His hopes obtain'd by every horrid crime, 40 In gold, alas! the venal fair delight! Since beauty fighs for spoil, for fpoil I'll fight! In all my plunder Nemefia fhall shine, Yours be the profit, be the peril mine: To deck your heav'nly charms the filk-worm dis, Embroidery labours, and the shuttle fies! 5 For you be rifled ocean's pearly ftore! To you Pactolus fend his golden ore! Ye Indians, blacken'd by the nearer fun, Before her steps in fplendid liveries run; For you fhall wealthy Tyre and Afric vie, To yield the purple, and the scarlet dye. NOTES ON ELEGY VI. THIS elegy is more than commonly difficult; and, what too frequently happens, the commentators, especially Scaliger, have increased thefe difficulties, by endeavouring to explain them. Emilius Macer, a nobleman, even famous in the Auguftan age for his gallantry and wit, had been intrufted by the fucceffor of Julius, with the execution of fome military enterprife. At his departure from Rome, it is probable, he boafted to our poet, that however deeply he feemed engaged in love, yet was his heart his own, and now only panted for military fame. As Tibullus could not but regard this declaration as a fecret fatire on his own conduct, he earnestly addreffes Cupid to follow Macer to the field; from which if he did not bring him back, he threatens to defert his fervice himself, and in the various life of a foldier, to diffipate his tendreffe for the fair. In fancy our poet becomes a military man, and bids adieu to love and its trifling purfuits; but his ardor foon cools; he owns, though Nemefis was ftill infenfible to his fufferings, that his paffion for her was as violent as ever. From this, he takes occafion to advise the young noblemen of Rome, who, to get rid of love, might flatter themselves, that a military life would effectually answer, to lay afide all their martial intentions, and, like him, implicitly ferve under the banner of Cupid. His advice, however, does not feem to have been relifhed by thofe for whom it was defigned: gold, which at that time was chiefly to be obtained by war, having, it would feem, corrupted them. This was one of the many difafters produced by the civil wars, in which fuch immenfe fortunes had been amaffed, that manumitted flaves then wallowed in minifterial fortunes. With this known truth he concludes his panegyric on wealth; and therefore the two lines, Nota loquor, &c. For by this change these two lines, which migo fally puzzled the commentators, have a councža and may be made fenfe of. Bat though the ke of riches had fo generally infected even the yang Tibullus only begs that he might enjoy the he had, in all the fimplicity of ancient Unfortunately, however, for our poet, Neds liked opulence; and, as he was wholly att to her, he fuddenly determines to become ndr war; neither could Cupid be offended with t as with his spoils he only meant to adorn his trefs. Ver. 1. This elegy, and the third and fr of this book, have been miferably mangled sa blended together, in the Variorum edition: fes ftance, all the verses of this, from “ At upque is es," to the end, are in that edition into the third elegy," rura tenent," &c. ait these lines have no manner of connection with elegy. But, by way of compenfation, the Var orum editors have not only laid the forefaid th elegy under a contribution of four lines to the beginning at " Acer amor fractas," &c. bat have alfo tagged to it the next elegy, beginning "> nirent multi leto mala.” Joannes Baptifta Pius, Achilles Statius Glandorpius are all of opinion, that Tib means here Pompeius Macer, the fon of The phanes of Mitylene, to whoni Auguftus intratio as Suetonius informs us, the management of bo library. The arguments they allege in deka of this, are chiefly taken from Ovid, who, in 12: eighteenth elegy of his fecond book, fpeaks thes of Macer : Carmen ad iratum dum tu perducis Achillem, which in all editions are placed at the end of this Tu canis, æterno quidquid reftabat Homero elegy, should immediately follow Ne careant fumma Troica bella manu. Negligat hybernas. From whence they conclude, that Pompeius Ma- | cer was a poet, and wrote the Paralipomena of Homer. This opinion is however unfupported by claffical authority. But if there is no cause to believe that Theophanes was a poet, we know, that Æmilius Macer was a confiderable one; and as he made a diflinguished figure in the court of Auguftus, it is not unreasonable to conclude, he was the nobleman whom Tibullus mentions in this elegy. nilius Macer then was born at Verona, a city famous for the births of Lucretius, Catullus, and the archite& Vitruvius. Ovid informs us, that Macer was his fenior, and that he travelled with him through Afla and Sicily. We also know from the fame poet, as well as from Pliny, that