-You are a a faucy friend, PREFACE. I'm ne'er beholding t'ye, and there's an end. And fo there's an end of my animadverfions upon Mr. Creech; were I to quote all his dull infipid lines, I fhould quote above half his book: thus much was proper for me to fay in my own vindication; and to add more, might, to some people," feem invidious. It has been hinted to me by more ingenious It fortuned, fair Venus having loft Him for to feek, fhe left her heavenly house, Had borne him, or his tract the mote detect: From this foecimen I could not be perfuaded to think, that a tranflation of Theocritus, even in the pureft language of Spenfor, would afford any pleafure to an English reader: and therefore I have given him the drefs which I apprehend would best become him. How I have executed this work, I leave to the decifion of the candid and impartial, defiring they will allow me all the indulgence which the tranflator of so various and difficult an doned him too want only, but have endeavoured Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus Nor word for word too faithfully translate. That fervile path thou nobly doft decline, author can reasonably require; an author on whom Befides thefe errors and mistakes, I am conthere are but few Greek fcholia published, only to fcious of many more, though I hope not very mathe 17th Idyllium inclufive, and thefe often exterial ones; thofe the learned and judicious, who tremely puerile; an author on whom fewer notes are fenfible of the difficulty of this undertaking, have been written than upon any other equally excellent. Scaliger, Cafaubon, Heinfius and Meur-will readily excufe. This work has already met fius frequently leave the most difficult paffages untouched; their obfervations are fometimes trifl. ing and unfatisfactory, often repugnant to each other, and now and then learnedly obfcure: amidst thefe difadvantages, I have endeavoured to conduct myself with the utmost caution; and if I may be allowed to speak of the following fheets, I will briefly explain what I have endeavoured to accomplish. First, then, as to the tranflation; I have with the approbation of the best critics of the age, isher followed my author too elufely, nor aban-It This goat with twins I'll give, &c. j should have been tranflated, "I will give you author of the Critica Vannus, and Sicula, during his travels in Italy and Sicily, collated upwards of forty MSS. of Theocritus; his collation is now at Amfterdam. Mr. St. Amand, a few years ago, left to the University of Oxford, a large collection of collations, which Mr. Thomas Warton, who has prepared a noble edition of this author, has the use of. Mr. Taylor, late Greek profeffor of Cambridge, left likewife a Theocritus almoft ready for the prefs. In the public library at Cambridge, there are fome notes on Theocritus by Ifaac Ca This mistake was imparted to me by the ingenious you read, with Pierfon, Kgoroso; which, as to "the fenfe, seems to be right But, as the Ionic "dialect is not often ufed in a Doric fong, I "should prefer the adjective Kgoire, which is also 86 a fmaller alteration. As from xguros comes Χρύσειος, το from Κροίσος, Κροισειος.” I am much obliged to the fame gentleman for the following fhort, but full account : OF THE BUCOLIC MEASURE. "Whofoever fhall carefully examine in Theo. critus the compofition of his verses, may per"ceive, that, in his opinion, the nature of bucolic or pastoral metre, requires that the fourth foot "of the verse be a dactyl, and that the last fyl"lable of this dactyl be the end of a word, which must not run into the next foot. The first foot "alfo fhould rather be a dactyl than a fpondee, " and the cæfura is here likewife to be fhunned. If ma at least, the verse will be still more elegant; as Poetæ Græci; likewife manufcript notes in the edition of Commelin, printed in quarto; and also fome notes by Thomas Stanley, the author of the Lives of the Philofophers: all these, and like wife a MS. Theocritus are in the public library at Cambridge. There is alfo a MS. of the firft eight Idylliums in Emanuel College library. Mr. Hoblyn, late member for the city of Bristol, left behind him many notes and obfervations for an edition of Theocritus. Befides these, there are great materials for illuftrating this author in private libraries. As to the editions of Theocritus, which are very numerous, I think proper to say something; as