V I R G I I IN ENGLISH RHYTHM. WITH ILLUSTRATION'S FROM THE BRITISH POETS, FROM CHAUCER TO COWPER. BY THE 4/',/"^' REV. ROBERT CORBET SINGLETON, M.A., FIRST WARDEN OF ST. PETHR'S COLLEGE, RADLEY. A MANUAL FOR MASTER AND SCHOLAR. " Hie ilia ducis Meliboei Parva Philoctetae subnixa Petelia muro." — ^En. III., 401, 2. " Sweet Poetiry's A flow'r, where men, like bees and spiders, may Bear poison, or else sweets and wax, away : Be venom-drawing spiders they that will, I'll be the bee, and suck the honey still." Beaumont and Fletcher, Four Plays in One. SECOND EDITION, RE-WRITTEN AND ENLARGED. LONDON: BELL AND DALDY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1 87 1. 1 LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAJIFOKD STKEKI AND CHARING CROSS. 5^3^i-Sl PREFATORY REMARKS. It would scarcely seem to need any proof that, when the work of a Poet is to be translated from one language into another, the poetic character should still be observed ; nor is it less obvious that, if the object of the undertaking is the benefit of the youthful scholar, the strictest regard should be had to accuracy in the process. Further, it would appear to be quite indispensable that, whatever may be the design of the operation, easy numbers in the original should be represented by harmonious arrangement in the version. How far any free Translation can be of real service in the case of the more advanced student, is a question with which the Author of the following attempt has no present concern, as he designs his book for the advantage of those to whom such freedom would, in his opinion, be a positive injury ; for his object has been to afford assistance to the classical Teacher in the instruction of his young disciples, and to these latter all such laxness would surely be a serious evil. It is for this reason that, in producing Virgil in a new English dress for their benefit, he has endeavored to combine the three great requisites already alluded to — rigid exactness, poetic diction, and rhythmical flow. In carrying out this design, the Author has thought it necessary to submit to certain restrictions, from which had he relieved him- self, his work would have lost in usefulness, though he would have gained by increased facility in the execution of it. For instance, among other reasons, with a view to facilitate the process of con- struing, the Latin words have been rendered according to the oixier in which they appear in the original, so far at least as seemed oon- r^ '> 9 1 f^ I i V PREFA TOR V REMARKS. sistent with a necessary regard to the English idiom, and the reasonable requirements of the rhythm. Then, again, no single word in the Latin has ever been consciously passed over without the supply of its English equivalent. Further, it has often happened that a passage might have been rendered much more effective by the employment of words different from those which have been used ; yet, notwithstanding the temptation to introduce them, they have been rejected, simply because fidelity to the Latin demanded others. Were it not, indeed, for such ties as these, the present work, instead of being a close Translation for the schoolboy, might with much less of trouble have been turned into a Poem for the general reader. Still, though it is not intended for the latter class, it is only fair to observe that any one who desires to see in English what Virgil says in his own tongue, will probably find him presented here in as agreeable a form as that of any prose version, which should aim at equal faithfulness, and be fettered by the same restrictions. The Translation is accompanied by copious extracts from the British Poets from an early date down to the beginning of the present century. This has been done, not only to meet the tastes of those for whom parallelisms have a great attraction, but also to impart to the young student a love for English poetry itself, by in- troducing him to its greatest masters, whose remains are conspicuous for their genius, beauty, and power. York, June 1. 1871. THE ECLOGUES. Eclogue I. TITYRUS. MELIBCEUS. TITYRUS. Melibceus. Thou, Tityrus, reclining under- neath A canopy of widely-spreading beech, Thy woodland song upon the slender pipe Dost practise ; we our patrimony's bourns, And charming fields, are leaving ; native land We fly : thou, Tit'rus, easy in the shade, Do^t teach the woods with Amaryll the fair To ring. Tityrus. O, Meliboeus, 'tis a god These restful hours for us hath gained. For he Shall ever be a god to me : his altar oft lo A tender lambkin from our folds shall steep. He hath allowed my kine to rove at large — As thou perceivest — and myself to play What [airs] I list upon my rural reed. Mel. In sooth I envy not ; I marvel more : Line 3-5. The complaint of Meliboeus somewhat resembles that of Colin in Spenser's SJuftua rcTs^ Calender, June 13-16 : ~~~ " Thy lovely lay es here maist thou freely boste ; But I, unhappie man ! whom cruell Fate And angrie gods pursue from coste to coste, Can no where finde to shroude my luckless pate." Elsewhere Colin follows the example of Tityrus, but surpasses his prototype ; Colin Clout, 636 : *' The speaking woods, and murmuring waters fall. Her name I'll teach in knowen termes to frame ; And eke my lambs, when for their dams they call, I'll teach to call for Cynthia by name." Shakespeare, with great beauty : " Holla your name to the reverberate hills, And make the babbling gossip of the air Cry out, ' Olivia !' " Twelfth Ni^kt . i. 5. Elsewhere, somewhat differently : " Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud ; Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies. And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine, With repetition of my Romeo's name." Ro meo and Jul iet, ii. 2. 7. J. Fletcher has " Amaryll" for "Amaryllis," where the metre required it ; c. g., The Faithful Sfupherdess, v. 3. Through the whole country roimd to such extent Confusion reigns. Lo ! I [these] female goats Myself am driving onward, sick at heart ; This, too, with effort, Tityrus, I lead. For here, among the clustered hazel-shrubs. Twins having yeaned but now, my hope of flock, 21 Alas ! she left them on the naked flint. Oft this mischance to us — had not my wit Been stupid — I remember that the oaks, Blasted from heav'n, foretold j [this] oft foretold The luckless crow from out the hollow holnu But ne'ertheless, that deity of thine Who may he be, impart, O Tityrus, Tons. Tit. The city which they title " Rome," O Meliboeus, I, a simpleton, 30 Deemed like to this of ours, whither oft We shepherds are accustomed down to drive The ewes' soft offspring. So I knew that whelps Were like to dogs, so kidlings to their dams ; So with the petty to compare the great Was I accustomed. But as high hath this 'Mong other cities lifted up her head, 24. " As when Heaven's fire Hath scath'd the forest oaks, or mountain pines ; With singM top their stately growth, though bare, Stands on the blasted heath." Milton, P ^^ i^ "My piteous plight in yonder naked tree, Which bears the thunder-scar, too plain I see ; Quite destitute it stands of shelter kind. The mark of storms, and sport of every wind." A. PhUiBgu5« ! shall I ever, [though] a long time hence. My native bourns, and huml)le cabin's roof, Uppiled with turf, some beards of com — my realm — Hereafter viewing, be in wonder held ? Shall these fresh-broken lands, so finely tilled, A godless soldier hold ? a foreigner 100 These crops of corn ? Behold ! to what a pass Disunion us poor citizens hath brought ! Behold ! for whom we've sown the fields 1 Graft now Thy pear-trees, Meliboeus, range arow Thy vines. Away! my goats, once happy flock. Away! You nevermore shall I, [while] stretched Within the verdant grot, see hanging far Adown the braky cliff; no carols I Shall sing; with me to feed you, O my goats, No [more] upon the cytisus in bloom, no And bitter sprays of willow, shall you browse. Til. Yet here this night hadst thou along with me " Far different these from every former scene, — The cooling brook, the grassy-vested green. The breezy covert of the warbling grove. That only shelter'd thefts of harmless love." 94. So Ambrose Philips, with a pleasing variety ; Past. 2 : " Sweet are thy banks ! Oh, when shall I once more With ravish'd eyes review thine amell'd shore i When in the crystal of thy waters scan Each feature faded, and my colour wan ? When shall I see my hut, the small abode Myself did raise, and cover o'er with sod ? Small though it be, a mean and humble cell, Yet is there room for peace and me to dwell." 100. " His stubborn hands my net hath broken quite ; My fish, the ^erdon of my toil and pain, He causeless seized, and, with ungrateful spite. Bestowed upon a less deserving swain : The cost and labour mine, his all the gain." P. Fletcher, £cl. ii. 7. " So many new-bom flies his light gave life to. Buzz in his beams, flesh-flies and butterflies. Hornets, and humming scarabs, that not one honey-bee. That's loaden with true labour, and brings home Increase and credit, can 'scape rifling; And what she sucks for sweet, they turn to bit- terness." J. Fletcher, 'The Loyal Suiject, ii. 5. 112. So Spenseif's She//uurds CaleruUr, Sep- tember, 254: " But if to my cotage thou wilt resort. So as I can I will thee comfort : There mayst thou ligge in a vetchy bed. Till fairer Fortune shew forth his head." V. 81—83. ECLOGUE IT. V. 84. Been able on the leaf of green to rest. With us are mellow apples, chestnuts soft, And store of curded milk ; and now afar The roof-tops of the rural houses smoke, 113. The young student may be referred to Ec. ix. 50, where he will see that poma is used of pears. 116. Milton treats the idea in the closing line dlflerently : " And now the sun had stretched out all the hills." Lycidas. And longer fall from lofty mounts the shades. Collins, with a further variety ; Ec. iii. : ** While evening dews enrich the glittering glade. And the tall forests cast a longer shade." Dryden applies the idea figuratively to the de- clining age of David, king of Israel : " Behold him setting in the western skies, The shadows lengthening as the vapours rise." Absalom and Achitophel, 268, 9. Eclogue II. ALEXIS. The shepherd Corydon with fervor loved The fair Alexis, darling of his lord ; Nor had he aught to hope : only among Tlie clustered beeches, shade-abounding crests, He used unceasingly to come : he there Would these unstudied [verses], all alone. To mounts and forests fling with idle zeal. O barbarous Alexis, reckest thou Naught of my lays? no pity hast for me? Thou in the end wilt goad me on to die. 10 Now e'en the cattle snatch the shades and cool ; Now e'en the thorny brakes green lizards shroud ; And Thestylis for reapers, faint with raging heat. Together bruises garlic and wild thyme, Herbs strong of odor : but along with me, Lhte 6, 7. " Give sorrow words : the grief, that does not speak, Whispers the o'er fraught heart, and bids it break." Macbeth, iv. 3. " Unkindness, do thy office ! poor heart, break ! Those are the killing griefs, which dare not speak." Webster, Vittoria Coroinbona, ii. i. g. " Mercy hangs upon your brow, like a precious jewel, O let not then. Most lovely maid, best to be loved of men. Marble lie upon your heart, that will make you cruel ! Pity, pity, pity ! Pity, pity, pity ! That word begins that ends a true-love ditty." T. Middleton, Blurt, iii. i. 13. Milton makes ^zV Thestylis assist the reapers in a different way, assigning the culinary depart- ment to Phillis : " Hard by, a cottage-chimney smokes. From betwixt two aged oaks, Where Corydon and Thyrsis met. Are at their savoury dinner set Of herbs and other country messes, Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses ; And then in haste her bower she leaves. With Thestylis to bind the sheaves." U Allegro. Thy footsteps while I trace, ring out the trees With hoarse cicadas 'neath a blazing sun. Was it not better brook the rueful wrath Of Amaryllis, and her haughty scorn ? Not [better brook] Menalcas? e'en though he 20 Were swarthy, e'en though thou wert fair. lovely boy, trust not too much thy hue : White privets drop, dark martagons are culled. By thee am I disdained; nor who I am Dost thou, Alexis, ask ; how rich in flock, How full to overflow in snowy milk. A thousand lambs of mine upon the mounts Of Sic'ly wander ; new milk fails me not In summer-tide, nor in the [wintry] cold. 1 chant [the lays] which used — if e'er his droves 30 He called — Amphion, of Dircaean [birth], On Attic Aracynth. Nor am I so Uncomely. Late I viewed me on the shore, 21. " Why, sir? black (For 'tis the colour that offends your eyesight,) Is not within my reading, any blemish : Sables are no disgrace in heraldry." Shirley, Lady of Pleasure, ii. i. 27. " Two thousand sheep have I as white as milk. Though not so sweet as is thy lovely face ; The pasture rich, the wool as soft as silk : All this I give, let me possess thy grace." Sir Philip Sidney, The Lady of May. "An hundred udders for the pail I have, That give me milk and curds, that make me cheese To cloy the markets ; twenty swarm of bees, Whilk all the summer hum about the hive. And bring me wax and honey in *bilive." B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. i. 33. This may call to mind the language of Eve : " And laid me down .... to look into the clear Smooth lake, that to me seemed another sky. As I bent down to look, just opposite A shape within the watery gleam appeared. Bending to look on me : I started back, It started back ; but pleased, I soon returned." Milton, P. L., iv. * " Bilive," with life, quickly. ▼. a 6 — 4a. ECLOGUE 11. ^. 43-59. When quiet through the breezes stood the sea : I should not Daphnis fear, thyself the judge, Since never doth reflection's form beguile. Oh ! could it but thy pleasure be with me The paltry farms, and unobtrusive cots. To haunt, and pierce the harts, and drive in group The flock of kidlings to the mallow green ! With me together in the forests thou 41 Shalt copy Pan in singing. Pan first taught To brace together divers reeds with wax ; Pan guards the sheep and keepers of the sheep. Nor let it irk thee with a reed to chafe Thy tiny lip : that he these very [strains] Might master, what did not Amyntas do ? I have, with seven unequal hemlock-reeds Close set, a pipe, which for a gift to me Damoetas whilom gave, and, dying, said, 50 "Thee now doth this its second master own." Damoetas spoke ; the fool Amyntas grudged. Morep'er, two roes, discovered by myself In no safe glen, their coats e'en still be- sprent With white, a ewe's twain udders daily drain : Which I for thee reserve. This long time past, 33. Carew gives another turn to the idea : " Stand still, you floods ! do not deface That image which you bear : So votaries, from every place, To you shall altars rear. No winds but lovers' sighs blow here, To trouble these glad streams, On which no star from any sphere Did ever dart such beams. To crystal, then, in haste congeal, Lest you should lose your bliss ; And to my cruel fair reveal How cold, how hard she is." Sight of a Gentlewoman's /ace in the Water. " And fair my flock, nor yet uncomely I, If liquid fountains flatter not : — and why Should liquid fountains flatter us, yet show The bordering flowers less beauteous than they grow?" A. Philips, /'^w/. I. 38. See C. Cotton's " Invitation to Phillis:' Also Note on /En. vi. /. 248. " I must have you To my country villa : rise before the sun. Then make a breakfast of the morning dew. Served up by Nature on some grassy hill : You'll find it nectar." Philip Massinger, The Guardian, i. i. 44. " Sing his praises, that doth keep Our flocks from harm. Pan, the father of our sheep ; And arm in arm Tread we softly in a round, Whilst the hollow neighbouring ground Fills the music with her sound." J. Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess^ i. a. That she might carry them away from me, Hath Thestylis been craving, and her end will gain. Since paltry are my presents in thine eyes. Come hither, O thou beauteous boy ! For thee 60 Their lilies, lo ! in baskets full, the Nymphs Are carrying ; for thee a Naiad fair, Her sallow gillyflowers and the heads Of poppies gath'ring, doth narcissus add, And blossom of the sweetly-smelling dill : Then, interlacing them with widow-waile, And other fragrant plants, soft martagons Betrims with yellowing caltha. I myself Will cull thee quinces hoar with velvet down, And chestnuts, which my Amaryllis loved. I waxy plums will add : to this fruit, too, Shall dignity be [deigned] : and you, O bays, 72 ril cull, and thee, O myrtle-plant, the next, Since ye, so placed, your musky perfumes blend. A boor thou art, O Corydon, nor recks Alexis of thy gifts ; nor, if in gifts Should'st thou vie with him, would lollas yield. Alas ! alas ! what is it I have willed For my unhappy self ? Upon my flowers The southern blast, and on my crystal springs 80 I. " And she will do so," is very tame. 61. So " Sensuality " in Nabbes' j1/ttrr^Q.y'\ngyou beat him ? Or hath a pipe. With wax cemented, e'er belonged io you ? Were you not in the crossways, dunder- head. Customed to murder some unhappy tune Upon your squeaking straw? Dam. Do you, then, wish We should between us try what each can do By turns ? I this young cow (lest you per- chance Decline, twice comes she to the pail, twin calves 40 She suckles at her udder;) stake: do you 20. Anthon, in referring nocuisses to the bow and arrows, seems to be singular. 81. " You are a rascal ! he that dares be false To a master, though unjust, will ne'er be true To any other." P. Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old Debts, v. i. 85, " Soft ! Whither away so fast? A true man, or a thief, that gallops so ?" Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3. 86. " Contemned of all ! and kicked too ! Now I find it : My valour's fled, too, with mine honesty ; For since I would be knave I must be coward." Beaumont and Fletcher, The False One, iiu 2. 36. " Gracculo. Our most humble suit b. We may not twice be executed. Timoleon. Twice ! How meanest thou ? Grac. At the gallows first, and after in a ballad Sung to some villainous tune." Massinger, Bondman, v. 3. " You shall scrape, and I will sing A scurvy ditty to a scurvy tune. Duke 0/ Milan, ii. i. See Milton's Lycidat : " And when tliey list, their lean and flashy songs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw." Say with what bet you will with me com- pete. Men. Aught from the herd I could not dare to stake W^ith you : for I a father have at home, A harsh step-dame I have: and twice a day They reckon over, dol/i of them the flock, And one the kids. But that which you, e'en you, Yourself, by far more costly will admit — Seeing it is your fancy to be mad — My beechen cups I'll pledge, the graven- work 50 Of heav'n-inspired Alcimedon, whereon, Embossed upon them with an easy tool, A limber vine attires the berry tufts, Profusely scattered by the ivy wan. 44. Spenser has imitated this passage ; SA. Cai., March, 40 : " For, alas ! at home I have a syre, A stepdarae eke, as bote as fyre, That dewly adayes counts mme." So the unfortunate Imogen complains of " A father cruel, and a stepdame false." Shakespeare, Cymbeline, i. 7. "A father? No! In kinde a father, not in kindlinesse." Thomas Sackviile, Ferrex and Porrex, i. i. 46. " His com and cattle served the neighbour towns With plentiful provision, yet his thrift Could miss one beast among the herd." J. Fletcher, The Noble Gentleman, ii. i. 52. On a comparison of v. 38 of the Latin with Ec. V. 42, it seems doubtful that Salmasius and La Cerda are right in taking torno to mean a " lathe," anA superaddita, "superadded." This latter word there plainly means " inscribed ;" and so here it appears to have the force of " embossed over." 53. So Spenser, in his 8th i'Eglogue, which is amoebaean, m imitation of his predecessors, Theo- critus and Virgil : " And over them spred a goodly wilde vine, Entrailed with a wanton yvy twine." Sh. Cal., Aug. 29. And again, he ornaments the porch of the Castle of Temperance with the ivy and vine ; Farru Queene, ii. 9, 24 : " Of hewen stone the porch was fayrely wrought. Stone more of valew, and more smooth and fine. Then iett or marble far from Ireland brought : Over the which was cast a wandring vine, Enchaced with a wanton yvie twine." The same image of trailing ivy is reproduced in an exquisite passage in the description of a fountain in the " Bower of Bliss ;" F. Q., li. 12, 61 : " And over all of purest gold was spred A traylc of yvie in his native hew ; For the rich metall was so coloured. That wight, who did not well avis'd it vew. Would surely deeme it to bee yvie trcw : Low his lascivious armes adown did crecpe. That themselves dipping in the silver dew Their fleecy flowrcs they fearfully did steepe. Which drops of christall seemd (at wantones to weep." V. 40—49- ECLOGUE III. V. 50 — 70. [Stand] in the midst two figures — Conon, and — Who was the other one, that with his wand Mapped out for earth the universal sphere; The seasons which the sickleman, those which The stooping ploughman should observe ? My lips I have not hitherto to them approached, 60 But keep them up in store. Dam. For us as well The same Alcimedon two cups hath made, And with the soft acanthus wreathed around Their handles, and an Orpheus in the midst Hath set, and forests following him. My lips I have not hitherto to them approached. But keep them up in store. If you give heed To my young cow, there is no ground for you To praise your cups. Men. You never shall escape This day ; I'll come where'er you've called. Let but— 56. As Virgil did not want to make Menalcas too learned, so Spenser makes Thomalin {Sh. Cal., July, 161), after mentioning Moses, forget Aaron's name; " This had a brother (his name I knew)," &c. Gay is more true to pastoral life than any of his predecessors : his swains have not even heard of philosophers. See the SJtephercVs Week, Monday, 20-30. 64. Shakespeare's song in Henry the Eighth will readily occur to the reader ; iii. i : " Orpheus with his lute made trees, And the mountain-tops that freeze. Bend themselves when he did sing : To his music plants and flowers Ever sprung ; as sun and showers, There had been a lasting spring. " Every thing that heard him play. Even the billows of the sea, Hung their heads, and then lay by : In sweet music is such art — Killing care and grief of heart Fall asleep, or, hearing, die." Dryden puts the immortal Purcell before Orpheus ; •' We beg not hell our Orpheus to restore ; Had he been there. Their sovereign's fear Had sent him back before. The power of harmony too well they knew : He long ere this had tuned their jarring sphere. And left no hell below. " Elegy on the Death of Mr. Purcell. " Music has charms to soothe a savage breast. To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak. I've read that things inanimate have moved. And, as with living souls, have been informed By magic numbers and persuasive sound." Congreve, The Mourning Bride, I. i. 1-5. Hear these, or let Palaemon, who, behold, Is coming. I shall manage that henceforth You do not challenge any man at song. Dam. Come, then, if aught thou hast; in rne delay There shall be none, nor any man I fly; Only, Palaemon neighbor, these store up Within thy deepest thoughts — the matter is No trifle. Falcetnon. Sing ye on, since we our seats Have ta'en together on the velvet turf; 79 And now teems every field, now every tree, Now leaf the woods, now fairest is the year. Begin, Damoetas; thou shalt follow then, Menalcas: in alternate strains ye'll sing : Camenian [maidens] love alternate strains. Da/ji. From Jove, ye muses, is my spring [of song] ; Of Jove are all things full; he tends the lands; For him my lays an interest possess. Meji. And me doth Phoebus love; his rightful gifts For Phoebus are for ever [found] with me — His bays, and sweetly-blushing martagon. 90 Da??t. Me with an apple Galataea pelts — The wanton maid — and towards the willow trees She hies, and longs that she may first be seen. Men. Aye, but to me presents himself unasked My flame Amyntas, so that Delia is No longer more familiar to our dogs. Dam. For my own Venus presents are procured; For I myself marked out the spot, whereon The airy culvers have amassed [their nest]. Men. That which I could, ten golden apples culled, 100 72. " I loathe to brawl with such a blast as thou. Who art nought but a valiant voice ; but if Thou shalt provoke me further, men shall say, ' Thou wert,' and not lament it." Beaumont and Fletcher, Philasier, i. 2. 73. Lacessas (v. 51) would seem to mean "chal- lenge," and not "provoke," for the reasons which are given by Dr. Trapp. 78. Palsemon might have replied : " Why, look you, sir ! I can be as calm as silence All the while music plays. Strike on, sweet friend. As mild and merry as the heart of innocence." T. Middleton, The Mayor of Queenborough, iii. x. 93. " He kissed her, and breathed life into her lips. Wherewith, as one displeased, away she trips ; Yet, as she went, full often looked behind." C. Marlowe, Hero and Leander, Sestiad iii. 3-6. " A brisk Arabian girl came tripping by ; Passing she cast at him a side-long glance. And looked behind in hopes to be pursued." J. Dryden, Do?i Sebastian, iv. x. V. 71—86. ECLOGUE TIL T. 87—103. IVom off a wild-wood tree, I to my boy Have sent; to-morrow other [ten] I'll send. Dam. Oh ! times how many, and what [honied words], To us hath Galataea said ! Some part, O breezes, waft ye to the ears of gods. Men. What boots it that, Amyntas, thou dost not Disdain me in thy very soul, if whilst The boars thou huntest, I watch o'er the nets ? Dam. Send Phyllis to me ; 'tis my natal-day, loUas : when I for the crops shall make An ofTring with a heifer, come thyself. Men. I Phyllis love 'fore other maids ; for she 1 12 At my departure wept, and long she cried, "Handsome lollas, fare thee well, fare- well." Dam. The wolf is ruefulness to folds. To ripened fruit are showers, to the trees Are storms, to us is Amaryllis' wrath. lien. To seeded crops is moisture a delight, -. To weaned kids the arbute, willow lithe To teeming flock, Amyntas is alone to me. Dam. Our Muse doth Pollio affect, although 121 It is agrestic : O Pierian dames, Do ye a heifer for your reader feed. Men. Yea, Pollio doth e'en himself com- pose loi. " Here be grapes, whose lusty blood *s the learned poet's good ; Sweeter yet did never crown The head of Bacchus ; nuts more brown Than the squirrel's teeth that crack them : Deign, O fairest fair, to take them. Tor these black-eyed Dryope Hath oftentimes commanded me Vith my clasped knee to climb." J. Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, i. 1. A Jhilips gracefully expands the idea : Past, i : " Hav would I wander every day to find Th« choice of wildings, blushing through the rhd ! Foi glossy plums how lightsome climb the tree ! Hov risk the vengeance of the thrifty bee !" 103. * His lip is softer, sweeter than the rose ; His mouth, and tongue, with dropping honey fliws." Ben Johnson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 2. * ' Oh Charm me with the music of thy tongue ! I'm ne'er so blest, as when I hear thy vows. And listen to the language of thy heart." Otway, The Orphan, ii. end. 108. "We prune the orchards, and you cranch the fruit." Massinger, The Emperor of the East, iv. 2. 113. "When I was absent then her ga'lW eyes VVodd have shed April showers, and outwept The clouds in that same o'er- passionate moode, Wh«i they drowned all the world." Marston, Insatiate Countesse, ii. a. Rare poems : feed a bull that with his horn Now butts, and tosses with his hoof the sand. Dam. Who loves thee, Pollio, may he come where'er He joys that thou art too ! May honies stream For him, and prickly brier spikenard yield ! Men. Who Bavius hateth not — that he may love 130 Thy verses, Maevius ! and may he, the same. Put foxes in the yoke, and milk he-goats ! Dam. Ye, who cull flow'rs, and straw- berries, that grow Along the ground, O swains, escape ye hence ; A chilly snake is lurking in the grass. Men. O sheep, forbear ye to advance too far ; There's no safe tnisting to the bank ; the ram Himself his fleece is drying even still. Dam. O Tit'rus, from the river force thou back Thy browsing she-goats ; when there shall be time, 140 Myself will in spring-water wash them all. Men. Drive on the sheep, ye striplings : if the heat Shall have forestalled the milk, as lately, we In vain shall squeeze their udders in our hands. Dam. Alas ! alas ! how meagre is my bull Amid the fatt'ning vetch I The selfsame love Is bane to flock and master of the flock. Men. In these, sure, love is not at all the cause : Scarce hold they by the bones together : I Know not what eye doth witch my tender lambs. 150 126. " Roscommon writes: to that auspicious hand. Muse, feed the bull that spurns the yellow sand." Dryden, Ep. to Lord Roscommon, 66, 7. 137. This form of expression is used by Shake- speare : " For 'tis no trusting to yon foolish lowt." Tiuo Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 4. 150. Or, perhaps, viewiog nescio quis as an idiom : They scarcely hold together by the bones : Some eye or other witches my soft lambs. " Yet pity me, Lencothoe. cure the wound Thine eyes have made ; pity a begging king; Uncharm the charms of thy bewitching face, Or thou wilt leave mc de.-id." T. May, Tk* Heir. iv. V. I04 — log. ECLOGUE III. Dam. Inform me in what lands — and thou shalt be My great Apollo — may the range of heaven Expand itself no further than three ells. Alen. Inform me in what lands may flowers grow, O'erwritten with the names of kings, and thou Possess my Phillis to thyself alone. Pal. It is not in my power to adjust Disputes between you of such high con- cern : Both you are worthy of the cow, and he ; And whosoe'er may either dread the sweets, " My venom eyes Strike innocency dead at such a distance." Beaumont and Fletcher, The Coxcomb, v. 2. " His eyes shoot poison at me ; ha ! he has Bewitched me, sure." Shirley, The Brothers, iv. i. " You leer upon me, do you ? There's an eye Wounds like a leaden sword." Shakespeare, Love's Labotir's Lost, v. 2. 155. To this Milton seems to allude in Lycidas, where he speaks of Cam "footing slow," with " his bonnet-sedge. Inwrought with iigures dim, and on the edge Like to that sanguine flower, inscribed with woe." And Young more directly. Night iii. 271, 2 : " As poets feign'd from Ajax' streaming blood Arose, with grief inscribed, a mournful flower." 160, 161. Or, if this be considered too free a version, the passage may be more literally rendered thus: And whosoe'er may either dread sweet loves. Or may the bitter prove. But what these lines have to do with the matter in dispute nobody apparently can tell. According to the received text, they seem to furnish simple nonsense, from which no unauthorised supply of imaginary ellipses appears to relieve them. Heyne would cut the matter very short by evicting them at once, though all the manuscripts agree in conferring a legal title on these very troublesome tenants. Anthon alters the text without improving the sense. The emendation proposed by Wagner is ex- tremely slight, and hardly unwarrantable. He prefixes an "H". before the first "aut;" and so the passage assumes this form : " Et quisquis amores Haut metuet dulces, aut experietur amaros ;" which, paraphrased, yields the following meaning : And (this appears from the experience of you both, that) whosoever is not afraid of love, (and therefore admits it into his heart,) willfind it (one or other of two very opposite things, either) sweet or (else) bitter. (He clearly runs a great risk, and therefore perhaps he had better have nothing to do with it.) Yet does not this come in very awkwardly, as part of a solemn judgment upon the relative merits Or prove the gall, of love up The rills, my swains drunk enough. Now shut ye 161 the meads have of two aspirants for poetic fame, who, however coarse, or worse than coarse, either or both may have been, were plainly very accomplished com- posers ? But even if it were not awkward, surely it is commonplace and weak. After such a trial of extreme skill, it was unsatisfactory enough to be told that the issue of it was a drawn battle ; but to receive the further announcement, that love was either honey or gall, must have seemed to them very like trifling with their disappointment. Perhaps the explanation of Rujeus is as good as any : " Whoever is able to express, in the masterly way that you have done, the various effects of love." Spenser makes Sir Scudamore agree with Palae- mon's premises, though not in the implied advice which the above interpretation attributes to him : Faerie Queene, iv. 10, i : " True he it sayd, whatever man it sayd, That love with gall and hony doth abound ; ' But if the one be with the other wayd. For every dram of hony, therein found, A pound of gall doth over it redound : That I too true by triall have approved ; For since the day that first with deadly wound My heart was launcht, and learned to have loved, I never ioyed howre, but still with care was moved." Shakespeare, too, introduces Venus predicting this heavy curse upon Love for the death of her lover : " Since thou art dead, lo ! here I prophesy. Sorrow on love hereafter shall attend : It shall be waited on by jealousy. Find sweet beginning, but unsavoury end Ne'er settled equally, but high and low ; That all love's pleasure shall not match her A^oe." Venus and Adcnis. " Love is sweet : Wherein sweet ? In fading pleasures that do pain ; Beauty sweet : Is that sweet. That yieldeth sorrow for a gain ? If Love's sweet. Herein sweet That minutes' joys are monthly woes : 'Tis not sweet. That is sweet Nowhere but where repentance grows.* Robert Greene, Menaphon's Song. " Love is my bliss, and love is now my bale.' R. Greene, Friar Bccon. " An undigested heap of mixed extremes. Whose pangs are wakings, and whose pltasures dreams." Beaumont and Fletcher, Triumph of La)e, i. " Such is the posie Love composes ; ^ A stinging nettle, mixt with roses." Browne, Brit. Past. b. i. soig 3. V. I— 15. ECLOGUE IV. T. 16—36. II Eclogue IV. POLLIO. Sicilian muses, somewhat grander strains Sing we ! Not all do vineyards charm And lowly tam'risks : if we sing the woods, May woods deserving of a Consul prove ! The latest era of Cumsean song Ilath now arrived ; afresh the mighty round Of ages is begun. And now returns the Virgin, Returns the dynasty of Saturn. Now A new succession is from heav'n on high Let fall. Do thou but at his birth the boy, 'Neath whom the [race] of iron first shall cease, 1 1 And rise throughout the world the race of gold, Lucina chaste, befriend : now thine Apollo reigns. And thou, too, Pollio, the consul thou — This glorious age shall enter [on its course] And mighty months begin to roll. With thee Our chief, if any traces of our guilt Continue, cancelled they shall free the lands From endless terror. He shall share the life Of gods, and heroes with divinities 20 Lines 6, 7- Derrick tells us that a new star was said to have been seen in the open day about the time of Charles the Second's birth. To this Dryden thus alludes : " Or one, that bright companion of the sun, Whose glorious aspect seal'd our new-born king ; And now, a round of greater years begun, New influence ixowx his walks of light did bring." Annus Alirabilis, st. xviii. 8. " That was the righteous Virgin, which of old Liv'd here on earth, and plenty made abound ; But after Wrong was lov'd, and Justice solde. She left th' unrighteous world, and was to heaven extold." Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7, 37. 12. " And with iron sceptre rule Us here, as with his golden those in heaven." Milton, F. L. ii. 13. So Pericles: Shakespeare, Pericles, iii. i : " Lucina, O Divinest patroness and midwife, gentle To those that cry by night, convey thy deity Aboard our dancing boat : make swift the pangs Of my queen's travails 1" 15. Strictly, " this pride of time ;" for to make the expression refer to /«^r makes verse 12 come in very awkwardly. 16. " Henceforth a series of new time began. The mighty years in long procession ran." Dryden, Abs. and Achit. 1028, 29. See intermingled, and himself be seen of them; And with ancestral virtues shall he rule A world at peace. But unto thee, O boy, Her earliest tiny gifts with tillage none, Her gadding ivies at each step, with bac- caris. Shall earth unbosom, and Egyptian beans. With the acacia smiling interspersed. The she-goats of themselves shall carry home Their udders swoln with milk ; nor shall the herds Huge lions fear. The cradle's self for thee Shall pour forth charming flowers, ^^and the snake 31 Shall die, and guileful plant of bane shall die ; At large Assyrian spikenard grow. But soon As th' heroes' praises, and a father's deeds. 26. Spenser makes the earth equally obsequious to Dame Nature : " But th' Earth herself of her owne motion. Out of her fruitful bosom made to growe Most dainty trees, that, shooting up anon. Did seem to bow their bloss'ming heads full lowe For homage unto her, and like a throne did shew. And all the Earth far underneath her feete Was dight with flowers, that voluntary grew Out of the ground, and sent forth odours sweet ; Tenne thousand more of sundry sent and hew. That might delight the smell, or please the view. The which the nymphes from all the brooks thereby Had gathered, they at her footstoole threw ; That richer seem'd than any tapestry That princes bowres adorne with painted imagery." Faerie Queene, vii. 7, 8, 10. 28. Such a primeval state as Milton finely de- scribes : F. L. IV. : " About them frisking play'd All beasts of the earth, since wild, and of all chase In wood or wilderness, forest or den. Sporting the lion ramp'd, and in his paw Dandled the kid ; bears, tigers, ounces, pards, GamboU'd before them ; the unwieldy elephant. To make them mirth, used all his might, and wreathed His lithe proboscis ; close the serpent sly. Insinuating, wove with Gordian twine His braided train, and of his fatal guile Gave proof unheeded." 34. Now is he apt for knowledge : therefore know It is a more direct and even way. To train to virtue those of princely blood By examples than by precepts : if by examples whom should he rather strive to imitate Than his own father?" Webster, Vittoria Corombona, ii. 12 V. 2 7—44- ECLOGUE IV. V. 45—63. Thou shalt be able now to read, and learn What be their worth, the plain shall by- degrees With downy ear wax yellow, and the bunch Shall dangle blushing from untutored thorns, And chuiiish oaks their dewy hoiiies siill. Yet some few footsteps of the ancient crime 40 Shall steal behind, to bid [men] Thetis tempt In ships, and girdle round with walls the towns, And cleave-in furrows into earth. Another Tiphys then Shall be, another Argo, too, to waft Choice heroes ; there shall e'en be other wars ; Aye, and again to Troy a great Achilles Shall be despatched. Thereafter, when shall now Established age have fashioned thee a man. Yea, of himself shall from the main with- draw The voyager, nor naval pine its wares 50 Shall barter : every produce every land Shall yield. The ground shall not the harrows brook, Nor shall the vine the pruning-knife. Now, too. The stalwart ploughman shall from off his bulls Their yokes unloosen. Neither shall the wool Learn motley hues to feign ; but of himself The ram shall in the meadows change his fleece With now sweet-blushing purple dye, with now The weed of saffron ; of its own accord, 37. Or : " waving ear." 39. Query ? " the dews of honey." " The earth unploughed shall yield her crop, Pure honey from the oak shall drop, The fountain shall run milk ; The thistle shall the lily bear, And every bramble roses wear, And every worm make silk." Ben Jonson, The Golden Age Restored. 56. Or perhaps meniiri might be rendered " to forge," as Spenser says of Duessa : "So could she forge all colours save the trew." Vermilion, as they graze, shall drape the lambs. 60 " Through ages such as these, career ye on !" The Destinies have to their spindles said, In union with the steadfast will of Fates. Advance on thy grand dignities — the time Will presently arrive, — O darling child Of gods, the mighty foster-son of Jove ! Behold with spherick mass a nodding world. E'en lands, and ocean-paths, and sky- sublime ! Behold how at the age, decreed to come. All things rejoice ! Oh ! that to me might last 70 The latest stage of such a lengthful life, And inspiration, far as it shall prove Sufficient thy achievements to proclaim ! No, nor shall Thracian Orpheus me surpass In songs, nor Linus ; though a mother that — And this a father aid — Calliope Orpheus, the fair Apollo Linus. E'en if Pan, Arcadia umpire, should with me compete, E'en Pan, Arcadia umpire, would avow Himself surpassed. Begin, O infant boy, 80 To recognise thy mother with a smile ;. Ten months have brought thy mother long- some qualms. Begin, O infant boy : [that babe,] on whom His parents have not smiled, nor god of board. Nor goddess hath deemed worthy of her bed. 60. Or: "Shall scarlet, as they feed, array the lambs." 63. Spenser finely describes the offices of the Parcae : Faerie Qtieene, iv. 2, 48 : " There she them found all sitting round about The direfuU Distaffe standing in the mid, And with unwearied lingers drawing out The lines of life, from living knowledge hid. Sad Clotho held the rocke, the whiles the thrid By griesly Lachesis was spun with paine, That cruel Atropos eftsoones undid, With cursed knife cutting the twist in twain : Most wretched men, whose dayes depend on thrids so vaine !" 