1803. | 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
“«6 Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charib- 
dim.” 
me to hear the author of the above 
line inquired after in vain, I determined 
on fome little inveftigation. Poffibly the 
refult of my information, collected from 
Bayle, Voffius, the Menagiana, &c. &c. 
may not be unacceptable to you, Nor 
unworthy a page in your valuable Mif- 
cellany. Ab 
The author of the line in queftion was 
unknown to Erafmus, and was firlt afcer- 
tained by Galeottus Martius, in 1476.— 
Philip Gualtier de Chatillon, m an heroic 
poem, called the Alexandreis, written by 
him about the end of the twelfth century, 
thus apoftophizes Darius, who efcaping 
from Alexander falls into the hands of 
Beflus, 
/€€ Na&tus equum Darius rorantia cade 
fuorum, 
Retrogrado fugit arva gradu. 
inertem 
Rex periture, fugam ? 
nefcis 
Quem fugias, hoftes incurris dum _ fugis 
hoftem, 
Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charibdin. 
Beflus, Narzabanes, rerum pars magna tua- 
rum, 
Quos inter proceres humili de plebe locafti, 
Non veriti temerare fidem, capitifque ve- 
rendit 
Perdere caniciem, {preto moderamine Juris, 
Proh dolor ! in domini conjurant fata clien- 
tes.” 
if having very frequently happened to 
Quo tendis 
Nefcis, heu perdite, 
We learn from Henricus Gandavenfis, 
(Henry of Ghent) that the Alexandreis 
had been a common {chool-book.”’ In his 
chapter de Scriptoribus Ecclefiafticis, he 
fays,in {peaking of this poem, * In {cholis 
Grammaticorum tant fuifle dignitatis, ut 
pre ipfo veterum poetarum leétio negli- 
geretur.”’ 
Barthius alfo in his notes on Claudian, 
has words to the fame effect. ‘* Et me- 
dia barbarie non plane ineptus verfifica- 
tor Galterus ab Infula (qui tempore Jo- 
hannis Sarifberienfis, utex hujus ad eum 
epiftolis difcimus, vixit), Tam autem 
pottea clarus fuit, ut, expulfis quibufvis 
bonis auétoribus, fcholas tenuerit.”’ 
Herman in his Confpectus Republic 
Literarie {peaks of the Alexandreis ; fo 
alfo does Voffius in his Treatife de Poetis 
Latinis. 
_ Nicholas Grimoald, an Englith poet, 
who flourifhed aout the year 1555, tranf- 
Jated a confideiable part of this poem into 
Incidis in Scyllam—Anfwer to Queries. 
299 
Englith blank verfe; fee Warton’s Hif- 
tory of Englith Poetry, p. 63, vol. iii. 
The Bodleian library at Oxford, and 
the Univerfity Library of Cambridge, are 
each in poffeflion of a M.S. copy of the 
Alexandreis. 
The line in queftion is quoted by Ainf- 
worth, Lempriere, and Adams in his 
Ancient Geography,jbut anonymoufly and 
with three different readings. 
is qui | vult vitare Cha- 
Incidit in Scyllam dum rybdim 
In the Gradus ad Parnaffum, article 
Charybdis, it is quoted, as it ftands in 
the Alexandreis, and is attributed to Ovid, 
but thevtriteft fearch has not enabled me 
to difcover it inthe works of that poet. 
Virgil, Horace, Juvenal, Perfeus, and 
other claffical authors I have examined 
with an equal want of fuccefs. It ap- 
pears, therefore, that the line is only to 
be found in the Alexandreis, from which 
poem it has paffed into a proverbial ex- 
preflion, familiarized by repetition to the 
ear of every clafficai ftudent. 
Bath, Your’s, &c. 
March 9, 1803. DrYSANTERe 
P.S. [t may not be deemed foreign to the 
fubje@ to requeft from fome of your corre- 
fpondents the names of the authors of the 
following quotations : 
‘s Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in 
illis.” 
«6 Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat.”” 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
D* RUSH’s eflay, which I think he 
calls ¢¢ an Enquiry into the Utility 
ot a Knowledge of the Latin and Greek, 
as a Branch of liberal Education, with 
Hints of a Plan of Education without 
them,’ may be found by your Correfpon- 
dent S. Thomas in the sth vol. of the 
American Mufeum. I believe it never 
has been publifhed feparately. 
Walthamftow, Your’s, &c. 
March 16, 1803. G. COLLISON. 
—LL aa 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
BEG leave to inform your Correfpon- 
I dents, that I once faw a tranflation of 
Euripides (and which I think is very 
likely to be the firft) by one Jofeph Bent- 
ley ; printed in London in the year 1521, 
by a memorandum in my common-place 
book, as far back as the year1768 atthe 
houfe of a friend of mine, who died in or 
about the year 1775, of the name of Ker, 
who lived at Brick (tock, Northamptonhhire: 
Qq2 he 
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