A Votive Table corrected. VIII. I come now to the Votive Table, which is rich in poetick Graces, however overwhelm’d with Depravation: and Sir George seems as much to have mistaken the Purport, as the Words, of the Inscription. At Chalcedon, says he, I found an Inscription in the Wall of a private House near the Church; which signifieth, that Evante, the Son of Antipater, having made a prosperous Voyage, and desiring to return by the Ægean Sea, offered Cakes at a Statue, which he had erected to Jupiter, which had sent him such good Weather, as a Token of his good Voyage.
1. Ὂυρον.
2. πρύμνης.
3. πρώτων, ἱστίον.
4. Κυανεαῖς δίνησιν ἐπίδρομον.
5. Νόστον.
6. βαλών.
7. ξοάνῳ.
8. Ἐσδέ.
9. εὐανθῆ.
10. Φίλων. 1ΟΥΡΙΟΝ ἐπὶ 2ΠΡΙΜΝΗΣ τις ὁδηγητῆρα καλείτω,
Ζῆνα κατὰ 3πρωτΟΝ ΩΝιστιον ἐκπετάσας
4ΕΠΙ ΚΥΑΝΕΑΣ ΔΙΝΑΣ ΔΡΟΜΟΥΣ ἔνθα Ποσειδῶν
Καμπύλον εἰλίσσει κῦμα παρὰ ψαμαθοῖς.
Εἶτα κατ᾽ Αἰγαῖαν πόντου πλάκα 5ΝΑΣ ἐρεύνων,
Νείσθω‧ τῷ δὲ 6ΒΑΛΛΩΝ ψαιστὰ παρὰ 7ΤΩ ΖΩΑΝΩ.
8ΟΔΕ τὸν 9ΕΥΑΝΤΗ τὸν ἀεὶ θεὸν Ἀντιπάτρου παῖς
Στησε 10φιλων ἀγαθῆς σύμβολον εὐπλοΐης.
I have mark’d, as before, my Corrections at the Side; and I may venture to say, I have supported the faltring Verses both with Numbers and Sense. But who ever heard of Evante, as the Name of a Man, in Greece? Neither is this Inscription a Piece of Ethnic Devotion, as Sir George has suppos’d it, to a Statue erected to Jupiter: On the contrary, it despises those fruitless Superstitions. Philo (a Christian, as it seems to me;) sets it up, in Thanks for a safe Voyage, to the true God. That all my Readers may equally share in this little Poem, I have attempted to put it into an English Dress.
Invoke who Will the prosp’rous Gale behind,
Jove at the Prow, while to the guiding Wind
O’er the blue Billows he the Sail expands,
Where Neptune with each Wave heaps Hills of Sands:
Then let him, when the Surge he backward plows,
Pour to his Statue-God unaiding Vows:
But to the God of Gods, for Deaths o’erpast,
For Safety lent him on the watry Waste,
To native Shores return’d, thus Philo pays
His Monument of Thanks, of grateful Praise.
I shall have no Occasion, I believe, to ask the Pardon of some Readers for these Nine last Pages; and Others may be so kind to pass them over at their Pleasure. (Those Discoveries, which give Light and Satisfaction to the truly Learned, I must confess, are Darkness and Mystery to the less capable: Φέγγος μὲν ξυνετοῖς, ἀξυνετοῖς δ᾽ Ἐρεβος.) Nor will they be absolutely foreign, I hope, to a Preface in some Measure critical; especially, as it could not be amiss to shew, that I have read other Books with the same Accuracy, with which I profess to have read Shakespeare. Besides, I design’d this Inference from the Defence of Literal Criticism. If the Latin and Greek Languages have receiv’d the greatest Advantages imaginable from the Labours of the Editors and Criticks of the two last Ages; by whose Aid and Assistance the Grammarians have been enabled to write infinitely better in that Art than even the preceding Grammarians, who wrote when those Tongues flourish’d as living Languages: I should account it a peculiar Happiness, that, by the faint Assay I have made in this Work, a Path might be chalk’d out, for abler Hands, by which to derive the same Advantages to our own Tongue: a Tongue, which, tho’ it wants none of the fundamental Qualities of an universal Language, yet as a noble Writer says, lisps and stammers as in its Cradle; and has produced little more towards its polishing than Complaints of its Barbarity.
