Non omnes arbufta juvant, humilefque myricae. Si canimus fylvas, fylvae fint confule dignae. Ultima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas: NOTES. be restored. Thefe prophecies the Poet applies to a child, that was =born, or juft ready to come into the world in the Confulfhip of his great friend Pollio. He therefore invokes the Muses to raise his verfe above the common pitch of paftoral poetry. He invokes the Sicilian Mufes, because Theocritus, the father of paftoral poetry, was a Sicilian. Majora canamus.] Whilst Virgil was writing his Eclogues and Georgicks, he feems to have had frequent impulfes to write fomething above his prefent fubject. Thus in the beginning of the third Georgick, Tentanda via eft, qua me cc quoque poffim "Tollere humo, victorque virum "volitare per ora. And, "Mox tamen ardentes accingar <dicere pugnas "Caefaris, et nomen fama tot ferre 66 per annos, "Tithoni prima quot abeft ab ori"gine Caefar." 2. Non omnes arbuia juvant.] The fubjects of paftoral poetry, are of themselves too mean, to give delight to many readers. Arbufta.] See the note on ver. 40. of the firft Eclogue. Humilefque myricae.] The Tamarifk fometimes becomes a pretty The vineyards and bumble tamarifks delight not all. If we fing of the woods, let the woods be worthy of a Conful. Now comes the last age of the Cumaean fong tall tree; but it is generally low and fhrubby. It is very common on the banks of the rivers in Italy. This plant was first brought into England, in Queen Elizabeth's time, by Archbishop Grindall, as a fovereign remedy for the fpleen, according to Camden. It is humilefque geneftae, in the Medicean manufcript, according to Pierius. 3. Si canimus fylvas, &c.] The Poet is willing to raise his paftoral verfe above the common ftile, and though he ftill brings his images from the country, yet to make it worthy the perufal of a Roman Conful. Thus Mr Pope, in his fine imitation of this Eclogue; "Ye nymphs of Solyma! begin "the fong: and the "To heav'nly themes fublimer "ftrains belong. "The moffy fountains, "fylvan fhades, "The dreams of Pindus, and th "Aonian maids "Delight no more Sint.] Pierius fays it is funt in moft of the ancient manufcripts. 4 Ultima Cumaei venit, &c.] He now begins the fubject of the Eclogue, which is the Sibylline prophecy of new and happy days, the return of Aftraea, and of the golden age. Cumaei carminis.] The general opinion is, that there were ten hea K 2 then the great order of ages begins Magnus ab integro faeclorum nafcitur ordo. again. NOTES. time of the Emperor Honorius. What these verses were, is not now certainly known; for thofe which are now extant under the name of the Sibylline Oracles, are not without reafon generally thought to be fpurious. This however we may conclude, from the Eclogue before us, that they foretold the birth of a child, to happen about that time; under whom the world fhould enjoy peace and happiness. This mult certainly allude to our bleffed Saviour, of whose birth the prophecies in Ifaiah are fo like many verfes in this Eclogue, that we may reafonably conclude, that thofe truly infpired writings had been feen, by the Sibyls themfelves, or at leaft by Virgil. In the Oration of the Emperor Conftantine to the Clergy, as we find it in Eufebius, there is an Acroftick of the Erythraean Sibyl preferved in Greek verfe, the initial letters of which, taken together, make ΙΗΣΟΥΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΘΕΟΥ ΥΙΟΣ ΣΩΤΗΡ ΣΤΑΥΡΟΣ; that is, Fefus Chrift, the son of God, the Saviour, the cross: then propheteffes, or Sibyls, the Ιδρώσει γὰρ χθὼν κρίσεως σημεῖον ὅτ' dlatt Ἤξει δ' ουρανόθεν βασιλεὺς αἰῶσιν ὁ Σάρκα παρὼν κρῖναι πᾶσαν καὶ κόσ Σαρκοφόρου Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna : ΝΟΤΕS. Ταρταράει χάος δείξει ποτὲ γαῖα χανοῦσα. Ἥξουσιν δ' ἐπὶ βήμα Θεοῦ βασιλήες ἅπαντες. Ῥεύσει δ' ουρανόθεν ποταμὸς πυρὸς, ή δέγε θείου. Σῆμα δὲ τοι τότε πᾶσι βροτοῖς αριδεί κετον, οἷον Τὸ ξύλον ἐν πιστοῖς τὸ κέρας τὸ που θούμενον ἔσται. Ανδρῶν ἐυσεβέων ζωή, πρόσκομμα τε κόσμου, Ὕδασι φωτίζος πιστοὺς ἐν δώδεκα πηγαίς. Ράβδος ποιμαίνουσα σιδηρείη γε κρατ τήσει. Ο Οὗτος ὁ νῦν προγραφεὶς ἐν ἀχροστιχίας θεὸς ἡμῶν Ἐκλείψει σέλας ἡελίου, ἄστρών τε Σωτὴρ ἀθάνατος βασιλεὺς ὁ παθὼν ἔνεχ ̓ ἡμῶν. The pious Emperor acknowledges, that many looked upon there verfes as a forgery of fome over zealous Chriftian. But he fays, they are certainly genuine, and were tranfated into Latin by Cicero, who was murthered long before the birth of Chrift. We do not find thefe' verfes in any of Cicero's works, that are now extant; yet it is hardly " to be imagined, that Confantine would fo openly have appealed to them, if they had not been extant in his time. This however is certain, that there were verfes of the Sibyls, in the cuftody of the Quin decimviri in Cicero's time, which Κ 3 were now a new progeny is fent down