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or Butler, or Dobree, and not to C. J. B., no blame can fairly attach to the person, who proves it."

The accusation against Mr. Barker and other writers in the Classical Journal, of a continued course " of insolence and detraction" towards the conductors of the Mus. Crit., may gain credence with those, who are content to receive assertion for argument. A sufficient refutation of this charge, which is not now urged for the first time, has already appeared in the 46th Number of that work. As a constant reader of the Journal, in none of its contributors have I detected any symptoms of the spirit attributed to them by this genus irritabile; and least of all in Mr. Barker, against whom the fire of this tremendous battery is principally directed. In the strictures, which he took the liberty of offering to the public on Dr. Blomfield and Professor Monk's Editions, his objections were stated in an uniformly temperate and candid style, equally removed from hypercritical censoriousness, and degrading adulation. That a scholar of Mr. Barker's profound erudition and extensive research should discover omissions and inaccuracies in the writings of one, who confesses that "he has lived for several years in an obscure Country-Parish, at a considerable distance from any Library, and with a very imperfect collection of critical works;" and again, that "for the last ten years he has only been able to look into critical works by fits and starts, as he could find a spare half-hour," (Mus. Crit. No. vii. p. 505-6.) cannot be regarded as greatly surprising. The mysterious part of the case is, on what grounds a writer, who pleads these manifold disadvantages, is to be considered infallible, or on what principle of justice and propriety Mr. Barker is to be denounced as a detractor and a slanderer, for supplying his defects and correcting his errors, or still farther, why the Classical Journal, one department of which publication avowedly consists of "Criticisms on new Editions of the Classics," should not be the medium for conveying these animadversions to the public?

To conclude. The information sifted from the principal University Bookseller, and detailed with such exultation, respecting the sale of the Classical Journal, is clearly decisive of that character for decorum and gentlemanly feeling, which these writers so exclusively arrogate to themselves. It is in itself too contemptible to deserve any comments; and therefore, with many apologies to your readers "for having devoted even a single page to such unworthy subjects," I subscribe myself,

AMERICAN PRIZES.

ΦΙΛΑΛΗΘΗΣ.

It has been observed that the progress of arms and arts has been from East to West. From Chaldæa, Egypt and Palestine it proceeded to Greece, then to Italy. France stood for a time on the pinnacle of military and literary fame, and has been lately rivalled by this country. How soon the American world may succeed to those high distinctions, we must leave to the course of events, and to the records of future history. Certain it is that North America has within these few years risen high in military exertions by sea and land. Whatever jealousy may exist in this country on account of those symptoms of greatness in arms, we must all rejoice at the attempts made by the Americans to deserve some credit in art and science. We hail with pleasure the improvements making in their colleges in classical knowledge, in the literæ humaniores. One of our Correspondents in America has sent us two publications, containing prize compositions in prose and verse, in Latin and English, by the youths of New England, educated at Boston Public School. What adds to the credit of both masters and pupils is, that, as we understand, the latter are not so old as those, who leave our Public Schools for the University.

We shall produce a specimen of their Latin Poetry; and take the liberty of adding a few hints for the improvement of their style, which we shall record with pleasure on some future occasion.

PROSERPINA RAPТА.

AUCTORE BENJAMINE BRIGHAM.

"Quo fugis, ah! miseram, demens Proserpina, matrem? Heu! nunquamne licet te rursus visere? nunquam

Maternis dabitur natam complectier ulnis ?
Te magno frustra clamavi pressa dolore:
Te frustra repetens, lustravi devia montis:
Claris te facibus cæcæ per tempora noctis,
Te, dum saxa volant ruptis e faucibus Ætnæ,
Nunquam cessavi dilectam quærere raptam!
O utinam liceat mihi te, carissima, rursus
Aspicere his oculis, visuque levare dolorem !"-
Fundenti passis has crinibus ore querelas,
Fulgens in summa Cyanes jam cernitur unda
Zona, auro late distincta, et splendida gemmis;
Qua solita est olim semper Proserpina cingi,
Cum campis Siculis, magna stipante caterva,
Floribus implebat calathos, gremiove ferebat,
Aut variis ibat sertis ornata capillos.
Nescia quid timeat, "Ditem nunc," inquit, "adibo,
Acciderit proli si quis mihi casus amate"-
Plura locuturæ vox nunc pervenit ad aures,
"Diva Ceres, o siste graduın, te cuncta docebo"-
Hisque Arethusa Deam compellat vocibus ultro :
"Diva Ceres, lætis oneras quæ frugibus arva,
Cinctaque per campos incedis tempora spicis,
Nunc habitat Stygii Proserpina regna tyranni,
Atque parat vinclo mox se sociare jugali.
Connubiis aliquam voluit sibi jungere Pluto
Jamdudum; at sprevit connubia quæque Dearum;
Nam visu horrendus, sed mente ferocior extat.
Jam Rex Tartareus subitas impulsus in iras,
Quadrijugo vehitur curru, medioque furore
In campis subito florentibus adstitit Ennæ;
Inter Sicanias ibat quo tempore Nymphas
Narcissum virgo croceum Proserpina carpens.
Ut stetit hic, Cereris defixit lumiņa natæ;
Cumque diu spissis sese Deus abdidit umbris,
Irruit, et frustra clamantem viribus aufert.
Ingenti mugiit tellus percussa tridenti,
Nec mora quin dextra lævaque dehiscere cœpit:
Tum rapta gaudens Pluto descendit ad umbras.
At resonat magnis pulsus plangoribus æther,
Et fugiunt Nymphæ pavidis terroribus actæ."
Sic effata Arethusa, Ceres sed protinus alma
His dictis Divum spatiosa ad limina tendit,
Et sic alloquitur Superumque hominumque parentem:
"O Pater omnipotens, jam supplicis annue votis:
Te facilem præbe, miseramque ulciscere matrem!
Oro te, liceat, si quid pia numina prosint,

