Aegle the most beautiful of the Aegle Naïadum pulcherrima: Jamque videnti Naiads: NOTES.. "victoriae ejus fuas victorias com"pararet." There is fomething very expreffive in the description, which the Poet gives of the flaggon in this line. It is faid to be gravis, heavy, to denote it's capacioufnefs: the handle is attrita, battered with much ufe: and the flaggon hangs down by the handle; he is too drunk to fuftain it, and too fond of it, even in this almoft fenfelefs condition to let it go out of his hand. The Earl of Rofcommon, in his excellent tranflation of this Eclogue feems not to have been aware of this laft particular; for he reprefents the cantharus, as hanging up by him, full of liquor; * His trufty flaggon, full of potent feem alfo to have required fome force to be used, in order to gain an anfwer from them. In this manner Proteus is treated by Ariftaeus, in the fourth Georgick. Thus Ovid alfo, in the third book of his Fafti, reprefents Faunus and Picus furprized by Numa. Thefe deities were accustomed to drink of a particular fountain. Numa facrificed a fheep near it, and left a flaggon full of good wine near it, hiding himfelf and his companions in a cave. The deities drank plentifully of the wine, and fell asleep; when Numa took his advantage of them, bound them, and having afked pardon for the liberty he had taken with their perfons, obtained an answer to what he defired to know; "Lucus Aventino fuberat niger ili"cis umbra, Quo poffes vifo dicere, Numen "In medio gramen, muscoque a- "Inde fere foli Faunus Picufque bi- "Huc venit, et Fonti rex "Ad folitos veniunt fylveftria nu- mero. Sanguineis frontem moris et tempora pingit. and just as he began to open bis eyes, painted bis forehead and temples with blood-red mulberries. He, fmiling at the deceit, fays; To what purpofe are these bonds ? NOTES. Famque videnti.] That is, juft when he began to open his eyes: when he was beginning to recover from the effects of his drunkenness. 22. Sanguineis frontem moris, &c.] Servius fays, many are of opinion, that this alludes to the red colour being facred to the gods. Guellius thinks this painting of the face of Silenus with mulberries was to make a jeft of him, fucum faciens, illudens, et os feni, ut Comicus inquit, fublinens. But La Cerda proves, that the opinion mentioned by Servius is right, and plainly fhews, that the ancient Romans did really paint the images of their gods red. Hence he concludes, that Aegle did not paint his face to make a jeft of him; but to render him more propitious. Pan is represented, as ftained with the fame colour, in the tenth Eclogue; "Pan deus Arcadiae venit, quem " vidimus ipfi "Sanguineis ebuli baccis, minio66 que rubentem." Servius, and other Commentators, tell us, that the Poet here alludes to the well known ftory of Pyramus and Thifbe, in which the mulberries are faid to have been white at firft; but that they became red by being ftained with the blood of thofe lovers. But we have feen, in the paffage juft quoted, that the epithet fanguineis or blood-red is given to the dwarf-elder. 23. Ille dolum ridens, &c.] Silenus, waking, and finding himself R 4 bound. Unbind me, my boys it is Solvite me, pueri: fatis eft potuiffe videri... enough, that I bave been made vifible. Hearken to the fong Carmina, quae vultis, cognofcite: carmina vobis; 25 you defire: you fall bave the Huic aliud mercedis erit: fimul incipit ipfe. Song; and as for ber, fhe fhall Tum vero in numerum Faunofque ferafque videres be rewarded another way: with that be begins. Then might Ludere, tum rigidas motare cacumina quercus. you fee the Fauns and wild Nec tantum Phoebo gaudet Parnaffia rupes, beafts dance to bis measure, Nec tantum Rhodope mirantur et Ifmarus Orphea. and the ftubborn oaks bend their beads. Neither does Parnaffus Namque canebat uti magnum per inane coacta 31 So much delight in Apollo, nor do Rhodope and Ifmarus so much`admire Orpheus. For be Jung, show the feeds of earth, NOTES. bound, laughs at the trick, and gives them fuch a fong as draws the deities of the woods about him, and makes the very woods bend their heads to hear. 24. Satis eft potuiffe videri.] According to Servius, the demi-gods were vifible only when they thought fit. If this be the cafe, Chromis and Mnafylus must have been fhepherds; for furely Silenus was always vifible to the Satyrs. 