Respecting the lines referred to in the Chorus, Dr. Donaldson makes the following remarks, in his critical edition of the Antigone, published in 1848:—
"The parallel passages for this adage are fully given by Ruhnken on Velleius Paterculus, ii. 57. (265, 266.), and by Wyttenbach on Plutarch, De Audiendis Poetis, p. 17. B. (pp. 190, 191.)"
"Music has charms to soothe a savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak."
"L'appetit vient en mangeant."
Rabelais, Gargantua; Liv. i. chap. 5. (vol. i. p. 136, ed. Variorum. Paris, 1823. 8vo.)
This proverb had been previously used by Amyot, and probably also by Jerome le (or de) Hangest, who was a Doctor of the Sorbonne, and adversary of Luther, and who died in 1538. Ibid. p. 136 (note 49.).
I know not how old may be "to put the cart before the horse." Rabelais (i. 227.) has—
"Il mettoyt la charrette devant les beufz."
"If the sky falls, we shall catch larks."
Rabelais (i. 229, 230.):—
"Si les nues tomboyent, esperoyt prendre alouettes."
"Good nature and good sense must ever join;
To err is human, to forgive divine."
"Nay, fly to altars, there they'll talk you dead;
For fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
The Emperor Alexander of Russia is said to have declared himself "un accident heureux." The expression occurs in Mad. de Staël's Allemagne, §xvi.:—
"Mais quand dans un état social le bonheur luimême n'est, pour ainsi dire, qu'un accident heureux … le patriotisme a peu de persévérance."
Gibbon, Decl. and Fall (Lond. 1838. 8vo.), i. 134.:—
"His (T. Antoninus Pius') reign is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history; which is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind."
Gibbon's first volume was published in 1776 and Voltaire's Ingenii in 1767. In the latter we find—
"En effet, l'histoire n'est que le tableau des crimes et des malheurs."—(Œuvres de Voltaire (ed. Beuchot. Paris, 1834. 8vo.), tom. xxxiii. p. 427.
Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 94.:—
"In every deed of mischief, he (Andronicus Comnenus) had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute."
Cf. Voltaire, "Siècle de Louis XV." (Œuvres, xxi. p. 67.):—
"Il (le Chevalier de Belle-Isle) était capable de tout imaginer, de tout arranger, et de tout faire."
"Guerre aux chateaux, paix à la chaumière,"
ascribed to Condorcet, in Edin. Rev. April, 1800. p. 240. (note *)
By Thiers (Hist. de la Rév. Franç. Par. 1846. 8vo. ii. 283.), these words are attributed to Cambon; while, in Lamartine's Hist. des Girondins (Par. 1847. 8vo.), Merlin is represented to have exclaimed in the Assembly, "Déclarez la guerre aux rois et la paix aux nations."
Macaulay's Hist. of England (1st ed.), ii. 476.:—
"But the iron stoicism of William never gave way; and he stood among his weeping friends calm and austere, as if he had been about to leave them only for a short visit to his hunting-grounds at Loo."
". . . . non alitèèr tamen
Dimovit obstantes propinquos,
Et populum reditus morantem,
Quàm si clientum longa negotia
Dijudicatâ lite relinqueret,
Tendens Venafranos in agros,
Aut Lacedaemonium Tarentum."
"De meretrice puta quòd sit sua filia puta,
Nam sequitur levitèr filia matris iter."
These lines are said by Ménage (Menagiana, Amstm. 1713. 18mo., iii. 12mo.) to exist in a Commentary "In composita verborum Joannis de Galandiâ." F. C. B.
WILLIAM BASSE AND HIS POEMS.
Your correspondent, the Rev. T. Corser, in his note on William Basse, says, that he has been informed that there are, in Winchester College Library, in a 4to. volume, some poems of that writer. I have the pleasure of assuring him that his information is correct, and that they are the "Three Pastoral Elegies" mentioned by Ritson. The title-page runs thus:—
"Three Pastoral Elegies of Anander, Anetor, and Muridella, by William Bas. Printed by V. S. for J.B., and are to be sold at his shop in Fleet Street, at the sign of the Great Turk's Head, 1602."
Then follows a dedication, "To the Honourable
