

No. XLV. | 
PINE 17 go, 
s 
THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 


PING Wo.Otuy OL. Vente 


ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HAVE received an zvgenious Letter, 
dated from Edinburgh, which remarks 
that the printing of Thetis for Tethys 
might happen from the correfpondent pro- 
-nunciation of both words; which in 
French would coincide. I believe this to 
be a very juft as well as acute remark. 
Still, in fuch a writer as VIRGIL, fo 
correét in profody and fo habituated to 
Greek learning, the miftake of ©¢lis for 
Tnbus was every way impoflible. Be- 
fide, Thetis was only a fea-nymph; but 
Tethys (with Oceanus) the mother of the 
Gods. So that to be her fon-in-law was to 
be adopted into the fovereignty of the feas* 
at leatt. 
Quecvorle, Ocay YEVETHY) Hob penlegae Taber. 
TE AXA, 302. 
In Prudentius or Aufonius we fhould not 
wonder to fee quantity confounded, or 
mythological exactnefs infringed. But 
in VIRGIL it is quite fuperfluous to notice 
that it was impoflible this fhould happen. 
I cannot agree that the Englith or 
Scottifh pronunciation is better, however, 
with regard to quantity. We pronounce 
Thetis as if it were Thetis. And indeed 
our Latin ¢ is almoft always long: unlefs 
in fome few monofyllables ; or where it 
is the fecond fyllable after an accented, 
as inter, intremit, &c. tepidus indeed, and 
fome fuch words, are alfo exceptions: 
where the ¢ in the beginning of a word 
fhort in-the Latin has its proper fthort 
time undeftroyed with us, and the reafon 
is, thefe are Azapafis. And the Axapajt 
and Trochee con{titute the prevailing 
rhythm of our language. Accents, fo 
marked as thefe, make it very diflicuit to 
Keep out of the dancing cadence in our 
profe compolitions. I have betore no- 
ticed that perhaps hardly any -witers, ex- 
cept Burke, JuNius, and JOHNSON, 
will be found to be free from it. 
T now fend you fome more ERRATA: 
collected in the perufal of the {mall Divot 
VIRGIL. 

* Teque fibi generum TETHYS emat onnibus 
undis. 
MonTuLy Mac, No. xLv. 
Geor. II. 22. 
With a fingle p. This I know may be 
defended, but it agrees not with the or- 
thography followed in this edition in like 
cafes. 
Geor. Il. 23. —-Abfcidens for abfcindens. 
150. vis pomis utilis arbor. 
This for arbos, an archaifm of which 
VirGiL feems decidedly fond: I think 
muft rather pafs for a typographical error 
than fora various reading intentionally 
adopted. 
Geor. II. 435. 

——reperit ufus. 

umbras 
This for umbraz, which has much more 
of {weetneis, I would alfo rather think a 
typographical error. 
Geor. III. 267. Glauci. 
Potniades malis membra affumpfere quadriga 
With a double s: for abfumpfere, 
fin I. Utque ipfum corpus amici. 
Full ftop for comma. 
Munera letitiamque Dii. 
For Dei. 
This muft neceflarily be wrong; but 
here too, I believe, the pronunciation, 
which in French makes thefe vowels fo 
much approximate in their found, mifled. 
/En. Il. v. 20. mis-numbered 21, at the 
head of the page: which correfpondently af- 
fetts the following numbers. 
Atque arrectis auribus adfto: 
‘this fhould have been a full ftop, 
Letters ftruck defec?ively may be in one 
copy and not in others. The /ereorype. 
mode of printing, would, however, [ 
fhould have thought, have been freey from 
them than any; copper-plate except. Un- 
doubtedly, as far as I have examined, this 
is {till a furprifingly accurate edition. It 
mult be wifhed that it be completely fo. 
A copper-plate pocket edition in the 
Italic character, would be a great literary 
elegance: of which the moft elegant of 
poets is truly worthy. In the beautiful 
and valuable edition of Edinburgh, 1755, 
(2 vol.) one place marxed as an erratum, 
may be confidered as a various reading, 
though a doubtful one. 
Cinyphii tondent bircis.——Geor. II]. 3:2. 
2¥ Quer 



