Now shall gryffon's be joined Jungentur jam gryphes equis, aevoque fequenti .. with mares, and in another age Cum canibus timidi venient ad pocula damae. Q the timorous deer shall come to drink with the dogs. Cut new Mopfe, novas incide faces: tibi ducitur uxor, mull torches, O Mopfus: your wife Sparge, marite, nuces: tibi deferit Hesperus Octam, is leading bome. Scatter thy wallnuts, O bridegroom: for thee Hesperus forfakes Octa, be obferved, that Virgil makes dame to be of the mafculine gender here, as well as in the third Georgick 27Jungentur jam gryphes équis.] Damon paffionately defcribes the marriage of Nifa with Mopfus, as fomething monftrous. The gryffon is a fabulous monfter, faid to have the body of a lion, and the head and wings of an eagle; these animals are pretended to live in the moft northern parts of Europe, where they dig gold out of the mines, and keep a guard over it. It is faid, that the Arimafpians, a people with one eye in the middle of their foreheads, are engaged in continual wars for this precious metal. This ftory is at least as ancient as the time of Herodotus, who mentions it in his third Book. But that Hiftorian justly thinks it incredible: and Pliny alfo, who quotes this story" from Herodotus, thinks the exiftence of the gryffons to be fabulous. Milton alludes to this ftory of. the gryffons, in the fecond book of his Paradife Loft; ال a galwords Timidi damae, cervique "fugaces." From Mehm 29. Novas incide faces. He invidióufly exhorts Mopfus to make all due preparations for celebrating his nuptials. The bride used to be led home by night, with lighted torches before her. Thefe torches were pieces of pine, or other unc tuous wood, which were cut to a point, that they might the more eafily be inflamed. Thus we read in the firft Georgick; An Ferroque faces infpicat a cuto." We find in Plutarch's Roman Que ftions, that the number of torches carried before the bride was exactly five. Tibi ducitur uxor.] This part the ceremony, of leading the bride home to her husband's houfe, feems to have been accounted fo effential a part of the nuptial ceremony, that ducere uxorem is commonly used fo to marry. 30. Sparge marite nuces.] That nuces fignify walnuts, and that they had a myftical fignification in the 28. Timidi... damae.] It is to nuptial ceremonies, has been ob ferved, Incipe Maenalios mecum, mea tibia, verfus. Begin with me, my pipe, the Maenalian trains, Ob! thou art married to as worthy bufband, whilst thou defpifeft all others and whrift thou bateft my pipe, and my goats, and my foaggy eye-brow, and my long beard NOTES. "fidere conjux ??? and in other places. ferved, in a note on ver. 187. of the "Hefperus: adveniet faufto cum fecond Georgick. Some are of opinion, that the bridegroom, by throwing nuts among the boys to fcramble for them, fignified that he himself now left children's play; whence nuces relinquere became a proverbial expreffion. This feems to be confirmed by the following paffage of Catullus; 32. O digno conjuncta, &c.] He commends the choice of Nifa ironically, and accufes her of infidelity. 34. Hirfutumque fupercilium, &c.] Thus the Cyclops, in Theocritus, tells Galatea, that fhe does not love him, because he has a great fhaggy eye-brow, that extends from ear to La Cerda is of opinion, that Damon, by this expreffion, declares to Nifa, that his love for her has made him neglect his perfon. But furely love ufually inclines a man to be more exact in his drefs. Befides I do not apprehend, that the hairinefs “Adveniet tibi jam portans optata of the eye-brow is caused by negli "anaritis gence. Ruaeus agrees with La X 2. Cerda ; and doff not believe, that any Nec curare Deum credis mortalia quenquam x135 od regards buman affairs. Be Incipe Maenalios mecum, mea tibia, verfus.4 Zin with me, my pipe, the Sepibus in noftris parvam te rofcida, mala, n Macnalian Brains I faw thee, when thou waft a little girl, Cerda; though he suggests another interpretation; that the fhepherd defcribes the hairinefs of his body, to denote his ftrength. It is true, that the hairinefs of the body is ufually a mark of ftrength: but then it is not ufual with women to defpife a man for his ftrength of body. Perhaps this is fpoken ironically, as well as O digno conjuncta viro; and