rough music of the last age, than the refined har mony of this; and will not eafily be perfuaded, that modern improvements can produce any thing fuperior. However Creech may have approved himfelf in Lucretius, or Manilius, I fhall venture to pronounce this tranflation of Theocritus very bald and hard. and more ruflic than any of the ruftics in the Sicilian bard: he himself modeftly intitles his book, "the Idylliums of Theocritus "done into English:" and they are done as well as can be expected from Creech, who had neither an ear for numbers, nor the leaft delicacy of expreffion.

It will be incumbent upon me to make good this bold affertion, which I can eafily do by producing a few examples. In the firft Idyllium, he calls that noble paftoral cup," a fine two handled "pot" and the "the tendrils or clafpers," with which fcandent plants ufe to fultain themfelves in climbing, he transforms into kids;"where kid- do feem to broufe." In the defcrip. tion of the fisherman, ver. 43. he has thefe lines: The nerves in's neck are fwoln, look firm, and

three milkings of this goat; as reis ausλas, that you may milk her three times; not the goat "herself and twins," which would have been a moft extravagant present from a poor goatherd, in return for a fong. The reader, therefore, may correct the paffage thus:

Thrice fhall you milk this goat; she never fails
Two kids to fuckle, though fhe fills two pails;
To this I'll add, &c.

This mistake was imparted to me by the ingenious
and learned Dr. Jortin, together with the follow-
ing emendation; fee note on ver. 57," for xeure

you read, with Pierfon, Kgo010; which, as to "the fenfe, seems to be right. But, as the Ionic "dialect is not often used in a Doric fong, I "fhould prefer the adjective Koira, which is also a fmaller alteration. As from χρυσος comes xgvosios, fo from Kgoides, Kgoictios." I am much obliged to the fame gentleman for the following fhort, but full account:

OF THE BUCOLIC MEASURE.

"Whosoever fhall carefully examine in Theo"critus the compofition of his verfes, may per"ceive, that, in his opinion, the nature of bucolic

or paftoral metre, requires that the fourth foot "of the verse be a dactyl, and that the last fyl"lable of this dactyl be the end of a word, which "must not run into the next foot. The first foot

"alfo should rather be a dactyl than a fpondee, " and the cafura is here likewife to be fhunned. If "after the fourth foot there be a pause of a comma at least, the verfe will be still more elegant;

σε as

"Ducite ab urbe donum, mea carmina, ducite "Daphnim,

"For a further account of this matter, the curious "reader is referred to the Memoires de L'Acad. Tom. vi. p. 238."

author of the Critica Vannus, and Sicula, during his travels in Italy and Sicily, collated upwards of forty MSS. of Theocritus; his collation is now at Amfterdam. Mr. St. Amand, a few years ago, left to the University of Oxford, a large collection of collations, which Mr. Thomas Warton, who has prepared a noble edition of this author, has the ufe of. Mr. Taylor, late Greek professor of Cambridge, left likewife a Theocritus almost ready for the prefs. In the public library at Cambridge, there are fome notes on Theocritus by Ifaac Cafaubon, written in the margin of Henry Stephens's Poetæ Græci; likewife manufcript notes in the edition of Commelin, printed in quarto; and alfo fome notes by Thomas Stanley, the author of the Lives of the Philofophers: all these, and likewise a MS. Theocritus are in the public library at Cambridge. There is also a MS. of the first eight Idylliums in Emanuel College library. Mr. Hoblyn, late member for the city of Bristol, left behind him many notes and obfervations for an edition of Theocritus. Befides thefe, there are great materials for illuftrating this author in private libraries.

