Then beyond kings my joys proclaim me blest; Tum mihi ceffuros fpondent mea gaudia reges: Illa neque Arabium metuit tranfcendere limen, Et miferum toto juvenem verfare cubili. Quæ mihi dum placata aderit, non ulla verebor NOTES, by the Tranflator. 15 20 He addreffes his friend Tullus; with whofe riches he fets in competition the pleasure refulting from his love. This elegy, fays Vulpius, is moft fweet, florid, sprightly, and polished; it breathes the utmost freedom, and its numbers are fimple, foft, round, well turned; in a word they are Propertian; and we may say of our bard, what Cowley faid of Anacreon, in the character of Love: All thy verfe is fofter far, Than the downy feathers are Of my wings, or of my arrows, Of my Graceful, cleanly, fmooth, and round; All with Venus' girdle bound. Broukhufius informs us, that Joannes Secundus has beautifully imitated this elegy, together with Eleg. 3. Lib. 3. of Tibullus, in the fecond elegy of his first book. • 1. Tiberinâ unda] From this paffage, as well as from many others, appears, that Tullus was no mean perfonage; fince, like other Romans of condition, he had his villa on the banks of the Tiber. 2. Mentoreo opere :] So high-wrought drinking cups are called, by way of excellence. Mentor was a famous fculptor or emboffer; of whofe workmanship Pliny informs us, Lib. 33. Cap. 11. that the orator Lucius Craffus bought two goblets, at an hundred HSS. Martial frequently fpeaks of Mentorean cups; and Cicero, as well as many others, mention them. We may here remark, that the antients made their more costly drinking cups of gold, gems, and a compofition called murrha, about which antiquaries are fo much divided; fome contend contend it was the fame with the onyx; but Montfaucon, who gives various fpecimens of the antient drinking-vafes, is convinced from what Arrian fays, that it was a feparate matter: the murrhinian cups were most esteemed of all others, as well for their gold and purple fhades, as for their natural perfume; they were first brought into Rome by Pompey, when he returned in triumph from the Eaft. 2. Lefbia vina] This wine is noted by Horace, as a light wine fit for the fummer, and not intoxicating; Athenæus terms it ovgov; it is the fame with what Virgil, Geo. 2. and our poet, Eleg. 9. Lib. 4. call Methymneum, from Methymna, a city of Lefbos. See what Ariftotle fays of Lesbian wine, according to Aulus Gellius, Lib. 12. Cap. 5. 4. funibus iro rates:] The ancients, like us, not only navigated veffels along rivers with fails and oars, but also drew them along with cords fastened to men and beats: thus Aufonius in Mofello, Tu duplices fortite vias; et quum amne fecundo 5. Jatas filvas,] Livineius injudiciously writes facras filvas; bat Pafferatius justly interprets thefe words, trees planted in certain ranks or orders; for filva is often put, as he clearly proves, for a fingle tree; in fuch ranks, Virgil, Geor. 2. recommends the planting of vines, as well for utility as ornament. The Romans went to an immenfe expence in the culture of their woods, or parks belonging to their villas. See an excellent note, and applicable story upon this fubject, in Grainger's Tibullus, Eleg 3. Lib. 3. 8. Nefcit Amor, &c.] See our poet, Eleg. 5. Nefcit Amor prifcis cedere imaginibus. 9. trahit quietem,] Pafferatius interprets this paffage by; contracting, fhortening the night; for the night, to a very fond lover, when with his mistress, never feems long enough; but I think that trahere here fimply means ducere, as Virgil ufes it, Eneid. 4. Nate dea, potes hoc fub cafu ducere fomnos? 12. l. rubris gemma fub æquoribus.] 1 he Erythrean sea so named by the Greeks from its King Erythra, is called by the Latins mare rubrum; perhaps fays Pliny, Lib. 8. Cap. 22. from its waters being tinged red, by the reverberation of the folar rays; perhaps from the colour of its fands, or foil; or from the natural redness of its waters. And in his Proem. to Lib. 12. he informs us, that on its banks were found in -great quantities pearls and curious hells, particularly the murex, from which a purple dye was extracted. 14. dum me fata perire volent.] Broukhufius cannot perfuade himfelf, that Propertius wrote thus; for, fays he, it is dura atque inaufpicata locutio; from which, he adds, that the Romans religiously abftained; and he would fain fubftitute in its room venire, or manere : but let thofe fubfcribe to this refinement who chufe it. 16. trifti] This word here means, unkind, unpropitious; as in Tibullus, El. 7. L. 1. Semper, ut inducar, blandos offers mihi vultus : 16. præmia] This word is ufurped for pecuniary riches, by Næ vius, after Prifcianus. E e z 19. A 19. Arabium tranfcendere limen,] Some editors write lefs elegantly confcendere. By Arabian thresholds, or doors, are understood fuch valuable ones as are made of onyx, or alabatter, which is found in Arabia. See Diodorus Siculus, Lib. 2. upon Arabian marble; and Pliny, Lib. 36. Cop. 7. The wealthy Romans incrusted their whole houfes with marble; and we are informed by Pliny, that Mamurra Formianus, a Roman knight, whom Catullus lathes with fuch determined virulence, was the first in Rome who fo decorated his house. • 22. variis ferica textilibus?] Woven coverlids for beds, as well as all other woven manufactures. Babylonica fragula et periftromata, were first invented by the Egyptians, as Pliny tells us, Lib. 7 cap. 56. thofe of filk were particularly coftly; for filk was but little known among the Romans: Theophanes, the Byzantine hiftorian, tells