Scribbleomania Or, The Printer's Devil's Polichronicon. A Sublime Poem. Edited by Anser Pen-drag-on [i.e. S. W. H. Ireland] |
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Commentators
ON
Ancient Lore.
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Commentators ON Ancient Lore.
Sed variis illudit partibus.
Horace.
Each is enslaved by the same error, and the only difference is, that it mocks them in various ways.
As prosing old book-worms will never rest quiet,
In comments they deal to the public dull diet,
With notes interlarding some work stamp'd as good,
Whose sense was till then by the world understood;
Enigmas must clap on her wide-gaping muzzle:
Thus your author who penn'd common sense when he wrote,
Must be chang'd into nonsense by help of each note.
I have very rarely had cause to impeach the liberality of Sir Scribblecumdash, but I must confess that the above lines, as containing nothing but reprehension of the present topic, do not place the poet in that point of view which, as a candid critic, should have been the ultimate intention of his metrical essay. I will certainly grant that many productions of the above nature do not tend either to instruct or amuse the reader; nevertheless such writers as Strutt, Brand, Douce, &c. cannot fail to demand that attention from the public which is due to intense reading, and the most ardent wish to illustrate the darker periods of British history, together with the manners and customs of our uncultivated progenitors. As we are upon the subject of ancient literature, I will here subjoin some anecdotes analogous to the point in question, for the information of individuals interested in this branch of literature.
The unrolling and explanation of the manuscripts found in Herculaneum are pursued with much industry by Messrs. Rosini, Scotti, and Pesette: they have, under the patronage of the government, published some fragments of a Latin poem upon the war between Mark Antony and Augustus, and a considerable portion of the second book of Epicurus upon Nature. The above gentlemen do not despair of finding the whole treatise of this author. There has also been committed to the press a moral work of Pisistratus, the celebrated disciple of Epicurus; likewise some fragments of Colote upon the Lycidias of Plato, and of Caniscus upon Friendship. The entire work of Phylodemus upon Rhetoric is now nearly completed.
Count Rzewuski, of Vienna, is said to have in his possession an Arabic manuscript, written in the time of the Crusades, which records some curious particulars relative to the use of gunpowder in war, &c. and which also contains a genuine receipt for the Greek fire.
Among the precious MSS. of the Oriental Library of Monte-Casino, which may be considered as the cradle of sciences and letters, after the barbarism which followed the destruction of the Roman empire, there has just been found a Greek MS. of Apollonius Evander, the nephew of Apollonius of Rhodes. Among other important objects which this MS. contains, is a very detailed account of the eruption of Vesuvius, in the reign of Titus. A learned Hellenist will soon give us a translation of this work, with the opposite to it.
We are told by Menage, that the tutor of a young French nobleman, while one day engaged at a game of tennis, chancing to cast his eyes upon the racquet in his hand, perceived some writing upon the parchment which covered it, and having perused it with attention, found it to be part of one of the lost books of Livy: he immediately inquired for the racquet-maker, but found, to his great mortification, that what he had seen was the last remains of a collection of manuscripts, which were all made up for racquets, and dispersed over the kingdom.
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