fired off a pamphlet at him, full of bitter invective and criticism, replete with much sound sense, but at times dis graced by the most absurd puerility. Some plausible, inuendoes were thrown out in this publication against the fairness of a critic, who would undermine the value of the same work in another, which himself was at the same time essaying to execute. Some remarks in the course of this pamphlet, which were aimed against Mr. Monck, professor of Greek at Cambridge, called for a rejoinder from that gentleman. An amicable parley from the press ensued, and mutual explanations produced mutual reconcili ation in these literary champions. In regard to the termination of the dispute with Mr. Blomfield, hæret lateri le

thalis arundo.

Though last, not least, of the contributors to Eschylean lore, comes Mr. Blomfield himself, a thorough disciple of the Porsonian school. Of this school, for so we take the liberty of styling a decided majority of the Cantab scholars of modern days, we shall venture to communicate a short account and opinion.

Professor Porson's mind was so richly stored with all the treasures of antiquity, his memory was so supernaturally retentive, his judgment so decisive, and his penetration into the most corrupt fragments now remaining to us, was so surprising (both because the study itself was heretofore so unheeded and obsolete, and the fruit which he reaped from it of so novel and useful a nature), that in the short span of his life he leapt at least two centuries forward in criticism. But these mighty qualities were shaded by indolence, by an arrogance of superiority, that would never have been controverted; by a defiance of those, whose sense of their more moderate abilities would never have induced them to compete with him; and, lastly, by a minute and scrupulous attention to caligraphy, by which he childishly wasted many of his steadiest and most precious hours. That he would pass over a difficult passage, to the unravelling of which he was alone competent with an air of hauteur, of banter, or of catechism, to his young readers, is evident to those who have but dipped into his critical stream. Probably not one point which he passed over, from contemning to answer his objectors, not one, in which he suffered ridicule to supersede opinion; not one, in which he exercised youthful genius by questions and the proposals of difficult solutions, had been overlooked by himself, unexplained to his own mind, or withheld from the public, but with the full idea of future communication.

But the Sparos: TOU VOU TV deceived itself, and the preface to the Hecuba alone contains matter for the study and ingenuity of fifty scholars, lai vov Elői.

The prevailing particularities of Porson's style of annotatory criticism, are three conciseness, felicity of illus tration, and ear, on all which we shall briefly touch, as it strikes us, after much reflection, that these are the fairest tests by which the Porsonian scholar must, after his master, be measured and distinguished; and in our critique on the most promising of Porsonian scholars at present, we much wish to reduce all our opinions to this triple definition.

I. In the full enjoyment and use of unbounded learning, it seldom happens, that the critic feels moderation in his discoveries, temper towards his adversaries, or bounds to his self-conceit. If, by conjectural emendation, by transposition, by concurring testimony of some neglected MS. he lights on a happy illustration, icto accessit fervor capiti, that he is right, he will wager with you quovis pignore, you must read as he does,suo periculo,' and as for his opponents, he cares for them ne gry quidem.' If he is a German, his page of notes is immediately or royęapos : if a mere Englishman, he swears against Brunck, Villoison, Capperonier, and all the French sciolists: if a Porsonian, he studies to express his opinions in as few words as possible. With him, brevity always produces effect; and verbiage is never used but for the purposes of ridicule. Few have understood how to relish the long note at the commencement of the Orestes. Few have understood, that the professor was φώναντα συνετοισι, and to them he speaks volumes. In the Addenda alone to the Hecuba, there is more sound criticism than in the enormous body of D'Orville's criticism to Chariton, highly and deservedly as those efforts are appretiated. But we, too, must study conciseness and proceed.

