RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW.

Musa Subseciva, seu Poetica Stromata. Autore J. D. (Jacobo Duport), Cantabrigiensi. Cant. 1676.

THIS volume of Latin poetry is by the celebrated Duport, Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge, and it is dedicated to the Duke of Monmouth, then Chancellor of the University. He was the learned son of a learned father, Dr. John Duport, Master of Jesus College. He was appointed Dean of Peterborough, and, in 1688, elected Master of Magdalen College. He was tutor to Isaac Barrow and to Ray. It has been said of him that he appears to have been the main instrument by which literature was upheld during the seventeenth century, and he enjoyed a transcendant reputation among his contemporaries, as well as in the generation that succeeded. If he is at all remembered now, it is in conjunction with his "Gnomologia Homeri,” which received the praise of the late learned Dr. Rennell, in a note to one of his sermons, where it is highly recommended. Saxius, in his Onomaticon Literarium, mentions him, and says, "de Homero bene meruit," and refers for an account of him to the following works :-Konigii Bibl. Vet. et Nov. voc. Duport; Morhofii Polyh. Liter. in several places; and to Jo. Fabricii Hist. Bibl. part vi. p. 262,-books no doubt to be found in every clergyman's library. His great work, the Gnomologia, is commenced by an affectionate dedication to four of his pupils-Edward Cecil, John Knatchbull, Henry Puckering alias Newton, and Francis Willoughby, "pupillis nuper suis longè charissimis, nunc vero amicis plurimum honorandis."

Duport appears to have died in 1660. The learned Professor's poems are short, and a great proportion addressed to his learned friends and pupils; indeed he turned into Latin verse many of the events of the day, and, having a facility in composing in Latin and Greek, his work did not stand in need of any further inspiration. We make a few extracts from the titles, occasionally giving a short specimen of the poetry.

P. 8. In Benjaminum Jonsonum, Poetam Laureatum, et Dramaticorum sui seculi facilè Principem." The praise is overflowing, and from the heart.

Si Lyricus, tu jam Flaccus; si Comicus, alter

Plautus es ingenio, tersivè Terentius oris

Anglicus, aut, Græcos si fortè imitere, Menander, &c.

These

P. 15. On actresses, "In Roscias nostras, seu Histriones Feminas." female actors were then new on the stage, female parts having previously been acted by boys.

Virtutis at nunc cùm color exulat,

Et femininum depuduit genus,

Viris remistus sexus alter

Occupat en hodiè theatrum.

P. 16. On the Cottonian Library, "Domui Parliamentariæ propè adjacentem."

Tres ergo, Amice, Bibliothecæ sunt tibi,

Magnam unam amono rusticantem in prædio,
Majorem in Urbe stantem habes hanc alteram
Cottonianam, et toto orbe cognitam,

Tu tecum et, Erudite, circumfers simul,
Cottone, tertiam ambulantem maximam.

P. 53. On the death of the scholar and poet Caspar Barlæns, "In miserandum interitum Casparis Barlæi Poetæ celeberrimi.”

Castaliis dudum qui sese immerserat undis,

Fonte Caballino prolueratque labra,

Heu miser in puteum (casúne an sponte ?) profundum
Labitur, angustas et perit inter aquas.

Ut Verum, fundo nunc ecce Poesis in imo,

Et, Barlæe, jaces, et jacet ingenium.

Nec moriere tamen : quem fons absorpsit aquarum,
Te fons Musarum nempe perire vetat.

P. 67. "In infamem illum et famelicum Scurram, Nicolaum Sanderum, qui incomparabilem Reginam Elizabetham alicubi Lupam Anglicanam vocare non dubitat." Against this rabid Papist Duport directed his heaviest and keenest shafts of satire and wit.

Túne lupam appellas, Sandere infamis, Elisam ?

At non Romuleos nutriit illa tuos.

P. 75. On some contemporary Latin poets, especially Caspar Barlæus. The English commemorated are,—

Randolphus placet, immò Couliusque,
Cartritusque, aliique forsan Angli.

He also praises Grotius, Heinsius, Casimir Sarbievus, and Baptista Masculus, Bini Scaligeri, Morusque noster,

Necnon et Vida, Dousa, Buchananus.

But these are but as satellites revolving round the brilliant central orb of the Dutchman Caspar Barlæus, in whose praise the poem is written, and whose poetical genius Duport appears in a particular manner to have admired.

