ΠΩΛΕ, ἵνα προσείπω σε καλά σε. i. e. to addres you in your own manner. Which I mention because the interpreters feem to misunderstand him. So in Terence. Andria, Act I.

And Virgil, Aen. VII, 295. Imitating old Ennius,

Num capti potuere capi? Num incenfa cremavit Troja viros?

And before, Aen. V, 136.

Confidunt tranftris, intentaque brachia remis

Intenti expectant fignum..

Aen. VI, 32.

Bis conatus erat cafus effingere in auro,

Bis patriae cecidere manus.

zo Milton, in his imitation of this place, has likewife

imitated the jingle by a repetition of the fame letters.

On th' Alean field I fall. VII, 19.

And

And Milton frequently, as B. I. . 433.

"And unfrequented left

"His righteous altar, bowing lowly down

"To beftial Gods; for which their heads as low "Bow'd down in battel."

I, 642.

"Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our "fall."

VI, 868.

"And to begird th' almighty throne Befeeching or befieging.".

IX, 647.

Serpent! we might have fpar'd our coming "hither,

"Fruitless to me, though fruit be here t' excefs."

Inftances in Shakespeare are without number ; however I will mention one or two.

Macbeth, Act. I.

"What thou wouldst highly,

"That thou wouldst bolily.

"And catch

"With its furcease, success.”

Hamlet,

Hamlet, Act I.

"A little more than "kin, and lefs than kind."

Of this jingling kind are the following verses, where the letters are repeated.

Homer II. . 526.

Χύλο Χαμαὶ Χολάδες

Iliad . 307.

Πρηνέα δὸς Πεσέειν σκαιῶν Προ Πάροιθε Πυλάων.

Iliad. 162.

Δολικὸν Δόρυ Δηίφοβος Δέ.

Iliad '. 407.

ΕΠτὰ δ' Ἐπέχε ΠΕ'λαθρα ΠΕσών.

Our countryman Dryden was fo fond of this repetition, that he thought it one of the greateft beauties in poetry; and ufed to mention this verse of his own as an instance,

When MAN on MANY Multiplied bis kind.

It cannot be denied that Virgil abounds with many examples of this fort, which his commen

21 He feems to have taken this from Gorboduc, A&I.

In kinde a father, but not in kindelynefs.

I

tator

tator Erythraeus terms alliteratio, allufio verborum, and affonantia fyllabarum. And the ingenious Mr. Benfon, the editor and admirer of Johnston's tranflation of the pfalms, lays the highest stress on this alliteration. Milton, who knew the whole art and mystery of verfification, has sometimes almost every word with the fame letter repeated, as VI, 840.

"Oer fhields, and belms, and belmed beads be "rode."

IX, 901.

"Defac'd, deflower'd, and now to death devote."

And fo in other places, not fo frequent as Virgil, or Spencer. This will appear in giving an inftance from Spencer, B. I. 39.

"And through the world of waters wide and

This line Milton has borrowed, III, 11.

"The rifing world of waters | dark and deep."

Where you fee that Milton has changed a word, and chufes to make this alliteration on the two laft words, dark and deep: rather than, following Spencer, to alliterate three words together,

and

and drop it on the laft. But whatever beauty this alliteration might have, yet the affectation of it must appear ridiculous; for poems are not made by mechanical rules: and it was ridi culed as long ago as the times of old Ennius.

O Tite tute Tati tibi tante tyranne tulisti.

And by Shakespeare in his Midsummer-Night's dream, A&t V. .

"Whereat with blade, with bloody blameful "blade,

"He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breaft."

T

SECT. XIII.

HERE are many blunders that creep into books from a compendious manner of writing; and if this happen to be blotted, the transcriber has a hard talk to trace the author's words. This feems to have occafion'd a very extraordinary confufion in a paffage in Othello. But before I mention my emendation, I beg leave to cite a short story from the first book of the Ethiopian romance of Heliodorus. Thyamis, an Aegyptian robber, fell in love with Chariclea; ftung with jealousie, and defpairing to enjoy her himself, he refolves to

murder