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the translation of "blatta," which appears to be the moth-worm, or some other tiny creature of that kind, as Horace describes it preying upon drapery (Sat. ii, 3, 119)—

——cui stragula vestis, Blattarum ac tinearum epulæ, putrescat in arcâ.

Georgic iv, 453.

• On Pencus's banks he stood, and near his holy head.

For the information of the unlatined reader, I observe, that, “ Peneus" being always three syllables, this line was intended by the author for one of fourteen, such as he has elsewhere used in this work; and it was accordingly so printed in both the folio editions; though succeeding printers, not aware of the measure of the word, contrived to cut the verse down to an Alexandrine, by improperly contracting the "eu" to a diphthong, and then giving

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'On Pencus' banks he stood, &c.

Georgic iv, 586. (first edit.)

The slipp'ry god will try to loose his hold,
And various forms assume, to cheat thy sight,
And with vain images of beasts affright.

With foamy tusks he seems a bristly boar,

Or imitates the lion's angry roar;

Breaks out in crackling flames to shun thy snares,
A dragon hisses, or a tiger stares.

Second edition

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The slipp'ry god will try, &c.

With foamy tusks will seem a bristly boar,
Or imitate the lion's angry roar;

Break out in crackling flames to shun thy snares,

Or hiss a dragon, or a tiger STARES.

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Having altered the tense of the verbs, Dryden probably forgot to strike his pen through the finals of " snares to make it rhime with stare,' as he intended. The printer, determined not to spoil the rhime, preserved both "snares" and "stares" in defiance of sense and grammar. I have printed "snare" and "stare" according to the poet's intention.

Georgic iv, 667.

The realms of Mars remurmur'd all around

instead of "remurmur."

Georgic iv, 776.

The soft Napaan race will soon repent

Their anger, and remit the punishment.

Virgil's expression is "iras remittent," which Dryden, no doubt, translated, and very properly, by "relent their anger:" but the printer officiously corrected it to " repent"-not dreaming that "relent" (like its French original, ralentir) was a verb active, signifying to slacken,

repress, mollify-and that, when used as a verb neuter, it is merely an elliptic form of speech.

Georgic iv, 787.

T'appease the manes of the poets' king.

Dryden, I doubt not, wrote, as I have printed, "the poet king," i. e. the poet and king, or the royal poet; Orpheus having, according to some accounts, been king of the Cicones.

Dedication of Eneïs, vol. II, p. ii, 1. 10.

"The trifling novels, which Aristotle and others have inserted in their poems."

There cannot be a doubt that Dryden wrote "Ariosto." The printer, however, having probably never seen or heard the name of Ariosto, and finding that of Aristotle several times repeated in the same sheet-concluded that the author had here made a mistake, which he accordingly corrected in his way!

Dedication of Entis, vol, II, pp. lxxvii and lxxix.

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as the passage stands in the original, Æn. xii, 894. On restoring the true reading, I felt myself obliged, in p. lxxix, to alter the word "valour" to "threats." Although I might perhaps more properly have said “taunts," yet there was at least an implied threat in those taunts; and "threats" better suits the context.

Eneïs, i, 179.

He rear'd his awful head above the main;
Serene in majesty, then roll'd his eyes, &c.

Virgil's "summâ placidum caput extulit undâ " naturally directs us to

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with as much anger and indignation as you please, but with very little serenity, on viewing the disastrous effects of the late hurricane.

Eneïs, i, 229.

An island

forms a port secure for ships to ride,
Broke by the jutting land on either side:
In double streams the briny waters glide.
Betwixt two rows of rocks, a silvan scene
Appears above, and groves for ever green.

Did Dryden ever pen such nonsense, with Virgil by his side? No: we owe it all to his printer. The poet wrote thus

forms a port secure for ships to ride:
Broke by the jutting land, on either side,
In double streams the briny waters glide
Betwixt two rows of rocks: a silvan scene

Appears above, &c. Corrections.

neïs, v, 211.

But, steering round, he charg'd his pilot stand
More close to shore, and skim along the sand.
Let others bear to sea.

Here the printer has converted the word "stand" into the infinitive, with a very harsh ellipsis of the particle "to."-Dryden had written it in the imperative

he charg'd his pilot-" Stand

More close to shore, and skim along the' sand!
Let others bear to sca."

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If giv'n by you, the laurel bind my brow,
Assist to make me guilty of my vow.

A snow-white bull shall on your shore be slain....

How different from Dryden's idea! He meant

If, giv'n by you, the laurel bind my brow, (Assist to make me guilty of my vow!)

A snow-white bull shall on your shore be slain....

Eneïs, v, 743.

The last in order, but the first in place.

While the English reader is fruitlessly exercising his sagacity to find a solution of this paradox, let the classic scholar turn with me to Virgil, who will instantly prove that Dryden most certainly wrote

The last in order, but the first in grace

Extremus, formáque ante omnes pulcher, Iülus....

