domeftic dogs. ACHILLES, Il. b. 23, is defcribed with nine large dogs at his board. Two dogs attend EVANDER, in Virgil, b. 8, And SYPHAX, in LIVY, Inter duos canes ftans, Scipionem appellavit. Dr. WARTON. LINE 102. See troops of flaves, with tasks affign'd them all. The following little paftoral effufion of FRACASTORIUS, is much in the manner of THEOCRITUS, whofe principal beauty (as we have often remarked) confifts in particularizing. POEM ITAL. Vol. ii. P. 234. Nox venit, et pafta redeunt ad tecta capella. Interea et validus primâ de no&te bubulcus, LINE 122. Were never known to caft the untimely young. Thus we read, Genefis xxx. 30, 43. Thy cattle is now increased to a multitude-And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle.' And xxxi. 38. Thefe twenty years < have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy fhe-goats have not • caft their young.' LINE 130. Rush on the mountain beasts, &c. It It is remarkable that both CREECH and FAWKES have tranflated the word Onges, lions-though we afterwards find (fee translation, l. 176) that - Bears, and tusky boars, and wolves alone' " were natives of the Grecian forests. HOMER, Omp fignifies a beast in general. Though a lion in Homer, it may be a bear in THEOCRITUS. The paffage alluded to, is thus tranflated by POPE, Il. b. 15. As when a lion, rushing from bis den Amidst the plain of fome wide-watered fen, LINE 207. 'Twas now high noon. No roar I heard or faw, &c. A fine picture of noon-day folitude and filence. Thus APOLLONIUS RHODIUS, b. iv. l. 1247. Ουδε τιν αρδμον, &c. -They faw no winding path nor ftream, LINE 270. Expir'd the monster of the Nemean wood. Probably the conclufion, as well as the beginning of this Idyllium is loft. For admitting that HERCULES has finished his ftory of the Nemean lion, we might naturally expect fome reply from PHYLEUS. We might expect HERCULES, alfo, to proceed with the relation of other adventures; not to mention that he afterwards cleanfed the ftables of AUGIAS. Surely the poet could 2 could not have abandoned his hero thus abruptly. With respect to the author of this poem, Mr. WARTON, with other learned men, hath his doubts, though he by no means thinks it unworthy of THEOCRITUS. But there is an abruptnefs in the style of THEOCRITUS, not fuiting the character of the piece before us. The diction of this Idyllium is more fertile and flowery, its periods more polished, and verfification eafier, than what we meet with in the Sicilian poet. His ftyle, in fhort, feems to be that of a writer to whom heroic fubjects had been familiar. REISKE is of opinion, that HERCULES the lion-flayer' is a fragment of a large work, faid to have been written by PISANDER, on the exploits of HERcules. IDYLLIUM the TWENTY-SIXTH. THE characters, the scenery, the catastrophe, and the morality, of this Idyllium, are evidently borrowed from the Baccha of EURIPIDES; which exhibits an extenfive view of the Bacchanalian rites. The English reader may fee the Meffenger's interesting narrative of the death of PENTHEUS very happily tranflated in WOODHULL's verfion. The lyric parts of this tragedy (as indeed of all the dramatic pieces of EURIPIDES) preserve their enthusiasm in POTTER's translation. IDYLLIUM the TWENTY-SEVENTH. ΤΗ "HIS Idyllium forms a ftrange contraft with the twenty-fixth. Flippancy, familiarity, and the rudeft rufticity, are oppofed to romantic enthufiafm, and phrenzy, and tragical horror. Perhaps these Idyllia become interesting by their juxta-pofition. A regular arrangement of the pieces of THEOCRITUS might deftroy much of their effect. IDYLLIUM the TWENTY-EIGHTH. LINE 4. Where rifes VENUS' fane, embower'd in reed. ΤΗΝ ΗΝ εν Σαμῳ Αφροδιτην ην οι μεν εν ΚΑΛΑΜΟΙΣ καλεσιν. ATHENÆUS, b. 13. -Yon deep bed of whispering reeds. LINE 8. charm his welcome guest. Οππως ξεινον εμον τερφομ' ιδων Ut lætitia fructum capiam ex obtutu hofpitis mei. WARTON. LINE 12. The genuine model of domestic life. For a character of the ancient matrons, fee Epitaph. Spon. Mifcell. Erudit. Antiq. p. 151. HIC. SITA. EST. AMYMONE. MARCI. OPTIMA. ET. PULCHER See St. PAUL'S Epiftle to TITUS, ii. 5. Σώφρονας, αγνας, οικτρός, In HOMER, HELEN hath her golden diftaff, and filver basket; and, in MOSCHUS, EUROPA has her golden basket, ornamented with a variety of emblematic figures. LINE 24. Traceft to ARCHIAS' city walls. Syracufe was built by ARCHIAS, one of the Heraclida, whe came from Corinth into Sicily, in the fecond year of the 11th Olympiad. Univ. Hift. IDYLLIUM the TWENTY-NINTH. HORACE hath imitated this paffage, Ab te mea fi partem animæ rapit Ode xvii. 1. 2. If the tranflator remember rightly, fome wicked wit hath stiled this paffage an Hibernicifm. HORACE, in the first place, confiders his friend as a part of himself; and in the second place intimates, that if this part should be taken away, the remainder would not be the whole. Perhaps a parliamentary word-coiner might rather call it a truism. IDYLLIUM the THIRTIETH. THIS HIS piece (fays Mr. WARTON) was not written by THEOCRITUS. The nature and manner of it, indeed, are both very different from those of the other Idyllia. But might not THEOCRITUS have imitated ANACREON? The tranflator recollects more than one modern poet who hath occafionally affumed a shape so unlike himself, as to render it impoffible to recognize him. |