The Delay of this Edition excused. Having now run thro’ all those Points, which I intended should make any Part of this Dissertation, it only remains, that I should account to the Publick, but more particularly to my Subscribers, why they have waited so long for this Work; that I should make my Acknowledgments to those Friends, who have been generous Assistants to me in the conducting it: and, lastly, that I should acquaint my Readers what Pains I have myself taken to make the Work as complete, as faithful Industry, and my best Abilities, could render it.
In the middle of the Year 1728, I first put out my Proposals for publishing only Emendations and Remarks on our Poet: and I had not gone on many Months in this Scheme, before I found it to be the unanimous Wish of those who did me the Honour of their Subscriptions, that I would give them the Poet’s Text corrected; and that I would subjoin those Explanatory Remarks, which I had purpos’d to publish upon the Foot of my first Proposals. Earnest Sollicitations were made to me, that I would think of such an Edition; which I had as strong Desires to listen to: and some noble Persons then, whom I have no Privilege to name, were pleased to interest themselves so far in the Affair, as to propose to Mr. Tonson his undertaking an Impression of Shakespeare with my Corrections. The throwing my whole Work into a different Form, to comply with this Proposal, was not the slightest Labour: and so no little Time was unavoidably lost. While the Publication of my Remarks was thus respited, my Enemies took an unfair Occasion to suggest, that I was extorting Money from my Subscribers, without ever designing to give them any Thing for it: an Insinuation levell’d at once to wound me in Reputation and Interest. Conscious, however, of my own just Intentions, and labouring all the while to bring my wish’d Purpose to bear, I thought these anonymous Slanderers worthy of no Notice. A Justification of myself would have been giving them Argument for fresh Abuse; and I was willing to believe that any unkind Opinions, entertain’d to my Prejudice, would naturally drop and lose their Force, when the Publick should once be convinc’d that I was in Earnest, and ready to do them Justice. I left no Means untry’d to put it in my Power to do this: and I hope, without Breach of Modesty, I may venture to appeal to all candid Judges, whether I have not employ’d all my Power to be just to them in the Execution of my Task. I must needs have been in the most Pain, who saw myself daily so barbarously outraged. I might have taken advantage of the favourable Impressions entertain’d of my Work, and hurried it crudely into the World: But I have suffer’d, for my Author’s sake, those Impressions to cool, and perhaps, be lost; and can now appeal only to the Judgment of the Publick. If I succeed in this Point, the Reputation gain’d will be the more solid and lasting. Acknowledgment of Assistance. I come now to speak of those kind Assistances which I have met with from particular Friends, towards forwarding and compleating this Work. Soon after my Design was known, I had the Honour of an Invitation to Cambridge; and a generous Promise from the Learned and ingenious Dr. Thirlby of Jesus-College, there, who had taken great Pains with my Author, that I should have the Liberty of collating his Copy of Shakespeare, mark’d thro’ in the Margin with his own Manuscript References and accurate Observations. He not only made good this Promise, but favour’d me with a Set of Emendations, interspers’d and distinguish’d in his Name thro’ the Edition, and which can need no Recommendation here to the judicious Reader.
The next Assistance I receiv’d was from my ingenious Friend Hawley Bishop Esq; whose great Powers and extensive Learning are as well known, as his uncommon Modesty, to all who have the Happiness of his Acquaintance. This Gentleman was so generous, at the Expence both of his Pocket and Time, to run thro’ all Shakespeare with me. We join’d Business and Entertainment together; and at every of our Meetings, which were constantly once a Week, we read over a Play, and came mutually prepar’d to communicate our Conjectures upon it to each other. The Pleasure of these Appointments, I think, I may say, richly compensated for the Labour in our own Thoughts: and I may venture to affirm, in the Behalf of my Assistant, that our Author has deriv’d no little Improvement from them.
To these, I must add the indefatigable Zeal and Industry of my most ingenious and ever-respected Friend, the Reverend Mr. William Warburton of Newark upon Trent. This Gentleman, from the Motives of his frank and communicative Disposition, voluntarily took a considerable Part of my Trouble off my Hands; not only read over the whole Author for me, with the exactest Care; but enter’d into a long and laborious Epistolary Correspondence; to which I owe no small Part of my best Criticisms upon my Author.