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The meadows trembled, as she mov'd along ;

The Naiads wail'd, the lakes and rills among.
Loud shriek'd the nymphs, that in the marshes lave,
Where Amarantian Phasis seeks the wave.

Amaze and fear the soul of Jason felt;

Yet, in his thoughts Medea's warning dwelt.
With firm resolve he backward trod the plain;

Nor turn'd him, ere he reach'd the social train.' Vol. i. p. 169

We must close our extracts with the following pathetic description of Medea's flight from the royal palace, which is deeply pathetic in the original, but given, we think, more tamely and prosaically by our translator, than many other passages.

-She kist her bed,

And parting tears with eager passion shed.-
Her fond embraces both the door-posts clasp'd;
And all around th' accustom'd walls she grasp'd;-
A token, then, to the maternal fair,

Tore from her beauteous head a tress of hair,
Sad, sad memorial of her virgin hours,
Offering to duty's violated pow'rs.-

She calls her mother's name, with heartfelt sighs.
"And oh farewell, my parent dear,' (she cries)
Far, when I fly, may health and peace be thine,
This lock alone remain, of what was mine.-
Farewell, my sister; farewell household train;
Farewell the parent walls, the native plain.-
Had billows circled o'er that stranger's head,
Ere to these shores in evil hour he sped!
Bane of my virtue!"-Thus, her grief she told,
While bursting tears in ceaseless torrents roll'd.

When cruel fate bids some fair captive roam,
Reluctant slow she leaves her splendid home;
To grief unbroken, new to pain and toil,
She goes to meet them, on a distant soil;
In soft indulgence nurst, the darling child,
Of pride parental, and affection mild;
Sad change, to prove on some ungenial land,
The task degrading, and the stern command;
Thus, driven by tyrant Love, and Fortune's hate,
The royal virgin goes to meet her fate.

The bolts and bars obey the magic song;
And ope spontaneous, as she past álong.
Th'expanded barriers own'd inchanted sway.
Thro' narrow paths she took her stealthy way.
Her feet are naked on her gracious brows,
And blooming cheek, the veil her left hand throws.
The border of her robe the right sustains,
With darkling pace the city wall she gains.
Thro' the vast city borne in wild affright,
No warder from the turrets maik'd her flight.

To seek the fane her eager thoughts were bent,
By paths frequented oft with dire intent.
Where slept the dead within the heaving ground,
And noxious herbs, and potent drugs, were found.
Here had she sought materials for her charms,
And torn the lingering roots replete with harms.
As now she wander'd, thro' the confines drear,
Her conscious bosom throbb'd, with guilty fear.'

Vol. i. p. 181.

Each nerve in flight, meantime, the virgin strain'd.
Oh, with what joy the river's bank she gain'd!
Led, by the fires, that, thro' the festive night,
Gleam'd clear, in honour of the prosp'rous fight.
As round the flame the gallant train rejoice,
Roll'd through the gloom, they hear a plaintive voice.
For, as Medea climb'd the rising ground,

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On Phrontis' name she call'd, with shrilly sound,
Of Phryxus youngest born; thro' darkness drear,
The well-known accents vibrate on his ear.-
His brothers knew the voice; and Jason knew;
Then, silent wonder seis'd the youthful crew,
Thrice call'd the princess.-Urg'd by all the crowd,
The son of Phryxus answer'd thrice aloud.
Nor yet their halsers on the bank were laid;
With eager oars they press to reach the maid.
From the high deck the youthful leader darts;
With all the fire, that sanguine hope imparts.
With Argus, Phrontis, springing to the shore,
The kindred mourner thro' the gloom explore.
The brothers stood th' afflicted maid beside.
She clasp'd their knees; and supplicating cried.
"Save me, lov'd youths; preserve yourselves and me,
From stern Eetes, and perdition free.-
All is betray'd.-No hope for us remains,
Save in some vessel, and the wat'ry plains.-
Swift let us fly, ere he ascends his car,
With rapid steeds to chace us from afar.-
The golden fleece, fruit of my bounty, take.
My filtres shall subdue that watchful snake.-
But, stranger, raise to heav'n thy pious hand;
And join the gods to this assembled band.-
Call them, in witness of thy plighted word.-
Bid them, thy oaths, thy promises record.
Should I for thee forsake my friends and home,
For thee to distant climes an exile roam.
Swear, thou wilt not such confidence betray;
Thou wilt not leave me, to contempt a prey.-
Swear, that of kindred, home, and friends bereft,
I shall not be a wretched outcast left.".

Plaintive she spoke, while piteous tears distill'd;
But secret joy the soul of Jason fill'd.-

He gently rais'd her, as his knees she grasp'd;
And, soothing mild, in fond embraces clasp'd.-
"Hear me, my fairest.-In this awful hour,
I call on Jove, and every heav'nly pow'r;
On Juno chief, the spouse of ruling Jove,
The sacred arbitress of wedded love.-
Within my native home thou shalt preside.
Queen of my heart, my darling, and my bride."–
Then, for assurance of the mutual breast,

The virgin's hand, with plighted hand, he prest.'

Vol.i. P. 183.

