iUi O'k m ^i*l*i^ A^l^aters apart® within the sea, and by ^ Tantum capti • delapsa, "Having fallen to such a distance from hia head." It is very hard to say what is here the true meaning of iantum. If we join it -with procul, it makes a most harsh construction; if we ren- der it "only," it clashes with procul, unless this stand for juxta, which is too forced; if, with Voss., we make it equivalent to moao, "just," it appears frigid and tame. We have ventured, therefore, to regard it as standing for in tantum. Anthox. * Parnassain rock. Parnassus, a celebrated mountain of Phocis in Greece, sacred to Apollo and the Muses, remarkable for its two summits. ^ Rhodope and Ismarus, two high mountains in Thrace. " Magnum per inane. The Epicureans, whose philosophy is here ?ung, taught that incorporeal space, here called magnum inane, and cor- poreal atoms were the first principles of all things ; their void space they considered as the womb, in which the seeds of all the elements were ripened into their distinct forms. ' " Tener," Anthon saj^s, " because just created." But I prefer under- standing it of the plastic nature of the materials, with Pliny, Hist. Nat. ii. 3. B. ^ Et discludere Nerea ponto. Literally, "to shut up Nereus apart in the sea," i. e. to separate the waters into their channel,' I^ereus the seu' god being here put fer the vraters in geasr^Z 18 BUCOLICS. ECL. VI. 36—60. degrees to assume the forms of tilings ; and how anon the earth was astonished to see the new-born sun shine forth ; and how from the clouds, suspended high, the showers descend : when first the woods began to rise, and when the animals, yet few beo-an to range the unknown mountains. He next tells of the ^stones which Pyi-rha' threw, the reign of Saturn, the fowls of Caucasus,'" and the theft of Prometheus. To these he adds the fountain where the sailors had invoked aloud Hylas" lost; how the whole shore resounded Hylas, Hylas. And he soothes Pasiphae'^ in her passion for the snow-white bull : happy woman if herds had never been ! Ah, ill-fated maid, what madness seized thee ? The daughters of Prcetus'^ with imaginary lowings filled the fields ; yet none of them pursued such vile embraces of a beast, however they might dread the plow about their necks, and often feel for horns on their smooth foreheads. Ah, ill-fated maid, thou_ now art roaming on the mountains ! He, resting his snowy side on the soft hyacinth, ruminates the blenched herbs under some gloomy oak, or courts some female in the numerous herd. Ye nymphs, shut up now, ye Dictsean'' nymphs, shut up the avenues of the forests, if any ^here by chance my bullock's wandering footsteps may offer to my sight. Perhaps some heifers may lead him on to the Gortynian stalls,'' either " Pyrrba, the wife of Deucalion, in whose age all mankind was de- stroyed by a deluge, these two excepted. On consulting the oracle, they were directed to repair the loss, by throwing stones behind their backs ; those which Pyrrha threw were changed into women, and those of Deucalion into men. ^^ Caucasus, a lofty mountain of Asia, between the Euxine and Caspian Seas. Prometheus, having made a man of clay, which he animated with fire stolen from heaven, was, for the impiety, chained to a rock on the top of Caucasus, where a vulture continually preyed upon his hver. " Hylas, a youth, the favorite of Hercules, who accompanied the Argonautic expedition, but was drowned in the Ascanius, a river of Bithynia, which afterward received his name. ^' Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, king of Crete, who disgraced herself by her unnatural passion. " Proetus, king of Argolis, whose three daughters became insane for ueglecting the worship of Bacchus, or, according to some, for preferring themselves to Juno. . . " Dictffian nymphs, Cretan nymphs from Dicte, a mountain in the island of Crete, where Jupiter was worshiped. ^' Gortynian stalls. Gortyna, an ancient city of Crete, the country around which produced excellent pastures. ECL. VI. 60— "T?. BUCOLICS, 19 enticed by the verdant pasture, or in pursuit of tlie herd. Then he sings the virgin/® charmed with the apples of the Hesperides : then he surrounds the sisters of Phaeton^' with the moss of bitter bark, and raises the stately alders from the ground. Then he sings how one of the Sister Muses led Gallus, wandering by the streams of Permessus,^^ to the Aouian mountains; and how the whole choir of Phoebus rose up to do him honor : how Linus, the shepherd of song divine, his locks adorned with flowers and bitter parsley, thus addressed him : Here, take these pipes the Muses give thee, which before [they gave] to the Ascraen^^ sage ; by which he was wont to draw down the rigid wild ashes from the mountains. On these let the origin of Grynium's grove" be sung by you ; that there may be no grove in which Apollo may glory more. AVhy should I tell how [he sang] of Scylla'"'^ the daughter of Nisus ? or of her whom, round the snowy waist, begirt with barking monsters, fame records to have vexed^'' the Dulichian ships, and in the deep abyss, alas, to have torn in pieces the trembhng sailors with sea-dogs ? " i. e. Atalanta, daughter of Schoeneus, king of Scjtos, or, according to others, of lasius, king of Arcadia, who was famed for her beauty, which gained her many admirers. She consented to bestow her hand on him that could outrun her, though he was to die if he lost the race. Many of her suitors had perished in the contest, when Hippomenes offered himself; during the race, he