——— ——— ———Behold my blood!
than the commonly received construction of the Latin words, by which they are made to signify simply, “O my son!” and that too with the assistance of a poetical licence. There is not a better emendation in all the Virgilius Restauratus of the learned Martinus Scriblerus.
On the exclamation of ROLLO, which we have just quoted, the Prophet, perceiving that he has moved his illustrious visitor a little too far, administers every consolation,
“Thy care dismiss (the Seer replied, and smil’d)
Tho’ rods awhile may weal the sacred child,
In vain ten thousand [1]BUSBIES should employ
Their pedant arts his genius to destroy;
In vain at either end thy ROLLE assail,
To learning proof alike at head and tail.”
Accordingly this assurance has its proper effect in calming the mind of the Duke.
But the great topic of comfort, or we should rather say of exultation, to him, is the prophecy of the column, with which MERLIN concludes his speech:
Where now he suffers, on this hallow’d land,
A Column, public Monument, shall stand:
And many a bard around the sculptur’d base,
In many a language his renown shall trace;
In French, Italian, Latin, and in Greek;
That all, whose curious search this spot shall seek,
May read, and reading tell at home, return’d,
How much great ROLLE was flogg’d, how little learn’d.
What a noble, and what a just character of the great ROLLE is contained in the last line! A mind tinctured with modern prejudices may be at a loss to discover the compliment. But our author is a man of erudition and draws his ideas from ancient learning, even where he employs that learning, like [2]Erasmus and the admirable Creichton, in praise of ignorance. Our classical readers, therefore, will see in this portrait of Mr. ROLLE, the living resemblance of the ancient Spartans; a people the pride of Greece, and admiration of the world, who are peculiarly distinguished in history for their systematic contempt of the fine arts, and the patience with which they taught their children to bear floggings.
The School now vanishes, and the Column rises, properly adorned with the inscriptions, which the philosopher explains. But as we have been favoured with correct copies of the inscriptions themselves, which were selected from a much greater number composed by our universities, we shall here desert our Poet, and present the public with the originals.
The two first are in Greek; and agreeably to the usual style of Greek inscriptions, relate the plain fact in short and simple, but elegant and forcible, phraseology.