THE LIFE of CALLIMACHUS C ALLIMACHUS was born in Cyrene, the famous city of antient Libya. His common title of Battiades makes the grammarians ufually affign one Battus for his father: but, perhaps, he may as well derive that name from king Battus, the founder of Cyrene, from whofe line, as Strabo † affures us, he declared himself to be defcended. We are not informed of the We are not informed of the particular year of his birth; though few of the poets have been forgotten by Eufebius. However, it's agreed, that he commenced his fame under the patronage of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and continued it in the reign of his fucceffor Ptolemy Euergetes; whofe queen Berenice having confecrated her locks in the temple of Venus, and a cunning mathematician having stolen them thence to tranflate them to heaven, gave occafion to the fine elegy of this poet, which we have now only in the Latin of Catullus. Whoever was his father, the poet has paid all his duties and obligations to him in a most delicate epitaph, which we find in the Anthologia, and which fhews, that Martial had good reason to affign him the crown among the Grecian writers of the epigram. The old gentleman is fuppofed thus to addrefs the vifitants at his tomb: Whoe'er thou art, that to this tomb draw'ft nigh, Know, here interr'd the fon and fire I lie Of a Callimachus: illuftrious name, By each ennobled, and renown'd in fame : Nor is it strange; for whom the Nine behold, Before Callimachus was recommended to the favour of the court, he taught school in Alexandria, and had the honour of educating Apollonius, the author of the Argonautics who making him but an unkind requital for his labour, provoked Callimachus to vent his paffion in an invective poem, levelled against his ungrateful scholar, under the reproachful name of IBIS‡; which furnished Ovid with a pattern and a title for his biting piece of the fame nature. How capable foever our poet might be of the highest attainments in verfe, he feems to have had a particular fancy for fhort copies. And when his envious rivals uted to alledge this as their main objection against his Mufe, that he could not attempt any thing of bulk; he gave them the ingenious answer at the end of the hymn to Apollo, which feems to be compofed and introduced with all that art, which Ovid makes the great excellency of Callimachus. • Strab. 1.-17. p. 838: † pag. 837. Suid. in Callim. Envy Envy, grown pale with felf-confuming cares, "Not from each ftream, but from the pureft fpring; Hail king, once more thy conquʼring arm extend, The scholiaft on this place obferves, that to ftop the mouths of these detractors, the poet compofed his Hecate, a work of a large fize; now loft, but frequenly cited by Grecian and Roman authors. Those few perfons who have a right taste, and a just esteem for these smaller com. pofitions, will think that Callimachus needed nothing elfe to enfure his reputation. And if it be true, what Suidas reports, that he wrote above eight hundred pieces, he will stand free enough from the imputation of laziness, though he have no unwieldy labour to produce in his own defence. What we now have under his name are a few hymns and epigrams: the first of which, as they make far the larger part of his remains, fo they are of the greatest credit, and feem the main foundation of his fair character amongit his modern friends. It looks a little strange that Ovid*, when he gives him a place in his fine catalogue of poets, fhould pronounce him immortal, barely upon account of his art, and at the fame time, exprefsly deny his title to wit. Indeed, we have ftill many prodigious inftances of his art, as (befides the apology already fet down) the manner of bringing king Ptolemy's praifes into the hymns to Jupiter, the making Apolo, while yet in his mother's belly, prophefy the fame prince's victories; and the like. Yet it will be a difficult matter to perfuade any one, who has confidered the furprizing delicacy of his thought and turn, to compound for half his applaufe, and to quit the credit of his invention, for that of his judgment. Both the talents feem fo happily tempered together, that it is hard to give an inftance of one virtue, without difplaying the other in the fame view. What can be a nobler proof of both, than the gracefulness of thofe transitions, where, while he is commending one Deity, he draws in another with fo gentle force, - as not to wrong the firft fubject by obliging a new one? Of this kind is that admired ftroke on Hercules, in the hymn to Diena : Thy approach At heaven's eternal portals Phabus waits Bartiades toto femper contabitur orbe, 2 Am. EI. 15. 1. 