dropped, at intervals, three golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides, which Atalanta stopping to pick up, he arrived first at the goal, and obtained her in marriage. " The sisters of Phaeton, according to the mythologists, bewailing his unhappy end, were changed into poplars by Jupiter. ^^ Permessus, 'a river issuing from Mount Helicon in Aonia (Boeotia), Bacred to the Muses. " Ascrgean sage. Hesiod, so named from Ascra, a village of Boeotia in Greece, where he was born. '"* Grynium's grove. Grynium, a town on the coast of iEolia in Asia Minor, where Apollo had a temple with a sacred grove. ^^ Scylla, a daughter of Nisus, king of Megara, feigned to have been changed into a lark. Dulichian ships, those of Ulysses, who was king of the island of Dulichium. After the fall of Troy, Ulysses, in his return home, encountered incredible hardships, and with difficulty escaped the rocks of Scylla, so named from a daughter of Typhon, who was changed by Circe into a frightful monster, when, throwing herself into the sea between Italy and Sicily, she became the dangerous rocks which con- tmued to bear her name. *^ Virgil's use of " vexare" is discussed by Gellius, ii. 6, and Macrob. Sat. vi. 7. From their remarks, the word harass best appears to ex" press its meaning. B. 20 BUCOLICS. ECL. VI. 78—86. yil 1—9 or how he described the limbs of Tereiis" transformed!- what banquets and what presents Philomela for him pre- pared ? Avith what speed he sought the deserts, and with what wings, ill-fated one, he fluttered over the palace once his own 1 All those [airs] he sings, which happy Eurotas^* heard, and bade its laurels learn, when Phoebus played of old. The val- leys, stricken [with the sound], re-echo to the stars ; till Vesper'^ warned [the shepherds] to pen their sheep in the folds, and recount their number; and came forth from re- luctant Olympus. ECLOGUE VII. In tliis Eclogue, Virgil, as Meliboeus, gives an account of a poetical contest between Tliyrsis and Corydon. Melibceus, Corydon, Thyrsis. M. Daphnis by chance sat down under a whispering^ holm-oak, and Corydon and Thyrsis had driven their flocks together; Thyrsis his sheep, Corydon his goats distended Avith milk : both in the flower of their age. Arcadians both,^ equally matched at singing, and ready to answer. To this quarter, while I was fencing my tender myrtles from the cold, the he-goat himself, the husband^ of the flock, from me had strayed away : and I espy Daphnis : when he in turn saw me, he cried out, Come hither quickly, Meliboeus ; your goat and "^ Tereus, a king of Thrace. He married Progne, a daughter of Pan- dion, king of Athens, who, in revenge for his having violated her sister Philomela, and cut out her tongue, killed his son Itys,»and served him up at a banquet. According to the poets, they were all changed into different kinds of birds. ^* Eurotas (Yasili Potamo), a river of Laconia, washing ancient Sparta, and falling into the Mediterranean. ^^ Vesper, the planet Venus, or the evening star. * The rustling of the breeze in the leaves is thus said ipidvpi^eiv in Greek. B. ^ i. e. both skilled in music, which was greatly cultivated among the Arcadians. No reference to their country is intended, but merely to their musical excellence. B. 3 Vir gregis ipse caper. "The he-goat himsell^ the husband of my flock." (Compare Theocritus, viii. 49: ^12 Tpdye tuv Xevkuv alyQv uvep). Observe the force of ipse here, implying that he was followed by the rest of the flock (Wagner, Quasst. Virg. sviii. 2, b.) ; and hence wo have, in verse 9th, " caper tibi salvus et hoedV^ Anthox. So Martial, Ep. ix. 31, "pecorisque maritus tanigeri." B. 6CL. VII. 10— 42. BUCOLICS. 21' kids are safe ; and, if you can stay a while, rest under this shade. Hither thy bullocks of themselves will come across the meads to diink. Here Mincius* hath fringed the verdant banks Avith tender reed, and from the sacred oak swarms of bees resound. What could I do ? I had neither Alcippe, nor Phyllis, to shut up at home my weaned lambs ; but there was a great match proposed, Corydon against Thyrsis. After all, I postponed my serious business to their play. In alternate verses, therefore, the two began to contend : alternate verses the Muses would have me record. These Corydon, those Thyrsis, each in his turn recitedi C. Ye Libethrian nymphs, my delight, either favor me with such a song as ye did my Codrus^ (he makes verses next to those of Phoebus) ; or, if we can not all attain to this, here on this sacred pine my tuneful pipe shall hang. T. Ye Arcadian shepherds, deck with ivy your rising poet, that Codrus' sides may burst with envy. Or, if he praise me beyond what I desire, bind my brow with lady's glove, lest his evil tongue should hurt your future poet. C. To thee, Deha, young Mycon [for me presents] this head of a bristly boar, and the branching horns of a long-lived stag. If this success be lasting, thou shalt stand at thy full length in polished marble, thy legs with scarlet buskin bound. T. A pail of milk and' these cakes, Priapus,® are enough for you to expect [from me] ; you are the keeper of a poor, ill- furnished garden. Now we have raised thee of marble such as the times admit ; but, if the breed recruit my flock, thou shalt be of gold. C. Galatea, daughter of Nereus, sweeter to me than Hybla's thyme, whiter than swans, fairer than white ivy ; soon as the well-fed steers shall return to their stalls, come, if thou hast any regard for Corydon. T. May I even appear to thee more bitter than Sardinian herbs,^ more rugged than the furze, more worthless than sea- * Mincius, the Mincio, a river in the north of Italy, falling into the Po below Mantua. ■* Codrus, a Latin poet, cotemporary with Virgil. ° Priapus, a deity among the ancients, who presided over gardens. He was the son of Bacchus and Venus, and was chiefly worshiped at Lampeacus on the Hellespont. ^ Sardinian herbs, a bitter herb which grew in the island of Sardinia, aaid to cause convulsions and death. 