The entire poem is concluded in the first volume: the second is devoted to notes upon it; and the third to literary essays connected with its story. The notes are less critical than explanatory, occasionally derived from Mr. Stephens and Mr. Fawkes, but far more frequently from the very valuable Oxford edition. To these notes we have two objections to offer, in their present state: the first is, that they possess no reference, either of page or verse, to the poem itself, whence we often find great difficulty in connecting them; and the next (by which this difficulty becomes very considerably increased) that they refer to another, and probably an anterior and less correct copy, of the writer's translation; in consequence of which, the text quoted in the second volume does not always correspond with the text in the first. Thus, p. 10 of the notes cites

'Apheidas' happy reign.]'

while, in p. 10 of the poem itself, it is written

'Apheidas' happy realm

So again, in the notes, p. 19, we have

Acastas

adventurous youth.]'

while, in the corresponding passage, in the poem, p. 18, we have no such expression as adventurous youth, nor even any thing that will match with it.

Thus, once more, in p. 47 of the notes, we have

• Idai Dactyli.]'

although, in the passage of the translation to which this note refers, the English reader, for whose benefit, we presume, the note is written, will not only find neither of these words, but nothing that in the remotest manner alludes to them. We might select innumerable instances of the same inattention and want of adjustment; but the present are sufficient.

Independently of these blemishes, which we hope to see corrected in a second edition, the notes are generally perti

ment and useful, though bearing too frequently the marks of carelessness in composition, and at times too trivial, as well as pleonastic. They were probably a juvenile performance. We meet, as we have already remarked, with no display of recondite criticism, or elaborate philology: but they are designed for the English reader, rather than for the scholar; and we observe, that, for the benefit of the former, the Greek quotations are occasionally printed in Roman characters. This must, unquestionably, prove a prodigious source of instruction and entertainment. As our author has given numerous instances of parallel passages and imitations, both in Greek and Latin, we would suggest the propriety, in the event of a second edition, of accompanying them with an English version; and, if we have not already prepared for him too much labour, it would be a convenience to have the portions of the original poem, which are either cited or referred to, arithmetically specificated by the number of the line from which they are brought.

Deep revolved.] The word, in the original, is porphuresken, which comes from porphura, a kind of fish, which is found in the most profound depths of the sea.' Vol. ii. P. 23.

What the author here means by a kind of fish, we know not:-as for the rest, never having sounded the sea in its most profound depths, we cannot speak as to the accuracy of the gauge. We apprehend, however, that this kind of fish is the murex, so celebrated by ancient writers for the brilliancy and durability of its dye-purpureus colos conchyli-and which, instead of being dragged from the most profound depths of the sea, was originally discovered on the Tyrian coasts, and continued, while it was in use, to be a source of considerable wealth to that industrious island. We cannot forbear to observe, that the inaccuracy we have just noticed, of quoting from a passage which does not exist in the translated poem, is here equally manifest. In the copy of the version before us, there is no such term as deep revolved. We apprehend it alludes to v. 743, in which we meet with

• Much he revolved the perils of the way :'

but we cannot be certain. In reality, although not at the bottom of the sea, we are quite out at sea, and that without a compass to direct us throughout the whole of this and the anterior page; in which not half the references correspond with the English version of the poem.

* Cyanea's rocks.] These rocks were called the Symplegades.-They had this name from their colour.-See a preceding note. Book 1 Vol. ii. P. 93. .

Never, perhaps, did so short a note contain so many proofs

of inaccuracy and want of precision. The English readet, having perused it, has still to inquire-what note? what name? what colour? and the Greek scholar, who, or what, is Cyanea? If the former be a grammarian, he will necessarily suppose, from the construction of the sentence, that the rocks were denominated Symplegades from their colour: but he will here be mistaken-Symplegades alluding merely to their reciprocal projection, or overhanging prominences: from their colour, they were termed Cyanea, or the Black rocks. But who or what Cyanea was, we have yet to learn.

• Now behind earth.] He means here, that the sun sunk beneath the horizon. The poet seems to suppose, that the confines of Ethiopia bounded the two hemispheres.--The ignorance of the ancients in geography, was very extraordinary. It appears, that Herodotus did not believe that the earth was of a globular form.' Vol. ii. p. 177.

Herodotus was not the only man of learning who accredited this error. The spherical figure of the earth, and the existence of antipodes, was not generally admitted, till the bold adventure of Velasco de Gama into the Indian Ocean, by the Cape of Good Hope; and the tenet, even at this last period, was regarded as heretical. The stoics were the only philosophers of ancient times who allowed to the earth a spheroidal configuration: they had no idea, however, of antipodal nations; and only admitted the former, from the conceit that the universe itself was globular, and that the earth and planets partook of the same form consecutively. The more general, and indeed almost universal, opinion was that of the Epicureans, who imagined that the earth towards its basis became gradually more attenuate and symphoneous with the nature of the air, on whose bosom it was supposed to rest. Thus Epicurus, in his epistle to Herodotus, την γην τω αερι εποχεισθαι, ὡς συγγενη. So also Lucretius, pursuing the same doctrine, Rer. Nat. v. 535.

Terraque ut in mediâ mundi regione quiescat,
Evanescere paullatim, et decrescere pondus
Convenit; atque aliam naturam subter habere,
Ex ineunte ævo conjunctam atque uniter aptam
Partibus aëriis mundi, quibus insita vivit.'

Had we not made the observation repeatedly before, we should be again tempted to remark, upon this note, that the reference which introduces it-Now behind earth-does not occur in the text of the tranlations.

But enough of the notes: we advance to the third volume, the contents of which, as our allotted space is more than occupied, we must reserve for future remark.

(To be continued.}

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