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Mox tremulum vibrans motu gliscente liquorem,
Multiplicat crebros sinuati gurgitis orbes;
Donec postremo, laxatis circulus oris,
Contingat geminas patulo curvamine ripas."

Lib. XIII. 23.

The classical reader will observe, that Pope has followed the Latin poet more closely in the passage quoted from the Temple of Fame, than in the two other citations. This was natural. The Temple of Fame was written in 1711, when the author was only 23 years of age; and had been accustomed "not so much to strike out new thoughts of his own, as to improve those of other men" by an easy and elegant versification.

The Dunciad was written in 1726; the Essay on Man, in 1729. It is said, that Pope first became acquainted with the Works of Virgil and Ovid, by the translations of Ogilby and Sandys. If this be true, we may naturally imagine, that he would have the curiosity to read the Translation of Silius Italicus, by Thomas Ross, Esq.* printed in 1662. I shall present the reader with this gentleman's humble ver

sion:

"Desire in ev'ry breast

To bear their ensigns back again, increast:
As when a stone the water breaks, it makes
At first, small rings; but as its motion shakes
The trembling liquor, while it still descends,
The numerous orbs increase, till it extends
The curling circle, every way, so wide,
That it may touch the banks on either side."

While I have Silius Italicus before me, I cannot forbear citing another beautiful passage, in which the author describes the martial spirit of young Hannibal, when he formed the idea of penetrating into Italy, and avenging the cause of his country within the walls of Rome. His father, who carried him, when he was but nine years old, into Spain, made him solemnly swear, at the foot of an altar, that he would never be reconciled to the Romans. In the mean time, says the poct,

Ross stiles himself "Keeper of his Majesty's Libraries, and Groom of bis most honourable Privy-chamber."

"Dat mentem Juno, ac laudum spe corda fatigat.
Jamque aut nocturno penetrat Capitolia visu;
Aut rapidis fertur per summas passibus Alpes.
Sæpe etiam famuli, turbato ad limina somno,
Expavere trucem per vasta silentia vocem,
Ac largo sudore virum invenere futuras
Miscentem pugnas, et inania bella gerentem."

Lib. I. 63.

These two quotations may serve to shew, that Silius Italicus is not so despicable a poet as the elder Scaliger and others have represented him; and that there are passages in his poem DE BELLO PUNICO, which would not disgrace the Æneid.

1792, Jan.

Yours, &c.

J. R-RTS-N.

MR. URBAN,

CVI. PEN and PIN defined.

PEN and Pin seem to be the same word; a pen is an inclosure of any kind, a shippen, a cow-house in Lancashire, quasi sheep pen; a hen-pen, to keep and fatten fowls in here. As to pin, it is used in Derbyshire of impounding such cattle as are found trespassing; and the pound is called the pinfold, and the petty officer that is appointed to the service, the pindar, i. e. pinner, d being inserted euphonia gratia; and so a pin, acicula, is named from its fastening whatever it is used for. A pen in Jamaica is a farm or plantation, but that I esteem to be of a different original; the Spaniards once occupied that island; so that I take it to be the Spanish word Pennas, Rupes, Collis, (Stevens, Dict. or Du Fresne in v.); as these plantations are chiefly on the hills, and distant from the bays and coasts frequented by the merchants, and inhabited by the settlers, or proprietors.

Yours, &c.

1792, June.

L. E.

CVII. Etymology of PONTIFEX.

MR. URBAN,

Sep. 10. It seems to be far more easy to discover what was not, than to determine what was, the etymology of pontifex*. Against the opinion of its originating from the Pontifices of Rome having built the bridge Sulpitius, pursuant to the directions of an oracle, possibly it may be deemed an objection, not destitute of weight, that in the derivatives from this word there is not any allusion to the constructing of a bridge. I write this upon the credit of Ainsworth and Stephens; and if, in their Dictionaries, there are omissions of passages that ought to have been specified, I doubt not of their being supplied by some of your learned correspondents. The like observation will hold good, though not be of equal force, with respect to derivatives used by Latin authors of the middle ages. Pontifico, pontificatio, pontificium, pontificalia, and others, all denote the episcopal office, dignity, habit, &c. without the least reference to the building or repairing of bridges, or to taxes imposed for that work. By an unwarrantable Latinism, if in this instance the term may be allowed, Milton, in his description of the bridge raised over the chaotic expanse by Sin and Death (Paradise Lost, book X.), has applied two derivatives as pertinent to bridgemaking, viz. pontifical, v. 313, and pontifice, v. 348. Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, believes that this sense of the words was peculiar to Milton, and perhaps was intended as an equivocal satire on Popery. Dr. Warburton (Newton's edit. not.) properly styles it a bad expression, adding, "“yet to suppose a pun would be worse, as if the Roman priesthood were as ready to make the way easy to hell, as Sin and Death did." After an attentive perusal of the whole paragraph, I

