ERRORS IN POPE'S HOMER'S ODYSSEY.
In all the editions I have seen of this translation, the following very palpable errors exist, which I do not remember to have seen noticed. The first of these errors is contained in book ix. lines 325, 326, 463, and 533,
"Fools that ye are! (the savage thus replies,
His inward fury blazing at his eyes.)"
"Sing'd are his brows: the scorching lids grow black."
"Seest thou these lids that now unfold in vain?"
and consists in Mr. Pope having bestowed two organs of sight on the giant Polypheme.
The second occurs in line 405 of the same book;
"Brain'd on the rock: his second dire repast;"
and is owing to the inadvertency of the translator, who forgets what he had previously written in lines 342 to 348.
"He answer'd with his deed: his bloody hand
Snatch'd two, unhappy of my martial band;
And dash'd like dogs against the stony floor;
The pavement swims with brains and mingled gore.
Torn limb from limb, he spreads his horrid feast,
And fierce devours it like a mountain beast."
And in lines 368 and 369;
"The task thus finish'd of his morning hours,
Two more he snatches, murders, and devours!"
by which it distinctly appears that line 405 has a reference to the third "dire repast" of the Cyclops, instead of the second.
Perhaps you will not deem me presumptuous in offering an amendment of these passages by the following substitutions:—
For lines 325 and 326,
Fools that ye are! (the savage made reply,
His inward fury blazing at his eye.)
for line 463,
Sing'd is his brow; the scorching lid grows black.
for line 405,
Brain'd on a rock: his third most dire repast.
and for line 533,
Seest thou this lid that now unfolds in vain?
DAVID STEVENS.
Godalming, Feb. 10. 1850.
PROVERBIAL SAYINGS AND THEIR ORIGINS—PLAGIARISMS AND PARALLEL PASSAGES.
In a note to Boswell's Life of Johnson (Lond. 1816. 8vo.), iv. 196., the following lines are ascribed to their real authors:—
To Joh. Baptista Mantuanus (Leipz. 1511. 4to), Eclog. i.:—
"Id commune malum, semel insanivimus omnes."
To Philippe Gaultier, who flourished in the last half of the 12th century (Lugduni, 1558. 4to. fol. xlij. recto):—
"Incidis in Scillam cupiens vitare Charybdim."
At the conclusion of the same note, the authorship of
"Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris,"
is said to remain undiscovered; but it appears to be a corrected form of a line in Albertus ab Eyb's Margarita Poetica (Nuremberg, 1472. Fol.), where, with all its false quantities, it is ascribed to Ovid:—
"Solacium est miseris socios habere poenarum."
Ovidius Epistolarum.
In the same page (fol. 149. rect.),
(sic) "Fecundi calices quem non fecere disertum"
is transferred from Horace to Ovid; while, on the reverse of the same fol., Æsop has the credit of
"Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro;
Hoc coeleste bonum præterit orbis opes."
Of the first line of the couplet, Ménage says (Menagiana, Amstm. 1713. 12mo.), iii. 132., that it is "de la fable du 3'e Livre de ce même Poëte à qui nous avons dit qu'appartenoit le vers
"'Alterius non sit qui suus esse potest;'"
But I cannot find the reference to which he alludes.
In the same fol. (149 rect.) is perhaps the earliest quotation of
"Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed sæpè cadende.—
Sapiens,"
which occurs also in Menagiana (Amstm. 1713. 12mo.), i. 209.:—
"Horace fait mention du Poëte Chérile, de qui l'on
n'a que ce vers Grec—
"Πετραν κοιλαινει ρανισ οδατοσ ενδελεχειη."
"Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed sæpè cadendo."
The parallel passages in Ovid are in Epist. ex Pont. iv. x. 5.:—
"Gutta cavat lapidem; consumitur annulus usu,
Et feritur pressâ vomer aduncus humo,"
and in Art. Amat. l. 475, 476.:—
"Quid magis est saxo durum? quid mollius unda?
Dura tamen molli saxa cavantur aquâ."
F.C.B.