_Lay of the Phoenix._--"SELEUCUS" (No. 13, p. 203.) asks, "Is
there any published edition of the hexameter poem by Lactantius,
which is said to have suggested the idea of the Anglo-Saxon _Lay
of the Phoenix_?" This poem is not in hexameter, but in elegiac
verse; and though, on account of its brevity, we could not expect
that it would have been separately published, it is to be found very
commonly at the end of the works of Lactantius; for example, in
three editions before me, Basil. 1524, Lugd. 1548, Basil. 1563. That
this poem, however, belongs to the Christian Cicero, at any period
of his life, is more than doubtful, even by the admission of
Romanists, who readily avail themselves of other compositions of
similar authority. It has been sometimes ascribed to Venantius
Fortunatus, and is by Sirmondus attributed to Theodulphus, Bishop of
Orleans. (_Opp._, ii. 840. cf. iv. 519. Venet. 1728.)