70. So Eve dreams that Adam says to her : " Heaven wakes with all his eyes, Whom to behold but thee, Nature's desire ? In whose sight all things joy." Milton, P. L. v. V. I- ECLOGUE V. V. 30. n Eclogue V. DAPHNIS. MENALCAS. MOPSUS. ATcnalcas. Why not, O Mopsus, seeing we have met, Both skilful, — thou in breathing into slender reeds. In singing verses I, — here seat us down Among the elms, with hazels interspersed ? AIopsus. The elder thou : to thee 'tis fair that I Give way, Menalcas, whether underneath The fitful shades — the zephyrs fanning them — Or rather 'neath the grot we go. Behold, How hath the wild-wood vine the grot o'erspread With scattered bunches^! Men. In our mounts with thee lo Amyntas only vies. Mop. What if the same Should strive in singing Phoebus to surpass ? Line 3. It is evident from this whole Eclogue, and especially fromcomparing vv. 51, 55 of Eel. 111., that dicere versus means to sing songs, not to re- hearse or indite them. See also Eel. IX., and compare v. 35 with v. 36. 7. " My lovely Aaron, wherefore look'st thou sad, When every thing doth make a gleeful boast? The birds chaunt melody on every bush ; The snake lies rolled in the cheerful sun : The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind, And make a chequer'd shadow on the ground : Under their sweet shade, Aaron, let us sit." Shakespeare, Tit. And. ii. 3. " How sweet these solitary places are ! how wantonly The wind blows through the leaves, and courts and plays with 'cm ! Will you sit down and sleep ? The heat invites you. Hark, how yond purling stream dances and murmurs ! The birds sing softly too : pray, take some rest, sir." J. Fletcher, The Pilgrim, v. 4." Q. "So fashioned a porch with rare device, Archt over head with an embracing vine. Whose bounches hanging downe seemd to entice All passers by lo taste their lushious wine." Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12, 54. Another side, umbrageous grots and caves Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps Luxuriant." Milton, P. L. iv. ' Deep in the gloomy glade a grotto bends. Wide through the craggy rock an arch extends ; The rugged stone is clothed with mantling vines, And round the cave the creeping woodbine twines." Gay, The Fan, i. 99-102. 12. Certat seems to have better authority than certet, and is certainly a more graphic reading. Men. Do thou begin, O Mopsus, first, if thou Or any flames of Phyllis, or the lauds Of Alcon hast, or Codrus' brawls : begin ; The kids, while feeding, Tityrus will watch. Mop. Nay rather I those verses, which of late Upon a beech's verdant bark I scored, And sang and marked them down by turns, will try : Do thou bid then Amyntas to compete. 20 Men. As much as doth the supple willow yield To olive wan, as much as lowly nard To beds of crimson roses, in our mind So much Amyntas yieldeth unto thee. Mop. But cease thou more, O swain ; we've reached the grot. Quenched by fell death, the Nymphs did Daphnis weep. IS, 16. So Spenser, Sh. Cal. May, 172 : " Now, Piers, of fellowship, tell us that saying ; For the lad can keep both our flockes from straying." A. Philips varies the idea : Past. 4 : " And since our ewes have grazed, what harm if they Lie round and listen, while the lambkins play ?" 20. " Shall the queen of the inhabitants of the air. The eagle, that bears thunder on her wings. In her angry mood destroy her hopeful young. For suffering a wren to perch too near them ? Such is our disproportion." P, Massinger, The Great Duke of Florence, iv. 2. 26. See Milton's Zj/cty^j; " But oh ! the heavy change, now thou art gone. Now thou art gone, and never must return ! Thee, .shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves. With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown. And all their echoes mourn : The willows and the hazel-copses green Shall now no more be seen Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays." The same miseries Spenser makes the conse- quence of Colin Clout's absence. Hobbinol tcUs him : Colin Clout, xxii. : " Whilst thou wast hence, all dead in dole did lie: The woods were heard to wailc full many a sythe, And all their birds with silence to complaine : The fields with faded flowers did seem to moume. And all their flocks from feeding to rcfraine : The running waters wept for thy returne. And all their fish with languour did lament." 26-29. So Alexander on the death of Clytus : " Here I will lie Close to his bleeding side, thus kissing him ; 14 V. 21 — 40- ECLOGUE V. 41—46. Ye [stood] the witnesses, O hazel-shrubs And rivers, for the Nymphs, when, clasping round The pitiable body of her son. The mother cruel calls both gods and stars. None in those days their pastured oxen drove, ' 31 O Daphnis, to the chilly streams ; no quad- ruped Or sipped the brook, or touched a blade of grass. O Daphnis, that e'en Afric lions wailed Thy death, both mountains wild and forests tell. Yea, Daphnis to the chariot taught to yoke Armenian tigresses ; 'twas Daphnis [taught] Processionals of Bacchus t'introduce. And wreathe with velvet leaves the limber spears. As is the vine the grace to trees, as grapes To vines, as bulls to herds, as standing corn 41 To teemful fields — all grace art thou to thine. When once the Weirds reft thee away, the fields E'en Pales, and Apollo e'en, forsook. Upon the furrows, whereunto we oft Plump grains of barley have consigned, there grow The fruitless darnel and the barren oats ; For violet soft, for purple daffodil, Thistle, and paliure with pointed thorns Spring up. Bestrew the ground with leaves, draw shades 50 These pale dead lips that have so oft advised me ; Thus bathing o'er his reverend face with tears : Thus clasping his cold body in my arms, Till Death, like him, has made me stiff and horrid." Lee, Rival Queens, iv. end. A. PhiHps happily imitates this passage: " The pious mother comes, with grief oppress'd ; Ye trees and conscious fountains can attest With what sad accents, and what piercing cries. She fiU'd the grove, and importuned the skies. And every star upbraided with his death, When, in her widow'd arms, devoid of breath. She clasp'd her son." Past. 3. 33. So Spenser says of Dido's death: Sh. Cal. Nov. 133 : " The feeble flockes in field refuse their former foode. And hang their heades as they would learne to weepe." 39. Velvet, or, "waving," "pliant." 50. That is, plant flowers to grace the ground, and trees to shade the founts. " This rosemary is withered ; pray get fresh ! I would have these herbs grow up in his grave. When I am dead and rotten. Reach the bays ; I'll tie a garland here about his head : 'Twill keep my boy from lightning." Webster, Vittoria Corombona, v. i. Upon the springs, O shepherds : such be- hests Daphnis enjoins to be for him observed. Do ye both form a tomb, and on the tomb The lay inscribe: "I, Daphnis, in the woods. Hence even to the constellations famed. Of a fair flock the guard, more fair myself." Men. Thy song is such to us, O heav'nly bard. As slumber to the weary on the grass ; 54. Instead of an inscription on Albino's tomb. Philips introduces Angelot praying : " Oh ! peaceful may thy gentle spirit rest ! The flowery turf be light upon thy breast ; Nor shrieking owl nor bat thy tomb fly round. Nor midnight goblins revel o'er the ground." Past. 3. " But since that I shal die her slauve. Her slauve, and eke her thrall : Write you, my frendes, upon my grauve This chaunce that is befall : ' Here lleth unhappy Harpaius, By cruell louve now slaine ;, Whom Phylida vnjustly thus Hath murdred with disdaine.' " These are the concluding verses of a beautiful composition, probably the earliest Pastoral poem in the language. It will be found among " Poems of Vncertaine Auctors " in Chalmers' "English Poets," vol. ii. It is impossible here to withhold Ben Jonson's masterly Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke : " Underneath this sable herse Lies the subject of all verse, Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother : Death ! ere thou hast slain another. Learned, and fair, and good as she. Time shall throw a dart at thee." Underwoods, xv. "As soon as I am dead. Come all and watch about my hearse ; Bring each a mournful story and a tear, To offer at it when I go to earth : With fluttering ivy 'clasp my coffin round ; Write on my brow my fortune ; let my bier Be borne by virgins, that shall sing by course The truth of maids and perjuries of men." Beaumont and Fletcher, The Maid's Tragedy, ii. i. 57. " For, while I sit with thee, I seem in Heaven And sweeter thy discourse is to my ear Than fruits of palm-tree, pleasantest to thirst And hunger both, from labour at the hour Of sweet repast : they satiate, and soon fill. Though pleasant ; but thy words, with grace divine Imbued, bring to their sweetness no satiety." Milton, P.L. viii. 58. Sopor strictly means "deep sleep," but the Latin poets use it for " sleep " in general. In the same lax way, "slumber" is used by English poets to represent "sleep," though strictly it means "light sleep." Still, though there is so marked a difference between sopor and "slumber," yet as the poet does not seem to use the word here in the accurate signification attached to it in yE7t. iii. 173, " slumber " may well be admitted, being far more harmonious in this passage than " sleep." The same liberty is taken in rendering y£"«. iv. 522. V. 45-47 are amplified by Spenser in his exquisite V. 47—63. ECLOGUE V. T. 64— 8 a. 15 As in the summer-tide to slake the thirst By some delicious water's skipping rill. 60 Nor is't alone on reeds, but in thy voice, Thou rivallest thy master : happy swain I Thou now shalt be the second after him. Still we will these of ours, howe'er [we may], To thee in turn recite, and Daphnis thine Raise to the stars ; we Daphnis to the stars Will bear away : us, too, did Daphnis love. Mop. Can aught to us of higher value be Than such a favor ? Both the swain him- self Was worthy to be sung, and those thy lays Now long since Stimicon hath praised to us. Men. Bright Daphnis marvels at th' un- wonted gate 72 Of th' Empyrean, and beneath his feet Beholds the clouds and stars. Hence lively joy Absorbs the woods, and other rural scenes, And Pan, and shepherds, and the Dryad maids. Nor doth the wolf an ambush for the flock. Nor any toils their craft for harts, devise : Benignant Daphnis loves repose. The mounts Themselves, unshorn, in gladness to the stars 80 Fling forth their voices ; now the very cliffs, description of the " Bower of Bliss :" Faerie Queene, ii- 5.30: " And fast beside there trickled softly downe A gentle streaine, whose murmuring wave did play Emongst the pumy stones, and made a sowne. To lull him soft asleepe that by it lay : , The wearie traveller, wandring that way. Therein did often quench his thristy heat, And then by it his wearie limbes display, (Whiles creeping slomber made him to forget His former payne,) and wypt away his toilsom sweat." 72. So Spenser of Dido, in Sh. Cat. Nov. 175 ; see also 195, &c. : " She raignes a goddess now emong the saintes, That whilome was the saynt of shepheards light. And is enstalled nowe in heavens night." *' Now, free from earth, thy disencumber'd soul Mounts up, and leaves behind the clouds and starry pole." Dryden, Abs. and Achit. 850, 1. More directly imitated in Amyntas, 66-73. " Damon, behold yon breaking purple cloud ; Hear'st thou not hymns and songs divinely loud ? There mounts Amyntas ; the young cherubs play About their godlike mate, and sing him on his way. He cleaves the liquid air, behold, he flies. And every moment gains upon the skies. The new-come guest admires the etherial state, The sapphire portal, and the golden gate." 74. Or : " lively," or " active." The very trees, ring out the lays : " A god, A god is he, Menalcas !" O be kind And gracious to thine own ! Lo ! altars four I Behold, O Daphnis, twain of them for thee ; Twain altars high for Phoebus. Drinking- cups, A couple frothing with new milk, each year, And craters twain of unctuous oil, I'll set For thee ; and specially with copious wine Enlivening the feast — before the hearth, 90 If it shall winter be ; if harvest [tide], Within the shade — the Ariusian wines, A novel nectar, from the tankards I Will pour. To me shall [both] Damaetas sing. And Lyctian ./Egon ; frisking Satyrs ape Alphesibceus. These shall aye be thine. Alike what time our yearly off'rings we Shall pay the Nymphs, and when we shall perform The circuit of the fields. While mountain- brows The boar [shall love], while fish shall love the floods, 100 And while upon the thyme the bees shall feed, While cicads on the dew, [thy] glory aye, And thy renown, and praises shall endure. As unto Bacchus and to Ceres, so to thee Their vows each year shall husbandmen perform : Thou also shalt oblige them to their vows. Mop. What [boons] to thee, what boons can I return For such a song ? For neither me delight 82. " If, like a statue. Cold and unglorified by art, you call Our sense to wonder, where shall we find eyes To stand the brightness, when you're turned a shrine, Embellished with the burning light of diamonds. And other gifts, that dwell, like stars about you V* Shirley, The Imposture, ii. 3. 84. Ara and altare are used of the same altar in yC«. ii. 5x4, S15. 'fii- 171. 174. 107. Milton similarly in Par. Lost, viii. 5 : " What thanks sufficient, or what recompense E(j[ual, have I to render to thee, divine Historian ?" 108. " Colin, to heare thy rymes and roundelaycs. Which thou were wont on wastefuU hilles to sing, I more delight then larke in sommer dayes. Whose echo made the neighbour groves to ring." Spenser, Sh. Cat. June, 49. " O happy fair ! Your eyes are lodestars, and your tongue sweet air, More tuneable than lark to shepherd's car. When wheat is green, and hawthorn buds appear." Shakespeare, Midsummer Nigkfs Drtam, i. i. A. Philips happily imitates venes 45-47, 81-84 : Pott. 4 : i6 V, 82—84. ECLOGUE VI. V, 85 — 90. So much the rising Auster's whisp'ring sound, Nor shores by billow buffeted, nor brooks, Which rill adown among the rocky glens. " Oh, Colinet ! how sweet thy grief to hear ! How does thy verse subdue the listening ear ! Soft falling as the still, refreshing dew. To slake the drought, and herbage to renew ; Not half so sweet the midnight winds, which move In drowsy murmurs o'er the waving grove Nor valley brook, that, hid by alders, O'er pebbles warbling, and through whispering reeds ; Nor dropping waters, which from rocks distil, And welly grots with tinkling echoes fill." III. " For first she springs out of two marble rocks. On which a grove of oakes high-mounted growes. That as a girlond seemes to deck the locks Of some faire bride, brought forth with pompous showes Men. We'll first present thee with this brittle reed. 112 This taught us, " Corydon with fervor loved The fair Alexis ;" this the same, " Whose flock? Is't that of Meliboeus ?" Mop. But do thou Accept this crook, which, though he begged me oft, Antigenes hath never borne away — He, too, was worthy then of being loved — With even knobs and bronze, Menalcas, fair. Out of her bowre, that many flowers strowes : So through the flowry dales she tumbling downe Through many woods and shady coverts flowes. That on each side her silver channell crowne." Spenser, Canto vi. of Mutabilitie. 118. Or: "Though he." Eclogue VI. SILENUS. The first that in the Syracusan strain Deigned to disport, nor blushed to haunt the woods, W^as our Thalia. When I would of kings And battles sing, the Cynthian twitched mine ear, And warned : "A shepherd, Tit'rus, it becomes To feed fat sheep, recite a flimsy lay." Now I — for thou shalt have full many [a bard] Who may thy praises. Varus, yearn to tell, And thy grim wars record — will practise o'er The rural song upon my slender reed. 10 Unbidden [strains] I do not sing. Yet still, If any one, if any one e'en these, Line 6. Does any classical British author apply the Hteral meaning of dedtictu7n, " thin-spun," to compositions of any kind ? Milton uses it of life, but evidently with reference to the trite idea of life's thread. If the metaphor must be abandoned in the translation, many words offer themselves for accept- ance, of which perhaps " homely " is as good as any. Addison, in speaking of Spenser, whom he had not enough of poetic taste to admire, says : " The long-spun allegories fulsome grow." Pope employs the word which is used in the version : " Proud of a vast extent of flimsy lines." Prologue to Satires. " His breeding. It was not spun the finest ; but his wealth. Able to gild deformity, and make Even want of wit a virtue." Shirley, The Constant Maid, i. i. By fancy charmed, shall read, O Varus, thee Our tam'risks, thee shall all the woodland sing; Nor any page to Phoebus sweeter is Than that which hath the name of Varus traced Upon its front. Proceed, Pierian maids. The striplings Chromis and Mnasylos spied Silenus lying in a cave asleep. With yestern Bacchus swollen through his veins, 20 As ever. Garlands just outside him lay, But merely fallen off his head, and hung His heavy beaker by its handle worn. Assailing him — for oft the aged man Had, with the expectation of a song. Played false with both of them — they fetters throw Upon him, from the very garlands [forged]. As their companion, ^gle joins herself. And sudden comes upon them in their fear, .^gle, the fairest of the water Nymphs. 30 And now, as up he looks, with mulberries Blood-red his forehead and his brows she stains. He, laughing at the trick, — ** Why fetters tie ?" Exclaims : " Release me, lads ; it is enough That it is seen that you have had the power. 20. " Help, Virtue ! these are sponges and not men ! V- Eottles! m.ere vessels !" * Ben Jonson, Pleasure reconciled to Virtue. V. 35—44. ECLOGUE Vr. V. 45—67. >7 The songs, which wish ye, hear : the songs for you ; For her shall be another kind of fee." At once begins he of his own accord. Then, sooth, both Fauns and savage beasts to rhythm You might see frolic, then stiff oaks to wave Their crests. Nor doth so much in Phoebus joy 41 Parnassus' crag, nor Rhodope and Ismarus So much at Orpheus marvel. For he sang How through the vasty void had been com- bined The seeds alike of lands, and air, and sea. And at the same time those of flowing fire ; How all beginnings from these rudiments, And e'en the yielding ball of th' atmosphere Together grew ; then how the ground began To harden, and within the deep apart 50 To shut the ocean up, and by degrees Tot;akethe shapes of things ; and [how] anon The lands at glimm'ring of a new-born sun Are in amaze, and from a greater height From clouds uplifted do the showers fall ; When forests first begin to spring, and when Are straying through the mounts, that know them not. The scattered forms of life. He next relates The stones by Pyrrha cast, the Saturn reign. And birds of Caucase, and Prometheus' rape. 60 To these he adds, how, quitted at the spring. The seamen had on Hylas called aloud. That all the strand with " Hylas ! Hylas!" rang. 39. So Piers says of Cuddie : Spenser, Sh. CaL Oct. 25 : " Soone as thou gynst to sette thy notes in frame, O how the rural routes to thee do cleave !" " For we will have the wanton Fauns, That frisking skip about the lawns, The Panisks, and the Sylvans rude, Satyrs, and all that multitude, To dance their wilder rounds about And cleave the air with many a shout As they would hunt poor Echo out." Ben Jonson, The Penates. A different effect of the voice is seen in Shirley : " The tongue that's able to rock heaven asleep, And make the music of the spheres stand still, To listen to the happier airs it makes, And mend their tunes by it." Love Tricks, iv. 2. So in Shakespeare, quoted by Gifford : " And when Love speaks the voice of all the gods Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony." 46. But whether liquidus means here " flowing," or •' transparent," or " unmingled," it is not easy to .-oe. 63. " Or that same daintie lad, which was so dearc To great Alcides, that, whcnas he dyde, He wailed womanlike with many a teare, And every wood and every valley wyde He filld with Hylas name ; the nymphes eke Hylas crj'dc." Spenser, Fabric Queene, iii. la, 7. And, blessed if there never had been herds, Pasiphae he comforts in her love For the young snowy bull. *• Ahl hapless dame ! What frenzy thee hath seized ! The Proetides With their fantastic lowings filled the fields ; But, ne'ertheless, not one of them pursued So scandalous embracements of the beasts. Though for her neck she'd feared the plough, and oft 71 Upon her glossy forehead sought for horns. Ah 1 hapless dame ! You now on moun- tains rove ; He, cushioned on his side of snowy white With downy martagon, beneath a dun Holm-oak, on yellowing grasses chews the cud. Or courts some female in the mighty herd." "Shut, nymphs, Dictaean nymplS, now shut The forest-passes, if by any chance The truant footsteps of the bull may come Across mine eyes. Him, haply, either charmed 81 By grass of green, or following the droves, Some cows may lure away to Gortyn's stalls." He next the damsel chants, who in amaze Beheld the apples of th' Hesperides. He next the sister-train of Phaeton Encircles with the moss of bitter bark, And rears them tow'ring alders from the ground. Then sings he how, while straying by the streams Of the Permessus, to Aonian mounts 90 One of the sisters Gallus led ; and how The choir of Phoebus to the hero all In homage rose ; how Linus these to him — The shepherd of a heav'nly lay, with flowers 75. It may as well be remarked here that in this work there is no pretension of determining what is meant by the terms which stand for plants. " Hya- cinthm" is usually rendered "martagon," only because the learned and careful Martyn is so posi- tive that this is the flower intended : and to call it "hyacinth" would be simply to mislead. What- ever hyacinthns meant, it is certain that it did not mean " hyacinth." But, it must be confessed, that the "imperial mart.-igon " would not form exactly the sort of bed that a sensible bull would be likely to choose. In autumn, at least, he might nearly as well select a couch of sticks. 86. Spenser thus finely alludes to the story of Phaeton : " As when the firic-mouthed steedes, which drew The Sunne's bright waync to Phaeton's decay, .Soone as they did the monstrous Scorpion vcw. With ugly craplcs crawling in their way. The dreadful sight did them so sore affray, That their well-knowcn courses they forwent ; And, le.-iding th' ever burning lamnc astray, This lower world nigh all to ashes orent. And left their scorched path yet in the firmament." /■'. Q. V. S. 40. C i8 V. 68—74. ECLOGUE VII. V. 75—86. And bitter parsley on his tresses crowned — Pronounced : ' ' These reeds to thee the Muses grant — Lo, take them ! — which to Ascra's aged [bard They granted] erst ; wherewith in playing he Was wont to trail stifif ashes from the mounts. Thereon by thee the birth of Grynium's glade 100 Be chanted, lest there should be any grove, "Wherein Apollo more may boast himself." Why should I tell how [he] of Scylla [sang, Daughter] of Nisus, whom hath rumor traced : 95. So Gray makes Nature address Shakespeare : " What time, where lucid Avon stray'd To him the mighty mother did unveil Her awful face : the dauntless child Stretch'd forth his little arms and smil'd : 'This pencil take,' she said, 'whose colours clear Richly paint the vernal year. Thine, too, these golden keys, immortal Boy ! This can unlock the gates of Joy ; Of Horror that, and thrilling Fears, Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.' " Progress of Poesy. 104. Catrou's and Doering's reading of aut before giiam would relieve this passage of much of its difficulty : but there is so little manuscript authority That she, beneath her snowy waist begirt With baying monsters, plagued Dulichia's ships. And in the deepsome gulf, ah ! piecemeal rent The frighted mariners with her sea-dogs ? Or how he told of Tereus' limbs trans- shaped ; What cates for him, what presents Philomel Prepared ; with what career the wastes she sought, 1 1 1 And with what pinions first, unhappy [bird] ! She o'er her own abode flew to and fro. [The lays], all which, as Phoebus played them erst. The blest Eurotas heard, and bade his bays By aid of memory to learn, he sings : The stricken vales return them to the stars ; Until to gather in the cotes the sheep. And count their tale, did Vesper give com- mand. And issue forth upon unwilling heaven. 1 20 for it, that, with Heyne, Forbiger, Wagner, and Weise, it is better to leave the difficulty as it is, than to tamper with the text. 118. " By this the moystie Night approaching fast. Her deawy humour 'gan on th' earth to shed, That warn'd the shepheards to their home to hast Their tender flocks, now being fully fed." Spenser, Faerie Queene, vi. 9, 13. Eclogue VII. MELIBGEUS. MELIBCEUS. CORYDON. THYRSIS. Melibceiis. By hazard underneath a whisp'r- ing holm Had Daphnis sat him down, and Corydon And Thyrsis had together driv'n their flocks Into one spot — sheep Thyrsis, Corydon His she-goats swollen out with milk : Both blooming in their age, Arcadians both, And matched in song, and ready at reply. Hither from me, while I bescreen from cold The tender myrtle-shrubs, the goat himself. The husband of my flock, had strayed away ; lO And Daphnis I espy. When he sees me On th' other hand, he cries: "Quick, hither come, O Meliboeus ; safe for thee thy goat And kids : and if thou canst delay awhile. Beneath the shade repose thee ! hither of themselves The steers will come along the leas to drink. Here lines his em'rald banks with tender reed The Mincius, and from out the holy oak The swarms are hummmg. What was I to do ? I nor Alcippe, nor a Phyllis had, 20 The lambkins, banished from the milk, to pen At home ; a match, there was, too — Cory- don With Thyrsis ; — ['twas] a mighty [match]. Still I Postponed my grave pursuits to their disport. They, therefore, in alternate verses both Began to strive : the Muses willed that they Alternate [verses] should recite. These Corydon, Those Thyrsis, [each] repeated in his turn. Cor. Libethran Nymphs, our charm, or deign to me V. 32—43. ECLOGUE VII. ▼• 44—59. '9 A sonnet, such as ye to Codrus mine ; — 30 To lays of Phoebus he the nearest makes ; — Or, if we have not all the pow'r, my pipe Here tuneful from the holy pine shall hang. 77/ V. Arcadian shepherds, with the ivy deck Your rising poet, that may Codrus' sides Be burst with envy ; or, if he have praised Beyond his will, with baccar bind my brow. Lest tongue of mischief harm your future bard. Cor. This bristly boar's head, Delia, [gives] to thee The little Mycon, and the branching horns Of long-lived hart. If lasting this should prove, 41 Of polished marble thou full-length shalt I stand, ; With scarlet buskin booted on thy legs. Thy. A bowl of milk, Priapus, and these cakes. Each year for thee to look for is enough : Thou 'rt keeper of a wretched garden. Now Of marble, suited to our present means, "We've made thee ; but do thou, if teemful- ness Our flock shall have recruited, be of gold. I Cor. O Nerean Galatee, to me more i sweet 50 Than Hybla's thyme, more bright than swans, more fair Than blanching ivy — soon as shall the bulls, Full-fed, reseek their cribs, if any care For thy own Corydon possess thee, come. Thy. Nay, may I seem more bitter unto thee Than Sard on herbs, more rough than butcher's-broom. Than stranded sea- weed baser, if this light Is not already longer unto me Line 35. Strictly, yV^^w/^w should be rendered by "his brow," not "my brow," referring to poeta; but the confusion between Codrus and Thyrsis would thus become inextricable. " Ceesar. Cato, you will undo him with your praise. Cato. Caesar will hurt himself with his own envy. People. The voice of Cato is the voice of Rome. Cato. The voice of Rome is the consent of heaven." Ben Jonson, Catiline, iii. i. 49. " What is't ? but effect it. And thou shalt be my i'Esculapius : Thy image shall be set up in pure gold. To which I will fall down, and worship it." Beaumont and Fletcher, Thierry and Iheodoret, ii. I. 58. Much the same were the feelings of Britomart at the absence of Artegal : Spenser, F. Q. v. 6, 5 : " And then, her griefe with errour to beguyle. She fayn'd to count the time againe anew, As if before she had not counted trew : Than a whole year. Go home, full-fed ; if [you Have] any modesty, begone, ye steers. 60 Cor. Ve mossy springs, and grass more soft than sleep, And verdant arbute, which is screening you With scattered shade, the solstice from the flock Ward off ; now comes the scorching sum- mer, now. Upon the merry vine-spray swell the buds. Thy. Here hearth and oily pines, here plenteous fire Aye be, and lintels black with ceaseless soot : Here we as much for chills of Boreas care As either for the number [of the sheep] The wolf, or boiling rivers for their banks. Cor. Both junipers and prickly chestnut trees 7 i Stand bristling; strewed in every quarter lie Its fruits beneath each tree ; now all things smile : But if the fair Alexis from these mounts Depart, you e'en would see the rivers dry. Thy. The field is parched ; through tainture of the air The dying herbage thirsts ; his vin;r shades. Hath Liber grudged the hills: at the approach Of our own Phyllis all the grove will bloom, For dayes, but houres ; for moneths that passed were, She told but weeks, to make them seeme more few : Yet, when she reckned them still drawing neare. Each hour did seem a raoneth, and every moncth a yeare." " The art of numbers cannot count the hours Thou hast been absent." Middleton, The Family of Love, v. a. " Marian. Could you so long be absent? Robin. What, a week ! Was that so long ? Marian. How long are lovers' weeks, Do you think, Robin, when they are asunder? Are they not prisoners' years ?" B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. a. " Still, when we expect Our bliss, time creeps ; but when the happier things Call to enjoy, each saucy hour hath wings." Shirley, The Traitor, i. a. 74. " But neither breath of Mom, when she ascends With charm of earliest birds ; nor rising sun On this delightful land ; nor herb, fruit, flower. Glistening with dew ; nor fragrance after showers : Nor grateful evening mild ; nor silent Night, With this her solemn bird ; nor walk by moon. Or glittering star-light, without thee is sweet." Milton, P. L. iv. 79. Cowley gives a diflferent turn to the idea : speaking of spring, he says : C 2 V. 60—64. ECLOGUE VIII. V. 65—70. And Jove drop plenteous down in joyful rain, 80 Cor. T' Alcides poplar dearest is, the vine To Bacchus, to the lovely Venus plant Of myrtle, unto Phoebus his own bay ; Loves Phyllis hazel-shrubs : so long as these Shall Phyllis love, nor myrtle-plant, nor bay Of Phoebus, shall the hazel-shrubs surpass. " How could it be so fair, and you away ? How could the trees be beauteous, flowers so gay ? Could they remember but last year, How you did them, they you delight. The sprouting leaves which saw you here, And call'd their fellows to the sight. Would, looking round for the same sight in vain, Creep back into their silent barks again." Tfie Mistress : Spring. Thy. The ash-tree in the woods is loveliest, The pine in gardens, poplar by the floods, The silver-fir upon the lofty mounts : But if thou oft'ner would'st revisit me, 90 Fair Lycidas, the ash-tree in the woods, The pine in gardens should make way for thee. Mel. I these remember, and that all in vain Competed conquered Thyrsis. From that time Is Corydon the Corydon for us. 93. Is it quite certain that " Corydon for ever," (which is, after all that has been written about it, the meaning of the last line in the Latin,) is exactly a judicious cheer? Eclogue VIII. PHARMACEUTRIA. DAMON. ALPHESIBCEUS. The shepherds Damon and Alphesiboeus' song, Whom, mindless of her browse, the heifer viewed In wonder, while contending ; at whose lay The pards were with amazement struck, and, changed In their careerings, rivers came to rest : — We Damon's and Alphesiboeus' song will chant. Whether thou dost for me now overpass The rocks of great Timavus, or dost cruise Along the margin of Illyria's sea ; Lo ! will that day be ever [here], when 1 10 May be allowed to celebrate thy deeds ? Lo ! will it [come], that I may be allowed To bear throughout the universe thy lays, Alone for Sophoclean buskin meet ? My spring [of song] from thee on thee shall end : Line 5. The active use of requiesco seems to rest on slender foundation. The passage from Ciris proves nothing ; and that from Propertius, ii. 22, 25, little more. However, there is one from the latter author much more to the point: ii. 34, 75: " Quam- vis ille suam lassus requievit avenam." Able authors take both views of the matter ; and this is certain, that no one can say that the word is not used actively here, though such a use is extremely rare. The skill of Damon and Alphesiboeus is attributed to Thyrsis by Milton in his Comus : " Thyrsis ? whose artful strains have oft delayed The huddling brook to hear his madrigal." 15. " Then ever, beauteous Contemplation, hail ! From thee began, auspicious maid, my song ; With thee shall end." Warton, Pleasures of Melancholy. Receive the lays, commenced at thy com- mands, And suffer thou this ivy round thy brows To creep along among thy conqu'ring bays. The chilly shadow of the night had scarce Departed from the sky, what time the dew Upon the tender herbage to the flock 21 Is welcomest ; — upon his rounded crook Of olive leaning, Damon thus began : Damon. Arise, and usher in the bounte- ous day, Forestalling it, O Lucifer ; while I, By Nisa my betrothed's unworthy love Beguiled, am plaining, and the deities, (Though by their being witnesses [thereto] No vantage have I gained, yet) as I die. Am I addressing at my latest hour. 30 Begin with me, my pipe, Masnalian strains. Maenalus both a tuneful wood, and pines That speak, hath ever ; ever doth he hear The shepherds' loves, and Pan, who was the first, Who suffered not that reeds should idle [rest]. Begin with me, my pipe, Masnalian strains. 18. " Laurel is a victor's due ! I give it you, I give it you ; Thy name wifh praise. Thy brow with bays We circle round : All men rejoice With cheerful voice. To see thee like a conqueror crowned. Middleton, More Dissemblers besides Women, i. 3, V. 26 — 40* ECLOGUE VJIL ▼. 41—55. 31 To Mopsus is my Nisa given : what May not we lovers look for ? Griffins now With horses shall be yoked, and in the age Ensuing shall the fearful fallow-deer 40 With stag-hounds to the drinking-troughs repair. Fresh torches, Mopsus, cut : for thee a bride Is being escorted [home] : O bridegroom, strew The nuts ; for thee doth Hesper GEta quit. Begin with me, my pipe, Majnalian strains. O mated to a worthy spouse ! Whilst thou Look'st down on every man, and while my pipe Is thy abhorrence, while my she-goats, too. And shaggy eye-brow, and my dangling beard ; Nor deem'st thou any god minds human things. 50 Begin with me, my pipe, Msenalian strains. In our enclosures thee, a tiny [maid] — Your guide was I — I with thy mother saw The dewy apples culling : then the year. Next from th' eleventh, just had me em- braced ; I just was able from the ground to reach The brittle branches. When I looked, how I was lost ! 37. " If his possessing her your rage does move, 'Tis jealousy, the avarice of love." Dryden, The Maiden Queen, iii. i. " Then, when our eager wishes soared the highest, Ready to stoop and grasp the lovely game, A haggard owl, a worthless kite of prey, With his foul wings, sailed in, and spoiled my quarry." Otway, Venice Preserved, i. i. 39. Such anomalies are graphically paralleled by Pope in the 3rd Book of the Duticiad : " Thence a new world, to Nature's laws unknown, Breaks out refulgent, with a heaven its own : Another Cynthia her new journey runs. And other planets circle other suns. The forests dance, the rivers upward rise, Whales sport in woods, and dolphins in the skies." 57. " Why, Philocles, what lost already, man ! Struck dead with one poor glance !" May, T/tf Heir, ii. " I tell you what she is. What she expects, and what she will effect, Unless you be the miracle of men. That come with a purpose to behold. And go away yourself," Beaumont and Fletcher, The Laws of Candy, ii. i. " How art thou lost ! How on a sudden lost !" Milton, F.L.h. ix. Similarly Marcus, of the sight of Lucia, in Addison's Catc, iii. i : " And yet, when I behold the charming maid, I'm ten times more undone." And Cowley : " I came, I saw, and was undone," Mistress: T/ie Thraldom, How fell distraction hurried me away I Begin with me, my pipe, Manalian strains. Now know I what is Love : to him among 60 The rugged rocks doth either Tomarus, Or Rhodope, or utmost Garamants, An imp nor of our breed, nor blood, give birth. Begin with me, my pipe, Mcenalian strains. Fell Love hath taught a mother to distain Her hands all over with her children's blood : O mother, also barbarous wert thou ! More barbarous the mother, or that boy More impious ? More barbarous that boy ; O mother, also barbarous wert thou ! 70 Begin with me, my pipe, Maenalian strains. Now even let the wolf unbidden fly The sheep ; let churlish oaks gold apples bear ; With daflfodilly let the alder bloom ; Let tam'risks drop rich ambers from their rinds ; E'en owlets vie with swans ; let Tityrus 63. " For such a warped slip of wilderness Ne'er issued from his blood." Shakespeare, Measure /or Measure, iii, 4, 65. The unprejudiced reader, who is not absurdly wedded to VirgiJ, as Dr. Trapp and others, can hardly help going along with Heyne in his caustic remarks on verses 49, 50. However, he seems too hasty in expunging them from the text. Why may not Virgil have written bad lines as well as any other poet? Milton, who was vastly his superior in genius, has written scores of them. In the 49th verse, instead of the awkward supply of ntagis before im/>robtis, may not puer improhus ille be one phrase ? Vide Geo. iii. 431, Hie im- probus; /En. v. 397, Improbns iste. So that the meaning would be : Fell Love taught, &c. You, mother, were barbarous as well as he (Love). Was the mother the more barbarous, or that wicked boy '. That wicked boy was (more barbarous) ; you, mother, were barbarous too (though he more so). 66. " Oh, mother, do not lose your name! forget not The touch of nature in you, tenderness ! 'Tis all the soul of woman, all the sweetness ! Forget not, I beseech you, what are children. Nor how you have groaned for them ; to 'what love They are bom inheritors, with what care kept ; And, as they rise to ripeness, still remember How they imp out your age ! and when tiff.e calls you. That as an autumn flower you fall, forget not How round about your hearse they nang like pennons." Beaumont and Fletcher, Thierry and Theodoret, V. 2. 67. " This is the very top, The height, the crest, or crest unto the crest Of murder's arms : this is the bloodiest shame. The wildest savagery, the vilest stroke. That ever wall-eyed wrath, or staring rage. Presented to the tears of soft remorse." Shakespeare, King John, iv. 3. V. 56—68. ECLOGUE VIII . V. 69- Become an Orpheus, Orpheus in the woods, Among the dolphins an Arion [be]. Begin with me, my pipe, Moenalian strains. Let all things even to mid sea be turned. Ye forests, fare ye well. Headforemost I Shall from a skyey mountain's watching- post 82 Upon the waves be borne adown : this gift, The latest of a dying man, retain. Cease thou, now cease, my pipe, Maenalian strains. These Damon [sang] : do ye, Pierian maids. What [strains] Alphesiboeus in reply Returned declare : we cannot all do all. Alphesibceus. Bring water forth, and with a downy wreath Festoon these altars, and rich vervains burn, 90 And the male frankincense : that I may try My paramour's sound senses to derange With sorc'rous rites : naught here, but spells, there lacks. Bring home from town, my spells, bring Daphnis [home]. 82. " Still fate is in my reach : from mountains high, Deep in whose shadow craggy ruins lie, Can I not headlong iiing this weight of woe, And dash out life against the flints below ? Are there not streams, and lakes, and rivers wide, Where my last breath may bubble on the tide ?" Gay, Dione, v. 2. 90. " Black spirits and white, red spirits and gray, Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may ! Titty, Tiffin, keep it stiff in ! Firedrake, Puckey, make it lucky ! Liard, Robin, you must bob in ! Round, around, around, about, about ! All ill come running in, all good keep out ! Middleton, The Witch, v. 2. 93. The power of magic is described with infinite beauty by Shakespeare in his Tempest, v. i : " Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves ; ■ And ye, that on the sands with printless foot, Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him, When he comes back ; you demy-puppets, that F>y moonshine do the green-sour ringlets make. Whereof the ewe not bites; and you, whose pastime Is to make midnight mushrooms : that rejoice To hear the solemn curfew ; by whose aid (Weak masters though ye be) I have bedimm'd The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds, And 'twixt the green sea and the azur'd vault Set roaring war ; to the dread rattling thunder Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak With his own bolt ; the strong-bas'd promontory Have I made shake, and by the spurs pluck'd up The pine and cedar ; graves, at my command. Have wak'd their sleepers ; oped, and let them forth By my so potent art." 94. Or : "my Daphnis bring." Spells even can from heav'n unsphere the moon ; By spells did Circe change Ulysses' mates ; Cold in the meads through charming bursts the snake. Bring home from town, my spells, bring Daphnis [home]. I first around thee twine these triple threads, With threefold color chequered, and three times 100 This image round the altars do I lead : In number odd the deity delights. Bring home from town, my spells, bring Daphnis [home]. Twine thou, O Amaryllis, in three knots Three colors ; twine them, Amaryllis, now, And say : ' ' The chains of Venus do I twine." Bring home from town, my spells, bring Daphnis [home]. As doth this clay grow hard, and as this wax Grows fluid at the one and selfsame fire — 95. " Can you doubt me, then, daughter. That can make mountains tremble, miles of woods walk, Whole earth's foundation bellow, and the spirits Of the entombed to burst out from their marbles ; Nay, draw yond moon to my involved designs?", Middleton, The Witch, v. 2. 