N° IV. Verfe 54. Χρυσοφύλακα. O'er the treasures 66. The Delphians placed him. IT appeared, that Milton read Euripides with critical attention from the margin of his edition, in which feveral palages were corrected by him, and fome of his propofed readings have been inferted by Barnes in his edition: His book afterwards came into the poffeffion of the late Dr. Birch, Secretary of the Royal Society, where Dr. Mufgrave informs me, that he remembers to have feen it: Dr. Birch on his death left his Library to the British Mufæum; but on inquiry I find that the Euripides of Milton is not in the number of those books there depofited. I have fince difcovered, that it is now in the poffeffion of Dr. Johnfon, who in his life of Milton has the following anecdote: The books, in which his daughter, who used to read to him, represented him as moft delighting, after Homer, which he could almost repeat, were Ovid's Metamorphofes and Euripides: His Euripides is by Mr. Cradock's kindness now in my hands; the margin is fometimes noted; but I have found nothing remarkable." On application to Dr. Johnfon, I have had the plea fure to infpect the book, and I difcover that the edition is that of Paul Stephens: It is now the property of Jofeph Cradock, Efq. of Gumly, in the county of Leicester, and is authenticated to have belonged to Milton, from his name prefixed to the first volume, written by himfelf, with an account I P. 138. 2 This edition in two volumes quarto was published at Geneva in 1602 in Greek and Latin, containing the Scholia, with the Comments of Brodeus, Canterus, Stiblinus, and Æmilius Portus, and the Latin Vertion of Canterus. of of it by Dr. Birch; if any thing effential fhould have been omitted by Barnes, I propofe to infert it, with the confent of the prefent owner, among my Annotations on the Greek text, fince Mr. Cradock has indulged me with the perufal. Our English Poet, from this character and employment of Ion, as Treasurer of the Delphick Temple, has drawn a poetical compliment in his Latin Poem to the Librarian of Oxford, when he calls him, Æternorum operum cuftos fidelis; Clarus Erechtheides Opulenta dei per templa parentis, Fulvofque tripodas, donaque Delphica, Ion Actæâ genitus Creufa. Ad Joannem Roufium. Strophe 3. v. 60. P. 688. Verfe 82. Τεθρίππων. N° V. 96. Chariot of the Sun. THE original expreffion here implies the quadriga, or chariot of the Sun, drawn by four horfes: And all the Poets, -Painters, and Sculptors, both Ancient and Modern, have almost universally beflowed this compliment on Apollo. The Scholiaft on our Author's Phoeniffe has given the Greek * V. 3. Xpóvos, Aiŷw, 'Argarh, Bgoilh. The expreffion of rigira, applied to the chariot of the Sun, alfo occurs in that play, (v. 1555.) And Valerius Flaccus fay's, Cum Phœbus equos rutilafque quadrigas Dirigit. (Argon. 1. XVI. v. 314.) names of these four Steeds, which translated into English imply, Time, Splendour, Lightning, Thunder; but Ovid in his story of Phaeton, though he derives the etymology of them from the Greek language, correfponds in one instance only of these four names with this Scholiaft, Intereà volucres Pyroeis, et Eous et Ethon, (Met. 1. II. v. 154.) There are other names affigned to these horses of the sun by Fulgentius, who thus explains the propriety of them; Erythræus, or red, because the Sun rifes with red ftreaks at the morning dawn; Acteon, or Splendent, because about the third hour he fhines with a greater degree of refulgence; Lampos, or glowing, because at the meridian he has afcended the central circle; and Philogeus, or the Lover of the Earth, because about the ninth hour, verging towards the west, he leans on the declivity: And the reason of the Sun's quadriga is thus explained by him, either because he performs the annual revolution by the divifion of the four seasons, or because he measures the space of the day in a path, which may be divided into four parts quadrifido limite *: The only inftance in any record of Antiquity, which I ever met to the contrary, is an affertion of the Scholiaft of Sophocles on the Ajax on the word Avonλ3; who there remarks, that the Sun has two white Horfes for his car, Lampos and Phaeton: But the paffage to which the Scholiaft there alludes (though he does not mention it) will ferve to correct his error. For 3 V. 681. Λάμπων και Homer Homer in his 23d Odyffey mentions the chariot of "Hws, or Aurora, as drawn by two horfes, correfponding to these names of Lampos and Phaeton: Thefe by mistake he has transferred to the Sun, who in Poetical Mythology is a diftinct perfonage from Aurora; and though this Goddess is fometimes honoured with the chariot of the God Apollo, as in Virgil, Auroram Phaetontis equi jam luce vehebant. And fometimes has a quadriga of her own, as in the fame Rofeis Aurora quadrigis, (Æn. 6. v. 353.) Yet she has oftener perhaps the humbler biga, or the car, drawn by two horses, as in Homer. Thus to give an instance from the fame refpectable authority, Aurora in rofeis fulgebat lutea bigis. Ἡμέρας. (Æn. 7. v, 26.) And Tzetzes in his commentary upon Lycophron', citing Homer, expressly calls Lampos and Phaeton the Horfes of the Day, 'Huspas. The biga was alfo the lefs afpiring equi page of fober Night, as I fhall fhew in a fubfequent note of this play. Besides this mistake of the Scholiaft of Sophocles, there is a remarkable exception to the established opinion of the Sun's quadriga, which Montfaucon has inferted 4 V. 246. 5 V. 17. p. 3 & 4. ed. Potter, • V. 1150. 7 in his Antiquitè Expliquée from Maffei,, where the Chariot of this God, from which Phaeton has just tumbled, has only two horfes; quoique tous les Anciens (as the Author, juftly obferves) en affignent quatre au Soleil, & deux feulement à, la Lune, comme dit Tertullien dans fon livre des fpectacles. The Moderns, as well as the Ancients,, have in general, been attentive to this circumftance: Thus Apollo in the celebrated; picture by Guido Rheni, in the Palazzo di Rofpigliofi at Rome, has his chariot drawn by four horses, and is improperly called the Aurora. But the Author of the Polymetis, obferving the defects of Rubens in mifreprefenting the allegorical perfons of the Ancients, very judiciously remarks, "Such I should take the mean flaring Apollo to be in a chariot drawn by two horfes." (Dial. 18. p. 296.) N2 VIL Verfe 161. Ερίσσει. 165. A Swan comes failing. THE original metaphor is here borrowed, like the remigium alarum of the Romans, from the oar, and applied to the Swan failing in the air. The Græcian and Roman Poets often reprefent this Bird, as foaring on its wing: But this is not only a poetical idea, as many perhaps may be inclined to imagine, who have never themselves been spectators of the flight of Swans; but also a philofophical truth; I have been affured by a very eminent Naturalift now in England, that A 7. Tom. I. c. 9. p. 122. pl. 65. he |