What time the morn myfterious vifions brings, While purer flumbers spread their golden wings. Ver. 25. This is not a verfion of the hexameer and pentameter, which make the twenty fifth and twenty-fixth lines of the original in all the ditions the tranflator ever faw: for, as Vulpius well obferves, thefe lines, Non illo quidquam formofius ulla priorum Etas humanum nec videt illud opus, innot be applied to the beauties of Apollo. Certe (fays he) latot malignum ulcus, quod hironis auxilio indigeat: ego lubens depono, : peritiori manui committo." Broekhufius paffes lem over without any remark, although he must ave seen the abfurdity of the paffage. But are e to think that Tibullus wrote nonfenfe? By no eans. Place the lines after the thirty-eighth n the original), and you will find they exactly rrefpond with that ftation; and that there is > occafion to change the "videt" in the pentaeter, into "fuit," as Achilles Statius propofes. Ver. 27. The "myrtea coma" which Tibullus flows on Apollo, Ovid thus explains: ec tamen ater erat, nec erat color aureis illis, Sed quamvis neuter, miftus uterque color. or of a black, nor of a golden hue, ey were, but of a dye between the two. t as the painters (for thus Athenæus informs drew Apollo with black hair, and the poets ve him yellow or golden locks; why does Tillus make the god's hair auburn? Neæra's own ir, fay fome critics, was of that colour, Dic et argutæ properet Neæræ Myrteum nodo cohibere crinem. Hor. lib. iii. Od. 14. or fo Porphyrio, and Cunningham, upon the auority of feveral MSS. read it. This, therefore, ld they, was a delicate compliment to his mif efs. But this folution is more ingenious than lid; for though Horace's Neæra had " myrteus inis," it by no means follows, that Tibullus's eæra had hair of that colour; nor indeed is it any confequence. The emperor Conimodus ed to powder his hair, of which he was paflionely fond, with gold-duft. Ver. 29. The whiteness of the moon has been favourite refemblance fince the days of Solomon; e fun, however, for fome centuries paft, appears have been the more common fimile However, has a beautiful addrefs to the moon, Taffo, which the reader will not be difpleafed to fee. In bianca e vaga Luna, C'hai tanti fpecchi quanti fono i mari Specchiati con lei con amorofo affetto. Ver. 30. As poetry is a great affistant to painting and ftatuary, those who have excelled in these arts, have always particularly cultivated the mufes. Thus Phidias obtained the idea of his Olympian Jove from the Iliad of Homer, and profor placing an eagle on the fceptre of the fame bably was indebted to Pindar's first Pythian ode god. On the other hand, again, painting has been of ufe to poetry; thus, in this century, an excellent Italian poem was compofed from the drawings of the famous Bolognian painter Spagnoletto. Ver. 31. This is one of the ftrokes which feems to me, lays the author of the Polymitis, to have which the mixture of colours here mentioned to been borrowed from fome painting in Rome, in be blended together, was remarkably well executed. Pliny, in fpeaking of the best pieces by Echion there, inftances in one on this fubje&; The famous picture of the Aldobrandine palace in nova nupta, verecundia notabilis," lib. xxxv. 10. Rome is on the fame fubject; and the air of the new bride in it is remarkably modeft. As that is fo good, though done when the art of painting was extremely fallen at Rome, it was very probably copied from fome celebrated picture there, and poffibly from that piece of Echion's. The colours are all fo faded in it (as one may well expect, after the courfe of almoft feventeen hundred years), that we can fee nothing of the beautiful Dialogue 8. blush, that was probably on the face of the bride. Ver. 32. The word “deducta," in the original, has a peculiar beauty, being only applied to the modeft, in opposition to “ producta," a term used for women of the town. Ver. 33. Charmed with the beauties of his vifion, Tibullus here, contrary to custom, multiplies his illuftrations: the lily and the amaranth furnished the ancients with favourite allufions; unaffecting, the moderns labour under great difbut, as the fineft fimiles, by repetition, become ficulties in this reípect. It is true, they have exchanged the amaranth for the rofe; but that has been now fo long employed, that it is grown ftale, and the pocts of this age may exclaim, with the old grammarins, "percant ii, qui, ante nos, noftra dixerunt." It is a pity that Tibullus, who was fo excellent an artist, did not leave more pictures of beauty behind him. Although Ovid and others paint Apollo in much the fame colours as our peut does, we are not, therefore, to