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PREFACE.

IN editing this selection of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, an effort has been made to keep in view, as well the reputation of the authors, as the interests of the studious reader. For both these purposes it seemed convenient to distribute the apparatus of information which should accompany the text, into three parts, namely, into the Annotations, the Critical Commentary, and the Glossary. For, as an author is responsible only for what he actually wrote, and not for what "time has blurred," or what others have supposed he may have written; and as he is also entitled to take for granted that his readers are acquainted with the language and dialect in which he writes: it is dealing but fairly with his memory, to preserve the perusal of his conceptions as free as possible from the adventitious obscurity which a cloud of conjectures casts wherever it rests, and also from the associations of that inevitable labour which attends, and, indeed, forms part of the value of philological research. Nay further, justice obviously requires that the exegesis too, and illustration, which form the matter of annotations upon the literature of a dead language, should not be confounded in our imagination with the productions of the authors themselves, but be always considered as the mere aids of our incapacity to under

stand, with the readiness they naturally expected, not merely the syntactic combinations, idioms, and phrases of their language, but also any proverbial expressions or sayings of the day, which they might employ, either as one of the characteristic proprieties of their Personæ, or for the purpose of giving a raciness to their own descriptions. This latter remark is peculiarly pertinent to the Mimic Idyls of Theocritus which form the first part of this selection, for, being chiefly employed in the pourtraying of every day life, they contain many adages and allusions (cf. Annot. on Hypoth. Id. xiv., and Idyls xv., XIV., and XXI., passim), the point of which can hardly be appreciated with a sufficient degree of freshness, after the trouble of attaining, or approximating to, their matterof-fact meaning. On the other hand, it seemed desirable that the student should be reminded that there is a difference between understanding and appreciating what an author has written, and mastering the discussions as to whether such or such a reading has proceeded from his pen; or, which is the second and more arduous function of the critic, whether this or that entire piece is justly attributed to the writer in question. And again, it should be borne in mind, that it is one thing to analyse the materials, and even the ornamental detail of a building, and another to grasp the design of the whole, and be impressed and imbued with the beauty of its general effect.

The same regard to the interest both of the author and his reader will be found to apologise for the grouping of the poems which has been adopted here, not without an apprehension that at first sight it might have the pearance of an unjustifiable eccentricity. As Valckenaer had written a volume upon the Adoniazusæ alone, and

ap

Toup also had selected it for a peculiar illustration in his "Epistola Joannis Toupii de Syracusiis," it appeared desirable that this piece should be first presented to the student, as it was hoped that when he had surmounted the criticism, &c., which has become connected with it, he would afterwards find but little difficulty in mastering the remaining compositions of our author.

Again, there is no reason for imagining that Theocritus published his poems in one collection, or in any regular order. In the MSS. they do not follow in the

a The following observations upon this subject are taken from Wuestemann's Preface to Theocritus, p. 21, sqq.

"Primum dicamus de carminum collectione in universum. Atque hoc loco ante omnia in examen vocandum est epigramma Artemidori grammatici, quod inscribitur ἐπὶ τῇ ἀθροίσει τῶν βουκολικῶν ποιημάτων. Distichon ipsum hoc

est:

• Βουκολικαὶ Μοῦσαι σποράδες ποκά· νῦν δ ̓ ἅμα πᾶσαι

ἐντὶ μιᾶς μάνδρας, ἐντὶ μιᾶς ἀγέλας. Legitur in Anthologiâ Palatinâ IX. 205. Tom. II. pag. 69, saepiusque in Theocriti codicibus repetitum est. Quaeris primum, quis fuerit Artemidorus ille, tum quae eius fuerint partes in Theocriti carminibus colligendis et ordinandis. Artemidorum omnes consentiunt Alexandrinum esse illum, qui Athenaeo saepenumero laudatus sub nomine Aristophanei sive Pseudoaristophanei notus est. Aetatem si quaeris, proxime accedit ad Aristophanem grammaticum, cujus aut discipulus fuit aut scholam certe accepit. Hactenus igitur nulla dissensio est. Difficilius ad alteram quaestionem respondeas. Primum

