MET 
M E T 
METAPH'YSIS, f. [Greek.] A transformation; a 
metamorphofis. 
MET'APLASM, f. [from the Greek perct, againft, and 
v\a.ff<ra, to place.] A figure in rhetoric, in which the 
words are placed contrary to their due order. 
METAPLEX'IS, f [fo called by Mr. R. Brown, from 
the Greek per a., together, or between, and wAsxw, to plait, 
or connect ; alluding to the alternation of fmall leaves 
with the membranous-tipped anthers, compofing a fort 
of wreath in the centre of the ,flower.] In botany, a genus 
of the clafs pentandria, order digynia, natural order con¬ 
torts;, Linn, (apocineae, Tuff. afclepiadeas, Brown.') — Effen- 
tial Charader. Corolla fomewhat wheel-fhaped; crown of 
the flamens of five dwarf-hooded leaves, alternate with 
the membranous-tipped anthers 5 mafles of pollen tumid, 
pendulous, attached laterally ; ftigma with an elongated 
undivided beak. 
A twining fmooth fhrub, found by fir George Staunton, 
bart. in the province of Peckeley, in China. The leaves 
are heart-fhaped; clufters on ftalks, inferted between the 
footftalks ; limb of the corolla bearded. No fpecific name 
is mentioned. Brown in Wern. Tran/, p. 48. 
METAPON'TUM, a town of Lucania in Italy, founded 
about 1269 years B.C. by Metabus, the father of Camilla, 
or Epeus, one of the companions of Neftor. Pythagoras 
retired there for fome time, and periihed in a fedition. 
Hannibal made it his head-quarters when in that part of 
Italy; and its attachment to Carthage was afterwards fe- 
verely punifned by the Roman conquerors, who deltroyed 
its liberties and independence. A few broken pillars of 
marble are now the only velliges of Metapontum. The 
people were called Mctapontini ; they pretended to fliow, in 
a temple of Minerva, the tools with which Epeus built the 
wooden horfe. On the fcite of Metapontum there is now 
a tower, called Torre (li Mare, in the Bafilicata of Naples. 
METAPON'TUS, in fabulous hiftory, a fon of Sily- 
phus, who married Theana. See that word. 
METAP'TOSIS, f. [from the Greek per a, againft, and 
vrru<ns, a fall.] A word ufed by many phyfical writers to 
exprefs a change of one diftemper into another, whe¬ 
ther it be by diadoelw, or diadexis, as it is called, when 
the change is for the better, and the morbid matter re¬ 
moves from a more noble to an ignoble part; or by meta- 
ftafis, when the change is for the worfe, and the morbid 
matter removes from an ignoble to a more noble part. 
METASTA'SIO (Pietro), a very celebrated Italian 
lyric and dramatic poet,' was born at Rome in 1698, of 
parents in humble life, named TrapaJJi, originally from 
Aflifi. A very early talent for extemporaneous effufions 
of verfe, called in Italy improvifation, which he isTaid to 
have exercifed in the ftreets of Rome, attracted the notice 
of the learned Vincenzo Gravina, (lee vol. viii. p. 807.) 
who begged the boy of his father, and brought him up 
in his own houfe. Gravina changed his name of Tra- 
paQl into Metaftafio, having in the Greek language the 
fimilar flgnification of “ tranfmutation;” and by this he 
was ever afterwards knowm ; as it feemed at once to ex¬ 
prefs his former name of Trapafii, and his new fituation 
as an adopted child. 
Having changed his name, Gravina undertook the 
more difficult talk of changing, or at leaft enlarging, his 
mental faculties; and, at the fame time that he was ftu- 
dying the learned languages, and imbuing his mind with 
the Iciences, he wiflied to make him an orator rather 
than a poet, and determined that he fhould ftudy the law 
as a profeflion; that and divinity being the only two 
roads by which a man of learning could-arrive at honours 
and dignity in Rome. Yet, while he was obliged to read 
the dry books of the law, and was feeraingly occupied by- 
other Itudies, he found time, by health, to read the great 
models of the art of poetry, for which his inftinCtive 
paflion increafed from the difficulty of gratifying it. At 
the name of Homer and Ariollo, his favourite poets, he 
was unable to contain himfelf; and Gravina difcovering, 
in fpite of his pupil’s determination to conform implicitly 
Yql. XV. No. 1039. 
