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I but enjoy the best part O mihi tam longae maneat pars ultima vitae, of fo long a life,

NOTES:

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This paffage leaves the matter wholly undecided; for the oaks are not faid to nod, either to deftruction, or to a better state. It is plainly meant only of their nodding to and fro, as they are moved by the wind. But in the fecond Aeneid, it is evidently ufed to exprefs the nodding, or tottering of a tree, to it's deftruction;

"Ac veluti fummis antiquam in

"montibus ornum "Cum ferro accifam, crebrifque

"bipennibus inftant "Eruere agricolae certatim; illa

"ufque minatur, "Et tremefacta comam concuffo "vertice nutat:

Vulneribus donec paulatim evicta, "fupremum

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Befides, this nodding of the tree is mentioned, as the fimilitude of the ruin of a great city. I believe it would be difficult to produce even a fingle inftance of nuto being used to fignify the nodding, or bending of any thing, from a worse state to a better: we may therefore venture to conclude, that in the paffage before us, it fignifies, that the world fall, or at leaft, that it is bending, is nodding or tottering towards it's fhaking, and in danger of ruin. La Cerda is miftaken, when he imagines, that the Poet ufes this expreffion at that point of time, when his heroe is upon the verge of manhood. It would indeed then have been impertinent to have faid the world was at that time in dan

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ger of ruin. But it is evident, that Virgil now fpeaks in his own per fon, at the time of writing the Ecr have faid venturo faeclo; whereas logue: for otherwife he would not La Cerda understands him to fpeak of the new age as confiderably advanced. The fenfe therefore is this; he calls upon the child to be hold the depraved condition of mans kind, the Roman state almoft torn in pieces, by a long feries of civil wars, and juft ready to fink by it's own weight; yet even now, when at the very brink of deftruction, comforted by the profpect of future happiness, under his influence. This they had good reafon to hope for,

Spiritus, et quantum fat erit tua dicere facta!
Non me carminibus vincet nec Thracius Orpheus, 55
Nec Linus: huic mater quamvis, atque huic pater
adfit:

NOTE S.

feeing his mother, yet with child of him, was at this time the bleffed inftrument of a peace between the two great Triumvirs, when they were at the very point of tearing the world afunder by their difcord.

52. Laetentur.] It is laetantur in the Roman manufcript, according to Pierius, Heinfius, according to Burman, found laetentur in all his manufcripts.

σε

53. Tam longae.] In the Lombard and Medicean manufcripts, it is tam longe. But tam longae vitae is the true reading, which is acknowledged alfo by Servius."

IERIUS.

55. Thracius Orpheus.] He was he fon of Oeagrus, a king, or river f Thrace, by the Mufe Calliope. ee the notes on ver. 454. of the urth Georgick, and ver, 46. of he third Eclogue.

56. Linus.] He was the fon of pollo, by the Mufé Terpfichore, ad the mafter of Thamyras, Herles, and Orpheus, whom he inructed in mufick and poetry. Dioenes Laërtius fays, he was a Thein, and the fon of Mercury by le Mufe Urania. The fame auor tells us, that he wrote conerning the generation of the world, e courfes of the fun and moon, and the generations of animals and uits, in heroick verfe: that he was killed with an arrow by Apollo,

Euboea, where his epitaph was

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to be feen, expreffing, that he was a Theban, and the fon of the Muse Urania. 'Idou your wapa μèv’A9nναίοις γέγονε Μουσαῖος, παρὰ δὲ Θη βαίοις Λίνος. . . . . Τὸν δὲ Λίνου παῖ δα εἶναι Ἑρμοῦ καὶ μούσης Ουρανίας" ποιῆσαι δὲ κοσμογονίας, ηλίου και σε λήνης πορείαν, καὶ ζώων καὶ καρπῶν γενέσεις. Τούτῳ ἀρχὴ τῶν ποιημά των ἥδε,

Ἦν ποτέ τοί χρόνος οὗτος ἐν ᾧ ἅμα παν ̓ ἐπεφύκει,

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Τόν δὲ Λίνου τελευτῆσαι ἐν Ευβοία τοξευθέντα ὑπὸ ̓Απόλλωνος καὶ αὐτῷ ἐπιγεγράφθαι,

de Aívov OnCatov ideato yała θανόντα,

Μόυσης Ουρανίης ὑιὸν ἐστεφάνου.