Macer, befides the pieces already mentioned, wrote likewife a poem on birds, ferpents, and on the virtues of plants. Of this performance, which he ufed often to recite to Ovid, two or three lines only remain. In it he chiefly copied Nicander, a poet of Colophon. Nor were thefe his only poetical performances: he compofed a piece, intituled Theriaca, of which Ifidorus and others have faved near half a dozen verfes. Nonius MarcelJus adds, that he wrote a Theogony, of which he mentions one verfe: but fome learned men think, that the line quoted must have belonged rather to his Ornithology. Befides thefe ufeful works, he published fomething on bees (probably in verse), as Pliny informs us, lib. xi. Quintilian allows both Macer and Lucretius to have been elegant, but ftigmatizes the one as obfcure, and the other as creeping. Utinam" (fays Brockhufius) "ho die de Macro et nobis arbitrari liceret! Utinam faltem liiaca exftarent, quas tanti facit Nafo, ut ab his libris, honorificum dederit auctori cognomentum," Cum foret et Marfus, magnique Babirius oris, Lib. iv. Pont. Ep. 16. Macer died in Afia, about the time that Auguftus adopted Caius and Lucius, the fons of Agrippa; which, according to the Eufebian Chronicle, hap. pened A. U. C. 737. in the confulate of C. Furnius, and Juf. Silanus. The poem De Viribus Herbarum, which at prefent paffes under the name of Am. Macer, is the work of one Odo, who was as wretched a poet, as he was a bad phyfician. Vide Lilio Gyrald, J. C. Scaliger, and Gaudent. Merul. Ital. Illuftr. We therefore wonder how that elegant scholar and excellent anatomift, Thomas Bartholin, could be fo far impofed upon, as to take this miferable ftoff for a poem, which was the delight of the Auguftan age. See his Differt. de Medi cis Poeticis. Ver. 3. This paffage in the original has mightily puzzled the interpreters. Scaliger and Brockhufius explain it, as if the poet lamented the fate of little Cupid, who would now be obliged to attend Macer to the field, and to be his armourbearer. Vulpius, on the other hand, condemns Scaliger's explanation, and fays, that the poet feems to intimate, that Cupid himself should put on arms. This fenfe of the paffage is what the tranflator has adopted, as the nioft poetical. We learn from Ovid, that Macer was not averse to love, but even mixed strokes of gallantry in his heroic compofitions. Nec tibi (qua tutum vati, Macer arma canenti) Ver. 14. Read, instead of "facta," in the generality of editions, & mihi grata tuba eft. Hammond has improved upon this elegy in his fecond. Adieu, ye walls, that guard my cruel fair! No more I'll fit in rofy fetters bound; My limbs have learnt the weight of arms to bear, My rouzing spirits feel the trumpet's found. Few are the maids that now on merit fmile; On fport and war is bent this iron age; Yet pain and death attend on war and spoil, Unfated vengeance, and remorseless rage. To purchase spoil, ev'n love itself is fold: Her lover's heart is leaft Neæra's care. And I through war, must seek detefted gold; Not for myself, but for my venal fair! That while the bends beneath the weight of dress, The fliffen'd robe may spoil her easy mien ; And art mistaken, make her beauty lefs, While ftill it hides fome graces better feen. But if fuch toys can win her lovely fmile, Her's be the wealth of Tagus golden fand, But where, alas! would idle fancy tend, In forc'd embraces act the tyrant's part; And scorn the person where I doubt the heart. Thus warm'd by pride, I think I love no more, And hide in threats the weakness of my mind In vain-Though reafon fly the hated door, Yet love, the coward love, ftill lags behind. pes tamen ipfe redit. And, as Vulpius obferves, it appears to have been a colloquial expreflion, equally idiomatical both to Greeks and Romans. Horace has a thought of the fame nature, in his excellent epode to Pettius; where, complain 3 Diij But are we, therefore, to conclude, that Horace was indebted to Tibullus for this thought? By no means. For, as one of the best critics that ever inftructed this island, obferves, "Many fubjects "fall under the confideration of an author, which "being limited by nature, can admit only of flight "and accidental diversities. All definitions of the "fame thing, must be nearly the fame; and de"fcriptions, which are definitions of a more loofe "and fanciful kind, must always have, in fome degree, that refemblance to each other, which "they all have to their object. Different poets, defcribing the fpring and the fea, would men"tion the zephyrs and the flowers, the billows " and the rocks: reflecting on human life, they "would, without any communication of opinions, "lament the deceitfulness of hope, the fugacity "of pleasure, the fragility of beauty, and the frequency of calamity; and, for