us, that a certain Perfian first brought filk-worms from the nation of the Seres, the prefent Chinefe, to Conftantinople, under the Emperor Juftinian, and taught the Romans how filk was produced. Salmafius, in Vopifc. obferves, that the ancients had, like us, filk fluffs, woven with thread one way, and filk another; which they called subserici and tramoferici; but fuch as were entirely of filk they called boloferici, and efteemed at high value. Spartianus informs us, that the magnificent emperor Heliogabalus was the first who wore a garment wholly of filk; and Vopifcus remarks, that, in the time of Aurelian, a pound of filk was worth a pound of gold. 24. Alcinoi munera] The riches of Alcinous, king of the Phaacians; and the vaft gifts he lavished upon Ulyffes, at his departure from Corcyra, are amply described by Homer, Odyss• 7• et 13°^C-t-t. ART. V. Modern Manners: In a Series of Familiar Epistles. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Faulder. 1781. A Profeffed imitation of the Bath Guide, and one of the beft that we recolle&t to have feen of that, exquifite original. The characters are, an old Country 'Squire, his Nephew and Niece, and an old maiden Aunt, who come up to town on a vifit to a modern fine lady. As a fpecimen of this writer's manner, take the following detached paffages from the 7th epistle. My Lord, t'other evening when dinner was done, And bottles and glaffes, and fruit, were fet on, Said, he'd just got a card from my Lady CHATTONY, Who beg'd him to come to her Converfatione: Go with me, he cried, and I'll promife a treat; There the gay, and the grave, and the learned will meet: "Twixt the window and door, in a current of wind; That 1 That I'm quite hoarfe this morning, you need not be told, Then the coffee and tea In the parlour below by the livery'd fquire; As ftrong and as bitter as heart could defire, Two cups To all the gay rout, of the liquor which ladies adore; It aftonifh'd me quite, The cake and the coffee, and tea-things they bore, Then they got into parties, as fui:ed them beft, Who talk'd of fine ponies, fine women, fine cloaths. * * * * * Next a party of critics and authors I join'd, An oleo of nonfenfe, an ill-favour'd bash." "Sir, good Mr. SHUTTLECOCK's pamphlet (depend on't) "That JOHNSON's in town, and is writing away; "I was charm'd with his MILTON; what judgment and spirit! "His opinions, religious and civil, I hate poets "Sir, he'd make us all flaves to the church and the ftate!"- On this fubject the Doctor does nothing but dream, (-t-ti Авто ART. VI. The Intereft of Great Britain, with regard to her American Colonies confidered: To which is added an Appendix, containing the Outlines of a Plan for a general Pacification. By James ADderson, M. A. Author of Observations on the Means of exciting a Spirit of National Industry, &c. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Cadell. 1782. N times when fubjects of general importance engage the attention of the Public, and teeming heads are delivered of thoughts for their own eafe and the benefit of others, aný person, whatever his opinions may be, can be furnished with ready-made arguments to fupport them, that will fit them as neatly, as a tall, fhort, fat, lean, ftrait, or crooked man, may be fitted with a fuit of cloaths at Monmouth-street or Rosemary-lane: It is indeed as happy for communities as for individuals, that we have such a facility in accommodating our thoughts to circumftances as they arife; for the train of reafoning pursued in this very fenfible effay, which, perhaps, the ingenious Author himfelf never conceived, till it was dictated by events, may now operate as a cordial, by its novelty, though the taste of it would have been totally difrelished at the close of the late war, when we were flushed with conquefts, and congratulated ourselves on the recent extenfion of the British empire. After having been repeatedly told, both in print and in the fenate, that our welfare as a nation, depended on preferving the fupreme government over our American colonies; we are now comforted under the loss of them, by a difquifition, the refult of which is, That our American colonies, inttead of promoting the trade and manufactures of Great Britain, have tended in a most powerful manner to deprefs them. That inftead of adding ftrength and ftability to the empire, they have neceffarily weakened it to a great degree, and expofed it to the most imminent danger. That, therefore, the fettling of thefe colonies at first was unwife, and the fubfequent encouragement that was given them highly impolitic.' To maintain thefe pofitions may be deemed an arduous task, by those who have ever confidered American colonization in a direct contrary point of view; but it is undertaken by a writer, whofe abilities we have, on more than one occafion, found to be refpectable. Instead of extending this article by attempting an abridged detail of the whole work, which, from the connexion of the feveral parts, must be injured by curtailing, we shall confine ourselves to the chapter which treats of the confequences that refult from extended dominion, as an abstract queftion; and our choice is the rather directed to this paffage, as the argument of it points directly at certain current opinions, as well relating to ourselves as to the new-formed American States, the validity of which is generally fuppofed incontrovertible, and may ferve to reconcile us to difappointments, that, according to the writer, ought rather to give us fatisfaction. |