MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS ΠΕΡΙ ΒΑΘΟΥΣ: OR, OF THE ART OF SINKING IN POETRY. WRITTEN IN THE YEAR MDCCXXVII. VOL. VI. MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS ΠΕΡΙ ΒΑΘΟΥΣ IT СНАР. I. T hath been long (my dear Countrymen) the subject of my concern and furprize, that whereas numberlefs Poets, Critics, and Orators have compiled and Martinus] The learned Mr. Upton has made an ingenious remark on the title of this piece : " 'Tis pleasant enough to confider how the change of a fingle letter has often led learned Commentators into mistakes; and a П, being accidently altered into a B, in a Greek Rhetorician, gave occafion to one of the best pieces of fatire that was ever written in the English language, viz. ПЕPI BA☺OYE; a treatise concerning the Art of Sinking in Poetry. The blunder I mean is in the fecond fection of Longinus: EI EXTIN ΥΨΟΥΣ ΤΙΣ Η ΒΑΘΟΥΣ ΤΕΧΝΗ, inftead of ΠΑΘΟΥΣ ; a moft ridiculous blunder, which has occafioned as ridiculous criticisms." Obfervations on Shakespeare, p. 256. M. De Larchet, the translator of Herodotus, gave a French translation also of this Life of Scriblerus. It is easy to imagine that the humour has evaporated in a French translation. The blunder relating to the word abs, reminds one of a most egregious mistake of Rapin the critic, whofe knowledge of Greek has been much questioned. Relating a story of Euphranor the painter, he says, "Apion has related it." Having read the ftory in Euftathius; who fays, a εypay; which meant, that Euphranor, hearing a defcription of Jupiter read in Homer, "went away and painted it." |