99. There is a marked allusion to these magical rites in Spenser's account of Glance's efforts in behalf of Britomart, though her object was the exact reverse of Virgil's witch: — "to undoe her daughter's love :" " Then, taking thrise three heares from off her head, Them trebly breaded in a threefold lace. And round about the pots mouth bound the thread ; And, after having whispered a space Certein sad words with hollow voice and bace, Shee to the virgin sayd, thrise sayd she itt : ' Come, daughter, come ; come, spit upon my face ; Spitt thrise upon me, thrise upon me spitt : Th' uneven nomber for this business is most fitt.' " F. Q. iii. 2, 50. 100. So Dame Partlett to Chanticleer : Dryden, Cock and Fox, 187, 8: " Take just three worms, nor under nor above. Because the gods unequal numbers love." 109. " His picture made in wax, and gently molten By a blue fire, kindled with dead men's eyes, Will waste him by degrees." Middleton, The Witch, y. 2. " As thus I stab his picture, and stare on it, Methinks the duke should feel me now: is not His soul acquainted? Can he less than tremble, When I lift up my arm to wound his counterfeit? Witches can persecute the lives of whom They hate, when they torment their senseless figures. And stick the waxen model full of pins. " Shirley, Ihe Traitor, v. 2. V. 82—99' ECLOGUE IX. V. 100 — 109. 23 So Daphnis by our love. Strew salted meal, i lO And with bitumen light the crackling bays. Me felon Daphnis burns, in Daphnis I this bay. Bring home from town, my spells, bring Daphnis [home]. May such a passion Daphnis [seize], as when, Worn out in seeking for the youthful bull Througli lawns and lofty groves, a heifer sinks Down by a water-rill on verdant sedge, Distracted, nor remembers to withdraw From night's late [hour.] Him such a passion seize. Nor let his curing be a care to me ! 120 Bring home from town, my spells, bring Daphnis [home]. This cast-apparel erst th' arch-traitor left For me, dear pledges of himself, which now I at the very entrance, earth, consign To you ; these pledges Daphnis owe [to me]. Bring home from town, my spells, bring Daphnis [home]. These herbs and poisons these, in Pontus culled, Mceris himself gave me : full many grow In Pontus. Oft with these I've Moeris seen Become a wolf, and hide him in the woods ; 130 Oft spirits summon from their lowest graves. And seeded crops transport to other ground. III. The bay was probably put inside the image, being hollow. 132. " Or dost thou envy The fat prosperity of any neighbour ? I'll call forth Hoppo, and her incantation Can straight destroy the young of all his cattle ; Bring home from town, my spells, bring Daphnis [home]. The ashes, Amaryllis, bear abroad, And throw them in a running brook, and o'er * . Thy head ; nor should'st thou cast a look behind. With these I Daphnis will assail : naught he Of deities, naught recks he of my spells. Bring home from town, my spells, bring Daphnis [home]. Behold ! while I delay to bear them forth, 140 The very ashes of their own accord Have on the altars seized with bick'ring flames. Auspicious may it prove ! I know not what, [But something] 'tis for certain ; Hylax, too. Is barking in the sill. Do we believe [The omen] ? Or do they, who are in love, Themselves to their own selves imagine dreams ? Spare, spells, now spare him ! Daphnis comes from town. Blast vineyards, orchards, meadows ; or in one night Transport his dung, hay, corn, by reeks, whole stacks, Into thine own ground." Middleton, The Witch, i. 2. 144. This expression is used by Milton in Comus: " For certain Either some like us night-foundered here." And by Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, v. I : " For here I read for certain that my ships Are safely come to road." 147. " Am I awake, or dream I ? Is it true. Or does my flattering fancy but suggest What I most covet?" May, The Heir, \\, Eclogue IX. MCERIS. LYCIDAS Lycidas. Whither, O Moeris, do thy feet [bear] thee ? Is't to the city, whither leads the way? Maoris. O Lycidas, we've reached [the day] alive. When a strange owner of our little farm, (Which ne'er we feared,) should tell us, "These are mine ; Old tenants, move away." Now overborne. Line 6. " Greedy of gain, either by fraud or stealth ; And whilst one toils, another gets the wealth." Middleton, More Dissemblers besides IVome't, iii; 3. MCERIS. In woe, since chance is shifting all, do we These kids to him — no luck go with them ! — send. Ly. I sooth had surely heard, that where 'the hills Begin to slope them off, and sink their ridge. With gentle dip, as far as to the stream, 1 1 And antiquated beech, now shivered tops. All by his lays had your Menalcas saved. Mil'. Hear it thou didst ; a rumor e'en it was ; But lays of ours as much, O Lycidas, Avail 'mid warlike weapons, as they say Do Chaon pigeons when the eagle swoops. 24 V. 14 — 29- ECLOGUE IX. V. 30—50. But save a crow upon the left, from out A hollow ilex, had forewarned me By any means whatever to cut short 20 The fresh disputes, nor would thy Moeris here, Nor would Menalcas even, be alive. Ly. Alas ! occurs to any guilt so deep ? Alas ! were consolations thine from us, Well nigh along with thee, Menalcas, reft? Who could the Nymphets sing ? Who strew the ground With blooming plants, or mantle o'er the springs With emerald shade ? Or [who could sing] the lays Which I caught up by stealth from thee of late. When thou to Amaryllis, our delight, 30 Would'st take thee :— " Tityrus, till I re- turn — The journey is but short — feed thou my goats, And drive them on to drink when they are fed, O Tityrus ; and, in thy driving them, Of going in the way of my he-goat — That fellow butteth with his horn — be- ware !" Ma\ Nay, rather those, — nor they yet finished off, — Which he to Varus sang: "Varus, thy name, Let only Mantua for us survive — Ah ! Mantua, a neighbor, too, too near 40 The evil-starred Cremona — as they chant. The swans on' high shall carry to the stars." 26. " Strew, strew the glad and smiling ground, With every flower, yet not confound The primrose drop, the spring's own spouse, Bright day's-eyes, and the lips of cows, The garden-star, the queen of May, The rose, to crown the holyday." Ben Jonson, Patt's Atiniversary, " Whose name shall now make ring The echoes V Of whom shall the nymphets sing ?" " Blush no more, rose, nor lily pale remain. Dead is that beauty which yours late did stain." Drummond, Sonnets, P. ii, 13, 10. 41. Shakespeare thus alludes to the warbling of the swan : '* Let nuisic sound while he doth make his choice ; Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end, Fading in music." Merchant of Venice, iii. 2, And again, in King John, v. 7 : " 'Tis strange that death should sing. I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan. Who chaunts a doleful hymn to his own death. And from the organ-pipe of frailty sings His soul and body to their lasting rest." " Thus on Mseander's flowery margin lies Tlie expiring swan, and as he sings he dies." Pope, RaJ/e 0/ the Lock, canto v. Ly. So may tlay swarms escape Cyrnean yews ! So may, upon the cytisus full-fed. Thy kine swell out their teats ! Begin, if aught Thou hast. Me also have a poet made Pieria's ladies ; I have verses too ; Me likewise do the shepherds call a bard : But not in them a weak believer I. For [lays] I seem to warble, neither yet 50 Of Varus nor of Cinna worthy, but a goose To cackle in the midst of tuneful swans. Mce. That sooth am I about, and silently, Lycid, with myself I turn it o'er. If I could recollect it ; nor is mean The sonnet : *' Hither come, O Galatee ; For what is thy diversion in the w aves ? Here spring all bright ; here, round the rills. The earth unbosoms her enamelled flowers ; The silver poplar here o'erhangs the grot, 60 And limber vines pleach bowers. Hither come ; The frantic waves allow to lash the shores." Ly. What those, which I had heard thee when alone Warbling beneath the cloudless night ? The air 1 recollect, if I could catch the words. Mcc. " O Daphnis, wherefore art thou gazing up Upon the constellations' rise of old ? Lo ! hath the Dionsean Caesar's star Advanced ; the star, whereby might fields of corn Delight them in their produce, and whereby The bunch might draw its hue on sunny hills. 71 Engraft the pear-trees, Daphnis ; sons of sons Garth, still more musically : " The tuneful swans on gliding rivers float. And warbling dirges die on every note." Dispensary, canto iv. 51. "At last, whenas our quire wants breath. Our bodies being blest. We'll sing, like swans, to welcome death. And die in love and rest." Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, iv. 2. " Who hath his flock of cackling geese compared With thy tuned. quire of swans?" Carew, To Ben Jonson. 59. " Shepherd, I pray thee stay. Where hast thou been ? Or whither goest thou ? Here be woods as green As any ; air likewise as fresh and sweet As where smooth Zephyrus plays on the fleet Face of the curled streams ; with flowers as many As the young spring gives, and as choice as any ; Here be all new delights, cool streams and wells. Arbours o'ergrown with woodbines, caves, and dells." J. Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, i. 3. V. 51—56. ECLOGUE X. ▼. 57—67. «5 Shall cull thy fruits." Age all things sweeps away, The mem'ry too. I recollect that oft, a boy, The ling'ring suns I buried as I sang : So many songs are now by me forgot. Now very voice, too, Moeris flies ; the wolves Have first seen Moeris. But, however, these Full oft to thee Menalcas will recite. Ly. By pleading pretexts our enjoyments thou 80 Deferr'st for long. And now, all lulled for thee, 73. This idea is beautifully expressed by Dryden : " O'er whom Time gently shakes his wings of down, Till with his silent sickle they are mown." Astrcea Redux, 109. " The end crowns all ; And that old common arbitrator. Time, Will one day end it." Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5. 75. "How oft in pleasing tasks we wear the day, While summer suns roll unperceived away !" Pope, Ep. to Mr. Jervas. A. Philips, somewhat differently from Virgil : " For many songs and tales of mirth had I To chase the loit'ring sun adowne the sky." /'asi. I. 78. To this notion Dryden alludes ; //ind and Panther, 551, 2: " The surly Wolf, with secret envy burst, Yet could not howl : the Hind had seen him first." The surface [of the lake] is still ; and, look I Hath ev'ry breath of breezy whisper fallen. From this we have exactly half the way ; For 'gins Bianor's burial-place to show. Here, where the farmers strip the clustered leaves, Here, Moeris, sing we ; here do thou the kids Set down : we still shall to the city come. Or, if we fear lest night may gather rain Before, we may — the road will irk the less — Go singing still ; that singing we may go, 9 1 I'll disencumber thee of this thy load. Ma'. Cease more, O swain ; and that which presses now Let us discharge : the songs we then shall sing The better, when he shall have come him- self. 82. So Parnell in his beautiful Night-piece oh Death : " The slumb'ring breeze forgets to breathe ; The lake is smooth and clear beneath." 84. Medius seems not to be used by classical writers strictly in the sense of "half;" but it is hard to make decent English of the sense "middle," without an objectionable paraphrase. " Discourse hath made the way less tedious : We have reached the cell already." Shirley, St. Patrick /or Ireland, v. 3. 90. Or, if ttedit be read with Wagner; "the journey irketh less." Eclogue X. GALLUS, This latest effort, Arethuse, do thou Vouchsafe me : lays a few to Gallus mine, ■ But which Lycoris may herself peruse. Must be recited : who will lays deny To Gallus ? So along with thee, when thou Shalt underneath Sicilian surges glide, May not salt Doris blend her wave ! Begin : Let us the restless loves of Gallus tell. While flat-nosed she-goats nibble tender shrubs. We sing not to the deaf : woods echo all. 10 fWhat lawns, or woodlands what, held I you, O Naiad maids. Line ii. There is a marked resemblance between this Eclogue and Milton's Lycidas ; but how immea- surably the English has distanced the Latin poet, must be obvious to any one who can divest himself of prejudice: *' Where were yc, nymphs, when the remorseless deep Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas? For neither were ye playing on the steep, Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie. Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high," &c. When Gallus with unworthy passion pined ? For neither unto you Parnassus' brows, For neither any [brows] of Pindus caused Delay, nor Aon Aganippe. Him E'en bay-trees, even tamarisks bewept ; Him, lying underneath a lonely cliff. E'en piny Maen'lus and the rocks of cold Lycaeus wept. The sheep, too, stand around ; — 19. So Pope, Past. 2 : " Soft as he mourn'd the streams forgot to flow. The flocks around a dumb compassion show." " There was speech in their dumbness, language in their very gesture." — Shakespeare, Winter's Tale, V. 2. This whole account of Gallus brings to mind the melancholy youth in Gray's Elegy : " There at the foot of yonder nodding beech. That wreathes its old fant.-istic roots so high. His listless length at noontide would he stretch, And pore upon the brook that babbles by. Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, Mutt'rin^ his wayward fancies, would he rove; Now drooping, woful, wan, like one forlorn. Or craz'd with care, or cross'd in hopeless love." 26 V. 17—35- ECLOGUE X. V. 36—53- They neither are ashamed of us, nor thou 20 Be of the flock ashamed, O heav'nly bard : Yea, sheep by rivers fair Adonis fed ; — And came the shepherd ; plodding swine- herds came ; The drenched Menalcas came from wintry mast. All ask, " Whence [comes] this passion unto thee ?" Apollo came: "Why, Gallus, rave?" he cries ; ' ' Thy care, Lycoris, hath another tracked Alike through snows, and through dread camps." Came, too, Silvanus, with a [crown of] rural grace Upon his head, his blooming fennel plants, And monster lilies tossing to and fro. 31 Pan came, the god of Arcady, whom we Ourselves beheld with berries bloody-red Of danewort, and with cinnabar, aglow. *' Will there be any bound [to this] ?" saith he; ' ' Love recks not of the like. Nor felon Love By tears, nor grasses by the rills, nor bees By cytisus are cloyed, nor by the leaf She-goats." But sad the other saith : " Still ye Shall sing of these, Arcadians, to your mounts ; — 40 In singing ye, Arcadians, skilled alone. Oh ! then how softly might my bones re- pose, Should your reed-pipe hereafter tell my loves ! And would to heav'n that I were one of you, 42. " Farewell for evermore ! If you shall hear that sorrow struck me dead. And after find me loyal, let there be A tear shed from you in my memory. And I shall rest in peace." Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster, iii. i. " Lie lightly on my ashes, gentle earth !" J. Fletcher, Bonduca, iv. 3. 44. " Oh, that I had been nourished in these woods With milk of goats and acorns, and not known The right of crowns, nor the dissembling trains Of women's looks ; but digged myself a cave, Where I, my fire, my cattle, and my bed. Might have been shut together in one shed ; And then had taken me some mountain girl. Beaten with winds, chaste as the hardened rocks, Whereon she dwelt, that might have strewed my bed With leaves and reeds, and with the skins of beasts. Our neighbours." Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster, iv. 2. " Take again Your ill-timed honours ; take 'em, gods ! And change me to some humble villager, If so at last for toils at scorching noon, In mowing meadows, and in reaping fields, At night she will but crown me with a smile." Lee, Tlieodosius, i. i. And had been either guardian of your flock, Or vintager of your enripened bunch ! Of surety, had or Phyllis been my rage, Or had Amyntas, or whoever else — What then, if swart Amyntas were ? E'en dark Are violets, and martagons are dark — 50 With me among the willows, underneath The limber vine, he might lie down ; her wreaths For me would Phyllis cull, Amyntas, [he] Would sing. Here icy springs, here velvet meads, Lycoris, here the woodland ; here could I Be worn away with thee through very age. Now madding love of callous Mars in arms, Among mid weapons and confronted foes, Detains me : thou far off thy native land, — Ne'er may it be my fortune to believe 60 [A truth] so grievous ! — dost the snows of Alps, Ah ! heartless ! and the chills of Rhine, apart From me, alone behold. Ah ! let the chills Not harm thee ! At ! let rugged ice not gash Thy tender foot-soles ! I will go, and lays, Which in Chalcidian strain by me were framed, On the Sicilian shepherd's reed will play. 'Tis fixed that I within the woods, among The dens of savage beasts would liefer bear, And carve my loves upon the tender trees : — 54. " Fly to the arbours, grots, and flowery meads, And in soft murmurs interchange our souls ; Together drink the crystal of the stream. Or taste the yellow fruit which autumn yields, And when the golden evening calls us home. Wing to our downy nest, and sleep till morn." Lee, Theodosius, ii. i. 56. " My all that Heaven can give ! Death's life with you ; without you. Death to live." Dryden, Aurungzebe, iv. i. 64. " But oh ! that hapless virgin, our lost sister ! Where may she wander now, whither betake her From the chill dew, among rude burs and thistles ! Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now. Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm Leans her unpillowed head." Milton, Comus. 70. When Prince Arthure discovers the "gentle squire," he finds that he had followed the example of Gallus, in making the trees the monuments of his affection ; " And eke by that he saw on every tree How he the name of one engraven had Which likely was his liefest love to be." Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7, 46. And so also Colin : Colin Clout, 632 : " Her name in every tree I will endosse, That, as the trees do grow, her name may grow." We find Orlando doing the same in As Vou Like It, iii. 2 : V. 54—63. ECLOGUE X. V. 64—77. Grow they will, ye will grow, my loves. Meanwhile 71 O'er Mjsn'lus will I range with mingled Nymphs, Or hunt the hot wild boars ; no chills shall bar My compassing with hounds Parthenian glades. Meseems that now through rocks and ring- ing groves I'm roaming ; 'tis my joy from Parthian bow To shoot Cydonian arrows ; as if this Were healing for my frenzy, or that god May learn to soften at the ills of men. Now neither Hamadryads any more, 80 Nor songs themselves charm us ; ye very woods, " Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love : And thou, thrice crowned queen of night, survey With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above. Thy huntress' name, that my full life doth sway. O Rosalind ! these trees shall be my books. And in their barks my thoughts I'll character ; That every eye, which in this forest looks, Shall see thy virtue witness'd everywhere. Run, run, Orlando ; carve on every tree The fair, the chaste, and une.\pressive she." Drayton varies the idea in Quest of Cynthia, S. 6: " At length upon a lofty fir It was my chance to find Where that dear name, most due to her, Was carved upon the rind. Which whilst with wonder I beheld. The bees their honey brought. And up the carved letters filled, As they with gold were wrought." Shirley uses tears instead of wood-cuts : " That every tear could fall Into some character, which you might read, That so I might dispense with my sad tongue, And leave my sorrows legible." The Imposture, iv. 5, Cowley makes such carvings fatal to the tree : '* I cut my love into his gentle bark. And in three days, behold ! 'tis dead." " Pardon, ye birds and nymphs, who loved this shade ; And pardon me, thou gentle tree ; I thought her name would thee have happy made. And blessed omens hoped from thee : 'Notes of my love, thrive here,' said I, 'and grow ; And with ye let my love do so.' " The Mistress : The Tree. "Oh ! might I here In solitude live savage : in some glade Obscured, where highest woods, impenetrable To star or sunlight, spread their umbrage broad And brown as evening : cover me, ye pines. Ye cedars ; with innumerable boughs Hide me." Milton, P. L., b. ix. Once more give way. Our woes cannot change him, Nor if we in the midst of frosts were both To drink the Hebrus, and Sithonian snows Of wat'ry winter-tide to undergo ; Nor if, when dying on the lofty elm, The bark is shriv'ling, we should shift the sheep Of -(Ethiopians under Cancer's star. Love conquers all : let us too yield to Love." 'Twill be enough, Pierian maids divine, 90 That these your bard hath chanted, while he sits. And weaves with mallow slim his slender frail. Ye these of deepest interest will make To Gallus : [yea] to Gallus, love of whom As fast is growing on me every hour. As in the infant spring the alder green Uprears her. Let us rise ; the shade is wont To prove calamitous to those who sing Calamitous the shade of juniper ; The shades, too, harm the crops. Go, full- fed, home, — 100 The star of Eve is rising ; — go, she-goats. 82. " Nothing rocks love asleep but death.' J. Fletcher, The PUgrim, v. 4. 8g. " Love is your master, for he masters you : And he that is so yoked by a fool, Methinks, should not be chronicled for wise." Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. i. 94. Cardinal Wolsey speaks similarly of his de- votion to the king : Shakespeare, Hen. VIII. iii. a : " My loyalty. Which ever has, and ever shall be growing. Till death, that winter, kill it." 99. Cowley says the same of the yew : " Beneath a bower for sorrow made, Th' uncomfortable shade Of the black yew's unlucky green. Mixed with the mourning willow's careful grey." The Complaint, 100. " Shepherds all and maidens fair. Fold your flocks up, for the air 'Gins to thicken, and the sun Already his great course hath run. See the dewdrops, how they kiss. Every little flower that is. Hanging on their velvet heads. Like a rope of crystal beads : See the heavy clouds are falling. And bright Hesperus down calling. The dead night from under ground ; At whose rising mists unsound. Damps and vapours fly apace. Hovering o'er the wanton face Of these pastures, where they come. Striking dead both bud and bloom." J. Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, ii. i. THE GEORGICS. BOOK I. What makes gay crops, beneath what star the earth To turn, Maecenas, and to elms to wed The vines, 'tis meet ; what be the care of beeves. What management in keeping of the flock ; How vast the knowledge for the thrifty- bees : — I hence will undertake to sing. O ye, All-brilliant luminaries of the world. Who lead the year, as through the heav'n it glides ; O Liber and boon Ceres, since the earth Hath through your gift Chaonian mast exchanged lo For the rich ear, and Acheloan cups Hath blent with [new] discovered grapes ; and ye, The rustics' fav'ring Pow'rs, O Fauns — advance Your foot in time, both Fauns and Dryad maids : — Line 3. "Two rows of elms ran with proportioned grace. Like Nature's arras, to adorn the sides ; The friendly vines their loved barks embrace, With folding tops the checkered ground-work hides." Shirley, Narcissus, st. 13. *' Or they led the vine To wed her elm : she, spoused, about him twines Her marriageable arms, and with him brings Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn His barren leaves." Milton, Par. Lost, b. v. Shakespeare makes Titania say beautifully of the ivy: ' ' Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms : Fairies, begone ; and be all ways away. So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle. Gently entwist, — the female ivy so Enrings the barky fingers of the elm." Midsummer Night's Dream, iv. i. " Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine. Whose weakness, married to thy stronger state, Makes me with thy strength to communicate." Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, ii. 2. " Everlasting hate The vine to ivy bears, nor less abhors The colewort's rankness, but with amorous twine Clasps the tall elm." J. Philips, Cider, b. i. II. Or, " draughts." 14, Or, "at once." Your gifts I sing. And thou, O [thou], for whom The earth, by thy majestic trident struck, Unbosomed first the snorting courser, Neptune ! And patron [thou] of lawns, through whom three hundred steers, Snow-white, are browsing Cea's juicy brakes ; E'en thou, too, quitting thy paternal lawn, And woodlands of LycKus, Pan ! of sheep The guardian, if thy Msenalus to thee 22 Is of concern, be kindly present here, O [god] of Tegea ! Minerva, too. Creatress of the olive ; and thou youth, Discloser of the crooked plough; and [thou,] Silvanus, bearing, from its root [uptorn], A tender cypress ; and ye gods and god- desses. All, whose delight it be to guard the fields, Both ye, who rear from no [implanted] seed 30 The infant fruits, and who on seeded crops Drop down the plenteous show'r from heav'n ; and thou. In chief, whom what assemblies of the gods Hereafter shall enjoy is unresolved : Whether to visit cities, Coesar, and the charge Of countries mayest thou desire, and thee The vasty globe, as parent of its fruits, And of its weather-changes lord, may hail, Environing thy brows with myrtle-plant Of thy own mother ; — or thou mayest come The god of the immeasurable sea, 41 And mariners thy deity alone Adore, the farmost Thule be thy serf, 16. See the fabled dispute between Neptune and Minerva, treated by Spenser in his beautiful poem, Mtdopotmos. " Percussa" is rather " thrilled," or "shocked." 18. Or, "Tenant," "haunter." 25. Inventrix, creatress ; so repertor, creator : yEw. xii. 829, 34. That is, though it might be known in heaven, it is a question on earth. V. 31—51. BOOK I. T. 5 a— 8 a. 39 And Tethys buy thee for her son-in-law With all her waves ;— or whether thou a star, New [-born], annex thee to the lazy months, There where a space between Erigone And the pursuing Claws is opened out : — The fiery Scorpion of himself for thee E'en now draws in his arms, and hath resigned 50 A more than due proportion of the sky : — Whate'er thou'lt be — for let nor Tartarus Expect thee for its monarch, nor on thee Let so accurst a lust of ruling come, Though Greece may her Elysian plains admire, Nor Proserpine recovered feel concern T' attend her mother : — ^grant an easy course, And nod [thy sanction] to my bold em- prize : And pitying with me the rural [swains], Unknowing of the path, advance, and now, Inure thee now to be invoked with vows. 61 In early spring, when rimy moisture thaws On hoary mountains, and the crumbling clod Unbinds itself before the western breeze, Let now at once the bull begin for me Beneath the deeply sunken plough to groan, And, by the furrow worn, the share to flash. That corny seedland answers at the last The greedy tiller's prayers, which twice the sun, Twice frosts hath felt : its harvests passing bound 70 Have burst his gamers. But ere we with steel An unknown surface cleave, be it our task The winds, and changeful habit of the clime, 51. " But this fair gem, sweet in the loss alone, When you fleet hence, can be bequeathed to none ; Or, if it could, down from th' enamelled sky All heaven would come to claim this legacy." Marlowe, Hero and Leander, Sestiad i. " Thou shalt Be drawn with horses, white as Venus' doves, Till heaven itself, in envy of our bliss, Snatch thee from earth, to place thee in his orb, The brightest constellation." Shirley, The Politician, ii. i. 62. " And made the downy Zephyr, as he flew. Still to be followed by the Spring's best hue." B. Jonson, The Vision of Delight. See note on Geo. ii. /. 449. But he introduces a harbinger, still more charm- ing : " I grant the linet, lark, and bullfinch sing. But best the dear good angel of the spring, The Nightingale." The Sad Shepherd, ii. a. To learn before, and both the native tilths And dispositions of the spots, and what Each district may produce, and what may each Refuse. Here cereal crops, there clusters come More happily ; the fruits of trees elsewhere ; And uncommanded wax the grasses green. Dost thou not see how Tmolus saffron scents, 80 Ind iv'ry sendeth, Saba's tender sons The frankincense their own ; but naked Chalybs, Their iron ; Pontus, too, rank castory, Epinis palm-wreaths of Elean mares ? From first these laws and everlasting terms Upon established spots hath Nature laid, What time at first Deucalion tossed the stones Upon an empty globe, whence men were born, A flinty race. Then come, the soil of earth That's rich, let straightway from the year's first months 90 Thy sturdy bulls upturn, and as they lie, Let dusty-mantled summer bake the clods With rip'ning suns. But should the land not prove Prolific, towards Arcturus' very [rise]. Sufficient will it be to hang it up, With a diminished furrow : there — lest weeds May harass the delighted produce ; here — Lest scanty moisture quit the barren sand. In every other year shalt thou, the same, Allow thy fallow-lands, that have been reaped, 100 To idle, and the listless plain to cake With rust ; or there shalt sow the golden spelts Beneath a constellation changed, whence thou Shalt first the merry pulse with rattling pod. Or tiny seeds of vetch, and brittle haulm Of bitter lupin, and its rustling grove. Have carried off. For bumeth up the plain The crop of flax, the oat [-crop] bums it up, Bum it up poppies, soaked in Lethe's sleep. But still in every other year the toil IIO Is easy : only be thou not ashamed To glut the sapless mould with ordure rich. Nor over thy exhausted grounds to toss The ash unclean. Thus, too, by change of crops 114. Ben Jonson has " ash" in the singular : " Put it out rather, all out, to an ash. ^ D.isoH Att, ii. X. 30 V. 83 — 107. THE GEORGICS. V, I08 — 120. The fields repose ; nor meanwhile no re- turn Ariseth from the earth miploughed. Oft, too, It hath bestead to fire the barren fields. And burn light stubble in the crackling flames : Whether thereby the lands secreted powers And juicy food conceive ; or every fault I20 Is melted out of them by fire, and forth The baneful moisture oozes ; or that heat More passages, and darksome breathing- pores Unloosens, where to th' infant blades the sap May come ; or hardens more, and braces close The gaping arteries, lest filmy rains. Or too fierce power of the raging sun, Or piercing cold of Boreas sear them up. Much, too, doth he, who breaks the lazy clods With rakes, and hurdles of the osier trails, Bestead the fields ; nor him in vain regards The golden Ceres from Olympus high : 132 And who the ridges, which upon the plain. When broken up, he rears, once more breaks through With plough transversely turned, and works his ground Incessantly, and lords it o'er his lays. For dropping summers and for winters fair Entreat, O swains : through wintry dust the spelts Are blithest, blithe the field. In tillage none Doth Mysia vaunt herself so much, and e'en 140 At their own harvests marvel Gargar's [heights]. Why sing of him, who, when the seed is cast. In close encounter presses on his fields, And quells the piles of no rich land ? Then brings he o'er His seeded grounds a flood and following rills ; And when the seared ground is withering ^P 115. The construction in verse 83 is imitated by Milton in several places : e. g. Par. Lost, b. i. : " Nor did they not perceive the evil plight In which they were." " Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale." lb., b. V. 134. Proscindo is technically to "break up," i.e. lay-ground ; for arva here obviously means this. 140. That is, " in such a climate as this." With dying herbage, lo ! adown the brow Of some hill-channel he the brook allures. It, tumbling o'er the glossy shingle, wakes A noisy brawl, and with its bubbling streams 150 Relieves the parching fields. Why [sing of him]. Who, lest the straw should lodge through loaded ears. His crops' rank humor in the tender blade Feeds down, when first the seedlings level make His furrows ; and who through the spongy sand Drains off the gathered moisture of the pool? In chief if in unsettled months a stream, O'erflowing, bursts abroad, and far and near Encases all with crusted slime, whence reek The hollow channels with the moisture warm. 160 Nor still, when these have travails both of men And beeves, in turning up the earth, es- sayed. Naught do the graceless goose, and Stry- mon's cranes. 161. See note on 1. 115, where examples are quoted of Milton's imitation of such constructions as those in verses 118-120. 163. Improbiis has a variety of meanings, whether applied to persons, qualities, or things ; all of which arise from the radical signification of "improper," and hence "immoderate." In the present instance, the great mass of commentators refer the expression more to the physical desires of the goose than to his (poetically) moral turpitude ; that is, the goose was rather a glutton than a rogue. Now the fact is, that he was both, — and a mischievous bird besides ; an exact parallel to his brother in crime, the attgtiis, in the third Book. The following remarks may serve as a help to ascertain its sense in the present case. The word in question is employed sixteen times by Virgil ; and after a careful analysis of its signifi- cation in these different instances, which it would be too long to detail, these conclusions would seem to result : It is applied eleven times to persons, and five times to qualities or things. Of the eleven times used of persons, in seven cases it is used in the strongest sense, implying moral guilt. Twice it is doubtful, leaving the appli- cation to anser and angtds to be determined. Of the five occasions on which it is used in con- nection with qualities or things, thrice it bears a bad, and twice a harmless, sense. Upon the whole, then, considering the immense mischief perpetrated by the wild goose, joined to his extraordinary appetite ; (for he eats hugely, and tramples and scalds what he does not eat:) con- sidering also the plain predominance of the bad sense in Virgil, "graceless" would seem to meet the necessities of the case, or the excellent term employed by Dr. Kennedy, "felon." If the more usual view be taken, " glutton " is V. 131— 1 33* BOOK I. y. 134—150. And succory with bitter roots, obstruct, Or shade molest. The Father hath him- self Decreed that easy should not be the path Of tilth, and he first roused the lands by skill, Whetting with cares the hearts of human kind ; Nor suffered he his realms to lie benumbed In leaden torpor. Ere [the reign of] Jove No"i'v^?rif reduced the fields : not e'en to mark, 171 Or parcel off the champaign by a bourn, Was lawful. For the common stock they sought, And of her own accord the earth her all More freely, at demand of none, produced. He baleful venom to the sable snakes Imparted, and commanded wolves to prowl, And ocean to be roused ; and from the leaves Shook honies down, and he sequestered fire. And, everywhere in rills careering, wines He stayed ; that practice, by the dint of thought, 181 The various crafts might slowly hammer QUt, an effective rendering: which word is surely an adjective, though Johnson and Webster do not recognise it as such. Richardson differs from them, as well he may ; for it is too constantly joined by the poets to nouns substantive to admit of " appo- sition :" e. g. Spenser, Muiopotvios, \-]<), "glutton sense ;" Shakespeare, 2 Hen. IV. i. 3, " glutton bosom ;" and again, " glutton eye ;" Dryden, Rel. Lai. 33. " glutton souls ;" Hind and P. i^TS, " glutton kind ;" &c. 166. " For sloth, the nurse of vices, And rust of action, is a stranger to him." Massinger, T/te Great Duke 0/ Florence, i. i. " The fort, that's yielded at the first assault. Is hardly worth the taking." ii. 3. " The thrifty heavens mingle our sweets with gall. Least, being glutted with excess of good. We should forget the giver." Rawlins, The Rebellion, v. end. 174. " Covered with grass more soft than any silk, The trees dropt honey, and the springs gushed milk ; The flower-fleeced meadow, and the gorgeous grove. Which should smell sweetest in their bravery strove ;" " Whilst to the little birds' melodious strains The trembling rivers tripped along the plains ;" " The battening earth all plenty did afford, And without tilling, of her own accord." Drayton, Noah's Flood. 176. Or, perhaps : " He wicked venom to the baleful snakes." 182. How poor are they, that have not patience!" Shakespeare, Otlullo, iii. 3. And in the furrows seek the blade of corn ; That from the veins of flint it forth might strike The hidden fire. Then first thejrivers felt The hollowed alders ; then the rnariner Numbers and names invented for the stars, The Pleiads, Hyads, and Lycaon's sheeny Bear. In nooses then wild creatures to entrap, And dupe them with the lime, it was de- vised, 190 And mighty glades to girdle round with dogs. And one now lashes with his casting-net The spacious river, searching for its depths ; And through the main another trails along His dripping lines. Then stiffness of the steel. And blade of grating saw ; for primal men With wedges used to cleave the splitting wood. Then divers crafts came in : unsparing Toil Prov'd conq'ror over all, and Indigence, That spurs [men] on in their distressed estate. 200 'Twas Ceres first instructed mortal kind With iron to upturn the earth, when now The mast and arbutes of the holy wood Were failing, and Dodone refusing food. Soon, too, was travail to the corn annexed, 183. Or, "through," "by." 185. "These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights That give a name to every fixed star." Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, L x. 186. Or: " Then the sailor coined Numbers and names for stars, the Pleiad-train, The Hyads," &c. 192. With the great weight of commentators, it is better to make alta refer to amnem. Notwith- standing Forbiger's steadiness, and Wagner's change of mind, does there seem to be sufficient warrant for the awkwardness which their view involves ? Does it not impose an unfair duty upon the conjunction que^. 198. " Impossible ! Nothing's impossible ! We know our strength only by being tried. If you object the mountains, rivers, woods Impassable, that lie before our march : — Woods we can set on fire : we swim by nature : What can oppose us then but we may tame ? All things submit to virtuous indu.stry : That we can carry with us ; that is ours." Southern, Oroonoko, iii. 4. 205. This primitive condition of the earth, prior to culture, is realised by the loss of Pe.-ice : which miserable state of things is feelingly described by the Duke of Burgundy in King Henry V.y.i'. " Alas! she hath from France too lone been chas'd. And all her husbandry doth He on neaps. Corrupting in its own fertility. Her vine, the merry checrcr of the heart, Unpruned dies ; her hedges even-plcichcd. Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair. 32 V. 151— 174- THE GEORGICS. V. 175 — 192. That scathful blight should prey upon the stalks, And in his laziness might bristle up The thistle in the fields. Crops go to wrack ; Succeeds a prickly forest, even burrs And caltrops ; and amid the shiny tilths 2lo Curst darnel and the barren oats bear rule. Wherefore, unless with unremitting rakes Thou both shalt worry weed, and with a din Alarm the birds, and with thy pruning- hook TTie shadow of the darkling country check, And in thy prayers shalt have invoked the shower ; — Alas ! upon another's massy pile Thou bootlessly shalt gaze, and in the woods Thy hunger comfort through the shaken oak. Sung, too, must be what are the imple- ments 220 Of hardy rustics, without which their crops Nor could be sown, nor spring. The share in chief, ■ And heavy timber of the bended plough, And waggons of the Eleusinian Dame, That lazy troll ; the sledges, too, and drags. And harrows of unrighteous weight ; more- o'er, The furniture of Celeus, wrought of twig, And cheap, and hurdles of the arbutus. And mystic fan of Bacchus : all the which, Long previously foreseen, in thoughtful mood, 230 Shalt thou lay by in store, if thee awaits The honor, to the heav'n-born country due. First, in the forests bowed with mighty force. Into a plough-tail is an elm reduced. And [this] the figure of a crooked plough Receives. Thereto from out the base a pole, Stretched forward to eight feet, twain moulding-boards. Share-beams M'ith double back, are fitted on. Felled, too, thei-e is beforehand for the yoke A lightsome linden, and a lofty beech 240 For staff, which from the rear may wheel around Put forth disorder'd twigs ; her fallow leas The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory ' Doth root upon ; while that the coulter rusts. That should deracinate such savagery ; The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover. Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank. Conceives by idleness ; and nothing teems. But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs, Losing both beauty and utility." The bottom of the carriage ; and the smoke Searches the timber hung above the hearths. Pow'r have I many a rule of them of yore To cite to thee, unless thou dost recoil, And slender interests it irks to learn. The floor, among the chief, with roller huge Must levelled be, and kneaded with the hand. And rendered firm with binding Cretan earth, Lest weeds work up, or, overcome by dust, It gape, and divers plagues at thee should mock. 251 Oft hath the tiny mouse beneath thy lands Both placed her homestead, and her garners built ; Or, cheated of their eyes, the moles have delved Their chambers ; and, in hollows found, the toad : And vermin, which, full many, breed thy grounds ; Both weevil wastes a vasty pile of corn, And ant, in terror at a helpless eld. Mark also, when the almond in the woods Shall throw her into rich array of bloom, 260 And arch her scented boughs, if embryoes Abound, in equal sort will corn ensue, And mighty threshing come with mighty heat : But if through rampancy of leafage shade exceeds. Stalks, rank in chaff, thy floor will vainly bruise. 242. Every editor seems to read cumts instead of cursus, which is substituted by Wagner and For- biger, though, as it would seem, with' small manu- script authority. The difficulty in the common text to them was this : ist, that currus implies wheels, and that no Roman plough had such an appendage ; and 2nd, that it must be capable of carrying somebody, which the plough was not. To the tirst objection the reply is, that their authority, Schulz, was mistaken in saying that no Roman plough had wheels, as an antique has been dis- covered which represents one with them. To the second, that a machine drawn by brutes, and guided by a human being, may, in poetic language, fairly claim the name : a consideration which is strength- ened by a remark of Holds worth, that the stiva was actually a foot-board, on which the ploughman stood. 243. Focis is not rendered by " flues " or " chim- neys," as it is a disputed point whether the Romans had any special aperture for the escape of smoke. 254. " As the blind mole, the properest son of earth. Who, in the casting his ambitious hills up, Is often taken and destroyed i' the midst Of his advanced work." Middleton, A Game at Chess, iv. 4. 265. "The careful ploughman doubting stands. Lest on the threshing-floor his hopeless sheaves Prove chaff." Milton, P. L. iv. V. 193 — 2o6. BOOK I. V. 206 — 237. 33 Their seeds have I, in sooth, seen many drug When sowing, and in natron steep them first, And murky olive-lees, that there might prove A fuller produce in the guileful pods. And though they, quickened o'er a scanty fire, 270 Were moistened, have I seen them, — gathered long, And tested with a world of travail, — yet Deteriorate, unless the energy of man Year after year each largest with the hand Should cull. So all things by the Destinies Are hasting to decay, and, sinking down, Are backward borne : not otherwise than he Who up the breasting river scarce his skiff With oarage forces on, if he his arms Hath haply slacked, and down the swift descent 280 The channel sweeps him with its giddy tide.j Moreo'er, as much are to be watched by us Arcturus' constellation, and the days Of Kids, and sheeny Dragon, as by those By whom, when wafted towards their native land 271. It is hard to acquiesce in the view which puts a period after maderent , instead oi esset. This arrangement displaces guamvis from its natural relation to tamen, in order to set it in a weak con- nection with exiguo ; it assigns to tnaderent a meaning which it is doubtful that it ever bore ; and gives an abruptness to the commencement of a new sentence, which is thus made to begin at vidi. The objections to the opposite view are not fatal, and do not seem to be strong. However, if the more modern interpretation be preferred, the translation will run thus : that there might prove A fuller produce in the guileful pods. And they might o'er a fire, however small, Be softened quick. I've seen those gathered long, &c. 276. So several translators ; but, if deemed a little too free, it is easy to substitute : " Are hurrying to worse." So thought Thenot in Spenser's iTA. Cnl. Feb. 12: " Must not the worlde wende in his common course From good to bad, and from bad to worse. From worst unto that is worst of all, And then returne to his former fall t" "These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air : And like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces. The solemn temples, the great globe itself. Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve. And, like this insubstantial pageant faded. Leave not a rack behind." Shakespeare, TemJ>est, iv. i. 280. >4/7«^ certainly does sometimes mean "im- mediately," but not in classical times. A good sense can be obtained by the ordinary use, and therefore it is to be preferred. Across the gusty waters, are essayed PontuS and oyster-full Abydos* straits. When Libra even shall have made the hours Of day and sleep, and midway now disparts The globe to light and shades, my masters, work 290 Your bulls, sow barleys in the plains, e'en close To th' eve of latest show'r of brumal-tide, Impracticable. Yea, a flax-crop, too, And Cereal poppy is it time in earth To hide, and now at once to bend to ploughs; While, dry the ground, we may, while hang the clouds. In spring time is for beans the sowing ; then Thee likewise, O thou Median [plant], re- ceive The crumbling furrows, and for millet comes The yearly care, when, bright with gilded horns, 300 The Bull unlocks the year, and, slinking off Before the star his foeman, sets the DoG. But if for wheaten crop, and hardy spelts, Thou'lt work thy ground, and press for ears alone. First let th' Atlantic maidens at the Dawn To thee be hidden, and the Gnosiai^star Of blazing Diadem withdraw, ere thou Consign to furrows seeds their due, and ere Thou haste to trust the promise of the year To earth unwilling. Many have commenced Before the set of Maia ; butthose [swains] 311 The hoped-for crop with empty ears hath duped. But if both vetch and paltry kidney-bean Thou'lt sow, nor the Pelusian lentil's care Shalt spurn away, no darkling signs to thee Bootes, as he sinks, will send : begin. And stretch thy sowing to mid [-winter] frosts. For this, in settled portions meted out. The golden Sun directs the sphere along The constellations of the world in twelves. Five zones embrace the heav'n ; whereof is one 321 For ever crimsoned with the flashing Sun, And scorched for ever by its fire; round which The outermost upon the right and left Are drawn, with azure ice and murky showers Congealed. 'Tween these and that in centre, twain To sickly mortals by the boon of gods 309. " With conscious certainty the swain Gives to the ground his trusted gntn. With eager hope the reddening h«r>'est e>'et And claims the ripe autumnal gold. The raced of toil, of industry' ihc prize." T. Warton, Od* xvi. D 34 V. 238—262. THE GEORGICS. V. 262 — 284. Are granted ; and a path is scored thro' both, Whereon aslant the cycle of the signs Might wheel itself. The world, as e'en aloft To Scythia and Rhipsean heights it towers. Is sunk aslope to Lybia's southern gales. 332 This pole to us is ever reared on high ; But that beneath our feet the pitchy Styx Beholdeth, and the Manes deep adown. The monster Dragon here with coiling fold Glides off around and midst of the two Bears, After the fashion of a flood, — the Bears, In ocean's surface fearing to be dipped. There, as they tell, or hushes dead of night. And ever by a pall of night the dark 341 Is thickened ; or returns from us the Dawn, And takes them back the day ; and when on us The Sun at rising earliest hath breathed With puffing coursers, purpling Eve lights up Tier backward fires. From this can we forelearn The weather in the changeful sky ; from this Both harvest day and sowing tide, and when The traitor face of sea with oars to force Is fitting ; when to launch the furnished fleets, 350 Or pine in season in the woods to fell. Nor is it to no purpose that we watch The settings and the risings of the signs. And, even with its seasons four distinct. The year. If e'er a chilly show'r confines The farmer, many a labor, which would needs Be hurried over at a future hour Beneath a sky unclouded, — to advance Is giv'n. The ploughman forges to a point His blunted ploughshare's churlish fang ; he scoops 360 340. Te7nj>esth'us means " timeful," "timely," "timous:" that is, "in the proper time," with a tendency to the signification of " earlier than need be." So intem-pestivits, intempestus, means " un- timeful," " untimely," " timeless," with a tendency to the signification of " earlier than ought to be." Now it is plain, that intempesta here must have an import different from those borne by the last three terms. It would seem, then, that it takes its force from the primitive meaning of " unbroken into periods." The night is practically unbroken into periods, when people cease to work, and retire to rest : thus, intempesta 7tox comes to signify "dead of night." Further, if they lie awake, or have to keep watch during the hours of darkness, these seem so long, that it is as zy there were no periods, no end: hence the idea of "dreary." Either of these terms would appear to satisfy the expression. 344. " But look ! the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yond' high eastern hill." Shakespeare, Hajnlet, i. i. " The blushing childhood of the cheerful morn Is almost grown a youth, and over-climbs Yonder gilt eastern hills." Brewer, Lingua, i. 5. Troughs from the tree ; or on his flock the brand Hath he enstamped, or tallies on his heaps. Stakesothers point, orforks of double prong, And ties Amerian for the limber vine Prepare, Let now the pliant frail be plight Of bramble twig ; now roast upon the fire Thy grains, now bray them in the quern. Nay e'en On days of jubilee some tasks to ply The law divine and human laws allow. The rills to drain no scruple hath forbid ; 370 Before the corn to stretch a fence ; for birds To plan an ambush ; thorns to fire ; and plunge The flock of bleaters in the wholesome flood. Ofttimes the plodding ass's ribs with oil. Or with cheap apples, doth its driver lade. And, trudging back, a dented stone, or lump Of jetty pitch, he brings him home from town. The Moon herself hath granted various days In various rank, auspicious to your toils. The fifth do thou avoid : [upon that day] 3S0 Were ghastly Orcus and the Furies born ; Then Terra in an execrable birth Both Cseus and lapetus brings forth, And fell Typhoeus, and the brotherhood, Banded by oath to tear the heavens down. They thrice attempted Ossa to implant On Pelion ; aye, on Ossa, too, to roll Leaf-fraught Olympus ; thrice the up-piled mounts The Father laid in ruins with his bolt. The seventh, [coming] next upon the tenth, 362. Or, perhaps : "sacks." 367. If "quern" be thought a little too free a version of saxo, a dull substitute is easily found, without damage to the rhythm. 380. " A wicked day, and not a holy day : . . . Nay, rather, turn this day out of the week ; This day of shame, oppression, perjury: Or, if it must stand still, let wives with child Pray that their burdens may not fall this day, Lest that their hopes prodigiously be cross'd : But on this day let seamen fear no wreck ; No bargains break that are not this day made : This day, all things begun come to ill end ; Yea, faith itself to hollow falsehood change." Shakespeare, King Joh?i, iii. i. 381. To quote Milton on the .subject of the evil angels would be trite, as his sublime descriptions are familiar to every one ; but his great predecessor says finely : " Th' Almighty, seeing their so bold assay. Kindled the flame of His consuming yre. And with His onely breath them blew away From heavens bight, to which they did aspyre, To deepest hell and lake of damned fyre. Where they in darkness and dread horror dwell, Hating the happi« light from which they fell." Spenser, Hytnne of Heavctly Love, 85. V. s84 — 308. BOOK L y. 308 — 329. 35 Auspicious is, as well to plant the vine, 391 As captured beeves to tame, and to attach The leashes to the warp; the ninth for flight More favorable, enemy to thefts. Sooth many [tasks] have 'neath the chilly night Presented them more fitly, or what time, — The Sun new [-ris'n],— the lands is Lucifer Bedewing. In the night the stubbles light More fitly, in the night dry meads are mown; The ropy moisture faileth not the nights, 400 E'en one there is, who by the lasting fires Of winter light keeps up his watch, and points His torches with the sharpened steel. Mean- while, Her tedious travail cheering with a song. With shrilly reed his partner threads the warp ; Or through [the aid of] Vulcan simmers down The liquor of the nectared must, and skims With leaves the palpitating cauldron's wave. But ruddy Ceres in the midst of heat Is cut, and in the midst of heat the floor 410 The [sun-] dried harvest bruises. Robeless plough, Sow robeless. Winter to the husbandman Is idle [time]. In frosts the farmers chief Their store enjoy, and, blithe among them- selves. Reciprocal carousals make their care : Lures jolly winter, and unbinds their woes. As when the heavy-freighted vessels now Have touched the haven, and upon the sterns The happy sailors ranged their wreaths. But still Both oaken mast 'tis then the time to strip. And berries of the bay, and olive, too, 421 And blood-red myrtle-fruits ; then gins for cranes, And toils for harts to set, and long-eared hares 394. " He works by glow-worm light ; the moon's too open."j Ben Jonson, Ti/ne Vindicated. 409. ". Have we been tilling, sowing, labouring, With pain and charge, a long and tedious winter. And when we see the corn above the ground. Youthful as is the morn, and the full ear, That promises to stuff our spacious garners. Shall we then let it rot, and never reap it ?" J. Fletcher, The Noble Gentleman, ii. i. 423. " Yet if for silvan sports thy bosom glow. Let thy fleet greyhound urge his flying foe. . . . He snaps deceitful air with empty jaws. The subtle hare darts swift beneath his paws : She flies, he stretches : now with nimble bound Eager he presses on, but overshoots the ground : She turns, he winds, and soon regains the way, Then tears with gory mouth the screaming prey." Gay, Rural Sports, iu 289. See also Somervillc, The Chase, b. ii. To course ; 'tis then [for him] the fallow- deer To pierce, who whirls around the hempen thongs Of Balearic sling, when deep the snow Is lying, when the floods drive down the ice^ Why should I sing of Autumn's storms and stars ? Aye, and, when now both shorter is the day. And gentler is the heat, what watchful arts Must be employed by men ; or when down falls 431 Spring rife in rain, now when hath on the plains The bearded harvest bristled up, and when The milky grains upon their stalk of green Are swelling? PVequently have I, what time Upon his golden fields the husbandman Would introduce the sickler, and would now Reap off his barleys with their bitter haulm, The battles of the winds all clashing seen. Which far and near the burdened standing corn 440 Would, from their deepest roots shot forth aloft, Upwrench : — so in some pitchy hurricane Would winter carry off both airy straw And stubbles on the wing. Oft, too, there swoops A boundless host of waters from the sky. And, mustered from the height [of heav'n], the clouds A grim tornado coil with sable showers ; The lofty firmament comes sluicing down, And with stupendous rain the merry crops And travails of the oxen washes off ; 450 The dykes are brimmed, and hollow rivers swell With roaring, and with panting waters seethes The ocean-plain. The Sire himself, amidst A night of clouds, with gleaming right haml hurls His levin-fires, at which commotion qiiakes 435. There is a fine description of a storm by Milton, P. R.'w.: " And either tropic now 'Gan thunder, and both ends of neaven : the cloudy From many a horrid rift, abortive pour'd. Fierce rain with lightning mix'd, water with fire In txi'in reconciled : nor slept the winds Within their stony caves, but nish'd abroad From the four hinges of the world, and fell On the vex'd wilderness, whose tallest pines. Though rooted deep as high, and sturdiest oaks Bow'd their stiff necks, loadcn with stonny blasts. Or torn up sheer." Thomson also {Autumn, 311-543) finely imitates this and other of Virgil's descripuo^s of storms. He has many other successful passages on the like sub- ject: sec Summer, tioyii6^ ' D 2 36 V. 330—356. THE GEORGICS. V. 357—368. The vasty earth ; wild beasts have fled away, And through the nations crouching dread dismayed The hearts of men. He with his blazing bolt Or felleth Athos down, or Rhodope, Or the Ceraunian heights ; the southern blasts 460 Redouble and the thickest rain ; now woods. Now shores, beneath the mighty tempest wail. In dread of this, the months and stars of heaven Watch thou : whereto may Saturn's chilly star Withdraw him ; to what circuits through the sky The fire Cyllenian strays. In special wise Adore the gods, and yearly rites repeat To mighty Ceres, on the merry turf Performing, just at latest winter's fall, Now in the cloudless spring. Then fat are lambs, 470 And then most mellow wines ; then slum- bers sweet. And thick upon the mounts the shades. For thee Let worship Ceres all the rural youth, For whom do thou thy honeycombs with milk And Bacchus mild dilute ; and thrice around The infant produce let the victim pass Auspicious, which let all thy choir and mates Escort in glee, and Ceres with a shout Woo to their homesteads. Nor let any first The sickle lay beneath his ripened ears, 480 Before to Ceres, with the twisted oak Encircled on his temples, he presents Ungainly gambols, and his carols sings. And these that we may have it in our power By symptoms sure to learn, the Sire himself Hath fixed what warning should the monthly Moon Afford ; with what foretoken should subside The southern blasts ; what viewing many a time. The husbandmen the nearer to the sheds Their cattle might confine. Forthwith, when winds 490 Are rising, either ocean's friths begin 457. Some say that -^?yoods to freshen. Even then the surge Can ill refrain itself from bending keels, When from mid ocean fleet wing home their way The divers, and a screaming waft to shore, And when sea-coots upon diy land disport, And fens well known the heron quits, and soars 500 Above the lofty cloud. Oft, too, the stars, When wind is hanging over, thou wilt. see Glide headlong from the sky, and through the shade Of night long trains of blazes in the rear Gleam white : oft airy chaff and fallen leaves A-flutt'ring, or upon the water's face Rolls o'er the muttering earth, disturbs the flood. And shakes the forest-leaf without a breath." Slimmer, 1116. Does Virgil anywhere, in his descriptions of a gale of wind, introduce this sublime element of stillness ? Dryden is a little too bold : *' Thus when black clouds draw down the labouring skies. Ere yet abroad the winged thunder flies, An horrid stillness first invades the ear, And in that silence we the tempest fear." Astrcea Redux, 5-8. *' We often see, against some storm, A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still. The bold winds speechless, and the orb below As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder Doth rend the region." Shakespeare, Hamlet, ii. 2. It is doubtful whether freta here means more than "waters:" which secondary meaning, if it be insisted on, may be adopted by substituting " floods" for "friths" in the translation. However, as a general rule, it is safer, where there is no strong reason to the contrary, to take a word in its primary rather than in a derived signification. See v. 386. The poet probably alludes here to what is techni- cally called the " swell" of the sea, which, it is well known, often reaches a lee-shore in advance of the wind which has raised it. This phenomenon Shakespeare seems to have had in view in R ichard III., ii. 3 : " By a divine instinct men's minds mistrust Ensuing danger ; as, by proof, we see The water swell before a boist'rous storm." 498. One cannot pretend always to render cor- rectly the terms which stand for birds, any more than those which mean plants or colours. All the translators here render inergi by " cormorants ;" but it is uncertain that this is the import of the word, though it doubtless means " divers " of some sort or other. Ruaeus, who is particular in such matters, says that it means the bird so called. However, if the common rendering is insisted on, there seems to be no means of proving it wrong ; and so the line may be read : The cormorants, and waft their scream to shore. 506. The poet does not mean to imply by impru- ▼. 369—388. BOOK I. y. 389 — 401. 37 The swimming feathers in a frolic join. Hut from the quarter of the grisly North What time it lightens, and what time the dome Alike of East and West is thund'ring, all With brimming dykes the rural regions swim, S'^^ And every seaman on the ocean furls His dripping canvas. Never storm of rain To inadvertent [swains] hath proved of harm : Or, at its rising, in the valley-depths Therefrom the skyish cranes have fled away ; Or heifer, as she gazes up to heaven. With widely-spreading nostrils snuffed the gales ; Or twitt'ring swallow flitted round the meres, And frogs in ooze croaked forth their old complaint. 520 The oftener, too, from out her inner cells. Fretting a narrow path, the ant her eggs Hath carried : and the giant bow hath drunk ; And, from their feed withdrawing in a train Immense, the host of rooks with serried wings Hath whizzed. Now divers ocean-birds, and those. Which rummage round the Asian meads, among Sweet plashes of Cayster, may you see In rivalry upon their shoulders shed The plenteous dews, now run upon the waves, And joy with zeal of washing all in vain. 531 Then with full voice the saucy crow invokes dentibus that rain cannot damage those who do not foresee it ; for they are just the persons to be damaged ; — but, that the signs of it are so plain, that, popularly speaking, no one can be said to be "inadvertent," who thus, popularly, having no existence, cannot be damaged. 526. Weise, and most other editors, if not all but Wagner and Forbiger, have varias, a much better reading than varUe. 532. " Saucy," either from the impudence of her demeanour, or the impertinence of her act ; for what business has she to call for rain, when her betters- would rather be without it ? If this word of multifarious meaning, imfirobus, (sec note on 1. 163,) be considered, with Ruseus, to have the force of importtinus here, the line will run thus: Then with full voice the crow invokes the rain, Importunate, and lonely by herself. In the first edition of this work the passage appeared thus : Then doth the saucy crow with husky voice, The rain invoke, and on the thirsty sand [AllJ solitary saunter by herself. This noisiness before wet is attributed by Shake- speare to a different bird. Rosalind, in bantering The rain, and solitary, by herself. She struts along upon the thirsty sand. Nor even, as they card their nightly tasks, Have maidens been unconscious of a storm, When they within their blazing lamp of earth Should see the oil its sparkles sputter off. And mould'ring mushroom-forms in clusten rise. Nor less, ensuing on a gush of rain, 540 Suns and clear open weather to foresee, And learn by settled marks, shaltthou have power. For neither then their margin in the stars Looks blunt, nor, debted to a brother's beams. The moon to rise, nor filmy flakes of wool Throughout the welkin to be borne along. Outspread not to the soft-warm sun their wings Upon the beach the halcyons, beloved Of Thetis ; frowzy swine bethink ihem not To toss about the bundles from their mouth, Unloosened ; but the vapors rather seek 551 Orlando, says that she will be "more clamorous than a parrot against rain." As You Like It, iv. x. The different effect that can be produced by an alliteration of the letter " S " may be seen in Col- lins' Ode to Evening : " Now air is hush'd, save where the weak-eyed bat. With short shrill shriek, flits by on leathern wing." But a softer combination appears immediately after : " May not unseemly with its stillness suit." A more pointed effect than that in the Latin text is produced by Pope, IVindsor Forest : " She said, and melting as in tears she lay. In a soft silver strain dissolved away." Alliterations, when sparingly used, are at times very effective. For instance, in Dryden's line, Coci and the Fox, 411 : " I fear not death, nor dangers, nor disgrace," the sense would be just the same if "perils" were substituted for " dangers ;" but few would say that the change entailed no detriment. The same is true of a preceding line, 406. Speaking of doctors. Chanticleer says : " Their tribe, trade, trinkets, I defy them all." Shakespeare also: Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 3-: " Sweet love, sweet lines, sweet life ! Here is her hand, the agent of her heart." Churchill, in his Propliecy of Famine, says : " Who often, but without success, have pra>>cd For apt alliteration's artful aid." 534. Or, " stalks." 544. " How she conveyed him softlv in a sleep. His tcr.iples bound with poppy, to the steep Head of old Latmus, where she stoops each night, Gilding the mounuin with her brother's light, To kiss her sweetest." {.The aUnsioH is to the Moon and Endymion.'\ J. Fletcher, Tht Faithful She^furdess, L 3. 40I — 422. THE GEORGICS. V. 422-439. The lowest [grounds], and brood upon the plain ; And, sunset watching from a gable-top To idle purpose plies the bird of night Late hootings. Nisus looms in view, aloft In limpid air, and for the purple lock The forfeit Scylla pays. What way soe'er She flying cleaves light ether with her wings, Lo ! hostile, murderous, with mighty whirr. Along the breezes Nisus hunts her close ; Where Nisus to the breezes wafts him on. She flying cleaves light ether with her wings 5^2 In hurried snatches. Then their brilliant notes The rooks, with straitened throat, three times or four. Redouble ; oft, too, in their roosts on high, I know not with what charm, past custom, blithe. Among themselves they rustle in the leaves. It joys them, when the show'rs are chased away, Their tiny offspring, and their darling nests, Again to visit : not, I sooth believe, 570 Because a god-born intellect is theirs, Or deeper insight into things by fate ; But when the storm, and shifting damp of heaven, Have changed their paths, and Jove, with Austers dank. Condenses what but now was rarefied, And what was dense relaxes, altered be The pictures of their spirits, and their breasts Now different emotions — different, So long as wind was driving on the clouds — Conceive : hence [springs] that symphony of birds 5^*^ 554. In his magnificent description of the Cave of Despair, Spenser finely introduces the owl : " On top whereof ay dwelt the ghastly owle, Shrieking his balefull note." Faerie Qneene, i. 9, 33. " And when the bleating lamb doth bid good night Unto the closing day, then tears begin To keep quick time unto the owl, whose voice Shrieks like the belman in the lover's ears." Middleton, Blurt, iii. i. " It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal belman. Which gives the stern'st good night." Shakespeare, Macbeth, ii. 2. 571. Dry den appli swallow : the idea to the emigrating ^ From hence she has been held of heavenly line, Endued with particles of soul divine." Hind attd Panther, ijz-j,?,. 580. " Therein the mery birdes of every sorte Chaunted alowd their chearefull harmonee. And made emongst themselves a sweete consort. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5, 31. Throughout the fields, and cattle in delight, And ravens croaking triumph from their throats. But if to the swift-speeding Sun, and moons. That follow in their cycle, thou shalt look. Ne'er thee to-morrow's hour shall lead astray. Nor by the crafts of cloudless night shalt thou Be tricked. What time the Moon first gathers in Returning fires, if she shall have embraced The sable ether with a darkling horn. Immense for tillers, and the deep, will rain Be brewing. But if she a maiden red 591 Have o'er hea: visage poured, there will be wind : At wind doth ever golden Phoebe flush. But if at her fourth rise — for that [will prove] The most unerring counsellor — undimmed, Nor with blunt horns, through heav'n shall she career, Both all that day, and those which shall arise Therefrom, to the completion of the month, From rain and tempests will be free ; and vows The i-escued mariners upon the shore 600 Shall pay to Glaucus, and to Panope, And Melicerta [of] Inoan [birth]. The Sun, too, both as he is rising forth, And when he hides him in the waves, will sicjns " Here is melody, A charm of birds." G. Peele, The Arraignment of Paris, i. i. " With charm of earliest birds." Milton, P. L. iv. 641. " The warblers lively tunes essay. The lark on wing, the linnet on the 'spray ; While music trembles in their songful throats. The bullfinch whistles soft his flute-like notes. The bolder blackbird swells sonorous lays ; The varying thrush commands a tuneful maze ; Each a wild length of melody pursues ; While the soft-murmuring, amorous wood-dove cooes ; And when in spring these melting mixtures flow. The cuckoo sends her unison of woe." Savage, Watiderer, c. 5. 582. Corvus seems properly to mean the " raven;" but in V. 382 it most certainly stands for the " rook," which probably is its signification in v. 410. Here it may represent the same bird ; in which case the line should run : And rooks a triumph cawing from their throat. 604. Gay thus beautifully describes the sun set- ting in the sea : " Engag'd in thought, to Neptune's bounds I stray. To take my farewell of the parting day. Far in the deep the sun his glory hides, A streak of gold the sea and sky divides ; V. 439—459. BOOK I. V. 460— 471. 39 By showers, and with bright'ning Aquilo Thou shah behold the forests waved. In fine, What evening late may bring, wherefrom the wind May chase the calmy clouds, what Auster dank May hatch, the Sun to thee will signs afford. The Sun to call a traitor who may dare ? He e'en that dark convulsions are at hand Oft gives us warning, and that treachery And shrouded wars begin to swell. He e'en 642 [When] Caesar ['s light was] quenched com- passioned Rome, What time his lustrous head he curtained o'er With rusted iron's darkling hue, and feared Ungodly ages everlasting night. Though at that hour e'en earth, and ocean- plains. And dogs ill-omened, and ill-boding birds, Afforded presages. How oft we saw, 643. Shakespeare thus finely describes the death of Caesar, J. C. iii. 2 : " For when the noble Caesar saw him stab. Ingratitude, more strong than traitor's arms. Quite vanquish'd him: then burst his mighty heart ; And, in his mantle muffling up hLs face. Even at the base of Pompey's statue. Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell. Oh ! what a fall was there, my countrymen !" " But sneaking Brutus, Whom none but cowards and white-livered knaves. Would dare commend, lagging behind his fellows. His dagger in his bosom, stabbed his father." Dryden, The Duke 0/ Guise, ii. i. 645. " So, when the sun in bed, Curtain'd with cloudy red. Pillows his chin upon an orient wave." Milton, Ode on Nativity, 26. " 'Twas such a night involv'd thy towers, O Runje, The dire presage of mighty Ca;sar's doom. When the sun veil'd in rust his mourning head. And frightful prodigies the skies o'erspread." Gay, Trivia, iii. 377. 648. Is attention to gender to be insisted on, in spite of the claims of refinement ? 64Q. Like those that Shakespeare makes presage the death of Duncan : " The night has been unruly. Where we lay Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say, Lamentings heard i' the air : strange screan«s of death ; And prophesying, with accents terrible, Of dire combustion, and confus'd events New hatch'd to the woeful time. The obscure bird Clamour'd the livelong night ; some say the earth Was feverous and did shake." MachetA, ii. 3 And more directly of Czsar's death itself, Casra says, y. C. i. 3 : " O Cicero, I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds Have riv'd the knotty oaks ; and I have seen Afford : the sun the surest signs attend, Both those which in the morning he re- stores. And those which at the rising of the stars. When he with blotches shall have chequered o'er His infant dawning, buried in a cloud, And from his central disk shall have re- recoiled, 610 Be show'rs mistrusted by thee ; for there swoops From [heav'n] on high a southern blast, alike To trees, and crops, and cattle, fraught with woe. Or when towards dawn among the huddled clouds His scatt'ring beams shall shoot them forth, or when Aurora wan shall rise, the saffron couch Of Tithon leaving — welavvay ! — ill then The vine-leaf shall bescreen the mellow grapes. In such profusion, patt'ring on the roofs. Leaps bristling hail. This, too, what time he now 620 Departs from spanned Olympus, 'twill be- stead The more to bear in mind. For oft we see Upon his visage straying fitful hues : The dun speaks rain, the fiery, eastern gales. But if the blotches with a crimson glare Shall 'gin to be commixed, all [nature] then Alike with storm and torrents thou shalt view In ferment. Let not any in that night Encourage me to voyage through the deep. Nor wrest away my cable from the land. But if when he shall both restore the day, And bury it restored, all-bright his disk 632 Shall prove, thou needlessly wilt be ap- palled The purple clouds their amber linings show, And edg'd with flames rolls every wave below ; Here pensive I behold the fading light, And o'er the distant billow lose my sight." Rural sports, i. 99-106. 612. So Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis : " Like a red moon, that ever yet betokcn'd Wreck to the seaman, tempest to the field. Sorrow to shepherds, woe unto the birds. Gusts and foul flaws to herdsmen and to herds." 616. " Oh, lend me all thy red. Thou shame-faced Morning, when from Tithon's bed Thou risest ever-maiden !" J. Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, i. 3. " Is not yon gleame, the shuddering morne that flakes, With silver tinctur, the east vierge of heaven V Marston, Antonio and MeUida, ist P., iiL 40 V. 471—487. THE GEORGICS. V. 487—495. Forth surging from her bursten furnaces, ! ^tna boil over on the Cyclops' fields, 651 | And roll her balls of flames and molten I rocks ! j The din of weapons through the breadth of | heaven • j Germania heard ; Alps thrilled with wont- ! less quakes. ! A voice was also heard by all the world j Throughout the stilly groves — a mighty 1 [voice] — And spectres wan in wond'rous shapes were seen j Towards dusk of night ; the brutes, too, uttered speech ; Accursed thought ! the rivers pause, and \ lands Yawn wide ; and iv'ry, struck with grief, Weeps o'er the fanes, and bronzes sweat distil. 661 Whirling them round within his frantic gulf, The monarch of the floods, Eridanus, Washed off the forests, and through all the plains The cattle with their cotes he swept away. Nor, at the selfsame hour, or did the veins In dismal entrails threatful cease to look, Or from the wells the stream of blood to flow. And stately towns to echo through the night With howling wolves. At no time else there fell 670 The ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam, To be exalted with the threatening clouds : But never till to-night, never till now, Did I go through a tempest dropping fire. Either there is a civil strife in heaven. Or else the world, too saucy with the gods. Incenses them to send destruction." " In the most high and palm)' state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell. The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeal and gibber in the Roman streets. As, stars with train of fire and dews of blood, Disasters in the sun ; and the moist star. Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands. Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse." Hamlet, i. i. " Why all this noise because a king must die? Or does heaven fear because he swayed the earth. His ghost will war with the high Thunderer? Curse on the babbling fates, that cannot see A great man tumble, but they must be talking !" Lee, Rival Queens, ii. 1. 660. Illacrhno usually signifies to " weep for, or over " a thing. If this meaning, which is adopted in the translation, be accepted, the import of the passage will be, — that the statues of the gods were alarmed for the safety of the temples and of religion, and so wept at the sad prospect of what might happen : those of ivory weep, those of bronze per- spire, with the agitation of grief. This is the more beautiful view, though not therefore necessarily the right one : yet tncestum seems to render it imperative. More levin-flashes from a cloudless sky, Nor have so oft disastrous comets blazed. Therefore a second time Philippi saw Rome's marshalled lines in mutual fight engage, With balanced arms ; nor was it [deemed] unmeet By gods above that twice with blood ot ours Emathia fat should wax, and spacious plains Of Haemus. Aye, in sooth, the time will come, When in those bourns the husbandman, as he The ground is working with his bended plough, 680 On javelms, gnawed away with rugged rust, 672. " Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood ! Over thy wounds now do I prophesy, — Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips, To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue ; — A curse shall light upon the limbs of men ; Domestic fury, and herce civil strife, Shall cumber all the parts of Italy ; Blood and destruction shall be so in use, And dreadful objects so familiar. That mothers shall but smile when they behold Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war ; All pity chok'd with custom of fell deeds : And Csesar's spirit, ranging for revenge. With Ate by his side, cume hot from hell. Shall in these confmes, with a monarch's voice. Cry, " Havock !" and let slip the dogs of war ; That this foul deed shall smell above the earth, With carrion men groaning for burial." Mark A ntony's Soliloquy over Caesar's Corpse : J. C. iii. I. " O thou soft natural death, thou art joint twin To sweetest slumber ! No rough-bearded comet Stares on thy mild departure ; the dull owl Beats not against thy casement ; the hoarse wolf Scents not thy carrion : pity winds thy corse. Whilst horror waits on princes." Webster, Vittoria Corombond, v. 1. 674. " The jars of brothers, two such mighty ones, Are like a small stone thrown into a river. The breach scarce heard; but view the beaten current. And you shall see a thousand angry rings Rise in his face, still swelling and still growing." J. Fletcher, The Bloody Brother, ii. i. 680. Perhaps it may be necessary to remark on inolitHs, V. 494, that it has been rendered " work- ing," although a past participle. This proceeds upon the assumption that Virgil here has followed the principle, so common with the poets, of using the past participle of deponent verbs in a present sense, though they have a participle present. The reason of the license may be seen in Wagner, Quas. Virg. xxix. 3. In the present instance it is plain that it is during the act of working the earth that the ploughman makes his strange discovery. For- biger, indeed, observes that, strictly speaking, it is after the operation that the wonder appears ; but perhaps it is truer to say that the operation and the wonder are contemporaneous. The past sense would seem to separate the one from the other by too wide an interval. V. 496—505. BOOK II. ▼. 505—514. 4« Shall light, or with his weighty harrows I strike I On helmets empty, and gigantic bones BehoUl with wonder in their graves un- earthed. Gods of my ancestors ! my country's gods I And Romulus, and matron Vesta, who The Tuscan Tiber, and Palatial heights Of Roma dost protect, this youth, at least, P'orbid ye not to help a ruined age ! Enough now long time past by blood of ours O90 Laomedontian Troja's broken oaths We've. expiated. Now this long time past Heav'n's royal court begrudges thee to us, O Caesar, and complains of thy concern For triumphs of [a world] of men, as where Reversed are right and wrong ; so many wars 683. The same wonder is excited, according to Collins, by an opposite cause. Speaking of one of the Hebrides, he says : " To that hoar pile, which still its ruins shows : In whose small vaults a^pigmy folk is found, Whose bones the delver with his spade up- throws, And culls them, wondering, from the hallowed ground." Ode on the Superstitions of the Highlattds. 692. Dryden makes the tears of England equally effective in a graver case : " So tears of joy, for your returning spilt, Work out and expiate our former guilt." Astrcea Redux, 274, 5. 696. " We shall have other liberal sciences Taught us too soon : lying and flattering, Those are the studies now ; and murder shortly I know will be humanity." Beaumont and Fletcher, Cupid's Revenge, iii. 3. Throughout the globe ; so many shapes of crimes ; Not any worthy homage to the plough ; The fields lie waste, the tillers draft^ off, And bending sickles into yieldless sword [s] Are forged. Euphrates here, Germania there, 701 Is rousing war ; the leagues between them burst, The cities that are neighbors bear their arms ; Ungodly Mars fumes all throughout the globe : — As when from forth the barriers four-horse cars Have flung them, on the courses do they spring, And, idly straining thongs, the charioteer Is hurried by his steeds, nor heeds the car the reins. " So our most just decrees, Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead. And liberty plucks justice by the nose ; The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart Goes all decorum." Shakespeare, Measure /or Measure, i. 4. 