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cork jackets in proportion to the number of people. It is needlefs to fay in which veffel there is most danger of drowning. Perhaps from the one, fifty, a hundred, or, more, may efcape by keeping above water, while there is little probability of ten or twenty being faved from the other, if the fea runs high, allowing them to be expert fwimmers, What numbers of lives were loft on board the Prince George of go guns, in a former war. She took fire in the midst of a fleet, and continued to burn for feveral hours. Her guns being loaded, went off as the fire reached them, which prevented the fhips and boats from approaching her. It is true fome hundreds were faved; but it is equally true that fome hundreds perified, who might almoft to a man have been picked up, had they been furnished with the cork jacket. I do not know what are the reafons against introducing this contrivance into the fleet, or why even every merchant ship is not provided in proportion to her complement I fhould like to know what confideration can be of equal or fuperior va lue to preferving men's lives when re. duced to the dire neceffity of being drowned or burned. I hope there is not fo little fubordination in the navy, that a parcel of cork jackets could not be kept under the power of the officers, till they became really neceffary. I am convinced' that a fhip's company knowing they were provided with thefe, instead of deferting their duty too foon, would rather be ftimulated to continue their exertions to the laft, from a confidence they would naturally entertain of their perfonal fafety Leta perfon fuppote himself fhipwrecked on a lee fhore, the veffel going to pieces, the boat flaved, and the land a mile or two diftant: let him alfo fuppofe his companions furnished with the jacket, while he remains at the mercy of the raging element; and then determine who has the beft chance for life. A man may undoubtedly be killed or drowned in fpite of this contrivance; but fürely he who keeps on the furface has a better profpect for life, than

of men.

another who muft fink to the bottom.

I am, Sir, your most obedient fervant,

J. S.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

Didot Virgil." I fhall now examine thefe
errata in the order in which your corre-
fpondent fubmits them to your view.
"Georg.. 22. -Reperit ufus.
with a fingie p.
defended; but it agrees not with the
orthography followed in this edition in like
cafes." "This I know may be defended."
If the editions of Heyne and Brunck are of
any eftimation, indeed it may be defended;
for, in both, reperit appears with a fingle
p. Your correfpondent pursues his re-
mark," but it agrees not with the or-
thography followed in this edition in like
cafes." I wifh the author of this obfer-
vation would explain to me the inconfif-
tency with which he charges the editor,
This word, I believe, occurs only once in
Virgil in the preter perfect tense; is printed
in the ftereotype with a fingle p: fo here
can be no inconfiftency. And the word
which bears the closest affinity to it with
respect to the initial orthography, is repulit,
which in fome editions is spelled with two
p's, in fome with one. But this Didot
invariably fpells with a fingle p.—vid.
Georg. iv. 233. Æneid. iv. 214. VII. 450.
Where then is the difagreement of Mon
fieur Didot ?

This I know may be

Georg. ii. 23.-Abfcidens for abfcindens." But Brunck, Heyne, &c,-read abfcidens. "Geor. ii. 150.-Bis pomis utilis arbor.

"This, for arbos, an archaifm of which Virgil feems decidedly fond, I think muft rather pafs for a typographical error, than for a various reading intentionally adopted." But why is this hafty conclufion drawh? Didot in his advertisement thus admonishes his readers: "On previent feulement les perfonnes qui n'auroient lu Virgite que dans les petites éditions de claffe, de ne point prendre pour fautes quelques variantes ou leçons particulieres, qui font toutes autorifeés par les bonnes editions. On les prie de confulter préliminairiment les textes de Heinfius, Heyne, Burmann, Brunck, et autres. Which caution, Sir, your correfpondent either has not feen, or it has been uselessly given him: for if he had confulted Heyne, he would have found

arbor.

66

Georg, ii. 435.-Umbras.

"This, for umbram, which has much more of fweetness, I would also rather think a typographical error." Another hafty conclufion. Heyne and Brunk admit this reading. May not Didot be al

IN your Magazine, dated June 1, 1799, lowed to tread in the fleps of editors la

I fee a letter addreffed to you, in which the author fays, with a feeming air of triumph," I now fend you fome more errata, collected in the perufal of the mall

2

eminent as Heyne and Brunck?

