Note 354 — CANES VENATICI. Class I.
William Dansey translation
Lucan has “ora levis clamosa Molossi”—and Claudian “Molossi latrantes”—and into the error of his poetical predecessors Cardinal Adrian has fallen, in his Venatio ad Ascanium Cardinalem;—as if the Molossi were remarkably latrant, whereas closeness of mouth was their more distinctive quality: unless indeed this Cardinal of St. Chrysogonus refer to two different sorts of Molossi, the one latrant, the other mute and sagacious:
Poetæ Tres, p. 40. Ed. Ald. 1534.
Deducunt alii canum phalanges. Latrantes abeunt simul molossi Mox indaginis unicæ sagaces:
for he subsequently slips some boar-hounds, “per invia lustra mussitantes,” and others again are distributed about the covert by the harbourers or huntsmen; the latter being denominated “feros molossos.”