-As fhe fled, the wind Increasing spread her flowing hair behind; tenues finuantur flamina Veftes.. Id. Lib. 2.. It is worth while to compare this figure of Victory with her Statue as it is defcribed in a very beautiful paffage of Prudentius.... Non aris non farre mola Victoria felix Prudentius contra Symm. Lib. 2. Shall Victory intreated lend her aid For cakes of flower on fmoking Altars laid? Though Though in her marble temples taught to blaze Who bending shows her naked foot behind, You have here another Victory FIG. 19. that i fancy Claudian had in view when he mentions her wings, palm and trophy in the following defcription. It appears on a Coin of Conftantine who lived about an age before Claudian, and I believe we fhall find that it is not the only piece of antique fculpture that this Poet has copied out in his defcriptions. -cum totis exurgens ardua pennis On all her plumage rifing, when she threw The The laft of our imaginary Be FIG. 20. ings is Liberty. In her left hand fhe carries the wand that the Latins call the Rudis or Vindicta, and in her right the cap of Liberty. The Poets ufe the fame kinds of metaphors to exprefs Liberty. I fhall quote Horace for the firft, whom Ovid has imitated on the fame occafion, and for the latter Martial. donatum jam rude quæris. Mecenas iterum antiquo me includere ludo. Hor. Lib. 1. Epift. 1. -tardâ vires minucnte fenecta Me quoque donari jam rude tempus erat. Ov. de Tr. Lib. 4. El. 8 Since bent beneath the load of years I stand, Quòd te nomine jam tuo foluto,, Quem regem, & dominum priùs vocabam, Totis pilea farcinis redemi. Mart. Lib. 2. Epig. 68. By the plain name though now addreft, I cannot forbear repeating a paffage out of Perfius, fays Cynthio, that in my opinion turns the ceremony of making a Freeman very handfomely into ridicule. It seems the clapping a Cap Cap on his head and giving him a Turn on the heel were neceffary circumftances. A Slave thus qualified became 2 Citizen of Rome, and was honoured with a name more than belonged to any of his Forefathers, which Perfius has repeated with a great deal of humour. Heu feriles veri, quibus una Quir tem Vertigo facit ! bic Dama eft, non treffis agafo, Vappa, et lippus, et in tenui farragine mendax. Verterit hunc dominus, momento turbinis exit Marcus Dama. Pape! Mares fpondente, recufas Credere tu nummos? Marco fub Judice pa les? Marcus dixit, ita eft: affigna, Marce, tabellas. Hac mera libertas: banc nobis pilea donant. Perf. Sat. 5. That falfe Enfranchifement with eafe is found: What farther can we from our Caps receive, Mr. Dryden. Since you have given us the ceremony of the Cap, fays Eugenius, I'll give you that of the Wand, out of Claudian. Te fafos ineunte quater, fallennia ludit Claud. de 4..Conf. Hon.. The Grato ictu and the felix injuria, fays Cynthie, would have told us the name of the Author, though you had faid nothing of him. There is none of all the Poets that delights fo much in these pretty kinds of contradictions as Claudian. He loves to fet his Epithet at variance with its fubftantive, and to furprise his Reader with a feeming abfurdity. If this Poet were well examined, one would: find that fome of his greatest beauties as well as faults arife from the frequent ufe of this. particular figure.. I queftion not, fays Philander, but you are tired by this time with the company of fo myfterious a fort of Ladies as those we have had before us. We will now, for our diver-fion, entertain ourfelves with a fet of Riddles, and fee if we can find a key to them among the ancient Poets. The firft of Second Series. them, fays Cynthio, is a Ship FIG. I. under fail, I fuppofe it has at leaft a metaphor or moral precept for its cargo. |