II. To felicity of illustration; and here Porson is truly unrivalled. The trivial paths by which critics march to illustrate most classical authors, are generally supposed to be pre-occupied, and they may equally be so accounted in reference to the higher department of philological researches among the etymologists, and to the easiest collection and adaptation of parallel passages, where fancy frequently takes place of sober judgment. To the lower of these pursuits, Porson seldom descends; but when he does so, strange and unaccountable is the effect and evidence which his quotations give. Citations are open to

all; but when he throws light on a passage, whether it be from an ancient or modern, we are struck with the resemblance, and see, for the first time, that which we con ceive we have felt before. In the higher range of illus tration, we admire him and revere his talents. When he brings the philosopher and the lexicographer to bear upon the poet, how dwindled are the Dutchmen, how little and trumpery even those he has taught. A prose writer (Athenæus or Plutarch, for instance), is quoted in illustration. Heigh præsto! In one moment, that, which has been considered prose for centuries, becomes (without any violence in the moulding), an Iambick or a Trochee under his creative hands, and the fourfold qualities of rythm, sense, purity, and illustration, adorn it in a shorter time than we can write these lines.

1

III. We must request the indulgence of our readers but one step farther, while we assert, that in ear, in sense of Greek musical intonation, of cæsura to an indescribable nicety, Porson was gifted by nature to such a degree, that labour and adscititious advantage must never expect to equal it. As well might Croesus have hoped and urged his deaf son to move the question in the Lydian House of Lords, as the Syndics of the Cambridge Press to excite and cause in the Porsonian school a love and taste for that nice judgment of harmony which was peculiar to Porson alone, and which not one of his disciples inherits.

Although we exercise high functions, we by no means deny, that we are amenable for long digressions. If the public will accept our apology with good humour, Mr. Blomfield will doubtless forgive us, for his attention must have been already fatigued with the perusal of critiques on himself: his vanity, if he has any, highly gratified by the encomia bestowed on him on all sides: his future comforts ensured by the knowledge of what his powers can execute; and by the high and disinterested patronage which we understand him to have received from one, perhaps of the best judges of Greek literature in this country.*

The drama of Prometheus, which is probably garbled from more plays than one by the same author, has always struck us more in the light of pantomime than tragedy. For exclusively of the strangeness of the plot, the intro

*We are credibly informed, that Lord Spencer, on the perusal of Mr. Blomfield's Prometheus, unsolicited, and indeed without personal knowledge of the author, presented him to a valuable living in Northamptonshire. RART QUIPPE BONL

duction of Io drest as a cow, and Ocean on a hippogriff (and we have nothing so outre in any other Greek drama), we think, that the bombastic anapests at the close would have sounded most ludicrously in the mouth of the Grimaldi of the day. This too, as it is the first in the general order of the plays of Eschylus, is also by far the easiest, and has been generally more commented on than the remaining six. Mr. Blomfield, although he has shewn most indefatigable industry in his present attempt, cannot, in our opinion, stamp himself an approved Porsonian scholar till he has encountered Agamemnon, of whom, if we remember right, it has been said by Saumaise unus ejus' (sc. Eschyli) Agamemnon obscuritate superat quantum est librorum sacrorum cum suis Hebraismis et Syriasmis, et totâ Hellenistica supellectile, vel farragine.' Salm. de Hellenisticâ. Ep. Ded. p. 37.

For an account of the motives which led to this publication; for a succinct opinion of the real or pretended difficulties attached to Eschylus; and for a brief enumeration of the subsidia enjoyed by Mr. Blomfield, we cannot give a readier clue than his short and unaffected preface.