22 BUCOLICS. ECL. vii. 43— 6a weed cast upon the shore, if this day be not longer to me than a whole year. Go home, my well-fed steers, if you have any shame, go home. C. Ye mossy fountains, and grass more soft than sleep, and the green arbute-tree that covers you with its thin shade, ward off the midsummer heat from my flock ; now scorching sum- mer comes, now the buds swell on the fruitful tendrils. T. Here is a glowing hearth, and resinous torches ; here is always a great fire, and lintels sooted with continual smoke. Here we just as much regard the cold of Boreas,^ as either the wolf does the number [of sheep], or impetuous rivers their banks. C. Junipers and j^rickly chestnuts stand thick f beneath each tree its apples here and there lie strewn ;" now all things smile ; but, were fair Alexis to go from these hills, you would see even the rivers dry. T. The field is parched ; by the intemperature of the air the dying herbage thirsts ; Bacchus has envied our hills the shadow of the vine ; [but], at the approach of our Phyllis, every grove shall look green, and Jove abundantly descend in joyous showers. C. The poplar is most grateful to Hercules,^" the vine to Bacchus, to lovely Veuus^^ the myrtle, to Phoebus his own laurel ; Phyllis loves the hazels : so long as Phyllis loves them, neither the myrtle nor the laurel of Phoebus shall surpass the hazels. T. The ash is ° fairest in the woods, the pine in the gardens, the poplar by the rivers, the fir on lofty mountains : but if, my charming Lycidas, you make me more frequent visits, the ash in the woods shall yield to thee, and the pine in the gardens. ^ Boreas, the name of the north wind. According to the ancient poets, Boreas was the son of Astrteus and Aurora. * Anthon rightly observes that this is the force of " stant." So Luta- tius Placidus on Stat. Theb. x. 15V, interprets "stat furor," hy "plenus est," quoting this Hne as an example. B. *" Hercules, the most celebrated hero of fabulous history, the son of Jupiter and Alcmena, was, after a life spent in achieving the most in- credible exploits, ranked among the gods, and received divine honors. " Yenus, a principal deity among the ancients, the goddess of love and beauty. She was the wife of Yulcan, but passionately loved Adonis and Anchises ; by the latter she became the mother of ^neaa. ECL. VII. 69, '70. Tin. 1—21. BUCOLICS. M. These verses I remember, and that vanquished Thrysis in vain contended. From that time Corydon, Corydon is our man. ECLOGUE VIII. This Bucolic contains the strains of Damon for the loss of his mistress ; and Alphesiboeus records the charms of an enchantress. Damon, Alphesiboeus. The muse of the shepherds, Damon and Alphesiboeus, whom the heifers, unmindful of their pastures, admired contending, and by whose song the lynxes were astonished, and the rivers, having changed their courses, stood still ; the muse of Damon and Alphesiboeus I sing. Whether thou art now j^assing for me' over the rocks of broad Timavus,^ or cruising along the coast of the Illyrian Sea f say, will that day ever come, when I shall be indulged to sing thy deeds ? say, shall it come that I may be indulged to diffuse over the world thy verses, which alone merit comparison witli Sophocles' * lofty style ? With thee my muse commenced ; with thee shall end. Accept my songs begun by thy command, and permit this ivy to creep arouncl thy temples among thy victorious laurels. Scarce had the cold shades of night retired from the sky, a time when the dew on the tender grass is most grateful to the cattle, when Damon, leaning against a tapering olive, thus beofan : — D. Arise, Lucifer,^ and preceding usher in the cheerful day ; while I, deceived by the feigned passion of my mistress Nisa, complain ; and to the gods, now that I die (though I have availed me nought in taking them to witness), yet in my last hour appeal. Begin with me, my pipe, Masnalian strains. ' " Mihi" is the dativus ethicus. B. ^ Timavus, tho Timavo, a river of Italy, rising at the foot of the Alps, and falling into the gulf of Trieste. At its mouth are several small islands containing hot springs. * Illyrian Sea, the Adriatic Sea between Italy and Dalmatia, etc. * Sophocles, a celebrated tragic poet of Athens, remarkable for sub- limity of style. He was eotemporary with Pericles and Euripides, and died B. c. 406. ^ Lucifer, the name of the planet Venus, or morning star ; as Hesperus wa3 of the same planet, or evening star. 24 BUCOLICS. ECL. viii. 22—51. Msenalus" ahvays has a vocal grove and sliaking pines ; he ever hears the loves of shepherds, and Pan, the first who suf- fered not the reeds to be' neglected. Begin Avith me, my pipe, Msenalian strains. Nisa is bestowed on Mopsus ! what may we lovers not expect ? Grifiins now shall match with horses, and in the succeeding age the timorous does with doo-s shall come to drink. Mopsus, cut your fresh nuptial torches : for thee a wife is on the point of being brought home. Strew the nuts,^ bridegroom ; Hesperus for thee forsakes (Eta.' Beo-in with me, my