A Letter from Dr Thomas Molyneux, F. R. S. to the Right Reverend St George, Lord Bishop of Clogher in Ireland, Containing Some Thoughts concerning the Ancient Greek and Roman Lyre, and an Explanation of an Obscure Passage in One of Horace's Odes

III. A Letter from Dr Thomas Molyneux, F. R. S. to the Right Reverend St George, Lord Bishop of Clogher in Ireland, containing some Thoughts concerning the Ancient Greek and Roman Lyre, and an Explanation of an obscure Passage in one of Horace's Odes. My very much Honour'd Lord, Out of the abundance of your good Nature, and the undeserved kindness you have always shewed me, your Lordship has formerly been pleased, not to dislike some Thoughts I have communicated to you on several Subjects, as they occasionally came in my way; this has given me encouragement to trouble you again in the like manner, and send you the following Remarks, which I accidentally made, as I was reading over one of Horace's Odes to my little Cozen Samuel Molyneux; whom I find, I thank God, a Child of very pregnant Parts, and likely to follow the steps of his late Father, your good Friend. Perhaps you may think what I am going to write the more considerable, and the better deserving your Lordships notice, because it explains, and as I imagine, retrieves an ingenious Thought, that for ought that appears, had been wholly lost in a piece of Poetry, which the Learnedst Criticks both of the past and present Age, have esteemed one of the most correct Master pieces Antiquity has left us in its kind, I mean the 3d Ode of the 4th Book, beginning with these Words, Quem Tu Melpomene, &c. This with an other of Horaces Odes, the famous Julius Caesar Scaliger in his Treatise de Re Poetica lib. 6. makes choice of to recommend above all the rest, and gives it a most extravagant Encomium; declaring he would rather be the true Author of this little Poem, than absolute King of Aragon, so high an opinion he had of its matchless Excellency. And the celebrated Monsieur D'Acier in his Commentary upon this Ode, says, he believes one cannot find either among the Greek or the Latin Poets, any thing more correct and elaborate than this, so delicate and natural, says he, are its Thoughts, and the turn of its Expressions carry with them such a noble loftiness and vivacity. However, after all these extraordinary recommendations the Criticks have been pleased to bestow upon this performance, of certainly the best tho the first of the Roman Lyric Poets; yet one of the most beautiful passages, and surprizing fancies of the Ode, seems to me, and I should be glad to know your Lordships opinion in the point, to have been so overlookt by them, that neither they nor any of the Commentators, I have hitherto had an opportunity to consult, and I have examined the most chief of them, as Lambin, Menelius, Bond, Despres, Meur Dacier, &c. have fully comprehended the meaning of the Poet, or the whole scope of his fence, which he expresses in these Words, O Testudinis aurea Dulcemque strepitum, Pieri, temperas! Omnis quoque Piscibus Donatura Cygni si libeat somnum! I must freely own, my Lord, when first I reflected on these Lines, and observed Horace's great Heat and Vehemency in his repeated exclamation, upon admiring his Muse's power power, because she could give when she pleased even to Muse Fishes, the melodious Voice of the Swan, I was not a little shocked and confounded, for I looked upon the fancy as perfectly forced and groundless; founded upon nothing that was real or true Nature; and therefore could pass for no more, than a wild rant, or extravagant Whim of the Poets, signifying little if anything at all; and brought fresh into my Mind, the Character he himself gives in another place of ill Verses. Versus Inopes Rerum Nugeq, cantere. For I could not conceive in any sense whatever, how he could suppose his Muse to be able to give to a Dumb Fish this sweet melodious Voice. None of his Commentators gave me the least satisfaction towards the clearing of this passage, or the solution of this difficulty; I found they were all silent as to the main Point, and yet I could not with quietness of Mind, raise even but in my own Thoughts, so railing and high an Accusation as this was against the Prince of the Lyric Poets: nor could I conceive so great a Judge and Master in the art of Poetry, so particularly remarkt for his Propriety of thought, and delicacy of expression, in so labour'd and exquisite a Poem as this, could possibly have been guilty of so weak a failure, or rather have run into so gross a fault. This made me soon alter my Opinion, by giving quite another turn to my Judgment, and immediately conclude the fault must not be in the excellent Author, but rather in my dull and imperfect apprehension of his true sense; and that there must be certainly couched in these words, some further meaning than what occur'd to every one at the first transient Reading, or from the bare construction of the Words according to the common Syntax. So I put myself to consider a little, whether upon second thoughts, I could not discover what might be the true inten- tion or