ΑΙ, ΑΙ· " τίς ἄν πον ᾤεθ ὦ δ ̓ ἐπώνυμον Τἐμὸν ξυνοίσειν ὄνομα τοῖς ἐμοῖς κακοῖς ; Philoctetes, fpeaking to Pyrrhus, has this quibble not inferior to any in Shakespeare-for badness. Ω Πῦρ σύ, καὶ πᾶν δεῖμα. undone. In K. John. Act II. Auft. Together with that pale, that white-fac'd fhore. viz. Albion, ab albis rupibus, To omit many others I will hence illuftrate and explain a paffage in Beaumont and Fletcher's False one. Act IV. But 'tis neceffary first to premise that Virgil has intermingled in his divine poem many allufions to the Roman history: for example. Aen. XI, 743. 66 46 68 Direptumque ab equo dextra complectitur hoftem. "Hoc de hiftoria tra&tum eft ; [says Servius] Nam Caius Cæfar, cum dimicaret in Gallia, et ab hofte raptus equo • ejus portaretur armatus, occurrit quidam ex hoftibus qui eum noffet et infultans ait, CESAR, CÆSAR, quod Gallorum linguâ DIMITTE fignificat: atque ita factum eft ut "dimitteretur. Hoc autem ipfe Cafar in Ephemeride fua "dicit, ubi propriam commemorat felicitatem.' To this piece of history I make no doubt but Sceva alludes where he tells Cæfar, "When the fword's in your throat, Sir, "You may cry CESAR, and fee if that will help you." 17 This verfe of Sophocles is exactly rendered by Shakespeare in K. Richard II. A& II. "K. Rich. How i'ft with aged Gaunt ? “Gaunt. Oh, how that name befits my compofition! "Old Gaunt indeed, &c." In the Oreftes of Euripides there is a pun on the name Electra; a very unfortunate name for a young woman. Ω παί Κλυταιμνήτρας τε καταμέμνονος, Παρθένε, μακρὸν δὴ μῆκος Ηλέκτρα χρόνο. And Aeschylus, in Agam. y. 1089. the father of tragedy, gives this kind of wit a fanction. *Απολλον, Απολλον, Αγυιεῦ τ' ἀπόλλων ἐμὸς, Απώλεσας γὰρ ἐ μόλις τὸ δεύτερον. Ovid has many of thefe: I don't find the fol lowing taken any notice of in Burman's edition. "Rettulit et ferro Rhefumque Dolonaque caefos, "Utque fit hic fomno proditus, ille dolo. "Aufus es, o nimium, nimiumque oblite tuorum, "Thracia nocturno tangere caftra dolo." That there is a play upon the words Dolona and dolo, is not to be queftion'd, I think; but the dolo in the fourth verfe is the transcriber's blunder, which was occafion'd by his cafting his eyes on the line above. Perhaps the poet gave it with an interrogation, * Aufuses, ônimium, nimiumque oblite tuorum, "Thracia nocturno tangere caftra pede ?”? Those who read the Socratic authors know that Socrates did not difdain to pun, when proper occafions offered: a corrupted paffage of this nature, in fo pure and elegant a writer as Xenophon, I shall take occafion here to illustrate and correct. The Clouds of Aristophanes were acted a very confiderable time before Socrates was condemned. According to the manner of the old comedy the real Socrates is there introduced, and his philofophy burlesqued. Thus he addreffes the Clouds, . 265. *Αρθηκε, φάνη ̓, ὦ δέσποιναι, τῷ φροντισῇ μετέωροι, O Clouds, my goddeffes, be ye lifted up, and appear all fublimely fufpended to your contemplating Scholar. In another place, . 