"Latinis placuit et pontificem appellare eum qui rebus sacris præesset: et, cum plures essent apud veteres, unum qui omnibus præerat maximum pontificem dixerunt. Unde vero deductum nomen pontificis, non satis constat. Q. Mutius Scævola a posse et facere appellatos existimat pontifices: at Mar. Varro a ponte et facio maluit, eo quod ab his primum pons sublitius factus ac sæpe restitutus esse perhibeatur, ut refert Fenestella, lib. 1. de Romanorum Magistratibus.” Hyperius in Epist. Pauli ad Heb. cap. i. ver. 1. "Nomien ambiguum est, et interdum stricte sumitur, interdum late: stricte designat suminum sacerdotum qualis fuit Aaron, et qui ei successere in sacro hoc munere. Late, et sic illi vocantur Xps qui erant capita familiarum sacerdotalium." Spanhemius de dubiis Evangeticis. Vide Grotium in Mat. ii. 5. Princeps sacerdotuin pontifex maximus; princeps etiam sive caput familiarum sacerdotalium." Gerh. in farm.

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must own, I see no ground for concluding that any sarcastic stricture was levelled at the Roman pontiff. There is, however, a manifest pun, i. e. a distortion of the word from its primary and universal acceptation; and, that Milton did not forbear complying with this taste of the age, there is a glaring proof in the punning speech delivered by Satan upon the opening of his new-invented battery against the good angelic host. But Addison's remarks on the allegory of Sin and Death, as I am inclined to believe, will lead to a plausible surmise of what might occasion Milton's thus adapting the words pontificial and pontifice. "A reader (observes this ingenious critic) who knows the strength of the English tongue, will be amazed to think how the poet could find such apt words and phrases to describe the actions of these two imaginary persons, and particularly in that part where Death is exhibited as forming a bridge over the chaos; a work suitable to the genius of Milton." Milton, however, from a want of apt words, in their ordinary signification, was, it appears, at length constrained to give a novel meaning to one word, and to coin another, before the ideal bridge could be completed with chimerical materials by visionary architects. And it was in consequence of the same defect that, in a preceding verse (310), he slipt into a deviation from a part of speech, by forming a particle out of a noun substantive in the simile of Xerxes:

Over Hellespont

Bridging his way, Europe with Asia join'd;

for, was not the verb to bridge till then unknown in the English language?

1723, Nov.

Yours, &c.

W. and D.

CVIII. A List of Local Expressions, with Illustrations.

MR. URBAN,

As a knowledge of local expressions may frequently be of service in critical inquiries, and is at least a matter of curiosity, the following list is at your service. You may depend on its authenticity; a circumstance which ought always to be examined in information of this kind; since, either for want of frequent inquiries about the same word, or through the

dishonourable fiction of little wits, there is reason to suppose that many errors have been admitted into vocabularies of this kind.

AUNT. It is common in Cornwall to call all elderly persons Aunt or Uncle, prefixed to their names. The same custom is said to prevail in the island of Nantucket, in North America. In some parts of England Gammer and Gaffer are said to be used in the same manner.

ANUNT. Opposite to. Gloucestershire.-Gr. irarti.

A CUSTIS. A schoolmaster's ferula. North of Cornwall, CLOME. Earthen-ware; and a clome shop; and a clomen oven, and the like. General through Devonshire.

CAWCH. A nasty place. Nastiness. Devonshire. In other places called a mess.

A DONKY, or A DICKY. An ass. Essex and Suffolk.The colliers of Kingswood call the same animal a Neddy-ass, but more usually a Neddy.

CALLED HOME. Asked in church by banns; and this, either the first, second, or third time. King's Sedgemoor. To DON, and To DOFF. To put on, and put off, the clothes.

DULL. Hard of hearing. Somerset.

An ERRISH. A stubble-field. Devon.

A FESCUE, pronounced also Vester. A pin, or point, with which to teach children to read. Cornwall. Probably Probably a corruption of Verse-cue; Verse being vulgarly pronounced all through the West, Ves.

A GOUT. An under ground drain of a house or street. Camden mentions this, word as peculiar to Bristol in his (Queen Elizabeth's) time. Gowtes and gutters occur in two deeds (dated 1472 and 1478) in the collection of deeds belonging to the library of Bristol. It is still the only word used in that city.

To GORGEY. To shake. Lookee how our chimney do gorgey with the wind. King's Sedgemoor. The original is, probably, to gorge; it being common in Somerset to add a y to numberless words, such as to droppy, &c.

A GOOD-DAY. A holiday. Staffordshire.

A Pair of JEMMIES. Hinges. Minehead.
LARY. Empty. Devon.

A LYNCHER. A border of grass, left to divide property in a ploughed common-field. Sedgemoor.

The LEACH-ROAD. The path by which a funeral is carried to church. Somerset and Devon. It often deviates from the high road, and even from any path now in use; in which

VOL. II.

Bb

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