LATIN LINES ADDRESSED TO MR. WEST, FROM GENOA. [See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 94.] HORRIDOS tractus, Boreæque linquens Litora soles. ELEGIAC VERSES, OCCASIONED BY THE SIGHT OF THE PLAINS WHERE THE BATTLE OF TREBIA WAS FOUGHT. [See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 104.] QUA Trebie glaucas salices intersecat undâ, Visus adhuc amnis veteri de clade rubere, *So in the Sapphic Ode, "Mollior æstas." Ovid in his Epist. ex Ponto, i. ii. 62: "Litora mollia." V. 1. I do not know on what authority Gray has used the word "Trebie" with the final e. The word which is used in the Classic authors is Trebia, Tpɛßías. See Sil. Ital. iv. 661, xi. 140, &c. sæpe. Lucan, ii. 46. Livy, xxi. c. 48. Pliny, N. H. 3. 20, &c. Claudian, xxiv. 145. Manilius, iv. 661. It is most probable that Gray thought that the final syllable of Trebia could not be lengthened; therefore used the word CARMEN AD C. FAVONIUM ZEPHYRINUM.* [See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 120.] MATER rosarum, cui teneræ vigent Et volucrum celebrata cantu! Trebie, as Libya, Libye. But in Ovid the words Leda, Rhea, Virg. Georg. iv. 182: "Et glaucas salices." Luke. *Written by Gray immediately after his journey to Frascati and the cascades of Tivoli, which he had described in a preceding letter to his friend West. V. 1. "Et reserata viget genitalis aura Favonî." Lucret. i. 2. When the epithet glauca is applied to the foliage of a tree, and the tree itself not particularized, as in the passage of Sil. Italicus; we must refer it to the "salix," the "populus," or the "oliva; " according to situation, and other circumstances; as "Cæruleus" is generally applied to the Pine, Fir, and Cypress. Dic, non inertem fallere quâ diem Dormire plectrum, seu retentat Furore dulci plenus, et immemor Reptantis inter frigora Tusculi Palladiæ superantis Albæ. Dilecta Fauno, et capripedum choris Quæcunque per clivos volutus Præcipiti tremefecit amne, Illius altum Tibur, et Æsulæ Naisin ingeminâsse rupes; 5 10 15 20 V. 6. "Et te sonantem plenius aureo, Hor. Od. ii. xiii. 26. V. 8. "Pierio recreatis antro," Hor. Od. iii. iv. 40. V. 14. "Et præceps Anio, ac Tiburni lucus," Hor. Od. i. vii. 13. "Preceps Anien," Stat. Silv. i. v. 25. V. 20. In Mason's, and all the subsequent editions, the word "Naïasin " is here placed; which would make the line unmetrical. Gray indeed might have written " Naïasin geminâsse rupes." But the word "Naides " in the following line, which has also the same error in the editions as the former word, would make an objection to that reading. I have therefore restored the metre, by reading "Naisin " and "Naides." See Gronovius on Seneca Hippol. 778. Jortin. Tracts, vol. i. p. 321. V. 20. See Propert. i. xx. 12: "Non minor Ausonius est amor ah! Dryasin." And i. xx. 32: "Ah! dolor ibat Hylas, ibat Hamadryasin." And Ov. Art. Am. iii. 672. See Burmann. note to Ovid, Ep. xiii. 137, and Trist. v. 5. 43. V. Lotichii. Poem. i. p. 226. ed Burm. and Burm. Anthol. Lat. vol. ii. p. 508. Burm. ad Virg. Eclog. x. 10. Salmasii Ling. Helen. p. 142. Nam me Latina Naides uvidâ V. 23. In this, the following, and the last stanza, the third line of the Alcaic stanza ends with two dissyllables; which can be defended but by very few examples of Horace. See the fictitious ode, lib. i. 40. ad Librum suum, (published by Villoison in Long. Past.) v. 11. "Huic ara stabit, fama cantu." Another error in this verse is the absence of the accent on the fifth or sixth syllable. V. 26. "Konvns iɛpòv póov," Apoll. Rhod. i. 1208. iv. 134. Theocr. Idyll. ii. 1. 69. "Ad aquæ lene caput sacre," Hor. Od. i. i. 22. "Nec sacros pollue fontes," Ovid. Metam. ii. 464. "Fonte sacro," Virg. Æn. vii. 84. and Jortin's remarks on Spenser, vol. i. p. 63. V. 30. This is the only instance in this ode in which Gray has not conformed to the rule of the "divisio versûs post quintam syllabam." In the other Alcaic Ode on the Chartreuse, there is also one instance similar to this: "Per invias rupes, fera per juga.” The practice of Horace certainly seems to authorize this rule. Three exceptions are to be found: Od. lib. i. xxxvii. 5, i. xxxvii. 14, and Od. iv. xiv. 16. I do not know that there are any more; of course, the case of an elided syllable being excepted. V. 31. In Horace there are but nine instances of an amphibrachys, as "Amoena," beginning the third line of the Alcaic stanza. As the places where it occurs in that poet have not, I believe, been ever pointed out, I will set them down here, Hærent sub omni nam folio nigri FRAGMENT OF A LATIN POEM* ON THE GAURUS. [See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 145.] NEC procul infelix se tollit in æthera Gaurus, Gaurus, pampineæque eheu jam nescius umbræ ; to save any trouble to those desirous of seeing them : i. xvii. 7, i. xxix. 7, i. xxxv. 15, i. xxxvii. 15, ii. iii. 3, ii. xvii. 3, ii. xx. 11, iii. iii. 71, iii. xxix. 11. V. 31, 32. There is no instance in Horace of a broken word ending the third line of the Alcaic stanza, or, indeed, of its being used at all; and therefore it must be considered as not defended by authority; though it may be found ending the third line of the Sapphic stanza, in Horace, i. xxv. 11. i. ii. 19, ii. xvi. 7, iii. xxvii. 60, but, I believe, that no example even of this can be found in the Sapphics of Seneca. It ends the first line, in Hor. Od. iv. ii. 1, and the second line in ii. ii. 18, and iv. ii. 22, in which latter passage it is to be observed, that the "divisio vocis" takes place in two successive lines. V. 33. "Quam sedem Somnia vulgò Vana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus hærent." Virg. Æn. vi. 283. * Sent by Gray to his friend West, with a reference to Sandys's Travels, book iv. pag. 275, 277, and 278. A translation of this poem may be seen in the Gent. Mag. for July, 1775. V. 2. Vitreo ponto," Hor. Od. iv. ii. 3. "Vitrea unda," Virg. Æn. vii. 759. Georg. iv. 350. 99. V. 4. "Bacchei vineta madentia Gauri," Statii Silv. iii. v. "Icario nemorosus palmite Gaurus," Silv. iii. i. 147. |