27. In numerum.] That is, to the measure of his fong: they kept time with the mufick. Faunos.] The Fauns are rural deities as we read in the first Georgick; Agreftum praefentia numina "Fauni." Mirantur.] So Pierius found it in the Roman, and Oblong manu fcripts. This reading is admitted alfo by Heinfius. Burman alfo finds mirantur in feveral manuscripts. The common reading is miratur, the fingular number. Ifmarus.] A mountain of Thrace. See the note on ver. 37. of the fecond Georgick. Orphea.] See the notes on ver. 46. of the third Eclogue, and ver. 454. of the fourth Georgick. 31. Namque canebat, &c.] Silenus begins his fong, with defcribing the creation of the world; according to the Epicurean Philofophy. 1 According to the doctrine of Epicurus, there were two principles of all things; Body and Void; that is, Matter, and Space. The particles or smallest parts of matter are folid, and indivifible; but by accidentally uniting, they form compound bo ( Semina, terrarumque, animaeque, marifque fuiffent, and air, and water, and pure fire were collected through the immense void: Suppofe no Void, as former reafons · prove, No Body could enjoy a place, or move; Befides these two, there is no third degree Diftinct from both: nought that has pow'r to be. For if 'tis tangible, and has a place, 'Tis Body; if intangible, 'tis Space. 32. Semina.] Lucretius often feeds of things; "Invenies intus multarum femina 66 rerum "Corpora celare, et varias cohi"bere figuras." Animae.] Anima feems alfo to have been used for Air, by Lucretius, in his fixth book; "Ventus ubi, atque animae fubito "vis maxima." Ennius, as he is quoted by Varro, in the fourth chapter of thé fecond book de Re Ruftica, ufes anima for the Air. "Ejus [agriculturae] prin"cipia funt eadem quae mundi effe "Ennius fcribit: aqua, terra, ani"ma, et fol." Thus alfo Cicero, in his fecond book de Natura deorum, calls the Air an animable and fpirable nature: "Principio enim terra, ita in media parte mundi, "circumfufa undique eft, hac ani"mabili et fpirabili natura, cui no"men eft aër.". Marifque.] the world united. Then bow bow from these principles all the Et liquidi fimul ignis: ut his exordia primis elements, and the tender orb of Omnia, et ipfe tener mundi concreverit orbis. the earth began to confolidate, Tum durare folum, et difcludere Nerea ponto 35 and to drive the waters into the Coeperit, et rerum paullatim fumere formas. fea, and by degrees to take the forms of things. Of thefe four elements, Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, every thing elfe is compounded. 66 35. Solum.] It originally fig"It originally fig nifies the fole of the foot. Thus "Lucretius 1. I. 924. "Avia Pieridum peragro loca, nul lius ante "Subtrahiturque folum. "Alfo for Heaven, Ovid. Met. I. 66 73. "Aftra tenent caclefte folum. "But it generally fignifies the "Earth, not only in the fingular, "but alfo in the plural number, as in Geor. I. 80; "Ne faturare fimo - pingui pudeat "fola." RUAEUS. meaning of this paffage is, that the Difcludere Nerea ponto.] The Earth, by growing compact and folid, forced the waters to retire from it, and to form the feas. That is, by this means the fea was separated or diftinguished, which is the proper meaning of difcludere. Thus Lucretius, fpeaking of the formation of the world, by the feparation of the atoms into different places, and then combining together, according to their fimilar natures, ufes the word difcludere in much the fame fenfe with Virgil; |