fuppofe that they copied from one another. The figure, features, drefs, &c. of the heathen gods, were as well known to the an cients from ftatues, paintings, &c. of them, formed according to a common standard, as St. Peter is now a-days to any Ruman Catholic! Ver. 36. Broekhufius makes our poet indebted to the great Sicilian fhepherd, Idyll. vii. for this fimile. But why need we fuppofe this? It is only fuch as grows in the poetical common of nature; and what no traveller, however little infpired, could fail to pluck as he paffed. Ver. 37. The word, in the original is " palla," he nanic of a robe, with which not only Apollo, Ver. 39. Who the inventor of the lyre was, is uncertain: fome attribute it to Apollo, and others to Mercury. Diodorus informs us, that this inftrument, in conformity to the feafons, affumed at first four strings; but foon after, it mounted feven, in imitation of the planets; and hence Pindar's epithet, when he calls it feven-tongued. It was at first made of gold, filver, or ivory, ornamented with precious ftones; but, in the Auguftan age, the thell of the fea-tortoife coming into very high eftimation, the body of the lyre was principally compofed of it, yet ftill adorned with gold, filver, &c. Hence Horace fays, O mutis quoque pifcibus Donatura cygni, fi libeat, fonum. Goddess of the fweet founding lute, Francis, Book iv. Od. 3. The lyre was played upon with a plectrum of ivory. See a curious differtation on this fubject, prefented by Mr. Molyneux to the Royal Society. Ver. 50. In this paffage Bacchus is deprived of the power of prefcience; and yet we know that many of the ancients regarded him as a prophetical deity. Thus Paufanias tells us, that Bacchus had an oracle in Thrace. But efpecially (book x. chap. 33.) a cave (adurov) at Ophitea, corruptly called Amphiclea, in which were performed his orgies. This cave was acceffible by one road only; and there was in it no ftatue of the god. There the inhabitants of the city and neighbourhood were, in their fleep, informed by the divinity, of remedies appropriated to their diseases; and his priest, infpired by him, acquainted them with future events. Ver. 70. There is a defigned harshness in thefe lines, as in the original. English translators can never be at a lofs for unharmonious combinations; thefe however, like difcord in mufic, when properly introduced, greatly increase the harmony. The tranflator cannot help thinking this a very unjust description of the fair fex, as they are com monly more conftant than men. Ver. 75. The posture of a fuppliant and va quifhed person is happily expressed in the origins Tu modo cum multa brachia tende prece, but could not be preferved in the verfion. Ach les Statius and Douza misunderstood this paffag Ver. 79. See the notes to Elegy iii. Book 2 Ver 92. The original paffage was incomp henfible, till Muretus reftored it, from an MS. thus, Felix. Hoc alium define velle virum. The fenfe of which according to him, is the emblems of barbarifm and infidel ferocity. Ver. 108. This was an artful method of ti farther interefting Nexra's family in favour of in lover. ELEGY V. WHILE you at Tufcan baths for pleasure stay, (Too hot when Sirius darts his fultry ray, Though now that purple spring adorns the trees, Not Baia's more medicinal than these,) Me harder fates attend, my youth decays; Yet spare, Perfephone! my blameless days; 5 With fecret wickedness unftung my foul; (When both the confuls fell, ah fatal morn! Let me (with age when wrinkled all my face) 20 Thrice five long days and nights confum'd with fire, 30 NOTES ON ELEGY V. Some critics are of opinion, that this elegy was written by Tibullus when very young, and difengag. ad from any amorous attachment, as in it he makes no mention of any of his former mistreffes. And indeed it must be confessed, that their conjectures are not always fo well founded; for had his heart been engaged, his ficknefs, which makes the fubject of the poem, would have fupplied him with as many pathetic thoughts as it did when he was left behind in the island of Corfu. But be this as it will, the elegy itself is valuable, for being the only one wherein our poet gives us any hints of his own perfon, which, as it really was amiable, is no fmall proof of his modesty. It is addreffed to fome of his friends, who were then at the hot baths of Tufcany, where, probably, our poet was to have been of the party, had not a violent fever prevented him. However defirous the commentators may fhow themfeives to difcover the names of the poet's friends, that discovery is now impoffible; but if we are not ignorant of this, the poem itfelf informs us, that Tibullus compofed it