Shall I for this affront appeafe

The maid or Deity?

Ah, fair one, thee cou'd I but please,

What's Nemefis to me?

XVII.

On BERENICE the wife of PTOLEMY.

OUR are the Graces, with the former three

FOUR

Another lately has obtain'd a place :

In all things bleft, bright. Berenice, thee,

Without whofe charms the Graces have no grace.

XVIII.

HOE'ER thou art that on the defart fhores,

WH

Leontichus has found, he lays to rest ;

While his own life of peril he deplores,
With fweet repofe, oh never, never bleft:
Condemn'd to travel o'er the watry plain,
And, like the corm'rant, rove about the main.

Epigram XVII.] There is an Epigram in the
Anthologia, exactly fimilar to this;

Αι χαριτες τρεις εισι· συ θη μια ταις τρισι κειναις
Γεννηθης, εν' εχωσι' αι χαριτές χαριτα.

COMA

Epigram XVIII.] For a pleafing commentary on this, read the beautiful 28th Ode of the ift book of Horace.

COMA BERENICES:

H

Q R,

The Lock of BERENICE.

The treffes Ægypt's princess wore,
Which fweet Callimachus fo fung before.

PARNELL.

E, who with curious and enlarged eye

Survey'd the fplendid glories of the sky;

Who found how stars to rise and setting run,
How shades obfcure the brightness of the Sun:
At certain times how certain ftars decay;
And how foft love from her aërial way

Coma Berenices, &c.] The original Greek of this poem is loft, and what we now have is only a tranflation of it in Latin by Catullus: it is generally esteemed very excellent, its politenefs and elegancy being much admired. Voffius fays, Vix elegantius carmen Romano fermone fcriptum. Dr. Bentley has collected what remains of the Greek, which the learned reader will find, vol. 1. p. 434. of Grævius his edition of our author. There are very many critical enquiries concerning the Latin verfion, which I do not think myfelf obliged to confider: as my intention is only to give the reader a tranflation, as near the fenfe as we can be fuppofed to come: Critics will find room enough to exert their faculties and

5

Wheels

difplay their acumen by confulting Voffius, who hath given an edition of Catullus: after confidering their feveral remarks, I have endeavoured to express what appeared to me the author's true meaning.

Ver. 6. From her aerial, &c.] Gyro aërio"We may learn from hence (fays a learned friend) that the antients, contrary to the opi nion of modern philofophers, imagined that the air was extended thro' the cœleftial regions, as far as, or perhaps beyond the fixt fars. Thus Horace aërias tentaffe domos, &c. See alfo Tully de Nat. Deorum, lib. 2. Perhaps this notion might be founded on the original revelation, Vid. Gen. i. 17. and Mar, ver. 6.

A a 2

Wheels gentle Trivia, in her nightly charms,

To stolen pleasures and Endymion's arms :
ME, that fame Conon, in the skies furvey'd
The fhining Lock from Berenice's head :

Which fond the promis'd to the pow'rs above,

What time, her hands uprais'd, with heav'n fhe ftrove,

For her dear king, juft happy in her love,

To battles hurried, and feverer fights,

From fofter wars, and hymeneal rites.

ΙΟ

15

IS VENUS, then, to other loves fo true,

To virgins only, and to brides a foe:

And feign'd or real are those fighs and tears,

Which damp the parent's blifs with tender fears?
Which, when approaching to the nuptial bed,
The blushing virgins in abundance fhed?

Ver. 12. Her hands uprais'd, &c.] Protendens brachia.-Upon which the fame ingenious friend remarks, "This part of religious worfhip, though so often mentioned by the heathen writers, is generally quite overlooked by commentators, or but lamely accounted for. The origin of it seems to be this. The hand is, no doubt, a very proper emblem of power in general. Hence the hand in Scripture is frequently afcribed to God as well as the eye and ear; hence xp, and such words derived from xg, are used in Greek for all attempts bodily and mental, and hence manus in Latin for power and force of any fort. See Littleton's Dictionary. When therefore the heathens lifted up their

20

In

hands, as an act of religious worship, which was generally performed (as in the paffige before us) when they prayed for deliverance from danger or adverfity, they did by that emblematical action express their belief that their Gods had power to deliver them, or that they had no power to help themselves but what was derived from them. Thus Eneas in a form is defcribed by Virgil, duplices tendens ad fidera palmas. The reafon why they held their hands. upwards rather than downwards, or in any other particular pofture, was, because the heathens univerfally worshipped either the heavens themfelves, or fome intelligencies refident therein.

In troth those tears by no means are fincere :

And those foft fighs, the fighs of hope, not fear:
So taught experience, when I heard my queen,
True virgin-like, in tim'rous fort complain :

When furious rush'd the bridegroom to her arms,

Love's war to wage, and spoil her virgin charms.

BUT you, whate'er your maiden fighs might say,

Sincerely wept your husband torn away :

And on your lonely pillow truly fhed

A flood of forrow for your lover fled :

What anxious fondness then your bofom prov'd,

How much you languish'd, and how much you lov'd!
Where then, my queen, was all that courage flown,

Which Berenice from a child had fhown?
And quite forgot was that illuftrious deed,
By which you mounted the imperial bed :

25

30

35

Ver. 22. In troth, &c.] Similar hereto is what our foft poet Rowe delivers in his Fair Penitent.

The virgin bride who fwoons with deadly fear,

To fee the end of all her wishes near :

When blufhing from the fight, and publick

eyes,

To the kind covert of the night she flies:
With equal fire to meet the bridegroom moves,
Melts in his arms and with a loofe fhe loves.

Greater

Ver. 36. That illuftrious deed, &c.] The act of courage, and the bonum facinus here alluded to, is thus recorded by Hyginus, in Poetico "There are other feven Aftronomico, c. 24. ftars at the tail of the lion, placed in a triangle, Callimachus the poet call the Lock of Berenice; which Conon, a mathematician of Samos, and for when Ptolemy married Berenice, his fifter, the daughter of Ptolemy and Arfinoë, a few days after their nuptials he was called to war in Afia, upon which Berenice vowed, that if he fhould

return

Greater than which no female ever dar'd,

As meed more happy never female fhar'd?

BUT when about to part, what words you spoke, From your foft lips what love enamour'd broke?

How oft you fighing told your doubts and fears,

40

And dew'd his hands with kiffes and with tears?

What God cou'd change you thus? or was it hence,
That with each other lovers ill difpenfe?

45

'Twas then you made a folemn vow to heav'n,

"Shou'd to your arms your prince again be giv'n,

"That I lov'd Lock, with blood of goats, fhou'd prove "A willing prefent to the pow'rs above."

They heard your vow, and quickly to your arms

Reftor'd your hero with encrease of charms,

His checks fresh flufh'd with victory's bright glow,
And Afia's laurels verdant on his brow!

50

return victorious, fhe would cut off this lock:
which happening agreeable to her vow, the
placed the condemned lock in the temple of
Venus Arfinoë Zephyritis: which the next day
was not to be found. Hereupon Conon the ma-
thematician defigning to get into the king's good
graces, faid, that the lock was feen placed
among
the stars, and accordingly fhewed thefe
feven flars, which he pretended to be the lock.
Some, with Callimachus, have faid, that this

For

Berenice was ufed to breed horfes, and fend them to the Olympic games. They moreover add, that Ptolemy, the father of Berenice, being terrified by the multitude of his enemies, fought fafety by flight: upon which his daughter, as fhe was often ufed, leaped upon an horfe, marfhalled the forces, killed very many of the enemy, and put the reft to flight. for which action Callimachus here calls her of good courage and magnanimity."