REVIEW OF NEW CLASSICAL PUBLICATIONS. ΑΙΣΧΥΛΟΥ ΠΕΡΣΑΙ. ÆSCHYLI PERSÆ. Ad fidem Manuscriptorum emendavit, Notas et Glossarium adjecit CAROLUS JACOBUS BLOMFIELD, A. M. Collegii SS. Trinitatis apud Cantabrigienses nuper Socius. Cantabrigia. Typis ac sumptibus Academicis excudit Joannes Smith. MDCCCXIV. THIS Play, which forms the third in the ordinary arrangement of the tragedies of Æschylus, has been published by Mr. Blomfield within the last few months. The first words of his preface are, Prodeunt tandem Persa, serius quidem quam pollicitus eram; sed quominus promissis starem, obstiterunt caussa, quas lectoris nihil interest ut in hoc loco referam. One of these causes of delay we may suppose to be the edition of Callimachus - which Mr. Blomfield has just completed and given to the world. This play is published upon the same plan as the Prometheus and Septem contra Thebas, with which it is printed uniform: the three plays constitute the first volume of a complete edition of Eschylus. We have reason to believe that it is the intention of the editor to proceed to publish the remainder, with as little delay as possible. Both the Notes and the Glossary of the Persæ are somewhat fuller than those of the preceding Tragedies. In the first Chorus Mr. Blomfield adopts the arrangement of Dr. Burney, entirely; in the subsequent Chorusses, partially. In correcting the text, he has availed himself of the same Collations of Manuscripts as in the two former plays, an account of which is prefixed to the Prometheus: and of a MS. in the library of the Archbishop of Canterbury, at Lambeth. To the Persæ is prefixed a Preface of thirty pages, comprising an account, drawn from various sources, relative to Eschylus, his predecessors, contemporaries, and rivals in the tragic art; the dates and the circumstances, of the performance of his different pieces; the constitution of the early Chorus; and, in general, the history of Tragedy in its infant state. Having announced the publication and its contents, we shall leave the task of criticism to others: it will not be expected of us, that we should deliver our sentiments upon the ability displayed in the execution of the different parts of the work. We believe, indeed, that a pretty decisive opinion has been formed by the literary world upon the merits of this edition of Eschylus. One remark, however, we shall make, without fear of contradiction, or of imputation of partiality: whatever may have been the degree of approbation with which scholars have regarded the two former plays, their opinion of the present publication will be still more favourable. I. M. TULLII CICERONIS TRIUM ORATIONUM, Pro Scauro, II. M. TULLII CICERONIS TRIUM ORATIONUM In Clodium et Curionem, De Are Alieno Milonis, De Rege Alexandrino FRAGMENTA INEDITA. Item ad tres prædictas Orationes, et ad alias Tullianas quatuor editas, Commentarius Antiquus Ineditus, qui videtur Asconii Pediani. Scholia insuper Antiqua et inedita, quæ videntur Excerpta e Commentario deperdito ejusdem Asconii Pediani, ad alias rursus quatuor Ciceronis editas Orationes. Omnia ex Antiquissimis MSS. cum criticis notis edidit Angelus Maius. Mediolani. 1814. WE are indebted for a sight of these curious publications to the obliging attention of a Nobleman, whose liberality secures for him the earliest intelligence of every production which is interesting to the literary world. The history of them is briefly as follows: In the midst of the Ligurian Apennines stands the town of Bobbio, anciently called Bobium, where Columbanus founded a monastery of Benedictines, in the year 612. A Catalogue of the library of this religious house, written in the tenth century, was published by Muratori, in his Antiquitates Italica. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Cardinal Frederigo Borromeo, nephew of the saint, founded the Ambrosian Library at Milan; and enriched it with the Bobian collection, purchased at a great price. These MSS. are now distinguished by the title of Bobienses. It is well known, that we have to ascribe the loss of many valuable works to a practice, which prevailed in the middle ages amongst the monkish scribes, who used to pare off the surface of parchment manuscripts, or to obliterate the ink by some chemical process, for the purpose of fitting them to receive the works of some Christian author. Copies of books thus prepared and written on a second time, are called Codices Palimpsesti1. It appears from the account given by Wetstein of the Codex Claromontanus of the New Testament, that it had originally contained the works of some tragedian, perhaps Sophocles. A very ancient Galen was detected under the text of the New Testament by Knittel, in the library at Wolfenbuttel: for the erasure of the original writing was not always so complete, but that parts of it might be deciphered by holding it up to the light. The editor of these fragments, examining a MS. of Sedulius, a Christian poet, in the Bobian collection, discovered some traces of a more ancient writing, and upon a closer investigation was enabled to recover parts of three orations of Cicero, which had not seen the light. The writing is large and clear, and each page