1 3 gular with a plural an elegance; but it is a queftion, whether the inftances of this kind which occur in the tragic bard are not the effect of chance, or fault of transcribers, &c. This pentameter is the only turn on words to be found in Tibullus. When fparingly admitted, fuch turns are doubclefs beauties. Mr. Dryden makes Virgil the parent of this elegance in compofition: that critic, how. ever, is mistaken, as Homer has a turn on the words, Il. 20, where Hector fays, that at all events he will attack Achilles : Εν πυρί χειρας εοικε" μενος αιθων, σιδήρω. Not from yon boafter fhall your chief retire, Not though his heart were steel, his hands were fire: That fire, that feel, your Hector fhould withftand, And brave the vengeful heart, and dreadful hand. On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower, Various this peaceful scene, this mineral roof; So very attentive was Mr. Pope not to lofe any of the beauties of his original. And if Mr. Dryden (Dedicat. to Juvenal) had looked, he would have found that Catullus used this charm in writ-nymphs; which, fays Vulpius, is a poetical figing before Virgil. With thee converfing, I forget all time! All feafons, and their change, all please alike. Ver. 61. Bacchus was brought up by the ment, fignifying that wine ought to be mixed with water. Α. Νύμφαι τον Βακχον οτ' εκ πυρος πλαθ ̓ ὁ κυρις Feftus obferves, that the boon companions of old ufed fometimes to tie birds to their garlands, not only to amufe themfelves with their fongs, but alfo to be kept awake by their pecking; fo ingenious were they in the article of drinking! The garlands ufed at first upon thefe occafions, were made of fine wool; and therefore Theocritus calls them was awry, the flower of the sheep. Parfley, roles, ivy, &c. came afterwards to be worn; for which, as well as for the introduction of effences in drinking, the topers of antiquity were indebted to the fair fex. Lipfius has given us the "leges convivales" of the ancients. To ELEGY o you my tongue eternal fealty fwore, My lips the deed with confcious rapture own; A fickle libertine I rove no more, You only please, and lovely feem alone. The numerous beauties that gay Rome can boaft, breast. Ah no fufpicion is the teft of love: I too dread rivals, I'm fufpicious grown; VII. For various converfe I should long no more, She can deprefs, exalt, inftruct, and cheer. Should mighty Jove fend down from heaven a maid, With Venus' ceftus zon'd, my faith to try, (So, as I truth declare, me Juno aid!) For you I'd fcorn the charmer of the sky. But hold you're mad to vow, unthinking fool! Her boundless fway you're mad to let her know: Your charms the most infenfate heart muft | Safe from alarms, she'll treat you as a tool— move; Would you were beauteous in my eyes alone! I want not man to envy my fweet fate, Vain-glorious vaunts the filent wife deteft. Ah, babbling tongue! from thee what mischiefs flow! Yet let her ufe me with neglect, difdain; NOTES ON ELEGY VII. ALTHOUGH this poem is ufually published at the end of the fourth book, yet as fome old critics affert, that Tibullus wrote only three books of elegies, and as this piece, in the opinion of Broekhufius, has all the marks of Tibullian legitimacy, the tranflator has taken the liberty to place it here; not ftrialy rendered, but more paraphrastically, as, in his opinion, better fuited to the genius of the alternate stanza. What induced the tranflator to turn paraphraft with this elegy, was, that though the critics unanimoufly afcribed it to Tiblluus, yet did he think, that the thoughts had not that fimplicity, which conftitutes one of the characteristical beauties of our poet. And though Tibullus is mentioned in the poem, no argument can thence be drawn of it being the work of our poct, as in after-times, thofe who excelled in elegy affected to ftyle themselves Tibullus: and it is known that Nero used to call the poet Nerva by that appellation. Ver. 11. Your charms the most infenfate beart of move; Would you were charming in my eyes alone !} This, exclaims the polite Dutch commenta tor, is rufticity itself! For what more cruel, to a fine woman, could he wish, than that the fold please one man only? And what do the ladies aim at, in all their finery and variety of drefs, but to appear amiable even to those whom they neither can, nor with to love? Delectant etiam caftas præconia formæ. And what woman did you ever see, however vile and wretched, whofe face or perfon you dared, in her own prefence, to contemn with impunity; or who thought herself ugly? Beauty they prefer to life itself, and death they view without dumay, if they carry their charms along with them. Thes far Brockhufius. D'Urfey, who was the first, that gave the French an idea of paftoral romance, has copied | It figh'd and griev'd, impatient of her stay; this thought of our author; and, indeed, it better Return'd, the chas'd those fighs, that grief away; fuited fuch languid unnatural compofitions as the Her abfence made the night, her presence