Hæc fcripfit, fed, magna ex parte, invita Minerva, Mufifque iratis fcripfit, Petrus Burmannus Secundus 1773. Qui, me judice, Jortinianæ Infcriptionis venuftatem neque attingere, neque guftare videtur. Auctoris nomen illi effe ignotum mirari fatis nequeo. A Patruo enim, Petro Burmanno, et J. P. Dorvillio, Amftelædami Latinè editæ fuerunt JORTINI Mifcellanea Obfervationes, in quibus primum "Eruditorum examini propo"fita" hæc Infcriptio, quæ pofteà inter Lufus Poeficos fæpius fuit vulgata.-Audiendus autem de hôc Epigrammate vir elegantiffimi fane ingenii, Thomas Burgefs, cujus verba, ex libro Anglice fcripto, lectori confideranda lubenter adponam.

"Among the few inftances, in which the Antient Infcription has been happily imitated, may be mentioned an inscription written by Dr. ĴORTIN, which was published in his Miscellaneous Obfervations, Vol. I. and afterwards in his Lujus Poetici.

The idea of the four laft lines feems to have been borrowed from an epigram in the Greek anthology:

Τολο σοι ἡμετέρης μνημηΐον, εσθλε Σαβινέ,

Ἡ λιθος ή μικρη της μεγάλης Φιλίης
Διει ζητησω σε. συ δ', ει Θεμις, εν φθιμενοισι
Το Λήθης επ' εμοι μη τι πιης ύδατος.

Anthol. H. Steph. III. 1. p. 195. Anthol. Reisk. p. 81. Brunckii Analect. III. p. 287.

3

Except

Except the conclufion of the Latin, which perhaps might serve as an example of anthologick elegance. Yet the very elegant and picturefque image of love, in its prefent fituation, somewhat weakens the impreffion firft made by the tenderness and beauty of the fentiment contained in that affecting with;

TU. CAVE, LETHAEO, CONTINGUAS. ORA, LIQUORE.

with which the infcription, feemingly, ought to have concluded, as in the Greek,

TE SEQUAR: OBSCURUM PER ITER DUX IBIT EUNTI
FIDUS AMOR, TENEBRAS LAMPADE DISCUTIENS,
TU CAVE LETHAO CONTINGUAS ORA LIQUORE,
ET CITO VENTURI SIS MEMOR ORO VIRI,

"But I will follow thee, and Love shall conduct "me through the gloomy paffage, difperfing the "darkness with his torch. In the mean while "beware thou touch not the waters of Lethé, "and thus preferve the remembrance of thy "hufband, who will foon be with thee." By which arrangement the beautiful image is preferved, without doing any injury to the fentiment." ESSAY on the STUDY of ANTIQUITIES, P. 58. Ed. 2da. Oxon. 1782.

THOSE prudent heads, that with their counfels wife
Whilom the pillars of th' earth did fuftain,
And taught ambitious Rome to tyrannise,
And in the neck of all the world to reign,
Oft from those grave affairs were wont abstain,
With the sweet Lady Muses for to play;

To fuftain the pillars of the earth, is a fcripture phrafe. Pfal. Ixxv. 3. The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are diffolved. I bear up the pillars of it. In the neck, ufed alfo by Spenfer in other places, is taken from the Latin expreffion in cervicibus, Cicero, De Nat. Deor. I. 20. cibus noftris fempiternum dominum.

Inpofuiftis in cervi-
So he frequently

speaks.

fpeaks. Q. Curtius, VII. 7. Rex Scytharum-ratus eam urbem, fuis impofitam effe, cervicibus. Juftin, XXIX. 3—in çervicibus erant. See Salluft, Hift. Fragm. III. 3. p. 43. and the notes of Waffe.

INTRODUCTION TO THE FAIRY QUEEN.

STANZ. III.

And thou moft dreaded imp of highest Jove,
Fair Venus' fon-

Lay now thy deadly heben boy apart,

And with thy mother mild come to mine ayd; Come both, and with you bring triumphant Mart, With loves and gentle jollities array'd,

After his murd'rous fpoiles and bloody rage allay'd.

Tibullus, addreffing himself to Cupid, II. 1. 81. Sancte, veni dapibus feftis; fed pone fagittas, Et procul ardentes hinc procul abde faces.

Ovid. Faft. III. 1.

Bellice, depofitis clypeo paullifper & hafta,
Mars, ades; & nitidas caffide folve comas.

Claudian. Præf. ad II. in Ruf.

Fertur & indomitus tandem poft prælia Mavors
Laffa per Odryfias fundere membra nives;
Oblitufque fui, pofita clementior hafta,

Pieriis aures pacificare modis,

Where perhaps he copied Pindar. Pyth. 1.
Kal Yup Bia-

της Αρης, τραχείαν ἄνευθε λιπῶν

Εγχέων ἀκμαν, ἰαίνει καρδίαν

Κώματι.

Quinetiam violen

•lus Mars, afperam ubi fepofuit baftarum cufpidem, delectat cor

tuo cantu.

FAIRY QUÈ E N.

BOOK I. CANTO I. 6.

thus as they past,

The day with clouds was fudden overcaft,
And angry Jove an hideous ftorm of rain.
Did

pour into his leman's lap fo faft,

That every wight to fhroud it did conftrain.

Lucretius, I. 251,

-pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater Ether

In gremium matris Terraï præcipitavit.

Virgil, Georg, II. 325.

Tum pater omnipotens fecundis imbribus Æther

Conjugis in gremium lata defcendit

Herodotus