1822.) 
His language always appears the ge- 
nuine expression of his feelings; of 
one who sits down to write what he 
thinks, not to think what heshall write. 
In native pathos he stands perhaps 
alone; and the graces of fascinating 
simplicity which every where encoun- 
ter us in his verse, make us ready to 
exclaim of it, as lhe does of his own 
Sulpicia, 
“Mille habet ornatus ; 
habet.”* 
Few writers have met with more just 
or more general admiration ; and it is 
difficult to select excellencies where all 
is beautiful. Perhaps nothing in his 
elegies is more tender and spirited, than 
the manner in which he proposes to sur- 
prise his mistress. 
“ At tu casta, precor, maneas, sanctique 
pudoris 
Assideat custos sedula semper ants. 
Hec tibi fabellas referat, positaque lu- 
cerna, 
Deducat pleno stamina longa colo. 
Tune veniam subito, ne quisquam nuntiet 
anté 
Sed videar celo missus adesse tibi. 
Tunc mihi, qualis eris, longos turbata ca- 
pillos, 
Obvia nudato, Delia, curre pede.”+ 
His praise of Sulpicia is among his 
best known productions; the compli- 
ment, 
“llam quicquid agit, quoquo vestigia 
flectit, 
Componit furtim, subsequiturque decor.’’t 
has never beenequalled. But it would 
be tedious indeed to cite all the striking 
passages in his elegies. The descrip- 
tion of his jealousy,§ of the slavery of 
love,|| his wish not to survive Nezra,] 
Sulpicia’s confession,** and his rap- 
turous song of triumph on the posses- 
sion of his mistress,t+ are equally ad- 
mirable, and alike remarkable for 
sweetness and simplicity. 
His career, however, was of short du- 
ration; he was cut off in the very 
flower of youth; it would appear by 
consumption, to judge from the beauti- 
ful elegy, in which he describes so 
affectingly his prospect of premature 
dissolution.{{ This elegy has been ad- 
mirably imitated in English, by Mr. 
West, the ingenious and amiable young 
friend of the poet Gray. 
He appears to have been intimate 
with all the principal literary charac- 
mille decenter 
* Lib. 4. el. 2. + Lib. 1. el. 3. 
t Lib. 4. el. 2. § Lib. ]. el. 8. 
|| Lib. 2. el. 4. q Lib. 3. el. 2. 
** Lib. 4.el.7. ++ Lib. 4. el. 13. 
ff Lib. 3. el. 5. 
Letiers from ihe South of Italy. 
3l 
ters of his time. Beside the epistle 
addressed to him by Horace, which 
has been already mentioned, that poet 
wrote a consolatory ode to him on the 
cruelty of Glycera.* Ovid makes 
friendly mention of him inhis Tristia,f 
and has lamented his early death, in one 
of the most beautiful and pathetic of 
all his elegies.t 
Though Tibullus has had almost in- 
numerable imitators, it has not been 
his fortune to meet with a good Eng- 
lish translator. The love elegies of 
Hammond, indeed, could they be 
classed as a translation, would form an 
honourable exception; they breathe the 
very spirit of the Roman poet. and are 
replete with sweetness and elegance ; 
but they must be cons‘dered as para- 
phrastic adaptations, rather than a 
version of Tibullus. 
Cowley has given us an imitation of 
a celebrated passage of this poet, which 
may be numbered among the happiest 
attempts of any writer at a faithful and 
spirited rendering of his original, 
‘6 Sic ego secretis possim bene vivere sylvis, 
Qua nulla humano fit via trita pede. 
Tu mihi curarum requies, tu nocte vel atr& 
Lumen, et in solis tu mibi turba Jocis.”§ 
The following is Cowley’s translation: 
s¢ With thee for ever I in woods could rest, 
Where never human foot the ground hath 
press’d ; 
Thoy canst all darkness from the night 
exclude, 
And in a desart banish solitude!” 
The poems of Tibullus are usually 
printed together with those ef Catullus 
and Propertius. The best editions of 
their collected works, are those of Vul- 
pius, Patavii, 1737, 1749. 1755; of 
Barbou, 12mo. Paris, 1755; and of 
Heyne, 8vo. Lips. 1776. 
—s— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
LETTERS from the SOUTH of ITALY, by 
a recent Traveller. 
(Concluded from our last). 
LETTER VI. 
Syracuse, 31st Aug. 1819. 
HE litters,which are no longer used 
in France, are a species of carriage 
without wheels,with double seats before 
and behind, and borne by two strong 
mules. The bad roads of Sicily have 
occasioned this manner of travelling ; 
in fact, there is not, from the largest to 
the smallest town in the island, a sin- 
gle practicable route for carriages. It 
is the only thing which makes the Si- 
* Hor. lib. 1. od. 33. + Trist.2. v. 487. 
{ Ov. am. 3. el. 9. § Lib. 4. el. 13. 
cilians 