pipe, Mcenalian strains. O thou matched to a worthy spouse ! while you disdain all others, and while you detest my pipe and goats, my shaggy eyebrows, and my overgrown beard ; nor believe that any god regards the affairs of mortals. Begin with me, my pipe, Maenalian strains. When thou wast but a child, I saw thee with thy mother gathering the dewy apples on our hedges ; 1 w^as your guide ; I had then just entered on the year next after eleven, I was then just able to reach the slender boughs from the ground. As soon as I saw thee, how was I undone ! O how an evil error bore me away ! Begin with me, my pipe, Maenalian strains. Kow I know what Love is : Ismarus, or Rhodope, or the remotest Garamantes,'" produced him on rugged cliffs, a boy not of our race or blood. Begin with me, my pipe, M^- nahan strains. Relentless Love taught the mother" to stain her hands in her own children's blood; a cruel /mother too thou wast: whether more cruel was the mother (or more im- pious the boy ? Impious was the boy ; thou, mother, too, wast cruel. Begin with me, my pipe, Maenalian strains. Now let ^ Masnalus, now Roino, a mountain of Arcadia in Greece, sacred to Pan. . It was covered with pine-trees. ^ "Esse" is elegantly omitted after such words as "pati," "sinere," etc. Kernes. Cyn. 10, "Omnia tentantem passi." Apul. de Deo. Socr. " Sejugam veluti debilem passa est." Seneca, Ined. 182, " Quemve secu- rum sinit." Virg. JEn. i. 389, " Nee plura querentem Passa Yenus." B. ® On this custom compare Catull. Epith. p. 98. Muret. " Da nucis pueris iners Concubine, satis diu Lucisti nucibus." B. ^ (Eta, a celebrated mountain, or, more properly, chain of mountains, between Thessaly and Greece Proper. It was so high, that the poets feigned the sun, moon, and stars rose behind it. *" Garamantes, a people in the interior of Africa, now called Zaara. " Matrem. This cruel mother is Medea, who to be avenged on Jason for preferring another mistress to her, slew her sons whom she bore to Lim, before his eyes. SCI* viiL 52— S4. BUCOLICS. ^ the wolf of liimself fly from the sheep ; the hard oaks bear golden apples ; the alder bloom with narcissus ; the tamarisks distill rich amber from their barks ; let owls with swans con- tend ; be Tityrus an Orpheus ; an Orpheus in the woods, an Arion'^ among the dolphins. Begin with me, my pipe, Mse- nalian strains. Let all things become very mid ocean ; ye woods, farewell. From the summit of yon aeTial mountain will I throw myself headlong into the waves : take this last present from me dying. Cease, my pipe, now cease Maenahan strains. Thus Damon : Ye Pierian muses, say what Alphesiboeus sung. We can not all do all things. A. Bring forth the water, and bind these altars with a soft fillet : burn thereon oily vervain and male'^ frankincense, that I may try, by sacred magic spells, to dispossess my love of a sound mind. Only charms are here wanting. My charms, bring Diiphnis from the town, bring him home. Charms can even draw down the moon from heaven ; by charms Circe'* transformed the companions of Ulysses ; the cold snake is in the meads by incantation burst. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. First, these three threads, with threefold colors varied, I round thee twine ; and thrice lead thy image round these altars. The gods delight in the uneven number. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. Bind, Amaryllis, three colors in three knots ; bind them. Amaryllis, now ; and say, I bind the chains of Venus. I\Iy charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. As this clay Iiardens, and as this wax dissolves "vvith one and the same fire ; 30 may Daphnis by my love. Sprinkle the salt cake, and burn the crackling laurels in bitumen. Me cruel Daphnis bums ; I on Daphnis burn this laurel. My channs, bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. May such love " Arion, a famous Ijric poet and musician of the isle of Lesbos. On his return to Corinth from Italy, the mariners formed a plot to murder him for his riches, when he threw himself into the sea, and was carried on the back of a dolphin to Taenarus in the Morea. " i. e. frankincense of the best sort. " Circe, a daughter of Sol and Perseis, celebrated for her knowledge of magic and poisonous herbs. She changed the companions of Ulysses into swine; but afterward, at his sohcitation, restored them to their former state. 2 26 BUCOLICS. ECL. viii. 85— lOD. ix 3, [seize] DajDlinis as when a lieifer, tired with ranging after the bull through lawns and lofty groves, distracted, lies down on the green sedge by a rivulet, nor is mindful to withdrav/ from the late hour of night : let such love seize Daphnis, nor let his cure be my concern. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. These garments the faithless one left with me some time ago, the dear pledges of himself; which to thee, O earth, on the very entrance, I now commit : these j^ledges owe me Daphnis. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. These herbs, and these baneful plants, in Pontus^^ gathered, Moeris himself gave me : in Pon- tus numerous they grow. By these have I seen Moeris trans- form himself into a wolf, and skulk into the woods ; often from the deep graves call forth the ghosts, and transfer the springing harvests to another ground. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. Bring forth the ashes, Amaryllis ; throw them into a flowing brook,^^ and over thy head ; look not back. Daphnis with these I wdll assail : nought he regards the gods, nought my charms. I^Iy charms, blind Daphnis from the town, bring him home. See the very ashes have spontaneously seized the altars with quivering flames, while I delay to remove them may it be a happy omen. 