The Scholiaft takes deum to be the genitive cafe plural, and in that I think he is right but he is mistaken when he fays, that Lucan follows the Epicureans; for the Epicureans ascribed immortality to their gods, that is, to the gods whofe exiftence they pretended to believe, and whom they placed in the Intermundia, there to live in perfect idleness.

As to the interpretation which Oudendorp follows, I would gladly know what ancient authorities he can find to favour it, and why this fame Rector Terra fhould be fo tired with his exiftence, and want fo much to die.

I read, with the Scholiaft and fome editions:

Et Rector terræ, quem longa in fecula torquet
Mors dilata deûm.

By Rector terra the poet means Pluto, Dis pater, whom, if you please, you may call in English, The God of death, of deftruction; he to whom all things return when they die, and whose empire extends over all things that are fubject to mutability and diffolution; and who may fay, as Chaos in Milton;

Havock, and spoil, and ruin are my gain.

Cicero De Nat. Deor. II. 26. Terrena autem vis omnis atque natura Diti patri dedicata eft: qui Dives,

ut apud Græcos Пrwv, quia et recidant omnia in terras, et oriantur e terris. Here you fee why Pluto is called by Lucan Rector terræ. See Davies on that place of Cicero.

In Claudian, Lachefis fays to Pluto, R. Prof.

1. 57.

qui finem cunctis et femina præbes,

Nefcendique vices alterna morte rependis :

Qui vitam letumque regis, (nam quicquid ubique
Gignit materies, hoc te donante creatur,

Debeturque tibi ;)

In Statius, Theb. VIII. 91. Amphiaraus fays to him :

O cunctis finitor maxime rerum;

At mibi, qui quondam cauffas elementaque noram,
Et fator.

Where fee Barthius.

Ovid. Met. X. 17.

O pofiti fub terra numina mundi,

In quem recidimus quicquid mortale creamur.

Claudian, Rapt. Prof. I.

opibus quorum donatur avaris

Quicquid in orbe perit.

This god therefore is here reprefented by Lucan as uneafy at the long life of the gods, the poet fuppofing that the gods fhould at laft perish, according

cording to the Stoical doctrine, which held them all mortal, except Jupiter, the. fupreme God. Lucan then makes his witch talk Stoically here; and fo he does before, ỷ 615.

At fimul a prima defcendit origine mundi
Cauffarum feries, atque omnia fata laborant,
Si quidquam mutare velis, unoque fub iltu

Stat

genus

humanum; tunc, Thessala turba fatemur, Plus Fortuna poteft.

Where by Fortuna he means Nature, Stoical

Fate: ὁ Θεός.

总

I find that Mr. Rowe has mifunderstood the

lines I am examining, tranflating them thus:

And thou, fole arbiter of all below,

Pluto, whom ruthlefs fates a god ordain,

And doom to immortality of pain.

STANZ. XXXIX.

He making speedy way through spersed air,
And through the world of waters wide and deep,
To Morpheus' houfe doth haftily repair.
Amid the bowels of the earth full steep,
And low, where dawning day doth never peep,
His dwelling is; there Thetis his wet bed
Doth ever wash, and Cynthia ftill doth steep

In filver dew his ever-drooping head,

Whiles fad night over him her mantle black doth fpread.

And more to lull him in his flumber foft,

A trickling ftream from high rock tumbling down,

And ever-drizling rain upon the loft,

Mixt with a murmuring wind, much like the found

Of swarming bees, did cast him in a swoon ; No other noife, nor peoples troublous cries, As ftill are wont t' annoy the walled town Might there be heard: but careless Quiet lies, Wrapt in eternal filence, far from enemies.

This defcription is very elegant, as Mr. Hughes has obferved. We may compare it with Ovid, Met. XI. 592. and Statius, Theb. X. 84.

Ovid, whom Spenfer imitates:

Eft prope Cimmerios longo fpelunca recessu,
Mons cavus, ignavi domus et penetralia Somni:
Quo numquam radiis oriens, mediufve, cadenfve
Phabus adire poteft. Nebula caligine mixtæ
Exhalantur humo, dubiæque crepuscula lucis.
Non vigil ales ibi criftati cantibus oris
Evocat Auroram:

Non fera, non pecudes, non moti flamine rami,
Humanave fonum reddunt convicia linguæ.
Muta Quies habitat. Saxo tamen exit ab imo

Rivus aque Lethes: per quem cum murmure labens Invitat fomnos crepitantibus unda lapillis, &c.

Statius:

Stat fuper occiduæ nebulofa cubilia Noctis
Ethiopafque alios, nulli penetrabilis aftro

Lucus iners, fubterque cavis grave rupibus antrum
It vacuum in montem, qua defidis atria Somni
Securumque larem fegnis Natura locavit.-
Otia veftibulo, preffifque Silentia pennis

Muta fedent, abiguntque truces a culmine ventos,
Et ramos errare vetant, et murmura demunt
Alitibus. Non hic pelagi, licet omnia clament
Litora, non illic cæli fragor. Ipfe profundis
Vallibus effugiens fpeluncæ proximus amnis
Saxa inter, fcopulofque tacet, &c.

Statius admits of no kind of noife; Ovid of none but that which a murmuring stream makes. Spenfer has very juftly introduced the trickling ftream, ever-drizling rain, and murmuring wind. See Broukhufius on Tibullus I. 1. 47.

Aut, gelidas hibernus aquas quum fuderit Auster,
Securum fomnos, imbre juvante, fequi.

His murmuring wind, much like the found of fwarming bees, feems to be from Virgil, Ecl. I. 54.

Hinc tibi, quæ femper vicino ab limite fepes,
Hyblais apibus florem depafta falicii,

Sape levi fomnum fuadebit inire fufurro.