Plutoni sceleris meritas expendere pœnas,

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Qui mihi per facinus rapuit sub Tartara natam;
Et jubeas miseræ salvam nunc reddere matri."-
Hæc ubi dicta, sinum lacrymis implevit obortis ;
Sed contra Cererem alloquitur mox Jupiter almam :
"Cara Ceres, tandem nimium depone dolorem,
Atque illas vultu lacrymas absterge decoro.
Tu descende Erebi ad sedes, noctemque profundam,
Tartareumque jube regem tibi reddere natam :
Illi iterum liceat vesci vitalibus auris !"
Non invita Ceres patris præcepta facessit,
Tartareas intrat sedes, Ditique propinquat.
"Huc venio mandata ferens tibi regis Olympi,
Qui natam voluit mecum conscendere terras :
Imperat hoc fieri Divum pater atque hominum rex.".
Jam superas Cereris soboles venisset ad auras,
Ni forte Ascalaphus funesto prodidit ore,
Decerpta ex ramis, fatalia pondera, mala !
Nam poterat terras conscendere, dummodo nullas

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Contigerit dapes virgo Plutonis in umbris.
Spes reditus miseræ matri jam deficit omnis:
"Ah! iterum," dixit, "fletus effundere cogor,
Sed frustra; magnum regem jam denique adibo !"
Adstitit ante pedes patris, supplexque dolores
Narrat, et auxilium precibus votisque precatur.
Non sinit ire preces incassum Jupiter æquus:
" In terris, aliquot vivat Proserpina menses,"
Inquit, " et infernis totidem sub sedibus Orci."

75

We wish to suggest to the young candidates for poetical fame, that a verse should not begin with a spondee closing the sense, as in No. 1. p. 41.-Savis? Fundis?

A short final vowel should not be followed by a word beginning with sc, sp, sq, st, as No. 1. p. 45.-Astrea stateramNo. 2. p. 41.-tempora spicis; 44. semina spargens-glaciale strinxit.

The enclitic should follow the first word of a clause; hence we would propose a correction in No. 2. p. 44. On this subject we beg to refer to the Classical Journal, Vol. 1x. p. 589.

In English Poetry it is scarcely necessary to guard the young writers against defective rhymes; of which we observe several instances.

401

ON THE ELEAN INSCRIPTION.

In one of your late numbers, I perceive that a correspondent has given another interpretation of my Olympian inscription, miscalled, as I now understand, the Elean. It may perhaps give some satisfaction to your readers to know its history, and that it was found at Olympia by a Greek, to whom I had given a commission to enquire for such treasures among the peasants and laborers of Antilalla. One of these, after a flood, found several articles of bronze, a helmet, a cauldron, and some inscribed plates. The former were brought to me, and the latter, supposed to be useless, as exhibiting characters which nobody could read, were left behind to be sold to a brazier. I dispatched a messenger immediately to the spot, who traced the bronzes up the valley of the Alpheius, to the shop of the brazier at Karitěna. The other pieces, which the owner would not believe could interest me, were described as broken and corroded, but they were inscribed, and may remain there yet, as I had not the means of sending again. On my return to England I endeavoured, in vain, to persuade several gentlemen to undertake an excavation at Olympia, where doubtless an invaluable treasure has been preserved by the deposit of the rivers Cladeus and Alpheius, and I had secured the friendship of the Agas of Lalla, who were then the independent lords of the country. The scheme was treated as visionary, and even my inscription, except with a few, was for some time in danger of passing for a forgery. In the mean time the revolution has put an end to all future hopes of discovery; for if the Greeks triumph, no government of theirs would ever permit an excavation by the Franks. I shall conclude by expressing my astonishment that it has never occurred to any of the interpreters of this inscription, to look at any common map of the Peloponnesus for the state or city which was most likely to have entered into a treaty with Elis. They would surely have found that the assistance of the ETFAOIOI would have been of as little consequence to the Eleans as that of the Hivites, while they must have seen that the very next city on the bank of the river was Heræa, to the ruins of which the bronze returned in the hands of the brazier of Karitěna. They might then have been induced to look at the original, an impression of which I have now before me, where they would have found their r to have been

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