palliatives of thefe "incurable miferies, they would concur in re"commending kindness, temperance, caution, and "fortitude." Rambler, No. 143. Ver. 37. Would the reader know to what immenfe extravagance the Romans went in this ar ticle of fea-fish-ponds, he may confult Varro, De Re Ruft. cap. 17. where he treats of these “pif cinæ marinæ." Ver. 41. It is reported by hiflorians, that De metrius, the freed-man of Pompey, by attending that general in his conquefts, amaffed greater wealth than his mafter himself. It is probable, however, our poet, in this paffage, glances at fome of the Cæfarian party. Ver. 43. Be ours the joys of economic cafe.] From the original, At mihi læta trahant Samiæ convivia teflæ The tranflator approves of Scaliger's correction, In inferting" mili." Although by rendering it ours, he takes in alfo" tibi," which is the other pronoun that contends for a place here. The poet particularly celebrates Samos and Cuma.a marts of the best and cheapest earthen ware. Vide Pliny, lib xxxiii. cap. 12. Ver. 45. Pliny informs us, that gold was net coined at Rome till the year 647, about fixty-twa years after filver had been first coined there. Until this period, the Romans, it seems, fubuffed on the money of the nations they conquered. Ver. 50. Embroidery labours, &c.] This in the original is, Illa gerat veftes, &c. The island Cos was remarkable of old for gold tiffues and other luxuries of apparel. The gra Hippocrates was born there. Ver. 55. Authors make a difference betwee the Tyrian and Lybian dye, though they are fometimes ufed promifcuously by good ch writers. The Tyrian was the richest drefu could wear. The "pretexta" of the Rom giltrates was of purple, a colour which they t times permitted fuch foreign princes as depended on them to affume, but never till they had ma exorbitant prefents to the confuls. ELEGY VII. THOUSANDS in death would seek an end of woe, | Yet, yet you treat me with the fame difdain: Oft, when alive, in my behalf she spoke : This moving object renovates your woe: She, Phryne, promis'd to promote my vows: I wish thee, Phryne! then a thousand woes ;- NOTES ON ELEGY VII. especially if thefe paid proper honours to their tombs, our poet informs his cruel fair one, that he means to repair to her fifter's monument, and by oblations of flowers, &c. to implore her affistance. But, as it was natural for him to imagine, that the mentioning fo favourite an object would renew all Nemefis's grief for her unfortunate end, he breaks off, and artfully throwing the blame of what he had fuffered on her fervant, he finishes the elegy with curfing her. SUICIDE was not only not criminal, but esteemed heroical by the Romans. We may fuppofe but few destroyed themselves from philofophical motives, although the Stoics permitted it. Under the emperors, indeed, thofe efpecially that difgraced nature, felf-murder became too frequent, as then only the best men were doomed the victims of their barbarity; for by this means they preserved their eftates to their pofterity: Under fuch circumstances, fuicide was in truth lefs blameable; but ftill no circumstances can be offered, Ver. I. Although the Romans looked upon which wholly abate its iniquity. Be that, how- fuicide as heroical; yet Virgil thus defcribes the ever, as it will, even thofe who condemn felf-evil condition and remorfe of those who had laid murder as unjuftifiable, will own that death violent hands upon themselves: founds prettily in the mouth of a lover; and this gives fome countenance to the reading, Finirent multi leto mala, &c. and as it appears by the line Spes facilem Nemefin, &c. that he only was enumerating fome of the many effects of that catholic cordial hope, the tranflator has adopted the more common reading, and, with Broekhufius, has made this a diftin& elegy; which, in not a few editions, is prepofterously tacked to the foregoing poem. The whole exiftence of a lover is made up of hope and fears: Though always difappointed by Nemefis, our poet ftill hoped, that his amorous inclinations would at laft be indulged: for this purpole, he entreats her, as was natural, by the things the held most dear.