτοντα με παλιγκότως. Eurip. Fragm. Oenom. p. 460. 4to. v. 2. Ed. Beck." AapáZeo dicebantur mulieres nubentes. Il. o. v. 432. perinde est ἀνδρὶ δαμάζεσθαι, εἰ πλῆναι ανέρος εὐνήν. Virgines vocat Sophocles, Ad. Col. ν. 1056, αδμήτας άδελφος. Et Dianam, των αιν αδμήταν, 1239. Electr. Αγιείς αδάμαστος θεά explicatur a Scholiaste παρθένος ἄζυγος. Τον ἄζυγος idem sonat cum dopastos, metaphora à juvencis sumpta. Attici uxorem δαμαξία, et virum κύριον, vocant. Ασπασία καὶ κύριος est Aspasia et Pericles, Toulichy & Пiging. Schol. ad v. 965. IIIEI, Aristoph. - ποῖὲ δὲ θεμείων ἀπὸ Πεδα δεομαῖος, πώλος ὡς ἀπὸ ζυγοί. Ode x. Ver. 19. sed improvisa leti Orestes Eurip. V. 44' Vis rapuit, rapictque gentes. Αίδος ἀπειδὴς αμφεκάλυψε μυχές - απροϊδὴς νοῦσύς με συνήρπασε, Antholog. Aristoph. Thesmoph. v. 170. Vid. Max. Tyr. p. 190. Ed. H. Steph. Paris, 1557. Iwxn algúns in proverbium abiit. Τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς Ασίης ορχηστρίδα, την κακοτέχνους Σχήμασιν ἐξ ἀπαλῶν κινυμένην ἐνύχων. Epigramma Automedontis adio festivum, ut nibil supra. Brunck, v. ii. p. 207." Lib. iv. Ode 1. Ver. 3. Non sum qualis eram. Καγω γας ήν ποτ', αλλαὶ νῦν οὐκ ἐμμ ̓ ἔτι. Loco oblito. οὐ γὰς On 160' dexalon dipas. Sophocl. d. Col. v. 110.” Epodon Liber, Epod. 1. Ver. 19. Ut assidens implumibus pullis avis. DI Cys Masian. II. I. v. 324. eleganter Eschylus in Hesychio. v. E-wg. ἐπώζων ἐπικαθῆσθαι τοῖς ὠστην καθημένη Τέκνοις ἐπώζειν τοῖς τεθνηκόσιν. Sits brooding over her dead children.' The employment of tracing resemblances may be carried to an extreme; and our readers, perhaps, will think that this is the case when Mr. Weston refers Horace's Nil desperandum to the expression of Thucydides, Ohio; and his "Ostendit capitolio" to Lucian's Orog izdos. Such simple expressions cannot properly be regarded as imitations; nor do they receive any illustration by being placed in juxta-position with those which are similar in another language. This work evinces Air. Weston's intimate acquaintance with the classics; and his Greek versions of two of Horace's Odes display his acknowleged skill in that language. his We hope that this learned author will be induced to execute purpose of collating, in a similar manner, the Satires and Epistles of Horace; and, in this case, we are of opinion that his labors will be more acceptable to those admirers of the Roman bard who may not be so deeply versed in Greek learning as himself, if Latin translations of the Greek passages be subjoined. ART. ART. IX. Viridarium Poeticum, sea Delectus Epithetorum in teleberrimis Latinis Scriptoribus sparsorum, designatum ad Epitheta ab antis quis usurpata Exemplis illustrandum, in Scholarum usum quibus com positio Latina præcipuam Eruditionis partem efficit. A Thoma Browne, A. M. 8vo. 8s. bound. Robinsons. BE EFORE Mr. Browne unlocks the door which opens into his flower-garden of the Muses, he takes the opportunity, in an elegant preface, of adverting to the high estimation in which poets were viewed by the antients; and of rectifying the opinion concerning Plato, that he would have excluded all poets from his republic. Plato's objection, he observes, extended only to one kind of poetry; viz. to that which endeavours to agitate the mind in a tragical manner; and he wished to afford encouragement to those other kinds of poetry, which are em ployed in singing the praises of the gods, in teaching the insti tutions and manners of our country, or in extolling good and in reprobating bad men. It may, however, be asked, how is poetry, even within the Platonic limits, to accomplish its purpose? and what are the mysteries of this divine and fascinating art? Now the poetical Tyro is to be informed that he is to be as solicitous of acquiring a rich and varied collection of epithets, 29 the Botanist is assiduous in forming a collection of flowers. Epitheta, (says Mr. B.) judiciò selecta, et quorum venustas in compositione, seu poeticâ, seu prosaicâ, magnopere percellit, non parum ad exornandum carmen invenientur, nam stylus politus tantum iis debet ac coloribus vivicans picter is pencillum.' A copia epithetorum, however, is of little use without a nice and discriminating judgment in selecting and applying them; • Peritia perfecta accidentum, qualitatum, et affectuum cujuscunque rei æque in illis seligendis desideratur.—Nam magni refert, propria nomina rebus tribuere.'-Moreover, the effect of eloquence as well as of poetry, depends in great measure on the judicious management of epithets ; and hence are often derived the striking and brilliant effects of oratory. Ut flores pratum, et rosa semitarium, sic epitheta, ritė adaptata, linguam exornant? Here alo skill is very necessary in their management; and perhaps a familiar acquaintance with the best writers will more assist to form the judgment and correct the taste of the young student, than any mere set of rules or precepts. Mr. B. therefore directs those, who wish to write Latin poetry with facility and elegance, to make themselves well acquainted with the Eneids of Virgil, the Odes of Horace, the Elegies and Heroic Epistles' of Ovid, the Elegies of Propertius, the select Epigrams of Martial, and the works of Lucretius. In the volume before us, which is a republication, in a new form, of the almost forgotten work of Johannes Ravisius, and 6 which |