This may pafs, with fome, for a proof of his taciturnity. Meric Cafaubon thinks the place corrupted, and fays, "Tìλxxaι nefcio quid hic faciat : forte, aura, vagari, in Metu et Mærore errare." I doubt this is an idle conjecture: Aaλñoa, is in Suidas, who has tranfcribed this paffage of Diogenes Laertius.

The reft of the Epigrams and little Poems of Naugerius are written in another manner, without any turn, or point, as they call it. Take this for an example;

Illi in amore pares, vicini cultor agelli
Thyrfis, cumque fuo Thyrfide fida Nape,
Ponimus hos tibi, CYPRI, immortales amaranthos,
Liliaque in facras ferta parata comas.]
Scilicet exemplo hoc, nullo delebilis avo
Floreat æternum fac, Dea, nofter amor.
Sit purus, talifque utriufque in pectore candor,
In foliis qualem lilia cana ferunt.
Utque duo bi flores ferta netuntur in uno,

Sic animos necat una catena duos.

Martial has an Epigram upon a fubject not very

unlike;

Lib. IV.

Lib. IV. XIII.

Claudia, Rufe, meo nubit Peregrina Pudenti:
Mate efto tedis, O Hymenæe, tuis.
Tam bene rara fuo mifcentur cinnama Nardo,
Mafiea Thefeis tam bene Vina Favis.
Nec melius teneris junguntur vitibus ulmi,
Nec plus lotos aquas, litora myrtus amat.
Candida perpetuo refide, concordia, lecto,
Tamque pari femper fit Venus æqua jugo.
Diligat illa Senem quondam: fed et ipfa Marito,
Tunc quoque cum fuerit, non videatur anus.

The reader may compare Martial and his enemy Naugerius together, and judge which has fucceeded best upon this argument. What I fhall here obferve is, that I wonder how Naugerius, who was fo fcrupulously exact in the choice of his words, could venture to use CYPRIS for Venus, and admit into his Poems a word, for which there is no better authority than that of Aufonius. The word Cypris is ufed by Aufonius, Epigr. LVII,

Vera Venus Gnidiam cum vidit Cyprida dixit.

By Prudentius, Περι Στεφ. Χ. 230.

Nec te lupanar Cypridis fan&ta movet?

By Sidonius Apollinaris:-By the author of the Pervigflium Veneris, v. 23. if the emendation of Scriverius be right,

Falta

Falta Cypris de cruore, &c.

By an anonymous poet quoted there by Scriverius,

aut fentibus hæfit Cypris:

And by a wretched poet, who goes under the name of Cornelius Gallus; concerning whom Broukhufius, an excellent judge in these matters, has made this obfervation, which I beg leave to transcribe, for the use of fome of my readers.

"Nihil nobis reftat de Cornelio Gallo, præter folam memoriam: nam libellus ille, qui vulgò fub ejus nomine circumfertur, auctorem habet nefcio quem Maximianum, Scriptorem barbarum, lutulentum, ac tantum non ftercoreum. Quid igitur fibi voluit homo multi nominis Renatus Rapinus, qui, poft compofita nefcio quam feliciter tot paria fummorum ex antiquitate virorum, præferre aufus eft Cornelium Gallum (in Elegia, ne erres) Catullo, ac Mæcenati?-Ecce ejus verba :

"Il nous eft refté quelques Elegies de Catulle, de Mecenas, de Cornelius Gallus, qui font d'une grande pureté, et d'une grande delicateffe: mais le Vers de Catulle et de Mecenas eft d'une trop grande moleffe, et d'une negligence trop affectée: Celui de Cornelius Gallus eft plus rond, et il fe fou

5

tient

tient mieux." O Judicium! et tamen, hæc qui libenter legunt, multum fibi proficere videntur !" Broukh. ad Propert. II. xxv. 92.

Silvipotens is a word which Naugerius has alfo made ufe of; but for which I know of no authority.

Perhaps the reader may not be displeased to be informed, that Naugerius could not endure the style of ERASMUS. Petrus Joannes Olivarius in a letter which he wrote to Erafmus, tells him, “Balthaffarus Comes Caftilioni, Orator. Pontificis, Vir uteumque eruditus, Naugerius Venetus, Vir utriufque Linguæ eruditiffimus, et Andreas Neapolitamus, in dies debacchantur in Stylum tuum. Non poteft ferre hæc Natio, quod unus Germanus Oftentationem Italorum deprefferit. Numquam fum apud eos, quin illicò faciant Mentionem de Stylo Erafmi: "Erafmus, inquiunt, tuus ex Latino factus eft Barbarus."

OVID.*

THOUGH Ovid has paffed through the hands of men of great diligence, learning, judgment, and fagacity, particularly of Heinfius and of Burman; yet I dare fay all good judges will allow that much -may still be done in illuftrating and correcting this poct. I with they may approve of what I have long fince given, and of the little which I have now to offer in this way.

METAM. I. 29.

Denfior his Tellus, elementoque grandia traxit,
Et preffa eft Gravitate fui.

The conftruction is, Tellus, atpote denfior, et traxit et preffa eft, &c. Crifpinus interprets it wrong.

Ibid. 299.

Et modo qua graciles Gramen carpfere Capelle,
Nunc ibi deformes ponunt fua corpora Phocæ.

*The reader may find very confiderably more on Ovid, in the Miscellan. Obfervat. Vol. I. p. 206, &c. which could not be brought into the narrow compafs of the prefent work. The fame remark extends to Cicero, Minucius Felix, &c.

He