Ωδε το Ρητορικης δεινον ςτομα θαυμα τε Βυλης,
Πρωτα ΔΕΒΩΝΙΖΕΙΝ απεμανθανε παις ποτε ΡΩΛΛΟΣ.
The word Δεβωνιζειν is not to be found in our Lexicons; but we presume, that it means, “to speak the dialect of Devonshire;” from Δεβωνια, which is Greek for Devonshire. Accordingly, we have so rendered it in a translation, which we have attempted for the benefit of the country gentlemen and the ladies.
The senate’s wonder, ROLLE [3]of mighty tongue,
Here first his Devonshire unlearn’d when young.
How simple, yet how full, is the expression of this distich! How perfectly does it agree with the notion, which our poet has inculcated, of Mr. ROLLE! He was employed at school not to learn but to unlearn; his whole progress, was, like a crab’s, backward.
There is a beauty in the Greek which it is impossible to preserve in English; the word which we have translated “unlearned,” is in the imperfect tense: and, in the nicety of that accurate language implies, that the action was begun, but not completed; that Mr. ROLLE made some proficiency in unlearning his Devonshire; but had not effectually accomplished it during his stay at the school.
The other Greek inscription has something more ingenious, from a seeming paradox in the turn of it:
Ουτνς ο μηποτε που τι μαθων προς μητινος, ωδε
Παις ποτε ΡΩΛΛΙΑΔΗΣ, οσσαπερ οιδ, εμαθεν.
He, who to learning nothing owes,
Here ROLLE, a boy, learn’d all he knows.
By which concluding word “knows,” we must certainly understand acquired knowledge only; since Mr. ROLLE has been celebrated by our Poet in the most unequivocal manner, as may be seen in the twelfth number of our Criticisms, for his great natural faculties. The sense of this last Epigram will then be merely, that the Member for Devonshire had no particle of acquired knowledge; but is an αυτοδιδακτος, a self-taught scholar, a character so much admired in ancient times. The Latin inscription is as follows:
Hic ferulæ, dextram, hîc, virgis cædenda magistri,
Nuda dedit patiens tergora ROLLIADES.
At non ROLLIADEN domuerunt verbera; non, quæ
Nescio quid gravius præmonuere, minæ,
Ah! quoties illum æqualis mirata corona est
Nec lacrymam in pænis rumpere, nec gemitum!
Ah! quoties, cum supplicio jam incumberet, ipsi
[4]Orbillo cecidit victa labore manus!
I, puer; I, forti tolerando pectore plagas,
Æmula ROLLIADÆ nomina disce sequi.