"And turn her out to fea, the stormy gufts "What tell you me? have I not friends to fly to? "I have: And will not thofe kind friends protect me ?— "Better it were you fhall not need their fervice, "And fo not make the trial: Much I fear "Your finking hand wou'd only grasp a shade.” Many of his maxims and remarks are neatly expreffed and ingeniously conceived; they have all a tincture of pleafantry, which without impairing the morality or good fenfe they convey, takes off the gloom and folemnity, which the fame thoughts, otherwife expreffed, might have. "Two words of nonfenfe are two words too much; "If what we have we ufe not, and ftill covet "Still to be rich is ftill to be unhappy; "Still to be envied, hated and abus'd; "Still to commence new law fuits, new vexations, "Still to be carking, ftill to be collecting, "Only to make your funeral a feast, "And hoard up riches for a thriftless heir: "Give me finall means, but give content withal, "Extremes of fortune are true wifdom's teft, No N° CXL. THE poet Diphilus was a native of Sinope, a city of Pontus, and contemporary with Menander. Clemens Alexandrinus applauds him for his comic wit and humour; Eufebius fays the fame and adds a further encomium in refpect of the fententious and moral character of his drama. The poet Plautus fpeaks of him in his prologue to the Cafina, and acknowledges the excellence of the original upon which he had formed his comedy. He died at Smyrna, a city of Ionia, and was author of one hundred comedies, of which we have a lift of two and thirty titles, and no inconfiderable collection. of fragments; out of thefe I have felected the following example "We have a notable good law at Corinth, "Where, if an idle fellow outruns reafon, "Feafting and junketing at furious coft, "The fumptuary proctor calls upon him "And thus begins to fift him-You live well, "But have you well to live?-You fquander freely, "Have you the wherewithal? have you the fund "For thefe out-goings? If you have, go on! "If you have not, we'll ftop you in good time "Before you outrun honefty; for he, "Who lives we know not how, muft live by plunder; "Either he picks a purfe, or robs a house, "Or is accomplice with fome knavish gang, "Or thrufts himfelf in crowds to play th' Informer, And put his perjur'd evidence to fale : "This a well-order'd city will not fuffer; " We "We cannot get a fifh for love or money, "You fwallow the whole produce of the fea : "You've driven our citizens to browze on cabbage; "A fprig of parsley sets them all a-fighting, "As at the Ifthmian games: If hare, or partridge, "Or but a fimple thrush comes to the market, "Quick, at a word you fnap him: By the gods! "Hunt Athens through, you fhall not find a feather "But in your kitchen; and for wine, 'tis gold"Not to be purchas'd-We may drink the ditches." Apollodorus Gelous in the fame period with the poets abovementioned was a writer high in fame, and author of many comedies, of all which the titles of eight only and fome few fragments now remain It is generally understood that the Phormio and Hecyra of Terence are copied from this poet. Very little has been preferved from the wreck of this author's writings that can tempt me to a tranflation; a few fhort fpecimens however according to cuftom are fubmitted. "How sweet were life, how placid and ferene, "Were others but as gentle as ourselves: "But if we muft confort with apes and monkies, "We must be brutes like them--O life of forrow!" "What do you truft to, Father? To your money? Athenæus has refcued a little ftroke of raillery, which is ludicrous enough "Go to! make faft your gates with bars and bolts; "But never chamber door was fhut fo close, "But cats and cuckold-makers wou'd creep thro' it." The The following has fome point in it, but comes ill into tranflation, or, more properly fpeaking, is ill tranflated "Youth and old age have their respective humoura; "And fon by privilege can fay to father, "Were you not once as young as I am now? "Not fo the father; he cannot demand, "Were you not once as old as I am now? There is fomething pleafing in the following natural defcription of a friendly welcome "There is a certain hofpitable air "In a friend's houfe, that tells me I am welcome: "The porter opens to me with a fmile; "The yard dog wags his tail, the fervant runs, "Beats up the cushion, fpreads the couch, and says-"Sit down, good Sir! ere I can fay I'm weary." Philippidas, the fon of Philocles, was another of this illuftrious band of contemporary and rival authors: His extreme fenfibility was the cause of his death, for the fudden tranfport, occafioned by the unexpected fuccefs of one of his comedies, put a period to his life; the poet however was at this time very aged. Donatus informs us that Philippidas was in the highest favour with Lyf machus, to whom he recommended himself not by the common modes of flattery, but by his amiable and virtuous qualities; the intereft he had with Lyfimachus he ever employed to the most honourable purposes, and thereby difpofed him to confer many great and ufeful favours upon the people of Athens: So highly did his princely patron efteem this venerable man that whenever he fet out upon any expedition, and chanced upon Philippidas in H 5 his his way, he accounted it as the happiest prognoftic of good fortune." What is there," faid Lyfimachus to him upon a certain occafion, "which "Philippidas would wish I should impart to him?” "Any thing," replied the poet, "but your "fecrets." Pofidippus, with whom I fhall conclude, was a Macedonian, born at Caffandria and the fon of Cynifcus. Abundant testimonies are to be found in the old grammarians of the celebrity of this poet; few fragments of his comedies have defcended to us, and the titles only of twelve. He may be reckoned the laft of the comic poets, as it was not till three years after the death of Menander that he began to write for the Athenian stage, and pofterior to him I know of no author, who has bequeathed even his name to pofterity: Here then concludes the hiftory of the Greek stage: below this period it is in vain to search for genius worth recording; Grecian literature and Grecian liberty expired together; a fucceffion of fophifts, pædagogues and grammarians filled the pofts of those illuftrious wits, whofe fpirit, foftered by freedom, foared to fuch heights as left the Roman poets little else except the secondary fame of imitation. I have now fulfilled what I may be allowed to call my literary engagements; in the courfe of which I have expended no fmall pains and attention in dragging from obfcurity relicks buried in the rubbish of the darker ages, when the whole world feemed to confpire against Genius; when learning had degenerated into fophifm, and religion was made a theme of metaphyfical fubtlety, ferving, as it should feem, no other purpose but to puzzle and confound, to inflame the paffions and to |