Eneïs, v, 759.

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Again they close, and once again disjoin,
In troop to troop oppos'd, and line to line.
They meet, they wheel, &c.

Dryden intended thus,

Again they close, and once again disjoin:
In troop to troop oppos'd, and line to line,
They meet; they wheel, &c.

Eneïs, vi, 249.

- by Pelides arms when Hector fell.

The poet had probably placed a comma after "arm," and the printer converted it into s. Dryden would have written " spear" or "steel,TM if he had intended the weapon.

Eneïs, vi, 511.

Attend the term of long revolving years:
Fate, and the dooming gods, are deaf to tears.

Whether

66 or not the gods were deaf to tears," the printer most assuredly was blind toray'rs," which was, beyond all doubt, the word written by Dryden, agreeably to his original

• Desine fata deûm flecti sperare precando."

In some few instances, we think the pruning-hook has been unnecessarily made use of, and particularly in the fallowing.

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The ensuing season, in return, may bear

The bearded product of the golden year.' Georgic i, 112.

So, unanimously, testify all the editions: Dr. Carey has varied it, however, to

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The bearded product of the golden ear."

Although Dryden,' (says he,) elsewhere mentions the "yellow year" (Æn. ii, 409) when speaking of the harvest in general---yet, here, where wheat alone is particularly designated, as distinguished from all other crops, the reader, I trust, will concur with me believing that the poet originally wrote the "golden ear," applying the epithet, as in Virgil, to the corn itself.'

Virgil, however, does not apply the epithet to the corn itself, in the verse of which this is meant to be a translation, though we admit that, about six lines above, the phrase 'flava farra,'' yellow corn'-which, we apprehend, is what the doctor alludes to-is introduced. The product of an ear of wheat can scarcely be said to be bearded: it is literally its flour: but

The bearded product of the golden year '

is strictly correct; and offers us, at the same time, a beautiful metonymy, which the amended reading unmercifully destroys.

In Æn. ix, 64, the alteration of post, as it uniformly occurs, into port, is, we think, altogether unnecessary.

• He rides around the camp with rolling eyes,
And stops at ev'ry port, and ev'ry passage tries.'

Port can here be only understood as a gate or entrance; and in this sense, indeed, our editor expressly desires us to understand it: but the word passage, which immediately follows, is then an intolerable pleonasm. By the common rendering, this evil is avoided. In Virgil, it runs thus:-Huc turbidus atque huc

Lustrat equo muros, aditumque per avia quærit.'

CRIT. REV. Vol. 38. May, 1803.

D

"He'sjoints the neck; and with a stroke so strong

The helm flies off, and bears the head along.'

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Æn. ix, 1040.

Although' (says our editor) the word "disjoint" has, by butchers and cooks, been gradually chopped down to simple "joint," I hope I may be allowed to suppose that Dryden most probably wrote 'sjoints (which I have accordingly ventured to print), as Milton had before written 'sdeign, in imitation of the Italian 'sdegno, 'sdegnar.

We admit the accuracy of this remark: but the correction produces a most disgusting cacophony, and is entirely in opposition both to the carelessness of Dryden's general manner, and the familiarity of his language. It is better, with our cooks and butchers, to extend the elision to the entire syllable, and drop it altogether, than to preserve it, with our too fastidious editor, in its present 'sguised and 'sjointed appearance. 'Death, doctor! you have certainly consulted your kead without your ears!

But these are trivial imperfections-the mere result of exactitude sublimated to excess; and to condemn a critic for works of supererogation a crime how seldom perpetrated!-is a more damnable doctrine than was ever yet started either by protestant or papist.

To the Eclogues are prefixed Mr. Walsh's preface and Life of Virgil: to the Georgics, Mr. Addison's Essay; and to the Æneis, the translator's comprehensive and elaborate dedication to lord Mulgrave. The edition is elegantly as well as correctly printed; and an interesting and well-executed engraving accompanies every book of the Æneis, as well as the first and fourth books of the Georgics; the second line of the couplet subfixed to the last of which, however, is complete nonsense, from the introduction of not less than three important misprints-two in the words of the text, and one in its punctuation. It is a pity that booksellers do not always, before publication, show proofs of the plates to authors and editors, to guard against the blunders of the engraver.

ART. IV.A Specimen of the Conformity of the European Languages, particularly the English, with the Oriental Languages, especially the Persian; in the Order of the Alphabet with Notes and Authorities. By Stephen Weston, B.D. F.R.S. S. A. Second Edition, enlarged. 8vo. 7s. Boards. Payne. 1803.

THE philologist of the present day finds it no difficult matter to arrange the different modifications or dialects of human speech into five or six radical tongues, which may

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