SELECT EPIGRAM S. I. F OR counsel fage to Pittacus the wife With doubts perplext an am'rous youth applies : "Dread fire, two virgins covet my embrace, "The first my equal both in wealth and race : "In each superior shines the second fair : "Which fhall I wed-where fix, oh tell me, where ?" He spoke; the fage, his footsteps faithful friend Uprcaring, cry'd, "Lo thofe thy doubts will end, Select Epigrams, &c.] I have given the reader a few of our author's Epigrams, as they are excellent in their kind, and as a fpecimen of the fimplicity of the Greek Epigram: which we are to remember in its firft original intent was no more than pappa, an infeription, "De hiftoria Epigrammatis & origine tum rei tum vocis, hæc accepimus, confueffe antiquos ftatuis Deorum & beroum infcriptiones quafdam breves infculpere, quæ paças & siypappaтa nominabantur, c." Thus Dr. Trapp, in his Prælect. Poetica, "Take Pral. 12ma; where the reader will find a complate differtation on the fubject. The word Epigram, and the fpecies of poetry going under that name, rendered it neceffary to obferve this, at the entrance of thefe little poems of our author, which moderns would rather call mifcellaneous, than epigrammatical. There is a remarkable paffage quoted by Madam Dacier from the fcholiaft upon Efchylus, which would almost incline one to believe, that this firft Epigram of our author's was founded on a real ftory. The reader "Take their advice-" and pointed to the throng That urg'd the spinning top with fmacking thong : And oft, "Take one, one equal," heard them cry: A choice like his in wifdom wou'd you make, So you, my friend, to wife an equal take. SA II. A Y, honest Timon, now escap'd from light, Which do you most abhor, or that or night? "Man, I most hate these gloomy fhades below, "And that because in them are more of you." III. From ev'ry ftroke flies humming o'er the And gains new spirit as the blows go round. Martial has an Epigram (lib. 8. 12.) to the fame purpose with our author: You afk, why I refufe to wed, Callimachus feems to advife rather more wifely than Martial: fince, why men fhould marry equally, is plain and reasonable enough; but why the wife fhould be inferior, is not easy to determine. See the Chiliads of Erafmus, p. 1146. III. A SHELL, bright VENUS, wonder of the sea, Fair Selenæa dedicates to thee: And the first tribute, which the maid cou'd give, Epigram III.] For the tranflation of this Epigram, and the remarks upon it, I am obliged to my worthy friend, that curious antiquary, Maurice Johnson, Efq; "Oppian's defcription of this fifh referred to by Mr. Pope in his Effay on Man, (Learn of the little Nautilus to fail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale) may fomewhat illuftrate this Epigram. Within a curious concave shell conceal'd The Polyp much resembleth; rightly he's The Expands his membranes as a gath'ring fail, But if o'er head the hov'ring ofprey fly, Mr. Johnfon refers to Dr. Grew, in his catalogue The fubject of this Epigram, we are to obferve, is the dedication of a Nautilus taken in the ifland Cos by Selenaa, daughter of Clinias, a nobleman of Smyrna, to Penus Zephyritis, that is, Arfinoë, the mother of Berenice, who had divine honours paid to her, and was called Venus, Zephyritis, Cypris, &c. Sce Coma Berenices, and Encomium of Ptolemy. Z 2 The cabinet of Arfinoë to adorn I to the Coan coaft at length was borne. No more for me to fkim the filent flood, A IV. YOUTH, who thought his father's wife Had loft her malice with her life, Officious with a chaplet grac'd The ftatue on her tomb-stone plac'd: With the dire blow it ftruck him dead : Your ftep-dame's fepulchre to fhun. V. N facred fleep here virtuous Saon lies; . IN 'Tis ever wrong to fay a good man dies. VI. Epigram IV.] For the tranflation of this Epi- ladies are much indebted for his poem, greatly gram I am obliged to my ingenious friend Mr. Duncombe of Bennet in Cambridge; to whom the to their honour, of the Feminead. |