"Georg. iii. 267. -Glauci Potniades malis membra affumpfere quadriga. "With a double f for abfumpfere." I have

I have examined several of the volumes of the ftereotype, but in none of them is this erratum committed. I hence conclude, that Didot iffued originally only a few copies from his prefs, that if they should be found to contain any errata, fuch errata might be carefully corrected in his fubfequent publications. One of thefe copies must have fallen into the hands of this gentleman. This is the best way I can account for the exiftence of this erratum. In like manner, I cannot find The tis for Tethys. This must be afcribed to the fame caufe.

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En. i. Utque ipfum corpus amici. "Full ftop for comma. But I appeal to any impartial perfon, whether this top can with juftice be denoninated a period, rather than a comma. For, if we examine minutely the punctua. tion throughout this fmall volume, we fall fee that the ftop in question, which is fo offenfive, has very little more refemblance to the period than to the comma. I must own, this ftop appears to me like á comma already begun; but owing to fome injury the printing letter had received, the impreffion is not completely made. In the fame manner, we may have an for an f, the tranfverfe mark, which diftinguishes them, by fome accident not being expreffed. But we are not, therefore, to infer, that one letter by mistake has been fubftituted for another, any more than that here a full ftop by mistake has been struck for a comma. Out of Curios fity I examined the great edition of Didot's Virgil, which, for the fplendour of its type, reflects the higheft credit on the printer, and I was happy to recognife after amici a comma complete.

"Munera lætitiamque Dii.
"For

Dei."

"This must neceffarily be wrong." The editions, then, of Brunck and Heyne, to which I refer this gentleman, are chargeable with the fame error.

En. ii. v. 20.-mifnumbered 21." This mistake is not to be imputed to the numerous volumes which I have examined. This error your correfpondent mult have detected in fome of the original copies, which have not come in my way.

Atque arrectis auribus adfto: "This should have been a full ftop." Will this gentleman have the goodness 'to refer to Brunck's and Heyne's editions? Your correfpondent, Sir, has no doubt, as I have before obferved, met with a ftereotype Virgil, in which Thetis is mifprinted for Tethys, affumpfere for abfumpfere, and where n. ii. v, 20. is milnum

bered 21. But if he will be fo good as to lay afide" les petites éditions de claffe," his Delphiu edition of Virgil, which feems to have been his beacon in thefe criticisms, for it contains the very readings which he would fubftitute, together with the full ftop after adfto, he would confefs that the errata, which he imputes to Didot's Virgil, are authorised by the most eminent fcholars and critics.

I have been induced to fhow the futility of the objections of your correfpondent, not only for the purpose of vindicating the profeffional character of Didot, but that thofe of the community who content themfelves with the perufal of the common editions of Virgil, and are unacquainted with the various readings fupported by the best manufcripts, may not be deterred from the purchase of this defirable edition; defirable for the conveniency of its fize, the moderate price it bears, the neatnefs and perhaps unequalled correctness of its type.

At the fame time that I vindicate Monfieur Didot, I am happy in this opportunity of giving him my tribute of praise for the fpecimens he has given us of his stereotype, and of wishing him every fuccefs which fo laudable an undertaking deferves. I remain, Sir, G. Y.

For the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

AVING been fome time employed

H in the compilation and writing of a work topographical, hiftorical, and defcriptive of the county of Wilts; I beg leave, through. the medium of your Magazine, to folicit a candid communication from fuch perfons as may poffefs any thing applicable to this fubject, or whofe local acquaintance with places or perfons enables them to furnish any hints, defcriptions, or remarks, which may tend to the completion or perfection of the work.-An anxious wifh to be as correct and perfect as the nature of fuch fubjects will admit, and an experience of the difficulty of attaining local information, induce me to take this method of craving a friendly communication.-Whatever correfpondence I may be favoured with, either upon topography, antiquity, local hiftory, or defcription, relative to this county, will be gratefully received, and, I hope, fatisfactorily ufed:As I am now arranging my materials: and having put fome drawings into the engraver's hands, I must beg that all intended favours may be fpeedily tranfmitted to Warwick-fquare, J. BRITTON. London.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

