Jupiter iis genitor, coeli de semine divas
Omnibus acceptas edidit Eurynome."
Now here we have the proverb clearly enough.
I subjoin the note upon the lines in which it appears.
"Bis dat qui cito dat," in Mimis Publii. "Beneficium inopi bis dat, qui dat celeriter." Proverb, Bis dat, &c.
Referring to the Sentences of Publius Syrus, published, with the additional Fables of Phædrus, from the Vatican MSS., by Angelo Mai, I found the line thus given:
"Inopi beneficium bis dat, qui dat celeriter."
The same idea, I believe, occurs in Ovid. Query whether it is not a thought naturally presenting itself to the mind, reflected by memory, confirmed by experience, and which some Mimic author has made proverbial by his terse, gnomic form of expression.
S.H.