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Praeterea duo nec ruta mihi valle reperti

NOTES.

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Herodotus, in his Euterpe, tells us, that the people of Mendes in Egypt efteemed Pan as one of the eight. Deities, whom they looked upon as prior to the twelve : that they represented him as having the face and legs of a goat: that they alfo worfhip all goats, efpecially the males ; that both Pan and a goat are called Mendes in the Egyptian language; and that fome abominable rites were ufed in this goat-worthip. Τὸν Πᾶ

ΟΙ

40 Befides I bave savo kids, which I found in a dangerous valleys

οι

νὰ τῶν ὀκτώ θεῶν λογιζονται εἶναι οἱ Μενδήσιοι· τοὺς σε οκτώ θεοὺς τούτους προτέρους τῶν δυώδεκα θεῶν φασὶ γε ενέσθαι· γράφουσι δὲ δὴ καὶ γλύφουσε οἱ ζωγράφοι καὶ ὁἱ ἀγαλματοποιοί, δι τοῦ Πανὸς, κατάπερ Ἕλληνες, των γαλμα αιγοπρόσωπον καὶ τραγοσα κελέα· ἶναι τοιοῦτον νομίζοντες εἶναι μιν, ἀλλ' ὅμοιον τοῖσι ἄλλοισι θεοίσι ὅτεν δὲ ἔινεκα τοιοῦτον γράφουσι αὐτὸν, οὔ μοι ἤδειον ἐστὶ λέγειν σέβονται δὲ πάντας τοὺς ἄιγας οι Μενδήσιοι, καὶ μᾶλλον τοὺς ἔρσενας τῶν θηλεῶν· καὶ τούτων οἱ αιπόλοι τιμὰς μέζονας ἔχου σι· ἐκ δὲ τούτων εἰς μάλιστα, ὅστις ἐπεὼν ἀποθάνη, πένθος μέγα παντὶ τῷ Μενδησίων νομῷ τίθεται καλέεται δὲ ὅ τε τράγος καὶ ὁ Παν Αἰγυπτια Μένδης· ἐγένετο δ ̓ ἐν τῷ νομῷ τούτῳ ἐπ ̓ ἐμεῦ τοῦτο τό περας γυναικὶ τραγος ἐμίσγετο ἀναφανδόν· ὅυτο ἐς ἐπιδείξιν ἀνθρώπων ἀπίκετο. In the fame book he tells us, that the Greeks thought Pan to be the fon of Penelope by Mercury; Πανὶ δὲ τῷ ἐκ Πηνε λόπης, ἐκ ταύτης γὰρ καὶ Ἕρμεω λέγεται γενέσθαι ὑπὸ Ἑλλήνων ὁ Παν. This indeed is not greatly to the honour of that lady, fo famous for her chaftity: much lels is that, which has been related by fome writers of a later date, that he was called Iv, because he was the fon of Penelope' by all her woers. Bochart will have his name to be derived from the Hebrew pan or 11 pun, which, fignifies a great aftoniβment, becaufe

fuch

their skins are spotted with Capreoli, fparfis etiam nunc pellibus albo, ¿white:

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NOTES:

fuch terrors are called panick. The fame learned writer obferves also that 11D is by fome pronounced phun; whence Faunus is another name for the fame deity.

32. Pan primus calamos, &c.] Thus he is mentioned by Bion, as the inventor of the fhepherd's pipe;

· Ως ἔυρε πλαγίαυλον ὁ Παν.

The fable of Pan being in love with the nymph Syrinx, who fled from him till the came to a river that ftopt her flight, where he was turned into reeds, is related in the first book of Ovid's Metamorphofes. This Poet tells us, that Pan grafping his arms full of reeds inftead of the nymph, ftood fighing by the river fide; where obferving the reeds, as they were moved by the wind to make an agreeable found, he cut some of them, and joining them together with wax, formed a fhepherd's pipe:

« Panaque cum prenfam

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Syringa putaret,

fibi jam

« Corpore pro Nymphae calamos

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"tenuiffe paluftres. "Dumque ibi fufpirat, motos in "arundine ventos Effeciffe fonum tenuem, fimilem66 que querenti: "Arte nova, vocifque Deum dul

66

"cedine captum, Hoc mihi concilium tecum, dixiffe, manebit. “Atque ita difparibus calamis.compagine cerąc

་་

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35. Quid non faciebat Amyntas.] Here again Catrou will have Amyntas to be one of Virgil's fuppofed fcholars, Cebes, and that he here ftirs up Alexander, or Alexis, to emulate the ardour of Cebes in his poetical studies.

36. Eft mihi difparibus, &c.] Having reprefented the excellence of mufick, the fhepherd now endeavours to allure Alexis, by fetting forth the great value of the pipe which he poffeffed, and by a prefent of two beautiful kids.