-The text informs us, that her fifter had unfortunately fallen from a window, and broken her neck: this perfon had always warmly efpoufed the intereft of Tibullus; and as it was a point of pagan belief, that their ghofts continued their attention to their friends on earth, Proxima deinde tenent mæfti loca, qui fibi letum In Plato's almost divine dialogue, intituled, Phæ do, Socrates has fully evinced the unlawfulness of felf-murder. This dialogue Cicero feems to have copied in his admirable piece, intituled, Somnium Scipionis.Quæfo, inquam, pater fanctiffime atque optime, quoniam hæc eft vita, (ut Africa. nuat audio dicere) quid moror in terra? quin hinc ad vos venire propero? Non eft ita, inquit ille; nifi Deus is, cujus hoc templum eft omne quod confpicis, iftis te corporis cuftodiis liberaverit, huc tibi aditus patere non poteft. Homines enim funt hac lege generati, qui tuerentur illum globum, quem in hoc templo medium vides, quæ terra dicitur; hifque animus datus eft ex illis fempiternis ignibus, quæ fidera, et ftellas vocatis: que globofæ, et rotundæ, circos fuos orbesque conficiunt celeritate mirabili. Quare et tibi, Publi, et piis omnibus retinendus eft animus in cuftodia corporis: nec injuffu ejus, a quo ille eft vobis da tus, ex hominuni vita migrandum eft, ne munus humanum adfignatum a Deo defugiffe videam.ini." Ver. 2. Hope is a poetical fubject, to which 3 D iiij many, both ancient and modern, have done great juftice. Theognis fuppofes, that when the other gods left the earth, hope only staid behind. This thought Ovid has adopted: Hæc dea, quum fugerent fceleratas numina terras, In dils invifa fola remanfit hume. As hope, as well as fear, is one of the barriers implanted in us by nature, to prevent our rushing out of life, ought it not to have been taken into the cftimate of life in Hamlet's Soliloquy? To be, or not to be; which, however fenfible, has, as a late critic well obferves, nothing to do in the place where it is introduced. This enumeration of the confequences of hope, or what it may be productive of, though not fre. quent in our poet, is yet common in Ovid, and has in leed a fine effect even in perceptive poems; but in fuch as are impaffioned or heroic, feems effentially in proper. Hence Marino and Davenant are reprehenfible; neither is Shakspeare himself entirely free from blame on this score. St. Paul, with no lefs beauty than emphasis of expreffion, calls hope our early immortality. The excellent author of the Night Thoughts, thus expreffes his fentiments with regard to wishing: Wishing of all employments, is the worst, Philofophy's reverfe, and health's decay! Were I as plump as ftall'd theology, Withing would waste me to this fhade again. Were I as wealthy as a South-Sea dream, Wishing is an expedient to be poor. Withing, that conftant hectic of a fool; Caught at a court; purg'd off by purer air, And fimpler diet, gifts of rural life! Ver. 9. The goddefs, mentioned in the ofiginal, is, by fome commentators, fuppofed to be Nemefis: but as that would be more in the affected mode of Ovid, than in the natural way of Tibullus; and as the context, when carefully confidered, fhows that the poet meant hope, the tranflator has kept to that interpretation in the verfion, notwithstanding Otway, in his tranflation of this elegy, retains the former. Ver. 22. Vulpius has collected almost a century of quotations, to prove, that the ancients, when deeply affected with forrow generally fat. "Graviter dolentes, veteri confuctudine, fere femper fedebant." A wonderful difcovery this, and well worthy of critical investigation! Ver. 29. According to ancient fuperftition, ghofts often appeared in the fame difmal circumRances in which they had departed life. Of this we have a striking inftance in Virgil:. Inftances of the fame fort may be found in Orić, Met. lib. ii. ver. 650. Faft. lib. v. ver. 451. and Brucks in Statius, Theb. lib. ii. ver. 120. Ver. 31. Baptifta Guarini, in a fonnet what he blames his tongue for being unable to exprch his love, thus addresses his eyes: Ma fe mota fe' tu, fien gli occhi noftri Son.. Many other paffages might here be added, whee in fpeaking eyes are mentioned; for this has be the language of lovers in all ages. But, as excellent Rambler remarks, "There are flows "of fiction fo widely fcattered, and fo eafily "ped, that it is fcarcely just to tax the med "them, as an act by which any particular wi "is defpoiled of his garland, for they may "faid to be planted by the ancients in the open "road of poetry, for the accommodation of the "fucceffors, and to be the right of every one, "that has art to pluck them without injung "their colours or their fragrance." Ver. 35. Nay, were you guilty, &c.] This s ture; but the Arcadian lovers of Italy carry h emotions beyond the bounds of probability. ogni cofa (fays Aminta) O tentato per placarla fuor che morte Mi refta fuol che per placarla io mora, E morro volontier pur ch' io fia certo Cheila o le ne compiacera, o le ne doglia Ne fo de tai due cofe qual piu brami. A mighty difficulty, in truth! Ver. 37. If the reader is defirous to know the ftratagems practifed by the bawds of antiqusty, he may perufe Ovid's El. viii. lib. 1. and Proper tius, lib. iv. el. 5. In this particular, however, the modern fifterhood, if the modeft editor of 4 late justly famous romance defcribes them right, greatly furpals their ancient predeceffors. |