Damon may mean, not that he himfelf is this rough unpolished fellow, but his rival: for this whole paragraph feems to be intended to infult Nifa on her choice of Mopfus. The Earl of Lauderdale follows the opinion of La Cerda; 37. Sepibus in noftris, &c.] The fhepherd now re-calls the time, the place, and the manner of his firft falling in love with her, when he was very young. The reader cannot but obferve the elegant and natural paftoral fimplicity of this paragraph. The age of the young fhepherd, his being but juft able to reach the boughs of the apples-trees, his officioufnefs in helping the girl and her mother to gather them, and his falling in love with her at the fame time, are cir cumftances fo well chofen, and ex preffed fo naturally, that we may look upon this paffage, as one of thofe numerous, eafy, and delicate touches, that diftinguifh the hand of Virgil. This paffage is an imitation of the following verfes, in the Cyclops of Theocritus. Dux ego vefter eram, vidi cum matre legentem: 40 garbering dewy apples with tby mother, in our bedges; I was your conductor my thirteenth year was then just begun : I could then just reach the brittle branches from the ground. How did I fee bow was I un done! bow was I loft in fatal error! Begin, with me, my pipe, the Maenalian ftrains. NOTES. thirteenth because that age feems to make the fhepherd full as young, as he could eafily be fuppofed to be, when he fell in love. Ceperat.] Some manufcripts have acceperat, according to Pierius and Heinfius. 41. Ut vidi, &c.] The Poet adorns this beautiful paffage with an imitation of a line taken from the fecond Idyllium of Theocritus; Χως ἴδον, ὡς ἐμάνην, ὡς ἐμεῦ περὶ θυμὸς ἰάφθη. The Greek Poet alfo thus defcribes the fudden paffion of Atalanta for Hippomenes, in his Altos Α δ Ατάλαντα It is moft probable, that it was the Ὣς ἴδον, ὡς ἐμάνη, ὡς ἐς βαθὺν ἄλε girl's mother; because he could have no occafion to fhew w his own mother the way about their own grounds. 39. Alter ab undecimo.] Servius underftands it to mean the thirteenth, "Id eft, tertius decimus: "alter enim de duobus dicimus." Jofeph Scaliger, and La Cerda are of the fame opinion. Ruaeus fays it is the twelfth, the next year to the eleventh; as alter ab illo does not alter do 1110 fignify the third after him, but the fecond to him. I have tranflated it λετ έρωτα. Now know I what is Love. Nunc fcio quid fit Amor. Duris in cotibus illum Either Tmarus, ar Rhodope, or the utmost Garamantes bring Aut: Tmarus, aut Rhodope, aut extremi Garabim forth, mantes, NOTE SA CREECH. 44. Aut Tmarus.] The common reading is Ifmarus. Fulvius Urfinus found aut Ifmarus, in two very ancient manufcripts. He alfo mentions another ancient copy, which he had out of the library of Peter Bembus, in which it was written aut Tmarus, which he takes to be the true reading. Heinfius allo, according to Burman, found aut Tmarus in fome copies, and aut Marus in others. Strabo, in his feventh book, fpeaks of the mounain Tomarus, or Tmarus, as belonging to Dodona; H Awdwrn To ουν τό μέν παλαιὸν ὑπό Θεσπρωτοῖς ἦν, καὶ τὸ ὄρος ὁ Τόμαρος ή Τμαρος, o αμφοτέρως λέγεται, ὑφ ̓ ᾧ κεῖται το ispév. It feems probable, that this marus, or Tomarus, is the moun tain here fpoken of by Virgil; that he wrote aut Tmarus aut Rhodope; and that fome of the tranfcribers, having before met with Ifmarus and Rhodope together, inaccurately wrote aut Ifmarus aut Rhodope. Others, obferving that dut Ifmarus could not stand in the verfe, took the liberty of omitting out. In thofe copies, which have aut Marus, it can hardly be doubted, that the T is left out by mistake, which might happen very easily, as the moft ancient manufcripts were in capitals, without any diftinction of the words, thus AVTTMARVSAVTRHODOPE. That the dif junctive particle aut was intended to be thrice repeated in this verle feems probable, from it's being intended to imitate one in the 2014 of Theocritus; A ú "H"Aw, Podunav, Kauxarov is χατόεντα. In like manner we read in the fir Georgick, Aut Atho, aut Rhodopen, aut álta Ceraunią." nok دو ReboM Mafvicius, Heinfius, Cuningam, and Burman have aut Tingros, La Cerda allo approves of aut Trarus though he preferves Imarus in the text. The Earl of Lauderdale ap proves of Tmaross * I know |