The fhepherd's pipe was com pofed of feven reeds, unequal in length, and of different tones, joined together with wax. The fi gure of it is to be feen in feveral monuments of antiquity. Theocritus indeed mentions a pipe of nie reeds;

Σύριγγ ̓ ἄν ἐποίησα καλὰν ἐγὼ ἐν

αν

νεάφωνον,

Λευκὸν καρὸν ἔχουσαν, ἴσον κάτω, ἴσον ἄνωθεν :

but seven was the ufual number.

Cicutis.] Cicuta is commonly thought to be hemlock. It is not to be fuppofed, that they ever made their pipes of hemlock, which is very offenfive. It is probably ufed for any hollow stalk in general. Ser vius fays it means the fpace between two joints of a reed; Cicuta au

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Bina die ficcant ovis ubera: quos tibi fervo.

NOTES.

"tem eft fpatium, quod eft inter 66 cannarum nodos."

37. Damoetas.] Catrou is of opinion, that Virgil, under the name of Damoetas, means the Poet Lucretius, who was the reformer of the hexameter verse. This flute, fays he, is a legacy, which Virgil had left him by Lucretius, who died the very day that Virgil put on his manly gown; that is, about the time when our author began his moft early poems. But Lucretius was not a writer of Bucolicks; and it cannot be fuppofed, that Virgil, at the age of fixteen or feventeen years, could be thought of confequence enough to be a fucceffor to a Poet of fo eftablished a reputation as Lucretius.

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they drain the too dugs of a Sheep every day.

"which he fings. Thus Cebes en"vies Virgil the flute which he had

received from Lucretius; that is, "the glory of hexameter verse." Thus, according to this learned Critick, Virgil, who had taken Cebes to inftruct, and had fucceeded fo well therein, as to make him a good Poet, calls him a fool for emulating his mafter; notwithstanding that four or five lines before he had propofed him to Alexander, as worthy of his imitation. Befides, it is plain, that Damoetas bequeathed his pipe to Corydon with his dying breath, and that Amyntas envied him the legacy at that very time;

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Therefore Cebes must have been prefent, when Lucretius bequeathed his poëtical genius to Virgil, and have envied him for it. Now is it poffible for any one to fuppofe, that Virgil, at the age of feventeen, could be thought fecond to Lucretius, or that he had then inftructed a youth fo well in poetry, that he

think of being his rival?hould

40. Praeterea duo, &c.] Thus the Cyclops, in the thirteenth book of Ovid's Metamorphofiss

"Catrou, to make Alexander un"derstand the progrefs that Cebes "had made in poetry. He was ་་ come to fuch a height, as even "to envy his mafter the first glory" Inveni geminos, qui tecum lu"in verfification. The works of "a Poet are reprefented under the ་་ fymbol of the inftrument, to

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"dere poffint, "Inter fe fimiles, vix ut dignofcere 66 VIY poffis, E

"Villofae

Theftylis has already begged that Jampridem a me illos abbducere Theftylis orat: fhe may have them;

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Pierius found in a very ancient manufcript fparfis etiam nunc_pelli

"Inveni, et dixi, dominae ferva- bus; Ambo bina die, &c. Catrou

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SANDYS.

Nec tuta.... valle.] He augments the value of these kids, by telling Alexis, in what a dangerous place he had found them. It was in a valley, probably between two rocks, of difficult, and dangerous accefs; or perhaps expofed to wild beafts or robbers.

Reperti La Cerda understands this word to expreis, that there kids had been loft, and found again. Dr Trapp is earneft for this interpretation, becaufeihe fays they muft have been ftollen by Corydon, if they had not been his own before; and therefore ought to be reftored to the right owner. But we may fuppofe them to have been wild kids and it is plain, that they were taken from the dam; because they are put to a fheep to nurse,

241. Sparfis etiam nunc pellibus albo.] "Kids at firft have white. "fpots, which alter, and lofe their

beauty afterwards. Therefore he " fays I referve two kids for you, which have not yet loft the white "fpots out of their fkins." SERVIUS.

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43. Fampridem a me illos, &c.] This is taken from the third Idyl lium of Theocritus;

Η μὲν τοι λευκὰν διδυματόκον αιγα Ταν με και ο Μέρμνωνος Ἐριθακίς φυλάσσω,

μελανόχρως Αιτῖν. καὶ δωσῶ δι, ἐπεὶ τὸ μοι ἐνδιαρύπλη. ནྟི ང མ མ "I have a pretty goat," a lovely white, one stuck

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She bears two kids, yet fills three "pails at night mendiol This tawny Befs hath begg 'd,* "and begg'd in vain But now 'tis her's

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fince you my gifts difdain." CREECH.

Theftylis. It is plain from this paffage, that Theftylis is not the mother of Corydon, as Catrou Imagines.

Abducere

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