תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

not written by Cato the censor, nor by Cato Uticensis: although it is perfectly in the character of the former, and Aulus Gellius has quoted Cato's poem DE MORIBUS. Nor have I the gravity of the learned Boxhornius, who in a prolix and elaborate dissertation has endeavoured to demonstrate, that these distichs are undoubtedly supposititious, and that they could not possibly be written by the very venerable Roman whose name they bear. The title is DISTICHA DE MORIBUS AD FILIUM, which are distributed into four books, under the name of Dionysius Cato. But he is frequently called MAGNUS Сато.

This work has been absurdly attributed by some critics to Seneca, and by others to Ausonius. It is, however, more antient than the time of the emperour Valentinian the Third, who died in 455%. On the other hand, it was written after the appearance of Lucan's PHARSALIA, as the author, at the beginning of the second book, commends Virgil, Macer", Ovid, and Lucan. The name of Cato probably became prefixed to these distichs, in a lower age, by the officious ignorance of transcribers, and from the acquiescence of readers equally ignorant, as Marcus Cato had written a set of moral distichs. Whoever was the author, this metrical system of ethics had attained the highest degree of estimation in the barbarous ages. Among Langbain's manuscripts bequeathed to the university of Oxford by Antony Wood, it is accompanied with a Saxon paraphrase '. John of Salisbury, in his POLYCRATICON, mentions it as the favourite and established manual in the education of boys'.

d See Vignol. Marville. Miscell. tom. i. RUM, under the name of Macer, now ex

[blocks in formation]

To enumerate no others, it is much applauded by Isidore the old etymologist, Alcuine", and Abelard°: and we must acknowledge, that the writer, exclusive of the utility of his precepts, possesses the merit of a nervous and elegant brevity. It is perpetually quoted by Chaucer. In the MILLEr's Tale, he reproaches the simple carpenter for having never read in Cato that a man should marry his own likeness P: and in the MARCHAUNT'S TALE, having quoted Seneca to prove that no blessing is equal to an humble wife, he adds Cato's precept of prudently

321. 512. In the ART OF VERSIFICATION, a Latin poem, written by Eberhardus Bethuniensis, about the year 1212, there is a curious passage, in which all the classics of that age are recited; or the best authors, then in vogue, and whom he recommends to be taught to youth. [Leyser. Poet. Med. æv. p. 825.] They are, CATO the moralist. THEODULUS, the author of a leonine Eclogue, a dialogue between Truth and Falshood, written in the tenth century, printed among the Ocro MORALES, and by Goldastus, Man. Bibl. 1620. 8vo. MSS. Harl. 3093. 4. Wynkyn de Worde printed this piece under the title of Theodoli liber, cum commento satis prolixo autoris cujusdam Anglici qui multa Anglicana ubique miscuit. 1515. 4to. It was from one of Theodulus's ECLOGUES, beginning Ethiopum terras, that Field, master of Fotheringay college about the year 1480, sette the versis of the book caullid Ethiopum terras, in the glasse windowe, with figures very neatly. Leland. ITIN. i. fol. 5. [p. 7. edit. 1745.] This seems to have been in a window of the new and beautiful cloister, built about that time. FLAVIUS AVIANUS, a writer of Latin fables, or apologues, Lugd. Bat. 1731. 8vo. Esor, or the Latin fabulist, printed among the OcTO MORALES, Lugd. Bat. 150. 4to. MAXIMIANUS, whose six elegies, written about the seventh century, pass under the name of Gallus. Chaucer cites this writer; and in a manner, which shews his elegies had not then acquired the name of Gallus. COURT OF L. v. 798. "MAXIMINIAN truely thus doeth he write." PAMPHILUS MAURILIANUS, author of the hexametrical poem de Vetula, and the elegies de Arte

amandi, entitled PAMPHILUS, published by Goldastus, Catalect. Ovid. Francof. 1610. 8vo. [See supra, vol. ii. p. 442.] GETA, or Hosidius Geta, who has left a tragedy on Medea, printed in part by Pet. Scriverius, Fragm. Vett. Tragic. Lat. p. 187. [But see supr. vol. ii. p. 65.] DARES PHRYGIUS, on the destruction of Troy. MACER [See supra.] MARBODEUS, a Latin poet on Gems. [See supra, vol. ii. p. 214.] PETRUS DE RIGA, canon of Rheims, whose AURORA, or the History of the Bible allegorised, in Latin verses, some of which are in rhyme, was never printed entire. He has left also Speculum Ecclesiæ, with other pieces, in Latin poetry.

