the Troades, &c. He did not always, however, take his
subjects from the Grecian story; for he composed one dra-
matic piece wholly Roman: it was entitled Brutus, and re-
lated to the expulsion of the Tarquins. It is affirmed by
fome, that he wrote also comedies, which is not unlikely, if
he was the author of two pieces, the Wedding, and the Mer-
chant, which have been ascribed to him. He did not con-
fine himself to dramatic writing, for he left other productions,
particularly his Annals, mentioned by Macrobius, Priscian,
Feftus, and Nonius Marcellus. Decimus Brutus, who was
consul in the year of Rome 615, and had the honour of a
triumph for several victories gained in Spain, was his particu-
lar friend and patron. This general was so highly pleased
with the verses which Accius wrote in his praise, that he had
them inscribed at the entrance of the temples and monu-
ments raised out of the spoils of the vanquished. Though this
might proceed from a principle of vanity, and may not be so
much a proof of his affection for the poet as his love of ap-
plause ; yet it is thereby evident, that Brutus had an opinion
of Accius's poetry, and Brutus was far from being a contemp-
tible judge (b). He has been censured for writing in two
harsh a style, but in all other respects has been esteemed a very

Mont. What forms did these new wonders represent ?
Guy. More strange than what your wonder can invent.

The object I could first distinctly view,
Was tall strait trees which on the waters few,
· Wings on their sides, instead of leaves, did grow,
· Which gathered all the breath the winds could blow;
And at their roots grew floating palaces,

Whose out-blow'd bellies cut the yielding seas.
Mont. What divine monsters, O ye gods, were there,

That float in air, and fly upon the seas !

Came they alive or dead upon the shore?
Guy. Alas, they liv'd too sure! I heard them roar;

All turn'd their sides, and to each other spoke,
I saw their words break out in fire and smoke.
Sure 'tis their voice that thunders from on high,
Or these the younger brothers of the sky.
Deaf with the noise, I took my hasty flight,

No mortal courage can support the fright.
(6) Paterculus, (lib, ii. c. 5.) gives illis fatis erat eruditus. « Decimus
a short but handsome encomium on Brutus, son of Marcus, had an ele-
the military accomplishments of this gant way of expressing himself, as
general, and Cicero speaks thus of his friend Accius the poet often told
his learning : D. Brutus, M. filius, me; and was well acquainted, for
ut ex familiari ejus L. Accio poeta the time he lived in, with the Gre.
sum audire folitus, & dicere non in- cian as well as Roman writings,
culte folebat, et erat cum literis La. In Bruto. c. 28.
tinis tum etiam Græcis ut temporibus

great

great poet. Aulus Gellius tells us, that Accius, being in his way to Afia, passed through Tarentum, where he payed a visit to Pacuvius, and read to him his play of Atreus ; that Pacuvius told him his verse was lofty and sonorous, but somewhat harsh and crude. “It is as you observe, faid Accius, nor am I sorry for it, fince my future productions will be better upon this account; for as in fruit so in geniuses, those which are at first harsh and four, become mellow and agreeable; but such as are at first soft and sweet, grow in a short time not ripe, but rotten (c).” Accius was so much esteemed by the public, that a comedian was punished for only mentioning his name on the stage (d). Cicero speaks with great derision of one Accius who had wrote a history, and, as our author had wrote annals, some insist that he is the person censured ; but as Cicero himself, Horace, Quintilian, Ovid, and Paterculus (e), have spoke of our author with so much applause,

we

are at first har at first foft, an accius was.com

(c) Tunc Pacuvium dixiffe ferunt, (d) The player being summoned
sonora quidem effe quæ fcripfiffet et to answer for the injury, said, in his
grandia, fed videri ea tamen fibi du defence, that it was lawful to name
riora et paulum acerbiora. Ita est, a man who had furnished pieces for
iaquit Accius, uti dicis; neque id the stage ; but Publius Mutius, who
sane me pænitet, meliora enim fore fat as judge in the cause, paffed sen.
quæ deinceps scriham. Nam quod tence against him. Autor. Rhetor.
in pomis est, itidem, inquit effe ad Herennium, lib. ii.
aiunt in ingeniis, quæ dura et acerba (e) Summi poetæ ingenium non
nascuntur, poft fiunt mitia et jucun- solum arte sua, sed etiam dolore ex-
da: fed quæ gignuntur ftatim vieta primebat. (Cicero pro Sextio.) “ He
et mollia, atque in principio funt displayed the genius of a great poet,
uvida, non matura mox fiunt, fed not only by his skill in versification,
putria. Lib. xiii. c. 2.

but by his expression of grief.”
Ambigitur quoties uter utro fit prior
Pacuvius famam docti senis, Accius alti.

Horat. Epift. I. lib. ii. ver. 55.
« Whate'er disputes of ancient poets rise,
In some one excellence their merit lies :
What depth of learning old Pacuvius shows!

With itrong sublime the page of Accius glows.” Francis.
Tragediæ scriptores Accius atque fublimity of their sentiments, the
Pacuvius clariffimi gravitate senten- force of their expressions, and the
tiarum, verborum pondere, et au- dignity of their characters. Those
toritate personarum. Virium tamen who set up for men of learning,
Accio plus tribuitur, Pacuvium vi say, that Accius had the greatest
deri doctiorem, qui efle docti affectant strength of genius, and that Pacu.
volunt. (Quintil. Institut Orat. lib. x. vius was the more learned of the
cap. .) “ The two tragic writers, two."
Accius and Pacuvius, excel in the

Ennius arte carens, animofique Accius oris,
Cafurum nullo tempore nomen habent.
Ovid, Amor, lib i, eleg. xv. ver. 19.

Imitated.

we cannot think it is he whom the Roman Orator censures with so much severity.

There was also in this age a pretty good orator of the same name, against whom Cicero defended Cluentius. He was born in Pisaurum, and perhaps was a relation of our poet.

Imitated.
“ Ennius, whose muse by nature was design'd
Compleat, had art with bounteous nature join'd;
And tragic Accius of style sublime,
And weighty words, Thall stand the shock of time.

Mr. Cromwell. Clara etiam per ævi idem fpatium Afranius for comedy, Pacuvius and fuere ingenia, in togatis Afranii, in Accius for tragedy; the last excelled tragædiis Pacuvii atque Accii usque so much therein, that he was acin Græcorum comparationem evecti, counted equal to the greatest, amongst magnumque inter hos ipfos facientis whose works he held a very honouroperi suo locum. (Velleius Patercul. able place; those of the Greeks lib. ii. cap. 9.) “ At the same time feem more correct, and his to baye there arose several great geniuses, more fire.”

ACCORDS (Stephen Tabourot, feigneur des) advocate in the parliament of Dijon, in France, and king's advocate in the bailiwic and chancery of that city, born in the year 1549. He was a man of genius and learning, but too much addicted to trifles, as appears from his piece, entitled, Les Bigarrures, printed at Paris in 1582(a). This was not his first production, for he had before printed some fonnets. His work, entitled, Les Touches, was published at Paris in 1585 (6), which is indeed a collection of witty poems, but most of them upon obscene subjects, and worked up rather in too loose a

(a) The first book of the Bigar- verse; and the work concludes with rures is divided into twenty-two a discourse on wizards, and their chapters, which treat, amongst other 'impostures. things, of the rebus's of Picardy, (6) This piece is divided into three of double entendres, of antistrophes, books, the first being dedicated to of retrograde verses, or such as read Pontus de Tyard, lord of Biffy, and the same backward and forward, of bishop of Chalons. The author boasts allusions, of acrostics, of the echo, he wrote it in two months at Verdun of leonine verses, of other forts of upon the Soame in 1985. It converse waggishly and ingenioufiy con- fists chiefly of epigrams, which may trived, of epitaphs, &c.

manner, according to the licentious taste of that age. His Bigarrures are wrote in the same strain. He was censured for this way of writing, which obliged him to write an apology. La Croix du Maine says in one place, that Accords wrote a Bibliotheque dictionary of French rhymes, but he afterwards corrected Francoise, himself, having found that John le Feyre of Dejon, secretary Pa to cardinal De Givre, and canon of Langres, was the author Ib. p. 22. thereof. Accords himself mentions him as the author, and declares his intention of compiling a supplement to his uncle Le Fevre's work; but, if he did, it never appeared in print. The lordship of Accords is an imaginary fief or title from the device of his ancestors, which was a drum, with the motto (A tous Accords) chiming with all (c). He died on the 24th of July, 1561, in the forty-sixth year of his age.

