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So long as the bees foall feed on Dumque thymo pafcentur apes, dum rore cicadae, the thyme, fo long as the cicadae Shall feed on the dew, thy bo- Semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt, and thy name, and praises shall endure for ever.

nour,

NOTES.

« Luftrabunt convexa, polus dum « fidera pafcet, « Semper honos, nomenque tuum, "laedefque manebunt."

It is eafy to obferve, with what propriety the Poet expreffes the fame fentiment under different characters. Aeneas, being a great perfonage, declares his gratitude fhall laft as long as the rivers run into the fea, the fhadows circle round the tops of the mountains, and the fky fupplies food to the ftars. Thefe expreffions fuit very well with a perfon in high life, who may be fuppofed to understand philofophy. But the fimple fhepherd hardly knows what courfe the rivers take; and therefore keeps within the fphere of his own knowledge, and talks of the fishes loving the rivers, the wild boars the mountains, the bees the thyme, and the cicadae the dew. Thefe expreffions are all within the compafs of a fhepherd's knowledge: this is truly paftoral fimplicity.

χει

Ariftotle fays the wild boars live in bufhy, craggy, narrow, fady places ; Αἱ δὲ θες αἱ ἄγριαι τοῦ μῶνος ἀρχομένου ἐχεύοντι, τίκτουσι δὲ τοῦ ἕαρος· ἀποχωροῦσαι εἰς τοὺς δυσΚατωτάτους τόπους, καὶ ἀποκρήμνους μάλιστα, και Φαραγγώδεις, και συσκίους. Homer, in the twelfth Iliad, reprefents the mountains as habitations for wild boars;

Ἐκ δὲ τῷ αίξαντες πυλάων πρόσθε μαχέσθην,

Αγροτέροισι σύεσσιν εοικότες, τώ τ' ἐν ὄρεσσιν

Ανδρῶν ἡδέ κυνῶν δέχαται κολοσυρτο ἰόντα.

Philips has imitated this paffage;

"While mallow kids, and endive « lambs purfue;

"While bees love thyme, and lo"cufts fip the dew;

"While birds delight in woods their "notes to ftrain,

“Thy name and fweet memorial fhall remain."

4η Dumque thymo pafcentur apes.] Thyme has always been efteemed, as the beft food for bees. See the note on ver. 112. of the fourth Georgick.

Rore cicadae.] Ariftotle fays, that the cicada has no mouth, but thrufts out a trunk like a tongue, whereby it fucks in the dew; Ὁ δὲ τέττιξ μόνον τῶν τοιούτων, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων δὲ ζώων στόμα οὐκ ἔχει, ἀλλ' οἷον τοῖς ἐμπροσθοκέντροις τὸ γλωτίο ειδὲς, μακρόν καὶ συμφυὲς, καὶ ἀδι άσχιστους δι' οὗ τῇ δρόσῳ τρέφεται μόνον. Thus allo Theocritus, in the fourth Idyllium;

Μὴ πρώκας σιτίζεται, ὥσπερ ὅ τέττιξ ;

"Does fhe, like infects, feed upon "the dew?"

CREECH

19. Baccha

Ut Baccho Cererique, tibi fic vota quotannis
Agricolae facient: damnabis tu quoque votis.

NOTES.

79. Baccho Cererique.] Bacchus and Ceres were frequently worshipped together. See the note on ver. 7, and 344. of the firft Georgick. Perhaps the Poet might not allude, in this place, to the joint worship of Bacchus and Ceres; but mean, that as Bacchus was worshipped on account of the vintage, and Ceres on account of the harveft, which are the two principal cares of a husbandman; fo Daphnis, or Julius Caefar, fhould be no lefs invoked in the country, than thofe two great deities. In like manner, at the beginning of the Georgicks, he prays Auguftus, a new deity, to prefide over husbandry;

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To thee fhall the busbandmen 80 offer annual vows, as to Bacchus and Ceres: thou also fhalt judge them by their vows.

