who is reported to have, ber

Ut Scyllam Nifi aut quam.] There is a great controverfy among the Criticks, about the reading of this paffage. In moft editions we find aut Scyllam Nifi quam; according to which reading, Virgil fpeaks here but of one Scylla, the daughter of Nifus, and afcribes to her what is aid of another Scylla, the daughter of Phorcus. Pierius found ut Scylam in the Roman manufcript; and in Scyllam Nifi aut quam fama fecuta At in another ancient manufcript. We have therefore the authority of ne manufcript for reading ut before cyllam, and inferting aut between Nifi and quam, which last is counnanced alfo by Servius. In the yons edition, in folio, 1517, it is ut Scyllam Nift aut quam. The me reading is admitted alfo by Dajel Heinfius and Pulman. Catrou, nd Cuningam read ut Scyllam Nifi ut quam. Marolles alfo interprets e paffage before us according to is reading; "Que diray-je de ce qu'il raconta de Scille fille de Nife? ou bien de celle qui à ce que l'on dit, fut entourée, &c." 'hus alfo the learned Earl of Rof

ommon;

And Dryden;

barking monsters,

La Cerda is ftrongly of the fame opinion, and warmly vindicates the Poet from the cenfure of those, who accufe him of having confounded two fables together. He blames thofe, who have altered the text with a view of bringing the Poet off from this imputation, and undertakes to justify him, even according to the common reading; " The "Poet, fays he, did neither con"found two ftories together, nor $ 3 falfify

"falfify them, but only delivered "what had been delivered before. "Know then, that not only Scylla "the daughter of Phorcus, but "alfo Scylla the daughter of Nifus, "was turned into fea-dogs. I fhall "fay nothing of the daughter of "Phorcus, for the Poet has not fpoken of her, as all know and believe, and therefore cenfure him. As for the other, about "whom the dispute is, I fhall pro"duce three teftimonies, of Strabo, Ovid, and Lucretius. The first fays, in his eighth book, that "Scyllaeum, which is in Hermione, . is faid to have taken it's name from Scylla the daughter of Nifus; for fhe, being in love with Minos, "betrayed Nifaea to him, and was "therefore thrown into the fea, and "being toffed about a long time by the 66 waves, at laft obtained a fepulchre "at this place. Or as it is better "expreffed in the Greek; Exúλλaiov Σκύλλαιου σε ὀνομάσθαι φασὶν ἀπὸ Σκύλλης τῆς σε Νίσου θυγατρός. The fecond in "his Amores;

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the fourth book of Propertius, where the two Scyllas are plainly fpoken of as one;

"Quid mirum in patrios Scyllam faeviffe capillos?

"Candidaque in faevos inguina "verfa canes?"

Thefe paffages are all fairly quoted, and fufficiently prove, that if Virgil did confound the two fables together, he was fufficiently kept in countenance by other authors. I fhould therefore readily admit of this vindication of our Poet, if we had not the authority of manufcripts for a better and more exact reading, which I have therefore admitted into the text.. Nor is Ruaeus averfe from this reading, which he allows to be amended, not without the authority of manuscripts;

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Iidemque non male verfum emen"dant ex fide MSS." What makes me fill the more willing to admit of this emendation, is that Virgil himself has mentioned the fable of Nifus and his daughter Scylla being turned into birds, in the firft Geor gick whence I conclude that he could not fo openly contradict himfelf, as to tell of her being turned into a monster, in this Eclogue.

For Scylla, the daughter of Nifus, fee ver. 404. of the firft Geor

"mimarinis

"Corporibus Scyllas."

Scylla, the daughter of Phorcus, was greatly beloved by Glaucus, who, not being able to obtain her

fiftance.

fiftance. But Circe, being in love with Glaucus, refolved to get rid of Scylla. She poifoned the water where Scylla ufed to bathe; fo that as foon as fhe went in up to the middle, the found her lower parts furrounded with barking monsters. Scylla being afrighted, ran away, not imagining thefe monfters to be part of herself, and was turned into a dangerous rock, in the freight between Sicily, and the continent of * Italy. See ver. 420. of the third Aeneid, and the latter end of the thirteenth, and beginning of the fourteenth books of Ovid's Metamorphofes.

76. Dulichias vexafe rates, &c.] The Poet here alludes to a paffage in the twelfth Odyffey;

Τύφρα δὲ μοι Σκύλλη γλαφυρῆς ἐκ

νηὸς ἐταίρους

Εξ ἕλεθ ̓, οἱ χερσίν τε βιηφί τε φέρτεροι ἦσαν.

Σκεψάμενος δ ̓ ἐς νῆα τοὴν ἅμα καὶ

and to bave torn the fearful mariners, alas! evith fea-dogs, in the deep gulpb?

'Ασπαίροντα δ ̓ ἔπειτα λαβών ἔῤῥεψε θύραζε

Ως

οἵγ ̓ ἀσπαίροντες αείροντο ποτὶ πέτρας.

Αυτοῦ δ ̓ εἰνὶ θύρησι κατήσθιε κεκλούγοντας,

Χεῖρας ἐμοὶ ὁρέγοντας ἐν αἰνῆ διιοτῇτι “Οικτισίον δὴ κεῖνο ἐμοὶς ἴδον ὀφθαλ μοῖσιν

Πάντων ὅσσ ̓ ἐμόγησα, πόρους ἅλος ἐξερεείνων.

"When lo! fierce Scylla ftoop'd to "feize her prey,

"Stretch'd her dire jaws, and fwept "fix men away;

"Chiefs of renown! loud ecchoing "fhrieks arife;

"I turn, and view them quivering "in the fkies;

They call, and aid with out"ftretch'd arms implore: "In vain they call! thofe arms are "ftretch'd no more.

« As from fome rock that over"hangs the flood,

"The filent fifher cafts th' infidious σε food,

"With fraudful care he waits the σε finny prize, "And fudden lifts it quivering to « the fkies :

"So the foul monster lifts her prey « on high,

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"So pant the wretches, ftruggling in the fkie;

"In the wide dungeon fhe devours σε her food,

"And the flesh trembles, while she

σε churns the blood;
S4

"Worn

Dulichias.] Dulichium is one of thofe islands in the Ionian fea, called Echinades. It lies over against the mouth of the river Achelous, and was subject to the dominion of Ulyffes.

Vexaffe.] We are informed by Aulus Gellius, that fome ancient Grammarians, among whom was Cornutus Annaeus, in their comments on Virgil, found fault with this word, as being ill chofen and mean. They thought it applicable only to trifling uneafineffes; and not ftrong enough to exprefs fo great a mifery, as the being devoured by a horrid monfter. But that learned Critick affirms it to be a very ftrong word; and thinks it was derived from vehere to carry, which expreffes force; because a man is not in his own power, when he is carried. A man who is taken up, and carried away by violence, is properly faid to be vexatus. For as taxare is a much stronger word than tangere, from which it is derived ; jaetare than jacere; and quaffare than quatere; fo is vexare alfo more forcible than it's primitive vehere. And

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though in common fpeech, one who is incommoded by fmoak, wind, or duft, is faid to be vexatus; yet we are not to relinquifh the original and proper fenfe of the word, as it was used by the Ancients. He confirms this by a quotation from an oration of Cato, where fpeaking of the greatest calamity that ever Italy endured, he makes use of the verb vexo; "Quumque Hannibal ter

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ram Italiam laceraret atque vex"aret ;" and another from the fourth oration of Cicero against Verres; "Quae ab ifto fic fpoliata "atque direpta eft, ut non ab hofte "aliquo, qui tamen in bello religi