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even the vineyards refound, be Ipfa fonant arbufta: Deus, deus ille, Menalca. isa god, be is a god, O Menalcas.

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NOTES.

La Cerda incaedui, fylvofi, non re-
fecti. Ruaeus renders it inculti. It
is certain that the literal meaning of
tondeo is to fhave a beard or to fheara and in the twelfth Aeneid;
Sheep, or goat. Thus in the firft Ec-
logue we have,

66 Tonfifque ferunt mantilia
"villis:"

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Puraque in vefte facerdos "Setigerae foetum fuis, intonfam

66

que bidentem

"Attulit, admovitque pecus fla"grantibus aris.'

"Ora puer prima fignans intonfa It is ufed alfo for fhearing, clipping,

" juventa"

in the first sense: and many paffages in the latter; as in the third Geor-1 gick;

"Nec minus interea barbas inca

66 naque menta "Cinyphii tondent hirci, fetafque 6c comantes:"

and

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or cutting the young fhoots or branches of herbs and trees. Thus in the fourth Georgick we read

"Ille comam mollis jam tum ton"debat acanthi :"

and in the second Georgick,

« Tondentur cytifi.”

Garlands are faid, in this fenfe to be

Vel cum tonfis illotus ad- tonfae; as in the third Georgick:

"haefit

"Sudor :"

and

"Aut tonfum trifti contingunt cor66 pus amurca:"

and

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"Nec tondere quidem morbo illu- and "vieque perefa

"Vellera, nec telas poffunt attin66 gere putres:"

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Tonfa coma preffa corona."

A tree, which has not been topped,

and in the fourth Georgick, and is faid to be intonfa, as in the ninth firft Aeneid;

Aeneid;

"Confurgunt

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Not fo much as one of these paffages confirms the interpretation which Servius and La Cerda give of intonfi montes. A plant divested of it's branches or leaves may be faid indeed to be tonfa or fhorn; but we do not find any one inftance of tonfa being applied to the earth, when the trees, which grew upon it are felled. We ought therefore to understand intonfi montes to mean thofe barren hills, on which no flocks are fed, no grafs is mown, and no corn is reaped. Thus in the first Georgick tondeo is used to express the feeding of cattle;

65 Ob be thou good and favourable to thy people! behold four altars:

In the first Georgick it fignifies the mowing of a meadow;

"Nocte leves ftipulae melius, nocte arida prata

"Tondentur."

In the fame Georgick, Servius himself interprets tonfas novales, agros meffos, or corn fields that have been reaped;

"Alternis idem tonfas ceffare no"vales

"Et fegnem patiere fitu durefcere campum.'

In the fourth Georgick, the Poet, fpeaking of the Amellus, fays,

"Tonfis in vallibus illum
"Paftores, et curva legunt prope
"flumina Mellae."

Here Servius interprets tonfis, non fylvofis; and compares it with the intonfi montes now under confideration. This indeed is the only paffage, that can ftrengthen the interpretation of Servius. But, as tonfis in vallibus may very eafily be underftood to mean in vallies where cattle have grazed; this fingle paffage, of doubtful interpretation, is not fuf

"Ter centum nivei tondent dumeta ficient to confirm the opinion of

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Servius and La Cerda with regard to
intonfi montes. Nay La Cerda him-
felf renders tonfis in vallibus, vallies
that have been mown. See the notes
on ver. 71. of the firft, and ver.
277. of the fourth Georgick.
64. Deus,

lo two for thee, O Daphnis, and Ecce duas tibi, Daphni, duoque altaria Phoebo. two altars for Phoebus.

NOTES.

64. Deus, deus ille, Menalca.] Menalcas in a kind of rapture, hears the mountains, rocks, and woods re-eccho to him, that Daphnis is really a god. It has been obferved already, that Virgil had probably read the prophecies of Isaiah. The lines now before us have a great refemblance to the twenty-third verse of the forty-fourth chapter of that fublime Prophet; "Break "forth into finging, ye moun"tains, O foreft, and every tree therein; for the Lord hath re"deemed Jacob." Pope has imitated the paffage under confideration, in his Meffiah;

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of thofe numerous apotheofes of the
Bucolic Poets. For my own part,
I do not at prefent recollect any of
them. As for the Sicilian Daphnis,
Theocritus represents him dying for
love, as a mere mortal: and in the
whole fabulous ftory of him, as it
is related by Diodorus Siculus, there
is not the leaft hint of his having
ever been efteemed as a Deity; that
circumstance being only mentioned
by Servius; on what authority I
know not. It can hardly be ima-
gined therefore, that these words
could be applied to any other than
Julius Caefar, who was the only
mortal at that time advanced to a
feat among the gods.

