410 CANADA IX THE BODLEIAN. 



In respect to the prosodiacal quantity of the penultimate syllable of 

 " Canada/' we may notice that the pseudo-Dionysius quoted above 

 makes it long, contrary to modern usage. He says, as we shall remember 



In the exercises of the Osford versifiers, on the contrary, the quantity 

 of that syllable is held to be short. In this connection it may be 

 remarked that in the Perigesis continued, and also in the pieces con- 

 tained in the Bodleian folio, the first three syllables of "America" 

 form always a dactyl, in accordance with the popular pronunciation of 

 the word. Nevertheless, by the old prosodiacal rule, " Derivativa 

 eandem fer^ cum primitivis quantitatem sortiuntur," the i is by nature 

 long, as always in the Teutonic syllable ric or rtic. America is from 

 Americus, the latinization of the first name of Amerigo Vespucci. 

 And Americus was a softened form of Albericus, as the name appears 

 in my own copy of Peter Martyr De Rebus Oceanicis et Novo Orbe- 

 Colonise 1574, wliere the editor Gervinus Calenius says the '' Divine 

 Favour," " terras novas majoribus incognitas, regibus catholicis, ductu 

 atque auspiciis cum aliorum, tum imprimis Christophori Coloni sive 

 Columbi, et Alberici Vespucii, patefecit." 



One more observation relating to Canada in Latin guise must be 

 subjoined. On the Confederation medal, bearing on its reverse the 

 inscription Canada Instaurata, the Queen's head is seen veiled and 

 crowned. Posterity will understand the artist's symbolism, and with 

 more tenderness than some contemporaries manifested, will recall the 

 touching devotedness of Victoria to the memory of the husband of her 

 youth. The artist, in designing this interesting and grand head of the 

 Queen, had doubtless in mind one of the medals of Livia, the Empress 

 of Augustus, long " the mirror of Roman mothers," as the Historian 

 of the Romans under the Empire speaks (v. 165), There are three 

 rather well-known medals of this Empress existing. On one of them 

 she is represented simply as Empress, with the common legend Salus 

 Augusta. On the second she is supposed to personify Justitia, Justice. 

 On the third she is represented as Pietas. On this last the head is 

 encircled with a tiara, and is veiled. This was struck by Drusus, her 

 grandson, during his second consulship, as inscribed on the medal itself 

 (DRVSVS. C-^SAR. TI. AVGVSTI. F. TR. POT. ITER.), and 

 represents Livia as the faithful widow of Augustus. It is curious to 

 find in Tacitus (An. iii. 34) the record of an express quotation by 