made Aftrea, than the serious fenfibility of the elegiac the day. mufe. Ver. 12. Cowley has imitated this; or rather, fuch conceits were in his way. How happy here, should I And one dear the, live, and embracing die; I fhould have then this only fear, force to the charms of their Galateas and Phyllifes, The paftoral writers often afcribe ftill greater perhaps very impertinently. Ver. 25. Thus finely imitated by Croxal : Were I invited to a nectar feaft In heaven, and Venus nam'd me for her guest ; Though Mercury the meffenger fhould prove, Or her own fon, the mighty god of love; At the fame inftant let but honeft Tom From Sylvia's dear terrestrial lodging come, With look important fay-" defires-at three, How much more truly does Prior reprefent the« Alone-your company-to drink fome tea.' contentment which lovers feel in one another's company? My conqueror now, my lovely Abra held My freedom in her chains; my heart was fill'd Though Tom were mortal, Mercury divine, THE POEMS OF SULPICIA. ADVERTISEMENT. SOME of the best modern commentators contend, that the little poems which compofe this fourth book, are not the work of Tibullus. Their chief arguments are derived from the language and fentiment; in both which, it is faid, and with more juftice than is common on fuch occafions, that they bear no refemblance to our poet's productions. But if the following little pieces are not the compofition of Tibullus, to whom fhall we impute them? Shall we, with Cafpar Barthius, and Broekhufius, afcribe them to Sulpicia, the wife of Calenus, who flourished in the reign of Domitian? This opinion is by no means improbable, for we know from Martial and Sidonius Apolii naris, that Sulpicia was eminent in those days for her poetry. Omnes Sulpiciam legant puellæ, Tales egregiæ jocos fuiffe. Mart. Lib. x. Ep. 35. that as the following pieces are of a strain dif But to this proof, it is objected by Vulpius, ferent from those celebrated by Martial, so they could not be written by the wife of Calenus, but are Tibullus's; and that the Sulpicia they praise, was the daughter of Servius Sulpicius, the famous lawyer, fome of whofe epiftles to Cicero, are ftill extant: For, he who is called Sulpicia in this book, adds he, certainly lived in the reign of Auguftus, as Horace himself mentions Cerinthus, and Meffala is named in the eighth poem. To this it may be answered, that it cannot be proved, that Sulpicia had never been in love before the married Calenus; or had never compofed any other poems, befides thofe of the conjugal kind, fo much extolled by Martial? Nay, have we not our own teftimony, that he wrote fome thousands of picces ? Cetera quin etiam, quot denique millia lufi! And we know from fome of Sulpicia's lines, preferved by the old Scholiaft on Juvenal, that the fometimes wrote in a manner the very reverfe of that which the epigrammatift celebrates; and of course she may ftill be the author of these poems. Nor does it follow from Horace's having made mention of one Cerinthus (lib. i. fat. 2. line 81.) who was fond of a rich miftrefs, that therefore this mistress was Sulpicia; unless it could be proved, that Cerinthus never loved any but Sulpicia; and that there never was a perfon of the name of Cerinthus, but in the age of Auguftus. Again, though Meffala is mentioned in the eighth poem of this book, it cannot thence be inferred, that this was our poet's patron; unless it could be proved that the name Meffala (which is not true) expired with that illuftrious Roman. Therefore the following poems may ftill be the offspring of Martial's Sulpicia. But against this opinion it is farther urged by Illam quidquid agit, quoque veftigia movet furmounted: the twelfth poem, accordinglý fome others, cannot be Sulpicia's, for from the following lines: Nunc licet, e cœlo, mittatur amica Tibullo; Mittetur fruftra, deficietque Venus. it is, they affert, plainly the compofition ef bullus. "Tibulli carmen arbitror (fays Br hufius) ipfa dictione ita perfuadente & numer. Albianum characterem artificiofe conformati adding, that it has certainly flipped out of = place, and must belong to the third book, a old critics inform us, that Tibullus write more than three books of elegies. Although we have fo far admitted this as to place that poem at the end of the third b yet that our poet certainly wrote more diga than we have of his at prefent, is obvious, b from his works themselves, and from Horact can the translater help being of opinion, however fimilar the metrical compofition twelfth poem may be to that of Tibullus,) mode of thinking is very different from his therefore, if Tibullus is the author, he eithe this piece, imitated Ovid, or the piece it written by fome body elfe, perhaps in the age in the following fentence: "Neque enim geftum oratoris componi ad fimilitudinem faltationis volo, Domitian, who was fo fond of Tibullus, as fed fubeffe aliquid ex hac exercitatione puerili, willing to uther his own productions into unde nos non id agentes, furtem decor