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dica, ut tuâ operâ, et meâ ex illius tumulo, förtunataque favilla nascantur viola. Vale. bath

- 8 Calend. Maias

1644.

Tui amantissimusi

Alexander Ross.

The following verses are also by Alexander Ross, and in his own hand-writing. da re

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Magnus Alexander pluris faciebat Homerum,
Quam totas Darij luxuriantis opes;
Quod nempè acidæ laudes et facta Pelasgi
Perpetuo cecinit Carmine Mæonides.
Si tanti faciebat eum qui carmine laudes
Alterius cecinit, quid Macedo faceret,
Si Galtere tuam vidisset docte poësin,

Quâ Macedûm resonas bellica gesta ducis?
Si felix præcone fuit dux Græcus Homero,
Felix nonne tuo est carmine dux Macedo?

Doctor Davidi Eclino, Medico Regio, Alex-andri Rossæi Epigrama.

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Non mihi Persarum gaze, nec thura Sabeæ,
Non Arabum messes, non Babylonis opes
Arrident tantum, quantum mi munus Eclino
Docte tuum, vatis nempè poëma sacri.
Quantum Rex Macedo Galtero debuit, ecce
Galterus tantum debet amice tibi.
Vivit Alexander Galteri Carmine, verum

Galterus vivit Munere jam Medici.

The

The following complimentary verses are addressed. to Alexander Ross, on his presumed intention to republish this poem of the Alexandreid.

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In Alexandrum Rossæum super Galtero, ipsius operâ ab miseris revocato, vindicta a Davide Eclino retortą.

Dux Macedum nullam potuit sub sole citare
Cui post se digno traderet imperium.
Unum vix tandem, et solum observavit Eclinus
Galterum qui orci e faucibus eriperet.
Ergo ut Alexander Galtero, sic tibi Vitam
Debet Alexandri præco Rossæa suam,
Carmina quod per te emergunt de gurgite Lethes
Magnum illum Macedum qua cecinere ducem.
Nec sat erat lauro frondescere ni tibi cingat
Debita servato cive corona caput.

This was probably the first edition. This author was ranked among the classics of the time, indeed according to Warton, an anonymous Latin poet of the thirteenth century, calls Homer, Gualter, and Horace, the three great heroic poets.

It is in this poet that the trite verse so often repeated is found,

Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdin. In his seventh book the author alludes to the murder of Thomas a Becket.

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Flandria Robertum Cæsum dolet Anglia Thoman."

The colophon, which is very singular, is as follows. They may interpret it that can, I confess my ignorance.

Galteri Pocte Virgiliani carminis no infini scrutatoris ac bone Poesios amatoris et imitatoris: Alexandreis finit feliciter.

Preteriti serie revoluta temporis annos
Humani generis e conditione notato
Unų tolle datis ad milia quinque ducētis
Nascenti dno tot beda dat a prothoplasto
Usque triumphātis ad bellica tēpora magni
In summa annorum bis milia bina legūtur
Bisque quadrigeti decies sex bisque quaterui.

The Bishop of Ely's copy has this title page in MS. with many marginal notes from Quintus Curtius and others, and is probably that which was intended for the press.

Galteri

Alexandriados, sive Gestorum
Alexandri Magni
Libri Decem.

Alexander Rossæus Aberdonensis

Et marginalibus quibusdam notis

Ex L. Cursio aliisque
Locupletavit,

Extracts are given from this work by Warton, but as the work is far from being common, I

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subjoin a description of Alexander's armour and sword.

Terea crure tenus serpens descendit ad imos
Scama pedes. natum mordacem acumine dentis
Castigare moras, et pennas addere plantis
Calcar inest et cum profugos prævertere cursu
Tentabit: si vox nou excitat aut tuba lentum
Cornupedem: saltem stimulos latus audiat acres.
At leves humeros pectusque tuetur herile,
Vertice dependens triplici toga ferrea nexu
Et teretes ulnas maculis circumligat uncis.
Sed parcens oculis hostem dat posse videri.
Tutior ut lateat duplici protecta galero
Corporis humani pars dignior: ænea cassis
Imprimitur capiti: flammantibus ignea cristis
Inseritur lateri rivos factura cruoris

Dira lues gladius: per quem Jovis atria nigri
Manibus expectant vacuos implere penates.

PHILODOXÍOS.

The book which I am about to describe may truly be called "Libellus Rarissimus."

Scaliger boasted that it was impossible for him to be deceived in regard to the style of the ancients; six verses were circulated as lately discovered, they were as follows:

Here si querelis, ejulatu, fletibus
Medicina fieret miseriis mortalium,
Auro parandæ lacrymæ contra forent;

Nunc hæc ad removenda mala non magis valent,
Quam nænia præfici ad excitandos mortuos,
Res turbida consilium, non fletum captant.

These verses, which certainly are excellent, and have all the air of antiquity, deceived Scaliger so effectually, that he cited them in his commentary on Varro as a fragment from Trabea, not long since discovered in an ancient manuscript.

Trabea was a comic poet, and lived in the year 600 of Rome. These verses were however made by Muretus, who played Scaliger, his rival and competitor, this trick. Rollin, from whom this is quoted, seems not to have known that the first

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