699. Pope finely describes the evils of tyranny : 'The fields are ravish'd from the industrious swains, Froni men their cities, and from gods their fanes : The levelled towns with weeds lie covered o'er ; The hollow winds through naked temples roar : Round broken columns clasping ivy twined ; O'er heaps of ruin stalk'd the stately hind ; The fox obscene to gaping tombs retires, And savage bowlings fill the sacred quires." Windsor Forest. BOOK II. Thus far the tilth of fields and stars of heaven : Now thee, O Bacchus, will I chant, and e'en Along with thee the saplings of the wood. And brood of olive, of a lazy growth. Hither, O thou Lenaean father— here Are all things with thy bounties full ; for thee With vine-leafed Autumn laden, blooms the field. Froths up the vintage with its brimming vats ; Hither, O thou Lenaean father, come. And thy uncovered legs, their buskins doffed, 10 In must new [-made] along with me distain. In the first place, in giving birth to trees Diversified is Nature ['s plan]. For some. No sons of men compelling, of themselves. Of their unfettered will, appear, and plains. And winding rivers, far and wide possess ; As downy osier, and elastic brooms, Poplar, and groves of willow, silv'ring o'er With blue-gray leaf. But some from planted seed Arise, as stately chestnuts, and [the tree,] 20 Which leafs for Jove the chiefest of the woods, The i*:sculus; and, counted oracles by Greeks, Litu 21. Or, " Monarch," or " Giant." 22. Dryden takes an ingenious advantage of the i legend in his Papugyrick of Charles J I., 129: ! " Thus, from your royal oak, like Jove's of old, I Arc answers sought, and destinies foretold : Propitious oracles arc bcgg'd with vows, I And crowns that grow upon the sacred boughs." 42 V. 16—34. THE GEORGICS. V. 35—54. The oaks. Sprouts up in others from the root The closest thicket, as in cherry-trees, And elms : aye, even the Parnasian bay, An infant 'neath a mother's vasty shade, Uprears itself. These methods Nature first Vouchsafed ; by these springs verdant every race Of forests, and of shrubs, and holy groves. Others there are, the which along its path 30 Mere practice hath discovered for itself. One, — suckers from the mothers' tender frame Dissund'ring, hath in furrovi^s laid them down ; Another — plunges settings in the field, And four-cleft stakes, and poles with pointed wood; And of the [members of the] forest some The lowered arches of the layer wait. And nurseries alive in soil their own. No root need others, and the topmost shoot The pruner scruples not to earth to trust, 40 Restoring it. Nay e'en, when cut the trunks — A mai-vel to be told ! — there is a root Of olive thrust from out the sapless wood. And many a time the branches of one [tree] Undamaged to another's see we turn ; — And, changed, the pear engrafted apples yield. And stony cornels blush upon the plums. 32. In V. 23 Manso reads teneras instead of tenero, on slender manuscript authority. Virgil perhaps consulted the sound somewhat to the pre- judice of the sense, thinking that the ear would be more offended by the close proximity of such de- finite syllables as as, than the mind would be by the transference of tenderness from the offspring to the mother. Perhaps, too, he thought that the unmerciful tearing of suckers from her frame might reduce her to a condition which, in poetry at least, might warrant the soft epithet. 47. It seems much better to render v. 34 thus, rather than according to the other view, which would compel a change to And stony cornels purple o'er with plums. For, ist. It makes coma the tree instead of the fruit, which ought not to be done except in case of necessity. 2nd. It is far-fetched to call any tree lapidosa, however suitable the term may be to its produce. The objection to the other view is, that no one would think of engrafting an inferior fruit, like the cornelian cherry, on its superior, the plum. But to this it may be answered, that the matter is one of taste. Some people might prefer cornels to plums, especially to bad plums, which the Romans doubtless had as well as ourselves. Cowley has a graceful passage upon the subject itself: " We nowhere Art do so triumphant see. As when it grafts or buds the tree : In other things we count it to excel. If it a docile scholar can appear To Nature, and but imitate her well ; Wherefore arise ! O learn their special tilths, According to their kind, ye husbandmen, And their wild fruits by culture soften down ; 50 Nor let your lands lie idle, 'Tis a joy The heights of Ismarus with Bacchus thick To plant, and with the olive to array The great Taburnus. And be thou at hand, And launch with me upon our task com- menced, [thou] our pride ! O justly of our fame The noblest share, — Maecenas ! and on wing Vouchsafe the canvas to the opening sea. 1 list not every [subject] in my lays To compass, no, not even though I had 60 A hundred tongues, and hundred mouths, a voice Of iron : — be at hand, and coast along The margin of the nearest shore : the lands [Are lying] within grasp. I will not here With fabled verse, and thro' digressive rounds And prefaces protracted thee detain. [The trees,] which lift them of their free accord Up to the climes of light, unfruitful sooth. But blithe and brave, arise ; because there lives. In secret in the soil, conceptive power. 70 Still these, too, if should any graft, or trust, Transferred, to trenches deeply worked, will doff Their savage nature, and by constant tilth, To whatsoe'er expedients you invite, Not slow will follow. Yea moreo'er, the stem, Which barren issues from the lowest roots. Will do the same, if it be ranged apart It overrules, and is her master, here. It imitates her Maker's power divine, And changes her sometimes, and sometimes does refine : It does, like grace, the fallen tree restore To its bless'd state of Paradise before : Who would not joy to see his conquering hand O'er all the vegetable world command ? And the wild giants of the wood receive What law he's pleased to give ? He bids th' ill-natured crab produce The gentler apple's winy juice ; The golden fruit, that worthy is Of Galatea's purple kiss : He does the savage hawthorn teach To bear the medlar and the pear : He bids the rustic plum to rear A noble trunk, and be a peach. Even Daphne's coyness he does mock. And weds the cherry to her stock. Though she refused Apollo's suit ; Even she, that chaste and virgin tree. Now wonders at herself, to see That she's a mother made, and blushes in her fruit." The Gardeii. V. 54—73. BOOK II, V. 73—94. 43 Through fields unplanted: now the lofty leaves And branches of the mother shade it o'er, And rob it, growing, of its fructive powers. And parch it when it bears. Again, the tree, 81 Which rears her up from scattered seeds, slow comes. For late descendants doomed to form a shade ; And fruits degen'rate, in forgetfulness Of former juices ; and the grape sends forth Unseemly clusters, booty for the birds. In sooth on all is travail to be spent. And all into a furrow forced, and tamed At heavy cost. But olives give return From truncheons better, from a layer vines. The Paphian myrtle from the solid wood. 91 From sets both hardy hazels take their rise, And ash gigantic, and the shady tree Of coronal Herculean, and the mast Of the Chaonian sire ; moreover, [thus] Takes stately palm its rise, and silver-fir The haps of ocean doomed to see. Yea, too, Is grafted on the offspring of the nut The bristly arbutus, and barren planes Have borne stout apple-stems ; with chest- nut's [bloom] 100 Hath beech, and mountain-ash hath silvered o'er With snowy blossom of the pear, and swine Have craunched the acorn underneath the elms. Nor single is the way to graft, and eyes 81. Uruntque ferentem: i. e. should the ae, which washes her above, And which below ? Or such her spacious lakes ? 220 Thee, Larius, vastest, and Benacus, thee. With waves and roar of ocean tow'ring high? Should I describe her havens, and the mole, Piled on the Lucrine, and the sea in wrath With thundering hissings, where the Julian wave Booms from afar, as back the deep is poured, And the Tyrrhenian tide is sluiced within 211. " The seas in tumbling mountains did not roar, But like moist crystal whispered on the shore ; No snake did trace her meads, nor, ambushed, lower In azure curls beneath the sweet spring flower; The nightshade, henbane, napel, aconite, Her bowels then not bare, with death to smite Her guiltless brood." Drummond, Flowers of Sion, Fairest Fair. 212. " Here thou shah rest Upon this holy bank : no deadly snake Upon this turf herself in folds doth make; Heie is no poison for the toad to feed ; Here boldly spread thy hands : no venomed weed Dares blister them ; no slimy snail dare creep Over thy face when thou art fast asleep ; Here never durst the babbling cuckoo spit ; No slough of falling star did ever hit Upon this bank." J. Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, iii. i. " These, as a line, their long dimensions drew. Streaking the ground with sinuous trace." Milton, P. L., b. 7. 223. Thomson, alluding to the public works of Britain : " And, by the broad imperious mole repell'd. Hark how the baffled storm indignant roars !" Liberty, v. 715. Goldsmith happily describes similar efforts in Holland : " Methinks her patient sons before mfc stand. Where the broad ocean leans against the kind. And, sedulous to stop the coming tide, Lift the tall rampire's artificbl pride. Onward methinks, and diligently slow, The firm, connected bulwark seems to grow: Spreads its long arms amidst the waterv roar. Scoops out an empire, and usurps the snore ; While the pent ocean, ri>:ing o'er the pile, Sees an amphibious world beneath him smile." U'ravcller. 46 V. 164 — 184- THE GEORGICS. V. 184—209. The narrows of Avernus ? She, the same, Her rills of silver, and her mines of bronze. Hath in her veins unveiled to view, and flowed 230 With gold full plenteous. She a mettled race Of heroes, — Marsi, and Sabellian youth, And Ligur, to calamity inured. And Volsci, armed with javelins, hath pro- duced ; The Decii she, the Marii, and the great Camilli, Scipio's offspring, steeled in war ; And thee, O Cassar, mightiest [of all]. Who at this hour in Asia's farthest coasts. E'en now a conqueror, art warding off The craven Indian from the Roman towers. All hail ! great nurse of fruits, Saturnian land, 241 Great [nurse] of heroes ! For thy sake on themes Of ancient praise and skill do I advance. The hallowed springs emboldened to un- lock, And Ascra's lay I sing through towns of Rome. There now is place for innate characters Of soils ; what pow'rs to each, what hue, and what, In yielding produce, be their native force. First, churlish lands and stingy hills, where light The clay, and shingle on the braky fields, [Is found], delight in the Palladian grove 25 1 Of long-lived olive. For a sign there stands Wild-olive, in profusion springing up In the same territory, and the fields Bestrewed with wild-wood berries. But the soil. That greasy is, and in delicious ooze 240. Shakespeare makes John of Gaunt say finely : " This royal throne of kings, this sceptr'd isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress, built by nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war ; This happy breed of men, this little world ; This precious stone set in the silver sea. Which serves in it the office of a wall. Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands ; This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth," King Richard II., \\. i. 249. Perhaps Collins would furnish a better word, as a version of maligni, in his Ode on Poetic Cha- racter : " Where, tangled round the jealous steep. Strange shades o'erbrow the valleys deep." Milton, in P. L,, b. xi. 15, speaks of " envious winds." Is blithesome, and the plain that thick [is stocked] With grass, and is prolific in its breast, — Such as within a mountain's hollow vale Ofttimes to look adown on we are wont ; — Stream hither from the summits of the cliffs The brooks, and trail along enriching slime : — 262 And that which to the southern gale is reared. And feeds the fern abhorred by crooked ploughs : This will to thee one day right hardy vines, And with abundant Bacchus rilling forth, Supply ; this is prolific of the grape ; This — of the liquor, such as we outpour From saucers and from gold, what time his [horn Of] iv'ryhath the bloated Tuscan blown 270 Hard by the altars, and we offer up From bending chargers entrails in a steam. But if thy fancy rather be to tend The herds, and calves, and younglings of the ewes. Or goats that sear the tilths, do thou seek out The gorged Tarentum's glades and distant [leas], And, — such as hapless Mantua hath lost, — A plain, that feeds upon its grassy flood The snowy swans. Thy flocks no crystal springs. No grass shall fail ; and howsoever much 280 Thy cattle in the lengthful days shall browse, The icy dew shall in the scanty night So much replace. Lands, well nigh black, and fat Beneath the sunken ploughshare, and whose mould Is crimp (for we in ploughing copy this). Is best for corn : from no plain wilt thou see More wains departing home with plodding steers ; Or [that] wherefrom the plougher in his wrath Hath carried off a wood, and overturned The groves [that] idle [stood] through many a year, 290 And the time-honored homesteads of the birds 272. Or : The steaming entrails from the bending trays. 291. So Dryden, of the destruction of timber for Arcite's funeral pile : " Nor how the Dryads, or the woodland train. Disherited, ran howling o'er the plain : Nor how the birds to foreign seats repair'd. Or beasts that bolted out, and saw the forest bared ; V. 2IO — J 34" BOOK 11. V. a 34— 263. 47 Hath he uprooted with their deepest stocks ; High [heav'n] have they, their nests for- saken, sought ; But the raw plain hath glistened forth be- neath The ploughshare driven in. For, of a truth, The hungry gravel of the hilly ground Scarce caters lowly casia-plants for bees And rosemary ; and tufa rough, and clay Of Crete, by dun chelydri channelled out. Deny that other soils alike for snakes 3CX) Sweet cates purvey, and winding shrouds afford. That which breathes out thin mist and flitting steam. And drinks the moisture in, and when it lists Itself returns it from itself ; that, too, Which robes it aye in emerald turf its own. Nor iron scathes with scurf and briny rust — That soil will pleach thee elms with jovial vines ; That teemful is in oil ; that thou wilt find In tilling both indulgent to the flock, And tol'rant of the crooked share. Such [land] 310 The wealthy Capua plougheth, and the coasts Bord'ring Vesuvius' ridge, the Clanius, too, Not to the tenantless Acerrse just. Now, by what method each thou may'st have power To know, will I declare. If it be thin, Or past the customary manner close, Should'st thou demand, (since one befriends thy corn. The other, wine, — the close doth rather Ceres, Lyaeus all the loosest, — ) first a spot Shalt thou select by sight, and bid a pit 320 Be deeply sunken in the solid [soil], And all the earth shalt thou replace again. And level with thy feet the surface sands. Shall they be lacking, thin, and for the flock And bounteous vines more fit, its breast will prove. Nor how the ground, now clear'd, with ghastly fright Beheld the sudden sun, a stranger to the light." Palamon and Arcite, 2243-8. 299. In rendering exesa, commentators differ. One takes it in its simple sense of "eating away ;" another in the dependent sense of " making cavities." If "the former required justification, ciburn would furnish more than enough ; while latebras would at least excuse the latter, which is less commonplace, and more pleasing. 305. Wagner and others read viridis, instead of viridi, but it would seem with slender authority from manuscripts. But if they shall deny that they ain pa.s.s Into their proper beds, and when the dykes Are filled, shall earth abound, the field is dense ; For sullen clods and heavy ridges look, And with thy sturdy steers break up the land. 330 But briny ground, and what is '•bitter" called. For grain unblest,— that neither mellow grows By ploughing, nor doth it preserve his race For Bacchus, nor for fruits their rightful names : — Such sample will afford : do thou thy frails Of matted osier, and the colanders Of thy wine-presses from the smoky roofs Pull down. Therein let that malignant soil, And from the springs sweet waters, to the brim Be trampled : all the fluid, sooth, will struggle forth, 34° And drops enormous issue through the twigs ; But clear the flavor will a proof betray. And by a sense of bitterness distort The miserable mouths of those that try. So, too, the land which unctuous is, in fine, By this means learn we : never in the hands When tossed it crumbles, but in guise of pitch In handling to the fingers clings. [The soil,] That moisty is, the nobler grasses feeds, And of itself is ranker than is right. 350 Ah ! be not mine that too prolific ground, Nor show itself too strong with infant ears ! That which is heavy by its very weight Its silent self bewrays, — and what is light. Ready it is beforehand by the eyes To learn the black, and what to each the hue ; But to search out the cursed cold is hard : Pitch-pine trees only, and the harmful yews, Or ivies dun at times disclose its tracks. These things observed, the earth remem- ber thou 360 Long first to throughly melt, and thickly score Great mounts with trenches, first— the clods outstretched Upon their back to Aquilo to shew. Ere thou dig in the vine's rejoicing race. Most excellent the fields with crumbling mould : 358. "Death does delight in yew, and I ha%'e robbed a church-yard for him." Shirley, Cupid and Dtaik, I. tz. V. 263—288. THE GEORGICS. -310. That [task] the winds and icy hoar-frosts make Their care, and stalwart delver stirring up His loosened acres. But if any swains No watchfulness hath 'scaped, first search they out A spot alike, where first may be prepared A nurs'ry for the trees, and [one,] whereto Hereafter, ranged abroad, it may be borne. Lest the young scions should decline to know 372 A mother, on a sudden changed. Yea, too, The quarter of the sky upon the rind They mark, that in what fashion each hath stood. Upon what side the heats of Auster borne. What rear it hath directed to the Pole, They may replace it : 'tis of such avail To mould their habits in their tender [forms.] Whether on hills or plains it better be To set the vine, seek first. Should'st thou lay out 381 Fields of the fertile champaign, plant them close : In a close [rank] not slower in his yield Is Bacchus ; but — if soil upraised in knolls. And hills aslope, be tender to your rows, Nor less let every alley to a nail — The trees in posture — with the avenue, Cut through them, square. As oft in mighty war. What time a lengthful legion has deployed Its squadrons, and upon the open plain 390 The host hath halted, and the lines are ranged, And all the earth is waving far and near With flashing bronze, nor yet the grisly frays Do they commingle, but irresolute Mars wanders in the midst of arms. Let all Be meted out in even ranks of paths ; Not only that the view the vacant mind May feed, but since not otherwise will earth Vouchsafe to all like vigor, nor the boughs Have pow'r to stretch them into empty [space]. 400 Perchance, too, thou may'st ask what be the depths 379. Or, if taken more generally : To form their habits during tender [years]. 396. Similarly Chaucer, Flmuer and Leaf, st. 5 : " In which were okes great, streight as a line, "Under the which the grass, so fresh of hew. Was newly sprong, and an eight foot or nine Every tree well fro his fellow grew, With branches brode, laden with leves new, That sprongen out ayen the sunne-shene. Some very red, and some a glad light grene." For trenches. I would dare to trust my vine E'en to a shallow drill. At greater depth. And far adown in earth the tree is firmed : The tEscuIus among the first, which, high As with its summit to the gales of heaven, So deep it stretches with its roots to hell. Hence this nor storms, nor gusts, nor show'rs uptear ; Unstirred it bides, and many sons of sons. While rolling [o'er it] many an age of men, 410 In lasting it survives. Then far and near As forth it spreads its gallant boughs and arms On this side and on that, it by itself Upholdeth in the midst a mighty shade. Nor let thy vineyards to the setting sun Incline ; nor hazel plant among the vines ; Nor seek the topmost scions, or strip down Thy settings from the summit of the tree ; — So mighty is their love of earth ! nor harm The shoots with blunted iron ; nor do thou Among them sets of wild-wood olive plant. For oft from heedless shepherds fire hath dropped, 422 Which thievishly beneath the oily bark At first concealed, hath on the timbers seized, And, stealing forth upon the leaves aloft, A mighty crackling to the welkin raised. Thence coursing on in conquest through the boughs, And through the lofty crests, it rules, and wraps In blazes all the grove, and gross with gloom Of pitch, shoots forth to heav'n a murky cloud ; _ 430 In chief if some tornado from the height 404. But the season may be wrong for removal.: " Thus in the summer a tall flourishing tree. Transplanted by strong hand, with all her leaves And blooming pride upon her, makes a show Of spring, tempting the eye with wanton blossom ; But not the sun, with all his amorous smiles. The dews of morning, or the tears of night, Can root her fibres in the earth again, Or make her bosom kind to growth and bearing, But the tree withers." Shirley, Chabot, v. 3. 407. " Observe the forest oak, the mountain pine, The towering cedar, and the humble vine. The bending willow that o'ershades the flood, And each spontaneous offspring of the wood. The oak and pine, which high from earth arise, And wave their lofty heads amidst the skies, Their parent earth in like proportion wound. And through crude metals penetrate the ground ; Their strong and ample roots descend so deep. That fix'd and firm they may their station keep And the fierce shocks of furious winds defy, With all the outrage of inclement sky." Sir R. Blackmore, Creation, b. ii. V. 311 — 334- BOOK 11, V. 324—349. 49 Hath tilted on the forests, and the blast Rolls round the burnings as it hunts them on'. When this [occurs], no vigor from the root Have they, nor when cut down have pow'r to rise Anew, and like themselves to spring afresh In verdure from the deep of earth: unblest, Wild olive lords it with his bitter leaves. Nor thee let any counsellor so sage Induce, when Boreas breathes, stiff earth to j stir : 440 Then winter prisons in the fields with ice, I Nor, when the seed is cast, doth it allow The frozen root to grapple to the earth. | For vineyards is the planting best, what | time I In blushing spring the bird of white hath come. Loathed by long snakes : or towards the earliest chills Of autumn, when the speeding Sun not yet Is touching on the winter with his steeds, Now slips the summer by. Yea spring to leaves Of groves, to woods is spring a boon ; in spring 450 The lands are swelling, and their genial seeds 434. Forbiger thinks, and not without reason, that V. 312 should be punctuated as Wakefield recommends: Hoc, nbi non-a stir/>e valent, &c., making v. ^14 the consequence implied by hoc. In this case the translation of v. 312 must be varied thus : " Thus, since they have no vigor from the root. Nor, when cut down, have pow'r to rise anew. And, copies of themselves, to spring afresh," &c. 438. Perhaps some may prefer : " Survives wild olive," &c. 449. Spenser has a beautiful passage on this subject, embodied in an address to Venus, Faerie Qtieene, iv. 10, 45 : " Then doth the daedale earth throw forth to thee Out of her fruitfull lap abundant flowres ; And then all living wights, soone as they see The Spring breake forth out of his lusty bowres, They all doe learne to play the paramours : First doe the merry birds, thy prety pages, Privily pricked with thy lustfull powres, Chirpe loud to thee out of their leavy cages, And thee their mother call to coole their kindly rages." 449. " Wonder must speak or break ! "What is this? grows The wealth of Nature here, or Art? it shows As if Favonius, father of the Spring, Who in the verdant meads doth reign sole king, Had roused him here, and shook his feathers, wet With purple swelling nectar ; and had let The sweet and fruitful dew fall on the ground. To force out all the flowers that might be found ; Or a Minerva with her needle had The enamoured earth with all her riches clad. And made the downy Zephyr, as he flew. Still to be followed with the Spring's best hue." Ben Jonson, I'ision of Velij^ht. Demand. Then Mihtr, the almighty sire, With fertilizing showers droppcth down Upon the lap of his rejoicing bride, And all her embryoes he, mighty, feeds. Blent with her mighty frame. 'ITien echo forth The wayless thickets with the warbling birds, And Venus herds reseek on days decreed ; The bounteous field is in the throes of birth ; And to the Zephyr's breezes softly-warm 460 The fields unlock their breasts. Abounds in all A gentle moisture ; and to stranger suns The buds in safety dare themselves to tnist. Nor fears the viny spray the rising gales Of south, or shower, hunted through the heaven By mighty northern blasts, but pushes forth Its buds, and all its leafage it unfolds. That days none other at the infant birth Of the arising world had o'er it dawned, Or held another course, could I have deemed. 470 That [tide] was spring ; the mighty globe kept spring, ' And eastern gales forebore their wintry gusts. What time primeval flocks drank in the light, And men's earth-gendered race its head upraised From flinty fields, and savage beasts were loosed Upon the woods, and stars upon the sky. Nor would soft things be able to endure This travail, were not such profound re- pose To intervene betwixt both cold and heat, And Heav'n's indulgence to relieve the lands. 480 For what remains, what shoots soever thou Shalt plunge throughout thy fields, with rich manure Bestrew, and mindful hide with plenteous soil ; Or delve in spongy stone, or rugged shells : For 'tween them will the waters trickle through, 452. " Ethereal Jove then glads with genial showers Earth's mighty womb, and strews her lap with flowers ; Hence juices mount, and buds embolden'd try More kindly breezes, and a softer sky. Kind Venus revels. Hark ! on every bough In lulling strains the feather'd warblers woo ; Fell tigers soften in th' infectious flames, And lions, fawning, court their brinded dames." Tickell, Fragment on Humthtg. . V. 349— 370. THE GEORGICS. V. 371 — 400. And subtile breath [of heav'n] will work below, Aye, and their spirits will the plants up- raise. Ere now, too, have been found, who with a stone At top, and with the burden of a sherd Enormous, would depress them : this, a shield 490 'Gainst sluicy showers ; this, what time with drought The Doo[, heat-bringing, splits the yawning fields. When planted be the scions, it remains The soil to crumble oftener at the roots. And ply remorseless drags, or work the ground Beneath the sunken share, and wheel about Among the very vine-rows straining steers. Then glossy canes, and shafts of rod un- barked. And ashen stakes to fit, and sturdy prongs. By strength whereof they may themselves inure 500 To struggle upward, and to scorn the winds. And track the stages through the heights of elms. And while their infant age with new [-born] leaves Is rip'ning, thou must spare the tender [plants] ; And while the tendril shoots it to the gales In joyance, through the cloudless [air] let loose With slackened reins, it must not yet be tried With edge of knife, but with the hands inbent The leaves be nipped, and gathered here and there. Thereafter, when they now with lusty stems Their elms infolding, shall have mounted up. Then strip their locks, then lop their arms : — ere this 512 They dread the iron : — then at last exert A heartless sway, and curb the gadding boughs. 512. " Go thou, and, like an executioner, Cut oft" the heads of too-fast growing sprays." " All superfluous branches We lop away, that bearing boughs may live." Shakespeare, King Richard II., iii. 4. Spenser uses "locks" of trees, as Virgil Cotnce: F. Q., ii. II, 19 : " As withered leaves drop from their dryed stockes, When the wroth western wind does reave their locks." Milton, also, P. L., b. x. : " While the winds Blow moist and keen, shattering the grateful locks Of these fair spreading trees." Pleached, too, must hedges be, and every flock Restrained ; in chief while delicate the leaf, And unaware of toils, to which, beyond The ruffian winters, and the tyrant Sun, Wild bulls unceasingly and pestering roes, Do wanton harm ; [upon it] browse the sheep 520 And greedy heifers. Nor so much the chills. All curdled with the silv'ry rime, or heat, Down bearing scathful on the parching cliffs. Have worked it mischief, as those flocks [have caused] ; The poison, too, of their remorseless fang, And scar imprinted on the nibbled stem. For fault none else to Bacchus is the goat On every altar slain, and olden plays The stages enter, and rewards for wit, Hamlets and crossways round, have Theseus' sons 53*^ Proposed, and 'mid the goblets jovial danced In downy meadows on the smeary skins. Yea, Auson boors, a Troy-sprung race, disport With doggrel ditties and unbridled mirth. And don the ghastly masks of hollowed bark : And upon thee, O Bacchus, do they call In hymns of gladness, and to thee uphang The swinging visors from the lofty pine. Hence eveiy vineyard with a plenteous crop Is rip'ning, and the hollow vales are filled. And deepsome glades, and every spot, whereto 541 The god hath veered about his comely head. To Bacchus, therefore, will we duly chant His rightful honor in our country's songs. And chargers and the holy cakes present ; And, led by horn, the consecrated goat Shall at the altar stand, and we will roast His oily entrails upon hazel-spits. There is, moreo'er, in tending vines, that second toil. Which of exhaustion never hath enough. 550 For all the ground from year to year both thrice And four times must be cloven, and the clod For ever broken by inverted drags ; 525. " So may thy tender blossoms fear no blight, Nor goats with venom'd teeth thy tendrils bite." Dryden, Palavion and A rcite, 669, 70. 531. ** Ful red cheekt Bacchus, let Lyeus flote In burnisht gobblets. Force the plump lipt god Skip light lavoltaes in your full sapt vaines." Marston, Antony and Mellida, P. 2, v. 4. 538. Or, perhaps: "gentle visors." V. 400 — 4*4- The grove must all be lightened of the leaf. Returns in cycle to the husbandmen Past toil, and on itself the year is wheeled Along through its own tracks. And now at length, When its late leafage hath the vineyard dropped, And chilly Aquilo hath shaken down From woods their pride — e'en then the hind, alert, 560 His pains outstretches to the coming year, And with hooked fang of Saturn he pur- sues His vine forsaken, as he clips it close, And by his pruning moulds it into shape. Be first thy ground to dig, be first to burn The brush-wood borne away, and be the first The stakes to carry back beneath thy roof ; Be last to reap. Shade twice assails the vines ; Twice overrun the crop with matted thorns The weeds : sore either toil. Praise spacious farms ; 570 A small one cultivate. Moreover, too, Sharp twigs of butcher-broom throughout the wood. And by the banks the river-reed is cut, And care of willow-grove untilled employs. Now fettered are the vines ; now trees lay down The pruning-blade ; now sings his farthest rows The worn-out vintager : natheless the earth Is to be worried, and the mould stirred up ; And now must Jove be feared for ripened grapes. On th' other hand, no tilth is [requisite] For olives ; nor the fore-crooked knife do they 581 Await, and griping harrows, when they once Have fastened to the earth and borne the gales. To the young plantings of herself the earth, When by the hooked fang she is unlocked. Purveys her moisture, and her weighty fruits. 560. Pope says very beautifully in his 4th Pas- toral, 31 : " Now hung with pearls the dropping trees appear, Their faded honours scatter'd on her bier. See, where on earth the flowery glories lie, — With her they flourish'd, and with her they die." Collins, too, applies " honour " to express leaves ; Eclogue iv. : " Yon citron grove, whence first in fear we came, Droops its fair honours to the conquering flame." 563. Or: " His widowed vine, close cl'pping it." BOOK II. V. 424—446. 51 When by the share. On this account do thou The olive foster, rich, and dear to Peace. The fruit-trees, also, soon as they their stems Have felt in vigor, and their rightful strength 590 Have gained, in snatches struggle to the stars By energy their own, and needing naught Of our assistance. Nor the less, meanwhile. With produce heavy waxes every grove, And flush with berries of a bloody hue The wild resorts of birds. The cytisi Are cropped, the stately forest brands sup- plies. And nightly fires are fed, and pour their rays. And scruple men to plant and pains bestow? Why greater [themes] pursue ? The sallow- shrubs 600 And lowly brooms, — or they to flock the leaf, Or shades to shepherds furnish, and a fence For seeded grounds, and food for honey [-bees]. And 'tis a joy Cytorus to behold. Waving with box, and groves of Naryx' pitch ; It joys the fields to witness, nor to rakes Beholden, nor to any pains of men. The very forests, barren on the crest Of Caucasus, which gusty eastern blasts Unceasingly both break and bear away, 610 Grant each their various produce ; grant they pines, A wood for ships of service, for our houses Both juniper and cypresses. Hence spokes Have farmers turned for wheels, hence drums for wains. And bending keels for barks laid down. In twigs Are willow-trees prolific, elms in leaves ; 588. " Then as the olive Is the meek ensign of fair fruitful peace, So b this kiss of yours." Middleton, The IViich, iv. i. 612. Verses 442-453 will bring to the recollection of the readers of Spenser, Faerie Queene, i. 1, 8, 9 : " Much can they praise the trees so straight and hy : The sayling pine ; the cedar proud and tall ; The vine-propp elme ; the poplar never dry ; The builder oake, sole king of forrcsts all ; The aspine, good for staves ; the cypressc funerall ; The laurell, meed of mightie conquerours And poets sage ; the firre that wcepcth still ; The willow, wome of forlomc paramours ; The eugh, obedient to the benders will ; The birch, for sh.iftes ; the sallow for the mill ; The mirrhe sweete-blecding in the bitter wound ; The warlike beech ; the ash for nothing ill ; The fruitfull olive : and the plarane round : The carver holme ; the maple, seeldom inward sound." • E 2 52 V. 447—460. THE GEORGICS. V. 460—473. But myrtle for stout spears, and, good for war, The cornel ; into Iturean bows The yews are bent. Nor do the glossy limes, Or box that takes a polish in the lathe, 620 No shape receive, or by the sharpened tool Are grooved. Nor less,, too, swims the seething wave The buoyant alder, launched upon the Po ; Nor less, too, do the bees their swarms ensconce As well within the vaulted [hives of] bark, As in the hollow of the cankered holm. What to be named alike have Bacchus' gifts Bestowed? E'en Bacchus hath for crime supplied Occasions. He the Centaurs in their rage With death o'erpowered, — Rhoetus both, and Pholus, 630 Hylseus, too, with mighty wassail-bowl Against the Lapithse denouncing threats. O happy, too, too [happy] if they knew The blessings that are theirs, — the swains, to whom. Of her own self, afar from wrangling arms. Most righteous earth unbosoms from the soil 621. See note on Geo. i. 115. 628. Spenser thus alludes to the fight : " And there the relicks of the drunken fray, The which amongst the Lapithees befell ; And of the bloodie feast, which sent away So many Centaures drunken soules to hell, That under great Alcides furie fell." Faerie Queenc, iv. i, 23. " All now was turned to jollity and game. To luxury and riot, feast and dance ; thence from cups to civil broils." Milton, P. L., b. xi. Milton also makes Samson say : " Nor envied them the grape, Whose heads that turbulent liquor fills with fumes." " Nor the Centaurs' tale Be here repeated, how with lust and wine Inflamed they fought, and spill'd their drunken souls At feasting hour." J. Philips, Cider, b. ii. Gay, however, is rather jealous of the reputation of Bacchus : " Drive hence the rude and barbarous dissonance Of savage Thracians and Croatian boors : ■ The loud Centaurian broils with Lapithse Sound harsh and grating to Lensean god." Poe7n on IVine. It may be bad enough, even without hostilities : " He that lives within a mile of this place Had as good sleep in the perpetual Noise of an iron mill. There's a dead sea Of drink i' the cellar, in which goodly vessels Lie wrecked ; and in the middle of this deluge Appear the tops of flaggons and black-jacks. Like churches drowned i' the marshes." Beaumont, The Scornful Lady, ii. 2. 633. Thomson finely imitates this whole passage, verses 458-540, in his Autinnn, 1235-1373 ; but it ij too long to quote. A ready diet ! If no mighty tide Of morning greeters, through its haughty doors, A stately mansion forth from all its halls Disgorges ; neither do they stare agape 640 On gates enamelled with the lovely shell. And garments made the sport of gold, and forms In Ephyr's bronze ; nor is their snowy wool Dyed in Assyria's poison, nor is marred With casia service of the crystal oil : Yet careless rest, and life that knows not guile. Rich in a varied wealth ; yet hours of ease In fields extended, grots, and living meres ; Yet Tempe cool, and lowings of the kine, And balmy slumbers underneath the tree, — • Keep not aloof. There woodlands and the lairs 651 Of savage beasts, and youth enduring toils, And used to scantness ; holy rites of gods, 638. " Hast thou not seen my morning chambers filled With sceptred slaves, who waited to salute me ?" Dryden, All for Love, iii. i. 644. " Shall we seek Virtue in a satin gown, Embroidered Virtue? Faith in a well-curled feather ?" J. Fletcher, The Loyal Subject, iii. 2. " I want the trick of flattery, my lord ; I cannot bow to scarlet and gold lace ; Embroidery is not an idol for my worship." Shirley, The Dttke's Mistress, i. i. 646. *' But carelesse Quiet lyes." Spenser, F. Q., i. i, 41. " There in close covert by some brook. Where no profaner eye may look, Hide me from day's gairish ej'e, While the bee with honied thigh. That at her flowery work doth sing, And the waters murmuring, With such consort as they keep, Entice the dewy-feathered sleep." Milton, 11 Penseroso. See T. Warton's elegant poem, The Hamlet. . 652. Shakespeare makes Henry the vSixth agree with the poet ; the king says, 3 Hen. VI., ii. 5 : "Ah, what a life were this; how sweet! how lovely ! Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep. Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy To kings, that fear their subjects' treachery? O, yes, it doth ; a thousandfold it doth. And to conclude, — the shepherd's homely curds, His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle, His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade. All which secure and sweetly he enjoys. Is far beyond a prince's delicates. His viands sparkling in a golden cup. His body couched in a curious bed. When care, mistrust, and treason wait on him." 653. " The use of things is all, and not the store : Surfeit and fullness have killed more than F'aminc." Ben Jonson, 7 he Staple of News, end. " Upon those lips, the sweet fresh buds of youth, The holy dew of prayer lies, like pearl V. 473—493. BOOK IL V. 492—506. 35 And worshipped sires : 'mong them her latest tracks Did Justice, from the earth withdrawing, print. But me the chiefest, may the M\ises, sweet 'Bove all [attractions], whose religious [gifts] I bear, deep smitten with a mighty love, Embrace, and shew the pathways and the stars Of heav'n, the changeful fadings of the sun, And travails of the moon ; whence [comes] the quake 661 To earth ; beneath what pow'r deep seas upheave, When burst their barriers, and again sink back Themselves upon themselves j why speed so fast To dip them in the ocean wintry suns, Or what delay withstands the laggard nights. But if, lest I be able to approach These parts of Nature, chill around my heart My blood have proved a hindrance, may the fields Charm me, and streamlets rilling in the dales ; 670 The floods and forests may I love, unfamed ! Oh! [could I live] where [lie] the plains, Sperchseus too. And, wildly revelled o'er by Spartan maids, The ridges of Tayget. Oh ! [for one] To set me down in Hzemus' icy glens. And curtain me with vasty shade of boughs ! Happy [the man] who hath availed to leani The springs of Nature, and all fears, and fate. Deaf to appeal, hath flung beneath his feet. Dropt from the opening eyelids of the morn Upon the bashful rose." Middleton, A Game ai Chess, 5. i. " The immortal gods Accept the meanest altars, that are raised By pure devotion ; and sometimes prefer An ounce of frankincense, honey or milk. Before whole hecatombs, or Saba:an gums. Offered in ostentation." Massinger, T/ie Bondman, iv. 3. 655, " Or wert thou that just Maid, who once before Forsook the hated earth ?" Milton, Ode on the Death of an Infant. 