'Tis certainly something or other ; and Hylax ^^ in the entranco barks. Can I believe ? or do those in love form to themselves fantastic dreams ? Cease ; for Daphnis comes from the town ; now cease, my charms. ECLOGUE IX. Virgil haviiicf recovered his patrimony tlirough the favor of Augustus;, devotes this pastoral to complain against Arius the centurion, who hod possession of his lands, and laid a plan for his assassination. Lycidas, Mceris. L. Whither, Mteris, do thy feet [lead]^ thee ? are you for the town, whither the way leads ? " Pontus, a country of Asia Minor, bordering on the Euxiue : it was the kingdom of Mithridates the Great ^® Rivoque fluenti, the same as in rivura fiuentem, of which construc- tion many examples occur in Virgil. See ^n. i. 293 ; ii. 250; v. 451 ; vi. 191 ; viii. 591 ; ix. 664 ; xii. 283. " Hyla,x, the name of a dog. ' Supply '• ducunt" from the following " ducit." B. KCL. IX 2—32. BUCOLICS. 27 M. Ah, Lycidas, we have lived to see the day v'hen an ahen possessor of my little farm (what we never appre- hended) may say : These are mine ; old tenants, begone. Now vanquished and disconsolate, since fortune confounds all things, to him I convey these kids, of which I wish him httle good. L. Surely I heard that your Menalcas had saved by his verse all that ground where the hills begin to decline, and by an easy declension to sink down their ridges as far as the stream and now broken tops of the old beech. M. Thou heardst it Lycidas, and it was reported ;'* but our verse just as much avails amid martial arms, as they say the Chaonian^ pigeons do, when the eagle comes upon them. But had not the ill-boding raven, from a hollow holm-oak, warned me by any means to cut short the rising dispute, neither your Moeris here, nor Menalcas himself, had been alive. L. Alas, is any one capable of so great wickedness ? Alas, Menalcas, the charms of thy poetry Avere almost snatched from * us with thyself! Who [then] had sung the n3-niphs? who vnth flowering herbs had strewn the ground, or covered with verdant shades the springs ? or Who [had sung] those songs which lately I secretly stole from you, when you used to re- sort to our darling Amaryllis ? " Feed, Tityrus, my goats til) I return, short is the way ; and when they are fed, drive them Tityrus, to watering ; and while you are so doing, beware of meeting the he-goat : he butts with the horn." M. Nay, rather these, which to Varus, and yet unfinished, he sung : " Varus, the tuneful swans shall raise thy name aloft to the stars, if Mantua remain but in our possession ; Mantua, alas, too near unfortunate Cremona I"* L. If thou retainest any, begin ; so may thy swarms avoid Oyrnean yews:^ so may thy heifers, fed with cytisus, dis- 2 T [, however, prefer putting a note of interrogation after " audieras," witli "Wagnar. B. ^ Chaonian pigeons. Chaonia was a mountainous part of Epinis, in which was tlie sacred grove of Dodona, where pigeons were said to de- hver oracles. * Cremona, a city of Italy on the northern bank of the Po. Its lands were divided among the veteran soldiers of Augustus. ^ Cyrnean yews. Cyrnus, now Corsica, an island in the Mediterra- nean, near the coast of Italy. The honey produced here had a bitter 28 BUCOLICS. ECL. iz. 32—59. teiid tlieir dugs. The Muses have also made me a poet : I too have my verses ; and the shepherds call me bard : but to them I o^ive no credit : for as yet methinks I sing nothing worthy of a Varus or a Cinna,® but only gabble like^ a goose among sonor- ous swans. ]\I. That very thing, Lycidas, is wliat I am about ; and now con it ov^er in silence with myself, if I can recollect it : nor is it a vulgar song. " Come hither, Galatea : for what pleasure have you among the waves ? Here is blooming spring ; here, about the rivers, earth pours forth her various flowers ; here the white poplar overhangs the grotto, and the limber vines weave shady bowers. Come hither : leave the mad billows to buffet the shores." L. [But] what were those whicli I heard you singing in a clear night alone ? I remember the air, if I could recollect the words. M. Daphnis, why gaze you on the risings of the signs of ancient date ? Lo, Dionrean Caesar's® star hath entered on its course ; the star by which the fields were to rejoice with corn, and by which the grapes on sunny hills were to take their hue. Daphnis, plant thy pear-tears. Posterity shall pluck the fruit of thy plantations. Age bears away all things, even the mind itself. Often, I remember, when a boy, I spent long summer- days in song. Now all these songs I have forgotten ; now the voice itself has left Moeris ; the wolves have seen Moeris first." But these Menalcas himself will often recite to you. L. By framing excuses thou puttest off for a long time my fond desire. And now the whole main for thee lies smooth and still ; and mark how every whispering breeze of wind hath died away. Besides, half of our journey still remains : for taste, in consequence of the bees feeding on the yew-trees, with which the island abounded. ® Ciuna, a grandson of Pompey, the intimate friend of Augustus, and patron of Virgil. '' The poet puns upon the name of Anser, a cotemporary poet. The Baying seems proverbial; as in Symmachus, Ep. i. 1, "Licet inter olores canoros anserem strepere." B. ^ Dionaei Ceesaris. Caesar of the Juhan family, which sprung from --Eneas the son of Venus, whom Mythology makes the daughter of Ju- piter and Dione. ' Lupi Moerim videre priores. Alluding to a superstitious notion, that, if a wolf saw a man before it was seen by him, it made him lose his voice. ^01.. IX. 60—67. X. 1—12. BUCOLICS. 