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 :
Attentive to their words the youth drew nigh

And oft, "Take one, one equal," heard them cry:
Whence warn'd he fled the loftier beauty's charms,
And took the equal maiden to his arms.

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
ground,

And gains new spirit as the blows go round.
PITT.

Martial has an Epigram (lib. 8. 12.) to the fame purpose with our author:

You afk, why I refufe to wed,
Good friend, a very wealthy maid ?
Because to my own wife, d'ye fee,
On no account I'd married be:
For fure, unless inferior is the fair,
The wife and husband never equal are.

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,
Me, little Nautilus, dread queen, receive:
Who o'er the waves, when blew propitious gales,
With my own cable ftretch'd my proper fails :
"My legs as oars extending on each side,
"Hence call'd a Polyp in my pearly pride :"

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
There lies a fish, whose wond'rous form re-
veal'd,

The Polyp much resembleth; rightly he's
A failor call'd, by fuch as ufe the feas:
Refiding on the fand at bottom there,
Yet rifing fometimes to the open air:
Seeking the furface quick reverts his fhell,
Left wat'ry weight his energy repel;
But foon as, Amphitrite, he can gain
The wave fuperior in thy noify main,
Inftant he turns himfelf and fwims no more,
But feems as failing wafted tow'rds the fhore:
Stretches his limbs, like tackling fome applies,
With fome the stream like bufy oars he plies:

The

Expands his membranes as a gath'ring fail,
(So fpread our oars, and fo we catch the gale)
The Sun thro' thinner medium views more fair,
And for variety takes frefher air.

But if o'er head the hov'ring ofprey fly,
Or other danger threaten, e'er too nigh
The wary nautil ftrait with prudent speed,
Draws in his tackle, weighticr drops fucceed,
And filling fave fecure the fubtile fish,
Him finking downward to his deep abyfs:
Hence were we told in hollow barks to fail,
And learn to fpread the oars, and catch the
gale."

Mr. Johnfon refers to Dr. Grew, in his catalogue
of the Royal Society's Mufaum, and to Al-
drovandus, as moft full of any author, on this
moft curious article.

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,
O'er thy calm offspring, gentle Halcyon, brood:
But be that grace for Clinias' daughter found;
The maid is worthy, and from Smyrna bound.

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:
When, fudden falling on his head,

With the dire blow it ftruck him dead :
Be warn'd from hence, each fofter-son,

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.