December 30th, 1851.
Replies to Minor Queries.
_Inveni portum_ (Vol. v., p. 10.).--This couplet, which occurs at the
close of the second volume of _Gil Blas_, is a version of the following
Greek epigram among those of uncertain authors in the _Anthologia_:
Εἰς τύχην
Ἐλπὶς καὶ σὺ Τύχη, μέγα χαίρετε· τὸν λιμέν' εὗρον.
Οὐδὲν ἐμοὶ χ' ὑμῖν· παίζετε τοὺς μετ' ἐμέ.
It is a slight alteration of the translation given by William Lilly, Sir
Thomas More's friend and schoolfellow, and occurs, with Sir Thomas
More's version, in the _Progymnasmata_ prefixed to the first edition of
More's _Epigrams_, a very elegant volume, printed under the care of
Beatus Rhinanus by Frobenius, at Basle, in 1520: small 4to. The
frontispiece is by Holbein:
"T. MORI DE CONTEMPTU FORTUNÆ.
"Jam portum inveni, Spes et Fortuna valete.
Nil mihi vobiscum est, ludite nunc alios."
"G. LILII.
"Inveni portum. Spes et Fortuna valete.
Nil mihi vobiscum, ludite nunc alios."
There is a longer epigram, also by an uncertain author, in the First
Book of the _Anthologia_, the first lines of which differ but slightly.
It runs thus:
Ἐλπὶς καὶ σὺ Τύχη, μέγα χαίρετε· τὴν ὁδὸν εὗρον·
Οὐκ ἔτι γὰρ σφετέροις ἐπιτέρπομαι· ἔῤῥετε ἄμφω,
Οὕνεκεν ἐν μερόπεσσι πολυπλανέες μάλα ἐστέ.
κ. τ. λ.
The epigram has been very frequently translated. We have Latin versions
by W. Morel, Grotius, and others; and several Italian and French
versions. Mr. Merivale has thus rendered it:
"Fortune and Hope farewell! I've found the port:
You've done with me: go now, with others sport!"
Thomas Moore has given us a spirited paraphrase of it.