we have but an imperfect account of them in Fabricius and Maittaire. Reifkie, in the preface to his late edition of this Greek poet, has given us an account of the various editions, but this account Theocritus was printed at Milan in the year 1493, is far from being fatisfactory. The first edition of the letter is the fame with the Ifocrates of the Leyden library, page 251. The fecond edition fame place and date. See the catalogue of the was printed by Aldus Manutius at Venice, in the year 1495; this is the only edition Aldus ever printed; there are fome leaves cancelled in it, which is the reason why Reifke and others have imagined that Aldus printed two editions. Mr. Maittaire, in the first volume of his Annales Typo Αρχίτε | Βωκολικάς, Μώσαι φίλαι, | αρχετ' αοιδάς. And it is fufficient if the other ftructure predo- "Incipe Manalios mecum, mea | tibia, versus,” thefe differences. In the year 1515, we have an edition by Philip Junta at Florence; and another in 1516, by Zachary Caliergus at Rome. the year 1520. Besides thefe, and those mentioned by Keifke, which I have feen, there are some curious editions, viz. that of Florence by Benedict Junta, printed in the year 1540; the Bafil edition of 1558, and the Paris edition of 1627, printed by John Libert. I have purposely omitted mention These are all the editions that came out before "Ducite ab urbe donum, mea carmina, ducite ing the others, as they are already taken notice of, "Daphnim, "For a further account of this matter, the curious either by Fabricius, Maittaire, or Reiske. I cannot conclude this preface without paying my acknowledgments to thofe gentlemen who have kindly affifted me in this undertaking. Dr. Pearce, the prefent Lord Bishop of Rochester, many years eminent for his critical difquifitions, has, in the friendliness of converfation, furnished me with several useful rules for conducting my translation, It may be asked, why I have not acted the part Dr. Jortin has favoured me with a concise, but full of a verbal critic in this performance? My reafon account of the old bucolic measure, and a few vawas, that far more able men had confidered Theo-luable notes. The celebrated Mr. Samuel Johnfon tritus in that light. The late Mr. D'Orville, the has corrected part of this work, and furnished me AN ACCOUNT OF SOME MSS. AND CURIOUS EDI- paraphrastically imitated, very obligingly lupplied the Effay on Pastoral, and some ingenious obfervations and Dr. William Watfon lent me his friendly assistance in the botanical part. I could mention other eminent names of gentlemen whe have corrected and improved this work; with fome judicious remarks. In a fhort conver- | Rev. Mr. John Duncombe of Canterbury, have, at fation with the ingenious Mr. Joseph Warton, I my own request, sent me several notes and stricgathered several obfervations, particularly in re- tures upon my performance, which are candid and gard to the fuperiority of Theocritus to Virgil invaluable. Mr. Burnaby Greene, author of Juvenal paftoral, which are interspersed among the notes. The learned Dr. Plumptre, Archdeacon of Ely, has, with great candour and accuracy, done me the honour to peruse and amend every fheet as it came from the prefs. Dr. Afkew, fo eminently diftinguished in his profeffion, as well as for a large and most curious collection of the claffics, and an intimate knowledge of them, with the fincerity of an old acquaintance and a friend, gave me many various readings, fhowed me every valuable edition of Theocritus that is extant, and furnished me with the account of fome MSS. and scarce editions of my author, which were never taken notice of by former editors. Swithin Adee, M. D. and the Each finding, like a friend, Something to blame, and fomething to commend. The lift I have given, I am apprehenfive, will appear oftentatious-however, I had rather be convicted of the foible of vanity, than thought guilty of the fin of ingratitude. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THEOCRITUS. As the life of Theocritus has been feveral times | Then take him to develope if you can, And hew the block off, and get out the man. The account of our author in the Biographical Dictionary, publifhed in twelve volumes odavo, is nothing but a fervile epitome of Kennet, and, where the concifenefs of it will allow, expreffed in his very words. Thus diffatisfied with the moderns, I had recourfe to the ancients: in the life generally prefixed to his works by Suidas, we are told, “That Theocritus was a Chian, a rheto"rician: but that there was another Theocritus, "the fon of Praxagoras and Philina, though fome "fay of Simichidas, a Syracufan;" others fay, "he "was born at Cos, but lived at Syracufe;" now this was the cafe of Epicharmus, and might eafily occafion the mistake. See the note on Epigram XVII. In another Greek account in the front of his works, we are told, that "Theocritus the Bucolic "poet was born at Syracufe, and that his father's "name was Simichidas." Gyraldus fays, “fome "have thought him of Cos, fome of Chios." From fuch a confufed jumble of relations, what can with Theocritus was a Sicilian, as is evident from many teftimonics. Virgil invokes the Sicilian mufes, becaule Theocritus, whom he profeffedly imitates, was of that country; Sicilides Mufa, paulo majora canamus; Ecl. 4 1. and, Extremum bunc, Arethu He is called Ja, mibi concede laborem, Ecl. 10. 1. a Sicilian poet by the emperor Julian, in one of his epifties; and by Terentianus Maurus, in his book de Metris, ver. 407, Sicula telluris alum nus by Manilius, Book 2. ver. 40. he is faid to be Sicula tellure creatus, which fixes his birth on that ifland and that he was born at Syracufe, Virgil feems to intimate, when he fays, Prima But Syracifio dignata eft ludere verfu, Ecl. 6. 1. in one of his own epigrams, which generally ftands in the front of his works, probably according to his own original intention, he affures us he was born at Syracufe, and gives us the names of his parents: Αλλος ο Χίος εγω δε Θεόκριτος ος ταδε γραψα, A Syracufian born, no right I claim, Praxagoras' and fam'd Philina's fon; My laurels from unborrow'd verfe are won. After this plain declaration, it is amazing that the old grammarians will not reft fatisfied, but endeavour to rob him both of his parents and his country. The chief view which the poet had in writing this epigram, though perhaps it may not appear at first fight, feems to be this; he had a namefake of Chios, a rhetorician, and pretender to poetry, who, according to Plutarch, fuffered an ignominious death, for fome crime committed against king Antigonus; and therefore Theocritus the poet, by this epigram, took all poffible precaution to be diftinguifhed from his namefake the rhetorician. "The other Theocritus," fays he, "is "of Chios; I that am the author of thefe poems, am a Syracufian, the fon of Praxagoras and the ce"lebrated Philina: I never borrowed other peo"ple's numbers." The last sentence is an honest declaration, that the poet had not been a plagiary, like many of his predeceffors and contemporaries. Theocritus is faid to have been the scholar of Philetas, and Afclepiades, or Sicelidas: Philetas was an elegiac poet of the island of Cos, had the honour to be preceptor to Ptolemy Philadelphus, and is celebrated by Ovid and Propertius: Sicelidas was a Samian, a writer of epigrams: he mentions both thefe with honour in his feventh Idyllium, fee ver. 53. As to the age in which he flourished, it feems indifputably to be afcertained by two Idylliums that remain, one is addreffed to Hiero king of Syracufe, and the other to Ptolemy Philadelphus, the Egyptian monarch. Hiero began his reign, as Caufabon afferts in his obfervations on Polybius, in the fecond year of the 126th Olympiad, or about 275 years before Chrift; and Ptolemy in the fourth year of the 123d Olympiad. Though the exploits of Hiero are recorded greatly to his advantage by Polybius, in the first book of his hiftory; though he had many virtues, had frequently fignalized his courage and conduct, and diftinguished himself by feveral atchievements in war; yet he feems, or at leaft in the early part of his reign, to have expreffed no great affection for learning or men of letters: and this is fuppofed to have given occafion to the 16th Idyllium, inicribed with the name of Hiero; where the poet afferts the dignity of his profeffion, complains that it met with neither favour nor protection, and in a very artful manner, touches upon fome of the virtues of this prince, and infinuates what an illuftrious figure he would have made in poetry, had he been as noble a patron, as he was an argument for the mufes. His not meeting with the encouragement he expected in his own country, was in all probability the reafon that induced Theocritus to leave