As to the editions of Theocritus, which are very numerous, I think proper to say something; as we have but an imperfect account of them in Fabricius and Maittaire. Reifkie, in the preface to his late edition of this Greek poet, has given us an account of the various editions, but this account

is far from being fatisfactory. The first edition of Theocritus was printed at Milan in the year 1493,

the letter is the fame with the Ifocrates of the Leyden library, page 251. The fecond edition fame place and date. See the catalogue of the was printed by Aldus Manutius at Venice, in the year 1495; this is the only edition Aldus ever printed; there are fome leaves cancelled in it, which is the reason why Reifke and others have imagined that Aldus printed two editions. Mr. Maittaire, in the first volume of his Annales Typographici page 244, has given us an account of thefe differences. In the year 1515, we have an edition by Philip Junta at Florence; and another in 1516, by Zachary Caliergus at Rome.

These are all the editions that came out before

the year 1520. Befides thefe, and thofe mentioned by Keifke, which I have feen, there are fome curious editions, viz. that of Florence by Benedict Junta, printed in the year 1540; the Bafil edition of 1558, and the Paris edition of 1627, printed by John Libert. I have purpofely omitted mentioning the others, as they are already taken notice of, either by Fabricius, Maittaire, or Reiske.

I cannot conclude this preface without paying my acknowledgments to thofe gentlemen who have kindly affifted me in this undertaking. Dr. Pearce, the prefent Lord Bishop of Rochester, many years eminent for his critical difquifitions, has, in the friendliness of converfation, furnished me with feveral useful rules for conducting my tranflation. It may be afked, why I have not acted the part Dr. Jortin has favoured me with a concife, but fullof a verbal critic in this performance? My reason account of the old bucolic measure, and a few vawas, that far more able men had confidered Theo-luable notes. The celebrated Mr. Samuel Johnson critus in that light. The late Mr. D'Orville, the has corrected part of this work, and furnished me

AN ACCOUNT OF SOME MSS. AND CURIOUS EDI-
TIONS OF THEOCRITUS.

with fome judicious remarks. In a fhort converfation with the ingenious Mr. Jofeph Warton, I gathered several obfervations, particularly in regard to the fuperiority of Theocritus to Virgil in paftoral, which are interfperfed among the notes. The learned Dr. Plumptre, Archdeacon of Ely, has, with great candour and accuracy, done me the honour to peruse and amend every fheet as it came from the prefs. Dr. Afkew, fo eminently diffinguished in his profeffion, as well as for a large and most curious collection of the claffics, and an intimate knowledge of them, with the fincerity of an old acquaintance and a friend, gave me many various readings, fhowed me every valuable edition of Theocritus that is extant, and furnished me with the account of fome MSS. and scarce editions of my author, which were never taken notice of by former editors. Swithin Adee, M. D. and the

Rev. Mr. John Duncombe of Canterbury, have, at my own request, fent me several notes and ftrictures upon my performance, which are candid and valuable. Mr. Burnaby Greene, author of Juvenal paraphraftically imitated, very obligingly fupplied the Effay on Paftoral, and fome ingenious obfervations and Dr. William Watfon lent me his friendly affiftance in the botanical part. I could mention other eminent names of gentlemen who have corrected and improved this work;

Each finding, like a friend, Something to blame, aud fomething to commend. The lift I have given, I am apprehenfive, will appear oftentatious-however, I had rather be convicted of the foible of vanity, than thought guilty of the fin of ingratitude.

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE

LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THEOCRITUS.

As the life of Theocritus has been several times | Then take him to develope if you can,
written in English, I flattered myself that I might
fingle out the account I liked beft, and fave myself
the trouble of compiling it afrefh. I depended a
good deal upon Kennet, but when I came to pe-
rufe his account of Theocritus, I found it unfatis-
factory, and no ways anfwerable to my purpose:
he feems more folicitous, in an affected quaintnefs
of flyle, to exhibit a display of his own learning,
than fludious, by the investigation of truth, to give
information to his readers: his thoughts lie loofe
and unconnected, and therefore are generally te-
dious and perplexing.

And hew the block off, and get out the man.
There are but few memorials left of this poet;
thofe that I produce I shall endeavour to cftablish
on good authority, and whenever an opportunity
offers, which is but very reafonable, will let him
fpeak for himself.