full purport of the Poet in these lines, and after perusing them a while, what was before dark and obscure, appeared so plain and evident, that I was immediately convinced in myself, he could not possibly have any other meaning than this. After he had in the Verses going before, acknowledged how much he was owing to the bounty of his Muse, here he makes a sudden exclamation to extol her great Art and Mystery, who by mixing various Notes, could compose such sweet Harmony upon the Guilded Lyre or Testudo, and by her surprizing Power could when she pleased, give even to mute Fishes, or the hollow Shells of the Testudines Aquaticæ or Water Tortoises, a sort of Fish, of which I imagined they made their Lyres in old Times, the sweet melody of the Swan. As for the comparison he makes to the voice of a dying Swan; tho this were granted an error, yet I thought it such a one, as might pass very well, since it serves here only as an allusion, and might be used for that end, because it was certainly a received vulgar opinion in Horace's days, as it prevails still in ours; and therefore might properly enough, tho a Fiction, illustrate this mighty attribute he in such positive Terms, and in so surprizing a manner ascribes here to his Muse: for even a Vulgar Error universally imbraced, was ever Authority sufficient for either a Poet or an Orator to draw from it a comparison or a simile. Monsieur Dacier I confess, to whom we are obliged for the fullest, most learned and judicious comment extant upon this Author, has nothing that in the least favours the foregoing explanation; but on the contrary in his Gloss upon these Words in the same Ode, Totum Muneris hoc tui est, &c. Says, Horace could not have given a more ample Testimony of his Modesty, than he has shewn in this Expression which which ascribes all the merit he had wholly to the gift of his Muse, who might, says he, if she so pleased, have made even a mute Fish speak; which intimates, 'twas a thing he imagin'd she had never done; tho according to my sentiments, the Harmony of every speaking Lyre, was then no less than the voice of a dumb Fish, raised by the power of the Muse in the Allegorick manner of speaking they affected in those days, which now we should say was done by the skill of the Musician. Tho this exposition is so very easy and natural, that it seems to me at the first proposal to carry along with it its own evidence, yet being my fence alone, and backt with no other Authority, I could not thoroughly acquiesce in it, or be satisfied I had truly hit upon the same Ideas that were in Horace's thoughts when he wrote those words, unless I plainly found, that the Testudo or Lyre of the Ancients, was made of the back or hollow shell of the Tortoise, as the name seem'd fully to import. This put me upon the search, whether I might not find passages in some of the older Authors, that speak of this as matter of Fact; which, if I discover'd I thought it would evince the true meaning of these Lines of Horace beyond all contradiction. And upon inquiry, it appears from several Hands, 'twas a current piece of History generally received among the Ancients, that Mercury was the first inventor of the Lyre (whence Horace in his 10th Ode of the 1st Book stiles him Curva Lyra Parentem) and that he made it of the shell of a dead Tortoise, he accidentally found on the Banks of the River Nile. I might produce several Testimonies to this Point, but I think two will be sufficient, and shall trouble your Lordship with no more. The first I shall take from an old Physician, a Greek Poet, that writ above a hundred years before Horace, I mean Nicander in his Poem he calls Alexipharmaca, where speaking of the Antidotes proper against the Poison of the Salamander. mander, he recommends both the Sea and the Mountain Tortoise in these Words, \[ \text{Αμερίγνυν ἀλιοῦ ῥαδίστην Σάτυρος ἔχων} \\ \text{Γύλιος, ὁ παραγόν διαπλάσει πέριπτος} \\ \text{Αὐτὸς δούρας κυτισθεὶς ἐν ταῖς ἀκάμασι} \\ \text{Αὐδήσαν ἐπὶκαι ἀναστον περ ἐνουν} \\ \text{Πονερος, Ἀγαθος γὰρ ἀπολύσοις ἡλίκιον} \\ \text{Αἴδην, ἀρχίσας δε ἑκὼ παρεξίσατο πέτραις.} \] Which I find so well turned into Verse and so closely translated by Johannes Gorrens a Parisian Professor of Medicine of the last Age, that I cannot omit giving your Lordship his Latin Version. \[ \text{Cum curva auxilio veniant Testudine — —} \\ \text{Quae Pelagi fluitus velocibus innatant alis,} \\ \text{Aut montana etiam Cyrisa qua vestitur & quam} \\ \text{Reddidi e muta modulanti voce canoram} \\ \text{Mercurius, picto insontis qui Cortice carnum} \\ \text{Exemit, geminumq; Ancona intendit in oris.