He flourished about the year 1130. SEDULIUS. PROSPER. ARATOR. PRUDENTIUS. BOETHIUS. ALANUS, author of the Anticlaudian, a poem in nine books, occasioned by the scepticism of Claudian. [See supr. vol. ii. p. 227.] VIRGIL, HORACE, OVID, LUCAN, STATIUS, JUVENAL, and PERSIUS. JOHN HANVILLE, an Englishman who wrote the ARCHITRENIUS, in the twelfth century, a Latin hexameter poem in nine books. PHILIP GUALTIER, of Chatillon, who wrote, about the same period, the ALEXANDREID, an heroic poem on Alexander the great. SOLYMARIUS, or GUNTHER, a German Latin poet, author of the SOLYMARIUM, or Crusade. GALFRIDus, our countryman, whose NOVA POETRIA was in higher celebrity than Horace's Art of Poetry. [See vol. i. Dissertat. ii.] MATTHEUS, of Vendosme, who in the year 1170 paraphrased the Book of Tobit into Latin elegiacs, from the Latin bible of saint Jerom, under the title of the TOBLAD, sometimes called the THEBAID, and first printed among

bearing a scolding wife with patience. It was translated into Greek at Constantinople by Maximus Planudes, who has the merit of having familiarised to his countrymen many Latin classics of the lower empire, by metaphrastic versions: and at the restoration of learning in Europe, illustrated with a commentary by Erasmus, which is much extolled by Luther". That of MathuThere are two or three French translations".

rine Corderoy is dedicated to Robert Stephens. In the British Museum, there is a French translation by Helis de Guincestre, or Winchester; made, perhaps, at the time when our countrymen affected to write more in French than English". Chaucer

the Ocro MORALES. ALEXANDER DE
VILLA DEI, whose DOCTRINALE, or
Grammar in Leonine verse, superseded
It was
Priscian about the year 1200.
first printed at Venice, fol. 1473. And
He was
by Wynkyn de Worde, 1503.
a French frier minor, and also wrote the
ARGUMENTS of the chapters of all the books
of either Testament, in two hundred and
twelve hexameters. With some other
forgotten pieces. MARCIANUS CAPELLA,
whose poem on the MARRIAGE OF MER-
CURY WITH PHILOLOGY rivalled Boethius.
[See supra, vol. ii. p. 384.] JOANNES DE
GARLANDIA, an Englishman, a poet and
grammarian, who studied at Paris about
the year 1200. The most eminent of his
numerous Latin poems, which croud our
libraries, seem to be his EPITHALA-
MIUM on the Virgin Mary in ten books
of elegiacs. MSS. Cotton. CLAUD. A. x.
And DE TRIUMPHIS ECCLESIÆ, in eight
books, which contains much English
history. MS. ibid. Some of his pieces,
both in prose and verse, have been print-
ed. BERNARDUS CARNOTENSIS, or Syl-
vester, much applauded by John of Salis-
bury, who styles him the most perfect
Platonic of that age. Metallog. iv.
c. 35. His MEGACOSM and MICROCOSM,
a work consisting both of verse and prose,
is frequently cited by the barbarous wri-
ters. He is imitated by Chaucer, Man
of L. Tale, v. 4617. "In sterres many
a winter," &c. PHYSIOLOGUS, OF THEO-
BALDUS EPISCOrus, who wrote in Latin
verse De Naturis xii. animalium, MSS.
Harl. 3093. 5. He is there called Ita-
licus. There is also a Magister FLORINUS,
styled also PHYSIOLOGUS, on the same

m

949.