Tu, Barlæe, places, diserte Vates.

Professor ends with what he and the old scholars dearly loved,

Ad gustum faciunt meum, gulamque,

O Barlæe, tuæ dapesque mensæ :

Et nomen sonet hordeum licebit,

At sunt triticeæ tuæ Camoenæ.

P. 101. To Isaac Walton.

"Ad Virum optimum, et Piscatorem peritissimum, Isaacum Waltonum," to whom a second copy is addressed at p. 118. The doctor appears to have relished the Thames gudgeons, if we may judge from his verses;

Medicamve tincam, gobium aut escâ trahis,
Gratum palato gobium, parvum licet.

but he justly vilipends the burbel. Nor does he overlook Walton's biogragraphical labours of love.

Dum tu profundum scribis Hookerum, et pium

Donnum ac disertum, sanctum et Herbertum, sacrum

Vatem hos videmus nam penicillo tuo

:

Graphicè, et peritâ, Isace, depictos manu.

In the second copy he reminds Walton that his noble art of angling was practised by the Apostle St. Peter to pay the tribute to the state.

Isace, macte hac arte piscatoriâ,

Hac arte Petrus principi censum dedit.

P. 110. To Margaret, mother of Henry the Seventh, whom he praises as being the founder of two colleges and two professorships. Gray's Öde, however, did not turn on the pivot of wit-of Margareta and Margarita.

P. 176. One on Tobias Rustat, who, we think, was page to Charles the Second, and housekeeper at Hampton Court; whom he calls "Utriusque academiæ Mæcenatem munificum."

P. 178. On Walton's Polyglott; p. 179, on Rader's edition of Martial; and one to Justus Lipsius.

P. 210. To Sir Thomas Brown, on his Religio Medici.

P. 231. On Salmasius's Defensio Regia, which he extols, as well as the other works of that very learned scholar-verè noλvμabeσraros, but, with all his erudition, not to be compared to the little finger of the younger Scaliger, who can truly say—

I am monarch of all I survey;

My right there is none to dispute.

Himself not blameless, he had a vixen of a wife, of whom (thanks to the manuscript notes of Burman in our copy) we believe we know more, and of the domestic squabbles and irregularities of that learned household, than any one else; but we give our honour that we have never disclosed them. Yet if any one over a cup of tea should wish to know a few anecdotes of what took place occasionally in the establishment either at Leyden or Upsal, we will not refuse to What will Mr. Crossley say to our having detected his great gratify them. Colossus of Literature reading the Moyen de Parvenir one morning in bed, and hiding it when a certain great lady came into the room to talk about Plato?

P. 292. On the edition of the Sylvæ of Statius, by Thomas Stephens, of Bury St. Edmund's, of which mention has been made. He praises both the poet and

the editor.

Judice vel Justo (Lipsio) solo es minor ipse Marone,
Atque uno Henrico sit Stephano ille minor.

P. 295. To Sir Norton Knatchbull, on his Notes on the New Testament.

P. 296. "In brachium Francisci Petrarchæ Itali, Philosophi et Poetæ clarissimi, jam olim defuncti, à Monachis quibusdam, ebriorum operâ utentibus, tumulo effossum." The grave and learned Greek Professor, though brought up and fed on classical food, could not forbear the conceits and verbal wit of

the age, ex. gr.

Vivida quæ putri tot lustra remansit in urna,

Hanc ego Petrarchæ credo fuisse manum.
Imperium in tumulos, in marmora, saxa, sepulcra,
Solum Petrarchæ nomen habere potest.

i. e. Petrarcha, "Apxwμ Petræ.

P. 300. "In Batavos cum Anglis pro Piscatu pugnantibus."On the squabbles and skirmishes between the Dutch and English fishermen.

P. 308. In praise of Westminster School, and of Busby, to whom there is a

poem at p. 310.

P. 315. "Ad Franciscum Willughbeium, Armigerum, Regiæ Societatis Sodalem." (Again mentioned hereafter.)

P. 318. On the fountain in the quadrangle of Trinity College,-a subject offering free scope to allusions to fous rhetorice, fons Pegasea, and Aganippidis undæ, and Helicon, and torrens eloquii, &c.

