"INCIDIS IN SCYLLAM, CUPIENS VITARE CHARYBDIM."

I should be sorry to see this fine old _proverb in metaphor_ passed over
with no better notice than that which seems to have been assigned to it
in Boswell's _Johnson_.

Erasmophilos, a correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1774,
quotes a passage from Dr. Jortin's _Life of Erasmus_, vol. ii. p. 151.,
which supplies the following particulars, viz.:--

1. That the line was first discovered by Galeottus Martius of Narni,
A.D. 1476.

2. That it is in lib. v. 301. of the "Alexandreis," a poem in _ten_
books, by Philippe Gualtier (commonly called "de Chatillon," though in
reality a native of Lille, in Flanders).

3. That the context of the passage in which it occurs is as follows:--

"-- Quo tendis inertem
Rex periture, fugam? Nescis, heu perdite, nescis
Quem fugias: hostes incurris dum fugis hostem.
Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim."

where the poet apostrophises Darius, who, while {86} flying from
Alexander, fell into the lands of Bessus. (See _Selections from Gent.
Mag_. vol. ii. p. 199. London, 1814.)

C. FORBES.