(Continued from page 457.) ARIOSTO.Folly is never, perhaps, fo fuccefsfully combated, as when attacked by the weapons of ridicule but there is a fpecies of folly in itfelf fo fuperlatively ridiculous, that no caricature can exceed the original. Cervantes could bring chivalry into difrepute, and Butler fanaticifm into contempt, by exhibiting a picture fo much refembling the original, that the likenefs was acknowledged by all; and yet fo outré in its appearance, as eternally to affociate their refpective objects with ridicule and fcorn. Buckingham and Sheridan have greatly contributed to banish bombaft from the ftage, becaufe, by collecting all the high-ftrained fuftian of many writers, and concentrating them in one piece, with a few additional ornaments of their own, they produced a whole, whofe confummate folly, when af fociated with individual pieces, could not fail to render them completely ludicrous: and, though they might now be cenfured, perhaps even beyond their de merits, yet the apparent injuftice was neceffary to awaken the judgment and correct the vitiated taste of a public who had been gradually drawn on firft to tolerate, and then to approve. But when the public mind is once fo befotted as to admire a farrago of follies that the strongest argument cannot render more confpicuous nor the wildelt imagination furpafs, reafon and ridicule muft drop their idle fhafts, and let the monfter pafs on in unmolested triumph. Hence the Orlando Furiofo of Ariofto is ftill looked up to, as a ftar of the first magnitude, because it rofe, like an ignis fatuus, in the twilight of the 16th century. Europe had then but lately waked to the perception of literary pleafure, and, like a favage, was to be pleafed only with fubjects that could excite the ftrong emotions of wonder and fear, thofe rude fubftitutes for admiration and fublimity. Hence the prefs, itfelf new-born, teemed with romances, that united the powers of heroes, faints, and magicians, of earth, of heaven, and hell, to gratify the pruriency of imagination unpurified by tatte. When the public palate had become almoft callous even to fuch ftimuli, Ariofto felected the most pungent he could find, and, blending them in one mighty olio, fuperadded to the mafs the all-relishing condiment of rhyme: for, to mock it with the dignified title of poetry, would be perhaps the only way in which ridicule could reach it with effect.

Had Ariofto felected the fame facts, united with them the fame fentiments, and recorded them in doggrel rhyme, he might have done infinite fervice to his country, and immortalifed himfelf throughout Europe, as the reftorer of genuine taste, and the fuccessful fatyrift of barbarous ignorance.-By clothing the fame ideas in folemn language, and mufical verfification, he has contributed to perpetuate the corruption of tafte; and when that fall at laft be reformed, he will, like the Devil and Oliver Cromwell, be damned to immortality.

This, I am fenfible, may be thought the effufion of general cenfure, unfupported by the deduction of particulars;-but, really, to cite the paffages that shock the reafon without amufing the fancy, would be to undertake the office of the author's amanuenfis, and tranfcribe the greatest part of his work. It will be a much easier talk for his admirers to adduce the proofs of poetical beauty: unlefs, indeed, they include fuch paffages as may claim the title by prefcription;-fuch as when a hero rushing on his foe is compared to a lion feiting his prey—or another, lofing his friend, is compared to a bear robbed of her cubs--or when the mind of a despairing lover is faid to be agitated like a fea in a form, &c. &c. &c. &c. &c.-But thefe flowers of poefy have been woven into garlands and worn by fo many fucceffive poets and verfifiers, till they have withered in our eyes, and no longer look like flowers-thefe garlands always renind me of Boileau's wig:

"-Qui de front en front paffant à fes neveux, "Devoit avoir plus d'ans, qu'elle n'eût de cheveux."

From pate to pate, from fire to fon it pafs'd, Till more of years than hairs it counts at laft.