P. 324. On Fisher, Bishop of Rochester.

Damnato ad mortem Roffensi purpura missa est

A Roma: nonne hic πορφύρεος θανατος

P. 337. Ad Thomam Bathurst, Armigerum, Medicine Doctorem, EnvikisTarov, to whom he sent his Gnomologia Homerica. These lines are Greek. P. 340. To Robert Creitton, Bishop of Bath and Wells, formerly Greek Professor at Cambridge; in which office he was succeeded by his son. He puns

on the name Creitton and χρείττων.

Vix scio, quis κрeiтTwv, Filius, anne Pater?

P. 347. On Echard's book, lately published, "On Contempt of the Clergy,” whom he highly and justly praises. See also p. 354.

P. 357. On the Temple of George Herbert, " Ingeniosissimi juxta ac Pientis

simi Poetæ," &c.

De proprio tamen hoc addam; Nec sanctior alter,

Nec melior mihi, post Biblia Sacra, Liber.

At p. 371 is a poem on the Life of Herbert written by Isaac Walton. The concluding lines in praise of Herbert are as follows:

Vir, an poeta, orator an melior, fuit,
Meliórne amicus, sponsus, an pastor gregis,

Herbertus, incertum ; et quis hoc facilè sciat,
Melior ubi ille, qui fuit ubique optimus?

P. 372. "In Convivium Navale quo Episcopum et alios è Clero Petriburgensi in Stagno Vitelseiano excepit Nobilissimus Vir Guilielmus Pierrepontius Mense Augusto, 1669." (A fête given on Whittlesea Mere, by Hon. W. Pierrepont, to the Bishop and Clergy of Peterborough.)

P. 389. On Thomas Stapleton's book on the three Thomases,-The Apostle, Thomas à Becket, and Sir Thomas More. In p. 274 is a previous epigram on the same subject.

P. 389. To Ralph Widdrington, on his election as Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge.

P. 392. To the Hon Francis North, Kt. and Bart, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Joking on his name he says:—

Obveniat nobis ex Aquilone bonum.

P. 395. To John Ray, the botanist, "Novum opus Botanicum molientem." P. 396. To Isaac Barrow, on his appointment as Master of Trinity College. P. 464. On the death of Sir Henry Spelman, " Antiquarii et iλOKλпρOTATOV." P. 467. "Joannis Seldeni, Jurisconsulti et Philologi celeberrimi, Tumulus ȧveжурapos; seu Epitaphium non-Epitaphium." Followed by an anagram

of his name.

Ἰωάννης ὁ Σελδίνου.
Σὺ δῆλος εἶ νοῶν νέα.

P. 469. On the death of Thomas Randolph, "Poetæ ingeniosissimi et qui seculi sui Ovidius dici meruerit."

P. 474. On the death of Edward Walpole, Knight of the Bath, his beloved pupil.

P. 477. On the death of that ingenious poet Francis Quarles, “qui obiit gliscente Rebellione. 1644."

P. 481. On the death of that great scholar Thomas Gataker, S. T. B. where the Poet produces authorities for a divine cultivating human or profane learning.

Fasque illis etiam, Christi qui castra sequuntur,
Colligere et sacras gentili è stercore gemmas,
Ægypti spolia atque aurum.

Sic Paulus Aratum,

Sic et Aristophanem Chrysostomus, et Gatakerus

Euripidem, et magnum (quid, Zoile, frendis ?) Homerum,
Et Sophoclem (et quem non Græcorum heroa ?) revolvit ;
Cuncta animo expendens, critices et pumice limans, &c.

P. 485. On the death of William Kemp, esquire, "Philomusus," who for some years before his death "taciturnitati litavit."

P. 486. On the death of Sir Nicolas Bacon, his pupil, whom he expected to have become an "alter Verulamius."

P. 492. On the death of Robert Metcalf, of Trinity College, and Professor of Hebrew, "qui intra privatos cubiculi parietes inclusus, segregam ferè et solitariam vitam egit."

P. 495. On the death of Francis Willoughby, Fellow of the Royal Society, and his pupil, who he says fell a victim to his intense studies.

Willubius jacet hoc dives doctusque sepulcro,
Qui præ thesauris animi, ingenuàque Mathesi,
Sprevit opes mundi, et didicit contemnere vitam :
Ergo illum dirâ doctrinæ dipsade læsum

Abstulit acer hydrops, sitis et vesana sciendi.

The above are but as specimens of the poetical subjects of a volume which extends through near six hundred pages. On Duport's Greek productions the reader may consult the Classical Journal, No. xxv. p. 186, &c.

B-ll.

J. M.