29 Bianor's^'' tomb begins to appear. Here, where the swains are stripping off the thick leaves, here, Moeris, let us sing. Here lay down your kids ; yet we shall reach the town. Or if we are afraid that the night may gather rain before [we arrive], yet we may still go on singing ; the way will be less tedious. That wc may go on singing, I will ease you of this burden. M. Shepherd, urge me no more ; and let us mind the busi- ness now in hand. We shall sing those tunes to more advan- tage when [Menalcas] himself arrives. ECLOGUE X. Gallus, to whom tMs Eclogue is inscribed, was the patron of Virgil, a sol- dier and a poet. He was greatly enamored of Cytheris, whom lie calls Lycoris, celebrated for her beauty and intrigues ; but she forsook him for Mark Anthony, by whom she was in turn abandoned for Cleopatra. Gallus. Grant unto me, Arethusa,' this last essay. A few verses, but such as Lycoris herself may read, I must sing to my Gallus. AVlio can deny a verse to Gallus? So, when thou glidest beneath the Sicilian wave, may the salt Doris^ not intermingle her streams [with thine]. Begin : let us sing the anxious loves of Gallus, while the flat-nosed goats browse the tender shrubs. We sing not to the deaf; the woods re- ply to all. What groves, ye virgin Naiads, or what lawns detained you, while Gallus pined^ with ill-requited love? for neither any of the tops of Parnassus, nor those of Pindus,* nor Aonian Aganippe, did retard you. The very laurels, the very tamarisks bemoaned him : even pine-topped Mrenalus [bemoaned] him as he lay beneath a lonely rock, and over '" " The same as Ocnus, of whom Yirgil says in the tenth Eclogue, Fatidicce Maniics, et Thusci filius Amnw. He was the founder of Man- tua." Servius. B. ^ Arethusa, the nymph who presided over the fountain of the same name in Sicily. ^ Doris, a searnymph, the mother of the Nereids ; here used to ex- press the sea itself. Naiads, nymphs — goddesses who presided over rivers and fountains. ^ Observe that " periret" is used to express the iTuKETo, i. e. " wasted away," of Theocr. i. 66. B. ^ Pindus, a mountain between Thessaly and Epirus, sacred to Apollo and the Muses. Aonian Aganippe, a celebrated fountain of Bosotia, of which Aonia was a district. 30 BUCOLICS. ECL. z. 13 — 47. him the stones of cold Lycrsus^ wept. His sheep too stand nround him, nor are they ashamed of us ; nor, divine poet, be thou ashamed of thy liock ; even fair Adonis^ tended sheep by the streams. The shepherd too came up ; the slow-paced herdsmen came; Menalcas came wet from winter-mast. All question whence this thy love ? Apollo came : G alius, he says, why ravest thou thy care V Lycoris is following another through snows and horrid camps. Silvanus' too came up w^ith rural honors on his head, v/aving the fiowering fennels and big lilies. Pan, the god of Arcadia, came ; whom we ourselves beheld stained with the elder's purple berries and vermihon. What bounds, he says, will you set [to mourning]? Love reo-ards not such matters. Nor cruel love with tears, nor grassy meads with streams, nor bees with cytisus, nor goats with leaves, are satisfied. But he, overwhelmed with grief, said, Yet^ you. Arcadians, shall sing these my woes on your mountains ; ye Arcadians, alone skilled in song. Oh how softly then may my bones rest, if your pipe in future times shall sing my loves ! And would to heaven I had been one of you, and either keeper of your flock, or vintager of the ripe grape! Sure whether Phyllis or Amyntas, or whoever else, had been my love (what though Amyntas be swarthy? the violet is black, and hyacinths are black), they would have reposed with me among the willows under the limber vine ; Phyllis had gathered garlands for me, Amyntas would have sung. Here are cool fountains; here, Lycoris, Foft meeds, liere a grove : here with thee I could consume my Avhcle life away. Now frantic love detains me in the service of ligid Mars, in the midst of darts, and adverse foes. Thou, far from thy native land (let me not believe it), beholdest nothing but Alpine snows,^'' and the colds of the PJiine, ah, hard- ^ Ljcceus, a mountain of Arcadia, sacred to Jupiter, and also to Pan. ° Adonis, a 5'outh, the favorite of Venus : having lost his hfe by the bite of a wild boar, he was changed into the flower Anemone. ' ^sch. Choeph. 223, w (piAarov /j.e?.7]ua {i. e. " cura") ^ujiaaLv Tcarpog. B. ^ Silvanus, a rural deity among the Romans, who presided over woods. " But Nonius Marcell. i. s. v. triste est msestum, connects " tamen" with "ille," which I should almost prefer, the sense being, "But he (despite all that even Pan could say) yet replied," etc. B, '" Alpine snows. The Alps are a chain of mountains, the highest in Europe, separating Italy from France, Switzerland, and Austria. The ECL. X. 48—77. BUCOLICS. 31 hearted one ! alone, without me. Ah, may neither these colds hurt thee ! ah, may not the sharp ice wound thy tender feet ! I will go, and warble on the Sicilian shepherd's reed those songs which are by me composed in Chalcidian strain.