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Quæ certè his longe elegantiora funt. Ultima adumbrata videntur ex loco Propertii, Lib. III. El. xvi. 13.

Quifquis amator erit, Scythicis licet ambület oris,
Nemo adeo, ut noceat, barbarus effe velit.
Luna miniftrat iter, demonftrant aftra falebras ;
Ipfe Amor accenfas præcutit antè faces d.

Cui non diffimilè illud ex Lib. IV. El. iii.

Romanis utinam patuiffent caftra puellis ;

Effem militia farcina fida tuæ.

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Non me tardarent Scythia juga, quum pater altas
Africus in glaciem frigore nelit aquas.

Omnis amor magnus; fed aperto in conjuge major ;
Hanc Venus, ut vivat, ventilat ipfa facem.

• Non folum Propertium fed Tibullum ante oculos, ni fallor, habuit Jortinus:

Tibull. II. i. 75. De cupidine, ejusque facibus :

HOC DUCE, cuftodes furtim tranfgressa jacentes,
Ad juvenem tenebris fola puella venit, &c.

Et rurfus, v. 82.

Et procul ardentes, binc procul abde faces.

II. vi. i.

Caftra Macer fequitur: tenero quid fiet Amori?

Sit Comes,

Hinc orta eft varia lectio, a Burmanno memorata. Atque ite rum. V. 15.

Acer Amor, fractas utinam, tua tela, fagittas,

Ilicet extinctas afpiciamque faces!

Vel, fi mavis, ex noto Valerii Æditui Epigram

mate;

Quid faculam præfers, Phileros, quâ nil opú nobis, Ibimus; hoc lucet pectore flamma fatis, &c. ©

Quæ Imitationes quidem laudabiles funt, fed locis inter fe comparatis eo magis produnt recentioris ætatis artificium. Et hanc fufpicionem apud me augent lacunæ illæ carmini præpofitæ, folis tantum literis D. M. fuperftitibus, quæ facile præfigi poffunt, tamquam reliqua evanuiffent ex Marmore, cum tamen nulla vox carminis ipfius læfa aut vetuftate corrofa fit, fed fola detrita est quasi infcriptio, vetuftis epitaphiis præponi folita, quam fabricare eo minus aufus eft, quicumque fumos nobis vendidit, quia in Epigrammate non exprimitur nomen mariti, qui conjugi fuæ hoc epitaphium fcripferit."

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PETRUS BURMANNUS, SECUNDUS.

• Hoe Epigramma, a récentioribus fæpe laudatum, exstat in An◄ tbol. Lat. Burmanni. Vol. I. p. 690. ubi post primumn Distichum hæc leguntur:

Iftam nam potis eft vis fæva extinguere venti

Aut imber cælo candidú præcipitans.

At contrà, hunc ignem Veneris, nifi fit Venus ipfa,

Nulla eft quæ poffit vis alia opprimere.

Hæc de face a fervo ante Amatorem prælata funt intelligenda: Pueri nomen eft Phileros.

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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, Amftelaedami Latinè editæ fuerunt JORTINI Mifcellanea Obfervationes, in quibus primum "Eruditorum examini propo"fita" hæc Infcriptio, quæ pofteà inter Lufus Poeticos fæpius fuit vulgata.-Audiendus autem de hôc Epigrammate vir elegantiffimi fane ingenii, Thomas Burgess, cujus verba, ex libro Anglicè 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. JORTIN, which was published in his Mifcellaneous 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:

Τόλο σοι ἡμέτερης μνημηΐου, εσθλε Σαβινε,

Ἡ λιθος ή μικρή της μεγάλης φιλίης
Διει ζητησω σε. συ δ', ει Θέμις, εν φθιμενοισι
Το Λήθης επ' εμοι μη τι πιης ύδαίος F.

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

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Except

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

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

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

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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 fhall conduct

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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.

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

To fuftain the pillars of the earth, is a fcripture phrafe. Pfal. lxxv. 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.

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