661. ^ " To dance With Lapland witches, while the labouring moon Eclipses at their charms." Milton, F. L., b. ii. 669. " Nor ask I from you Your learning and deep knowledge ; though I am not A scholar, as you are, I know them diamonds. By your .sole industry, patience, and labour. Forced from steep rocks, and with much toil at- tained." J. Fletcher, The Elder Brother, v. x. And greedy Acheron's roar I Blest, too, is he, 6S0 Who knows the rural deities, both Pan, And old Silvanus, and the sister Nymphs ! Him have no fasces of the populace, Nor monarchs' purple warped ; nor civil feud. The traitor brothers goading, or the Dace, Down swooping from the Danube oath- colleagued ; Not Roman fortunes and expiring realms : Nor has he either, in compassion, mourned The destitute, or envied him that hath. What fruits the boughs, what willing fields themselves, 690 Of free accord, have yielded, he hath culled ; Nor laws of iron and the frantic bar, Nor people's archive-halls, hath he beheld. Some fret with oarage hidden seas, and rush On steel ; they pierce the courts and gates of kings. One with extermination makes assault Upon his city, and Penates sad. That he may from a jewel quaff, and sleep 683. " A wise man never goes the people's way: But as the planets still move contrary To the world's motion, so doth he to opinion." Ben Jonson, Tlie New Inn, iv. 3. 688. That is, in his happy neighborhood there is no poverty to be seen : it does not mean to deny that " The poor man's cry he thought a holy knell : No sooner gan their suits to pierce his ears. But fair-eyed pity in his heart did dwell ; And like a father that affection bears So tendered he the poor with inward tears, And did redress their wrongs when they did call ; But, poor or rich, he still was just to all." Robert Greene, A Maiden's Dream. 692. " To drown the tempest of a pleader's tongue." Massinger, The Fatal Dowry, i. i. 695. The kings were courted because they lacked either the sense or honesty to say : " Wherefore pay you This adoration to a sinful creature ? I'm flesh and blood, as you are, sensible Of heat and cold, as much a slave unto The tyranny of my passions, as the meanest Of my poor subjects. The proud attributes, By oil-tongued flattery imposed upon us. Coined to abuse our frailty, though compounded. And by the breath of sycophants applied, Cure not the least fit of an ague in us. We may give pour men riches, confer honours On undeservers, raise or ruin such As are beneath us, and, with this puffed up. Ambition would persuade us to forget That we are men : but he that sits above us. And to whom, at our utmost rate, we are But pageant properties, derides our weakness." Massinger, The Emperor of the East, v. 2. 698. " Instead of gold And cups of hollowed pearl, in which I used To quaff deep healths of rich pomegranate wine, This scallop shall be now my drinking cup To sip cold water." Webster, The Thracian Wondtr, iii. 2. 54 V. 506—518. THE GEORGICS. V. 519—539. On Sarra's purple ; wealth another hoards, And o'er his deeply-buried gold he broods. One, awe-struck at the Rostra, stands amazed ; 701 Another, staring on with mouth agape. The clapping through the seats, yea doubly pealed. Of commons both and sires hath held en- chained. They joy, bespattered with their brothers' blood. For exile, too, their homes and thresholds dear Do they exchange, and seek a land that lies Beneath another sun. The husbandman The earth hath sundered with his crooked plough : Hence the year's travail ; hence his native land 710 And children's infant children he supports ; Hence droves of oxen and deserving steers. Nor is there rest ; but either with its fruits The year o'ertlows, or in the birth of flocks, Or sheaf of Cereal stalk, and with its yield The furrows lades, and vanquishes the barns. " Their sumptuous gluttonies, and gorgeous feasts On citron tables or Atlantic stone ; . . . . Their wines of Setia, Cales, and Falerne, Chios, and Crete ; and how they quaff in gold. Crystal, and myrrhine cups, emboss'd with gems And studs of pearl." Milton, P. R., b. iv. " I, that forgot I was made of flesh and blood, and thought the silk, Spun by the diligent worms out of their entrails. Too coarse to clothe me, and the softest down Too hard to sleep on." Massinger, The Bondman, iii. 3. 700. " You swear, forswear, and all to compass wealth : Your money is your god, your hoard your heaven." Robert Greene, James the Fourth, v. 4. " No ! I'll not lessen my dear golden heap. Which, every hour increasing, does renew My youth and vigour ; but, if lessened, — then, Then my poor heart-strings crack ! Let me enjoy it, And brood o'er 't, while I live, it being my life. My soul, my all." Massinger, The Ro7nan Actor, ii. i. " But the base miser starves amidst his store, Broods on his gold, and, griping still at more, Sits sadly pining, and believes he's poor." Dryden, IVife of Bath's Tale, 468-70. " As some lone miser, visiting his store, Bends at his treasure, counts, recounts it o'er ; Hoards after hoards his rising raptures fill. Yet still he sighs, for hoards are wanting still." Goldsmith, Traveller. 703. " This applause. Confirmed in your allowance, joys me more Than if a thousand full-crammed theatres Should clap their eager hands, to witness that The scene I act did please, and they admire it." Massinger, The Renegade, iv. 3. Winter is come : in olive-mills is brayed The Sicyon berry ; with the acorn blithe, The swine return; their arbutes give the woods. And autumn in variety lays down 720 Its produce, and the mellow vintage high Is ripened on the sunny rocks. Meanwhile His darling boys around his kisses hang ; The taintless house its chastity preserves ; Their udders do the kine drop milky down, And plump upon the merry green the kids Between them struggle with confronted horns. Himself the days of feast observes, and, stretched Along the turf, where in the midst the fire Is burning, and his comrades wreathe the bowl, 730 Thee, pouring, O Lensean, he invokes ; And for the masters of the flock appoints The games of flying javelin on the elm ; And stalwart frames they strip for rural list. This life of yore the olden Sabines led ; This Remus and his brother ; thus in sooth Etruria brave hath waxed, and Rome become The loveliest of things, and for herself Seven heights hath singly girdled with a wall. Ere, too, the sceptre of the Cretan king. And ere a godless nation banqueted 741 On butchered steers, the golden Saturn led This life on earth. Nor had they, too. 723. The cessation of such tendernesses is sadly described by Gray in his Elegy : " No children run to lisp their sire's return. Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share." Thomson has a tender touch of nature, taken, like this of Virgil, from home life. In a very suc- cessful description of a father lost in a snow-storm, he says : " In vain his little children, peeping out Into the mingling storm, demand their sire With tears of artless innocence." Winter, 313-315. 730. " The woods, or some near town That is a neighbour to the bordering down, Hath drawn them thither 'bout some lusty sport, Or spiced wassail-bowl, to which resort All the young men and maids of many a cote. Whilst the trim minstrel strikes his merry note." J. Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, v. i. 743. So Milton describes mankind after the Flood ; /'. L., b. xii. : " With some regard to what is just and right Shall lead their lives, and multiply apace. Labouring the soil, and reaping plenteous crop, Corn, wine, and oil ; and, from the herd or flock. Oft sacrificing bullock, lamb, or kid, With large wine-offerings pour'd, and sacred feast, Shall spend their days in joy unblamed." And Thomson, of the reign of Peace ; Britannia, 113, &c. : " Pure is thy reign, when, unaccursed by blood. Nought save the sweetness of indulgent showers V. 539— 540. BOOK III, V. 541— 54a. 55 Yet heard the trumpets blasted, nor as yet, On hardy stithies laid, the falcions clang. Trickling distils into the vcrnant glebe, Instead of mangled carcases, sad -seen, When the blithe sheaves lie scattered o'er the field ; When only shares, the crooked knife, But we have an interminable plain Accomplished in our circuits, and it now Is tirte our coursers' smoking necks to free. And hooks imprint the ve|;etable wound ; When the land blushes with the rose alone, The falling fruitage and the bleeding vine." BOOK III. Thee likewise, mighty Pales, also thee, O worthy of remembrance, will we sing, Thou shepherd from Amphrysus ; you, ye woods. And rivers of Lycrcus. Other [themes], The which might idle spirits have enchained With minstrelsy, all now world-wide are spread. Who either stem Eurystheusdoth not know, Or altars of Busiris, the unpraised ? By whom hath stripling Hylas not been sung, And Lato's Delos, and Hippodame, 10 And Pelops, with an ivory shoulder badged. Keen on his steeds? A path must be essayed. Whereby myself too I may lift from earth, And float triumphant thro' the mouths of men. I, foremost, to my native land with me, (Let only life survive,) as I return From Aon peak will lead the Muses down; I, foremost, Mantua, to thee will bring The palms of Idumea, and a fane Upon the verdant plain will I uprear 20 Of marble, by the water, where, immense With lazy windings, Mincius strays away. And fringes o'er his banks with tender reed. For me shall Ceesar in the centre stand, And hold the fane. For him a conq'ror I, In Tyrian purple, too, observed of all, Line 15. Gray thus finely alludes to the decay of poetry in Greece, and its translation to Rome ; Progress of Foesy : " Where each old poetic mountain Inspiration breath'd around ; Ev'ry shade and hallow'd fountain Murmur'd deep a solemn sound : Till the sad Nine, in Greece's evil hour. Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains." 22. So Milton, in Lycidas : " O fountain Arethuse, and thou honour'd flood, Smooth sliding Mincius, crown'd with vocal reeds." 26. Ophelia, mourning over Hamlet's insanity, speaks of him as " The expectancy and rose of the fair state. The glass of fashion, and the mould of form. The observ'd of all observers." Hamlet, iii. i. A hundred four-yoked chariots will impel Along the floods. The whole of Greece for me, Alpheus leaving and Molorchus' groves. In races and the cestus raw shall strive. 30 Myself, upon my head bedecked with leaves Of shaven olive, will my gifts present. E'en now the grave processions to the shrines It joys to lead, and view the butchered steers ; Or how the scene with shifted fronts with- draws, And how the intertissued Britons raise The purple curtains. On the folding-doors The battle of the Gangarids will I Of gold and massive ivory portray, And conquering Quirinus' arms ; and here, Surging with war, and flushing huge, the Nile, 41 And pillars, tow'ring up with naval bronze. I Asia's humbled cities will subjoin. And chased Niphates, and the Parth, that trusts In flight, and in his rear-directed shafts ; Twain trophies, also, from a severed foe By prowess reft, and, triumphed over twice, Nations from either shore. And there shall stand The stones of Paros, effigies that breathe, 44, " Oh ! let us gain a Parthian victory : The only way to conquer is to fly." Dryden, Lot'e Triumphant, \\. i. 4.0. " I am but dead, stone looking upon stone : What was he that did make it ? See, my lord. Would you not deem it breathed, and that those veins Did verily bear blood ?" Shakespeare, The Winters Tale, v. 3. " Some carve the trunks, and breathing shapes bestow, Giving the trees more life than when they grow." Cowley, Davidiis, b. ii. " The fairest, softest, sweetest frame beneath. Now made to seem, and more than seem, to breathe." Plamell, ffesiad. " And breathing forms from the rude marble start." T. Warton, Sanrnft v. " Heroes in animated marble frown. And legislators seem to think in stone." Pope, Temple of Fame. 56 V. 35—67. THE GEORGICS. V, 68—77. The lineage of Assaracus, and names 50 Of the Jove-issued race, both father Tros, And Troja's Cynthian founder. Envy curst Shall dread the Furies, and the rigid tide Of Cocyt, and Ixion's twisted snakes, And monster wheel, and the unconquerable stone. Meanwhile the Dryads' woods and glades untouched Track we, Maecenas, thy no soft behests : My soul without thee nothing lofty founds. Lo ! come, burst slow delays ! with loud halloo Cithseron calls us, and Tayget's hounds, 60 And Epidaurus, breaker-in of steeds : The cry, too, doubled by the lawns' ap- proof, Comes thund'ring back. Soon ne'ertheless shall I Be girt to celebrate the burning fights Of Cassar, and his name in fame to waft Throughout as many years, as Caesar stands In distance from Tithonus' earliest source. If either any, stricken with amaze At prizes of Olympic palm, feeds steeds ; Or any — bullocks, sturdy for the ploughs ; — Chief let him choose the bodies of the dams. Best is the figure of the grim-eyed cow, 72 In whom uncomely is the head, in whom Abundant is the neck, and from her chin As far as to her legs the dewlap hangs. Then to her lengthM side there is no bound : All is enormous, e'en the foot ; and th' ears Are shaggy underneath the crumpled horns. Nor would distasteful be to me one badged With spots and white, or that declines the yoke, 80 And is at times uncivil with her horn. And in her guise [comes] nearer to a bull, And who all tow'ring [stands], and as she walks Brushes her footsteps with her tip of tail. The age, Lucina and due marriage-rites To suffer, ceases before ten, begins After four years ; the rest is neither meet For breeding, nor robust for ploughs. Meantime, While to thy flocks survives a merry youth. Let loose the males ; to Venus be the first To send thy cattle-droves, and race from race 91 Supply by breeding. Each best day of life From wretched mortals is the first to fly : Steal on diseases, and a crabbed eld, 94. " Who would live long ? Who would be old ? 'tis such a weariness. Such a disease, that hangs like lead upon us. As it increases, so vexations. And toil, and ruthlessness of rigid death Sweeps them away. There aye will be, whose frames Thou wouldest liefer should be changed : then aye Do thou recruit them ; and lest thou again Should seek them lost, forestall, and for thy herd A youthful offspring year by year allot. 100 Nor less, too, is the choice the same for brood Of horses. Do but thou on those, which thou Shalt settle for the nation's hope to raise. Especial pains now straight from tender [years] Bestow. From first the colt of noble strain In statelier fashion paces in the fields. And plants and plants again his supple legs; And in the van to enter on the path, Griefs of the mind, pains of the feeble body. Rheums, coughs, catarrhs : we are but our living coffins." J. Fletcher, A Wife for a Month, ii. 5. "Time is the moth Of Nature, devours all beauty." Shirley, I'he Htiniorous Courtier, i. i. " A flower that does with opening morn arise. And, flourishing the day, at evening dies ; A winged eastern blast, just skimming o'er The ocean's brow, and sinking on the shore ; A fire, whose flames through crackling stubble fly: A meteor, shooting from the summer sky ; A bov/1 adown the bending mountain roU'd ; A bubble breaking, and a fable told ; A noontide shadow, and a midnight dream,— Are emblems which, with semblance apt, proclaim Our earthly course." Prior, Solomon, b. iii. 99. " Scions such as these Must become new stocks, for us to glory In their fruitful issue : so we are made Immortal one by other." Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, iii. 2. 108. On the impatience of the horse Pope is very happy : " The impatient courser pants in every vein, And, pawing, seems to beat the distant plain : Hills, vales, and floods appear already cross'd, And ere he starts a thousand steps are lost." Windsor Forest. 108-125. " Oft in this season too the horse, provoked. While his big sinews full of spirits swell. Trembling with vigour, in the heat of blood. Springs the high fence : and, o'er the field effused. Darts on the gloomy flood, with steadfast eye, And heart estranged to fear : his nervous chest. Luxuriant and erect, the seat of strength. Bears down th' opposing stream : quenchless his thirst ; He takes the river at redoubled draughts. And with wide nostrils snorting, skims the wave." Thomson, Summer, 506-515. " Survey the warlike horse ! Didst thou invest With thunder his robust distended chest ? No sense of fear his dauntless soul allays ; Tis dreadful to behold his nostrils blaze : V. 77—92. BOOK IIL V. 93— "3. 57 And threatful rivers to essay he dares, And venture him upon the unknown bridge; Nor starts at idle noises. High his neck, And finely shaped his head, his barrel short, 112 And plump his back, and rampant swells with thews His mettled chest. [The steeds of] gener- ous [stamp] Are brownish chestnuts, and the iron-greys: The sorriest hue is of the white and dun. Then if a clang from far have any arms Sent forth, he knows not in his place to stand ; He quivers with his ears, and in his joints He quakes, and, snorting, rolls the gathered fire I20 Beneath his nostrils. Thick his mane, and tost On the right shoulder down it sinks to rest. But through the loins a double spine is traced; And earth he scoops, and with its massive horn His hoof deep echoes. Such like, tamed by reins Of Amyclsean Pollux — Cyllarus; And they, whose story Grecian bards have told. Mars' twain -yoked steeds, and great Achilles' car. And such like did Satumus e'en himself Shed forth a mane along a courser's neck. To paw the vale he proudly takes delight. And triumphs in the fulness of his might. High-raised, he snuffs the battle from afar. And bums to plunge amid the raging war ; And mocks at death, and throws his foam around. And in a storm of fury shakes the ground. How does his firm, his rising heart advance Full on the brandish'd sword and shaken lance, While his fix'd eye-balls meet the dazzling shield. Gaze, and return the lightning of the field ! He sinks the sense of pain in generous pride. Nor feels the shaft that trembles in his side ; But neighs to the shrill trumpet's dreadful blast Till death ; and when he groans, he groans his last." Dr. Young, Paraphrase on Job. ii8. Shakespeare gives a different turn to the effect of music on the colt : " For do but note a wild and wanton herd. Or race of youthful and unhandlcd colts. Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud. Which is the hot condition of their blood ; If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound. Or anv air of music touch their ears, You shall perceive them make a mutual stand. Their savage eyes tum'd to a modest gaze. By the sweet power of music." Merchant of Venice, v. x. What this great poet here says is an accurate picture of the fact, as any one who has been much accustomed to the country must have observed. Fleet on his wife's approach, and, as he fled, 131 Filled lofty Pelion with a shrilly neigh. Him likewise, when, or burdened with disease. Or now, too languid from his years, he fails, Conceal at home, nor his unnoble eld Forgive. The older is for Venus chill, And vainly his unwelcome task he drags ; And, if it ever to engagement comes, — As sometimes in the stubbles without strength A mighty fire, — he impotently fumes. 140 Their mettle, therefore, and their age shall thou Mark chiefly; next, their other qualities. And parents' race, and what in each the pain When conquered, what their triumph in the palm. Dost thou not see, when in the headlong strife The cars have seized the plain, and dash away, Forth bursten from the goal ; when hopes of youths Are lifted high, and drains a beating throb Their palpitating hearts? Upon [their steeds] They press with twisted lash, and stooping forward give 150 The reins: the axle hot with fury flies; And crouching now, and now erect, they seem Aloft tlirough empty ether to be swept, And soaring tothe gales. Nor pause,nor rest; But high is raised a cloud of yellow sand ; They're moist with the pursuers' foam and breath : So deep the love of praises, of so deep Concern is conquest. Ericthonius first Adventured cars and coursers four to yoke. And, fleet, in triumph o'er the wheels to stand. 160 Reins gave the Pelethronian Lapithae, And the ring-courses, mounted on their back, And taught the rider under arms to prance Upon the ground, and his disdainful steps To curve. Alike is either toil; alike Seek out the masters both the young, and hot In mettle, and in races keen; though oft In flight the other may his routed foes Have chased, and as his native land allege Kpirus and Mycenae brave, and fetch 170 His lineage drawn from Neptune's very stock. These [rules] obser\'ed, they're zealous towards the time, 58 V. 123 — 148. THE GEORGICS, V. 149 — 176. And all their pains bestow, with solid fat To plump out him, whom they have chosen chief, And have pronounced the husband of the herd; And downy herbs they cut, and streams purvey And spelt; lest he should fail to over- match The charming toil, and puny sons announce Their fathers' leanness. But the herds themselves With meagreness do they, resolved of will. Reduce; and when the now well-known delight 181 First dalliance stimulates, they both with- hold Their browse, and bar them from the springs. Oft, too. They shake them in the race, and tire them out Beneath the sun, when heavily the floor Is groaning with the beaten grains, and when To rising Zephyr empty chaff is tossed. This do they, lest, through pamp'ring in excess. Too blunt the service for the genial field Should prove, and sluggish furrows it might coat 190 With fat; but that [the field] athirst may seize On Venus, and the deeper veil her [form]. Again the care of sires begin to wane. And that of dams to take its place. What time, — The months completed, — pregnant do they stray. Let no one suffer them to draw the yokes With heavy wains, nor with a leap to clear The road, and scour the leas in mettled flight. And swim the ravening floods. In open lawns They feed, and hard by brimming brooks, where moss 200 [Is found], and bank of brightest green with grass ; And grots may shelter them, and rocky shade Extend along. There is around the groves Of Silarus, and, blooming with its holms, Alburnus, an abundant winged thing. For which Asilus is the Latin name ; — The Greeks have turned it Astros in their tongue ; — 176. " Downy ;" or, " full-grown." Fierce, buzzing shrill; whereat all panic- struck Throughout the woods in every quarter fly The herds: storms ether, with their roars convulsed, 210 And dry Tanager's woods and banks. Erst- while "Vyith this monstrosity did Juno wreak Her fearful wrath, what time she planned a plague For the Inachian heifer. This, too, thou (For fiercer it assails in noon-day heats,) Shalt from the pregnant herd ward off, and feed Thy cattle at the newly-risen sun. Or when the stars are ush'ring in the night. After the birth, attention to the calves Is all transferred; and from the first the marks And titles of the breed on them they brand, And [sever] those, which either they prefer To rear for preservation of the herd, 223 Or hallowed for the altars to reserve. Or earth to sunder, and upturn the plain, Bristling with broken clods. The other droves Are fed through emerald herbage. Those which thou For task and service of the field shalt mould, Now spur [when] calves, and enter on a course Of taming, while the spirits of the young Are flexible, while pliant is their age. 231 And first, loose hoops of slender withy bind Below the neck; thereon, what time their necks. Unshackled, they to thraldom shall have used. Tied from the very collars, fellows yoke, And force the steers to move their step in time. And now by them unfreighted wheels be oft Drawn o'er the ground, and on the surface- dust Their traces let them print. Next, strain- ing 'neath A lusty load, let beechen axle creak, 240 And pole of bronze drag on the wedded orbs. Meanwhile, not grasses only for the young, Unbroken, neither willows' slender leaves, And oozy sedge, but seedling corn shalt thou 221. The branding of sheep, Thomson, in dig- ified terms, thus describes ; Suminer, 406 : ' Some mingling stir the melted tar, and some. Deep on the new-shorn vagrants' heaving side To stamp his master's cypher, ready stand." V. 176—198. Crop with thy hand. Nor shall for thee thy kine, That have brought forth, (in fashion of our sires,) Brim up the snowy milk-pails, but dispend Their udders wholly on their darling brood. But if thy fancy rather [lead] to wars And furious brigades, or to scud along 250 Alphean floods of Pisa on thy wheels, And in the wood of Jove the flying cars To drive ; the steed's first task it is to view The mettle and the arms of warriors, and to stand The trumps, and brook the wheel, as with the draught It groans ; and in his stall the jingling curbs To hear ; then more and more to take delight In the caressing praises of his lord, And love the sounding of a patted neck. And these now let him from the first, when weaned 260 From his dam's breast, adventure, and in turn To gentle muzzles lend his mouth, [still] weak, Aye, quaking e'en, e'en artless from his age. But, three completed, when fourth summer- tide Shall have approached, at once let him begin To i-un the ring, and sound with measured steps, And arch th' alternate foldings of his legs. And be like one that toils; then to the race. Then let him dare the winds, and while he flies Throughout the open plains, as one by reins Untrammelled, let him scarce his footmarks plant 271 Upon the surface of the sand. As when From Hyperborean coasts hath Aquilo Full swooped, and Scythia's storms and droughty clouds Disperses : then the lofty fields of corn, 258. " Nearer and nearer now he stands, To feel the praise of patting hands," Gay, F.^ i. 13. " The bounding steed, you pompously bestride, Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride." Pope, Essay on Alan, Ep. iii. 35, 6. 260. " I am of Pliny's opinion, I think he was begot by the wind ; He runs as if he were ballassed with quicksilver." Webster, 7 he Duchess of Mal/i, i. 2. *' And in that haste, too, madam, I was told The speed of wings was slow ; their fiery horse, Bathing in foam, yet fled, as if they meant To leave the wind and clouds behind them." Shirley, The Doubtful Heir, v. 4. BOOK III, ' V. 198— aa4. 59 And champaigns, waving, with the gentle puffs Wax crisp, and crests of forests raise a roar, And distant billows hurry to the strands : It flies, at once the fields in its career, At once the waters, sweeping. [Such as] this 280 Or at the winning-posts and courses vast Of Elis' plain will reek, and from his mouth Dash forth the gory foam, and better bear The Belgic war-cars on his supple neck. Then at the last with thickened mash allow Their bulky frame to swell, now broken in ; For ere their breaking in, they high will raise Their mettle, and when caught refuse to brook The limber thongs, and galling curbs obey. But no pains-taking braces more their powers 290 Than Venus, and the stings of hidden love, To keep aloof, whether to any [swain]. More pleasing be the use of beeves or steeds. And hence the bulls they banish far away, And into lonely feeding-grounds, behind A barrier mount, and over spacious floods ; Or keep them jailed within at glutted cribs. For step by step the female saps their powers. And burns them by their gazing, nor allows The mem'ry of their lawns or grass. She, sooth, 300 By her enchanting charms e'en oft compels Her haughty paramours to wage a war Between them with their horns. In Sila vast A lovely heifer feeds : they, turn by turn, With giant vigor intermingle frays With wounds repeated ; bathes the jetty gore Their frames ; and, turned against the struggling [foes]. Their horns are tilted with a thund'ring groan. And forests peal again, and distant heaven. 'Tis not the custom for the combatants 310 290. " Bulls and rams will fight To keep their females, stand ng in their sight ; But take 'em from them, and yuu take at once Their spleens away : and they will fall again Unto their pastures, growing fresh and fat ; And taste the waters of the springs as sweet As 'twas before." Beaumont and Fletcher, Fkilaster, iii. \. 300. " Tell her thy brother languishes to death, And fades away, and withers in his bloom : That he forgets his sleep, and loathes his (k>oA' Marcus to Fortius, in Addison's Cato, iii. i. 310. So Octavian addresses Antony : 6o V. 224 — 246. THE GEORGICS. V. 247 — 268. To stall together ; but the vanquished one Retires, and lives an exile far away In bourns unknown ; sore moaning his disgrace, And the haught conqu'ror's blows ; then o'er the loves Which he unvenged hath lost ; and to- wards the stalls Oft casting wistful looks, he hath withdrawn From his ancestral kingdoms. So his pow'rs "With all concern he practises, and lies The livelong night, among the galling stones. On couch unlittered, fed on prickly leaves And pointed rush ; and brings him to the test, 321 And learns his wrath to centre in his horns, Against a tree-bole butting, and the winds Provokes with thrusts, and with the scat- tered sand Plays prelude to the fight. Thereon, what time His strength is mustered, and his pow'rs repaired. He moves his standards, and is headlong borne On his forgetful foeman : as a surge. When it begins to whiten 'mid the sea. Afar and from the deep its bosom draws ; And as, when rolled along to land, all wild 331 It booms among the rocks, nor less than e'en A mount it topples down ; but from its base The water seethes in whirlpools, and aloft The sable sand it tosses from below. Yea, every race on earth, alike of men And savage beasts, and race of ocean, flocks. And birds enamelled, rush to rage and fire : To all is love the same. At no time else. Forgetful of her cubs, the lioness 340 Hath more ferocious ranged about the plains ; Nor shapeless bears have dealt on every side " I must perforce Have shown to thee such a declining day, Or look on thine ; we could not stall together In the whole world." Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, v. i. 339. See among Cowley's Poems that on The Force of Love, which begins : " Throw an apple up an hill, Down the apple tumbles still ; Roll it down, it never stops Till within the vale it drops : So are all things prone to love. All below, and all above." So many deaths and havoc through the woods ; Then the wild boar is truculent, then worst The tigress. Ah ! it then is ill to stray In Libya's lonely fields. Dost thou not see How thrills a quiv'ring all throughout the frames Of steeds, if but the scent hath wafted home The well-known airs. And neither stay them now The reins of men, nor lashes fell, not cliffs And vaulted rocks, and floods a barrier set, And whirling in their wave the mounts engrasped. 352 E'en tilts and whets his tusks the Sabine boar. And with his hoof the earth before him tears. And chafes his ribs against a tree, and this And that side steels his shoulders for the wounds. What [feat performs] the stripling, in whose bones Fell passion circulates its mighty fire ? Forsooth, the friths, by bursten storms turmoiled, Late swims he in the blinded night, o'er whom 360 Is thund'ring heav'n's colossal gate, and dashed Against the cliffs, the seas return a din ; Nor can his wretched parents call him back. Nor [yet] the maiden, doomed thereon to die By felon death. What — Bacchus' spotty pards. And offspring keen of wolves and dogs? Why [tell] What battles wage the dastard harts ? In sooth. Before them all is marked the rage of mares ; And Venus e'en herself the soul inspired That time, wherein his Potnian mares four- yoked _ 370 Devoured the limbs of Glaucus with their jaws. 353. " Or, as two boars, whom love to battle draws. With rising bristles and with frothy jaws. Their adverse breasts with tusks oblique they wound ; With grunts and groans the forest rings around." Dryden, Palavton and Arcite, 814-17. 364. " Speake, fate-crosse lord ! Iflife retaine his seat within you, speake ! Else like that Sestian dame, that saw her love Cast by the frowning billowes on the sands. And leane death, swolne big with the Hellespont, In bleake Leander's body, — like his love. Come I to thee : one grave shall serve us both." Marston, htsatiate Countesse, iii. 3. V. 269—290. 600K III. V. 391—319. 61 These passion lures across Gargarean heights, And cross Ascanius booming ; mountains they O'erpass, and over rivers swim. And straight, When 'neath their eager marrows is applied The flame — in spring the rather, since in spring The ardor to their bones returns — they all, With face turned toward the Zephyr, take their stand On lofty crags, and snuff the subtile gales ; And oft, without embracements any, by the wind Impregnate — wondrous to be told — thro' rocks, 381 And cliffs, and sunken dales, they scattered fly; Not, Eui-us, to thy risings, nor the sun's, — Towards Boreas and Caurus, or [the clime], Whence Auster is in deepest sable bom. And glooms the welkin with his rainy chill. Hereon at length, what by a truthful name "Hippomanes" the shepherds call, drips down A clammy poison from the groin — hippo- manes — Which many a time have felon step-dames culled, And mingled drugs, and not unharmful spells. 390 But flies meanwhile, flies past recovery, time. While round each [theme], by love [there- of] entranced, We sail along. Be this enough for herds : Remains the second portion of our task — To treat of woolly flocks and shaggy goats. Be this your toil ; hence hope ye for renown. Brave swains. Nor am I doubtful in my mind. How vast it is to master these with words. And add this dignity to petty [themes]. 400 385. " While through the damp air scowls the lour- ing South, Blackening the landscape's face, that grove and hill In formless vapours undistinguished swim." T. War ton, Pleasures of Melancholy. Armstrong, speaking of the climate of England (//d-rt/M, b. i.),says: " Steep'd in continual rain*;, or with raw fogs Bedew'd, our seasons droop : incumbent still A ponderous heaven o'erwnelms the sinking soul. Labouring with storms, in heapy mountains rise Th' embattled clouds, as if the Stygian shades Had left the dungeon of eternal night, Till black with thunder all the South descends." 391. " When we have chid the hasty-footed time." Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. a. But me along Parnassus' lonely heights Sweet love transports : it joys to pace its peaks, Where not a path of former [bards] is turned Adown to Castalie with gentle slope. Now, Pales worshipful, I now must sound With lofty lip. Commencing, I decree That sheep in downy cotes their grass should crop, Till leafy summer is anon restored ; And that the flinty ground with plenteous straw. And bundles of the ferns, ye strew beneath, Lest ice in chillness harm the tender flock. And bring upon them mange, and foot-rot foul. 412 Then, deviating hence, T you enjoin To cater leafy arbutes for the goats. And runnels fresh supply, and post their sheds Aloof from winds, afront the winter's sun. Turned towards meridian day, what time at length Now chill Aquarius sets, and drops his dew At the year's close. These also must by us Be tended with no lighter pains ; nor less Will prove their service ; tho' Milesian wools 42 1 Are bartered at a heavy cost, when grained With Tyrian crimsons. Hence [in] closer [rank] Their offspring, hence a store of plenteous milk. The more, — when drained the udder, — shall have frothed The milk-pail, merry rills the more shall stream From their squeezed paps. Nor less, mean- while, the beards, And chins befrosted, and the flaunting shag Of the Cinyphian he-goat do they shear For service of the camps, and covertures For miserable seamen. But they feed 431 Upon the forests and Lycoeus' crests, And bristly brambles and height-loving brakes ; And of themselves they mindful to the sheds Return, and lead along their [kids], and scarce With weighty udder overpass the sill. So with all zeal the frost and squalls of snow, (The less they have the need of human care,) 430. " Beasts have more courtesy : they live about me. Offering their warm wool to the shearer's hand To clothe me with." . . . . " Birds bow to me. Striking their downy sails to do me service. Their sweet airs ever echoing to mine honour. And to my rest their plumy softs they send me." F. Beaumont, Tkt Triuntfk 0/ Time, I. 62 V. 320—347. THE GEORGICS. V. 347—361. Shalt thou ward off, and gladly bring their food, And provender of twig ; nor shalt thou shut Thy hay-lofts all throughout the winter- tide. 441 But still, at Zephyr's call, when gladsome warmth To glades and feeding-grounds shall either flock Despatch, with earliest star of Lucifer The chilly paddocks let us tread, while morn Is fresh, while silv'ry are the blades, and dew Upon the tender herbage to the flock Is sweetest. Then, when hour the fourth the drought Of heav'n hath gathered up, and with their chirp The plaintful cicads shall the vine-trees rend, 45° At wells, or deepsome pools, bid thou thy flocks To drink the water, as it scampers on In oaken conduits. But in noon-day heats Seek out a shady dell, if anywhere , The mighty oak of Jove with aged wood Spread giant branches, or if anywhere. In gloom with clust'ring holms, a grove lies near With holy shade : then [bid] to give again The subtile waters, and again to feed At setting of the sun, when chilly eve 460 Cools down the air, and now the dewy moon The glades recruits, and shores are echoing back The halcyon, the thistle-finch the brakes. "Why Libya's shepherds, why their feed- ing-grounds. Should I to thee in song describe at large. Their kraals, too, peopled, with their scat- tered roofs ? Oft day and night, and for a month entire In order, feeds the herd, and wends its way To distant deserts with no hostry-homes ; So vast a stretch of plain there lies. His all The Afric herdsman with him drives, — both tent, 471 And Lar, and arms, and Amyclaean hound. And Cretan c^uiver ; no wise else than doth The mettled Roman in his father's arms, When under his unrighteous burden he 463. Dryden, elegantly translating Chaucer, says of the goldfinch : " A goldfinch there I saw with gaudy pride Of painted plumes, that hopped from side to side. Still pecking as she passed, and still she drew The sweets from every flower, and sucked the dew ; Sufficed at length, she warbled in her throat, And tuned her voice to many a merry note." Flower and Leaf , 106-111. Pursues the route, and in the foeman's face, Ere he is looked for, while the camp is pitched, Stands in battalion. But not so, where [lie] The hordes of Scythia, and Moeotis' wave. And muddy Ister, whirling round its sands Of amber, and where Rhodope returns, 481 Outstretched beneath the centre of the pole. There, prisoned in the stalls they keep the herds ; Nor any grass or on the field appears, Or leaves upon the tree ; but shapeless lies In snow-drifts, and in ice profound, the earth Far- wide,, and towers up to seven ells : Aye winter, aye the Cauri blasting chills. Then ne'er the Sun disperses blanching shades, Nor when, upon his coursers borne, he mounts 490 The lofty firmament, nor when he bathes His headlong car in Ocean's ruddy plain. Its [icy] casings curdle in a trice Upon the running stream, and now the wave Upon its chine upholds the ironed wheels. 489. This is, of course, not true. Dryden beau- tifully describes the joy felt by the natives of the.se northerly regions at the approach of their summer, such as it is : " In those cold regions where no summers cheer. Where brooding darkness covers half the year. To hollow caves the shivering natives go ; Bears range abroad, and hunt in tracks of snow : But when the tedious twilight wears away, And stars grow paler at the approach of day, The longing crowds to frozen mountains run ; Happy who first can see the glimmering sun." Prologue to his Royal Highness. 495. " When hoary Thames, with frosted osiers crown'd, Was three long years in icy fetters bound, The waterman, forlorn along the shore. Pensive reclines upon his useless oar. Sees harness'd steeds desert the stony town, And wander roads unstable, not their own ; Wheels o'er the harden'd waters smoothly glide, And rase with whiten'd tracks the slippery tide." Gay, Trivia, ii. 359-66. Thomson has a fine description of Frost in his Winter, 713, &c. : "What art thou. Frost? And whence are thy keen stores Derived, thou secret, all-invading power, Whom even th' illusive fluid cannot fly ? Is not thy potent energ}^, unseen. Myriads of little salt.s,or hook'd, or shaped Like double wedges, and diffused immense Through water, earth, and ether ? Hence at eve Steam'd eager from the red horizon round. With the fierce rage of Winter deep-suffused An icy gale, oft shifting, o'er the pool Breathes a blue film, and in its mid career Arrests the bickering stream. The Ioosen"d ice. Let down the flood and half dissolved by day, Rustics no more ; but to the sedgy bank V- 36a— 379. BOOK III. V. 380 — 398. 63 That [wave] to vessels erst^ to spreading wains NiTio hostess ; and the bronzes through the land Asunder start, and stiffen garbs when donned, And with their hatchets hew they fluid wines. And throughly into massive ice the pools Have turned, and ice-drop on their beards untrimmed 501 Hath grisly caked. Meanwhile throughout the air No otherwise it snows ; die cattle ; stand Enveloped in the rime the bulky frames Of oxen, and in huddled troop the harts Are palsied in the new [ly fallen] mass. And scarce with antler tips above it rise. These not with hounds slipped on, nor any toils. Or frighted by the cord of crimson plume, They chase ; but while to purpose none they push 510 The mountain, set a barrier, with their chest. In conflict close they stab them with the steel, And kill them as they deeply bray, and blithe With lusty shouting bring them home. Themselves In low-delved caverns fleet away their hours Of leisure underneath the depth of earth. And piles of oak, and elms entire, have rolled Upon their hearths, and giv'n them to the flame. Here night they'spend in frolic, and in glee Fast grows, or gathers round the pointed stone, A crystal pavement, by the breath of heaven Cemented firm ; till, seized from shore to shore. The whole imprison'd river growls below." &c. 502. Does not Virgil seem to be describing the usual state of things in these northern regions ? And if so, can Heyne's rendering of novd by inso- lente be sustained? It seems far better, with the learned critic quoted by Wagner, to refer it to a sudden, heavy fall of snow, — perhaps the first in the season. 