that he did not possess that extensive acquaintance with ancient literature; that he had not explored its intimate recesses, and that he was not master of that critical learning, without which, it could not be expected that the work which he undertook, would either delight us by the sagacity of its conclusions, or instruct us by the arrangement of its facts. The Homer of Parnell is an imaginary being, formed out of all the conjectures and contradiction of antiquity. Having composed his image of these broken fragments and relics, the biographer attempts to invest it with vitality and intelligence. Perhaps it would have been better to have contented himself with simply arranging the different narratives, or scattered anecdotes as they have come down to us. It is not very profitable to read an account of the conversations that might have taken place between Homer and Lycurgus, or to exhaust pages in conjectures on the character, manners, and pursuits of a person who may never have existed; or if he did, who probably bore but little resemblance to the portraits whose features have, from time to time, been put together from the conjectures of fanciful theorists, or the fragments of obsolete traditions. the plan of his life is defective; it is not instructive enough for a history, or entertaining enough for a romance.1 The style in which it is written As it is, 1 It must be remembered that at the time when Parnell wrote, little critical research had been employed on the 6 66 forms a strong contrast with that of Pope's preface, that precedes it. It is singular, that the use of 'shall' for will," that occurs repeatedly in it, should have been overlooked by Pope. Goldsmith says, the language is shamefully incorrect; though Swift, who set a very high value on correctness of style, appeared satisfied with it; for, in a letter to Pope, he says, " your notes are perfectly good, and so are your preface and Essays." There are a few papers by Parnell in the Spectator, called Visions, which do not require any particular notice; as a prose writer, there is a stiffness, a want of neatness and arrangement, and an inaccuracy in his style: his merits as a poet are thus summed up by Goldsmith in the following elegant epitaph, with which I shall conclude the Memoir. This tomb inscrib'd to gentle Parnell's name, Homeric Poems, spurious pieces of biography, and interpolated passages passed without suspicion. The solid learning, and sagacity of Heynè, Wolff, P. Knight, and particularly of that unequalled scholar Hermann, have thrown much light on a subject so obscure from its antiquity; but the difficulties of the question are as yet only pointed out, and the modern Aristarchus is still to come. 1 See Swift's Works, ed. Nicholls, vol. xiv. p. 5, p. 136. "But these things shall lie by till you come to compare them, and alter rhyme and grammar, and triplets, and cacophonies of all kinds," &c. yet Swift uses shall for will. Celestial themes confess'd his tuneful aid, And Heaven, that lent him genius, was repaid; The transitory breath of fame below. More lasting rapture from his works shall rise, While converts thank their Poet in the skies. There is a small oval portrait of Parnell, J. Basin fec. prefixed to the Dublin edition of his works, 4to. also Thomas Parnell, D.D. mez. T. H. Dixon, sc. See Gran ger's Biogr. History of England, vol. 1. p. 259. APPENDIX I. NOTES TO THE DEDICATORY EPISTLE. Page xv. Cyrene's shell.] Callimachus was born at Cyrene. Akenside, in his truly classical hymn to the Naiads, says, -Hail! honored nymphs, Thrice hail for you the Cyrenaic shell Page xv. The wondrous bark.] Eratosth. (Asterism. p.13. ed. Ox.) says the Argo was the first ship ever built; but this is inconsistent with the account which the Greek poets and historians have related of the still earlier voyages of Cadmus and Danaus. v. Bryant's A. Mythol. ii. p. 493. The ancient writers, says Dr. Musgrave (v. Disc. on Greek Mythology, p. 86.), are not unanimous in representing the Argo as the first ship ever built. Diod. Sic. iv. p. 285. says it was the first of any considerable size. Plin. N. H. vii. 57. says it was the first long ship. Catullus says, Illa rudem cursu prima imbuit Amphitriten, though he mentions the fleet of Theseus, whom he makes older than the Argonauts, consult the note of Is. Vossius in his Edit. p. 262. and of Dresemius on Iscanus de Bello Troj. lib. i. 52. There is scarcely a single circumstance relating to the Argonautic expedition in which the ancient writers are agreed. They seem to have read out of a different Pantheon. With regard to the gifts of voice which the vessel had--Fatidicamque ratem-Dr. Musgrave thinks it to have been a juggle, and that one of the Argonauts was a ventriloquist. Eyyаoтρiμolos. Certain it is, that it did speak, and came of a speaking family; for it was made of the woods of Dodona. Orpheus (Arg. v. 707.) calls it λáλos τρóπig, a chattering ship; and Lycophron (v. 1326.) λáλnoρov кíoσav; V. Flacc. (viii. 130.) makes it walk up and pay its compliments to Jason on the success of the enterprise. Orpheus, in his Argonautic Poem, mentions anchors as belonging to the Argo (v. 495.) but these are not mentioned by Homer even in the time of the Trojan war. Page xv. The Centaur band.] Concerning the distinction made between the Centaur and Hippocentaur, see the note on Mitford's Greece, vol. i. p. 28. 4to. Palæ phatus, cap. A. does not mention this. Chiron, whom the poets represent as a Hippo-Centaur, has the form of a man in an engraving of him in Gronov. Thes. Gr. Ant. 1. y.y. y. y. from an ancient MS. of Dioscorides. Some, from a passage in Lucian, thought his feet only were like those of a horse. Centaurs were consecrated to Apollo, as may be seen in many medals, especially those of Gallienus. Pliny, N. H. vii. c. 3, asserts that he saw a centaur preserved in honey, brought from Egypt to Rome, for Claudius Cæsar. Some beautiful engravings of male and female centaurs may be seen in the Antiquities of Herculaneum. Page xv. Loud conchs.] Though Homer does not mention the trumpet in the heroic ages, yet other authors have supposed the invention of it to have been as early, or earlier than the Trojan war. Virgil gives Misenus to Æneas as a trumpeter, v. Æn. vi. 164. quo non præstantior alter Ære ciere viros, Martemque accendere cantu. Lycophron (v. 991.) calls Minerva, "the Trumpet," as she invented it. ἀλγυνοῦσα λάφριαν κόρην Σαλπιγγα. Euripides (v. Phoen. v. 1392.) mentions the trumpet as used at the siege of Thebes. Επὲι δ ̓ ἀφέιθη, πύρσος ὥς, τυρσενικῆς Where Prof. Porson says," Sed Tyrrhenicam Tubam Heroicis temporibus usitatam fingunt Tragici; and he refers to Æsch. Eum. v. 570, Eurip. Rhes. 991, Soph. Aj. v. 17, to which references may be added Eurip. Heracl. v. 880, Troad. 1267. The use of conchs, or sea-shells, probably preceded that of the metallic trump. In the Iph. Taur. v. 303, Euripides gives this instrument to the shepherds : Κοκλους τε φύσων, συλλέγων τ' ἐγχωρίους. See Theocr. Idyll. ß. 75, Virg. Æn. xi. 171. Trumpets, however, were not very necessary, when the voices of men were so much more powerful than at present. Agamemnon (II. 0. 220.) standing on the ships of Ulysses, called to Ajax and Achilles, whose tents formed the opposite boundary of the Grecian camp, and are supposed to have stretched from the Rhotean to the Sigoan promontory, a distance of about twelve miles. |