Fulgeret auro, et Phidiacâ manu)
Salve vocanti ritè, fesso et

Da placidam juveni quietem.
Quod si invidendis sedibus, et frui
Fortuna sacrâ lege silentii

Vetat volentem, me resorbens
In medios violenta fluctus :
Saltem remoto des, Pater, angulo
Horas senectæ ducere liberas ;
Tutumque vulgari tumultu

Surripias, hominumque curis.

PART OF AN HEROIC EPISTLE

FROM SOPHONISBA TO MASINISSA.

See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 46, "I thank him (Mason) for one, thinking as I do, many of the lines fully equal to Ovid's." MS. note of Bennett, Bishop of Cloyne.]

EGREGIUM accipio promissi Munus amoris,
Inque manu mortem, jam fruitura, fero:

"Each tree whose thick and spreading growth hath made Rather a night between the boughs than shade."

Davenant. v. Dryden. Misc. vi. 318.

V. 9. "Ponit marmoream sub trabe citrea,"

Hor. Od. iv. i. 20.
V. 10. "Phidiacâ manu," Martial. vi. 73. x. 89.
V. 11. "Mihi cumque salve

Rite vocanti " Hor. Ode i. xxxii. 15. Utrumque sacro digna silentio," Hor. Od. ii. Resorbens," Hor. Od. ii. vii. 15.

Atque utinam citius mandasses, luce vel unâ ;
Transieram Stygios non inhonesta lacus.
Victoris nec passa toros, nova nupta, mariti,
Nec fueram fastus, Roma superba, tuos.
Scilicet hæc partem tibi, Masinissa, triumphi
Detractam, hæc pompæ jura minora suæ
Imputat, atque uxor quòd non tua pressa catenis,
Objecta et sævæ plausibus orbis eo:
Quin tu pro tantis cepisti præmia factis,

Magnum Romanæ pignus amicitiæ !
Scipiada excuses, oro, si, tardius utar

5

10

Munere. Non nimiùm vivere, crede, velim. 14 Parva mora est, breve sed tempus mea fama requirit: Detinet hæc animam cura suprema meam.

V. 4. " Quamvis ista mihi mors est inhonesta futura, Mors inhonesta quidem." Propert. El. ii. vii. 89. V. 5. 66 Virgineo nullum corpore passa virum," Ovid. Fast. v. 146. Virg. Georg. iii. 60.

V. 7. In Mason's edition it is spelt 'Massinissa ;' which, however, will only partially correct the quantity; as the second syllable will still be short. See Ovid. Fast. vi. 769: " Postera lux melior, superat Masinissa Syphacem." And Sil. Ital. xvi. 117:

66

Cultuque Aeneadum nomen Masinissa superbum." That Masinissa' is the right orthography, see Drakenborch's note on Sil. Italicus; Gronovius on Livy, lib. xxv. c. xxxiv. 11; Vorstius on Val. Max. i. i. 31. Tortellius, in his Grammatical Commentaries, under the word Masanissa,' says, Non enim primum aliquo pacto duplicari potuit: ut ignari quidam syllabarum voluerunt." See also Noltenii Lexicon, vol. i. p. 112. Cellarii Orthog. Lat. i.

p. 285.

V. 12. "I liber absentis pignus amicitiæ,"

Martial. ix. cii. V. 15. "Parva mora est," Ovid. Met. i. 671. Ep. ii.

144,

Quæ patriæ prodesse meæ Regina ferebar,
Inter Elisæas gloria prima nurus,
Ne videar flammæ nimis indulsisse secundæ,
Vel nimis hostiles extimuisse manus.
Fortunam atque annos liceat revocare priores,
Gaudiaque heu ! quantis nostra repensa malis.
Primitiasne tuas meministi atque arma Syphacis
Fusa, et per Tyrias ducta trophæa vias ?
(Laudis at antiquæ forsan meminisse pigebit,
Quodque decus quondam causa ruboris erit.)
Tempus ego certe memini, felicia Pœnis

Quo te non puduit solvere vota deis ;
Moeniaque intrantem vidi: longo agmine duxit
Turba salutantum, purpureique patres.
Fœminea ante omnes longe admiratur euntem

20

25

30

V. 18. See Sil. Italicus. ii. 239; vi. 346; xiv. 257. V. 20. "Pallet, et hostiles credit adesse manus," Ov. Fast. ii. 468.

V. 21. "Non annis revocare tuis," Ov. Met. vii. 177. V. 26. "Aut ubi cessaras, causa ruboris eram,'

Ov. Trist. iii. vii. 26. V. 27. Here the last syllable of ego is again made long. See the note to the Sapphic Ode to West, ver. 45, p. 230. I have only to add to that note, that ego is said to be found with this quantity in the Diræ Catonis,' ver. 156; but which line is thus given by Wernsdorf, vol. iii. p. 19:

"Ausus egon' primus custos violare pudores?" and by all the other editors prior to him. See Pithæi Catul. p. 219. Scaligeri Collect. p. 61. Boxhornii Poet. Sat. p. 117. Burmanni Anthol. ii. 674; but erroneously: see Bentley's Canon, Heavt. Terentii, act v. sc. 1. and Clas. Journ. No. lxii. p. 352.

V. 30. "Turba salutantum," Claudian. iii. 213, p. 30. ed. Gesn. Virgil. Georg. ii. 462.

V. 31. "Omnia fœmineis quare dilecta catervis," Martial. xi. 48. " Venit in exsequias tota caterva meas," Prop. iv. xi. 68. And "aspectu hæsit," Virg. Æn. iii. 597.

Hæret et aspectu tota caterva tuo. Jam flexi, regale decus, per colla capilli, Jam decet ardenti fuscus in ore color!

Commendat frontis generosa modestia formam, 35
Seque cupit laudi surripuisse suæ.

Prima genas tenui signat vix flore juventas,
Et dextræ soli credimus esse virum.

Dum faciles gradiens oculos per singula jactas,
(Seu rexit casus lumina, sive Venus)
In me (vel certè visum est) conversa morari
Sensi; virgineus perculit ora pudor.
Nescio quid vultum molle spirare tuendo,
Credideramque tuos lentius ire pedes.
Quærebam, juxta æqualis si dignior esset,
Quæ poterat visus detinuisse tuos :
Nulla fuit circum æqualis quæ dignior esset,

40

45

V. 34. "Et enim fusco grata colore Venus," Ov. Amor. ii. 440. And Propert. El. ii. xix. 78.

V 35. Ov. Medicam. ver. 1. "Quæ faciem commendat cura" And ad Liv. 259.

V. 37. Ora puer prima signans intonsa juventa,” Virg. Æn.ix. 181. Also Ovid. Met. xiii. 754. Virg. Æn. vii. 162. vin. 160.

V. 39. Facilesque oculos fert omnia circum," Virg. En. viii. 310.

V.:40. "Ad fratrem casu lumina flexa tulit," Ov. Trist. iii. ix. 22.

V: 43. Gray has in this instance preserved a metrical canon, which has been broken through by many of the modern Latin poets :-repeatedly by Milton, Addison, Buchanan, and T. Warton. See the Classical Journal, 1. 71. 283, xxi. 174. xxii. 364. and Barthius and Burman on Nemesian Eclog. ii. 32. see Poet. Lat. Minor. vol. i. p. 570. and Dawes. Misc. Crit. ed. Kidd, p. 3.

V. 46. "Sæpe oculos etiam detinuisse tuos," Ov. Trist. ii. 520.

50

Asseruitque decus conscia forma suum. Pompæ finis erat. Totâ vix nocte quievi, Sin premat invitæ lumina victa sopor, Somnus habet pompas, eademque recursat imago; Atque iterum hesterno munere victor ades.†

DIDACTIC POEM UNFINISHED:

ENTITLED,

DE PRINCIPIIS COGITANDI.

LIBER PRIMUS. AD FAVONIUM.

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 55.]

UNDE Animus scire incipiat; quibus inchoet orsa Principiis seriem rerum, tenuemque catenam Mnemosyne Ratio unde rudi sub pectore tardum Augeat imperium; et primum mortalibus ægris

V. 49. " Infelix, totâ quicumque quiescere nocte," Ovid.

Amor. ii. 9. 39.

V. 50. Lumina cum placido victa sopore jacent," Ov. Ep. xvi. 100.

Ellis, in his Historical Sketch of English Poetry, (p. 224,) thinks that the description of the entry of Troilus into Troy, in Chaucer's romance of Troilus and Creseida, suggested to Gray some very beautiful lines in this Epistle : "Jam flexi, regale decus," &c. (See Chaucer, b. xi. st. 83. fol. 151. ed. 1602.)

"This Troilus sat on his bave steed,

All armed, save his head, full richely," &c. V. 4. Virg. Georg. i. 237, "Mortalibus ægris," and Lucret. vi. 1. Luke.