^ ^ I am resolved, rather to endure [my passion] in the woods, among the dens of wild beasts, and to inscribe my loves upon the tender trees : as they grow up, so you, my loves, wall grow. Meanwhile, in company with the nymphs, over Maenalus will I range, or hunt the fierce boars. No colds shall hinder me from traversing with my hounds the Parthenian lawiis^' around, Now over rocks and resounding groves methiuks I roam : pleased I am to shoot Cydonian shafts from the Parthian bow : [Fool that I am !] as if these were a cure for the rage of love ; or as if that god could learn to be softened by human woes. Now, neither the nymphs of the groves, nor songs themselves, charm me any more : even ye woods, once more farewell. No HufFering can change him, though amid frosts we drink of Hebrus,'^ and undergo the Sithonian snows^* of rainy winter; or even if we should tend ourllocks in Ethiopia,'^ beneath the sign of Cancer, w^hen the dying rind withers on the stately elm. Love conquers all ;^° and let us yield to love. These strains, ye divine Muses, it shall suffice your poet to have sung, while he s:xt and wove his little basket of slender osiers : these you will make acceptable to G alius ; to Gallus, for whom my love grows as much every hour, as the green alder shoots up in the infancy of spring. Let us arise : the shade is wont to prove noxious to singers ; the juniper's shade now grows noxious ; the shades are hurtful even to the corn. Go home, the even- ing star arises, my full-fed goats, go home. Rhine, a celebrated river which rises in the Alps, and, aftei; a course of 600 miles, discharges itself into the German Ocean. " Chalcidian strain, that is, in the elegiac strain of Euphorion, a Greek poet of Ghalcis in Euboc-a. " Parthenian lawns. Parthenius was a mountain of Arcadia, for which it is hero used ; as Cj^donian shafts is used for Cretan darts — Cy- don being a city of Crete. " The cold of the Hebrus in Thrace was celebrated, as we find from Phihppus in Anthol. p. 47, "EfSpov dpTjcKiov Kpv/jcj ireTredTj/Ltivov v6op. B. ^* Sithonian snows, from Sithonia, a part of Thrace. *^ Ethiopia, an extensive country of Africa : by the ancients, this name was applied to modern Abyssinia, and the southern regions of Africa. " Heyne finds fault with the abruptness of this passage, but Anthon well remarks, that '• this lino is meant to express a return to a sounder mind." B, VIRGIL'S GEOBGICS. BOOK I. This admirable Poem was undertaken at the particular request of that fi^eat patron of poetry, Msecenas, to whom it is dedicated, and has justly oeen esteemed the most perfect and finished of Virgil's works. Of the Four Books of which it consists, the First treats of plowing and preparing the ground ; the Second, of sowing and planting,; the Third, of the manage- ment of cattle, etc. ; fcid the Fourth gives an account of bees, and of the manner of keeping tnem among the Eomans, What makes the harvests joyous ; under what sign, Ma3cena», it is proper to turn the earth and join the vines to elms ; what is the care for kine, the nurture for breeding sheep •/ and how much experience for managing the frugal bees ; hence will I begin to sing. Ye brightest lights^ of the world, that lead the year gliding along the sky ; Bacchus and fostering Ceres, if by your gift mortals exchanged the Chaonian acorn for fattening ears of corn, and mingled draughts of Achelous^ with the invented juice of the grape ; and ye Fauns propitious to swains, ye Fauns and Virgin Dryads, advance your foot in tune : your bounteous gifts I sing. And thou, O JS'eptune, to whom the earth, struck with thy mighty trident, first poyred forth the neighing steed ; and thou, tenant of the groves, for whom three hundred snow-white bullocks crop C?ea's^ fertile ^ Pecori. Pocus here, as opposed to hoves, signifies the lesser cattle, as sheep and goats, but especially sheep ; as the word, I think, always signifies in Virgil when it stands by itself. See Eel. i. 75 ; iii. 1, 20, 34 ; y. 87. Georg. ii. 371. . - Vos, 6 clarissima mundi, etc. Varro, in his seventh book of Agri- culture, invocates the sun and moon, then Bacchus and Ceres, as Virgil does here ; which sufficiently confutes those who take the words, vos, 6 clarissima lumina, to bo meant of Bacchus and Ceres. ^ Achelous (Aspro Potamo), a river of Epirus in Greece, said by some to have been the first river that sprung from the earth after the deluge ; hence it was frequently put by the ancients, as it is here, for water. Davidson. Servius observes, " Acheloum generaliter, propter antiquita* tem fluminis, omnem aquam veteres vocabant." B. * Csea (Zea), an island in the Archipelago, one of the Cycladea. B. r. 16—43. GEORGICS. 33 thickets : tlioii too, O Pan, guardian of the sheep, O Tegesean* god, if thy own Maenalus be thy care, draw nigh propitious, leaving thy native grove, and the dells of Lycaeus : and thou Minerva, iuventress of the olive ; and thou, O boy, teacher of the crooked plow ; and thou, Sylvanus, bearing a tender cypress plucked up by the root : both gods and goddesses all, whose province it is to guard the fields ; both ye who nourish the infant fruits from no seed, and ye who on the sown fruits send down the abundant shower from heaven. And thou too, Csesar, whom it is yet uncertain what councils of the gods are soon to have ; whether thou wait vouchsafe to visit cities, and [undertake] the care of countries, and the widely extended globe receive thee, giver of the fruits, and ruler of the seasons, binding thy temples with thy mother's myrtle : or whether thou comest, god of the un- measured ocean, and mariners worship thy divinity alone ; whether remotest Thule° is to be subject to thee, and