} \] Jacobus Crevinus in his Treatise de Venenis in the Chapter de Salamandra pag. 119. gives us an ample Comment on these Verses, and relates at large the History of the first Lyre, which I refer your Lordship to, rather than transcribe it here; but this I cannot but take notice of (by way of Supplement to what he says) this Verse— \[ \text{Αὐδήσαν ἐπὶκαι ἀναστον περ ἐνουν;} \\ \text{Reddidi e muta Modulanti voce canoram — —} \] —Is so home and apposite to our present purpose, and comes up so close to Horace's Thought. O mutis quoq; Piscibus Donatura Cygni si libeat sonum. That it does not only explain the true meaning of it, but makes me inclinable to believe the Roman might have in his view this very passage of the Greek Poet when he wrote these Lines; for whoever is moderately conversant in the Greek and Latin, will easily be of opinion, that the latter frequently borrow'd not only their thoughts and fancies from the former, but even sometimes they copied as near as possible, their very turns and expressions, considering they writ in a differing Language; yet this must be allow'd, they usually surpassed those they drew from, and the Copies went beyond their first Originals, as Horace I think has here outdone Na- cander in his fancy, which I perceive he has been so fond of, that he was not only satisfied to use it in this place, but has it again, tho not so fully and expressly in his 11th Ode of the 3d Book, where he invokes his Lyre in this manner. Tuq; Testudo resonare septem Calida nervis Neque Loquax olim neque grata — Which last Line is a plain comment to shew what he means in this place. O mutis quoq; piscibus Donatura sonum, &c. The other instance I shall mention, is from one of Lucian's Dialogues, who writ above a hundred years after Horace, whence 'tis plain the Mechanism of the Ancient Lyre and the Opinion concerning its first invention, prevail'd since as well as before Horace's days. In this Dialogue he introduces Apollo and Vulcan talking after his jocose way of Mercury to this purpose. \[ \text{Απ. Χελώνη πε νερέων ευρών, ἐργασον ἀπ ἐντος συνεπίζετο, πήξεις γὰρ εὐαρμόταται, ὡς ἔχων, ἵσταται κυλάντων ἐπιτίθεσαι, καὶ μαζάδων ὑποτρέπεις, κατὰ ἴντεραμένους ἐπὶ τα χόρδας, μελος ἀ παν γλαυκὸν ὁ Ηφαίστει ἐκ διαρρον.} \] Which might be better translated thus to express the Author's fence, than as the Latin Editor has turned it. Ap. Testudinem mortuam alicubi offendens Instrumentum ex ea concinnavit; Brachia enim adaptans Jugum opposuit, deinde Clavos insignes, & Hemispherium repandum in fra subjiciens, septem Cordas extendebat, atq; modulabatur quiddam valde sonorum O Vulcane & ad Musicae Melodiam compositum. I thought it not amiss to set down Lucian's words at length, not only because they are clear and full in the point, as to what the Musical Tesindo of the Ancients was first made of, but because they accurately describe and enumerate all its parts giving each its peculiar name: So that they as well serve to explain the following Figure, as manifestly shew 'twas really taken from a genuine piece of Antiquity. I borrowed the first of the following Figures from that excellent Treatise of the Harmonicks of the learned Father Marinus Mersennus (lib. i. de Instrumentis pag. 7.) and have added it as a surplusage if your Lordship should still require a further and stronger proof of what I here advance, for this being taken from the things themselves, that will not lie and cannot deceive, as Words and the dubious fence of old Authors may, I thought it might carry with it a greater evidence than what I have yet said. Figure the first represents the Ancient Lyra or Testudo, and the Father tells us he copied this Figure (which I have express'd in somewhat a larger size, that it might the better agree with the proportion of the annexed Scheme) from the Sculpture of an Antique Gemme that belong'd to one Jacobus Gaffarellus A A shew the mixæs of Lucian the Ἀγριώνες or Brachia of Nicander, made of the Horns of some Beast B the ζάυος or jugum, in which were fastened the κλαυδίαι Clavi Pegs that raised or depress'd c. c. the χόρδαι or Strings, which were fixt at their t'other end to D the μεγάλον Hemispherium or Belly. Of the Lyre of this part of the Instrument the good Father not having I suppose, well consider'd, or throughly inquired into the matter, says, that it seem'd Testudinis Dorso Ventrem seu Testam representeret; whereas 'tis plain 'twas more than a resemblance, and was really designed to express the thing itself; as appears by the second Figure of an entire Testudo Aquatica or rather Fluvialitis, as Cicero calls it (in his Natura Deorum) taken from Johnstonus de Animalibus as delineated in his eightieth Table de Quadrupedibus. Whoever compares these two Figures, tho but little conversant in the natural History of Animals, and will but make allowances for their different posture, one being represented full and in a flat posture, whilst only half of the t'other appears, because 'tis shewn side ways, will soon be convinc'd of this truth. For if we observe how the Belly of Mersennus his Ancient Lyre markt D. agrees nicely in Figure and Shape with the Back or Shell of Johnstonus his Testudo Aquatica, markt E. how they are both curiously tessellated and checker'd into Arcas or Scales F.F.F.F.F.F. of somewhat a Square Figure, and each of these Scales again in both so neatly wrought about their edges with a line running parallel to their Margins g.g.g.g.g.g. and how the Shell of the Lyre, as that of the Tortoise, terminates in a narrow Limb or Verge, cut into smaller Scales h.h.h.h.h.h. encompassing the whole; whoever, I