દર્દ republica in religionem venit;" the third in the twenty-feventh; Damnarenturque votorum, quae pro ipfis fufcepiffent." But however, he thinks the common reading may be defended by a paffage in the fourth book of Sifenna; "Quo 66 voto damnati, foetum omnem "dicuntur ejus anni ftatim confe"craffe." Heinfius, according to Burman, fays he was once of opinion, that it ought to be voti; but he concludes, that nothing ought to be altered, in contradiction to all the ancient manuscripts; especially as we find voto damnati in Sifenna, and "Omnium mortalium opera "mortalitate damnata funt" in Seneca. Ruaeus gives a good explication of the sense of this paffage: "He who makes a vow, defires "fomething from God, and pro"mises fomething to him at the "fame time. If God grants his

"vow, is in a manner judged, and "obliged to perform his promise. "Thus God is faid damnare votis

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80. Damnabis tu quoque votis.]" request, then he, who makes the Servius understands thefe words to mean, that when Daphnis, as a god, fhall begin to beftow bleffings $ upon men, he will oblige them to perform the vows, by which they have obtained thofe bleffings. La Cerda thinks we should read voti inftead of votis, which he takes to be better Latin. In confirmation of this opinion, he quotes three paffages from Livy, one in the fifth book, "Furere civitatem, quae "damnata voti" another in the tenth, 66 Bis ejufdem voti damnata

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or voti, when he grants the re"queft, and fo obliges the perfon to perform what he had pro"mifed." He alfo quotes a pasfage from the third Decad of Livy, which is full to this purpose ; "Deos, Deafque precabantur, ut "illis fauftum iter felixque pugna "effet: et damnarentur ipfi voto"rum, quae pro iis fufcepiffent." He refers alfo to ver. 237. of the Q 2

fifth

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Mor. What can I give you, MOP. Quae tibi, quae tali reddam pro carmine aubat prefents, in return for fuch a fong?

dona?

NOTES.

Georgick.

W. L. tranflates it,

"Yea thou their vowes shalt binde "them to defray."

Lord Lauderdale does not seem to have taken the right fenfe of the words in question;

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"So may'st thou awe us with thy
power divine,
"And make oblations on thy al-
tars fhine."

66

Dryden tranflates it literally;
"Such annual honours fhall be

"giv'n, and thou

"Shalt hear, and fhalt condemn thy "fuppliants to their vow."

The laft line, I believe, would be better thus,

fifth Aeneid, where voti reus is ufed in the fame fenfe. Erythraeus juftly cenfures Nonius and Agretius, for interpreting damnabis, liberabis ; and affirms, that, on the contrary, it fignifies obligabis. He obferves, that this expreffion plainly declares Daphnis to be really a god; for he will not only have vows made to him by the hufbandmen, but he will fhew himfelf to be a god, by granting their petitions, and thereby holding them to the performance of their vows. De Marolles tranflates it, Thou shalt oblige them by benefits to ferve thee; "Et par les "biens faits tu les obligeras à te "fervir." Catrou tranflates it, You shall have a right to exact the accomplishment of their vows; " Vous <fercz en droit d'en exiger l'ac"compliffement." This learned Critick finds fomething even here, to confirm his fyftem. He fays that tu quoque fignifies even you; and that these words exprefs a furprize, that even a fhepherd fhould receive the Vows of mortals. But furely this is "Damnabis, fays he, for obligabis. ftraining very hard for a confirma- "You fhall oblige your votaries by tion. For does not tu quoque, in "their vows, i. e. to the performthis place, fignify the very fame "ance of their vows, i. e. fhall with Te "hear their prayers. Pales at the quoque magna beginning of the third Georgick? Could any one in his fenfes imagine, that the Poet means, in that place, any furprize that Pales fhould be celebrated, when he calls her magna at the fame time. The learned Father himself has no fuch imagination, when he tranflates that

Shalt hear, and bind thy fuppliant: to their vow.

Dr Trapp translates it,

"Thou too fhalt be invok'd, and

"hear our pray❜rs."

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you

81. Quae tibi, &c.] Menalcas had extolled the sweetness of Mopfus's fong, comparing it to the delight which reft gives to the weary, and fresh water to the thirsty. Now Mopfus returns the compliment, and compares the verses of Menalcas to the gentle fouthern breezes, the

murmuring

Nam neque me tantum venientis fibilus Auftri,
Nec percuffa juvant fluctu tam litora nec quae
Saxofas inter decurrunt flumina valles."

MEN. Hac te nos fragili donabimus ante cicuta. 85
Haec nos: Formofum Corydon ardebat Alexim:

-for neither do the whispers of the rifing South, nor the gentle dafbing of the waves delight fo much, nor rivers running among the rocky vallics.

MEN. But first I will make you a prefent of this reed. This taught me to fing Formofum Corydon ardebat Alexim :

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murmuring of the waves against the fhoar, and the fall of waters among rocks.

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82. Venientis fibilus Auftri.] He compares the fong of his friend, not to the ftrong blafts of the South; but to the gentle gales, when it is beginning to rife.

