[886] Scaligerana Secunda.
Muretus. 7. The same title was given to a similar miscellany by Marc Antony Muretus, a native of Limoges. The first part of this, containing eight books, was published in 1559, seven more books in 1586, the last four in 1600. This great classical scholar of the sixteenth century found in the eighteenth one well worthy to be his editor, Ruhnkenius of Leyden, who has called the Variæ Lectiones of Muretus “a work worthy of Phidias,” an expression rather amusingly characteristic of the value which verbal critics set upon their labours. This book of Muretus contains only miscellaneous illustrations of passages which might seem obscure, in the manner of those we have already mentioned. Sometimes he mingles conjectural criticisms; and in many chapters only points out parallel passages, or relates incidentally some classical story. His emendations are frequently good and certain, though at other times we may justly think him too bold.[887] Muretus is read with far more pleasure than Turnebus; his illustrations relate more to the attractive parts of Latin criticism, and may be compared to the miscellaneous remarks of Jortin.[888] But in depth of erudition he is probably much below the Parisian professor. Muretus seems to take pleasure in censuring Victorius.
[887] The following will serve as an instance. In the speech of Galgacus (Taciti vita Agricolæ) instead of “libertatem non in præsentia laturi,” which indeed is unintelligible enough, he would read, “in libertatem, non in populi Romani servitium nati.” Such a conjecture would not be endured in the present state of criticism. Muretus, however, settles it in the current style; vulgus quid probet, quid non probet, nunquam laboravi.
[888] The following titles of chapters, from the eighth book of the Variæ Lectiones, will show the agreeable diversity of Muretus’s illustrations:—
1. Comparison of poets to bees, by Pindar, Horace, Lucretius. Line of Horace—
Necte meo Lamiæ coronam;
illustrated by Euripides.
2. A passage in Aristotle’s Rhetoric, lib. ii. explained differently from P. Victorius.
3. Comparison of a passage in the Phædrus of Plato, with Cicero’s translation.
4. Passage in the Apologia Socratis, corrected and explained.
5. Line in Virgil, shown to be imitated from Homer.
6. Slips of memory in P. Victorius, noticed.
7. Passage in Aristotle’s Rhetoric explained from his Metaphysics.
8. Another passage in the same book explained.
9. Passage in Cicero pro Rabirio, corrected.
10. Imitation of Æschines in two passages of Cicero’s 3rd Catilinarian oration.
11. Imitation of Æschines and Demosthenes in two passages of Cicero’s Declamation against Sallust. [Not genuine.]
12. Inficetus is the right word, not infacetus.
13. Passage in 5th book of Aristotle’s Ethics corrected.
14. The word διαψευδεσθαι, in the 2d book of Aristotle’s Rhetoric, not rightly explained by Victorius.
15. The word asinus, in Catullus (Carm. 95) does not signify an ass, but a mill-stone.
16. Lines of Euripides, ill-translated by Cicero.
17. Passage in Cicero’s Epistles misunderstood by Politian and Victorius.
18. Passage in the Phædrus explained.
19. Difference between accusation and invective, illustrated from Demosthenes and Cicero.
20. Imitation of Æschines by Cicero. Two passages of Livy amended.
21. Mulieres eruditas plerumque libidinosas esse, from Juvenal and Euripides.
22. Nobleness of character displayed by Iphicrates.
23. That Hercules was a physician, who cured Alcestis when given over.
24. Cruelty of king Dejotarus, related from Plutarch.
25. Humane law of the Persians.
Grater’s Thesaurus Criticus. 8. Turnebus, Victorius, Muretus, with two who have been mentioned in the first volume, Cœlius Rhodiginus, and Alexander ab Alexandro, may be reckoned the chief contributors to this general work of literary criticism in the sixteenth century. But there were many more, and some of considerable merit, whom we must pass over. At the beginning of the next century, Gruter collected the labours of preceding critics in six very thick and closely printed volumes, to which Paræus, in 1623, added a seventh, entitled “Lampas, sive Fax Liberalium Artium,” but more commonly called Thesaurus Criticus. A small portion of these belong to the fifteenth century, but none extend beyond the following. Most of the numerous treatises in this ample collection belong to the class of Adversaria, or miscellaneous remarks. Though not so studiously concise as those of Turnebus, each of these is generally contained in a page or two, and their multitude is consequently immense. Those who now by glancing at a note obtain the result of the patient diligence of these men, should feel some respect for their names, and some admiration for their acuteness and strength of memory. They had to collate the whole of antiquity, they plunged into depths which the indolence of modern philology, screening itself under the garb of fastidiousness, affects to deem unworthy to be explored, and thought themselves bound to become lawyers, physicians, historians, artists, agriculturists, to elucidate the difficulties which ancient writers present. It may be doubted also, whether our more recent editions of the classics have preserved all the important materials which the indefatigable exertions of the men of the sixteenth century accumulated. In the present state of philology, there is incomparably more knowledge of grammatical niceties, at least in the Greek language, than they possessed, and more critical acuteness perhaps in correction, though in this they were not always deficient; but for the exegetical part of criticism—the interpretation and illustration of passages, not corrupt, but obscure—we may not be wrong in suspecting that more has been lost than added in the eighteenth and present centuries to the savans in us, as the French affect to call them, whom we find in the bulky and forgotten volumes of Gruter.
Editions of Greek and Latin Authors. 9. Another and more numerous class of those who devoted themselves to the same labour, were the editors of Greek and Roman authors. And here again it is impossible to do more than mention a few, who seem, in the judgment of the best scholars, to stand above their contemporaries. The early translations of Greek, made in the fifteenth century, and generally very defective through the slight knowledge of the language that even the best scholars then possessed, were replaced by others more exact; the versions of Xenophon by Leunclavius, of Plutarch by Xylander, of Demosthenes by Wolf, of Euripides and Aristides by Canter, are greatly esteemed. Of the first, Huet says, that he omits or perverts nothing, his Latin often answering to the Greek, word for word, and preserving the construction and arrangement, so that we find the original author complete, yet with a purity of idiom, and a free and natural air not often met with.[889] Stephens however, according to Scaliger, did not highly esteem the learning of Leunclavius.[890] France, Germany, and the Low Countries, besides Basle and Geneva, were the prolific parents of new editions, in many cases very copiously illustrated by erudite commentaries.
[889] Baillet. Blount. Niceron, vol. 26.
[890] Scaligerana Secunda.
Tacitus of Lipsius. 10. The Tacitus of Lipsius is his best work, in the opinion of Scaliger and in his own. So great a master was he of this favourite author, that he offered to repeat any passage with a dagger at his breast, to be used against him on a failure of memory.[891] Lipsius, after residing several years at Leyden in the profession of the reformed religion, went to Louvain, and discredited himself by writing in favour of the legendary miracles of that country, losing sight of all his critical sagacity. The Protestants treated his desertion and these later writings with a contempt which has perhaps sometimes been extended to his productions of a superior character. The article on Lipsius, in Bayle, betrays some of this spirit; and it appears in other Protestants, especially Dutch critics. Hence they undervalue his Greek learning, as if he had not been able to read the language, and impute plagiarism, when there seems to be little ground for the charge. Casaubon admits that Lipsius has translated Polybius better than his predecessors, though he does not rate his Greek knowledge very high.[892]