VIII, W HOE'ER thou art, that to this tomb draw nigh, Know, here interr'd the fon and fire I lie Of a CALLIMACHUS : illuftrious name, By each ennobled, and renown'd in fame : The fire was glorious 'midst the warlike throng, Nor is it ftrange, for whom the Nine behold, When young with favour, they regard when old. IX. H Sun, faid fam'd Cleombrotus, adieu, And from the rock himself triumphant threw : Not courting death, by burd'ning ills opprest, Long'd to partake his foul's immortal reft. T O Violanta conftant love X. Fond Callignotus fighing fwore: He vow'd that none his heart fhou'd move, His heart, that ne'er fhou'd vary more. Epigram VII] See the account of the author's life. . He He swore indeed: but oaths, they say, Which languishing young lovers fwear, To heav'n did never make their way, Cou'd never reach immortal ear! For now he burns with other fires, Who, while new love his heart inspires, Unnoted quite complains and mourns. XI. HORT was the time on thee, O earth, I spent, SHORT With little bleft, and yet with that content : Friend to no crimes, to no good man a foe, I come: nor you, ye pow'rs, that rule below, Be just; nor, earth, lie light upon my grave. See Horace's Odes, &c. by eminent hands. Poets Epigram XII.] Horace, in his firft Ode, and lovers all agree, that The fruit that will fall fpeaks of this particular; 3 without fhaking, is by far too mellow; Shall I for this affront appeafe The maid or Deity? Ah, fair one, thee cou'd I but please, What's Nemefis to me? XVII. On BERENICE the wife of PTOLEMY. OUR are the Graces, with the former three FOUR Another lately has obtain'd a place : In all things bleft, bright Berenice, thee, Without whose charms the Graces have no grace. XVIII. HOE'ER thou art that on the defart fhores, WHO Leontichus has found, he lays to reft; While his own life of peril he deplores, With sweet repose, oh never, never bleft: Epigram XVII.] There is an Epigram in the Αν χάριτες τρεις εισι· συ θη μια ταις τρισι κοιναις COMA Epigram XVIII.] For a pleafing commentary on this, read the beautiful 28th Ode of the ift book of Horace. COMA BERENICES: H OR, The LOCK of BERENICE. The trees Egypt's princess wore, Which fweet Callimachus fo fung before. PARNELL. E, who with curious and enlarged eye Survey'd the splendid glories of the sky; Who found how stars to rise and setting run, And how foft love from her aërial way 5 Coma Berenices, &c.] The original Greek of this poem is loft, and what we now have is only a tranflation of it in Latin by Catullus: it is generally esteemed very excellent, its politenefs and elegancy being much admired. Voffius fays, Vix elegantius carmen Romano fermone fcriptum.Dr. Bentley has collected what remains of the Greek, which the learned reader will find, vol. 1. p. 434. of Grævius his edition of our author. There are very many critical enquiries concerning the Latin verfion, which I do not think myself obliged to confider: as my intention is only to give the reader a tranflation, as near the fenfe as we can be fuppofed to come: Critics will find room enough to exert their faculties and Wheels difplay their acumen by confulting Voffius, who hath given an edition of Catullus: after confidering their feveral remarks, I have endeavoured to express what appeared to me the author's true meaning. Ver. 6. From her aërial, &c.] Gyro aërio"We may learn from hence (fays a learned friend) that the antients, contrary to the opi nion of modern philofophers, imagined that the air was extended thro' the coeleftial regions, as far as, or perhaps beyond the fixt ftars. Thus Horace aërias tentaffe domos, &c. See alfo Tully de Nat. Deorum, lib. 2. Perhaps this notion might be founded on the original revelation. Vid. Gen. i. 17. and Mar. ver. 6. Wheels gentle Trivia, in her nightly charms, Which fond the promis'd to the pow'rs above, What time, her hands uprais'd, with heav'n fhe ftrove, For her dear king, just happy in her love, To battles hurried, and feverer fights, From fofter wars, and hymeneal rites. ΙΟ 15 IS VENUS, then, to other loves so true, To virgins only, and to brides a foe: And feign'd or real are thofe fighs and tears, Which damp the parent's blifs with tender fears? Ver. 12. Her hands uprais'd, &c.] Protendens brachia.-Upon which the fame ingenious friend remarks, "This part of religious worship, though so often mentioned by the heathen writers, is generally quite overlooked by commentators, or but lamely accounted for. The origin of it feems to be this. The hand is, no doubt, a very proper emblem of power in general. Hence the hand in Scripture is frequently afcribed to God as well as the eye and ear; hence iwxw, and fuch words derived from xe, are used in Greek for all attempts bodily and mental, and hence manus in Latin for power and force of any fort. See Littleton's Dictionary. When therefore the heathens lifted up their 20 In hands, as an act of religious worship, which was generally performed (as in the paffage before us) when they prayed for deliverance from danger or adverfity, they did by that emblematical action express their belief that their Gods had power to deliver them, or that they had no power to help themfelves but what was derived from them. Thus Eneas in a form is defcribed by Virgil, duplices tendens ad fidera palmas. The reafon why they held their hands upwards rather than downwards, or in any other particular pofture, was, because the heathens univerfally worshipped either the heavens themfelves, or fome intelligencies refident therein. |