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offered to undertake a journey thither for the purpose of collating it, at an expense to the University not greater than that for which the task could have been performed by a person on the spot; but the proposal was rejected, and one of the Syndics, speaking strongly against it, asked why Mr. Porson could not collect his manuscripts at home? The name of this learned objector has not been recorded, but Kidd seems to have known who he was, for he calls him "a grave man, and most wonderful scholar, then perching on the pinnacle of power;" and another of the opposers he designates as "a genuine critic, well known in the Primrose Path as well as in the Fosse and the Watling Street." Porson afterwards alluded to this display of ignorance in a note to his "Letters to Travis: " "I have heard of a learned Doctor in our University who confounded the collection with the collation of manuscripts."

This repulse is said to have dispirited Porson so much as to have had an ill effect on his whole critical career. Had he been now fairly started with Eschylus, he might, on its completion, have been animated by success to proceed to other works, and have accomplished those great undertakings which men who could fairly estimate his powers expected from him. But this discouragement seems to have weakened his exertions, to have turned his thoughts from great enterprises, and to have caused him to waste much time in comparatively trifling occupations.

The only excuse to be made for the Syndics is that

* Letters to Travis, p. 57; Kidd, Tracts, p. xxxvi.

Porson was then untried as an editor, and that his success may have seemed doubtful. But they ought to have had Greek learning enough among them to know the value of Stanley's text, and to suppose that a man who had given such proofs of scholarship as Porson, was likely to do it little harm by a few alterations, in which his own reputation would be concerned.

Some verses, which have been much circulated, have given rise to the belief that Porson actually visited the continent :

"I went to Strasburg, where I got drunk
With that most learn'd professor Brunck:
I went to Wortz, where I got more drunken
With that more learn'd professor Ruhnken.”

By whom these verses were written is not certainly known, but it is believed among scholars that they came from Porson himself, who, for the sake of the rhymes, described, as having really occurred, that which he thought might have occurred if he had met with those continental professors.

CHAP. IV.

PORSON'S REVIEW OF BRUNCK'S ARISTOPHANES; OF WESTON'S HERMESIANAX; OF HUNTINGFORD'S APOLOGY FOR HIS MONOSTROPHICS."

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REMARKS ON DAWES.- THE LEARNED PIG." - LETTERS TO THE

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GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE ON HAWKINS'S "LIFE OF JOHNSON.". NOTICE OF ROBERTSON'S ESSAY ON THE PARIAN CHRONICLE.-LETTER ON HEYNE'S APPLICATION FOR BENTLEY'S HOMERIC MSS.

IN the same year, 1783, Porson wrote another article for "Maty's Review," a critique on Brunck's Aristophanes. It contains great commendations of Brunck as an editor, and some very acute emendations of passages that had perplexed or escaped Brunck. Some introductory remarks on the writings and character of Aristophanes, setting forth his principal merits and defects, are well worthy of extraction:

"Before I give an account of the editor's merits, it may not be improper to say a word of the excellences and defects of the author; especially as some modern critics have thought proper, not only to greet him with the title of a scurrilous and indecent buffoon, but to wonder how such monstrous farces could be endured by the chaste ears of an Attic audience. That many should have been greatly exasperated with Aristophanes for publicly exhibiting Socrates on the stage, and making him speak and act in a manner most inconsistent with his known character, is not surprising; but as the accusation urged by some against the poet, of being instrumental to Socrates's death, has been substantially refuted by many critics, so the present editor has very judiciously observed, with regard to the other part of the charge, that Socrates is not so much the object of ridicule in the

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comedy of the Clouds' as the philosophers in general, who, of whatever benefit the lessons and example of Socrates himself might be to the state, were, from their idle lives, their minute, ridiculous, and sometimes impious disquisitions, highly prejudicial to their disciples, and, by consequence, to the public. If, says Mr. Brunck, Aristophanes had really in the smallest degree contributed to the death of Socrates, it is not credible that Plato would have introduced them in his Symposium,' sitting together at the same table; it is not credible that he would have been so great an admirer of him as to write an epigram in his praise, containing a most extravagant compliment. Missa igitur hæc faciaOf the indecency which abounds in Aristophanes, unjustifiable as it certainly is, it may, however, be observed that different ages differ extremely in their ideas of this offence. Among the ancients plain speaking was the fashion; nor was the ceremonious delicacy introduced which has taught men to abuse each other with the utmost politeness, and express the most indecent ideas in the most modest language. The ancients had little of this. They were accustomed to call a spade a spade; to give everything its proper name. There is another sort of indecency, which is infinitely more dangerous; which corrupts the heart without offending the ear. I believe there is no man of sound judgment who would not rather let his son read Aristophanes than Congreve or Vanbrugh. In all Aristophanes's indecency there is nothing that can allure, but much that must deter. He never dresses up the most detestable vices in an amiable light, but generally, by describing them in their native colours, makes the reader disgusted with them. His abuse of the most eminent citizens may be accounted for upon similar principles. Besides, in a republic, freedom of speech was deemed an essential privilege of a citizen. Demosthenes treats his adversaries with such language as would, in our days, be accounted scurrilous enough; but it passed in those days without any notice or reprehension. The world is since greatly altered for the better. We have, indeed, retained the matter, but judiciously altered the manner.

"In the management of his plots too, it must be owned, Aristophanes is sometimes faulty. It ought, however, to be observed that his contemporary comic poets did not pique themselves upon the artful management of the plot. Aristophanes has, therefore, the usual failing of dramatic writers, to introduce speeches, and even scenes, not much conducing to the business of the drama. But if the only use of the plot be, as the great Bayes has decided, to bring in good things, our poet will stand totally clear on this head of the charge, and the Knights' may be mentioned as an honourable exception even to this censure, as the design of the play, to expose Cleon, and to turn him out of his place, is admirably supported from beginning to end.

"To sum up Aristophanes's character: if we consider his just and severe ridicule of the Athenian foibles; his detestation of the expensive and ruinous war in which Greece was engaged; his pointed invectives against the factious and interested demagogues, by whom the populace was deluded, 'who bawl'd for freedom in their senseless mood;' his contempt of the useless and frivolous inquiries of the sophists; his wit and versatility of style; the astonishing playfulness, originality, and fertility of his imagination; the great harmony of versification whenever the subject required it, and his most refined elegance of language, —in spite of Dr. Beattie's dictum, we shall look over his blemishes, and allow that, with all his faults, he might be a very good citizen, and was certainly an excellent poet."

Brunck excuses himself for having left some faulty readings in the text "on account of the great hurry," he says, "in which he was obliged to write his notes." “I am aware,” he observes, "partem haud minimam istarum fabularum à me descriptam iterum fuisse, dum in Museo meo vel ludebat filius meus, quo animum meum nihil magis advertit oblectatque, vel confabulabantur boni quidam viri, qui quot fere diebus horisque matu

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