"A God, a God! the vocal hills
"reply,
"The rocks proclaim th' approach- pitious to his worshippers.

65. Sis bonus, O felixque tuis.] He invokes the new god to be pro

"ing Deity."

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Thus

Theocritus, in the Συρακούσιαι;

"Inad võv, Qix' "Adwvi, xì és véur'
εὐθυμήσαις.

Thus also our Poet, in the first
Aeneid;

Sis felix, noftrumque leves quae-
cunque laborem;"

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have been fuffered to place Daph- and in the twelfth ; "nis among the gods. We muft "not be furprized at thefe apo

theofes of fhepherds. We find "examples of them in all the "Poets, who have written Bucolic

verfes." The learned Critick would have done well, if he had obliged us with a few examples, out

"Vos O mihi Manes
Efte boni."

En quatuor aras, &c.] "I have "made, fays he, four altars, aras: "two for you, O Daphnis, and

two altars aras for Apollo, which

" are

Pocula bina novo fpumantia lacte quotannis,

To thee will I offer yearly two. veffels frothing with new milk,

NOTES.

"fimulacra tenebant."

And a little afterwards, speaking of the very fame altar;

are altaria. For we know, that " Condenfae, et divum amplexae arae were confecrated both to "fupernal and infernal deities; but "that altaria belonged only to the "fupernal deities, being fo called "ab altitudine. Thefe he afcribes "to Apollo as to a god; but to "Daphnis he raises only aras: be"cause, though he calls him a god, << yet it is manifeft, that he was a "mortal." SERVIUS.

La Cerda is of opinion, that the Poet fpeaks here without any diftinction of ara and altare, because at firft he comprehends all the four under aras. But Servius was aware of this: he allows that they are all called arae. He looks upon ara as a name for altars in general; but he takes altare to be a peculiar fort ara, confecrated only to the celeftial gods. There does indeed

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feem to have been some diftinction
made by the Ancients, between ara
and altare; but at the fame time it
is certain, that Virgil does not
make any fuch diftinction; for, in
the fecond Aeneid, he calls the
very
fame individual altar both ara
and altare;

"Aedibus in mediis, nudoque fub
"aetheris axe

Ingens ara fuit, juxtaque veter

"rima laurus "Incumbens arae, atque umbra

"complexa Penates. "Hic Hecuba, et natae nequic66 quam altaria circum, Praecipites atra ceu tempeftate "columbae,

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Altaria ad ipfa trementem

"Traxit."

In the fourth Aeneid, an altar, con-
fecrated to the infernal deities is call-
ed both ara and altare;

"Stant aras circum, et crines ef-
"fufa facerdos
"Tercentum tonat ore deos, Ere-
"bumque, Chaofque
"Tergeminamque Hecaten, tria
"virginis ora Dianae

"Ipfa mola, manibufque piis al-
"taria juxta,"

In the firft Eclogue, he calls the altars, on which he offers facrifice to Auguftus Caefar, in his life-time altaria;

"Hic illum vidi juvenem, Meli-
"boee, quotannis
"Bis fenos cui noftra dies altaria
"fumant."

If the altars erected to Auguftus, who, from his adoption by Julius Caefar, was named Divi filius, were called altaria; much more might thofe be fo called, which were raised in honour of the father, who was fuppofed to be already in

heaven.

66. Duoque

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Στασῷ δ ̓ ὀκτῶ μὲν γαυλὼς τῷ Πανὶ offered, in the funeral obfequies for

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Polydorus;

"Inferimus tepido spumantia cym"bia lacte."

In the fifth Aeneid, a libation is made of two cups of wine, two of new milk, and two of facred blood to the Manes of Anchifes;

"Hic duo rite mero libans carche"fia Baccho "Fundit humi, duo lacte novo, duo "fanguine facro."

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