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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
coml edition 'of the Hecuba in 1 S 02 . and a third in the course
ot the present year . In these editions the text is restored b y the aid ot MSS . and ancient copies , and in a few instances by conjectural emendation . The notes are short , and chiefl y relate to the reasons on which
the emendations are founded . " Nihil hie , ' * says the editor , 4 i exquisiti aut recondhi expectanduin ; tironuin usibus lvjec
opelia potissimunl destinata est *" It is justly observed by Herman , 4 i earn tamen Kviripidi opera m nava \ it , ( juan > nemo , nisi qui aut iniauus . suit kaviim literarum
imperitus sit suinmo cntico non fateatur esse diimissimam . " It may be briefl y remarked of these publications that they
exhibit the text oi Euripides in a more correct state than any in which it had previously ; appeared , and . that the notes exhibit at once
the greatest extent ot erudition , and perfection of ciitical skill . The prefaces to the Hecuba demand a separate notice . The preface to the first edition briefl y explains the object of the editor , and states and skilfully defends
some metrical and grammatical canons which he had kept in view in the constitution of the text . On the completion of the work he promises some observations on the various metres employed b y the dramatic poets . In 1800 , an
edition of the , Hecuba was published at JLeipsic byGodofr . Herman , in which , as has been ob-Sfj' \ cd , he speaks in the highest terms of the lean ) ing and critical powers of tl ) e English Professor , but attacks with some freedom some of the doctrines which he had advanced . This was perhaps
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the secret cause which drew fort-R the admirable supplement to the preface , which appeared in the second edition of the Hecuba , in which , though the name of Herman is barely and incidentally
mentioned , the editor defends the doctriues which he had ad . vanced with the utmost skill and sagacity , and so far redeems the pledge given in his former preface , as to * enter on a full investigation of the Iambic , Trochaic , and Anapaestic metres employed by the dramatic poets , which are treated with a sagacity incomparably superior to any that had
been before exercised on a similar subject , with the exception perhaps of Bentley ' s observations oa the common Anapaestic verse . The reader will be amply repaid by the careful study of this fine piece of criticism . It is to the credit of Herman , that though the castigation which he received in a note on the Medea , ( p . 54 . ) was not lenient , he has since spoken in terms of unqualified praise of the
supplement to the prelace . The noteSy it has been observed , are usually short . In a few instances , Mr . Porson however has appeared willing to give his readers a specimen of what it was in his power to perform , and has poured forth in profusion the treasures ol ' his learning . We can only regret that the occasions were so few . Two editions of the plays of
Euripides , published by Mr . Porsoiu with his notes , have appeared in Germany . The latter of them contains some valuable indexes .
To the edition of Homer published at Oxford in 1800 , in four volumes 4 to , is annexed a collation b y Mr . Porsoivofa val uable Harlcian MS . of the Odyssey ;
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536 Literary Memoir of \ the late Professor Parson .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1808, page 536, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2397/page/12/
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