on the fifteenth day of his diforder, which he entreats Persephone speedily to bring to a happy crifis, as he was then young, and by his conduct had never merited any chastisement from heaven. Ver. I. Critics have in vain endeavoured to determine which of the Tufcan baths are here meant. Schoppius believes them to have been the Clufin; but these were cold, as we learn from Horace, Ep. 15. lib. i. wherein thofe, at which Tibullus's friends appear to have been, were warm. Ver. 4. Baia was the most remarkable warm bath in Italy. The name of it came in time to ftand for "therme" in general. Ver. 9. The myfteries here meant, were thofe of Ceres, the moft revered of any in ancient times. As it was piacular to divulge them, the reader muft not expect to find them defcribed with the fame exactness as the other religious ceremonies of paganifm. But what is known of certainty of them, fhall here briefly be collected. The Eleufinian myfteries, for fo they were also called, were divided into the greater and the leffer, and celebrated at Athens, at stated seasons, with great pomp of machinery and folemn fhows. Thefe drew together a vast concourfe of people from all nations; and many earnestly defired to be initiated, but that favour was bestowed upon none but those of the first rank and figure. The reverence with which Cicero fpeaks of them, and the hints he drops of their ufe and end, feem to confirm Dr. Warburton's conjecture about them, viz. that they were intended to inculcate God's unity and the immortality of the foul. The fhows are fuppofed to have reprefented Heaven, Hell, Elyfium, and whatever concerned a future fate. The poets often alluded to them; and we find Cicero, at the request of Chilias a famous poet, requesting Atticus to fend him from Athens à detail of them. This intimates, that these shows were occafionally varied; and Dr. Middleton conjectures, that the detail here defired from Atticus was intended by the poet as epifodes to fome of his poetical performances. Is Virgil's fixth Æneid a representation of this kind? The fuppofition is highly ingenious, and Dr. Warburton has fupported it with no lefs fancy than learning. So cautious were the Athenians, in Cicero's time, of violating the folemnity of these mysteries, that the famous orator Craffus, coming to Athens two days after the proceflion was over, could not prevail on the magiftrates to re-exhibit the shows, although be was one of the first fenators of Rome. Whoever divulged the Eleufiniau myfteries, was expelled the fociety of human kind, and abhorred as a monster unworthy the common benefits of life. It was esteemed dangerous to converfe with him, left Jupiter, in his wrath, should make no diftinction between the innocent and the guilty. Thus Horace, -vetabo, qui cereris facrum Sit trabibus, fragilemve mecum Vulgarit arcanæ, fub ifdem Solvat phase lum. Horat. Lib. iii. Gde 2.. He who can friendship's fecrets tell, Or Ceres' hallow'd rites reveal; The wretch with me fhall never dwell, The Greeks, according to Dacier, not only punished with death those who revealed, but those also to whom the mysteries were imparted. When the Athenians for two years were baffled in their attempts against Sicily, Alcibiades, who not only advised, but conducted that war, was accufed by that fuperftitious people of having divulged the myfteries of Ceres. Numenius, the celebrated Pythagorean, having published an account of the myteries, fome goddeffes, in the wanton drefs of courtefans, appeared to him. The philosopher, with surprise, asking the reason, was told by them in an angry tone, "Ab fe, ipfo adyto pudicitiæ abftractas, et paffim adeuntibus proftitutas:" That he himself dragged them from the fhrine of chastity, and prostituted their charms to every comer. Macrob. Somn. Scip. cap. 2. Ver. 10. Nothing tends fo much to foften the horrors of death, as the confsciousness of a wellfpent life. Upon a death-bed, every object appears in its genuine colours; as the mind then often has the niceft perception of right and wrong. Ver. 13. When both the confuls feli, ab fatal morn! Fatal to Roman freedom! I was born.] At the end of the year U. C. 709, the famous Mark Antony, under the fpecious pretext of revenging the mur der of Cæfar, left Rome. Decimus Brutus (whofe name, next to that of Marcus Brutus, the patrons of liberty will ever reverence for his glorious fhare in the death of Julius), was to feel the firft effects of his bloody rage. Although Gaul had cheerfully declared in favour of Brutus, and had levied a confiderable force, yet was that patriot, at the approach of Antony, obliged to throw himfelf into Modena. As Antony knew the averfion