doceri vis, quid praestiterit aut
præstare voluerit Artemidorus. Si
verba epigrammatis recte inter-
pretamur, dicit grammaticus dis-
persa antea auctorum bucolicorum
carmina se in unum corpus colle-
gisse. Non igitur Theocrito tan-
tum hoc operae praestitit, sed
Bioni quoque et Moscho, fortasse
etiam Stesichoro, Philetae, aliis.
De tribus illis poetis quos primo
loco nominavi intellexit haec ver-
ba Naeckius in prooemio, quod in-
dici praelectionum Bonnae 1828.
habendarum praemisit; vide All-
gemeine Schulzeitung, 1828. 2
Abtheilung. nro 100. Ex quo con-
sequitur Theocritum ipsum Idyl-
lia, dum viveret, non ita in vulgus
edidisse, ut unum quoddam corpus
efficerent. Sed instituta est eorum
collectio ab Artemidoro, abs quo
si
fuisset, interiissent fortasse praes-
tantissimae hae antiquitatis reli-
quiae. Nec multum post Theocriti
obitum hanc collectionem factam
esse docet aetas Artemidori.
terum ita simul intelligis, quî ce-
teri grammatici Alexandrini pro-
clives fuerint in commentarios in
Theocritum componendos. Dis-
persa, quae singula haud dubie
maximopere placuerant, erant Idyl-

Ce

same succession; nor is a regularity in this respect preserved in the early editions. Hence it appeared more than excusable, in a selection of this description, to arrange the poems according to their own intrinsic characteristics. And of the classes into which they may be thus distributed, none seemed to possess so good a claim to priority as the Mimic Idyls, as well on account of their own proper merits, as of the peculiar interest with which

lia Theocriti; flagitantibus ea hominibus collegit Artemidorus. Tum tam collectio carminum instituta quam plausus, quem tulerant, invitavit grammaticos ad ea illustranda, quorum studia reconditioris dialecti usu rerumque tractatarum copiâ magis incensa sunt. Artemidorus vero quam rationem inierit in disponendis Theocriti carminibus nescimus. Id tantum pro certo ponendum videtur, eum non certum quendam ordinem observasse, nec temporum argumentive habuisse rationem. Fuit is aetatis mos, quae, quum in aliis rebus minutissimis putidam adhiberet diligentiam, alia maiora non curaret. Exemplo est Pindaricorum carminum collectio ab Aristophane Byzantino, doctissimo suae aetatis homine, instituta: in qua certum finem, quo graviora spectentur quam victoriarum qui valde pendet a fortunâ locus, iure desideras. Sed porro quæres, an is ordo, qui Artemidoro placuerit, idem servatus sit in nostris editionibus. Atque hoc quidem negandum videtur. Etenim in libris ma. nu exaratis Idyllia neque omnia apparent, ceteris praeter octodecim priora omissis, neque eo ordine, qui hodie vulgatus est. Ne longus sim, vide quae Ioannes Augustus

Iacobs, vir diligentissimus, passim disputavit in Praefatione editionis Halensis, ut pag. XCIII., pag. XCV. Veterum etiam editionum alia alium sequitur ordinem. Vide eundem Iacobsium Praefat. p. xix. Quocirca minime mirandum etiam Draconem Stratonicensem, qui plurimos Theocriti versus excitat, Idyllia et ordine alio et pauciora numero in codice suo reperisse. Videatur Wissowa in libello, de quo mox accuratius dicam, pag. 13. Qui Draconis liber, ut obiter hoc dicam, haud optimae notae videtur fuisse, quum bonam vitiorum partem nostrarum editionum Draco quoque repetat, ut, posteaquam omnes ab eo allatos locos contulissem cum Theocriti editione, me nihil fere lucri ex hac collatione habuisse affirmare queam. Sed ut illuc revertar, vix fieri posse videtur, ut quisquam, in tantâ librorum discrepantiâ, in uno codice verum et antiquum ab Artemidoro institutum ordinem exstare demonstret. Quod ut eveniret, integrior etiam codex, quam ii, qui adhuc collati sunt, exstant, necesse est reperiatur. In nostrâ enim horum carminum collectione alia sunt ab initio mutila, alia in fine. Artemidorus certe non nisi integra novit."

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