1. With With Acacefian Hermes, this thy arms, "Suffer the harmless goat, the timid hare "Secure to range; ought injure they mankind? "Poor is the triumph there: the wild boars waste, "The wild bulls level all the blooming year : "These are man's foes: pour all thy rage on thefe." His burden, labouring. What can be a fairer argument for the union of the fame talents, than those wife and delicious fentences, which, ftriking us fuddenly in a work where one would not expect them, look as much like infpiration as any thing that poefy can produce? Two of thefe, in the very first hymn, may vie with the entire labours of more bulky authors. The firft of them is a fine answer to the modern libertines, who, from the fanfied uncertainty of a future ftate, take occafion to live and die at a venture, and expect as good a chance as their neighbours. The poet is speaking of Jupiter's title to the empire of heaven, as a thing acknowledged and unenvied by his two brothers; and hence he reflects on the folly of the antient story-tellers, who would make the three fons of Saturn divide the three realms by lot : Vain bards of old, to fiction that incline, The other is the concluding ftrain of the hymn, where he makes his farewelprayer to the Deity: Hail, father-! tho' above all praises, hear; Send Send wealth, fend virtue then; for join'd, they prove Some learned men have endeavoured to make Ovid's judgment speak a more favourable fenfe. But whoever cafts his eyes on what Heinfius has performed in that cause, and confiders how he is gravelled in the impoffible attempt, will be apt to imagine, that Ovid intended his words should be understood according to their natural import, but that through a fpirit of envy and emulation, he has wilfully contracted his rival's praises. It is plain, he had no higher ambition than to be thought to be fuperior to Callimachus; and he declares he should admire a mistress who would honour him with that preference +. But the greatest teftimonies of Callimachus's worth, and the foundation of his character with the antients, were his numerous pieces in the elegiac ftrain. Of these, we have only the hymn on Minerva's bath, and Catullus's tranflation of the copy on queen Berenice's hair. The former feems, like his other hymns, to incline moft to the free fpirit of lyrics; the curious story of Tirefias making the greater part of the poem. The other is more agreeable to our common notions of elegy; and, as it is commonly printed with the works of Tibullus and Propertius in the fame ftrain, fo it may vie with the sweetest and most exact of their pieces. For instance, they have nothing of a more natural turn, than that thought, which makes it a greater honour to belong to the queen's head, than to have a place among the conftellations: the ftar is fuppofed to fpeak, and thus compliments its mistress: But tho' fuch honour and fuch place is mine, Not tho' enrag'd the pow'rs on high shou'd rise, Take heav'n who wou'd, were that wish'd pleasure mine, } This fpecimen (which to be fure has loft nothing in the Latin verfion) is of itfelf almost enough to justify Quintiliant, when he gives Callimachus the crown in elegy, * Prolegom. in Hefied. + Eft que Callimachi præ noftris ruftica dicit + Lib. 10. c. 1. and and to fhow that Propertius was not much out in his choice, when he pitched on him for his pattern There is indeed another paffage in Propertius, which feems to contradict his former judgment, and which is commonly alledged by thofe who pretend to cenfure Caili. machus. It is in the thirty-third elegy of the fecond book, Tu fatiùs memorem Mufis imitere Philetam, It is true, by joining non with inflati in the construction, the difficulty is easily solved, and the fuppofed detraction turns into a commendation. But it is much more rational to imagine, that Propertius here cenfures fome particular work of Callimachus (at prefent not extant) as bombaft and extravagant; advifing his friend to apply himself to fome eafier and more agreeable labour. Scaliger judges the particular piece to have been the Aria which Martial flouts as a hard obfcure business; and which Propertius's friend might then probably think of tranflating. This conjecture may be farther improved from hence, that in one of the old epigrams in the Anthologia, Callimachus is fuppofed to have been honoured with the commands of the Mufes in a dream, for the undertaking that difficult work. But whatever becomes of this point, it is impoffible Propertius fhould defign any general reflection; since he declares it for his highest wish, to be called the Roman Callimachus †. Inter Callimachi fat erit placuiffe libellos, Et ceciniffe modis, pure poëta, tuis. Lib. 3. Eleg. 6. -Like fweet Callimachus to please, + Ut noftris tumefa&a fuperbiat Umbria libris, Let Umbria glory in her poet's lays, A LIST |