83. Nec percuffa juvant, &c.] In like manner we must understand these words to mean the gentle dashing and murmuring of the waves against the shoar, and not the roaring of the billows in a storm.

84. Saxofas inter, &c.] Theocritus, in his firft Idyllium, compares the sweetness of a fong to waters falling down from a high rock;

Άδιον, ὦ ποιμάν, τὸ τεὸν μέλος,

τὸ καλαχὲς

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Τὴν ἀπὸ τᾶς πέτρας καταλείβεται ὑψόθεν ὕδωρ.

And fweeter notes thy pipe, dear "fhepherd fill, "Than murmuring fprings that "rowl from yonder hill." CREECH.

85. Hac te nos fragili, &c.] In the preceding paragraph, Mopfus declares himself at a lofs for a prefent worthy of his friend's acceptance: but Menalcas prevents him, and defires his acceptance of the

pipe, to which he had fung the fsecond and third Eclogue.

Donabimus.] Some read donavimus, which is not countenanced by any manufcript of note.

86. Haec nos, &c.] Virgil feems pretty plainly to intimate, that he means himself under the name of Menalcas, by representing that fhepherd as the author of the Alexis and the Palaemon. It is evident, from this paffage that those two Eclogues were written before the prefent; because they are here exprefsly mentioned. And, as the

Poet does not give the leaft hint here of his having compofed any other, it feems probable, that thefe were the three first Eclogues which our author compoted. Many Criticks are of opinion that the Tityrus was not really the frft, notwithfanding the place which is given it in all the editions. We may therefore venture to fay that these three were written before it. before it. The Tityrus was certainly written in the year of Rome 713, when the lands were divided among the foldiers: and the Pollio was compofed in 714, when Pollio was Conful. We muft therefore endeavour to fix fome time before 713, for the writing of the other three Eclogues. It feems probable, that the Daphnis was written in 712, when divine honours were Q3

given

this also taught me Cujum pe- Haec eadem docuit, Cujum pecus, an Meliboei. cus, an Meliboci.

NOTES.

given to Julius Caefar; and before the battle of Philippi, which was fought at the latter end of that year. For the Roman affairs being at that time in a very unfettled ftate, the Poet would not venture to celebrate the apotheofis of Julius Caefar openly; but chofe to do it under the feigned character of a Sicilian fhepherd. As for the Palaemon, it feems to have been dedicated to Pollio, or at least written under his protection, as he is the only perfon therein celebrated. We muft therefore feek for fome period of time, when Pollio was powerful in those parts. We find, by comparing the feveral hiftorians of thofe times, times, that this great man was a conftant companion of Julius Caefar, during the civil wars between him and Pompey. We read that he was prefent, at the very beginning of that war, when Caefar paffed the Rubicon. We find him alfo in the fame company, at the battle of Pharfalia, and in Africa. Dio tells us, that, when Caefar returned from the Spanish war, Pollio was left in Spain, with the command of an army, which he did not quit till after the death of Caefar. Since therefore we find, that Pollio was engaged abroad, from the breaking out of the Civil War to the death of Caefar, which was in March, 710, it is moft probable, that the Eclogue in queftion was written between that time and the year 712. The year 711 began with the march of the new Confuls, Panfa and

.

Hirtius, in conjunction with young Caefar, as Auguftus was then called, to relieve Decimus Brutus, who was then befieged in Modena by Mark Anthony. After the railing of this fiege, Auguftus marched to Rome, where he procured himself to be chofen Conful, about the lat ter end of Auguft, and Anthony towards the Alps, when he was joined by the army of Lepidus. We may gather from Appian, that Pollio was at the head of two legions, when Anthony marched againft D. Brutus; that the Senate wrote to him to war against Anthony, when he retreated towards the Alps; that Auguftus wrote to him, to join with them, after the reconciliation between him and Anthony was begun; and that accordingly Pollio joined Anthony foon after with his two legions, and brought over Plancus alfo to join him with three more. Thefe affairs were transacted in the Cifalpine Gaul, in which Mantua was fituated, and about the end of the year 711. this time therefore, when Pollio was fo confiderable in those parts, we may reasonably suppose, that the third Eclogue was written, in which he, and he alone, is celebrated. As for the Alexis, it is very difficult to fay when that was written, as there is no allufion in it to any publick tranfaction. It feems to have been written before the Palaemon, by it's being placed firft, in the paffage under confideration. Perhaps it was published before the

death

At

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