A Votive rected. Puellam, cujus Zonam folvit; cujus VERNUS Flos Præproperô tabuit in Thalamô. VIII. I come now to the Votive Table, Table cor- which is rich in poetick Graces, however overwhelm'd with Depravation: and Sir George seems as much to have mistaken the Purport, as the Words, of the Inscription. At Chalcedon, says he, I found an Inscription in the Wall of a private House near the Church; which fignifieth, that Evante, the Son of Antipater, having made a prosperous Voyage, and defiring to return by the Ægean Sea, offer'd Cakes at a Statue, which he had erected to Jupiter, which had fent him fuch good Weather, as a Token of his good Voyage. · «Ὄυρον. · πρύμνης. 3 πρώτων, isior. 4 Κυανεαῖς δίνησιν ἐπίδες μον. 5 Nosor. 6 βαλών. η ξράνῳ. δ ̓ Εσδέ. 9 ἐνανθῆ. I ΟΥΡΙΟΝ * ΠΡΙΜΝΗΣ τις όδηγη τῆρα καλείτω, Ζῆνα και 3 πρωτΟΝ ΩΝιιον ἐκπετάσας • ΕΠΙ ΚΥΑΝΕΑΣ ΔΙΝΑΣ ΔΡΟΜΟΥΣ ἔνθα Ποσειδῶν Καμπύλον εἰλίσει κῦμα τωρα ψαμαθοῖς. Εἶτα κατ ̓ Αἰγαῖαν πόνιο πλάκα ̔ ΝΑΣ ἐρού νων, Νείπω. τῷ δὲ ὁ ΒΑΛΛΩΝ ψαιτὰ πά 7 ΤΩ͂ ΖΩΑΝΩ. * ΟΔΕ * * ΕΥΑΝΤΗ + ἀεὶ θεὸν ̓Αντιπά τρε παῖς το φίλων. Στησε το φιλων ἀγαθῆς σύμβολον ευπλοΐης. I have mark'd, as before, my Corrections at the Side; and I may venture to say, I have supported the faltring Verses both with Numbers and Sense. But who ever heard of Evante, as the Name of a Man, in Greece? Neither is this Inscription a Piece of Ethnic Devotion, as Sir George has suppos'd it, to a Statue erected to Jupiter: On the contrary, it despises those fruitless Superstitions. Philo (a Christian, as it seems to me ;) sets it up, in Thanks for a safe Voyage, to the true God. That all my Readers may equally share in this little Poem, I have attempted to put it into an English Dress. Invoke who Will the profprous Gale behind, Jove at the Prow, while to the guiding Wind O'er the blue Billows be the Sail expands, Where Neptune with each Wave heaps Hills of Sands : Then let him, when the Surge he backward plows, Pour to his Statue-God unaiding Vows: I shall have no Occasion, I believe, to ask the Pardon of fome Readers for these Nine last Pages; and Others may be so kind to pass them over at their Pleasure. (Those Discoveries, which give Light and Satisfaction to d4 the The Delay tion excu the truly Learned, I must confefs, are Darkness and Mystery to the less capable: Φέγγα μὲν ξιινετοῖς, ἀξιινετοῖς δ' Ἐρεβα.) Nor will they be absolutely foreign, I hope, to a Preface in some Measure critical; especially, as it could not be amiss to shew, that I have read other Books with the fame Accuracy, with which I profess to have read Shakespeare. Befides, I design'd this Inference from the Defence of Literal Criticism. If the Latin and Greek Languages have receiv'd the greatest Advantages imaginable from the Labours of the Editors and Criticks of the two last Ages; by whose Aid and Afsistance the Grammarians have been enabled to write infinitely better in that Art than even the preceding Grammarians, who wrote when those Tongues flourish'd as living Languages: I should account it a peculiar Happiness, that, by the faint Assay I have made in this Work, a Path might be chalk'd out, for abler Hands, by which to derive the same Advantages to our own Tongue: a Tongue, which, tho' it wants none of the fundamental Qualities of an universal Language, yet as a noble Writer says, lisps and stammers as in its Cradle; and has produced little more towards its polishing than Complaints of its Barbarity. Having now run thro' all those Points, of this Edi- which I intended should make any Part of this Differtation, it only remains, that I fhould account to the Publick, but more particularly to Jed. ها my my Subscribers, why they have waited fo long for this Work; that I should make my Acknowledgments to those Friends, who have been generous Afsistants to me in the conducting it: and, lastly, that I should acquaint my Readers what Pains I have myself taken to make the Work as complete, as faithful Industry, and my best Abilities, could render it. In the middle of the Year 1728, I first put out my Proposals for publishing only Emendations and Remarks on our Poet: and I had not gone on many Months in this Scheme, before I found it to be the unanimous Wish of those who did me the Honour of their Subscriptions, that I would give them the Poet's Text corrected; and that I would fubjoin those Explanatory Remarks, which I had purpos'd to publish upon the Foot of my first Proposals. Earnest Sollicitations were made to me, that I would think of such an Edition; which I had as strong Defires to listen to and fome noble Persons then, whom I have no Privilege to name, were pleased to intereft themselves so far in the Affair, as to propose to Mr. Tonson his undertaking an Impreffion of Shakespeare with my Corrections. The throwing my whole Work into a different Form, to comply with this Proposal, was not the flightest Labour: and so no little Time was unavoidably loft. While the Publication of my Remarks was thus respited, my Enemies ( Enemies took an unfair Occasion to suggest, that I was extorting Money from my Subfcribers, without ever designing to give them any Thing for it: an Infinuation levell'd at once to wound me in Reputation and Interest. Confcious, however, of my own just Intentions, and labouring all the while to bring my wish'd Purpose to bear, I thought these anonymous Slanderers worthy of no Notice. A Justification of myself would have been giving them Argument for fresh Abuse; and I was willing to believe that any unkind Opinions, entertain'd to my Prejudice, would naturally drop and lose their Force, when the Publick should once be convinc'd that I was in Earnest, and ready to do them Justice. I left no Means untry'd to put it in my Power to do this: and I hope, without Breach of Modesty, I may venture to appeal to all candid Judges, whether I have not employ'd all my Power to be just to them in the Execution of my Task. I must needs have been in the most Pain, who saw myself daily fo barbarously outraged. I might have taken advantage of the favourable Impreffions entertain'd of my Work, and hurried it crudely into the World: But I have fuffer'd, for my Author's fake, those Impressions to cool, and perhaps, be loft; and can now appeal only to the Judgment of the Publick. If I succeed in this Point, the Reputation gain'd will be the more folid and lasting. |