517. " 'Tis late and cold ; stir up the fire ; Sit close and draw the table nigher ; Be merry, and drink wine that's old, A hearty medicine 'gainst a cold ; Your beds of wanton down the best, Where you shall tumble to your rest." J. Fletcher, The Lover's Progress, iii. 5. 519. Ducunt, they spend ; or, eke. The whole passage is imitated happily, yet not without ideas of his own, by Thomson, Winter, 809, &c. : " Yet there life glows ; Yet cherish'd there, beneath the shining waste. The furry nations harbour : tipp'd with jet. Fair ermines, spotless as the snows they press ; The viny goblets with fermented wort, 520 And service-berries tart, they copy. Such A reinless race of mortals, laid Inineath The Hyperborean Wain, is buffeted By the Rhipaian eastern blast, and wrapt With tawny shag of cattle o'er their frames. If wool should be of interest to thee, First let the prickly thicket, and the burs, And caltrops be away ; shun pastures rank ; And from the very first do thou cull out The flocks, with wools of velvet white. But him, 530 Though he may be a ram e'en lustrous-fair, Beneath whose palate moist a sable tongue But lurks, refuse, lest he with dingy spots Should dusk the fleeces of the [newly] bom ; And in the circuit of the teemful plain Look out another. Thus, with snowy boon Of wool (if it be worthy of belief) Did Pan, the god of Arcady, beguile Thee, duped, O Luna ; to the deepsome groves Thee wooing ; nor didst thou the wooer scorn. 540 But let [the swain] whose passion is for milk. The cytisus, and plenteous melilot. And salted herbs, himself, with his own hand. Bear to the cribs. Hence both they love the more The rivers, and the more their udders stretch. And in the milk the covert taste of salt Repeat they. Many [farmers] keep aloof Sables, of glossy black ; and, dark-erabrown'd. Or beauteous freak'd with many a mingled hue. Thousands besides, the costly pride of courts. There, warm together press'd, the trooping deer' ^ Sleep on the new-falf'n snows ; and, scarce his head Raised o'er the heapy wreath, the branching elk Lies slumbering sullen in the deep abyss. The ruthless hunter wants nor dogs nor toils. Nor with the dread of sounding bows he drives The fearful flying race ; with ponderous clubs. As weak against the mountain-heaps they push Their beating breast in vain, and piteous bray. He lays them quivering on th' ensanguined snows. And with loud shouts rejoicing bears them home." Their wintry life he describes differently ; Libfrty, iii. 523-32 : " But, cold-compress'd, when the whole loaded heaven Descends in snow, lost in one white abrupt. Lies undistinguish'd earth ; and, seized bv frost. Lakes, headlong streams, and floods, and oceans sleep. Yet there life glows : the furry millions there Deep dig their dens beneath the sheltering snows ; And there a race of men prolific swarms, To various pain, to little pleasure, u^cd ; ^ On whom, keen-parching, beat Rhipaean winds ; Hard like their soil, and like their climate fierce.' 64 V. 398—423. THE GEORGICS. V. 423—443. The kidlings, from their mothers now di- vorced, And fasten in the front their infant moiiths With muzzles spiked with steel. What they have milked 550 At rising day, and in the daily hom-s, At night they press ; what now at shades [of eve], And as the sun is setting, towards the dawn They carry forth in baskets, — to the towns The shepherd trudges, — or with scanty salt They season, and for winter store it up. Nor should with thee the care of dogs be last, But with [the others] Sparta's nimble pups, And mettled [mastiff] of Molossus, feed On fatt'ning whey. Ne'er, — these thy sentinels, — 560 Shalt thou the nightly robber for thy stalls, And inroads of the wolves, or from the rear Unquieted Iberians, dread. Oft, too. The shy wild asses thou in chase shalt drive, And hunt with hounds the hare, with hounds the deer. Oft, routed from their forest wallowing- haunts, Wild boars, pursuing with their bay, shalt thou Discomfit, and thro' lofty mountains force The giant hart with shouting to the toils. Learn also scented cedar in the stalls 570 To burn, and with galbanean fume to chase The fell chelydri. Many a time beneath The cribs unstirred, or, baleful to be touched. Hath adder skulked, and fled alarmed from heaven ; Or snake, beneath the shelter and the shade Inured to creep, — the bitter plague of kine, — And on the cattle to bespirt his bane. Hath hugged the ground. Take stones in hand, take clubs, O shepherd, and as he uplifts his crests. And hissing necks is swelling, strike him down. 580 And now in flight his craven head he deep Hath buried, when his central folds, and train 582. " On his rear, Circular base of rising folds, that tower'd Fold above fold, a surging maze ! His head Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes ; With burnish'd neck of verdant gold, erect Amid his circling spires, that on the grass Floated redundant." Milton, Par. Lost, b. ix. And J. Philips, in imitation of Milton : " And as a snake, when first the rosy hours Shed vernal sweets o'er every vale and mead, Rolls tardy from his cell obscure and dank ; Of his remotest tail are paralysed, And trails its flagging coils the farthest ring. There is, moreover, in Calabrian lawns That baleful serpent, rolling up his chine, Scale-clad, with chest uplifted, and with spots Enormous speckled o'er his lengthful paunch ; Who, while are gushing any streams from founts, And while the lands are dank with moisty spring 590 And rainy Austers, haunts the standing pools ; And, chamb'ring by the banks, here gluts the felon His jetty maw with fish and croaking frogs. When once dried up the fen, and with the heat The lands are yawning wide, he sallies forth Upon dry ground, and, rolling eyes ablaze, He rages through the fields, both fierce from thirst. And frenzied by the heat. May it not prove My pleasure then beneath the cope of heaven To snatch soft slumbers, nor upon a ridge Of woodland to have lain along the grass, When fresh from casted slough, and bright with youth, 602 He rolls, forsaking either young or eggs Within his shroud, uplifted to the sun. And quivers in his mouth with trifid tongue. Of their diseases, also, I will thee The springs and symptoms teach. Offensive mange Assails the sheep, what time the chilly shower Hath settled to the quick too deeply down, And winter, crispy with its silver ice ; 610 But when by genial rays of summer sun Purged of his slough, he nimbler thrids the brake. Whetting his sting, his crested head he rears Terrific, from each eye retort he shoots Ensanguined rays, the distant swains admire His various neck and spires bedropp'd with gold." Cerealia. 585. See a grand paraphrase on the description of Leviathan by Dr. Young, whij:h is too long to quote. 602. "Casted;" or, if Shakespeare's grammar is at fault : "When fresh from his cast slough." So Spenser, Faerie Qiteene, iv. 3, 23 : " Some new-borne wight ye would him surely weene ; So fresh he seemed and so fierce in sight ; Like as a snake, whom wearie winters teene Hath worne to nought, now feeling sommers might Casts off his ragged skin, and freshly doth him dight." V. 443—475. BOOK III. w. 476— 49«. Or when, on being sheared, unwashed hath clun<^ The sweat, and prickly briers gashed their frames. In the sweet rivers, therefore, all the flock The masters drench, and with a reeking fleece The ram is in the eddy plunged, and, launched Upon the fav'ring current, down he floats ; Or, [when 'tis] shorn, with bitter olive-lees They smear the frame, and scum of silver blend, And living sulphurs, and Idaean pitch. And bees-wax rich in oiliness, and squill, And noisome hellebore, and black asphalt. No happy turn, however, to their woes 622 Comes more immediate than if any [swain] With steel could open lay the ulcer-head. The plague is fostered, and by being veiled It thrives, the while the shepherd to the wounds His healing hands refuses to apply, Or sits him down, demanding of the gods More favorable omens. Further, too, When, stealing to the bleaters' inmost bones, 630 Tlie anguish rages, and upon their limbs The parching fever preys, it hath bestead The kindled inflammations to expel, And 'tween the lowest [surfaces] of hoof To stab the vein that pulses with the blood : In fashion wherewithal Bisalts are wont. And mettlesome Gelonian, when he hies To Rhodope and to the Getae's wastes. And curded milk with horse's blood he swills. [The ewe,] which far thou may est have remarked, 640 Or ofter 'neath the mellow shade to creep. Or nibbling tips of grass more listlessly. And last to follow, or amid the plain To lay her down when grazing, and alone Yielding to night advanced, at once with knife The plague arrest, ere dread contagion steal Among the wareless crowd. Not, bringing storm, So frequent swoops the whirlwind from the main. As many be the maladies of flocks. Nor single subjects do diseases clutch ; 650 But summer-pastures, wholly, in a trice. Both hope and herd at once, ay, all the race From its beginning. [This,] then, might he know, If any one the welkin-mounting Alps, And Norian fortresses upon the hills, And lapydian Timavus' fields. I Now e'en thereafter in so long a time Should witness, and the shepherds realms forlorn. And lawns unpeopled in their length ami breadth. Here erst from [some] distemper of the air 660 A piteous season rose, and with full heat Of autumn glo*ved, and all the race of flocks To death delivered over, all [the race] Of savage beasts ; and lakes it putrified ; The feeding-grounds with pestilence it baned. Nor single was the path of death ; but when The fiery thirst, thro' all the arteries forced, Had shrivelled up their wretched limbs, again O'erflowed a liquid gleet, and all the bones, Little by little sinking thro' the plague 670 In ruins, to its substance it reduced. Ofttimes, amid the worship of the gods, The victim, standing at the altar, whilst The woollen fillet with the snowy band Is twined, among the falt'ring ministers Sank dying down. Or if the priest had first Slain any with the steel, thence neither blaze The altars with the entrails laid thereon, Nor answers can the questioned seer return; And scarce the knives, beneath [the gullet] plunged, 6S0 660. " Thirst, giddiness, faintness, and putrid heats, And pining pains, and shivering sweats, On all the cattle, all the beasts did fall ; With deform'd death the country's cover'd all. The labouring ox drops down before the plough ; The crowned victims, to the altar led, Sink, and prevent the lit'ted blow ; The generous horse from the full manger turns his head. Does his loved floods and pastures scorn, Hates the shrill trumpet and the horn ; . . . The starving sheep refuse to feed, They bleat the r innocent souls out into air ; The faithful dogs l;e gasping by them there ; The astonished shepherd weeps, and breaks his tuneful reed." Cowley, Plagues of EgyJ>t. 663. " The plague, that in some folded cloud remains, The bright sun soon dispcrseth ; but observe, When black infection in some dungh 11 lies, There's work for bells and graves, if it do rise." Webster, Appius and Virginia, iii. 2. 676. Though under very different circumstances, Spenser finely describes the fall of the victim ; P aerie Queene, iii. 4, 17 : " Like as the sacred oxe that carclesse stands With gilden homes, and tlowry girlonds cruwnd, Prmd of his dying honor and dcarc bandes, Whiles th' altars fume with frankincense arownd All suddcinly with mortall stroke astownd Doth grovchng fall, and with his streaming gore Distaincs the pillours and the holy grownd, And the faire rtowrcs that decked hun afore." F 66 V. 492 — 521. THE GEORGICS. V. 521 — 530. Are dyed with blood, and with a meagre gore The surface-sand bedarkened. Hence the calves In every quarter die 'mid fertile grass, And cherished lives at brimful cribs resign. Hence on caressing dogs a madness comes, And shatters sickly swine a wheezing cough. And suffocates them with their quinzied jaws. Down falls, no harvest reaping of his tasks, And mindless of his browse, the conq'ring steed. And at the springs recoils, and with his hoof Stamps earth in frequent blows ; his ears are sunk ; 691 There, too, an intermittent sweat, and that. In sooth, to those in death's embrace dead- cold ; The skin is parched, and at the touch [the palm] That handles callous it withstands. These marks In the first days ere death do they present. But if, while in its progress, the disease Begins to rankle, then in sooth the eyes Are in a blaze, and from a depth is heaved The breath, at times encumbered by a groan ; 700 And stretch with long [-drawn] sob their lowest flanks. And presses leaguered jaws a furry tongue. Through horn inserted 'twas of some avail To pour Lensean drenches in : that seemed The only safety for the dying [steeds]. Anon this very [act] their ruin proved, And, reinforced, with madness did they burn. And e'en themselves, now just in throes of death, (The gods vouchsafe the holy better [fates]. And to their foes that frenzy !) piecemeal rent 710 Their mangled members with their naked teeth. But lo ! while smoking 'neath the galling share, Down sinks the bull, and gore commixed with froth Spews from his mouth, and heaves his latest groans. Sad goes the ploughman, loosing from the yoke The bullock mourning at a brother's death, And in the middle of his toil deep-firmed He leaves the ploughs. No shades of stately groves. No velvet meads, are able to arouse His soul ; not stream, which, tumbled o'er the rocks, 720 More crystalline than amber seeks the plain; But flaggy have become his deepest flanks. And dulness whelms his listless eyes, and droops To earth with downward load his neck. What boot His travail or his deeds of kindness ? What With share to have upturned the heavy lands ? And yet to them not Bacchus' Massic gifts, Nor banquets in removes have proved of harm. On leaves and diet of the simple grass They feed ; their draughts are crystal springs, and rills 730 Chafed in their flow ; nor doth unrest break off 720. "The bubbling spring which trips upon the stones.'* Drayton, Rosavioiid to Henry. 731. The idea in exercita ciirsu is beautifully handled by Addison in his Cato, end of ist Act : " So the pure limpid stream, when foul with stains Of rushing torrents and descending rains, Works itself clear, and as it runs, refines ; Till, by degrees, the floating mirror shines. Reflects each flower that on the border grows, And a new heaven in its fair bosom shows." Dryden applies it figuratively, to illustrate the purification of the heart : " And that so little, that the river ran More clear than the corrupted fount began. Nothing remain'd of the first muddy clay ; The length of course had wash'd it in its way ; So deep, and yet so clear, we might behold The gravel bottom, and that gravel gold." Elegy on the Death of a very young Gentleman. Poctda snnt fo7ites liquidi ; so Milton makes the chorus say of Samson : " Whose drink was only from the liquid brook." Sir R. Blackmore says the same of the shepherd ; Creation, b. iv. : " Behold the shepherd, see th' industrious swain. Who ploughs the field, or reaps the ripen'd grain. How mean, and yet how tasteful is their fare ! How sweet their sleep ! their souls how free from care! They drink the streaming crystal, and escape Th' inflaming juices of the purple grape." Shakespeare represents Brutus saying to his servant : " Boy ! Lucius ! Fast asleep? It is no matter ; Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber : Thou hast no figures, nor no fantasies. Which busy care draws in the brains of men : Therefore thou sleep'st so sound." Jnlitis Cccsar, ii. i. And more at large in 2 Henry IV., iii. i, where the King says : " How many thousands of my poorest subjects Are at this hour asleep ! — Sleep, gentle sleep ! Nature's soft nurse ! how have I frighted thee. That thou no more wilt weigh my eye-lids down, And steep my senses in forgetfulness ? Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, ▼. 5S0— 537. BOOK III. ▼. 537—562. Their healthful slumbers. At no other time They tell that in those districts kine were sought For Juno's holy rites, and by wild beeves, Ill-fellowed, to her stately treasure-domes The chariots were conveyed. Yox this it is With much ado with hoes they chink the earth. And with their very nails dig in the corn, And thro' the lofty mounts with strainM neck The creaking waggons drag. No wolf seeks out 740 And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber; Than in the pcrfum'd chambers of the great. Under the canopies of costly state, And luU'd with sounds of sweetest melody ? O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile In loathsome beds ; and leav'st the kingly couch, A watch-case, or a common 'larum-bell if Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains In cradle of the rude imperious surge. And in the visitation of the winds. Who take the ruffian billows by the top. Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them Witli deafning clamours in the slippery clouds. That, with the hurly, death itself awakes — Can'st thou, O partial sleep ! give thy repose To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude ; And, in the calmest and most stillest night, With all appliances and means to boot, Deny it to a king ? Then, happy low, lie down ! Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." Yet he does sleep ; and as the Prince watches by him, the latter exclaims : " Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow. Being so troublesome a bedfellow ? O polished perturbation ! golden care ! That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide To many a watchful night ! — sleep with it now ! Yet not so sound, and half so deeply sweet. As he, whose brow, with homely biggin bound. Snores out the watch of night." Act iv. 4. Sir Richard Blackmore, too ; Creation, b. iv. : " Familiar horrors haunt the monarch's head. And thoughts, ill-boding, from the downy bed Chase gentle sleep ; black cares the soul infest, And broider'd stars adorn a troubled breast," " Morpheus ! the humble god that dwells In cottages and smoky cells. Hates gilded roofs and beds of down. And, though he fears no prince's frown, Flies from the circle of a crown." Sir John Denham, Song. Young's lines are well known : " Tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy Sleep ! He like the world, his ready visit pays Where Fortune smiles ; the wretched he for- ^kes; Swift on his downy pinion flies from woe, And lights on lids unsullied with a tear." ^ The Complaint, Night i. 1-5. " No frowning care yon bless'd apartment sees, There sleep retires, and finds a couch of ease. Kind dreams, that fly remorse, and pamper'd wealth. There shed the smiles of innocence and health." Savage, Wanderer, c. i. 67 i A place of ambushment around the folds, I Nor does he prowl al)out the herds by night : j A fiercer pang sulxlues him. Craven deer And flying harts now both among the hounds. And round the homesteads wander. Now ! the brood I Of the illimitable sea, and all the tribe I Of swimming [creatures] on the farthest j strand, Like shipwrecked corses, washes up the wave ; Against their wont to rivers fly the seals ; And dies, within his winding-shroud en- sconced 750 In vain, the adder, and with scales erect The thunder-stricken hydri. E'en to birds Unrighteous is the air, and, headlong fallen, Beneath the lofty cloud their life they leave. Moreo'er, nor now avails it that their food Is changed, and sought prescriptions harm : the chiefs Have yielded, — Chiron son of Phillyra, Melampus, too, of Amythaon sprung. Storms wan Tisiphone, and, into light Let loose from Stygian murk, before her drives 760 Diseases and Affright ; and, day by day Uprising higher, she her rav'nous head Advances. With the bleating of the flocks. And frequent bellowings, streams, and withered banks. And sloping hills, resound. And now by troops She havoc deals, and in the very stalls Piles corses, melted with the loathsome bane ; Till in the earth to hide them, and in pits To hearse, they learn. For neither in the hides Was service, nor the flesh can any [swain] Or cleanse in waters, or with flame o'er- come. 771 Nor e'en to shear the fleeces, cankered through With pestilence and foulness, nor to touch 75^. J. Philips uses similar expressions in de- scribmg the death of birds from a different cause : " Sulphureous death Checks their mid flight, and heedless while they strain Their tuneful throats, the towering heavy lead O'ertakes their speed : they leave their httle lives Above the clouds, precipitant to earth." OdtTf b. ii. 771. "With flame o'ercome," /. e., cook them. For, upon the whole, the view presented in the version .seems to be the most consistent. They burned the carcases entire ; as there was no worth in their hides, their flesh, or their fleece. K ; 68 V. 562—565. THE GEORGICS. V. 565—566. The mould'ring woof, have they the pow'r. '■ Thereafter long, when, as he pauses still, Nay e'en I His tainted joints the sacred fire would eat. If any had the loathsome garbs essayed, Inflammatory blains and filthy sweat _ | ^^g. « As he pauses ;" i. e., to throw off the in- His letid limbs pursued ; nor was the time : fected dress. BOOK IV. Next the ethereal honey's heav'nly boons Will I pursue : this portion, too, do thou Regard, Maecenas. Shows of pigmy things, That claim thy wonder, — both the high- souled chiefs. And habits, and pursuits, and clans, and wars, Of a whole nation will I duly sing. Upon a petty [theme] the travail, yet Not petty the renown, if adverse gods Permit one, and invoked Apollo hears. In the first place, a resting-spot and post Must for thy bees be sought, whereto may lie II Nor inlet for the winds, (for winds prevent Their bringing home their forage,) nor may sheep And butting kidlings trample on the flowers, Nor heifer, as she wanders thro' the plain, Shake down the dew, and bruise the spring- ing blades. And, speckled o'er their scale-encrusted backs. Be lizards far aloof from thy rich cotes. And Meropes, and other birds, and Procne, Upon her bosom scored with hands of blood. 20 Line 1. " But when He does describe the commonwealth of bees, Their industry, and knowledge of the herbs From which they gather honey, with their care To place it with decorum in the hive, Their government among themselves, their order In going forth and coming loaden home, Their obedience to their king, and his rewards To such as labour, with his punishments, Only inflicted on the slothful drone ; — I'm ravished with it." J. Fletcher, The Elder Brother, 1. 2. 3. Or, perhaps : " The drama of a pigmy commonwealth." 7. Verses 6 and 7 are imitated by Pope in the opening of his inimitable mock heroic, the RaJ>e of the Lock : " What dire offence from amorous causes springs, What mighty contests rise from trivial things, I sing. — This verse to Caryl, Muse ! is due : This, even Belinda, may vouchsafe to view : , Slight is the subject, but not so the praise, Jf she inspire, and he approve my lays." For all they widely waste, and e'en [the bees], While flying, in their mouth they bear away, Delicious diet for their ruthless nests. But crystal springs, and plashes green with moss, Be nigh at hand, and, scamp'ring thro' the grass, A shallow rivulet ; and let the palm, ( h- oleaster huge, the outer court O'ershade, that, when the new [ly-issued] kings Shall lead the earliest swarms in spring their own. And, sallied from the combs, the youth disport, 30 A neighb'ring bank may woo them to give way Before the heat, and in their path a tree Harbor them 'neath its hostelries of leaf. Into the middle, whether still shall stand The water, or it shall career along. Fling willows slant and bulky stones, that they On frequent bridges may have pow'r to light. And spread their pinions to the summer sun. If haply headlong Eurus shall have sprent The loiterers, or plunged them in the flood. Round these let em'rald casias, and wild thymes, 41 Their perfume shedding far and near, and store Of savory, [its scent] strong breathing, bloom. And beds of violet drink the wat'ring spring. , But let the hives themselves, should they for thee Or of the hollow bark be stitched, or plight Of limber twig, have narrow avenues ; For winter candies honey with its cold, 22. So Thomson, Spring, 675 : " Away they fly. Affectionate, and undesiring bear The most delicious morsel to their young." 33. More literally : " leafy hostelries." V. 36—58. BOOK IV. V. 58—67. 69 Andheatdissolves the same, to fluid turned : Each force for bees alike is to be feared. 50 Nor in their homes in vain with rivalry The narrow vents with wax do they be- smear, And close the rims with fucus and with flowers, And, gathered for these very services, A cement keep, more glutinous than e'en The birdlime and the Phrygian Ida's pitch. Yea oftentimes in excavated shrouds, (If true is rumor,) underneath the earth Their household have they hugged, and deep Been found both in the vaulted pumice- rocks, 60 And grot of [some] heart-eaten tree. Do thou. However, both with glossy mud anoint Their chinky chambers, warming them around. And throw across them thin [supplies of] leaves. Nor overnear their homes the yew allow. Nor bum thy coral crabs upon the hearth, Nor place reliance on the fen profound. Or where the smell of mire is rank, or where The vaulted rocks with verberation ring. And echo of the voice impinged rebounds. For what remains, what time the golden Sun 71 Hath chased the routed winter from the lands. And heav'n uncurtained with his summer- light, They straight the lawns and forests range; and reap Gay flow'rs, and sip the surface of the brooks. Light [-poised]. Hence, with what charm I know not blithe. Their offspring and their nests they cherish; hence With skill fresh wax elaborate, and mould Their gluey honeys. Hence when now dis- charged 53. "Fucus;" I.e., "propolis." 79. Milton has a very beautiful simile of bees issumg from the hive on a fine day ; P. L., b. i. : " As bees In spring-time, when the Sun with Taurus rides. Pour forth their populous youth about the hive In clusters : they among fresh dews and flowers Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank, The suburb of their straw-built citadel, New rubb'd with balm, expatiate and confer Their state affairs." Thomson is also highly successful ; S/rin^-, 508 : From out their caverns to the start of heaven, 80 A swarm above thee thou shalt have espied, Floating throughout the crystal summer* air, And shalt in wonderment a darkling cloud See warping on the wind, — obser\'e them close ; Sweet streams and leafy bow'rs they ever seek. Hither do thou the scents commanded strew, Bruised balm, and honeywort's unnoble herb ; And tingling sounds awake, and rattle round The cymbals of the Mother. Of themselves They on the seats bedrugged will settle down ; 90 They of themselves within their inmost cots Will bury them, in fashion [all] their own. But if they shall have issued to the fight. " Here their delicious task the fervent bees. In swarming millions, tend : around, athwart. Through the soft air, the busy nations fly, Cling to the bud, and, with inserted tube. Suck its pure essence, its ethereal soul ; And oft, with bolder wing, they soaring dare The purple heath, or where the wild thyme grows. And yellow load them with the luscious spoil." " Yet hark, how through the peopled air The busy murmur glows ! The insect youth are on the wing. Eager to taste the honied spring. And float amid the liquid noon : Some lightly o'er the current skim. Some show their gayly-gilded trim. Quick-glancing to the sun." Gray, Ode to Spring, " Thick as the bees, that with the spring renew Their flowery toils, and sip the fragrant dew. When the wmg'd colonies first tempt the sky. O'er dusky fields and shaded waters fly, Or, settling, seize the sweets the blossoms yield, And a low murmur runs along the field." Pope, TtHtpU of Fame. This and other passages in Virgil call to mind Pope's beautiful description of the Sylphs in the Rape of the Lock, c. ii. : " Some to the sun their insect wings unfold. Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold ; Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight, Their fluid bodies half dissolved in light. Loose to the wind their airy garments flew, Thin glittering textures of the filmy dew. Dipt in the richest tincture of the skies. Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes ; While every beam new transient colours flings, ^ Colours that change whene'er they wave lhe:r wings." 92. " So swarming bees that, on a summer's day In airy rings and wild meanders play, Charm'd with the brazen sound, their wanderings end, ,j And, gently circling, on a bough descend.' Dr. Young, The Last Day, b. n. 03. Among the different modes of puncttiating this fine, but irregularly constructed, passage, V. 67-85. THE GEORGICS. V. 85 — Hi. (For many a time on monarchs twain a feud Hath stalked with mighty hubbub, and forthwith The spirits of the commons and their hearts Throbbing for war, we may afar foreknow ; For those that loiter does the warlike bray Of grating bronze upbraid, and there is heard A sound, that apes the trumpet's broken blasts :) * 100 Then in commotion they together flock, And sparkle with their pinions, and their stings Point sharp upon their beaks, and fit their thews, And round the king, and at the very tent Of their commander, muster they in crowds. And challenge with their lusty cries the foe. So, when they have secured a cloudless spring, And open plains, they sally from the gates ; In heav'n on high 'tis battle ; booms a din ; Huddled they cluster in a mighty ball no And headlong drop : — no thicker in the air The hail, nor from the shaken holm pours down So thick [a show'r] of mast. [The kings] themselves Throughout the central ranks, with noted wings. Wield giant spirits in a puny breast ; E'en for so long determined not to yield, Until the overwhelming conqueror Or these, or those, hath forced to show their backs, none seems satisfactory, and therefore a different view of the part which is to be considered elliptical, is here taken. According to this, the embarass- ment attending que in conti'iiioque appears to be removed ; while the objection, fairly raised by Wagner against the views of Heyne and Voss, is in a great measure avoided. 115. " But, boy, fear not; I will outstretch them all: My mind's a giant, though my bulk be small." Anonymous, The first part of Jeronimo. 115. So Milton, P. L., vii., of the ant: " In a small room large heart enclosed." And Shakespeare, K. II. V., ii. Chorus: " O England ! — model to thy inward greatness, Like little body with a mighty heart." And again : "I never saw Such noble fury in so poor a thing." Cymbeline, v. 5. Milton in the same way, in Samson Agonistes : " Go, baffled coward ! lest I run upon thee, Though in these chains, bulk without spirit vast." Dryden, in speaking of the dismay of the Dutch fleet, inverts the idea : " Faint sweats all down their mighty members run ; Vast bulks which little souls but ill supply." Annus Mirabilis, 70. Reversed in flight. These tumults of their souls. And these encounters so severe, when checked 120 By tossing of a little dust, subside. But when both gen'rals from the battle thou Shalt have recalled, the one, who meaner seems, (Lest in his waste he mischief thee,) consign To death ; allow the nobler in the court. Untenanted, to reign. The one will prove With gold-encrusted spangles in a blaze. For twain the species be : this nobler [king] Both in his guise distinguished, brilliant, too. With ruddy scales ; that other, grim with sloth, 130 And trailing, base, a breadth of paunch. As twain The monarchs' figures, so the commons' frames. For some in hideousness are rough ; as when From dust aloft the thirsty traveller comes, And sputters from his droughty mouth the earth. Others shine forth, and with a glitter flash. Ablaze upon their bodies, dashed with gold And even drops. This proves the worthier breed : Therefrom in heav'n's appointed season thou Shalt squeeze thy luscious honeys ; — neither [yet] 140 So luscious, as both crystal-bright, and taste Austere of Bacchus ready to subdue. But when the swarms unsettled fly abroad, And in the welkin sport, and scorn the combs, And quit their chilly homesteads, thou shalt bar Their restless spirits from their idle play. Nor is to bar them a gigantic toil. Do thou from off the kings their pinions pluck : Not any [bee], while they delay, will dare To wend his route aloft, or from the camp To tear the standards up. Let gardens woo, 151 That breathe [a perfume] from their saffron flowers. And, sentry 'gainst the robbers and the birds, Be their protection with his willow scythe, The Hellespontiac Priapus' guard. Let him to whom such [tasks] of int'rest be, V. II a— 134* BOOK IV. 7. 134—153. 71 From lofty mountains bringing thyme and pines, Plant them himself far-wide around their homes ; Himself let chafe his hand with galling toil; Himself set fruiting saplings in the ground, And loving waters o'er them draw in rills. And truly, towards my travail's farthest bound 162 j Were I not now my canvas drawing in, And hasting on to veer my prow to land, I peradventure, too, might sing what pains Of cultivation gardens rich would deck. And doubly-blooming Paestum's beds of rose; j And how the endive-plants in runnels j quaffed ' Might take delight, and banks with parsley [ green ; ! And, writhing through the grass, the cu- cumber 170 Swell out into a paunch. Nor daffodil, I>ate-flow'ring, or the lithe acanthus' stalk. Could I have passed unsung, and ivies wan. And myrtle-shrubs enamored of the shores. For I recall to mind, that I beneath The stately towers of CEbalia, where The dark Galesus dews the golden tilths, An aged swain of Corycus had seen, To whom few acres of abandoned ground Belonged ; nor fruitful was that [soilj thro' steers, 180 Nor fit for cattle, nor for Bacchus meet. Yet even here his potherbs, thin [in row], Among the brakes and snowy lilies round. And vervains, planting, fine-grained poppy, too, The wealth of monarchs in his mind he matched ; And, late at night returning to his home, His boards he cumbered with unpurchased cates. The first was he in spring to cull the rose, 161. Or, if irriget be taken in its secondary, and inibres in its primary sense : " And sprinkle over them the loving showers." 185. " My mind's a kingdom." Ben Jonson. " For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich." Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, iv. 3. " I want not, for my mind affordeth wealth." Robert Greene, The Hermit's I'erses. " No, Lucio, he's a king, A true right king, that dares doe aught, save wrong, Feares nothing mortall but to be unjust. Who is not blowne up with the flattering puffes Of spungy sycophants, who stands unmoved, Despite the justling of opinion." " This, Lucio, is a king, And of this empire every man's possest, That's worth his soule." Marston, Antonio and Mellida, P. i, iv. 4. And in the autumn fruits } and when e'en still Drear winter with its cold would brast the rocks, 190 And with its ice the race of waters rein, He tresses of the downy martagon E'en now was clipping, chiding summer late, And lagging Zephyrs. Therefore he, the same. With pregnant bees, and many a swarm, was first To overflow; and from squeezed combs to force The frothing honeys. He had limes and pine Of fullest yield ; and with as many fruits In infant blossom as the teemful tree Had robed itself, so many it retained 200 In autumn ripe. He also into rows Transplanted far-grown elms, and flinty pear, And black-thorn stocks, already bearing plums, And plane, to topers now affording shade. But these, in sooth, do I, shut out by bounds Too strict, pass over, and to other [bardsj To be recorded after me I leave. Now come, what instincts Jove himself to bees Assigned, will I unfold ; for what reward The Curets' tuneful sounds and clanking bronze 210 They, tracing, fed the monarch of the sky Beneath the grot of Dicte. They alone Have sons in common, city-mansions shared 192. See note on Geo. u. v. 368. 201. " The teeming autumn, big with rich increase. Bearing the wanton burden of the prime." Shakespeare, Sonnet 97. 213, &c. " For so work the honey bees ; Creatures that, by a rule of nature, teach The act of order to a p>eopIe's kingdom. They have a king and officers of sorts : Where some, like magistrates, correct at home ; Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad : Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings. Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds ; Which pillage they with merry march bring home To the tent royal of their emperor : Who, busied in his majesty, sur\cys The singing masons building roofs of gold : The civil citizens kneading up the honey ; The poor mechanic porters crouding in Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate ; The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum. Delivering o'er to executors pale The lazy yawning drone." ^ Shakespeare, A*. H. V., i. 2. The careful insect midst his works I view. Now from the flowers exhaust the fraerant dew ; With golden treasures load his little thighs. 72 V. 154 — T/O- THE GEORGICS. V. 171 — 197. In partnership, and under noble laws They pass existence, and a native land, And settled household-gods alone they know ; And mindful of the coming winter, toil In summer ply, and for the common stock .Store up their gains. For some watch o'er the food, And by fixed pact are in the fields em- ployed. 220 A part within th' inclosures of their homes Narcissus' tear, and, clammy, [tapped] from bark, A gum, the first foundations for the combs. Lay down ; then hang they up the gluey wax. Others, the nation's hope, the full-gi'own young, Lead forth ; thrice limpid honeys others pack. And with the crystal nectar puff the cells. There are, to whom hath fallen out by lot. The sentry at the gates, and in their turn They scan the waters and the clouds of heaven ; 230 Or bm-dens of the [workers] coming in Receive, or, in battalion formed, the drones, A lazy cattle, banish from the cribs : Work glows, and scented honeys smell of thyme. And as when Cyclops haste the thunder- bolts And steer his distant journey through the skies ; Some against hostile drones the hive defend, (Jthers with sweets the waxen cells distend ; Each in his toil his destin'd office bears, And in the little bulk a mighty soul appears." Gay, Rural Sports, i. 83-90. 222. This use of lacrima, v. 160, is imitated by Sir Richard Blackmore in one of his beautiful passages in Creation, b. ii. : " The fragrant trees, which grow by Indian floods. And in Arabia's aromatic woods. Owe all their spices to the summer's heat. Their gummy tears, and odoriferous sweat." 235. The same operation is described as going on in Mammon's cave, by Spenser, Faerie Queene, ii. 7, 36: " One with great bellowes gathered filling ayre. And with forst wind the fewell did inflame ; Another did the dying bronds repayre With yron tongs, and sprinckled ofte the same With liquid waves, fiers Vulcans rage to tame. Who, maystring them, renewd his former heat : Some sciimd the drosse that from the metall came ; Some stird the molten owre with ladles great :" &c. Milton similarly : "In other part stood one who, at the forge Labouring, two massy clods of iron and brass Had melted ; (whether found where casual fire Had wasted woods on mountain or in vale, Down to the veins of earth ; thence gliding hot To some cave's mouth ; or whether wash'd by stream j From ductile blocks, in bull's-hide bellows I some Admit the breezes, and discharge them back ; Some dip the screeching bronzes in the pool : With stithies planted on him /Etna groans. They 'tween them with colossal force their arms 240 Upheave to measure, and with griping tongs The iron turn and turn. Not otherwise, (If we may tiny things compare with vast,) An inbred passion of possessing spurs Cecropian bees — in his own office each. The towns are to the old a charge, and combs To wall, and fashion their Daedalian roofs. But, jaded, late at night betake them home The younger, loaded on their legs with thyme ; And on the arbute-berries all around 250 They feed, and blue-grey willows, casia too, And blushing crocus, and the gummy lime, And rust-hued martagons. With all is one The rest from work, with all is one the toil. At morning from the gates they sally forth ;— Not anywhere delay : — again, when Eve These same, from feed [recalled], at length hath warned Forth from the champaign to withdraw, their homes Then seek they, then their bodies they refresh ; A hum arises, and they buzz around 260 Their borders and their thresholds. Then, when now Within their couching-chambers they them- selves Have ordered, all is stillness for the night. And their own slumber holds their wearied limbs. Nor sooth, — rain overhanging, — from the hives Retire they over far, or trust the sky When eastern gales are drawing on, but round They safely water 'neath the city walls, And rambles short essay, and pebbles oft, As skiffs unsteady in the tossing wave. Their ballast raise : therewith themselves they poise 271 Thro' unsubstantial clouds. Thou'lt marvel chief From underground ;) the liquid ore he drain'd Into fit moulds prepared ; from which he form'd First his own tools ; then, what might else be wrought Fusil or graven in metal." P. L., xi. V, 197—82 3. BOOK IV, V. 223—243. 7J That this observance should have pleased the bees — That neither do they riot in embrace, Nor slothfully on Venus waste their frames, Or bear their young with throes ; but by themselves They cull their children in their mouth from leaves, And honied herlaage ; by themselves their king And tiny Quirites they supply, and mould Anew their palaces and waxy realms. 