subject. Chaucer quotes PHYSIOLOGUS,
whom I by mistake have supposed to be
Pliny, "For PHISIOLOGUS says sikerly."
NONNES PR. TALE. v. 15277. [See supr.
vol. ii. p. 255.] SIDONIUS, who wrote a
metrical dialogue between a Jew and a
Christian on both the Testaments. And
a SIDONIUS, perhaps the same, regis qui
fingit prælia. To these our author adds
his own GRECISMUS, or a poem in hexa-
meters on rhetoric and grammar; which,
as Du Cange [Præf. Lat. Gloss. $
XLV.] observes, was antiently a com-
mon manual in the seminaries of
France, and, I suppose, of England.
Etymol. V. OFFICIPERDA.
"Contra Elipand. lib. ii. p.
Lib. i. Theol. Christ. p. 1188.
P V. 3227.
4 V. 9261.
It occurs often among the Baroccian
manuscripts, Bibl. Bodl. viz. 64, 71.
The first edition of
bis. 95. 111. 194.
Cato, soon followed by many others, I
believe, is August. A.D. 1485. The
most complete edition is that of Christ.
Daumius, Cygn. 1672. 8vo. Containing
the Greek metaphrases of Maximus
Planudes, Joseph Scaliger, Matthew
Zuber, and John Mylius, a German ver-
sion by Martinus Apicius, with anno-
tations and other accessions. It was be-
fore translated into German rhymes by
Abraham Morterius, of Weissenburgh,
Francof. 1590. 8vo.

8

Colloqu. Mensal. c. 37.

One by Peter Grosnet, Les mots dorees du sage Caton. Paris. 1543. " MSS. Harl. 4388. This manuscript Du Cange quotes is older than 1400. a CATO in French rhymes. Gl. Lat. V.

constantly calls this writer CATON or CATHON, which shews that he was more familiar in French than in Latin. Caxton in the preface to his aforesaid translation affirms, that Poggius Florentinus, whose library was furnished with the most valuable authors, esteemed CATHON GLOSED, that is, Cato with notes, to be the best book in his collection". The glossarist I take to be Philip de Pergamo, a prior at Padua; who wrote á most elaborate MORALISATION on Cato, under the title of SPECULUM REGIMINIS, so early as the year 1380*. In the same preface, Caxton observes, that it is the beste boke for to be taught to yonge children in scole. But he supposes the author to be Marcus Cato, whom he duly celebrates with the two Scipios and other noble Romaynes. A kind of supplement to this work, and often its companion, under the title of CATO PARVUS, or Facetus, or Urbanus, was written by Daniel Churche, or Ecclesiensis, a domestic in the court of Henry the Second,

LECATOR. See MSS. Ashmol. 789. 2. [6995.]

[In Bennet college library, there is a copy of the French CATO by Helis of Winchester, MSS. ccccv. 24. fol. 317. It is entitled and begins thus. Les Distiches Morales de CATON mises en vers par Helis de Guyncestre.

Ki vout saver la faitement
Ki Catun a sun fiz a prent,
Si en Latin nel set entendre,
Jci le pot en rumainz' aprendre,
Cum Helis de Guyncestre
Ki deu met a se destre

La translate si fatemente.
Cod. membran. 4to. The transcript
is of the fourteenth century. Compare
Verdier, BIBL. FRANC. tom. iii. p. 288.
edit. 1772. In the Latin Chronicle of
Anonymus Salernitanus, written about
the year 900, the writer mentions a de-
scription in Latin verse of the palace of
the city of Salerno, but laments that it
was rendered illegible through length
of time: "Nam si unam paginam fuis-
semus nacti, comparare illos [versus] pro-
fecto potuissemus Maroni in voluminibus,
CATONIQUE, Sive profecto aliis Sophistis."
cap. xxviii. col. 195. B. tom. ii. P. ii.

SCRIPTOR. RER. ITAL. Mediolan. 1726.
-ADDITIONS.]