The account of our author in the Biographical Dictionary, published in twelve volumes octavo, is nothing but a fervile epitome of Kennet, and, where the concifenefs of it will allow, expreffed in his very words. Thus diffatisfied with the moderns, I had recourfe to the ancients: in the life generally prefixed to his works by Suidas, we are told, 1 hat Theceritus was a Chian, a rheto"rician: but that there was another Theocritus, "the fon of Praxagoras and Philina, though fome "fay of Simichidas, a Syracufan;" others fay, "he * was born at Cos, but lived at Syracufe;" now this was the cafe of Epicharmus, and might easily occafion the mistake. See the note on Epigram XVII.

Theocritus was a Sicilian, as is evident from many teflimonies. Virgil invokes the Sicilian mufes, because Theocritus, whom he profefiedly imitates, was of that country; Sicilides Mufa, paulo majora canamus. Ecl. 4 1. and, Extremum bunc, ArethuJa, mihi concede laborem, Ecl. 10. 1. He is called a Sicilian poet by the emperor Julian, in one of his epiflles; and by Terentianus Maurus, in his book de Metris, ver. 407, Sicula telluris alumnus by Manilius, Book 2. ver. 40. he is faid to be Sicula tellure creatus, which fixes his birth on that ifland and that he was born at Syracufe, Virgil feems to intimate, when he fays, Prima Syracufio dignata eft ludere verfu, Ecl. 6. 1. But in one of his own epigrams, which generally ftands in the front of his works, probably according to his own original intention, he affures us he was born at Syracufe, and gives us the names of his parents:

ક

In another Greek account in the front of his | Αλλος ο Χίος εγω Θεόκριτος ος

works, we are told, that "Theocritus the Bucolic EL poet was born at Syracufe, and that his father's | * name was Simichidas." Gyraldus fays, " fome "have thought him of Cos, fome of Chios." From fuch a confused jumble of relations, what can with certainty be made out?

ταδε γράψα,

Εις απο τῶν πολλῶν ειμι Συρακοσίων,
Υιος Πραξαγάρας, περικλειτής τε Φιλίνης.
Μῶσαν δ' οθνείην εποτ' εφελκυσάμην.

A Syracufian born, no right I claim,
To Chios, and Theocritus my name :

Praxagoras' and fam'd Philina's fon;

My laurels from unborrow'd verfe are won. After this plain declaration, it is amazing that the old grammarians will not reft fatisfied, but endeavour to rob him both of his parents and his country. The chief view which the poet had in writing this epigram, though perhaps it may not appear at first fight, feems to be this; he had a namefake of Chios, a rhetorician, and pretender to poetry, who, according to Plutarch, fuffered an ignominious death, for fome crime committed againft king Antigonus; and therefore Theocritus the poet, by this cpigram, took all poffible precaution to be diftinguished from his namefake the rhetorician. "The other Theocritus," fays he, "is "of Chios; I that am the author of thefe poems, am a Syracufian, the fon of Praxagoras and the ce. "lebrated Philina: I never borrowed other people's numbers." The last sentence is an honest declaration, that the poet had not been a plagiary, like many of his predeceffors and contemporaries. Theocritus is faid to have been the fcholar of Philetas, and Afclepiades, or Sicelidas: Philetas was an elegiac poet of the ifland of Cos, had the honour to be preceptor to Ptolemy Philadelphus, and is celebrated by Ovid and Propertius: Sicelidas was a Samian, a writer of epigrams: he mentions both thefe with honour in his feventh Idyllium, fee ver. 53.