It is plain however, that Virgil takes him to be the fon of Apollo; as does Martial alfo, in an epigram on the death of Severus the fon of Silius, where he obferves, that the gods themfelves could not avert the death of their fons: Apollo had loft Linus, Calliope Orpheus, Jupiter Sarpedon, and the emperor Domitian his fon Domitian;

Feftinata fui gemeret cum fata << Severi

"Silius, Aufonio non femel ore

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Orpheus by Calliopea, and Li- Orphei Calliopea, Lino formofus Apollo.
nus by beautiful Apollo. Nay, Pan etiam, Arcadia mecum fi judice certet,
Should Pan contend with me,

and Arcadia fhould be judge, Pan etiam Arcadia dicat fe judice victum.
even Pan bimfelf, though Ar- Incipe, parve puer, rifu cognoscere matrem ; 60

cadia were judge, fhould own bimfelf to be overcome.

Begin, O little boy, to know thy mother by her smile :
NOTES.

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57. Calliopea.] She was one of the nine Mufes, and efteemed to prefide over Heroic poetry.

Apollo.] The god of verfe. Thefe ancient poets are fabled to be the children of Apollo and the Muses, because they excelled in Poetry and Mufick.

58. Pan.] This deity was chiefly adored in Arcadia, where he was faid to have been begotten. See the note on ver. 31. of the fecond Eclogue.

Etiam.] Pierius found deus, inIftead of etiam, in the Oblong manufcript; where, in the next line it is Pan etiam.

60. Incipe parve puer, &c.] Virgil concludes this noble Eclogue, with calling upon the child to diffinguifh his mother by her fmiles; Because those children, on whom

their parents did not smile at their birth, were accounted unfortunate.

Rifu cognofcere matrem.] It is a difpute among the Commentators, whether the Poet here means, that the child fhould know his mother, by her fmiling on him, or that he fhould acknowledge his mother, by fmiling on her. Servius feems to be of the former opinion; " As "perfons grown up, fays he, take "notice of one another by speak"ing, fo infants fhew their parents, "that they know them, by fmiling "2 on them. Therefore the fenfe is "this; Begin to fmile on your "parents, and relieve them from "their follicitude by that good "omen, that they may fmile again. "

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upon you." And yet a little after, Servius affigns the cause of Vulcan's being thrown out of hear ven, to be his mother's not fmiling on him, because of his deformity. La Cerda contends for the fmiling the child, and quotes feveral inftances of the fmiles of infants be ing spoken of with pleasure; par ticularly one from Catullus, in the Epithalamium of Julia and Manlius; "Torquatus, volo, parvulus "Matris e gremio fuo, "Porrigens teneras manus, Semihiante labello." "Dulce rideat ad patrem,

This paffage of Catullus is indeed very pretty and natural: but it does

not

Matri longa decem tulerunt faftidia menfes.

NOTES.

not come up to the purpofe, for which it is quoted. It cannot poffibly allude to a new born infant; for he fpeaks not only of it's fmiling on the father, but of it's putting out the hand to him, an action, of which no child is capable, till it is feveral months old. The fame may be faid of the other authorities, which La Cerda produces, to fupport his opinion. Catrou afcribes the fmile to the child, as do alfo all our English Translators. But the earned Ruaeus thinks it better to inderftand this paffage of the fmilng of the mother, in which he folows Erythraeus, and Bembus. This uft certainly be the most natural iterpretation, seeing it is a moft xtraordinary thing for a child to nile as foon as born. Pliny fays, is not ufual before the fortieth ly; "Hominem tantum nudum, et in nuda humo, natali die abjicit ad vagitus ftatim et ploratum, nullumque tot animalium aliud ad lacrymas, et has protinus vitae principio. At hercule rifus, praecox ille et celerrimus, ante quadragefimum diem nulli datur."