241 
to his will, that this exclufive paflion for poetry was infli- 
perable, at length permitted him to read thofe poets which 
he himlelf thought not only the belt, but the only models 
of perfection. At the age of fourteen, during the early 
period of this indulgence, Metaftafio produced his tragedy 
of Giuftino, conformable to the rigour of all the rules of 
the ancient Greek dramatic writers, with which his learned 
preceptor had fupplied him. We have his own opinion 
of this production, in a letter written to fignor Callabigi,. 
in which he fays, “ I fhould have wifhed that none of my 
early productions, which favour too much of adolefcence, 
might have appeared in the Paris edition, particularly 
the tragedy of Giuftino, written at fourteen years of age : 
when the authority of my illuftrious mailer did not fuffer 
me to move a ftep from the •moll religious imitation of 
the Greeks; and when my inexperience and want of dif- 
cernment were unable to diitinguifli gold from lead, even 
in thofe mines themfelves, of which he then began to 
difplay to me the treafures.” 
After producing this tragedy on the favourite model 
of his patron and preceptor, the learned civilian feems 
not only to have tolerated, but encouraged, his pupil’s 
adoration of the mufes ; and his powers of improvifation 
were occafionally exhibited, of which the following fpe- 
cimen may fuffice to give an idea. At an entertainment 
given by iignior Cataneo at Naples to fome literati, Gra¬ 
vina was prefent, accompanied by his pupil, then about 
fixteen years of age. He defired the company to give a 
theme to the youth, on which he fhould fing extempora¬ 
neous verfes to the found of inftrumental mufic. The 
fubjeCt given was a panegyric on the magnificence of 
princes; concerning which Metaltafio inftantly poured 
forth not fewer than forty ftanzas of eight lines, with 
fo much erudition, and luch copious illuitration from fa- 
cred and profane hiftory, that the whole aftembly were 
ftruck with aftoniffiment. Being afterwards defired to 
repeat them, he replied, that they had efcaped his me¬ 
mory now that his imagination was cooled. In faCt, he 
found this exercife very exhaufting; and, juftly thinking 
that it injured his tafte by encouraging an abundance of 
crude and incorreCt effufion, he entirely difcontinued it 
from the age of feventeen. 
At twenty years of age he had the misfortune to lofe 
his learned preceptor and patron, Gravina, who died in 
1718, aged fifty-four. This worthy man fulfilled his pro- 
mife to the parents of Metaftafio, of treating him as his 
own child. He left him 15,000 Roman crowns, (between 
3 and 4000I. fterling,) in money, an excellent library, and 
a great quantity of rich furniture, with three fmall places 
of which he had put him in pofieflion before his deceale, 
and a little eltate in the kingdom of Naples. 
But our young poet, now become a free agent, and a 
delpotic prince over no contemptible fortune, among all 
his acquirements had not the leaft idea of prudence and 
economy. His converfation and verfes had too much ex¬ 
cellence to want admirers; and his table was too well 
ferved to want guefts. He quitted the dry ftudy of the 
law, and devoted himfelf and his fortune to the mufes 
and his friends. There was no poetical aflembly in which 
he did not read fome new production; and, ltimulated 
by the applaufe which every piece univerfally received, 
he thought of nothing but how to have it renewed by 
another compofition. The love of praife is an infirmity 
to which tire beft minds are perhaps the rnoft fobject. 
During this intoxication, not a thought feems to have 
been bellowed on his prefent finances or future fortune. 
If he reflected at all during thefe times of diffipation, it 
was on the number of his friends and admirers, and the 
certainty of patronage whenever he Ihould want it. 
His patron’s legacy was loon diffipated, not in the fup- 
port of vice, but in munificence and good cheer; lb that 
at the end of two years, finding himfelf wholly reduced 
to his fmall Roman places, his Neapolitan pofleilions, and 
his library, he went to Naples with the firm relblutiou 
■of feriouily reluming the ftudy of the law. Here, in mo 
l Q lie 