The poets are ranged into claffes; and if a man wish to enter himself on the lift," he muft either profefs hinfelf of fome particular clafs, or poflets fo decided a fuperiority as himself to create a clafs-a poet Jui generis. Now our author's admirers muft either prove him of the latter defcription, or leave him with the fimple title of a verfifier of romances; for there is certainly no clafs of poets that will own him. He has not thought proper to fubject himfelf to any of their moft neceffary laws. Orlando Furiofo has neither beginning, nor middle, nor end. The hero who gives the title to the piece, when he has fo done, has performed his most momentous feat. The Achilles of Homer, in

deed,

deed, appears but little in the action of the piece, where he is the profeffed hero; but the reader evidently fees that he is the cause of all that is performed in it. Nine tenths of Ariofto's work, may be fafely faid to have no connection with his hero: -they neither are caufed by the commencement of his hiftory, nor conduce to the conclufion of it. But the actors in them, perhaps, happen to meet a principal perfonage on the road, or have told their ftory to a landlord, who happens to have entertained fuch a character on the road; or any other apropos-de-bottes introduction brings them into momentary notice, and permanent neglect. If there be one hero that interefts you more than another, it is Ruggiero in his attachment to Bradamante. Thefe two more frequently draw the attention in the courfe of the work; and their coronation, triumph, and nuptials form its conclufion. This winding up of their history employs much the most pleafing of all the forty-fix cantos, which conftitute the poem :-they are the last three, and had a few of the preceding circumftances of their story been collected into the fame part, it would have formed a whole much more engaging, than that of which it is fo fmall a portion. Metaftafio has feen this, and, by concentrating the narrative into dialogue, has produced from it one of the brightest ornaments of his dramatic works, in his piece entitled "Ruggiero."

Ariofto has carefully imitated Homer and Virgil in all their wildeft inconfiftencies, and fo fond is he of their faults, he has adopted even fuch as have been falfely imputed to them. Because Homer was vulgarly fuppofed to have made Achilles invulnerable, Ariofto made Orlando's skin impenetrable by nature, and Ruggiero's armour by enchantment.This, indeed, enabled the heroes to perform feats of amazement, that could not otherwife be achieved-that is, one impoffibility is explained by the fuppolition of another. But the author in vain endeavours to inspire us, by fuch deeds, with an higher idea of his hero's courage, while combating under fuch fecurities. He has once, indeed, attempted (and ingeniously attempted too) to obviate this objection, by rendering Bradamante ignorant of the virtues of her golden lance, which overturned, with fated certainty, every foe against whom it was directed (Canto xlv. Stanza 65.-but, in the very fame place, he makes Ruggiero confcious of a fimilar virtue in his own fword.

It is remarked, that Homer has given
MONTHLY MAG. No. XLVII.

to most of his heroes a difcriminated and individual character.-Of Ariofto it might be obferved, that it is wonderful how he has contrived to form fo many heroes fo furprizingly alike, in fpite of varied cir. cumftances, that you find no diftin&tion but their names. The vaunting difpofition of Rodomonte, alone, marks him from the reft, who are all in two claffes, of the courteoufly brave, or favagely ferocious.-In short, when Ariofto imitates a fuperior, it is generally in his faults, and feldom, very feldom, in his beauties. When he undertakes common place defcriptions, of groves that had bloomed, and streams that had purled through every page of poetry from Hefiod to Petrarch; or when he defcribes thofe battles, or thofe forms, which had overtaken every hero of the epic, from Homer to the wandering minftrels of Provence, the varied harmony of Ariofto's verification, in which he is eminently fuccefsful, places him on a level with the herd of imitative rhymers. But when he imagines new scenery, and new incidents, his descriptions are particular without beauty, or concife without ftrength. Delicacy of fentiment he has none, and delicacy of imagination very little-what then are his pretenfions to poetry? it would be difficult to enumerate them for they can confift only in extravagancies of fancy uncurbed by judgement, and unawed by criticifm. I fhall conclude with noticing a few of thefe extravaganzas, in order to give the reader fome idea of Ariofto's character,-for without fpecimens of thefe it is fcarcely poffible for any commonly well-regulated imagination fo far to fhake off the shackles of reafon and nature, as to have any conception of fuch exceffive abfurdity"Walk in then, gentlemen! and you shall fee!-the wonder of wonders!"-There (Canto xxxiv.) you fee that famous knight Aftolfo riding full gallop to the moonand when he arrives there, you will fee St. John the evangelift fhewing him all the fighs, tears and fenfes of lovers and heroes, which being loft on earth, are, in the moon, carefully bottled up, corked, labelled, and exhibited by that apostle. In another place (Canto vi.) you have a view of the island of Alcina, guarded by an army of monfters, each individual of which is neither brute nor human, but has a body compofed of the most heterogeneous members of all the animals in exiftence as if created out of the witching-pot in Macbeth. The Minotaur, the Centaurs, the Sphinx, the Harpies, the Gorgons, the Chimera of Antiquity, 4 A

