1802.] THE MEDEA PUBLISHED. 229 the worthy successor of Bentley and Toup, who have transmitted to you the sceptre of criticism. "I delayed to send you my thanks, Sir, until I had studied your learned annotations, and until an opportunity occurred of sending, by a traveller who was to set out immediately, a letter which I have had some time written. But the traveller has put off his journey, and I cannot longer withhold from myself the pleasure of requesting you to present my tribute of respect and thankfulness to those generous noblemen who make so honourable a use of their wealth and knowledge, and of entreating you to believe that no one has the honour to be with more gratitude, attachment, and admiration, "Sir, "Your very humble and very obedient servant, "D'ANSSE DE VILLOISON. "A Monsieur Monsieur Porson, Professeur de Littérature Grecque dans l'Université de Cambridge." Previously to the receipt of these letters had come forth the Medea, printed at the Cambridge University Press at the expense of the syndics. In the notes to this play, to which Porson set his name, he troubled his adversaries with a little more attention than he had paid them in the notes to the Orestes. In his comment on the first verse, after alluding to the mistakes often made by editors, and the old grammarians, in regard to accents, he proceeds to say, "Here is a rather long note, and on a subject, as some may think, of no great importance; and I might have diminished my labour, and perhaps consulted my quiet, by forbearing to offer these remarks, for I see that by some writers, very excellent men no doubt, but not over learned, and somewhat ill-tempered, the whole doctrine of accents is regarded as utterly valueless. But such persons are too old, I conceive, to be untaught anything wrong, or to learn anything right, by my instructions. It is to you YOUNG MEN, however, whom alone I consider under my charge, that I now address myself. I have occasionally touched on this subject before, as on the 632nd verse of the Orestes, and elsewhere, and shall touch on it again wherever it may be necessary. If any one of YOU, then, desires to gain an accurate knowledge of the Greek language, let him devote himself, without delay, to acquire a competent understanding of Greek accentuation, and persevere in the study, undeterred by the babble of railers and the laughter of fools; for than foolish laughter nothing is more foolish. One remark only, for the sake of admonition, I shall add at present. Whoever, without a knowledge of this subject, takes upon himself the office of collating manuscripts, will assuredly disappoint the literary world of much of that benefit which might justly be expected from his labours. Whoever is unacquainted with this science, is, while he ingenuously confesses his deficiency, blamable only for his ignorance; but he who, not content with merely avowing his want of knowledge, presumes to excuse it by affecting contempt for the study, is deserving of greater censure." These observations, especially those relating to the very excellent men, not over learned, and somewhat ill-tempered," quidam viri, sed nec satis eruditi et paullo iracundiores, are directed chiefly against Wakefield, who had published his Greek plays, and a small edition of Bion and Moschus, without accents, and had, in the preface to the latter work, offered, in his bold and wordy style, the following defence of his practice: 1802.] WAKEFIELD ON GREEK ACCENTS. 231 "If any one expresses surprise or indignation that I have discarded all the accents, grave, acute, and circumflex, as they are called, and thinks that he sees in them advantages which compensate for the trouble that they give the printer, I am not at all afraid to enter into a discussion with him on the subject. Let those who patronise accents, however, consider whether they are not catching at vain praise for possessing empty and useless knowledge, and giving importance to trifles that they may not be thought to have spent long study on trifles; for, to borrow the words of a sensible rhetorician, it is not easy to alter notions which have been infused into us in boyhood (and especially those which flatter us with the appearance of learning), since every man had rather have learned formerly than learn now. From the defences of Foster and Primatt, ingenious and learned as they are, I collect nothing but that the controversy about accents is, if we look to solid utility, a mere question for grammarians, to whom, as they labour thus superfluously, we cannot give a better answer than the lines of Catullus: 'Turpe est difficiles habere nugas, Et stultus labor est ineptiarum.' "How deeply must you be concerned, O ye learned professors, that the Latin tongue is destitute of these delights, which to you are sweeter than honey or the honeycomb!” It may be observed that Brunck had the same notion in regard to the uselessness of accents as Wakefield, for he would willingly, he said, discard them all, except such as denoted different significations of the same word. Nor was Elmsley much more favourable to them, for he observed that to bestow extreme attention upon Greek accents is but lost labour, since they have no parentage but that of the Alexandrian grammarians, a set of men who were born to obscure the ancient Greek language rather than illustrate it.† Ad Eur. Bacch. 344. † Ad Eur. Heracl. 403. too old, I conceive, to be untaught anything wrong, or to learn anything right, by my instructions. It is to you YOUNG MEN, however, whom alone I consider under my charge, that I now address myself. I have occasionally touched on this subject before, as on the 632nd verse of the Orestes, and elsewhere, and shall touch on it again wherever it may be necessary. If any one of You, then, desires to gain an accurate knowledge of the Greek language, let him devote himself, without delay, to acquire a competent understanding of Greek accentuation, and persevere in the study, undeterred by the babble of railers and the laughter of fools; for than foolish laughter nothing is more foolish. One remark only, for the sake of admonition, I shall add at present. Whoever, without a knowledge of this subject, takes upon himself the office of collating manuscripts, will assuredly disappoint the literary world of much of that benefit which might justly be expected from his labours. Whoever is unacquainted with this science, is, while he ingenuously confesses his deficiency, blamable only for his ignorance; but he who, not content with merely avowing his want of knowledge, presumes to excuse it by affecting contempt for the study, is deserving of greater censure." These observations, especially those relating to the very excellent men, not over learned, and somewhat ill-tempered," quidam viri, sed nec satis eruditi et paullo iracundiores, are directed chiefly against Wakefield, bestow who had published his Greek plays, and amall " of Bion and Moschus, without accents preface to the latter work, offered, in but baby The Alexa bom to illus |