LATINE
. Vergil’s Life as Gleaned from his Works.
. The Manuscript Texts of Vergil. Vergilians—Translators and Commentators.
. Some Noted Passages—Why ?
The Platonism of the Sixth Book.
. Dryden's Dictum Discussed.
. Dante—The Later Vergil.
. The Prosody of Vergil.
Dido—A Psychological Study.
Aeneas—A Character Study.
‘Testimonium Veterum de Vergilio.
Vergil and Theocritus.
. Vergil’s Creations.
. Epithets of Aeneas.
. The Vergilian Birds.
. Was Vergil Acquainted with the Hebrew Scrip- tures?
Visions and Dreams—Supernatural Means of Spirit Communication.
Night Scenes in Vergil.
Different Names for Trojans and Greeks and their Significance.
The Story of the Aeneid.
34. 35+
36.
EpItor “LarINe, [7 bas been tesmently mentioned inthe publi prints that the present occupant of the Pontifical chair, Pope Leo XIII.,is an accomplished “‘versificator” and the author of many Latin poems. The fact that the Pope recently ordered a collection of his poems, hhly bound in vellum, to be transmitted to the Ger- man Chancellor, Bismarck, has again called the atten- tion of the public to this matter. However, as the Pontifical lyrics were printed only for private use, not for circulation, and cannot be obtained through the ordinary channels of the book trade, it is probable that but very few favored mortals have thus far had the opportunity of examining them. The readers of LATINE may be interested in perusing the specimen given below—“ Ad Florum"—consisting of six dis- tiches.
It is a matter of surprise that some of the Roman Catholic journals should have felt bound to criticise the Papal poetry somewhat unfavorably. The well- known Univers in Paris, a strictly ultramontane paper, even goes so far as to stigmatize the ode“ Ad Florum” as indelicate and in violation of good taste, and expresses the wish that it might have been omitted from the collection—notwithstanding the characteristic prescription being given therein as the sovereign remedy and cure for the young man who has departed from the path of rectitude.
Your readers may judge for themselves. Whatever their criticism may be with regard to the subject
ET GRACE
matter of the little ode and the remedy prescribed therein, they will, so far as the form is concerned, readily admit that the author is a skillful composer of classical verse, neatly turned and faultless in prosody. F.H.
STOCKBRIDGE, Mass., Feb., 1886,
AD FLORUM. ANNO MDCCCLXXXIV.
LORE puer, vesana diu te febris adurit; Inficit immundo languida membra situ. Dira lues : cupidis stygio respersa veneno, Nec pudor est, labiis pocula plena bibis. Pocula sunt Circes: apparent ora ferarum, ‘Sus vel amica luto, vel truculentus aper. Si sapis, 0 tandem, miser, expergiscere tandem, Ulla tuae si te cura salutis habet. Heu fuge Sirenum cantus, fuge litus avarum, Et te Carthusi, Flore, reconde sinu. Certa tibi inde salus Carthusi e fontibus hausta, Continuo sordes proluet unda tuas.
Leo XIII.
ORANGE, N. J., March 16, 1886.
EAR S{R—In No. 28 of LATINE ef Grace 1
find several translations into English of Had-
rian’s Animula, vagula, blandula. It may interest
your readers to see one into Greek and one into
Scotch. I copy them from a work by my old Greek
instructor, Professor Geddes, of Aberdeen, Flosculi
Graeci Boreales (London, Macmillan & Co.). A note
tells us that “ Hae translationes Hadriani versiculorum
prius in lucem editae sunt in volumine cui titulus ‘ Ad-
reanus Moriens’ (Editore D. Johnson, Bath, 1876).
You, of course, know the charming reference to the poem in Dr. Brown's Rad and His Friends.
Lam, truly yours, Tuomas Davipson.
Yuyidsor, aivdov, albaov, cium Pbap re obparos, oi viv nor oixhoe guyén, ‘youviv, apevnviv, avaiparon gpoidoc J? mac 6 mplv yéduc.
Wee wan’erin’ winsome elf, my saul,
Thou's made this clay lang hoose an’ hall,
But whar, oh whar art now to dwall,
Thy bield now bare?
Gaun’ flichterin’ feckless, shiverin’ caul’,
Nae cantrips mair.
The latter of these seems to me almost a perfect
translation in feeling. TD,