(c) He had sent a fonnet to a lady firft nicknamed me, in her andaughter of Mr. Begat, the great swer, Seigneur des Accords ; by and learned president of Burgundy, which title her father also called me who, says he, did me the honour to several times. For this reason I love me.---And inasmuch, continues chose this firname, not only in all my he, I had subscribed my fonnet with writings composed at that time, but only my device, A tous Accords, this even in these books.

ACCURSIUS, a law.professor, born at Florence, who flourished in the thirteenth century. The expositions he wrote on the law, gained him great reputation. He is said not to have begun this study till forty years of age, when he went to attend the lectures of the celebrated Azo, at Bologna. Before this he had applied himself to other parts of knowledge. In a little time he made so great a proficiency in the civil law, that he became a famous professor in this science. He gave lectures for some time in Bologna, but afterwards retiring from this employment, he wrote a continued glofs on the whole body of the law, which was accounted lo useful for young students, that all former expofitions were neglected, this being esteemed the completest and best digested that had ever appeared. Many contradictions have however been remarked in Accurfius's work; but these, we are told, proceeded not from his inconsistency or defect of memory, but were owing to his giving only the initial letters of the different authors whose opinions he quotes : and many of these letters being worn out, the readers have often taken for his opinion what he quoted as the doctrine of another. His authority was formerly so great, that some have ftiled him the idol of the

mme laos of me Pancirol de lawyers; and most interpreters have taken more pains to ex- claris legum plain his gloss, than to comment upon the text of the interpret.

laws (a). Some critics, who set up for admirers of the beauties of style, have exclaimed against our author for his harsh and barbarous diction; but it is almost universally allowed that he was a great genius, and the imperfections of his writing were owing to the age in which he lived (b). He was in very easy circumstances, having a handsome house in town, and a pleasant country seat. He had two sons who were likewise men of learning; and Panzirolus says, that he had also a learned daughter who was chosen into the professorship

of the civil law. Accurfius died in 1229, in the 78th year De claris leg of his age. His monument is to be seen at Bologna, with interpret. lib. ü. c. xxix. the following short and simple inscription : Sepulchrum Acpo 149. cursii, glossatoris legum, et Francisci ejus filii. i. e. « The

sepulchre of Accurfius, the expounder of the laws, and of Francis his son.”

(a) The following passage is that time the great authority of the quoted by one of the modern civi- glosses ; for I supposed they were exlians who had very little esteem for planatory notes, like those of the gloffographers : Noftis quanta fit au. commentators on Virgil and Ovid, toritas gloffatoris. Nonne heri, &c. &c. But it is not fo; for the inter“ You know the great authority of preters are accounted to be men of an interpreter. Did not Cyn. say the greatest learning and authority. yesterday, that the gloss was to be It will be safer therefore for us to de. feared because of the idolatry paid to pend upon those who have seen thro' it by the lawyers, fignifying that the whole body of thelaws, than on they worship the interpreters as so ourselves, who are not supposed to many evangelists, after the manner be capable of such penetration." of the antients, who paid adoration Raphael Fulgofius, in L. Si in folu. to idols as if they had been gods. I tum C. de A&tion & Oblig. apud Fr. would therefore rather have the gloss Hostomannum, præf, confiliorum, than the text in my favour; for, if I (6) Ludovicus Vives (De caufis cite the text in behalf of my caufe, corrupt. artium, lib. i. p. 52.) and then the lawyers, who are my anta- Bernartius (See his Treatise on the gonists, and even the judges, say, Advantages of reading History) have Do you imagine the interpreter did been most violent on the style of the not look into the text, and under. gloffographers. The proverb, Græstand it as well as you? I remember, cum est, non potest legi, is supposed when a student, I was a keen difpu. to have taken its rise from the ignotant, and one day I had the presump- rance which prevailed at that time tion to cite a text in opposition to our amongst these interpreters, who, as doctor's opinion. Says one of my it is pretended, when they met with fellow students, What, do you speak a Greek word, used to leave the place against the gloss, which says so and uninterpreted, giving this reason, fo? I replied, Tho'the glofs says so, That it was Greek, and could not be yet I say so and so, not knowing at read. Alciatus, cap. xvi. lib. ii.

ACCURSIUS (Cervot) son to the preceding. He made much more haste than his father to get his degrees, having stood for a doctor's degree in laws before he was seventeen, which was granted him after many debates whether by the

Statutes