Pauca sunt, quæ de instituto meo, et de hoc Promethei Eschylei editione præfari velim: ratio enim operis reddenda est, et quid efficere conatus sim, expenendum. Öperam dedi ut hæc fabula ea forma prodiret, quæ tironibus maxime accommodata esset, easque difficultates quibus juvenes terreri solent, complanaret, et quantum fieri potest, enodes redderet. Quicquid in Eschylo salebrosi est, id omne ferè oritur ex linguæ insolentia, non autem ex perplexa verborum constructione, aut ex reconditis sententiis. Multa enim apud cum reperiuntur vocabula ex ultima antiquitate repetita, multæque dictiones ac formulæ loquendi, quas frustra alibi quæras, et quarum in lexicis vulgaribus aut nulla mentio sit, aut jejuna saltem atque exilis. Mihi igitur visus sum gratiam cum tironibus initurus, si opus susciperem, molestius illud quidem, et non tam artis indigens quam laboris, perquam tamen utile adolescentibus futurum; nempe si singularum in Eschylo vocum interpretationes contexerem, glossasque ad eum pertinentes, per grammaticorum scholia et lexica hic illic sparsas, colligerem et concinnarem. Harum igitur delectum, et quicquid præterea juvenibus studiosis profuturum esse judicavi, simul in Glossarium conjeci.

Atqui pruisquam me ad hoc opus accingerem, refingendus erat textus; cujus incepti subsidia quædam ad manus habui, quorum nonnulla priores editores latuerant. Septem codicum collationes, hinc illinc a Petro Needhamo conquisitas adscripserat ille margini exemplaris editionis Stanleianæ, quod nunc in bibliotheca Academiæ Cantabrigiensis servatur. Has omnes

Askevius, qua erat fide, usque ad ipsa Needhami verba et symbolum, in suum Eschyli exemplar transtulit; quod Butlero fraudi fuisse videtur; namque hos codices ab Askevio collatos esse ait, cujus exscriptum illud in eadem bibliotheca adservatur, Quinque codicum collationes, a Vauvillierio Confectas, ex notitia MS. torum Bibliothecæ Regiæ Parisiensis hausi. Accessere etiam alii Codices, atque adminicula, quæ posthac enumerabo.

'In textu constituendo, plerumque secutus sum editionem Glasguanam anni 1806, quam Porsonianam vocavi, etsi sine nomine editoris exierit: in melicis autem disponendis ducem habui Burneium, a quo rarissime, nec unquam sine pavore, discessi. Locorum, quos obelo notaverat Porsonus, nonnullos ipse postea emendavit; atque emendationes ejus, cum eas ́ab amicis doctis audivissem, sine dubitatione in textum recepi. His autem exceptis, perpauca sunt, quæ ex mera conjectura, vel mea vel aliorum, immutavi.

'In notulis quædam sunt e Porsoni manú, cujus schedas, ex hæredibus ejus redemptas, Collegium nostrum mihi excutiendas concessit; ut siquid in illis repertum esset ad Eschylum pertinens, id omne ad hanc editionem locupletandam et augendam decerperem. Et ne diutius aliquis quam vellet notis immoretur, dum Porsoni observationes quærit, has omnes typis, quod aiunt, cursivis excudendas curavi, literisque R. P. distinxi.

'Quod ad opellæ nostræ ornamenta attinet, satis erit monuisse, literarum Græcarum typos ad Porsoni mentem cusos fuisse; meque Syndicis Preli Academici obstrictum fateor, qui usum eorum mihi concesserunt, sumptusque operis erogarunt. Quod si ad studiosæ juventutis usum aliquantulum contulerim, indulgentiæ erga me, spero, Viros humanissimos non pœnite bit!'

We have the more been induced to the printing of this preface by its elegance and close adherence to the style of Porson, which is evidently affected throughout. We now proceed to a diligent examination of those passages where Mr. Blomfield's skill, or the hitherto inedited notes of the professor throw light on disputed questions, or where our editor has betrayed the weakness to which so youthful a student cannot hope to be entirely superior. Of the Glossary hereafter.

V. 2. aßarov-aßporov is read by Blomfield; we think without necessity. Porson seemed indeed to prefer the latter, as he marked aßarov with an obelus. Synesius and the schol. on the Rana of Aristophanes, v. 826, have αβατον.

V. 5. voxpross.On this word, Mr. B. remarks, that Toupe, in his Emendations of Suidas 1. p. 159, either by his own or the printer's error, has cited unλoxpηuvais. Error is a strong word. Mr. B. should remember bis master's canon concerning these compound adjectives.