The fame author menons Zoroafter, as the only perfon, at ever laughed on the day of his rth; but he does not mention it as omen, either good or bad for s future wildom was predicted by le palpitation of his brain; "Rifille eodem die quo genitus effet, unum hominem accepimus Zo roaftrem. Eidem cerebrum ita palpitaffe, ut impofitam repelleret

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futurae praefagio fciHerodotus mentions alfo a fmile of Cypfelus, the fon of Etion, which faved his life. The murtherers took him from his mother, as foon as born; but the child happening to smile on the man, into whofe hands. his mother delivered him, fo foftened his mind, that he fpared the child's life. But this early fmile of Cypfelus is not mentioned as any omen of his future felicity, but as the accidental means of his preservation. To this however, we may oppofe the history of Mofes, whofe infant tears had the fame effect, in prevailing on the daughter of Pharaoh to preferve him. Solomon alfo, who excelled all other monarchs, in power, wealth, and wisdom, tells us, that he cried as foon as born, which he mentions as a thing common to all

men;

"When I was born, I "drew in the common air, and "fell upon the earth which is of "like nature, and the first voice "which I uttered, was crying, as "all others do." Indeed it does not appear, that the Ancients had any opinion, that the fmiling of a new born infant was an omen of future greatnefs; nor could fuch an accident be easily drawn into example; fince we do not find any more recorded, than Zoroafter and Cypfelus. But it is very natural and ufual, for the mother to fmile on the child; her delivery feeming to her a fufficient recompence for her former fickness and pain, as we find

Begin, O little boy; for be, on Incipe, parve puer: cui non rifere parentes, whom bis parents have not jmiled,

'

NOTES.

it expreffed in St John's Gofpel; "A woman when fhe is in travail "hath forrow, because her hour is "come: but as foon as fhe is de"livered of the child, the remem"breth no more the anguifh, for joy that a man is born into the "world." Befides it is plain, from the following lines of this Eclogue, that the good omen was fuppofed to be the fmiles of the parents on the child. Therefore it feems to be a perverting of the meaning of the Poet, to make him fay, Smile on thy mother, that he may fmile on thee. To conclude, I think we may very well, with Erythraeus, Bembus, and Ruaeus, understand the fmiles to be those of the mother.

Cognofcere.] Thofe, who underftand this paffage of the fmiling of the child, ftrain the' verb cognofcere to fignify, that the child fhould acknowledge or cwn his mother, by fmiling on her: but I do not find any inftance of it's having

been used in that fenfe.

61. Matri longa decem, &c.] Servius fays, the Poet ufes the expreffion of decem menfes, becaufe males are born in the tenth month, and females in the ninth, which is a very trifling obfervation, and not. founded on truth. Many of the Commentators take the ten months here fpoken of, to be intended to fhew, that the mother of this child wenta month with him longer-than the ufual time; and give inftances of fome extraordinary perfons being

born at the end of ten months. It is well known, that the ufual time of a woman's geftation is nine ca lendar months, or forty weeks. Now if it could be made appear, that the Ancients ever made ufe of a month of four weeks, ten fuch months would be the just time of geftation, and we fhould not need to feck for any farther folution of the queftion before us. The peri odical lunar month indeed, which is the time of the moon's motion from one point of the zodiack to the fame again, is twenty-feven days and almoft eight hours, whence a lunar month is frequently reckoned to contain four weeks or twentyeight days. But the ancient Roman month was that which is called the lunar fynodical month, or the time between new moon and new moon, which is about twenty-nine days and a half. Thus as the periodical lunar month is reckoned in round numbers to be twenty-eight days, fo is the fynodical in like manner accounted to be thirty. Thus Pliny fpeaks of the revolution of the moon being performed in twenty-feven days, and the third part of a day; but he makes the compleat lunar month to confift of thirty days, twelve of which months make a year; for the old year was 360 days: days: Proxima ergo cardini,

66

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ideoque minimo ambitu, vicenis "diebus feptenifque et tertia die σε parte peragit fpatia eadem, quae "Saturni fidus altiffimum triginta,

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