is in three columns. Some of the Scholia on the oration Pro Scauro are written in minute capitals. The book was originally in quarto, but the monkish copyist had doubled it into an octavo form. Of the quarto leaves, six have part of the oration pro 1. Cic. ad Trebat. IV. 18. "Nam quod in palimpsesto, laudo equidem parsimoniam, sed miror, quid in illa chartula fuerit, quod delere malueris-non enim puto te meas epistolas delere, ut reponas tuas." Catullus XX. 5. nec sic, ut fit in palimpsesto Relata: charta regiæ, novi libri. In both which passages some read palinxesto. Gloss. Vett. Пaxíunτpov. Deleticia. Another has Deleticia. Пaλίμψηκτρου. Το say the truth, I do not see by what analogy παλίμα ψηστος is formed. It should rather be παλίμψηκτος. Scauro with the Scholia; three and a half, part of that pro Tullio; and one, a fragment of the speech pro Flacco. One has a part of the oration pro Calio, which is contained in the editions of Cicero. The writing of the text of Sedulius is very ancient, (of course prior to the tenth century, for this MS. is in the Catalogue above mentioned,) but that of the Cicero is much older. It is the opinion of some Italian antiquaries, the editor tells us, that it is as old as the second or third century. The Scholia are supposed with considerable probability to belong to the ancient and learned commentator on Cicero, Asconius Pedianus. The Fragments specified in the title of the second publication, were in like manner rooted out from a Codex Palimpsestus, containing the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon; and apparently somewhat more modern than the MS. of Sedulius; at least the characters of the Cicero are ruder. Of the oration in Clodium et Curionem, so many fragments are extracted, that by the help of the Scholia, (for the MS. is rather a copy of the Scholia, than the Oration itself,) we can form a notion of the drift of the whole. The particles of the Oration de are alieno Milonis are curious, because it was not before known that any such oration had ever existed. Qui unus repertus, says the editor, with the genuine enthusiasm of a virtuoso, sufficeret ad ætatis nostræ singularem felicitatem jure ac merito prædicandam. The ancient commentary, of which the editor speaks in terms of rapturous commendation, mentions a work of Cicero, entitled, EDICTUM LUCII RACILII TRIBUNI PLEBIS. And another, DE REBUS SUIS IN CONSULATU GESTIS AD POMPEIUM. It mentions also a curious fact, that when Cicero spoke his elegant oration for his friend Archias, his brother Quintus was Prætor. It has preserved also a passage from the speech of C. Gracchus de Legibus promulgatis. The author of this Commentary the editor determines to be Asconius Pedianus, and supports his opinion by ten arguments, some of which are conclusive. It appears that the copyist did not understand Greek; for Asconius having quoted a passage from the first book of Xenophon's Cyropædia, blank spaces are left in the MS. for the Greek quotations. This was the case, as might be expected, with most of the Latin scribes. Whoever has consulted the MSS. of Priscian, has had occasion to deplore this defect. A curious instance of it is noticed by Porson in his Notes on the Orestes 667. The Commentary elucidates, besides the unedited Orations, those pro Archia, pro Sylla, pro Plancio, and in Vatinium. We shall select a few of the fragments, in order to enable our Readers to judge of the value of this discovery, and shall briefly notice some peculiarities of orthography. Orat. in P. Clodium et Curionem, p. 20. Tu qui indutus muliebri veste fueris.-Cum calautica capiti accommodareturSed, credo, postquam speculum tibi adlatum est, longe te a pulchris abesse sensisti. Orat. de Ere Alieno Milonis, p. 34. Eiciundus est ex urbe civis auctor Salutis-Includendus intra parietes-Qui Populi R. imperium non terrarum regionibus, sed cœli partibus terminavit1. P. 36. Non pudet? sed quid pudeat hominem non modo sine pudore, verum etiam sine ore 2. We may observe, by the way, that Asconius uses in this page the word rumigerantium, which is marked in the dictionaries as an obsolete expression. P. 39. De nostrorum omnium non audeo totum dicere. Videte quid ea vitii lex habitura fuerit, cujus periculosa etiam reprehensio est. Pro Scauro. P. 11. Venio nunc ad testes; in quibus docebo non modo nullam fidem et auctoritatem, sed ne speciem quidem esse aut imaginem. Testium etenim3 fidem primum ipsa tollit consensio, quæ late facta est compromisso Sardorum et conjuratione rogitata. Deinde illa cupiditas quæ suscepta est spe et promissione præmiorum. Postremo ipsa natio, cujus tanta vanitas est, ut libertatem a servitute nulla re alia, nisi mentiendi licentia distinguendam putet. Neque ego Sardorum querellis (sic) moveri nos numquam oportere (aio). Non sum aut tam 1. III. Catilin. 10. Fines vestri imperii non terræ, sed cœli regionibus terminaret. Herodot. VII. 8. ei ToÚTOUS TE KAI TOUS TOÚτοισι πλησιοχώρους καταστρεψόμεθα—γῆν τὴν Περσίδα ἀποδέξομεν τῷ Διὸς αἰθέρι ὁμουρέουσαν. 2. A bad joke. Persius V. 103. Frontem de rebus. exclamet Melicerta perisse 3. Observe etenim the second word in the sentence; which is not common in prose writers. |