280 Oft, too, in roving thro' the flinty rocks Their pinions they have chafed — yea, e'en their life Beneath their load resigned j — so great the love Of flow'rs, and pride of gend'ring honey. Hence Though these a span of narrow life befall, (For no more than a seventh summer-tide Is lengthened,) yet imperishable lasts The lineage, and stands firm through many a year The fortune of the house, and ancestors Of ancestors are counted. Further, too, Not thus their king do Egypt, and great Lydia, 291 And tribes of Parthians, and the Median [flood], Hydaspes, venerate. The king un- harmed — There dwells one spirit in them all ; when lost— They've broken fealty, and the honeys heaped Themselves have plundered, and to atoms rent The fretwork of the combs. The guard of toils Is he ; at him in wonder do they gaze, And all, with humming full, around him stand. And throng him close, and ofttimes lift him up 300 Upon their shoulders, and their frames to war Expose, and seek through wounds a splendid death. Some, from these marks, and following out These instances, have said that in the bees There dwells a portion of the heav'nly mind. And draughts ethereal. For that deity Pervades alike all lands, and tracts of sea. And sky sublime ; that hence the flocks, the herds, 283. Or: " and freely life." Mankind, of savage creatures every tribe — Each [being] for itself at birth derives 310 A subtile life. Moreover, to this source All [living things] thereafter are reduced, And at their dissolution are restored ; That neither is there room for death, but quick They wing their journey to the rank of star, And mount them to the firmament on high. If ever thou their narrow home, and, stored In treasure-cells, their honeys would'st un- seal, First, sprinkled with a draught of waters, rinse Thy mouth, and in thy hand before thee stretch 320 The piercing smoke. Their heavy produce twice They gather ; twain the harvest-times ; as soon As hath Taygete, the Pleiad maid. Her comely visage to the lands revealed. And with her foot hath spumed the Ocean- tides, Disdained ; or when the self-same, as she flies The constellation of the wat'ry Fish, More melancholy from the sky sinks down Within the winter-waves. In them dwells wrath Past bound, and when annoyed their bane they breathe 330 Into their stingings, and their viewless bolts They leave behind them, to the arteries Firm fixed, and in the wound their lives lay down. But if, in dread of rig'rous winter-tide, Thou'lt both be sparing for the time to come. And look with mercy on their shattered souls. And broken fortunes ; — yet to fumigate With thyme, and cut away the empty wax, Who would demur? For often, unre- marked. The lizard hath begnawed the combs, and cells, 340 316. The German critic quoted by Jahn observes, that the latter clause of verse 227 of the text comes in languidly after the former ; to which Voss replies, that it is only an amplification of the preceding idea. But surely this is a weak answer ; for it is at least as easy for an amplificaiion to be languid as not. According to the view of some translators, the passage would be rendered thus : " And take their station in the height of heaven :" which would give a stronger sense : but it w by no means certain that succedere will bear the inter- pretation thus put upon it. 340. That is : beetles by cellfuls. 74 V. 243 —265. THE GEORGICS. V. 266 — 293. Uppiled with beetles, runaways from light, And, at another's viands sitting down, The [task-] exempted drone ; or hornet fierce Hath mixed among them with unbalanced arms ; Or moths — cursed crew ; or, of Minerva loathed. The spider in the door-way hath hung up Her flowing toils. The more have they been drained. So the more keenly all will strain to mend A fallen people's wreck, and full will brim The combs, and weave their magazines from flowers. 350 But if, (since our mischances, too, on bees Hath life entailed,) their bodies shall be faint With dismal sickness, which at once shalt thou Be able by no doubtful marks to learn : — Straight in the ailing is a diff'rent hue ; A grisly meagreiiess the visage mars ; Then from the dwellings carry they abroad The carcases of those that lack the light. And lead their doleful obsequies ; or they With legs entangled at the threshold hang. Or lag indoors within their cloistered homes, 361 All both with hunger spiritless, and dull With rivelled chillness : then a deeper tone Is heard, and drawlingly they hum : as cold At times on forests Auster growls ; as booms Chafed ocean with recoiling waves ; as storms In prisoned furnaces the rav'ning fire : — Here will I counsel thee at once to burn Galbanean scents, and honeys introduce In water-pipes of reed, yea, cheering on, 345. See Spenser's beautiful description of Aragnoll's spinning his web to catch Clarion, in Miiiopotfnos, 357 : " And weaving straight a net with manie a fold About the cave, in which he lurking dwelt, With fine small cords about it stretched wide, So finely sponne, that scarce they could be spide :" &c. The process of capture is gracefully described by Dryden : " So the false spider, when her nets are spread, Deep ambush'd in her silent den does lie ; And feels far off the trembling of her thread, Whose filmy cord should bind the struggling fly- Then if at last she find him fast beset, She issues forth, and runs along her loom : She joys to touch the captive in her net, And drag the little wretch in triumph home." An7i. Mir., 180, i. And wooing them [in their] exhausted [state] 371 To their familiar food. And 'twill bestead To blend bruised taste of gall, and roses dried. Or sodden must enriched thro' plenteous fire, Or [sun-] dried clusters from the Psithian vine, And thyme of Attica, and centaur-plants, Rank smelling. In the meads, too, is a flower. For which the name Amellus swains have coined ; — To those who seek an easy plant [to find] : For lifts it from a single matted sod 380 A giant bush ; [of] golden [hue] itself. But in the petals, which, full many a one. Are shed around, faint twinkles purple tint Of dusky violet. Oft with platted wreaths Thereof the altars of the gods are trimmed ; Harsh in the mouth its flavor ; this in dells That have been pastured, do the shepherds cull. And fast by Mella's serpentizing streams. Stew roots of this in spicy wine, and serve In baskets full the viands at their gates. But if upon a sudden all his stock 391 Shall any [swain] have failed, nor, whence a race Of new [-ly fostered] breed may be recalled, Shall he possess [the means], it e'en is time Th' Arcadian master's memorable plans To ope, and how ere this from slaughtered steers The tainted gore hath often yielded bees. High tracing it from its primeval source, The legend all will I unfold. For where The Pella-named Canopus' blessed race Inhabits near the Nile, that stagnant lies Through overflowing flood, and round their fields 402 Are carried in their painted skiffs ; and where The quivered Persis' frontier presses close ; And into seven separated mouths Asunder runs, while flushing on, the stream, E'en from the colored Indians borne adown, And blooming Egypt, with its sable slime 400. " What wonder, in the sultry climes, that spread Where Nile redundant o'er his summer bed From his broad bosom life and verdure flings, And broods o'er Egypt with his wat'ry wings, If with advent'rous oar and ready sail The dusky people drive before the gale ; Or on frail floats to neighb'ring cities ride, That rise and glitter o'er the ambient tide." Gray, Alliance of Education and Govermneni. 401. It is by no means certain that stagnantem is not active. V. 293 — Ji6. BOOK IV, ^. 317— 3 3«. n It fertilises : — all that country grounds Infallible deliv'rance on this craft. 410 In the first place, a scanty spot is chosen, And for these very services confined. This, both with tiling of a narrow roof, And with contracted walls, do they inclose, And add four loopholes, with the light aslant From the four winds. A calf then, arching now His horns upon a brow of two years' age, is sought. In him the nostrils twain, and breath of mouth, While many a struggle he opposes, tight Are blocked, and, slain by blows, his bat- tered flesh 420 Through the unbroken hide is crushed to pulp. Thus laid, they leave him in his cloistered hold, And 'neath his ribs lay scraps of branches, thyme. And fresh [-culled] casias. This is carried on When Zephyrs first are chasing on the waves, Before with earliest hues the meadows flush, Before the prating swallow hangs her nest Beneath the beams. Meanwhile acquiring heat. Within the softened bones the juice fer- ments. And, in surprising fashions to be seen, 430 Live creatures, destitute of feet at first. And soon with pinions whizzing, swarm around. And traverse more and more the subtile air : Till, like a rainy-torrent, gushing forth From clouds of summer, they have burst away ; Or like the arrows from the driving chord, If e'er light Parths commence the op'ning fights. What deity, O Muses, what— struck out This craft for our behoof? Whence took its rise This new experience [on the part] of men ? The shepherd Aristaeus, taking flight From Peneus' Tempe, when his bees were lost 442 (As [goes] the legend,) by disease alike And hunger, melancholy took his stand Hard by the holy [well-] head of the stream, At its far bound, outpouring many a plaint ; And in this strain his parent he addressed : *' Mother, Cyrene mother, who dost haunt The lowest [regions] of this bubbling fount, Why me from the all-glorious line of gods, (If only, whom thou sayest, is my sire — Thymbra's Apollo,) loathed of fates, hast borne ? 452 Or whither banished is thy love of us ? Why would'st thou bid me hope for heav'n ? Lo ! e'en This very credit of my mortal life. Which scarce the skilful ward of fruits and flocks Had wrought me out, essaying every [art], With thee for mother, do 1 quit. Nay come. And with thy hand thyself my fruiting groves Uproot ; bring hostile fire upon my stalls, And kill my harvests ; burn my seeded crops, 461 And wield the lusty axe against my vines, If such sore weariness of my renown Hath seized thee." Now his mother heard the cry Beneath the chamber of the deepsome flood. Around her their Milesian wools her Nymphs Were carding, with full hue of glassy-green Ingrained :— e'en Drymo, Xantho, too, alike Ligoea, and Phyllodoce — their locks Out-streamed in lustre o'er their snowy necks ; 470 Nessee, Spio too, Thalia too, 427. Hirundo is a general name for several kinds of swallows. Perhaps Virgil alludes to the martin, as Shakespeare does in the following passage from Macbeth, 1. 6 : " This guest of summer, The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath Smells wooingly here : no jutty, frieze, buttress. Nor coigne of vantage, but this bird hath made His pendent bed, and procreant cradle." 459. What Aristaeus, with something of petulance, hypothetically called upon his mother to do. Sir Guyon absolutely effected for the " Bower of Bliss;" Faerie Queene, ii. 12, 83: *' But all those pleasaunt bowres, and pallace brave, Guyon broke downe with rigour pitilesse ; Ne ought their goodly workmanship might save Them from the tempest of his wrathfuinesse. But that their blisse he tum'd to balefulncssc ; Their groves he feld ; their gardins did deface ; Their arbers spoyle ; their cabinets suppresse ; Their banket-houses burne : their buildmgs race ; And, of the fayrest late, now made the fowlcst place." " O boundlcsse woe. If there be any black yet unknown griefe. If there be any horror yet unfelt, Unthought-of mischief in thy fiend-lQce power. Dash it upon my miserable head : Make me more wretch, more cursed if thou canit." Marston, Antonio and Mtllida, P. 2, i. 5. 76 V. 338—364. THE GEORGICS. V. 364—388. Cymodoce as well, Cydippe too, And auburn [-tressed] Lycorias— one a maid, The other having then Lucine's first pangs Experienced ; Clio too, and Beroe Her sister, daughters of the Ocean both. With gold both girdled, both with dappled skins ; And Ephyre, and Opis, and the Asian [maid] Deiope, and nimble Arethuse, Her arrows laid aside at last. 'Mong whom 480 Was Clymene relating th' idle pains Of Vulcan, and th' intrigues and blissful thefts Of Mars, and down from Chaos reck'ning o'er The crowded loves of gods. By which her song Enchanted, while around their spindles they Their downy tasks spin off, his mother's ears Once more the wail of Aristseus struck. And on their crystal thrones were all amazed. But ere the other sisters Arethuse, Forth-gazing, lifted up her auburn head Above the billow-crest ; and from afar : *' O scared not idly by so deep a groan, Cyrene sister, he himself for thee, 493 Thy chief affection, Aristseus sad By father Peneus' billow stands in tears, And calls thee heartless by thy name." To her His mother, shocked in soul with strange alarm. Cries, " Lead, haste, lead him to us ; 'tis allowed For him to touch the thresholds of the gods. " At once does she enjoin the deepsome floods 500 Far-wide to part asunder, where the youth Might introduce his steps. But him around. In mountain-fashion arched, the billow stood. And welcomed him within its bosom vast. And sent him on beneath the stream. And now. In wonder gazing on his mother's court. And wat'ry realms, and lakes in caves en- jailed, 482. Goldsmith speaks of a more moral descrip- tion oi furta in the Deserted Village : " The breezy covert of the warbling grove, That only sheltered thefts of harmless love." 507. " Come now, ye Naiads, to the fountains lead ; Now let me wander through your gelid reign. And rumbling groves, he went his way, and stunned At the vast coil of waters, all the floods. Careering 'neath the mighty earth, he viewed, 510 Dispread in various regions, — Phasis e'en, And Lycus, and the [fountain-] head, wherefrom The deep Enipeus disembogues him first ; Whence father Tiber, and whence Anio's tides. And, rife in rock, the booming Hypanis ; Caicus, too, of Mysia, and, engilt Upon his double horns on bull-like face, Eridanus ; than which no other stream Along the teeming tilths, with fiercer force On flushes to the purple main. As soon As he arrived within the chamber's roof. With pumice hanging, and Cyrene learnt Her offspring's causeless weepings, for his hands 523 The sisters duly crystal springs present. And bring him towels with a shaven nap. Some load the boards with cates, and serve and serve The brimming goblets ; with Panchsean fires Blaze up the altars : and his mother cries : *' Do thou take beakers of Mseonian wine ; To Ocean pour we." She herself at once Entreats both Ocean, sire of [all] things, and the Nymphs, 531 The sister-train — the hundred who the woods. The hundred who the rivers, haunt. Three times With crystal nectar Vesta in a glow She sprent ; three times the blaze, shot up aloft To the dome-crest, flashed back : with which presage Pier spirit bracing, thus herself begins : "In the Carpathian gulf • of Neptune dwells A seer, the azure Proteus, he who spans I burn to view th' enthusiastic wilds By mortal else untrod. I hear the din Of waters thundering o'er the ruin'd cliffs. With holy reverence I approach the rocks, Whence glide the streams renown'd in ancient song. Here from the desert down the rumbling steep First springs the Nile ; here bursts the sounding Po In angry waves ; Euphrates hence devolves A mighty flood to water half the east ; And there, in gothic solitude reclin'd, The cheerless Tanais pours his hoary urn." Armstrong, Health, b. ii. 539. " Proteus is shepheard of the seas of yore, And hath the charge of Neptune's mighty heard ; An aged sire with head all frowy hore, And sprinckled frost upon his deawy beard : T. 388 — 406. BOOK IK t: 406—437. 77 The vasty ocean with his fish, and car With double-footed coursers yoked. He now 54^ Emathia's havens and his native land, Pallene, is revisiting. To him Both we the Nymphs look up with awe, and e'en The aged Nercus : for the prophet knows All things which are, which were, which yet to come Are trailing on ; since so to Neptune good it seemed, Whose monster-cattle and unsightly seals, He pastures underneath the wat'ry-whirl. By thee must he, my son, in fetters first Be caught, that all the source of the disease He may discover, and the issues bless. 552 For without force no counsels will he grant, Nor him by praying may'st thou bend ; brute force And manacles, when captured, on him strain : Round these at last will unavailing wiles Be shattered. I myself will thee, what time Shall Sol have kindled up meridian heats, What time the herbage is athirst, and now More welcome to the cattle is the shade, Lead to the aged [seer's] sequestered haunts, $61 Where, wearied, he betakes him from the waves ; That readily, in slumber as he lies. Thou may'st assail him. But when with thy hands And fetters thou shalt hold him tightly grasped. Then divers shapes, and forms of savage beasts, Who, when those pittiful outcries he heard Through all the seas so ruefully resownd. His charett swift in hast he thether steard. Which with a teeme of scaly Phocas bownd Was drawne upon the waves, that fomed him arownd." Spenser, F. Q., iii. 8, 30. 566. So Spenser says of Archimago ; F.Q., i. 2, 10 : " He then devisde himself how to disguise ; For by his mighty science he could take As many formes and shapes in seeming wise, As ever Proteus to himselfe could make : Sometime a fowle, sometime a fish in lake, Now like a foxe, now like a dragon fell ; That of himselfe he ofte for feare would quake. And oft would flie away." The attentive reader will no doubt remark the graphic turn with which this imitation concludes. ^ 1 he passage also calls to mind the lines in Milton's Comus : " Boldly assault the necromancer's hall ; Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood. And brandish'd blade rush on him ; break his glass, Will baffle thee. For in a trice will he Become a bristly boar, and tigress swart, And scale-clad dragon, and a lioness With tawny neck ; or piercing roar of flame Will he discharge, and thus from out his bonds 571 Will drop, or, melted into waters thin, Escape away. But how the more shall he Transmute him into every guise, so much, My son, the more do thou the griping chains Strain tight, till such shall he become, with frame Transformed, as thou beheldest him, when he With sleep commenced was muffling up his eyes." These speaks she, and ambrosia's flowing scent Distils around, wherewith she overspread Her son's whole body, and o'er him there breathed 58 1 From tresses trimly laid a musky air, And o'er his limbs a lively vigor came. There is a vasty cavern in the side Of a heart-eaten mountain, whereinto Full many a billow by the blast is forced, And into curves receding splits itself ; At times for [storm-] caught seamen anchor- age Right safe : within doth Proteus screen himself By the obstruction of a monster rock, 590 In ambush here the Nymph the stripling posts Turned from the light away ; takes she herself Her station at a distance, gloomed in mists. Now rav'ning Sirius, scorching thirsty Inds, Was blazing, and in heav'n had fiery Sol Accomplished his meridian round ; the herbs And shed the luscious HqUor on the ground. But seize liis wand : though he and his cursed crew Fierce sign of battle make, and menace high. Or like the sons of Vulcan vomit smoke. Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink." 584. " His bowre is in the bottom of the maine. Under a mightie rocke, gainst which doe rave The roring billowes in their proud disdainc. That with the angry working of the wave Therein is eaten out a hollow cave, That seemes rough masons hand with engines keenc Had long while laboured it to engrave : There was his wonne." Faerie Queene, iii. 8, 37. 587. Or : " Splits itself upon sequestered coves ;'* but this rendering is hardly consistent with /w/m- , sima. Sec Hcync on yEn. i. x6x. 78 V. 42 7—447. THE GEORGICS. V". 448—467. Were with'ring, and in droughty channels ! warmed, ' His beams were seething hollow streams to slime ; I When Proteus, seeking his accustomed : caves, \ Was coming from the billows. Him around 600 \ The wat'ry nation of the mighty deep | Disporting, scattered wide the bitter spray, j For slumber stretch themselves the seals, ! apart I Upon the strand ; himself (as doth at j times I The guardian of a fold upon the mounts, | When evening from their grazing to the j sheds Brings home the calves, and by their bleatings heard The lambkins whet the wolves), sits central down Upon a cliff, and reckons o'er their tale. O'er whom since now the vantage offered is To Aristaeus, having scarce allowed 6ii The senior to lay down his jaded limbs. With lusty shout he rushes on, and him Surprises with the handcuffs as he lies. He, not unmindful, on the other hand. Of his own craft, transfigureth himself Into all marvels of [created] things — Both fire, and fearful beast, and flowing flood. But when no guile discovers an escape. Into himself, defeated, he returns, 620 And with the mouth of man at last he spake : ' ' Pray who, thou most presumptuous of youths, Bade thee our habitations to approach ? Or what," he cries, " hence seekest thou?" But he : " Thou knowest, Proteus, knowest of thy- self, Nor is one able thee to dupe in aught ; 601. '* But is not yonder Proteus' cave. Below that steep. Which rising billows brave ? It is : and in it lies the god asleep ; And, snorting by, We may descry The Monsters of the deep." Dryden, Albion and Albatiiiis, iii. 617. "To dreadful! shapes he did himselfe trans- forme : Now like a gyaunt ; now like to a feend ; Then like a centaure ; then like to a storme. Raging within the waves." F. Q., iii. 8, 42. " Sudden the god a lion stands ; He shakes his mane, he spurns the sands ; Now a fierce lynx with fiery glare, A wolf, an ass, a fox, a bear." Gay, F., i. 33. But cease thy wishing [to make dupes of us]. The gods' injunctions following have we come, In fallen circumstances hence to seek Oracular replies." So much he spake. To these the seer at length with effort vast His eyeballs, flashing with a blue-green glare, 632 Rolled on him, and deep gnashing [with his teeth], He thus with destinies his lips unlocked : " 'Tis not the wrath of less than is divine That vexeth thee : thou expiatest grievous crimes. For thee doth Orpheus, in a piteous case In nowise owing to his own desert. These punishments, save fates withstand, awake. And fiercely rages for his ravished bride. She sooth, while headlong she was flying thee 641 Along the streams — a maiden doomed to die — A monstrous water-snake before her feet, Haunting the m argents in the lofty grass, Perceived not. But the Dryads' sister-choir The highest regions of the mountains filled With shrieking ; wept the Rhodopean towers, Pangaean heights alike, and Rhesus' land Mavortian, and the Getse, Hebrus too. And Attic Orithyia. He himself 650 Soothing on hollow shell his heart-sick love. Thee, darling spouse, thee on the lonely shore All by himself, thee at the dawning day, Thee as it sank adown, was wont to chant. Yea, jaws of Tsen'rus, gates of Dis profound, 635. See note on Geo. i. 115. 655. Pope's splendid allusion to this legend is well known ; but it must be quoted : " But when, through all the infernal bounds Which flaming Phlegethon surrounds. Love, strong as death, the poet led To the pale nations of the dead, What sounds were heard, What scenes appear'd. O'er all the dreary coasts ! Dreadful gleams. Horrid screams. Fires that glow. Shrieks of woe. Sullen moans. Hollow groans, And cries of tortured ghosts ! But hark ! he strikes the golden lyre ; And see ! the tortured ghosts respire. See, shady forms advance ! Thy stone, O Sisyphus, stands still, Ixion rests upon his wheel, And the pale spectres dance ; V. 468 — 4R3» BOOK IV. V. 483— 50a. 79 And, glooming with a murky dread, the grove He entered, and the Manes he approached, And their terrific monarch, and the hearts Unknowing how to melt at mortal prayers. But by his strain aroused from lowest seats Of Erebus, advanced the subtile shades. And phantom-forms of those that lack the light ; 662 As numerous [as] thousands of the birds [That] bury them among the leaves, what time Doth eve, or wintry shower drive them down From mountains : mothers, husbands too, and frames Of high-souled heroes that have done with life ; Boys, and unwedded maids, and striplings laid On fun'ral-piles before their parents' eyes : Whom round the sable ooze, and hideous reed 670 Of Cocyt, and with lazy wave the fen Unlovely binds, and Styx, nine times out- poured Between, confines them. Yea, astonied stood The very homes and deepest hell of Death, And, twisted through their locks with azure snakes, The Furies ; and restrained his triple mouth The Furies sink upon their iron beds, And snakes uncurl'd hang listening round their heads. " But soon, too soon, the lover turns his eyes : Again she falls, again she dies, she dies ! How wilt thou now the fatal sisters move ? No crime was thine, if 'tis no crime to love. Now under hanging mountains, Beside the falls of fountains, Or where Hebrus wanders, Rolling in maeanders. All alone. Unheard, unknown, He makes his moan ; And calls her ghost, For ever, ever, ever lost ! Now with furies surrounded. Despairing, confounded. He trembles, he glows. Amidst Rhodope's snows : See, wild as the winds, o'er the desert he flies ; Hark ! Haemus resounds with the Bacchanals' cries — Ah see, he dies ! Yet even in death Eurydice he sung, Eurydice still trembled on his tongue, Eurydice the woods, Eurydice the floods, ' Eurydice the rocks, and hollow mountains rung." Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, st. 4, 6. 67a. " Where rocks and rueful deserts are descried. And sullen Styx rolls down his lazy tide." Garth, Dispensary, c. vi. The gaping Cerberus, and in the breeze The circuit of Ixion's wheel stood still. And now, his steps retracing, all mishap* He had avoided, and Eurytfice, 680 Restored, was coming to the upper air. Behind him following, (for Proserpine This law had giv'n,) when sudden madness seized The heedless lover, — pardonable sure. If Manes knew to pardon ; — short he stopped, And back upon Eurydice, his own. Now even 'neath the very verge of light, Mindless, alas ! and whelmed in soul, he looked. There all his toil was squandered, and the league Of the remorseless tyrant burst, and thrice A crash was heard within Avemian pools. * What,' cries she, ' both unhappy me and thee 692 Hath ruined, Orpheus, — frenzy what so wild? Lo ! call me back once more the ruthless Weirds, And sleep is sealing up my swimming eyes. And now farewell ! I'm borne away, en- wrapt In deep of night around, and stretching forth To thee, — alas ! not thine, — my weakly hands.' She said, and on a sudden from his eyes, As smoke commingled into subtile air, She fled another way, nor him, in vain Grasping at shades, and longing many a word 700 To utter, did she any further see ; Nor did Hell's ferryman allow him more 678. Sotheby has : " And fixed in air Ixion's wheel reposed." 691. See Milton quoted yEn. i. v. 167. 693. " My eyes are going to bed, and leaden sleep Doth draw the curtains o'er them." Shirley, Love Tricks, iv. 2. " Peace rest on you ! One sad tear every day, For poor Alinda's sake, 'tis fit you pay. A thousand, noble youth ! And when I sleep Even in my silver slumbers still I'll weep." J. Fletcher, The Loyal Subject, v. 2. 695. " So fare you well at once ; for Brutus' tongue Hath almost ended his life's history : Night hangs upon mine eyes." Shakespeare, yulius Casar, v. 5. 700. " Was ever known A man so miserably blest as I ? I have no sooner found the greatest good, Man in this pilgrimage of life can meet. But I must make the womb, where 'twas conceived, The tomb to burj' it, and the first hour it lives The last it must breathe." Webster, A Cure, i. 3. 8o V. 503—523. THE GEORGICS. y- 523—537. To cross the barrier fen. What should he do? Whither should he betake himself, his spouse Twice ravished from him ? With what weeping move The Manes, with what voice the gods ? She sooth Now cold was floating in the Stygian bark. They tell that he for sev'n whole months in course. Beneath a heav'n-high rock, beside the wave Of lonely Strymon, wept, and vented these [his woes] 710 'Neath icy grottoes, soothing tigresses. And drawing Avith his minstrelsy the oaks : As, mourning underneath a poplar shade, The nightingale bemoans her missing brood, Which [some] unfeeling ploughman, on the watch, Hath ravished callow from the nest ; but she Weeps thro' the night, and, sitting on a bough. Her piteous strain renews, and far and near Fills every spot with melancholy plaints. No Love, no joys of Hymen bent his soul ; Alone the Polar ice, and snowy Don, 721 And fields ne'er widowed of Rhipsean frosts, He ranged, bewailing lost Eurydice, And bootless grants of Dis : thro' which his task The matrons of the Cicons scorned, amid The holy rites of gods, and revel-feasts Of nightly Bacchus, into atoms rent, The stripling scattered o'er the spacious fields. Then too the head, wrung off a marble neck, 714. Milton briefly alludes to the nightingale ; P. L., b. vii. iv. : " Nor then the solemn nightingale Ceased warbling, but all night tuned her soft lays." " All but the wakeful nightingale ; She all night long her amorous descant sung." " Where the love-lorn nightingale Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well." Comjts. Thomson, more at length ; Spring, 717, &c. : " Oft when, returning with her loaded bill, Th' astonish'd mother finds a vacant nest. By the hard hand of unrelenting clowns Robb'd, to the ground the vain provision falls ; Her pinions rutlle, and low-drooping scarce Can bear the mourner to the poplar shade ; Where, all abandon'd to despair, she sings Her sorrows through the night; and, on the bough Sole-sitting, still at every dying fall Takes up again her lamentable strain Of winding woe ; till, v/ide around, the woods Sigh to her song, and with her wail resound." The next stanza is quoted in note on /En. ii. V. 727. When, bearing it upon his central tide, 730 CEagrian Hebrus rolled,— ' Eurydice ' the very voice And death-cold tongue, * Ah ! poor Eu- rydice !' As flies the spirit, called ; ' Eurydice ' The banks re-echoed all throughout the stream." These Proteus : and he plunged him with a bound Within the dsepsome sea, and where he plunged The yesting wave he wreathed below his neck. But not Gyrene ; for unasked she spoke The trembler : " Son, 'tis lawful from thy mind To lay aside thy melancholy cares. 740 This is the whole occasion of the plague ; 'Tis hence the Nymphs, with whom she used to hold The dances in the lofty groves, have sent The piteous desolation on thy bees. Do thou thy gifts in lowly fashion spread. Entreating reconcilement, and adore Th' easy Napceans ; for they will vouchsafe Their pardon to thy vows, and bate their wrath. But what should be the manner of thy suit 730-6. So Milton alludes to Orpheus in Lycidas : " When, by the rout that made the hideous roar, His goary visage down the stream was sent, Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore." " So when the Thracian furies Orpheus tore. And left his bleeding trunk deform'd with gore. His sever'd head floats down the silver tide. His yet warm tongue for his lost consort cried ; Eurydice with quivering voice he mourn'd. And Heber's banks Eurydice returned." Gay, Trivia, ii. 293. " ' Olympia ! my Olympia's lost !' I cry. * Olympia's lost !' the hollow vaults reply. Louder I make my lamentable moan ; The swelling echoes learn like me to groan ; The ghosts to scream, as through lone a sles they sweep ! The shrines to shudder, and the saints to weep !" Savage, \Va71derer, c. ii. " Cold is Cadwallo's tongue. That hush'd the stormy main : Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed ; Mountains, ye mourn in vain Modred, whose magic song Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topt head. On dreary Arvon's shore they lie, Smear'd with gore, and ghastly pale : Far, far aloof th' affrighted ravens sail ; The famish'd eagle screams, and passes by." Gray, Bard, i. 3. 735. Thus Thomson, seizing the idea in v. 529, makes the genius of the Thames disappear in his own waters : " He said ; and plunged to his crystal dome. While o'er his head the circling waters foam." Poems on several Occasions. V. 538—555. BOOK IV. ▼• 556—566. 8f I first will duly tell thee. Four choice bulls 750 Of passing form, who now for thee feed down The green Lycaeus' peaks, do thou choose out. And with a neck untouched as many kine. Four altars at the goddesses' high shrines ]"'or these construct, and from their throats discharge The holy blood, and in a leafy grove The oxen's carcases themselves forsake. Then, when the ninth Aurore shall have displayed Her dawn, to Orpheus his funereal dues, Lethean poppies, shalt thou pay, and thou A sable ewe shalt butcher, and the grove Visit again ; Eurydice, appeased 762 By slaughtered heifer - calf, shalt thou adore." No dallying : at once he puts in force His mother's mandates. To the shrines he comes ; Tlie indicated altars he uprears ; Four chosen bulls of passing form he leads, And, with a neck untouched, as many kine. Then, when the ninth Aurore had ushered in Her dawn, to Orpheus his funereal dues He pays, the grove, too, visits he again. But here an unexpected prodigy, 772 And wondrous to be named, do they be- hold :— Throughout the molten inwards of the beeves. 767. Milton in the same way repeats the execu- tion of orders in the words of the orders themselves ; /'. L., b. X. end. Bees buzzing, from within the womb entire. And bubbling forth from out their riven sides ; And, warping on, huge clouds ; and stream- ing now Together on the tree-crest, and adown A cluster dropping from the buxom boughs. These verses on the management of fields 780 And cattle I was chanting, and on trees ; While mighty Coesar at Euphrates deep Thunders in war, and conqueror gives laws Thro' acquiescing tribes, and aims to tread A path to reach Olympus. At that hour Me, Virgil, sweet Parthenope did nurse, While rioting in tasks of fameless ease ; I, who have madrigals of shepherds played, And, bold in youth, thee, Tityrus, have sung Beneath a canopy of spreading beech. 790 777. We are indebted to the genius of Milton for this exquisite metaphor, which he applies to the motion of locusts, in illustrating that of the wicked angels, when flocking to the summons of Satan : " As when the potent rod Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day Waved round the coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind. That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung. Like night, and darken'd all the land of Nile. ' Paradise Lost, b. i. If it be thought too great a liberty to render traki by a neuter verb, this beautiful word must be abandoned, and the passage altered thus : " And boundless clouds trailed on," &c. In this case, too, line 84 must share a like fate, and be thus lowered : " See trailed upon the wind," &c. 788. Carmina lust: so in Eel. 1. v. 10; Ludcre quee vellem. THE ^NEID. BOOK I. That [bard'\ am I, 7uho erst attuned his lay Up07i the slender reed, and from the woods Withdrawing, have compelled the neighboring fields The tiller to obey, though greedy [he] : — A welcome task to swains: but now Mars' dread Arms and the man I sing, who erst from coasts Of Troy to Italy and Lavinian shores, By destiny a rover, came. Much he Was tossed ahkc on lands and sea, through might Those writers seem to have been hasty in their criticisms upon these first four lines, who pronounce them unworthy of the author of the ^neid. Able scholars are found to think them thoroughly Virgilian ; and Forbiger thinks he sees plain evidence of genuineness in the word at. Had the writers in question, instead of saying that the passage was not Virgil's, said that it was a weak introduction to an epic poem, they would have been quite right ; and doubtless no one would have been happier to agree with them than Virgil himself. It seems highly probable that he sent the lines in dispute, along with the work itself, to some friend, who showed them to others, and in this way they obtained currency as the unquestioned production of his pen. Thus from their genuineness, coupled with their great ingenuity, they crept into the text, from which they were most likely ejected by Tucca and Varius, though some manuscripts retained them still. One thing is pretty certain, — that Virgil, whose discretion and taste must be admitted, even by those who think meanly of his creative powers, would never, with his great original before him, have begun the ALneid with an Hie ego. At all events, Persius did not believe in the puerility, if he ever heard of it. This opening reminds one of the introduction to the Faerie Qtieene : " Lo ! I, the man whose Muse whylomedid maske. As time her taught, in lowly shepheards weeds, Am now enforst, a farre unfitter taske, P'or trumpets sterne to chaunge mine oaten reeds. And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds:" &c. See also Shepheards Calender, October, 55. 4. Cowley compares the sufferings of Charles the Second to those of iEneas, philosophising, more stio : Of heav'nly Powers, for the rankling wrath Of ruthless Juno ; yea, and much he bore Thro' war, till he a city built, and brought His gods to Latium, whence the Latin race, And Alban sires, and walls of lofty Rome. O Muse, to me the reasons do thou tell, What Pow'r aggrieved, or wherefore in a chafe, 1 1 The queen of gods should have enforced a man. Marked for his piety, to undergo Mishaps so many, meet so many toils. Can wrath so grievous [dwell] in heav'nly minds ? There was an ancient city, — colonists Of Tyre possessed it, — Carthage, right afront Of Italy and Tiber's mouths afar, Rich in resources, and in war's pursuits Most truculent ; the which is Juno said 20 Above all regions singly to have nursed, — Samos postponed. Her arms [stood] here, here stood " But, in the cold of want, and storms of adverse chance, They harden his young virtue by degrees : The beauteous drop first into ice does freeze. And into solid crystal next advance. His murder'd friends and kindred he does see, And from his flaming country flee : Much is he tost at sea, and much at land ; Does long the force of angry gods withstand : He does long troubles and long wars sustain, Ere he his fatal birthright gain. With no less time and labour can Destiny build up such a man. Who's with sufficient virtue filled ~ His ruin'd country to rebuild." Ode on Restoration. " I am pursued ; all the ports are stopt too ; Not any hope to escape ; behind, before me, On either side I am beset ; — cursed fortune ; My enemy on the sea, and on the land too, Redeemed from one affliction to another." Beaumont and Fletcher, The Custom of the Country, ii. 4. 15. So Milton, Par. Lost, b. vi : " In heavenly Spirits could such perversencss dwell ?" V. 17—37. BOOK I. y. 38—59. 83 Her car. That this might to the nations prove The seat of rule, — should Fates in anywise Allow, — the goddess even then both aims, And cherishes [her aim]. But she, in sooth. Had heard that from the Trojan blood a strain Would be descended, which her Tyrian towers One day would overthrow ; that hence a race, Wide bearing empire, and in battle haught. Would come for Libya's death-blow ; that the Weirds 31 Ordained it thus. Saturnia, dreading this, And mindful of the lasting war, which she Had whilom waged at Troja, in behalf Of her beloved Argos : nor e'en yet The reasons for her wrath, and cruel pangs Had vanished from her mind ; bides trea- sured up Within her deep of spirit the award Of Paris, and her slighted beauty's wrong. The hated lineage, too, and dignities 40 Of ravished Ganymede : o'er these inflamed. Throughout the whole of ocean's surface tossed, The Trojans, remnants from the Danai And merciless Achilles, did she drive Afar from Latium ; and thro' many a year They wandered, hunted by the Destinies, All seas around : of such colossal weight [The labor] was to build the Roman race. Scarce out of sight of the Sicilian land. Their canvas for the deep were they, in glee, Vouchsafing [to the breezes], and the foam Of briny ocean dashing with their bronze ; When Juno, harboring beneath her breast Her deathless wound, these [vented] with hex-self : 54 '* That I, discomfited, from my emprise 25. " Daring men command and make their fates." Massinger, The Bondman, ii. 3, " Consider of your sex's general aim, That domination is a woman's heaven." Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, ii. 2. 35. Argis may perhaps be an adjective here, though in an unusual form. 39. " Juno. But he shall rue and ban the dismal day, Wherein his Venus bare the ball away ; And heaven and earth just witnesses shall be, I will revenge it on his progeny. Pallas. Well, Juno, whether we be lief or loth, Venus hath got the apple from us both." Peele, 'I7ie Arraignment of Paris, ii. end. " But if in heav'n a hell we find, 'Tis all from thee, O jealousy, Thou tyrant of the mind." Dryden, Love Triumpliant, iii, i. Should cease, nor have the pow'r from Italy The monarch of the Teucri to debar ! Forsooth I am prohibited by fates ! Was Pallas able to burn up the fleet Of Argives, and themselves below the deep To whelm, for one man's fault, the madness e'en 61 Of the Oilean Ajax ? She herself, Jove's speeding leven launching from the clouds, Alike their vessels scattered, and upturned The seas with storms ; him, blazes blasting forth From his pierced bosom, in a whirl of wind She clutched, and on a pointed rock im- paled. But I, who pace the empress of the go