say, remarks this accurate agreement of the two Figures in all these particulars must at the first view be satisfied they were taken from the same object, and tho drawn by different Artists, may be at two thousand years distance, yet both manifestly own the lineaments of the same natural Original. This too fully appears from a passage in Pausanias his description of Greece, as I find it quoted by Gesner (for I have not the Author himself by me) which mentions a Mountain in Arcadia called Parthenius Mons qui Testudines exhibet ad compingendas Lyras aptissimas; and the same Author again says in another place, Arcadum Querceta ingenti magnitudine Testudines exhibent, ex quibus Lyras conficere aequales illis qua ex Indica Testudine componuntur. From whence 'tis plain the Ancients made their Lyres of the Shells of Tortoises; and we may likewise conclude from hence, that in the beginning of times, 'ere the skill of Musick, or the art of making its Instruments arrived to any perfection, the greatest Masters in both ways were not over-nice and curious in the choice of their materials, but promiscuously the Land or River Tortoise to make their Instruments of, as this or that came more opportunely in their way, which occasions Pausanias and Nicander to mention the Mountain whereas Horace speaks of the River Tortoise; of which therefore we may suppose his Lyre was made. And indeed, if we consider the true rise or way of Invention of all the sorts of Tools, Weapons, Machines and Instruments that now prevail in the World (especially those of Musick which are what we are now discoursing of) from their first Beginnings, we shall find they constantly derived their Origine, and borrowed their first materials from somewhat that was natural, rude, plain, simple and easy to come at, thus all the variety of curious Pipes now in use, as the Flute, Flagelet, Hautboy and Organs themselves, tho so artificially contrived and exquisitely wrought, certainly owe their Beginnings to, and are only refined improvements of the Temues Avenae or Oaten Pipes of the Field, or the Calami impares Juncti of the Ancients, Reeds of unequal lengths rudely put together; and thus we see the Trumpets of old, were at first made only of rude Horns, the easy spoils of Beasts, and sometimes of the common Buccina Whelks or large Sea shells that were obvious, and readily found on every Rock or Sea shore, hence that of Virgil. Rauco strepuerunt Cornua cantu. And that of Perseus, Buccina jam priscos cogebat ad arma Quirites. And afterwards when the Roman People enlarged their Empire, grew more polite, and all their Mechanick Arts received mighty improvements, tho they had then learnt to make these same Instruments of different and more commodious shapes, and framed them of quite other sorts of materials, yet still they retained their first old Names, and so the Tefindo did, by which we might as easily trace it as these to their primitive originals. For 'tis very manifest, that in succeeding Ages, as the skill of the Mechanick Artist, that wrought and contrived the Lyre, as well as that of the Musician that used the Instrument, arrived at a greater height, the model of the old Tefindo was much alter'd, the number of the strings increased, and the shape so mightily diversifyed, that at length they wholly laid aside the Tortoise shell, and the sonorous part or Belly of the Lyre, was made of such different Figures, that they bore not the least resemblance to its first model. This plainly appears from those other Schemes Mersennus gives us in the same Table of several sorts of the Ancient Lyres (but these I take to be more modern than that which is here express) and from those described by Leonardo Agostini, in the second part of his Collection of the Gemme Anticha, Antiche, which shew us, that as the fancy of the Workman, mode of the times, real convenience or an imaginary Beauty in the Instrument determined it, they were fashioned into various shapes, and frequently like their Lamps of old into capricious fantastical odd Figures. Thus, my Lord, I have ventur'd to give you my Thoughts towards the recovering the true sense of an obscure passage in one of the best of the Latin Poets, and have endeavoured to set in a clearer light, a dark piece of Antiquity relating to the old Greek and Roman Lyre; yet after all, I must own 'tis too much a trifle to trouble your Lordship with, and I cannot but expect you will secretly blame me in your Thoughts, for taking up so much of yours and my own time, in prosecuting such Difficiles Nugae as these are, when I might have employed it in something far more useful to us both: If you censure me thus, all I will say is, you could not desire one better disposed, readily to acknowledge his fault than truly I am; and in token of my future amendment, I promise your Lordship never to be guilty of the like again, and profess now 'tis past, it only pleases me as it gives me a new occasion of shewing what I am always proud to own that I am, My very good Lord, Your Lordships most Dutiful, Affectionate and Humble Servant. Tho. Molyneux. Dublin, Decemb. 14th, 1701.