Syracufe for the more friendly climate of Alexandria, where Ptolemy Philadelphus then reigned in unrivalled fplendour, the great encourager of arts and fciences, and the patron of learned men. his voyage to Egypt he touched at Cos, an island in the Archipelago not far from Rhodes, where he was honourably entertained by Phrafidamus In and Atigenes, who invited him into the country to celebrate the feftival of Ceres, as appears by the feventh idyllium. We have all the reafon in the world to imagine that he met with a more favourable reception at Alexandria, than he had experienced at Syracufe, from his encomium on Ptolemy, contained in the 17th Idyllium, where he rifes above his paftoral ftyle, and fhows, that he could, upon occafion (as Virgil did afterwards), exalt his Sicilian mufe to a fublimer ftrain, paula majora: he derives the race of Ptolemy from Hercules, he enumerates his many cities, he defcribes his great power and immense riches, but above all, he commemorates his royal munificence to the fons of the mules. Towards the conclufion of the 14th Idyllium, there is a fhort, but very noble panegyric on Ptolemy: in the 15th Idyllium, he celebrates Berenice, the mother, and Arfinoe, the wife of Ptolemy. I do not recollect any more memorials of this poet's life, which can be gathered from his works, except his friendship with Aratus, the famous author of the Phenomena; to whom he addreffes his fixth Idyllium, and whofe amours he defcribes in the feventh. There is one circumftance more in regard to Theocritus, which is to improbable, that i̇ should not have thought it worth while to have troubled the reader with it, if it had not been mentioned by all his biographers, viz. that he lies under the fufpicion of having suffered an ignominious death : this takes its rife from a diftich of Ovid in his Ibis. Utque Syracofio præftricâ fauce poetæ, Sic animæ laqueo fit via clausa tuæ. But it does not appear, that by the Syracufan poet Ovid means Theocritus; more probably, as fome commentators on the paffage have fuppofed, Empedocles, who was a poet and philofopher of Sicily, is the perfon pointed at: others think that Ovid, by a fmali miftake or flip of his memory, might confound Theocritus the rhetorician of Chios, who was executed by crder of King Antigonus, with Theocritus the poet of Syracufe; and the epigram quoted above very strongly indicates how apprehenfive our poet was of being confounded with that perfon: it feems, indeed, as I hinted before, compofed on purpofe to manifeft the diftinction. After this short account of our author, it will be proper to fay fomething of his works; for to write the life of a poet, without fpeaking of his compofitions, would be as abfurd as to pretend to pu blifh the memoirs of a hero, and omit the relation of his moft material exploits. All the writings of Theocritus that now remain are his Idylliums and Epigrams; in regard to the word Idylliums, D. Heinfius tells us, that the grammarians termed all thofe fmaller compofitions Ein (a fpecies of poetry), which could not be defined from their fubjects, which are various ; thus the Sylvæ of Statius, had they been written in Greek, would have been called Eon and Edua Ar; even the Roman poets make ufe of this term; thus Aufonius &yles one of his books of poems en various fubjects Edyllia; this ancient title, then, may ferve to exprefs the fmallness and variety of their natures; they would now, perhaps, be called Poems on Several Occafions. Though in deference to fo great an authority, I fhall take the liberty to make a conjecture: Heipfius tells us, that originally there were different titles or infcriptions prefixed to the poems of Theocritus; first of all his Bucolics were separated and distinguished by the title of Ewn Bouxoλixe, and were called by the grammarians Ειδύλλια Βουκολικά ; but might it not at first have been written Eua? which fignifics Poems or Verfes, and by an easy mistake of the transcriber altered into Eidvàλ? this reading delivers us at once from the embarraffment attending the derivation of the word Idylliums, and B, the fame as Verficuli, very naturally flows from the word En, the plural of Exos, Carmen; thus we have En xguresa: it is to be obferved, that Ariftophanes uses the word three times, fee his Ranæ, ver. 973, Acharnenfes, ver. 397; and in his Pax, ver. 531, he has studλiwy Evgimdy, Verficulorum Euripidis: this, however, is only conje&ture Under the fecond title, every poem that was afcribed to Theocritus, though the character and argument were very different, was inferted. Under the third were contained a collection of bucolic poems, whether by Theocritus, Mofchus, Bien, or others, and the name of Theocritus prefixed to the whole; on which occafion there is an Epigram in the Anthologia, afcribed to Artemidorus: boldest competitor. A proof of this, I think, will appear from this circumftance; that Virgil, who is the great rival of the Sicilian, has few images in his Eclogues but what are borrowed from Theocritus; nay; he not only continually imitates, but frequently tranflates feveral lines together, and often in these very paffages falls short of his mafter, as will appear in the notes. Though Theocritus is generally esteemed only a paftoral poet, yet he is manifeftly robbed of a great part of his fame, if his other pieces have not their proper laurels. At the fame time his Paftorals are, without doubt, to be confidered as the foundation of his credit; upon this claim, he will be admitted for the happy finisher, as well as the inventor of his art; and will be acknowledged to have excelled all his imitators, as much as originals ufually do their copies. He has the fame advantage in bucolic, as Homer had in epic poetry, which is to make the critics turn his practice into eternal rules and to measure nature herself by his accomplished model: therefore, as to enumerate the glories of heroic poetry, is the fame thing as to fum up the praises of Homer, fo to exhibit the beauties of paftoral verfe, is only an indirect way of making panegyrics on Theocritus. Indeed, the Sicilian has in this refpect been fomewhat more fortunate than Homer, as Virgil's Eclogues are reckoned more unequal imitations of his Idylliums, than in the Æneis of the Iliad. I think I cannot conclude this account of Theo critus with more propriety than by collecting the fentiments, not only of the ancients, but likewife Βουκολικαι Μουσαι σποράδην πικα, νυν δ' αμα | of the moderns, in regard to the character of our πασαι Εντι μιας μανδρας, εντι μιας αγγέλας. Wild rov'd the paftoral Mufes o'er the plains, But now one fold the fingle flock contains. Befides the Idylliums that we now have, Theocri tus is faid by Suidas to have written Пgarides, Eaπίδας, Ύμνους, Ηρωινας, Επικηδεια μέλη, Ελέγειας, και IamBous: that is, Prœtides, Hopes, Hymns, Heroines, Dirges, Elegies, and lambics: the Protides were the daughters of Proteus, king of the Argives, who preferring themselves to Juno, went mad, and imagined themselves turned into crows, but were cured by Melampus; the Idyllium in praife of Caftor and Pollux is fuppofed to be one of the hymns, and there are five verfes remaining of a poem, in praife of Berenice, which may be claffed among the Heroines. It is to be obferved, that Theocritus generally wrote in the modern Doric, fometimes indeed, he fed the lonic; the Doric dialect was of two forts, the old and new; the old founded harsh and rough, but the new was much fofter and smoother; this, as Mr. Pope justly obferves, in the time of Theocritus had its beauty and propriety, was tfed in part of Greece, and frequent in the mouths of many of the greatest perions. It has been thought by fome that the Dorian phrafe in which he wrote, has a great fhare in his honours: but exclufive of this advantage, he can produce, other author. Longinus fays, (fee the motto) " Theo"critus has shown the happieft vein imaginable "for paftorals, excepting thofe in which he has "deviated from the country :" or perhaps it may more properly be rendered, as Fabricius underftands it,"excepting in thofe few pieces that are "of another argument." Quintilian fays, " Admi"rabilis in fuo genere Theocritus, fed mufa illa "ruftica et paftoralis non forum modo verum "etiam urbem reformidat:" "Theocritus is ad"mirable in his way, but his ruftic and paftoral "mufe is not only afraid of appearing in the forum, but even in the city:" by which he means, that the language and thoughts of Theocritus's fhepherds ought not to be imitated in public fpeaking, nor in polite compofition; yet, for all this." he was admirable in his way." Manlius in the fecond book of his Aftronomicon gives a just character of our poet : Quinetiam pecorum ritus, et Pana fonantem * Inftead of pecorum ritus, Dr. Bently reads vis |