3

the Armenian plum; and then there will have been no mention at all of apricocks in this author. However he certainly makes a diftinction between the Armeniaca and Praecoces, whatsoever they were, as in the following paffage," Floret prima om"nium Amygdala, menfe Janusario: Martio vero pomum ma"turat. Ab ea proxime florent Ar"meniaca, dein tuberes et Praeco66 ces. Illae peregrinae; hae co"actae:" Palladius feems to fpeak of them as the fame; " Armenia "vel Praecoqua prunis, Duracina "Amygdalis adhaerefcunt." Diofcorides diftinguishes between Peaches and Apricocks, or Perfica and Armeniaca, and fays the latter are fmaller than the former; Ta deep σικὰ μῆλα ευστόμαχα. . . . Τὰ δὲ μικρότερα καλουμενα Αρμενιακα. Ρομαιστὶ δὲ Πραικίκια ευστομαχώτερα τῶν προειρημένων ἐἰσὶν. We find by this quotation that Apricocks were fo well known in Italy in his time, as to have

a

The Latin name.

paixónia is

Greek characters; and the more modern Greeks have corrupted it to Bepixoxxia, from which our English name Apricock feems to be derived. It is not improbable alfo, that this fruit, when it was firft brought into England, might be called a praecox, according to the Latin, whence our illiterate people imagining the laft fyllable cox to be cocks, concluded the word to be the plural number,

and therefore that a was not the article, but part of the word; and fo pronounced it Aprecocks, and thence formed the fingular Aprecock, and Apricock, as it is now written. Something like this we find in the name of the flower called anemony, which in Greek is aveμwn and in Latin anemone. anemone. This we endeavoured to make an English word by removing the accent to the antepenultima, and calling it anemone, whence many taking the two firft letters of the word to be the article an, have called it an Emony, and in the plural number Emonies, which corrup tion has got admittance into feveral books of gardening. From what has been faid, it appears, that the apples in queftion may poffibly be the Mala praecocia or Apricocks, though I do not pofitively affert it.

52. Caftaneafque nuces.] Some understand the Poet to fpeak of two forts of fruit here; both nuts and cheftnuts. La Cerda quotes Ovid, as making them different in a paffage evidently written in imitation of

that before us;

I leave out et between pruna and banas, on the authority of Pierius, who obferves it to be wanting in the Roman, Lombard, and Medicean manufcripts, and to have been inferted by another hand, and with a different ink in the reft. However most of the Editors admit et in this place. It is rejected by Mafvicius, Catrou, Cunningham, and Burman Honos erit buic quoque pomo.] It

general opinion of the Com mentators, that this refers to the plums juft mentioned. The fenfe therefore is that as Amaryllis was fond of cheftnuts; fo Alexis delights in plums; and on that ac count plums shall be effeemed a

Alas! wretch that Is ami what have I faid 8.

noble fruit. There is a thought like this, in the feventh Eclogue, where it is faid, that though Hercules loves the poplar, Bacchus the vine, Venus the myrtle, and Apollo the bay; yet fince Phyllis admires the hazle; the hazle fhall be preferred to them all:

"Populus Alcidae gratiffima: vitis "Iaccho:

"Formofae myrtus Veneri: fua " laurea Phoebo: "Phyllis amat corylos: illas dum Phyllis amabit,

"Nec myrtus vincet corylos, nec laurea Phoebi.".

Pomum is certainly used to exprefs any fort of fruit almost that is eaten. Lord Lauderdale takes the poma here, not to refer to the plums already mentioned, but to mean apples diftinctly;

"Plums too and apples do deferve 66 our praise."

ers to a fouthern blaft, and let

in the boars to my clear springs.

more wealthy Iolas had in his power to give. He no fooner mentions the name of his rival, than he burfts into an exclamation at his own imprudence for fa doing. Then being afresh agitated by love, he expreffes his aftonishment to fee Alexis defpife the country, which had been the feat of Gods; endeavours to perfuade him to prefer a rural life before any other. He then expreffes the violence of his defire, and on a fudden recollects himfelf, reflects on the negligence in his own affairs, which this unruly paffion had caufed, and encourages himfelf to give over his folly and mind his bufinefs.