94. The school of Socrates is called polishgion, the School of careful contemplation. And themselves, . 101. are called μgiuro@gónlisα, the fad and folemn contemplators. Plato in his apology alludes to these paffages of Ariftophanes, and speaks of this buffoonery, ὡς ἔσι τις Σωκράτης σοφὸς τά τε μετέωρα Φροντισής. 'Tis frequently hinted too, that he taught his fcholars direct atheism, and a contempt for the religion of his country. And in the second fcene Socrates and his scholars, like a modern fociety of natural philofophers, are employed about many curious enquiries, as whether a gnat gnat fings thro' it's mouth or fundament, with others of the like important nature. *Ανήρει ἄρτι Χαιρεφῶνα Σωκράτης, "Socrates lately inquired of Chaerepho concern"ing the nature of fleas, for instance, how many "of it's own feet a flea could go at one leap: " for having bitten the eyebrow of Chaerepho, « it leaped upon the bald pate of Socrates. Strep. Well, and how did he meafure it? « Schol. Moft dextroully.” Thefe paffages of Ariftophanes will be fufficient to make way for my correction of Xenophon in his Banquet, p. 176, 177, edit. Οxon. which I would thus read, 2 Τοιέτων δὲ λόγων ὅπλων, ὡς ἑώρα ὁ Συρακόσιος τῶν μὲν αὐτῷ ἀποδειγμάτων ἀμελάνας, ἀλλήλοις δὲ ἡδομένες, φθονῶν τῷ Σωκράτει εἶπεν, Αρα στο Σώκρατες, ὁ ΦΡΟΝΤΙΣΤΗΣ ἐπικαλέμενος ; Οὐκεν κάλλιον, ἔφη, ἢ εἰ ΑΦΡΟΝΤΙΣΤΟΣ ἐκαλέμεν ; εἰ μή γε ἐδόκεις, ΤΩΝ ΜΕΤΕΩΡΩΝ ΦΡΟΝΤΙΣΤΗΣ εἶναι. Οἶσθα ἦν, ἔφη ὁ Σωκράτης, ΜΕΤΕΩΡΟΤΕΡΟΝ τι τῶν Θεῶν ; Αλλ' ἐ μα Δί', ἔφη, ὦ τέτων σε λέγασιν ἐπιμελεῖσθαι, ἀλλὰ τῶν ΑΝΩΦΕΛΕΣΤΑ ΤΩΝ. ΤΩΝ. Οὐκῖν καὶ ὅπως ἂν, ἔφη, θεῶν ἐπιμέλοιμην ἄνωθεν μὲν γε ὄνες ΑΝΩ ΩΦΕΛΟΥΣΙΝ, ἄνωθεν δὲ φῶς παρέχεσιν. Εἰ δὲ ψυχρὰ λέγω, σὺ αἴτιος, ἔφη, πράγματά μοι παρέχων. Ταῦτα μὲν, ἔφη, ἔα· ἀλλ ̓ εἰπέ μοι, πόσες ψύλλας πόδας ἐμὲ ἀπέχεις· ταῦτα γάρ σε φασί γεωμετρείν. As puns cannot be tranflated, so I fhall not attempt to translate this. I have ventured to infert ΑΝΩ before ΩΦΕΛΟΥΣΙΝ, to compleat the pun on the preceding word AΝΩΦΕΛΕΣΤΑΤΩΝ. And have likewife corrected ψύλλας and ἀπέχεις, inftead of ψύλλα and ἀπέχει. For the fenfe is, tell me « "how many feet of a flea you are distant from « me :” as is plain from Ariftophanes : not as the words now are printed, void of all allufion and turn," tell me how many feet a flea is ce diftant from me.” There is a kind of pun in repeating pretty near the same letters with the preceding word, to which the rhetoricians have given a particular name, and in making a fort of a jingling found of words. Of this the fophifts of old were fond, and they are ridiculed ingeniously in Plato's Banquet for this affectation. " ΠΑΥΣΑΝΙΟΥ δὲ ΠΑΥΣΑΜΕΝΟΥ, διδάσκεσι γάρ με ΙΣΑ λέγειν ἑτωσὶ οἱ σοφόι. And again in his Gorgias ' Ω ΛΩΣΤΕ 18 Plat. Symp. p. 185. edit. Steph. 19 Plat. Gorg. p. 467. See Ariftot. Rhet. 1. 3. c. 9. 18 19 ΠΩΛΕ, |