would

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would have proved but an awkward fquad in an army like this; fo ready, by every variety of manoeuvre, to difplay its unparalleled verfatility of talent, in all the perfection of deformity.-On another part of the fame inland, you behold a beautiful myrtle-tree-liften and you will hear it fpeak-a myrtle fpeak-oh, yes! to Arifto "tis as eafy as lying--he gives it breath with his mouth and it difcourfes moft eloquent mufic."*

As vinegar is an article of extenfive utility, what is the cheapeft, fimpleft, and moft expeditious mode of making it? I am, Sir,

I

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WILL be much chliged to you to inform me, which I am perfuaded any of your mufical correfpondents will enable you to do, the name of the author of the melody of the old hundreth plaim tune. I am, refpectfully, Sir, Your obedient humble Servant, C. A. R.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

Now again behold Aftolfo mounted on his Ippogrif-your balloons! your mail coaches! Lyons telegraphs! what are they? fnails in harnefs-Aftolfo fets off this evening from France, and is in India by day-break. Or if his Ippogrif thould tire, Rabican is at hand-that famous horfe! the produce of Wind and Flame; London, April 8, 1799. (Canto xv.) He lives on air-he galJops dry thod over the fea-his fire, Wind, had no chance with him; and even Lightning was left behind in his courfe. (See Canto xv. Stanza 40). Again you behold Aftolfo flourishing a horn, inftead of brandishing a fword: and, if you knew all, a much more expeditious inftrument--for at the blaft of this horn, all living creatures, like the walls of Jericho, fall down, (Canto xx.) and the dazzling fhield of Atlante, you obferve, produces a fimilar proftration (Canto iii). If your patience be not tired, look again, and behold Ariofto's mode of raising a regiment of horfe, when his hero is at a lois for cavalry.-Aftolfo alcends a hill, where bowling down heaps of stones, fome of them, in the road down, become notes, fome legs, fome bellies, &c. and before they arrive at the bottom the respective parts find each other out in the crowd, join in the proper form of horfes, neigh and fcamper about, to the number of eighty thoufand one hundred and two, (for our author is fcrupuloufly exact in his relation of facts), ready to be mounted. with connate bridles and faddles, by the wondering infantry below. (Canto Xxxviii.) G. T. [To be continued.]

THE Welch bards of the middle ages Ahad a clafs of poetical compofitions, which may be peculiarly called their own, confifting of pieces, wherein fome being, real or imaginary, was invoked to be the meffenger of the poet's commands; and which generally related to love fubjects; and fometimes the meffage was addreffed to a patron, requesting a favourite gift.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

I COULD with through the channel of

your excellent and much admired repoftory, to obtain information from fome of your chemical correfponden's respecting a procefs, which ought to be generally known.

* Shakespeare.,

The fubverfion of the ancient government, by the conquest of Edward the first, was the caufe of great alterations even in the literary compofitions of the Welch, and in that period it was that thefe meffage poems became very common and popular in the country.

I beg leave, Sir, to lay before your readers the following piece, by David ab Gwilym, who flourished from about the year 1330 downwards; and, if agreeable, I may be able occafionally to fend you other pieces, as examples of this, and of other kinds of Welsh poetry.

MEIRION. A literal Tranflation of the INVOCATION TO THE WIND, a Poem, by David ab Gwilym.

WIND of the firmament, of ready courfe and ftrong of voice, in ranging far away! A terrible being art thou, uttering founds most hoarfe; the bravado of the world, without foot or wing: it is a wonder how awfully thou hast been placed, from the ftorehoufe of the fky, without any one fupport; and now how fwiftly doft thou run over the hill!

Tell me, my never-refting friend, of thy journey on fome northern blaft over the dale.

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