Es. Pierius fays it is eft in the Roman manufcript; and certet in the next verfe, inftead of certes.

57. Iolas.] Nannius, as he is quoted by La Cerda, will have Iolas to be put for Auguftus. Catrou tells us it is Mecaenas. "Alex“ander, says he, belonged to Mecaenas, and Maecenas is here "meant under the name of Iolas. "Virgil forefaw, the difficulty he "fhould have in obtaining this "flave. Perhaps the only method "he took of afking for him, was "by this beautiful Eclogue."

Eheu.] Mufonius, and after him Burman, contends, that the fifit fyllable of ebeu is fhort; to confirm which, they produce the folJowing verfe of Terence; "Quaefo, quid de te tantum me. "ruifti? ehcu,"

Achilles Statius indeed fays it is heu, heu, in the Vatican manuscript.

Quid volui mifero mihi?] Ruacus mentions three different interpretations of this paffage 1. That of Ludovicus Vives: I am pouring forth my verfes to deaf ears; juft as if I had expofed my flowers to be torn by the winds, and let in the dirty fwine to trample in mỹ clear springs. 2. That of Nannius I have ruined my flourishing affairs by this paffion. He confirms this opinion by the two proverbs of the flowers and the fwine, and by these expreffions which follow, foon af ter; Quae te dementia cepit? Semiputata tibi, &c. 3. That of Abramus; What have I faid unawares? I have mentioned Iolas and his more powerful gifts. Should Alexis hear

Alas! tubom do you fly thus

60

habited the woods, and Dardanian Paris alfo. Let Pallas dwell in the towers, which he berfelf bas erected. The fierce liones pursues the wolf; the wolf the kid; and the wanton kid the flowering cytisus: thee

this, he will certainly prefer my more dangerous rival, which will be as deftructive to me, as if I had expofed my flowers to the fouthern blafts, and my clear fprings to the fwine. La Cerda is of the fame opinion with Abramus, and obferves, that Corydon compares Alexis to flowers and clear fprings, and Iolas to a ftormy wind and a wild boar. But Dr Trapp, on the contrary, makes the flowers and springs to be the former peace of Corydon's mind, and the winds and boar to be his paffion for Alexis. Among "the feveral interpretations, Says « he, of thefe allegorical and pro"verbial expreffions, I chufe this: "By my folly in indulging this mad "paffion I have raised a tempest in "my breaft, which before was

quiet, confounded and ruined my affairs, which before were well managed, flourishing, and fuc"cefsful."

60. Habitarunt dii quoque fylvas.] Thus Ovid;

"Quod Phoebum decuit, quem non decet? exue faftus, "Curam manfuri quifquis amoris "habes."

61. Dardaniufque Paris.] Paris, the fon of Priam king of Troy, is faid to have fed fheep on the mountain Ida.

Pallas.] Pallas is faid to have been the inventor of building.,

63. Torva leaena lupum, &c.] Thus Theocritus;

"Α αιξ τὸν κύτισον, ὁ λύκος τὰν ἄιγα ἄιξ διώκει,

Α γέρανος τώροτρον, ἐγὼ δ ̓ ἐπὶ τὶν μεμάνημαι.

"The goats their thyme, the "wolves the goats pursue, "The crane the plough, and I am "mad for you." CREECH.

64. Cytifum.] See the note on ver. 431. of the fecond Georgick.

66. Aratra jugo referunt fufpenfa juvenci.] At the beginning of this Eclogue, the Poet had marked the time of noon by the feeding of the cattle under the fhade, the lizards hiding themfelves under the bushes,

F

the