!

SELECT

EPIGRAM S.

I.

OR counsel fage to Pittacus the wife

FOR

With doubts perplext an am'rous youth applies :

"Dread fire, two virgins covet my embrace,

"The firft my equal both in wealth and race :

"In each superior shines the second fair :

"Which fhall I wed-where fix, oh tell me, where ?" He spoke; the fage, his footsteps faithful friend Uprcaring, cry'd, "Lo thofe thy doubts will end,

Select Epigrams, &c.] I have given the reader a few of our author's Epigrams, as they are excellent in their kind, and as a fpecimen of the fimplicity of the Greek Epigram: which we are to remember in its first original intent was no more than pappa, an infcription, "De hiftoria Epigrammatis & origine tum rei tum vocis, hæc accepimus, confucffe antiquos ftatuis Deorum heroum infcriptiones quafdam breves infeulpere, qua rypapar & sxypappaтa nominabantur, &c." Thus Dr. Trapp, in his Prælect. Poetica,

"Take

Pral. 12ma; where the reader will find a complate differtation on the fubject. The word Epigram, and the fpecics of poetry going under. that name, rendered it neceflary to obferve this, at the entrance of these little poems of our author, which moderns would rather call mifcellaneous, than epigrammatical. There is a remarkable paffage quoted by Madam Ducier from the fcholiaft upon fchylus, which would almoft incline one to believe, that this firft Epigram of our author's was founded on a real ftory. The

"Take their advice-" and pointed to the throng

That urg'd the spinning top with smacking thong :
Attentive to their words the youth drew nigh
And oft, "Take one, one equal," heard them
Whence warn'd he fled the loftier beauty's charms,
And took the equal maiden to his arms.

A choice like his in wifdom wou'd you make,

So you, my friend, to wife an equal take.

II.

A Y, honest Timon, now escap'd from light,

SA

Which do you most abhor, or that or night? “Man, I most hate these gloomy fhades below, "And that because in them are more of you."

cry:

III.

From ev'ry ftroke flies humming o'er the
ground,

And gains new spirit as the blows go round.
PITT.

Martial has an Epigram (lib. 8. 12.) to the fame purpose with our author:

You afk, why I refufe to wed,
Good friend, a very wealthy maid?
Because to my own wife, d'ye fee,
On no account I'd married be:
For fure, unless inferior is the fair,
The wife and husband never equal are.

Callimachus feems to advise rather more wifely than Martial: fince, why men fhould marry equally, is plain and reafonable enough; but why the wife fhould be inferior, is not eafy to determine. See the Chiliads of Erafmus, p. 1146.

III.

A

SHELL, bright VENUS, wonder of the sea,

Fair Selenæa dedicates to thee:

And the first tribute, which the maid cou'd give,
Me, little Nautilus, dread queen, receive:

Who o'er the waves, when blew propitious gales,

With my own cable ftretch'd my proper fails :

My legs as oars extending on each side, "Hence call'd a Polyp in my pearly pride

Epigram III.] For the tranflation of this Epigram, and the remarks upon it, I am obliged to my worthy friend, that curious antiquary, Maurice Johnson, Efq; “Oppian's defcrip-, tion of this fifh referred to by Mr. Pope in his Elay on Man,

(Learn of the little Nautilus to fail,

Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale)

may fomewhat illuftrate this Epigram.

Within a curious concave shell conceal'd
There lies a fish, whofe wond'rous form re-
veal'd,

The Polyp much refembleth; rightly he's
A failor call'd, by fuch as ufe the feas:
Refiding on the fand at bottom there,
Yet rifing fometimes to the open air :
Seeking the furface quick reverts his shell,
Left wat'ry weight his energy repel;
But foon as, Amphitrite, he can gain
The wave fuperior in thy noify main,
Inftant he turns himself and swims no more,
But feems as failing wafted tow'rds the fhore:
Stretches his limbs, like tackling fome applies,
With fome the ftream like bufy oars he plies:

Expands his membranes as a gath'ring fail,
(So fpread our oars, and fo we catch the gale)
The Sun thro' thinner medium views more fair,
And for variety takes fresher air.

But if o'er head the hov'ring ofprey fly,
Or other danger threaten, e'er too nigh
The wary nautil ftrait with prudent speed,
Draws in his tackle, weightier drops fucceed,
And filling fave fecure the fubtile fish,
Him finking downward to his deep abyfs:
Hence were we told in hollow barks to fail,
And learn to fpread the oars, and catch the
gale."

Mr. Johnfon refers to Dr. Grew, in his catalogue
of the Royal Society's Mufcum, and to Al-
drovandus, as moft full of any author, on this
moft curious article.

The fubject of this Epigram, we are to obferve, is the dedication of a Nautilus taken in the ifland Cos by Selenaa, daughter of Clinias, a nobleman of Smyrna, to Venus Zephyritis, that is, Arfinoë, the mother of Berenice, who had divine honours paid to her, and was called Venus, Zephyritis, Cypris, &c. See Coma Berenices, and Encomium of Ptolemy.

Z 2

The cabinet of Arfinoë to adorn

I to the Coan coaft at length was borne.

No more for me to fkim the filent flood,
O'er thy calm offspring, gentle Halcyon, brood:
But be that grace for Clinias' daughter found;
The maid is worthy, and from Smyrna bound.

A

IV.

YOUTH, who thought his father's wife

Had loft her malice with her life,

Officious with a chaplet grac'd

The statue on her tomb-stone plac'd :
When, fudden falling on his head,

With the dire blow it ftruck him dead :

. Be warn'd from hence, each foster-son,

Your step-dame's fepulchre to fhun.

V.

N facred fleep here virtuous Saon lies ;

I'

'Tis ever wrong to say a good man dies.

Epigram IV.] For the tranflation of this Epi- ladies are much indebted for his poem, greatly

gram I am obliged to my ingenious friend Mr.

to their honour, of the Feminead.

Duncombe of Bennet in Cambridge; to whom the

VI..

W

HAT mortal of the morrow can be fure,

So frail is man, and life fo infecure?
But yesterday we faw our living friend;
And on the morrow to the grave attend :
A heavier loss hath never parent known,

For never parent had a better fon.

WOU

VII.

D God, no fhips had ever croft the sea,
Then, Sopolis, we had not wept for thee :

Then no wild waves had toft thy breathlefs frame,

Nor we on empty tombs engrav'd thy name.