Tethys'' to purchase thee for her son-in-law with all her waves ; or whether thou wilt join thyself to the slow months, a new con- stellation, where space lies open between Erigone and the [Scorpion's] pursuing claws : the fiery Scorpion himself al- ready contracts his arms and leaves for thee more than an equal proportion of the sky. Whatever thou wilt be (for let not Tartarus* expect thee for its king, nor let such dire lust of sway once be thine ; though Greece admires her Eiysian fields, and Proserpine," redemanded, is not inclined to follow her. mother), grant me an easy course, and favor my adventurous enterprise ; and pitying me with the swains who are strangers to their way, commence [the god], and accustom thyself even now to be invoked by prayers. In early spring when melted snow glides down from the ' Tegeasan god. Pan is so called, from Tegea, a town of Arcadia^ in Greece, which was sacred to him. ® Thule, an island in the most northern parts of the German Ocean, to which the ancients gave the epithet of Ultima. Some suppose that it ia the island of Iceland, or part of Greenland, while others imagine it to be the Shetland Isles, ^ Tethys, the chief of the sea-deities, was the wife of Oceanufi. The word is often used by the poets to express the sea. ^ Tartarus, the infernal regions, where, according to the ancients, the most impious and guilty among mankind were punished. " Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, and wife of Pluto, who stola her away as she was gathering flowers in the plains of Enna in Sicily, 34 GEORGICS. iJ. i. 44—67. lioaiy hills, and the crumbHng glebe unbinds itself by the zephyr ; then let my steer begin to groan under the deep- pressed plow, aiid the share worn by the furrow [begin] to glitter. That field at last answers the wishes of the covetous farmer, which twice hath felt the sun, twice the cold,^" har- vests immense are wont to burst liis barns. But, before we cleave an unknown plain with the plow- share, let it be our care previously to learn the winds, and various character of the climate, the ways of culture practiced by our forefathers, and the tillage and habits of the soil; what each country is apt to produce, and what to refuse. Here grain, there grapes, more happily grow ; nurseries of trees elsewhere, and herbs spontaneous bloom. Do not you see, how Tmolus^^ sends saffron odors, India ivory, the soft Sabaeans their frankincense ? But the naked^^ Chalybes [send] steel, Pontus strong-scented castor, Epirus^^ the prime of the Olympic mares. These laws and eternal conditions nature from the beginning imposed on certain places : what time Deucalion first cast stones into the unpeopled world, whence men, a hardy race, sprang up. Come then, let your sturdy steers forthwith turn up a soil that is rich for the first month of the year ; and let the dusty summer bake the scattered clods with mature suns. But, if the land be not fertile, it will be ^^ Anthon observes, "The usual custom of the Roman formers was to ^low the land three times, when it fell under the denomination of hard land. The first plowing was in the spring, the second in the summer, the third in autumn (tertiabatur, Colum. ii. 4). In this way the ground was exposed twice to the heat of the sun, and once to the frost. If, how- ever, the soil was unusually hard and stubborn, a fourth plowing took place at the end of autumn or beginning of winter ; and it is to such a process that the poet here alludes, the land having thus, in the course of its four upturnings with the plow, twice felt the sun and twice the cold." " Tmolus, a mountain of Lydia, in Asia Minor, abounding in vines, saffron, etc. Sabaans, the inhabitants of Saba, a town of Arabia, famous for frankincense, myrrh, and aromatic plants. Chalybes, a people of Pontus, in Asia Minor ; their country abounded in iron mines. " If "nudi" be correct, Virgil must speak of the Chalys only as lightly clad {leviter vestiti), as in his direction to husbandmen "to plow and sow naked." But although this would be a very proper way of speaking among people acquainted with this limitation of mean- ing, yet it seems scarcely an apt epithet for a barbarian tribe, dwelling- in a cold region. Some years since, I proposed to read " duri." See the supplement to my notes on Apul. de Deo Socr. B. " Epiras (Albania), a country of Greece, famous for its fine breed of horses. 3. I. 68— 9G. GEORGICS. 35 enough to raise it up with a Hght furrow, even toward the rising of Arcturus:^* in the former case, lest weeds obstruct the joyous com ; in the latter, less the scanty moisture for- sake the barren sandy soil. You will likewise sufter your lands after reaping to lie fal- low every other year, and the exhausted field to harden by repose. Or, changing the season, you will sow there yellow wheat, whence before you have taken up the* joyful pulse, with rustling pods, or the vetch's slender offspring and the bitter lupine's brittle stalks, and rustling grove. For a crop of flax burns^^ the land : as burn the oats and poppies im- pregnated with Lethajan sleep.^® But yet your labor will be easy [even though you should sow these kinds of grain] every other year, provided only you be not backward to saturate the parched soil with rich dung, or to scatter sordid ashes upon the exhausted lands: thus, too, your land will rest by changing the grain. Nor, in the mean time, will there be ungratefulness. Often, too, it has been of use to set fire to barren lands, and burn the lio^ht stubble in cracklin