of the better and wifer fenators to his conduct; how devoted the veterans were to his political, though young enemy, Octavius; and the levies that were vigorously carrying on by decree of the fenate, to fupport the confuls ele, Hirtius and Panfa; he easily faw that no time was to be loft in the reduction of that city: accordingly he invested it with a formidable body of troops, pofted to fo great advantage, that even after Octavius and the conful Hirtius arrived with a veteran army, the place too defending itself with no lefs art than courage, he reduced the befieged to very great ftraits, and feldom was worsted in his rencounters with the confular army. Modena had now flood out near four months, when, on the 15th of April, U. C. 710, Antony having intelligence that the other conful, Panfa, with four legions, was to join the confederate chiefs, he refolved to attack him on his march, with two legions, two Prætorian cohorts, and part of the Evocati. It is fcarce to be imagined but the plan would have fucceeded, as the enemy was made up of raw levies, had not Hirtius privily in the night detached the martial legion and two Prætorian | cohorts, to cover their march to the camp. the eagerness of that reinforcement, which ra forward to attack Antony, Panfa was obliged i follow after with two of the new legions, and brifk engagement was fought at Caftel-France, which Panfa was mortally wounded, and the t tory, by the retreat of his enemies, inclined's Antony. His joy, however, was fhort, for Hir hearing of the engagement, marched out twenty veteran cohorts, met Antony, entir routed and put to flight his whole army, in very plain fo lately the fcene of his glory. A tony, though now obliged to lie on the defetiv in his ftrongly fortified camp, ftill hoped to mur himself mafter of Modena, which was now f ced to the greatest difficulties. Octavia Hirtius faw this; and, flufhed with their lat cefs, were determined at all hazards, to rhet the town. To effectuate this, after two thres days spent in finding out the weakest part of d tony's camp, they attacked the entrenchm with fuch vigour, that Antony, rather than it the town to be fnatched at last from him, er out all his forces, and came to a generali Little advantages were gained on either t both armies fought like Romans, till D. tus, taking the 'opportunity, fallied out d town at the head of his garrifon, and h greatly to determine the victory on the fict republic. Hirtius pushed his advantage great fpirit, drove all before him to the ma the enemy's camp, where he was unfortun killed, near the general's tent. This pr would have turned the fortune of the day, not Octavius made good the attempt, by key poffeffion of Antony's camp, while that getti, after the deftruction of his beft troops, Bed pitately, with his horse, towards the Alp other conful died the day after, of his with Bologna. This was the greatest lofs th could poffibly fuftain at that time; as the ind the two confuls placed Octavius above al troul, left him fole mafter of their armies cially the veterans, and first infpired him with defign of fucceeding to his uncle's power a vel as to his eftate. That with inferior martial tues, the fucceffor of Julius was equally fuccedu and that after the moft bloody profcriptions of the beft families of the empire, he reigned que nay gloriously; are particulars which our pres purpofe calls not upon us to explain: we beg leave to remark, that if the two lines whit gave rife to this note, are genuine, Tibulla have been born A. U. C. 710, fome time betwe the 14th and 15th of April, and perhaps the very fame day with Ovid. This was opinion of Petrus Crinitus and Lelio Giraldi, of every biographer till the time of Jofephus S liger. That great fcholar could not well reconcil that date to fome other paffages in Tibullus but the affair remained undetermined, till Janus Des the younger, attempted to prove, that the " cecidit fato," &c. was ftolen from Ovid, ande ferted in Tibullus. The reafons on which he, thofe of his party, ground their opinion, and A the objections which may be urged against them, are as follow: In the first place, it appears from the seventh elegy of the first book, that our poet not only atended Meffala to the war of Aquitaine, but that he was alfo rewarded with military honours for his behaviour at that time. Now it is known, hat the reduction of that province was accomlifhed A. U. C 725; of course, if Tibullus was orn 710, he must have had those marks of fucelsful bravery conferred on him when he was ony fifteen years of age; but the Romans did not ut on the " toga virilis" at fooneft till the fif eenth year of their age; therefore, say