Jam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto. from bigh heaven. NOTES. were faid to foretel a king, and were written in the manner of an Acroftick. For that author, in his fecond book de Divinatione, gives us to understand, that there was a defign of applying the Sibylline verfes, which foretold a king, to Julius Caefar. Hence he takes occafion to combat the authority of the verfes, and declares, that no prophecy ought to be believed, that mentions any thing fo contrary to the conftitution of the Roman Republick. He argues, from their being Acrofticks, that they could not be genuine, because the care and exactness required in compofing an Acroftick is inconfiftent with the fury, which is faid to have poffeffed the Sibyls, when they uttered their predictions: "Sibyllae verfus obfervamus, quos illa furens fudiffe dicitur: quorum interpres nuper falfa quaedam hominum fama "dicturus in fenatu putabatur, eum, quem re vera regem habe"bamus, appellandum quoque effe regem, fi falvi effe vellemus... "Non effe autem illud carmen fu"rentis, quum ipfum poëma de"clarat, eft enim magis artis, et “diligentiae, quam incitationis et 66 motus, tum vero ea, "praetexitur. Hoc fcriptoris eft, 66 non furentis; adhibentis diligen tiam, non infani. Quamobrem "Sibyllam quidem fepofitam, et "conditam habeamus, ut, id quod proditum eft a majoribus, injuffu "fenatus ne legantur quidem libri, "valeantque ad deponendas potius quam ad fufcipiendas religiones: 66 cum antiftitibus agamus, ut quid"vis potius ex illis libris, quam re "gem proferant; quem Romae "pofthaec nec dii nec homines effe "patiantur." Thefe arguments of Cicero are by no means a proof that the verfes of the Sibyls were forged; and if they were, it is plain, that it was done long before there were any Chriftians to forge them. Several of the most primitive Fathers, in their difputes with the heathens, appealed to the verfes of the Sibyls, in which they told them, they might fee plainly, that the coming of Chrift was foretold by their own Oracles. This argument would have been of no weight, if the learned men of thofe times had not known, that fuch verfes were extant before the coming of Chrift: and it is not easy to imagine, that they could have been lo quae famous, over all Italy and Greece fo axpoolixis dicitur, quum deinceps early as the time of Juftin Martyr, "ex primis verfus litteris aliquid who lived about the middle of the connectitur, ut in quibufdam En- fecond century, if they had been "nianis. Id certe magis eft ad- forged by the Chriftians. St Au"tenti animi, quam furentis. At- guftin, in his Expofition of the que in Sibyllinis ex primo verfu Epiftle of St Paul to the Romans, cujufque fententiae primis litteris fays he fhould not eafily have beillius fententiae carmen omne lieved, that the Sibyl prophefied of 66 66 66 Chrift, Tu modo nafcenti puero, quo ferrea primum NOTE S. Chrift, if Virgil, whom he calls the most noble of the Roman Poets, had not prefixed to his poem on the renovation of the age, which feems to agree with the kingdom of Christ, the line now under confideration; "Fuerunt enim prophetae non ip fius, in quibus etiam aliqua in"veniuntur quae de Chrifto audita "cecinerunt, ficut etiam de Sibylla "dicitur: quod non facile crede"rem, nifi quod poëtarum qui"dam, in Romana lingua nobi"liffimus, antequam diceret ea de "innovatione feculi, quae in Do"mini noftri Jefu Chrifti regnum "fatis concinere et convenire vide antur, praepofuit verfum, dicens, "Ultima Cumaei jam venit car "minis aetas. Cumaeum autem carmen Sybil"linum effe nemo dubitaverit." The fame learned Father, in his eighteenth book de Civitate Dei, mentions the fame Acroftick, with that which is quoted above. He tells us he faw it first in a forry Latin tranflation, but afterwards Flaccianus, a Proconful, an eloquent and learned man, having fome difcourfe with him concerning Chrift, fhewed him a Greek book, in which were fome verfes of the Erythraean Sibyl, and pointed out an Acroftick, the initial letters of which were 'Ingous Χριστὸς Θεοῦ υἱὸς σωτήρ, Jefus Chrift, the Son of God, the Saviour. He then fets down the Latin verfion, in which the Acroftick is far from being well preferved; O chafte Lucina, favour the birth of this infant, Judicii figno tellus fudore madefcet. E caelo rex adveniet per fecla fu turus: Scilicet in carne praefens ut judicet orbem. Unde Deum cernent incredulus at que fidelis Celfum cum fanctis, aevi jam termino in ipfo. Sic animae cum carne aderunt, quas judicet ipfe. Cum jacet incultus denfis in vepribus orbis. Rejicient fimulachra viri, cunctam quoque gazam: Exuret terras ignis, pontumque po lumque Inquirens, tetri portas effringet Averni, Sanctorum fed enim cunctae lux libera carni Tradetur, fontes aeternum flamma cremabit. Occultos actus retegens, tunc quifque loquetur Secreta, atque Deus réferabit pec tora luci. |