2"<» S. V. 127., June 5. »58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



461 



sense Bacon gives to the passage in other words, 

 however superfluous." — P. 239, Eirionnach. 



May 31. 



ANDEEWS' (a.) and SMITH's (s.) LATIN DIC- 

 TIONARIES. 



(P'S. iv. 199.; xi. 546.) 

 Both of these are first-rate Lexicons, vastly 

 superior to their predecessors, Ainsworth's, Rid- 

 dle's, and for general use even to the unwieldy 

 Facciolati's ; and so far have justified the opinions 

 expressed in " N. & Q.," and many other maga- 

 zines ; S. being on the whole preferable for 

 English readers to A. But for the merits and 

 demerits of each, the editors, it would seem from 

 their own prefaces, are barely responsible. It is 

 difficult to understand what share Dr. A. took in 

 his own Lexicon, and yet, in spite of such numer- 

 ous and learned coadjutors and correctors, many 

 references, it appears, are very loosely given ; quo- 

 tations often mutilated so as to be unintelligible ; 

 false vowel quantities inserted by the dozen ; 

 works quoted or referred to which are not in 

 general use, at least in this country ; many mean- 

 ings incorrectly rendered from the German ; and 

 the English disfigured by numerous Americanisms. 

 Most of these charges are substantiated by Dr. 

 S., who ungenerously attempts to destroy the 

 character of a work on which, it is plain, if he had 

 not acknowledged it, he has mainly depended, and 

 the very faults of which he has in many cases 

 copied. This is proved in a Review I have only 

 just met with {Westminster, New Series, vol. x. 

 80 — 102.), which has also anticipated much of what 

 I had collected as faulty in both S. and A. There 

 is, however, one point in which S. has unfortu- 

 nately differed from A., viz. in omitting all proper 

 names; and the reason offered in the Preface, 

 that reference must be made to the Classical Dic- 

 tionaries of Biography and Geography, is very 

 unsatisfactory. Even for those who possess the 

 latter, it is not always convenient to refer to them, 

 in reading an ode of Horace, or chapter of Livy, 

 for a full history and description of every place 

 or person : in numberless cases nothing more than 

 the situation or " floruit " being needed to under- 

 stand the passage ; but there are thousands of 

 derivatives from proper names, adjectives (appel- 

 latives), adverbs, and substantives not to be found 

 in any of the Classical Dictionaries. Thus S. 

 omits nine words inserted in A. between " Atha- 

 natus " and " Atheos," and nearly twenty between 

 " rogus " and " rorarii," derived from Roma. 

 This would not matter much if the form of the 

 derivative could always readily be seen from the 

 root, and vice versa. ; but it cannot ; " Camers," 

 plur. " Camertes," from "Camerinum,". which has 

 also the derivative " Camertinus ; " and "Cameri- 

 ni," from "Cameria," a totally different place, might 



Lupus : numerus eum non deterret. Ita nee torrens curat 

 ripas quit! imbribusauctus exundet; nee ad locum curat 

 frigus pastor." 



I observe two misprints in the reply p. 421., 

 col. ii. 1. 31., " Lurcer" for Lurcor ; " nithered" 

 for withered, 1. 54. 



Your correspondent who writes under the name 

 of David Gam has rendered signal service by his 

 valuable Note. I was aware of the importance 

 of the Latin version of the Essays, as may be 

 seen at p. 277., but I certainly omitted to give it 

 due prominence in my Note ; however, your cor- 

 respondent has given me cause not to regret the 

 omission. I had begun to despair of .seeing any- 

 thing like a satisfactory reply. I trust the subject 

 will be followed up, as many of my Queries re- 

 main yet unanswered, Eirionnach. 



May 22, 1858. 



P.S. As the Editor informs me that he does 

 not remember to have received and cannot find 

 the P.S. above alluded to, I send another. 



" Hie tantum Boreas euramus frigora, quantum 

 Aut numerum lupus, aut torrentia flumina ripas." 



Ed. yii. 51. 



That is, " Here we • no more care for any amount 

 of cold north winds, than a Wolf cares for [a] 

 number [of sheep], or a torrent cares for its 

 banks." In other words, " We are not deterred 

 by any amount of cold, nor is the course of our 

 life confined by it, nor are we restrained from our 

 employments and pleasures.' In this comparison, 

 observe that/rzg-ora is in the plural, which makes 

 the meaning of numerum yet more distinct. A 

 single Wolf opposed to a number of sheep, is a 

 proverbial antithesis which is very suitably applied 

 in the above comparison: But to represent the 

 Wolf as an anti-Pythagorean, who cares not for 

 the charms of Number, is, to say the least< very 

 unusual, and, in the above passage, is simply ab- 

 surd. What can be more strained and unnatural 

 than to say, — " The Shepherds care no more for 

 the cold north winds, than the Wolf cares about 

 deranging the Shepherd's reckoning of his sheep?" 

 We are not to expect a simile to go on all fours, 

 but this has only one leg to stand on, and that a 

 very lame leg, viz. the vague phrase don't care, 

 for there is actually no other parallelism. Even 

 if Heyne himself be against me, I have no hesita- 

 tion in characterising this most strained and harsh 

 interpretation as a strange blunder. 



Lord Bacon takes the obvious and common- 

 sense view of the passage, translates or para- 

 phrases it most clearly, and applies it yet more 

 happily than Virgil himself did. However, Me. 

 Singer not only appends the erroneous interpre- 

 tation, but contrives to identify it with Bacon's, 

 which is exactly contradictory ! — "I will con- 

 fess that a mere reference to Virgil's Eclogue 

 would have sufficed, but I have only explained the 



