"INCIDIS IN SCYLLAM, CUPIENS VITARE CHARYBDIM."
I should be sorry to see this fine old proverb in metaphor passed over with no better notice than that which seems to have been assigned to it in Boswell's Johnson.
Erasmophilos, a correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine in 1774, quotes a passage from Dr. Jortin's Life of Erasmus, vol. ii. p. 151., which supplies the following particulars, viz.:—
1. That the line was first discovered by Galeottus Martius of Narni, A.D. 1476.
2. That it is in lib. v. 301. of the "Alexandreis," a poem in ten books, by Philippe Gualtier (commonly called "de Chatillon," though in reality a native of Lille, in Flanders).
3. That the context of the passage in which it occurs is as follows:—
"— Quo tendis inertem
Rex periture, fugam? Nescis, heu perdite, nescis
Quem fugias: hostes incurris dum fugis hostem.
Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim."