By eloquence I gain'd immortal wreathes ;
Going on an embaffy to France,

Within the walls of fam'd Milan I dy'd.
My life I thus devoted to my country,

Which kindly bringing my remains from thence,
Here buried them amid my kindred ashes.”

ACCIUS (Lucius) a Latin tragic poet, the son of a freedman, and, according to St. Jerome, born in the confulship of Hoftilius Mancinus and Attilius Serranus, in the year of Rome 583; but there appears fomewhat of confufion and perplexity in this chronology. He made himself known before the death of Pacuvius, a dramatic piece of his being exhibited the fame year that Pacuvius brought one upon the ftage, the latter being then eighty years of age, and Accius only thirty. We do not know the name of this piece of Cicero in Accius's, but the titles of feveral of his tragedies are men- Bruto. tioned by various authors. He wrote on the moft celebrated Nonius, ftories which had been reprefented on the Athenian ftage, as Andromache, Andromeda, Atreus, Clytemneftra, Medea (a), lus Gellius, Meleager, Philocletes, the civil wars of Thebes, Tereus, &c.

the

(a) M. Bayle remarks, that the fhip, when he discovered from a conjecture of father Lefcalopier appears very probable (Lefcalop. Com. in Cic. de Nat. Deor. p.282.) that the verfes quoted by Cicero, in his fecond book De Natura Deorum were taken from the Medea of Accius. They contain a description of the astonishment with which a fhepherd is fuppofed to be feized, who had never seen a

high mountain that which carried
the Argonauts. Mr. Dryden has
given us a beautiful paffage, in his
Indian Emperor (Act i. fc. 2.)
where Guyomar, the king's fon, de-
scribes with so much fimplicity and a-
mazement the Spanish ships, when they
first appeared on the coast of Mexi-

co.

Enter Guyomar, haftily.
Odm. My brother Guyomar! methinks I fpy
Hafte in his steps, and wonder in his eye.
Mont. I fent thee to the frontiers, quickly tell

The cause of thy return; are all things well?
Guy. I went, in order, fir, to your command,
To view the utmost limits of the land;
To that fea-fhore where no more world is found,
But foaming billows breaking on the ground;
Where, for a while, my eyes no object met,

But diftant skies, that in the ocean fet ;

And low-hung clouds, that dipt themselves in rain,
To shake their fleeces on the earth again.

At laft, as far as I could caft my eyes

Marcellus,
Varro, Au-

Upon the fea, fomewhat methought did rife
Like bluish mifts, which ftill appearing more,

Took dreadful shapes, and moy'd towards the shore.

Mont

1

Voffius de poct. Latin, P. 7.

the Troades, &c. He did not always, however, take his
fubjects from the Grecian ftory; for he composed one dra-
matic piece wholly Roman: it was entitled Brutus, and re-
lated to the expulfion of the Tarquins. It is affirmed by
fome, that he wrote alfo comedies, which is not unlikely, if
he was the author of two pieces, the Wedding, and the Mer-
chant, which have been afcribed to him. He did not con-
fine himself to dramatic writing, for he left other productions,
particularly his Annals, mentioned by Macrobius, Prifcian,
Feftus, and Nonius Marcellus. Decimus Brutus, who was
conful in the year of Rome 615, and had the honour of a
triumph for several victories gained in Spain, was his particu-
lar friend and patron. This general was fo highly pleased
with the verses which Accius wrote in his praife, that he had
them infcribed at the entrance of the temples and monu-
ments raised out of the spoils of the vanquished. Though this
might proceed from a principle of vanity, and may not be fo
much a proof of his affection for the poet as his love of ap-
plaufe; yet it is thereby evident, that Brutus had an opinion
of Accius's poetry, and Brutus was far from being a contemp-
tible judge (b). He has been cenfured for writing in two
harfh a ftyle, but in all other respects has been efteemed a very

Mont. What forms did these new wonders represent ?
Guy. More strange than what your wonder can invent.
The object I could first distinctly view,

Was tall ftrait trees which on the waters flew,
Wings on their fides, inftead of leaves, did grow,
Which gathered all the breath the winds could blow;
And at their roots grew floating palaces,

Whofe out-blow'd bellies cut the yielding feas.
Mont. What divine monsters, O ye gods, were these,
That float in air, and fly upon the feas!

Came they alive or dead upon the shore?

Guy. Alas, they liv'd too fure! I heard them roar ;
All turn'd their fides, and to each other spoke,
I faw their words break out in fire and smoke.
Sure 'tis their voice that thunders from on high,
Or thefe the younger brothers of the sky.
Deaf with the noise, I took my hafty flight,
No mortal courage can fupport the fright.
(6) Paterculus, (lib. ii. c. 5.) gives
a fhort but handfome encomium on
the military accomplishments of this
general, and Cicero fpeaks thus of
his learning: D. Brutus, M. filius,
ut ex familiari ejus L. Accio poeta
fum audire folitus, & dicere non in-
culte folebat, et erat cum literis La-
tinis tum etiam Græcis ut temporibus

illis fatis erat eruditus. "Decimus
Brutus, fon of Marcus, had an ele-
gant way of expreffing himself, as
his friend Accius the poet often told
me; and was well acquainted, for
the time he lived in, with the Gre-
cian as well as Roman writings.
In Bruto. c. 28.

great

t

great poet. Aulus Gellius tells us, that Accius, being in his way to Afia, paffed through Tarentum, where he payed a vifit to Pacuvius, and read to him his play of Atreus; that Pacuvius told him his verfe was lofty and fonorous, but fomewhat harsh and crude. "It is as you obferve, faid Accius, nor am I forry for it, fince my future productions will be better upon this account; for as in fruit fo in geniuses, those which are at first harsh and four, become mellow and agreeable; but fuch as are at firft soft and sweet, grow in a short time not ripe, but rotten (c)." Accius was fo much efteemed by the public, that a comedian was punished for only mentioning his name on the ftage (d). Cicero fpeaks with great derifion of one Accius who had wrote a hiftory, and, as our author had wrote annals, fome infist that he is the person cenfured; but as Cicero himself, Horace, Quintilian, Ovid, and Paterculus (e), have spoke of our author with fo much applause,

(c) Tunc Pacuvium dixiffe ferunt, fonora quidem effe quæ fcripfiffet et grandia, fed videri ea tamen fibi duriora et paulum acerbiora. Ita est, inquit Accius, uti dicis; neque id fane me pænitet, meliora enim fore quæ deinceps fcriham. Nam quod in pomis eft, itidem, inquit effe aiunt in ingeniis, quæ dura et acerba nafcuntur, poft fiunt mitia et jucunda: fed quæ gignuntur ftatim vieta et mollia, atque in principio funt uvida, non matura mox fiunt, fed putria. Lib. xiii. c. 2.

we

(d) The player being fummoned to answer for the injury, faid, in his defence, that it was lawful to name a man who had furnished pieces for the stage; but Publius Mutius, who fat as judge in the cause, paffed fentence against him, Autor. Rhetor. ad Herennium, lib. ii.

(e) Summi poetæ ingenium non folum arte fua, fed etiam dolore exprimebat. (Cicero pro Sextio.) "He difplayed the genius of a great poet, not only by his skill in verfification, but by his expreffion of grief."

Ambigitur quoties uter utro fit prior
Pacuvius famam docti fenis, Accius alti.

Horat. Epift. I. lib. ii. ver. 55.

"Whate'er difputes of ancient poets rife, In fome one excellence their merit lies: What depth of learning old Pacuvius fhows! With strong fublime the page of Accius glows." Tragediæ fcriptores Accius atque Pacuvius clariffimi gravitate fententiarum, verborum pondere, et autoritate perfonarum. Virium tamen Accio plus tribuitur, Pacuvium videri doctiorem, qui effe docti affectant volunt. (Quintil. Institut Orat. lib. x. cap. 1.) The two tragic writers, Accius and Pacuvius, excel in the

Francis.

fublimity of their fentiments, the force of their expreffions, and the dignity of their characters. Thofe who fet up for men of learning, fay, that Accius had the greatest ftrength of genius, and that Pacuvius was the more learned of the two."

Ennius arte carens, animofique Accius oris,
Cafurum nullo tempore nomen habent.

Ovid, Amor. lib i, eleg. xv. ver. 19.

Imitated.

we cannot think it is he whom the Roman Orator cenfures with so much severity.

There was also in this age a pretty good orator of the same name, against whom Cicero defended Cluentius. He was born in Pifaurum, and perhaps was a relation of our poet.

Imitated.

"Ennius, whofe mufe by nature was defign'd
Compleat, had art with bounteous nature join'd;
And tragic Accius of style sublime,

And weighty words, shall stand the fhock of time.

Clara etiam per ævi idem fpatium fuere ingenia, in togatis Afranii, in tragediis Pacuvii atque Accii ufque in Græcorum comparationem evecti, magnumque inter hos ipfos facientis operi fuo locum. (Velleius Patercul. lib. ii. cap. 9.) "At the fame time there arofe feveral great geniuses,

Mr. Cromwell.

Afranius for comedy, Pacuvius and Accius for tragedy; the laft excelled fo much therein, that he was accounted equal to the greateft, amongst whofe works he held a very honourable place; thofe of the Greeks feem more correct, and his to have more fire."

ACCORDS (Stephen Tabourot, feigneur des) advocate in the parliament of Dijon, in France, and king's advocate in the bailiwic and chancery of that city, born in the year 1549. He was a man of genius and learning, but too much addicted to trifles, as appears from his piece, entitled, Les Bigarrures, printed at Paris in 1582 (a). This was not his first production, for he had before printed fome fonnets. His work, entitled, Les Touches, was published at Paris in 1585 (b), which is indeed a collection of witty poems, but most of them upon obscene subjects, and worked up rather in too loose a

(a) The first book of the Bigarrures is divided into twenty-two chapters, which treat, amongst other things, of the rebus's of Picardy, of double entendres, of antistrophes, of retrograde verfes, or such as read the fame backward and forward, of allufions, of acroftics, of the echo, of leonine verses, of other forts of verse waggishly and ingeniously contrived, of epitaphs, &c.

The fourth book is of a more ferious turn than the three first; it is divided into three chapters, the first contains useful instructions for the education of children: the second relates to altering one's firname; the third, several observations on French

verfe; and the work concludes with a difcourfe on wizards, and their impostures.

(6) This piece is divided into three books, the first being dedicated to Pontus de Tyard, lord of Biffy, and bishop of Chalons. The author boasts he wrote it in two months at Verdun upon the Soame in 1585. It confifts chiefly of epigrams, which may with propriety be called Touches: "Because, fays the author, it is a flight kind of fencing, in which, by parrying with the file, I give fuch a touch or thruft as fcarce raises the fkin, and cannot pierce deep into the flesh. " Dedication to the Touches,

manner,

manner, according to the licentious taste of that age. His Bigarrures are wrote in the fame ftrain. He was cenfured for this way of writing, which obliged him to write an apology.

La Croix du Maine fays in one place, that Accords wrote a Bibliotheque dictionary of French rhymes, but he afterwards corrected Francoife, himself, having found that John le Fevre of Dejon, fecretary P. 156. to cardinal De Givre, and canon of Langres, was the author Ib. p. 220 thereof. Accords himself mentions him as the author, and declares his intention of compiling a fupplement to his uncle Le Fevre's work; but, if he did, it never appeared in print. The lordship of Accords is an imaginary fief or title from the device of his ancestors, which was a drum, with the motto (A tous Accords) chiming with all (c). He died on the 24th of July, 1561, in the forty-fixth year of his age.

(e) He had fent a fonnet to a daughter of Mr. Begat, the great and learned prefident of Burgundy, who, fays he, did me the honour to love me.---And inasmuch, continues he, I had fubfcribed my sonnet with enly my device, A tous Accords, this

lady firft nicknamed me, in her an
fwer, Seigneur des Accords; by
which title her father alfo called me
feveral times. For this reafon I
chofe this firname, not only in all my
writings compofed at that time, but
even in these books.

ACCURSIUS, a law-profeffor, born at Florence, who flourished in the thirteenth century. The expofitions he wrote on the law, gained him great reputation. He is faid not to have begun this study till forty years of age, when he went to attend the lectures of the celebrated Azo, at Bologna. Be-fore this he had applied himfelf to other parts of knowledge. In a little time he made fo great a proficiency in the civil law, that he became a famous profeffor in this fcience. He gave lectures for fome time in Bologna, but afterwards retiring from this employment, he wrote a continued glofs on the whole body of the law, which was accounted fo useful for young ftudents, that all former expofitions were neglected, this being efteemed the completest and best digested that had ever appeared. Many contradictions have however been remarked in Accurfius's work; but thefe, we are told, proceeded not from his inconfiftency or defect of memory, but were owing to his giving only the initial letters of the different authors whose opinions he quotes: and many of these letters being worn out, the readers have often taken for his opinion what he quoted as the doctrine of another. His authority was formerly fo great, that fome have ftiled him the idol of the lawyers; and most interpreters have taken more pains to plain his glofs, than to comment upon the text of

Pancirol de

ex- claris leguna interpret.

the

lib. ii. cap. laws. 20. p. 147.