W

Many of the glossed manuscripts, so common in the libraries, were the copies with which pupils in the university at tended their readers, or lecturers; from whose mouths paraphrastic notes were interlined or written in the margin, by the more diligent hearers. In a Latin translation of some of Aristotle's philosophical works, once belonging to Rochester priory, and transcribed about the year 1350, one Henry de Rewham is said to be the writer; and to have glossed the book, during the time he heard it explained by a public reader in the schools of Oxford. "Et audivit in scholis Oxonie, et emendavit et GLOSAVIT audiendo." MSS. Reg. 12 G. ii. 4to. In the mean time, I am of opinion, that the word reader originally took its rise from a paucity of books: when there was only ONE book to be had, which a professor or lecturer recited to a large audience.

* Printed, August. 1475. In Exeter college library, there is CATO MORALISArus, MSS. 37. [837.] And again at All Souls, MSS. 9. [1410.] Compare MSS. More, 35. [9221.] And Bibl. Coll. Trin. Dublin. 651. 14. And MSS. Harl. 6294,

in romance; in French.

a learned prince and a patron of scholars, about the year 1180. This was also translated by Burghe; and in the British Museum, both the CATOS of his version occur, as forming one and the same work, viz. Liber MINORIS Catonis, et MAJORIS, translatus a Latino in Anglicum per Mag. Benet Borugh ". Burghe's performance is too jejune for transcription; and, I suspect, would not have afforded a single splendid extract, had even the Latin possessed any sparks of poetry. It is indeed true, that the only critical excellence of the original, which consists of a terse conciseness of sentences, although not always expressed in the purest latinity, will not easily bear to be transfused. Burghe, but without sufficient foundation, is said to have finished Lydgate's GOVERNAUNCE OF PRINCISa.

About the year 1481, Julian Barnes, more properly Berners, sister of Richard lord Berners, and prioress of the nunnery of Sopewell, wrote three English tracts on Hawking, Hunting, and Armory, or Heraldry, which were soon afterwards printed in the neighbouring monastery of saint Alban's. From an abbess disposed to turn author, we might more reasonably have expected a manual of meditations for the closet, or select rules

Y MSS. Coll. Trin. Dublin. 275. And Bibl. Eccles. Vigorn. sub Tit. URBANUS, MSS. 147. Öne Tedbaldus, of the same age, is called the author, from a manuscript cited, Giornal. Lett. d'Ital. iv. p. 181. In Lewis's CAxton, in a collection of Chaucer's and Lydgate's poems by Caxton, without date, are recited 3. PARVUS CATHO. 4. MAGNUS CATO. p. 104. What these translations are I know not. Beside Caxton's CATO, mentioned above, there is a separate work by Caxton, "Hic incipit PARVUS CATON," in English and Latin. No date. Containing thirty-seven leaves in quarto. I find PARVUS CATO in English rhyme, MSS. Vernon. Bibl. Bodl. fol. cccx. [See supr. vol. i. p. 15.] The Latin of the lesser CATO is printed among AUCTORES OCTO MORALES, Lugd. 1538. Compare MSS. Harl. 2251. iii. fol. 174. 112. fol. 175. A translation into English verses of both CATOS, perhaps by Lydgate. See also MSS. Coll. Trin. Dublin. V. 651. The PROVERBIA

CATONIS are a different work from either of these, written in hexameters by Marbodeus, Opp. Hildebert. p. 1634. Paris 1708. fol.

* MSS. Harl. 116. 2. See also, 271. 2.

See supr. LYDGATE. There is a translation of the Wyz Cato, and Æsop's Fables, into English dogrell, by one William Bulloker, for Edm. Bollifant. 1585. This W. Bulloker wrote a Pamphlet for grammar, for the same, 1586. 12mo.

b There was a strong connexion between the two monasteries. In that of saint Alban's a monk was annually appointed, with the title of Custos monialium de Sopewelle. Registr. Abbat. Wallingford, [sub an. 1480.] MSS. Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Tanner.

[ocr errors][merged small]
« הקודםהמשך »