ille difcenti-world under the fanction of his name. bus traditus profequatur." But that eloquent rhetorician, fays Vulpius, would have been afhamed to use the words of a woman, who was then alive; and therefore it is more probable, that he borrowed his illuftration from Tibullus, a poet of an established reputation. We cannot fee any reason, however, why Quintilian fhould be more afhamed to borrow from a cotemporary poetefs, if her words fuited his purpofe, than from a dead poet, let his character be ever fo great. Nay, the great rhetorician, we apprehend, would rather have chofen to have expreffed himself in the words of a woman, who was honoured with the epithet of learned, which was Sulpicia's cafe, than to have used the language of Tibullus or any other perfon, when treating of a fubject (viz. Decency of Gesture) wherein the fair fex must be allowed to be the most competent judges. But why might not. Quintilian fumble upon componit" and "furtim decor" without having ever read this poem? Can any reafon be affigned to the contrary? Or, rather, did not his fubject naturally lead him to express his fentiments of oratorial gesture in these very words? Some critics, however, whom the tranflator has confulted, and who acknowledge the futility of Vulpius's arguments, are yet of opinion, that the Sirft, third, and fifth poems of this book cannot be of Sulpicia's writing, but must be the works of Cerinthus, or fome poet; as Sulpicia, they say, could not, with any grace, write the encomium on her own perfon; nor can the poem on her birthday be, with any more propriety, afcribed to her; and it is evident, they think, that the fifth poem is the compofition of a common friend. Nor, granting this, every difficulty is not yet But if the fourth book was compofed by & picia, how comes it, objects Vulpius, to be fou in all the ancient MSS. of Tibullus? To th may be answered, that the old librarians commonly, in order to enhance the price their MSS. to join to an author, who had many works behind him, any writer whe pofed in what they thought a fimilar tafe this means, a fatire, which our Sulpici wrote, was long afcribed by fome to Jumal, mi by others to Aufonius, from having bena iman the MS. works of those two poets; critics of more understanding proved to learned, neither Juvenal, nor Aufonius, but Me tial's Sulpicia wrote it. Such are the arguments by which the comme tators fupport their different opinions. The der must determine for himfelf. But if the tra lator might be permitted to pronounce en ** fubject, he would fay, that if any weight met be laid on difference of ftyle, and efpecialy thought, the following poems cannot be the wit of Tibullus :-but whether Martial's Sulpica, who else wrote them, is not in his power to termine. But as Sulpicia is the only perfan whom the critics attribute them, the trans not knowing any one elfe, who can show a p ferable claim, has retained her pame in the ti page. Notwithstanding, however, it cannot be abl lutely afcertained (and how can controverfes this fort be abfolutely afcertained?) who was person to whose happy talent we owe the flaw ing poems; every reader of tafle will allow, the • Scaliger, U. they abound with triking beauties; and that, upon the whole, thofe critics do no great injury to Tibullus, who fill afcribe them to that poer. As Sulpicia and Cerinthus perfectly understood one another, we must not expect in their poems thofe fallies and tranfitions of paffion, that frantic and defpondent air, so obfervable in Tibullus: for these are the natural emanations of a heated fancy and a distracted heart. But the poems before us abound in what the moderns denominate gallant flattery. Moft of them fhow the poet and happy lover. They give us little anecdotes of their palfion, and make us regret we have no more. FOEM I. 10 GREAT god of war ! Sulpicia, lovely maid, 20 The richest tints and deepest Tyrian hue, To thee, O wonderous maid! are folely due: To thee th' Arabian husbandman should bring The fpicy produce of his eaftern fpring: Whatever gems the fwarthy Indians boaft, Their fhelly treasures, and their golden coaft, Alone thou nierit'ft! come, ye tuneful choir! And come, bright Phoebus! with thy plaufive lyre! This folemn feftival harmonious praife, No theme fo much deferves harmonious lays. 30 Could track the bounding flags through tainted grounds, Beat up their cover, and unchain the hounds: O! without me ne'er tafte the joys of love, POEM III. 20 COME, Phoebus! with your loosely floating hair, Still perfevere to love th' inchanting maid : 20 O come! what honour will be yours, to fave At once two lovers from the doleful grave? Then both will emulous exalt your skill; With grateful tablets, both your temples fill: Both heap with fpicy gums your facred fire; Both fing your praises to th' harmonious lyre : Your brother-gods will prize your healing powers Lament their attributes, and envy yours. POEM IV. ON my account, to grief a ceafclefs prey, Doft thou a fympathetic anguish prove? 38 |