2»<« S. VIII. Nov. 5. '69.]. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



38.5 



I have no note of any Cambridge edition later 

 than 1680, but the book held its ground for many 

 years, perhaps until " the New Philosophy " drove 

 out it and the study of logic_ together. Serj. 

 Miller, in his Account of the University of Cam- 

 bridge (2d ed. Lond. 1717, p. 6.) says of the 

 academic " youth " : — 



« For they must in all Probability, in vain hear their 

 Tutors in their reading Ethicks, teach 'em the Sacredness 

 of an Oath; when if look but -within the Lid of their 

 Burgersditius's Logic, (where that taken at their Matricu- 

 lation is usuall}' pasted) they can't but see One, which 

 soon after their Admission they forced them to take; 

 tho' at the time of taking, they could not know the Ex- 

 tent of it, or if thej- did, their own Reason told 'em, they 

 could never punctually perform it." 



If Watt has described the book referred to by 

 Prof. Db Morgan correctly, I think that the 

 name Fr. B. must be a pseudonym, as I find no 

 mention of any one of the name in Cambridge. 

 Pieter B., the son of Franco, was Pensionary of 

 his native city, Leiden, but I do not trace the 

 family farther. 



For the substance of this Note I am indebted 

 to the very elaborate BiograpMsch Woordenboek 

 der Nederlanden, edited by Mr. A. J. van Der Aa 

 (Haarlem, Brederode, vol.ii. pp. 1583, 1584, where 

 the Dutch sources are pointed out). As, how- 

 ever, this book is still incomplete, and few copies 

 probably have found their way to this country, I 

 would refer for farther information to Georgi's 

 JBilcher- Lexicon, and to the Bodleian Catalogue, 

 s. V. In Grasse's Lehrbuch (iii. ii. 735, note 48), 

 several of the more accessible authorities are 

 named. J. E. B, Mayor. 



St. John's College, Cambridge. 



P.S. I have not quoted what Sir W. Hamilton 

 says (Discussions, Sfc, ed. 1. p. 119. note) of our 

 author's obligations to Mark Duncan, his colleague 

 at Saumur, as I assume that Pkof. Db MoBaAN 

 had that note in his eye when he wrote. 



GEOBGE: HERBERT AND THEOCRITUS. 



(2°'! S. viii. 290.) 



It is well known to scholars that several short 

 Greek poems, of the class inquired for by P. D., 

 have been transmitted to us from ancient times. 

 There is some diversity of opinion as to their 

 authors : some, attributed to Theocritus, being 

 also referred to Simmias of Rhodes, and others to 

 Dosiadas, a contemporary poet of the same coun- 

 try. Most of them may be found in the Cam- 

 bridge editions of the Poetce Minores Grceci 

 (Cantab. 1652, 1677, &c.), and in Brunck's 

 Analecta Poett. Gr. (Argentorati, 1776). The 

 Syrinx appears, I believe, for the first time in the 

 Roman edition of Theocritus (1516), and with it 

 also the Secu7'is, Alee, and Ara of Simmias. 



In the Heidelberg edition of Theocritus, Mos- 



chus, Bion, and Simmias (1596), we have at p. 

 305. et sq. " Simmias Rhodij, Ovum, Alee, Securis, 

 ejusdera, vel, ut alij sentiunt, Theocriti, Syrinx, 

 et Ara." They again occur with the same quali- 

 fication in another Heidelberg edition of the 

 same poets (1604), p. 207. ad p. 224. Again, ia 

 Lectius' edition of the Poetce Grceci Veteres, Car- 

 minis hej'oici Scriptores (Col. AUobr. 1606), we find 

 besides the Securis, Ovum, and Alee of Simmias, 

 the Ara described as being referred by some to 

 Theocritus, " tifiy-iov tov 'Fodiov Bco/ios, Kara Se rtvas 

 QeoKpiTov." Even the Syrinx is not included in 

 Thomas Martin's beautiful edition of Theocritus, 

 Moschus, and Bion (Lond. 1760, 8vo.). 



Fabricius (^Bibl. Gr. lib. iii. cap. xvii.) does not 

 decide the authorship of the Syrinx. " Fertur 

 etiam sub Theocrith nomine :S,vpty^ . . . alij Sim- 

 mia3 tribuunt." Fabricius (ib.) remarks that no- 

 thing is more precisely known as to the period in 

 which this Simmias flourished than that not only 

 was he more ancient than Meleager of Gadara, 

 who has named him in the dedication of the An- 

 thology, about the I70th Olympiad, but also that 

 Philicus of Corcyra, a tragic poet contemporary 

 with Theocritus, under Ptolemy Philadelphus 

 about the 120th Olympiad, must have been later 

 than him. His true age must therefore be sought 

 somewhere between these limits. The Ovum, the 

 Alee, and the Securis, are mentioned by Fabricius, 

 as certainly the work of Simmias. 



Besides the Ara, attributed doubtfully to Sim- 

 mias, and to Theocritus, there is another, the pro- 

 duction of Dosiadas, a Rhodian of the same or 

 nearly the same period with Simmias. The 

 learned Claudius Salmasius published both these 

 Arce as the work of Dosiadas (Paris, 1619, small 

 4to.). His edition includes the Greek text with 

 a Latin version of the entire six figurate poems, 

 to which are subjoined his own admirable an- 

 notations. His original edition having become 

 very rare was republished by Thomas Crenius, in 

 his Museum Philologicum etHistoricum (L.B. 1700, 

 cr. 8vo.). It includes a treasure of critical learn- 

 ing. 



Mediseval Latin poetry furnishes many similar 

 difficult lusus in versification, of which it may be 

 sufficient here to mention the wondrous work of 

 Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mentz (ninth 

 century), De Laudibus S. Crucis, in which we 

 hesitate whether to admire more the complete 

 command of language or the devotional feeling by 

 which it is animated. Arterus. 



Dublin. 



Your correspondent P, D. will find some ac- 

 count of what he wishes to know in D'Israeli's 

 Curiosities o/ Literature (E. Moxon, 1840, p. 106.), 

 under the heading of " Literary Follies." The 

 following quotation may serve for a " sample : " 



" Verses of grotesque shapes have sometimes been con • 



