et arbitrii," of age, and fit to make vows for her- felf; but had that ingenious commentator attend- ed to the words" clam et tacita" in the fame line, he would have feen that the true reading was that which is retained in the text.
Ver. 17. Menage obferves of the original of this paffage, that an active should not follow a paffive verb; and therefore contends that the urunt" fhould be "uruntur:" and yet we know that the contrary practice is warranted by fome of the pureft writers of the Auguftan age; and, if the tranflator is not mistaken, that learned gram- marian himself has, in his Latin poems, fallen into the mode of expreffion, which he here condemns in Sulpicia.
Ver. 2. The villa, mentioned in the original, is Eretum, now Monte Ritondo. It was fituated upon a high hill, not far from the banks of the Tiber, and was therefore cool, even in the midft of fummer. Cluverius places it at the distance of fourteen miles from Rome; but Holftenius, in his Annot. Geogr. on the authority of Antoninus's Itinerary, and Ferrarius removes it four miles far- ther off.
Ver. 1. From the original, the commentators conclude, that Sulpicia was the daughter of that famous Servius Sulpicius, who died at Modena, whilft he was engaged in an embassy to Antony, which he had undertaken at the request of the con- fuls Hirtius and Panfa, and of the fenate: but then they feem to forgot that Servius was a prænomen common to all the males of the Sulpician family and therefore not distinguishingly characteristic of any one of them. Those who fuppofe that Tibul- lus wrote these poems, and believe he was born in 710, make him a poet before his birth; for, fays Brockhufius, Sulpicia fpeaks of her parents as if both were alive. Although the tranflator is perfuaded that the pieces in this book are not Ti- bullus's, yet he can fee nothing in the poem to fupport this affertion. Sure Sulpicia might call herself the daughter of Servius Sulpicius, notwith- standing her father's death; and the two laft lines of the original may be applied to her nearest rela- tions or guardians, with as much propriety as to her parents.
Notes on Idyllium IX.
Idyllium X. The Reapers,
Idyllium XX. Eunica; or, the Neatherd,
Idyllium XXI. The Fishermen,
106 Notes on Idyllium XXI.
Idyllium IX. Daphnis and Menalcas,
« AnteriorContinuar » |