Mos. Say no more, my lad, and let us mind our prefent bu

Moeris to fing: he first propofes, that his friend fhould lay down the kids; and now he offers to eare him of the load, by carrying it himfelf." 67. Cum venerit ipfe This expreffion feems to intimate, that Virgil was at Rome, when he compofed this Eclogue. Moeris has no great inclination to fing in the abfence of his mafter, of whofe fuccefs he is in doubt: and therefore is follicitous to finish the bufinefs in hand, the carrying the kids to the intruder; and tells his friend, that he fhall have more inclination to fing, when Menalcas returns.

Hom by:I

་་་

0 Aretbufa, favour this my laft labour.

Poet begins, with an invocation of Arethufa, to affift him. pak

Arethufa.] He invokes a Sicilian nymph, because he writes in imitation of Theocritus. Thus he be gins the fourth Eclogue, with invoking the Sicilian Mufes; and at the beginning of the fixth, he calls his Bucolicks Syracufian verfes. 95

berfelf may read: who can re

3 Carmina funt dicenda, &c.] Pope has imitated this, in his Windfor-foreft;

"Granville commands: your aid, "O Mufes bring. "What Mufe for Granville can re"fufe to fing?"

4. Cum fluctus fubter labore, &c.] Alpheus à river of Peloponnefus was in love with the Nymph Arethusa, who, flying from his purfuit, was turned by Diana into a fountain. She made her efcape under the fea to Ortygia, an ifland adjacent to Sicily, where the rofe up: but Alpheus purfuing her by the fame way, mixed his waters with her's. The Poet here wishes, that in her paffage under the Sicilian fea, Doris, or the fea, may not mix the falt waves with her pure waters. This fable is mentioned, in the third Aeneid;

"Sicanio praetenta finu jacet infula

5. Daris.] The daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. She was married to her brother Nereus, by whom the became mother of the fea Nymphs, who, from their father, are called Nereids. Doris is here ufed for the fea itself. She is called amara, because the fea water is bitter.

6. Incipe: follicitos, &c.] The Poet now propofes the fubject of his Eclogue; the love of Gallus. Sollicitos.] Thus Ovid;

"Res eft folliciti plena timoris "amor."

Lycoris will not hearken, yet the fong will be repeated by Echo in the woods. Thus Pope, in his fecond Paftoral;

"Ye fhady beeches, and ye cooling

"ftreams,

"Defence from Phoebus, not from "Cupid's beams, "To you I mourn, nor to the deaf I fing,

"The woods fhall anfwer, and their echo ring..

"The hills and rocks attend my "doleful lay

"Why art thou prouder, and more "hard than they?

9. Quae nemora, &c.] The Poet turns his difcourfe to the Naiads, who neglected Gallus in his distress, when even the trees and fhrubs, and inanimated mountains and rocks condoled with him.

This paffage is an imitation of one in the Oúpos of Theocritus;

Πα ποκ' ἄρ ̓ ἦθ ̓ ὅκα Δάφνις ἐτάκείο; πᾷ ποκα Νύμφαι;

Η κατὰ Πηνειῶ καλὰ Τέμπεα, ἢ κατὰ Πίνδω ;

Οὐ γὰρ δὴ ποταμοῖο μέγαν ρόον εἴχει
Ανάπω,
Οὐδ' Αἴτνας σκοπιάν, οὐδ ̓ Ακεδος ἴεω
μου ὕδωρο

A a

ie

neither the tops of Parnaffus, nor thofe of Pindus

Τῆνον μαν θῶες, τῆνον λύκοι ὠρυσαντο, Τήνον χώ κ δρυμοῖο λέων ἄν ἔκλαυσε

θανόντα.

"Where were you Nymphs? where

"did the Nymphs refide? ἐσ Where were you then, when "Daphnis pin'd and dy'd? "On Pindus top, or Tempe's open "plain,

"Where, careless Nymphs, for"getful of the fwain? "For not one Nymph by swift A"fopus ftood,

"Nor Aetna's cliffs, nor Acis fa"cred flood.

"For him the wolves, the pards

"and tygers moan'd; "For him with frightful grief the "lions groan'd. CREECH.

Pindi

Saltus.] See the note on ver. 471. of the fecond Georgick.

10. Indigno.] It fignifies great or cruel: thus our Poet has indignas hyemes in the fecond Georgick.

Periret.] Pierius found peribat in the Roman manufcript, and per iret in the Lombard.

11. Parnaffi.] A mountain of Phocis, facred to Apollo, and the Mufes. See the note on ver. 291. of the third Georgick.

Pindi.] "A mountain on the "confines of Macedonia, Epirus, and Theffaly; whence it is e qually afcribed to these three re"gions. Some fay, that it reaches

12. Aonia Aganippe. A fountain of Boeotia, facred to the Mufes, rifing in the mountain Helicon, not far from Thebes, and running down to the river Permeffus. Aonian, that is Boe-, otian, from Aon the fon of Neptune. Obferve in this place the opening of the vowels Aonia Aganippe," RUAEUS.

Some read Aoniae Aganippe, others oniae Aganippes, and others Aoniae ganippae: but it is plain, that Serus read Aonia Aganippe; for he fays Nominitivi funt fingulares." 13. Illum etiam lauri, &c.] This a ftrong expreffion of the Poet's fonifhment at the neglect which the ymphs fhewed of the diftrefs of Gal3. He infinuates a furprize, that the ymphs, who inhabited the hills nd fountains facred to Apollo and e Mufes, fhould flight fo excellent Poet, when even the woods and ocks lamented his misfortunes. Theocritus fpeaks of the brute beafts

"Illum etiam lauri, etiam flevere "myricae,"

without the fecond illum, as it is found in feveral manufcripts. Pierius obferved this reading in the Roman manufcript: but in the Lombard, he found the illum repeated, and thinks the triple mention of illum etiam in thefe two verfes expreffes the paffion with greater vehemence.

He does not however, diflike the other reading; and thinks the exility of it adapted to the paftoral character, and miferable ftaté of a deploring perfon.

Lauri.] See the note on ver. 306. of the firft Georgick.

Myricae.] See the note on ver. 2. of the fecond Eclogue. La Cerda has obferved, that the tamarifk, as well as the bay, was facred to Apollo.

15. Maenalus. See the note on ver. 22. of the eighth Eclogue. Lycaei.] See the note on ver. 2. of the third Georgick.

The reader will obferve the great propriety of thefe verfes. Gallus is lamented by the bays and tamarifks,