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LATIN LINES

ADDRESSED TO MR. WEST, FROM GENOA.

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 94.]

HORRIDOS tractus, Boreæque linquens
Regna Taurini fera, mollioremt
Advehor brumam, Genuæque amantes

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,
Arvaque Romanis nobilitata malis.

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, Tpɛßíaç. 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 Trebie, as Libya, Libye. But in

Et suspirantes ducere moestus aquas; Maurorumque ala, et nigræ increbescere turmæ, 5 Et pulsa Ausonidum ripa sonare fugâ.

CARMEN AD C. FAVONIUM ZEPHYRINUM.*

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 120.] MATER rosarum, cui teneræ vigent Auræ Favonî, cui Venus it comes

Ovid the words, Leda, Rhea, Hybla, Phædra, Andromeda, Amalthea, &c. lengthen the final syllable. "Mittit Hypermnestra de tot modo fratribus uni," Ov. Ep. xiv. 1. Ín Propertius, ii. xi. 5. the a in Electra is long; also in Ovid. Fast. iv. 177. See on this point D'Orville. Misc. Obs. ii. 202, and Burmann. notes to Anthol. Latin. i. 215. ii. 78, Jortin. Tracts. vol. ii. 421. Burmann. Propert. iv. 7. 63. p. 844. In the Herc. Fur. of Seneca, 203: " Megara parvum comitata gregem." Gray therefore would have had sufficient authority for the use of Trebia in this place. So Sil. Italicus, iv. 661, describing the appearance of Trebia : "Tum madidos crines, et glauca fronde revinctum Attollit cum voce caput."

Virg. Georg. iv. 182: "Et glaucas salices." Luke.
V. 5. Sil. Ital. describes the army of Hannibal, iii. 407:
"Talia Sidonius per campos agmina ductor
Pulvere nigrantes raptat.'

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 Favoni," 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.

Lasciva, Nympharum choreis
Et volucrum celebrata cantu!
Dic, non inertem fallere quâ diem
Amat sub umbrâ, seu sinit aureum
Dormire plectrum, seu retentat
Pierio Zephyrinus antro

Furore dulci plenus, et immemor
Reptantis inter frigora Tusculi
Umbrosa, vel colles Amici

Palladiæ superantis Albæ.

Dilecta Fauno, et capripedum choris
Pineta, testor vos, Anio minax

Quæcunque per clivos volutus

Præcipiti tremefecit amne,

5

10

15

V.6.

"Et te sonantem plenius aureo,
Alcæe, plectro."

V. 8.

"

Hor. Od. ii. xiii. 26. Pierio recreatis antro," Hor. Od. iii. iv. 40. V. 14. "Et præceps Anio, ac Tiburni lucus," Hor. Od. i. vii. 13. 66 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 miner 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.

V. 23. In this, the following, and the last stanza, the third line of the Alcaic stanza ends with two dissyllables,

Illius altum Tibur, et Æsulæ
Audîsse sylvas nomen amabiles,
Illius et gratas Latinis

Naisin ingeminâsse rupes;
Nam me Latinæ Naides uvidâ
Vidêre ripâ, quâ niveas levi

Tam sæpe lavit rore plumas

;

Dulcè canens Venusinus ales
Mirum! canenti conticuit nemus,
Sacrique fontes, et retinent adhuc
(Sic Musa jussit) saxa molles
Docta modos, veteresque lauri.
Mirare nec tu me citharæ rudem
Claudis laborantem numeris: loca

· 20

.25

30

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. 66

Koýuns iepòv póov," Apoll. Rhod. i. 1208. iv. 134. Theocr. Idyll. ii. 1. 69. "Ad aqua lene caput sacra," 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 "Amona," beginning the third line of the Alcaic stanza. As the places where it occurs in that poet

Amoena, jucundumque ver in-
compositum docuere carmen ;
Hærent sub omni nam folio nigri
Phœbea lucî (credite) somnia,
Argutiusque et lympha et auræ
Nescio quid solito loquuntur.

FRAGMENT OF A LATIN POEM ON THE GAURUS.

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 145.]

NEC procul infelix se tollit in æthera Gaurus,
Prospiciens vitreum lugenti vertice pontum :
Tristior ille diu, et veteri desuetus olivâ
Gaurus, pampineæque eheu jam nescius umbræ ;

have not, I believe, been ever pointed out, I will set them down here, 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.

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