they, Tiullus could not, if no older, ferve with Meffala. This argument, however, is more fpecious than fod; for it is certain that fome Roman youths had le manly gown conferred on them before their fteenth year; and experience fhows us, that oung men at that age often behave with as much trepidity, as thofe who are more advanced in fe. Again, Horace, in the ode addreffed to Tibul. is, has the following lines: Albi ne delas plus nimio memor, &c. o more in elegiac ftrain f cruel Glycera complain; Francis, Lib. i. Ode 33. new ow, argues Douza, as Horace was but about forty hen this ode was wrote, Tibullus could only be out fifteen; and how could one at thofe years rite mournful elegies? or how could Glycera well efer one younger than himself? To obviate is objection, Dacier explains junior by a ver. But there is no occafion for this frained terpretation; for it will afterwards be proved, hat younger folks have written, and with aplaufe too, poems of a more difficult nature than legy; and he must know little of life, who has ot obferved fome women, even in our cold clinate, prefer a lover of fourteen even to one of wenty; and Julius Cæfar divorced Coffutia in he fixteenth year of his age. But not to infist on hefe arguments; the critics may be defied to prove forace's age, when the thirty-third ode of his firft book was written: for though that poet was just orty when fome of the odes of the fecond book were compofed, we know that his odes are not placed in the order they were written: hence there is no neceflity of alleging, with fome critics, that this ode was written to our poet's father. But, fays Vulpius, Horace, when upwards of forty" (octo luftra prætergeflum)", used to confult Tibullus upon his fatire, as appears from the following line, Albi noftrorum fermonum candide judes. Albius, in whom my fatires find A candid critic, and a kind. Francis. Now this, adds the Italian editor, is not to be fuppofed; as Tibullus, at that time, muft, if born in 710, have been nineteen years younger than the poet. To this it may be answered, that a perfon of nineteen, if endowed with good fenfe, and fome practice in poetry, may be capable of correcting the writings of a man of forty: thus Pope, when younger than Tibullus is fuppofed to be, amended Wycherley's poems, when that gentlemen was upwards of fifty; and even wrote the Effay on Citicifm at twenty. But, what is of more confequence, the critics are not agreed about the time when the fourth epifle of the first book was written thus Sanadon fays, it was compofed about the year 720, when Horace was thirtyone, and Tibullus thirty years old. And the truth is, the precife time of it cannot be determined. Befides, the commentators have proved, that Horace wrote an epiftle to Lollius, when that nobleman attended Auguftus in the Cantabrian war, A. U. C. 727, and was only fixteen years of age. Again, fays Brockhufius, our Roman knight fell fick at Phæacia, in his voyage with Meffala to Syria. Now it is certain, that excellent general went thither with an extraordinary command, A. U. C. 724; therefore Tibulus, if born 710, could only then be fourteen: and yet it appears from the elegy itfelf (which is much too fine a piece for a boy of thefe years), that he had been fome time in love with Delia. To this argument, this short reply may be made: that it cannot be proved that Meffala was upon his Syrian expedi tion when our poet was left behind fick in Phæ acia; and, could that even be established, inftances are not wanting to prove, that poems, not inferior to the third elegy of the first book, have been the production of youths not much older. L. Valerius Prudens gained the prize of poetry, and was crowned, in the reign of Domitian, when only thirteen years old; Johannes Secundus was not twenty-five years old when he died; and there is good reafon for afferting, that Cardinal Rovera, when only ten years of age, published at Pavia, a collection of his own poems; nay, it is a fact, that Cowley printed a volume of poems, all which were written before his fifteenth year. Well; but, fays Vulpius, it is not to be believed, that Ovid, who was fo ftudious of the memory of Tibullus, and fo minutely exact in other things of lefs moment, would have paffed by an event which did fuch honour to his own birth, had Tibullus and he been born at the fame time. To this it may be answered, that he had but a fhort acquaintance with our poet, as he himself informs us, -nec avara Tibullo Tempus amicitiæ fata dedere meæ. It may, however, be objected, say Douza and a. thers, that Domitius Marfus calls Tibullus a youth when he died: Te quoque Virgilio comitem non æqua, Tibulle, |