t

As to the age in which he flourished, it feems indifputably to be afcertained by two Idylliums that remain, one is addreffed to Hiero king of Syracufe, and the other to Ptolemy Philadelphus, the Egyptian monarch. Hiero began his reign, as Caufabon alerts in his obfervations on Polybius, in the fecond year of the 126th Olympiad, or about 275 years before Chrift; and Ptolemy in the fourth year of the 123d Olympiad. Though the exploits of Hiero are recorded greatly to his advantage by Polybius, in the first book of his history; though he had many virtues, had frequently fignalized his courage and conduct, and diftinguished himself by feveral atchievements in war; yet he feems, or at leaft in the early part of his reign, to have expreffed no great affection for learning or men of letters: and this is fuppofed to have given occafion to the 16th Idyllium, inicribed with the name of Hiero; where the poet afferts the dignity of his profeffion, complains that it met with neither favour nor protection, and in a very artful manner, touches upon fome of the virtues of this prince, and infinuates what an illuftrious figure he would have made in poetry, had he been as noble a patron, as he was an argument for the mufes.

His not meeting with the encouragement he expected in his own country, was in all probability the reafon that induced Theocritus to leave Syracufe for the more friendly climate of Alexandria, where Ptolemy Philadelphus then reigned in unrivalled splendour, the great encourager of arts and fciences, and the patron of learned men. his voyage to Egypt he touched at Cos, an ifland in the Archipelago not far from Rhodes, where he was honourably entertained by Phrafidamus |

In

and Atigenes, who invited him into the country
to celebrate the feftival of Ceres, as appears by
the feventh idyllium.

We have all the reafon in the world to imagine that he met with a more favourable reception at Alexandria, than he had experienced at Syracufe, from his encomium on Ptolemy, contained in the 17th Idyllium, where he rifes above his paftoral ftyle, and shows, that he could, upon occafion (as Virgil did afterwards), exalt his Sicilian mufe to a fullimer train, paula majora: he derives the race of Ptolemy from Hercules, he enumerates his many cities, he defcribes his great power and immenfe riches, but above all, he commemorates his royal munificence to the fons of the mufes. Towards the conclufion of the 14th Idyllium, there is a hort, but very noble panegyric on Ptolemy: in the 15th Idyllium, he celebrates Berenice, the mother, and Arfinoe, the wife of Ptolemy.

I do not recollect any more memorials of this poet's life, which can be gathered from his works, except his friendship with Aratus, the famous au thor of the Phenomena; to whom he addreffes his fixth Idyllium, and whofe amours he defcribes in the feventh.

There is one circumftance more in regard to Theocritus, which is fo improbable, that I fhould not have thought it worth while to have troubled the reader with it, if it had not been mentioned by all his biographers, viz. that he lies under the fufpicion of having fuffered an ignominious death:

this takes its rife from a diftich of Ovid in his Ibis.

Utque Syracofio præftricâ fauce poetæ,

Sic animæ laqueo fit via claufa tuæ. But it does not appear, that by the Syracufan poet Ovid means Theocritus; more probably, as fome pedocles, who was a poet and philofopher of Sicommentators on the pafihge have fuppofed, Emcily, is the perfon pointed at: others think that Ovid, by a fmall mistake or flip of his memory, might confound Theocritus the rhetofician of Chios, who was executed by crder of King Antigonus, with Theocritus the poet of Syracufe; and the epigram quoted above very ftrongly indicates how apprchenfive our poet was of being confounded with that perfon it feems, indeed, as I hinted before, compofed on purpose to manifest the diftinction.

After this fhort account of our author, it will be proper to fay fomething of his works; for to write the life of a poct, without fpeaking of his compo fitions, would be as abfurd as to pretend to pu blifh the memoirs of a hero, and omit the relation of his moft material exploits.

All the writings of Theocritus that now remain word Idylliums, D. Heipfius tells us, that the are his Idylliums and Epigrams; in regard to the grammarians termed all those smaller compositions Eon (a fpecies of poetry), which could not be defined from their fubjects, which are various : thus the Sylva of Statius, had they been written in Greck, would have been called Eion and Eiduλ

; even the Roman poets make use of this term; thus Aufonius ftyles one of his books of poems R