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Lord Lauderdale tranflates this paf- Catrou renders it "Nous fçavons fage thus ;

et le temps, et le lieu" and adds this note; "It will be ob

"Be fparing how you charge with "ferved, without doubt, that I

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"have fuffered myself to be car"ried along by the torrent of In

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terpreters. They all affirm, that "Virgil underftands fomething, "which he is afhamed to exprefs.

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However I do not fee any ne"ceffity to think, that the Poet alludes here to any abominable "crime, which was committed in a temple facred to the nymphs. "One may imagine, that he means F 4 "only

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and in what chapel too, but Et quo, fed faciles Nymphae rifere, facello

the eafy nymphs only laughed. MEN. Tum, credo, cum me arbuftum videre My

MEN. It was then, I believe,

when they faw me back Mycon's trees and young vines with a malicious bill.

conis,

Atque mala vites incidere falce novellas.

NOTES.

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"only the malice of Menalcas, in "breaking the bow and arrows of "Daphnis. His paffion affrighted "the very goats."

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Tranfverfa tuentibus bircis.] Vives thinks this an admirable expreffion of looking with contempt, with a leering eye, fuch as, according to Pliny, a lion will not endure to look at him. The general opinion of the Commentators is, that this action of Menalcas was fo fhameful, that the very goats, the moft libidinous of all animals, turned their heads away, that they might not behold it. 9. Faciles.] La Cerda underftands faciles to mean tender or compaffionate; because an angry deity would have deftroyed Menalcas for fo fcandalous a profanation. Burman will have it to fignify eafy or good-natured; as if they were ready to have granted a favour themfelves. Virgil does not seem ever to have used facilis in this fenfe; but he has fometimes used it to fignify favourable; as in the fourth Georgick;.:

Tu munera fupplex Tende petens pacem, et faciles "vençrare Napaeas:""

and in the fourth Aeneid;

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Videre.] Burman feems to be at a lofs to understand who these are, that faw. He fays Caftelvetrius thinks videre refers to thofe, whom Damoetas faid he knew; Nopimus the goats, or perhaps be a general et qui te: he thinks it may refer to expreffion, they faw, that is any body. It feems much more probable, that he refers to the nymphs,

"Expectet facilemque fugam, ven- who are the last mentioned perfons.

"tofque ferentes."

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11. Mala falce.] Servius underftands mala to refer to the inten

Sacello.] The Sacalla, like our tion of the perfon, who made ufe

of

DAM. Aut hic ad veteres, fagos, quum Daphnidis DAM. Or bere, at the old Marcum

NOTE S..

of the pruning-hook. Burman contends, that mala fignifies blunt or rufty because by fuch an inftrument the plants would be greatly injured. Servius alfo thinks, that the injury confifts in cutting the young vines, because old ones are the better for pruning. Virgil indeed, in the fecond Georgick feems to forbid the pruning of young vines;

"Ac dum prima novis adolefcit

"frondibus aetas, "Parcendum teneris: et dum fe "laetus ad auras "Palmes agit, laxis per purum immiflus habenis,

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Ipfa acies nondum falcis tentanda, "fed uncis Carpendae manibus frondes, in"terque legendae. "Inde ubi jam validis amplexae ftirpibus ulmos "Exierint, tum ftringe comas, tum brachia tonde. "Ante reformidant ferrum: tum "denique dura Exerce imperia, et ramos compefce fluentes."

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Columella understands the Poet's meaning in this paffage to be, that the vines are not to be pruned the firft year, but are to be cut down to the ground, after the second; which, he fays was an erroneous doctrine taught by Virgil, Saferna, Stolo, and Cato; "Illam veterum opini་་. onem damnavit ufus, non effe "ferro tangendos anniculos malle

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beech trees, when you broke the bow and arrows of Daphnis z

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"olos, quod aciem reformident: quod fruftra Virgilius, et Saferna, "Stolonefque et Catones timuerunt, qui non folum in eo erra "bant, quod primi anni capilla"menta feminum intacta patie"bantur, fed et poft biennium cum vivi radix recidenda erat, omnem fuperficiem amputabant "folo tenus juxta ipfum articulum, "ut e duro pullularet." Whether this doctrine is erroneous or not, it is plain, that Virgil condemned the pruning of vines newly planted. Therefore the opinion of Servius, that the injury confifted in pruning young plants, is in fome measure confirmed. Then we must so far agree with Burman, that there can hardly be any doubt, that the cutting them with a bad knife is very injurious.

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thou, perverfe Menalcas, wat Fregifti et calamos: quae tu, perverfe Menalca,

vexed,

NOTES.

"curvatur acies, quod accidit "molli, five tardius penetrat, quo ❝evenit in retufo et craffo ferra❝mento, majore nifu eft opus. "Tum etiam plagae afperae, at

que inaequales vites lacerant. ❝. Neque enim uno, fed faepius repetito ictu res tranfigitur. Quo plerumque fit, ut quod praecidi debeat, perfringatur, et fic vitis "laniata, fcabrataque putrefcat ❝ humoribus, nec plagae confanen** tur." Thus the reproach on Damoetas muft be, either that he was employed by Mycon to prune his vines, and performed it with a bad inftrument, or that he pruned fuch as were newly planted, which he ought not to have done; or else that he went by ftealth into Mycon's vineyard, and hacked the vines and elms, with an intent to deftroy them. This laft, I believe, is the true fenfe. I do not remember to have found incidere ufed any where for pruning. We find indeed in the eighth Eclogue

"Mopfe novas incide faces ;"

which is cutting of branches from pines or firrs: but this fort of cutting is not with regard to any bene fit intended to the tree by taking off fuperfluous branches; but means the cutting them off for our own ufe. In the tenth Eclogue it fignifies cutting letters into the bark of a tree;'

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qui injuria cecidiffet alienas, lue

ret in fingulas aeris xxv." This we find confirmed in the thirtyfeventh Book of the Digefts, where Caius fays that thofe who cut down trees, efpecially vines, are to be punifhed as thieves; "Sciendum eft "autem eos, qui arbores, et maxime vites ceciderint, etiam tamquam latrones puniri." Thus we

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"Tenerifque meos incidere amores fee, that when Menalcas infinuates,

"Arboribus."..

that Damoetas was guilty of this in

jury

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Et cum vidifti puero donata dolebas ;**
Et fi non aliqua nocuiffes, mortuus effes.
MEN. Quid domini faciant, audent cum talia fures?
Non ego te vidi Damonis, peffime, caprum
Excipere infidiis, multum latrante lycifca?
Et cum clamarem: quo nunc fe proripit ille?

barking? and whilft I called

NOTES.

jury to Mycon's trees, he does in effect call him thief.

12. Aut hic ad veteres, &c.] Damoetas retorts, with an infinuation, that Menalcas had broken a bow and arrows, belonging to Daphnis, out of mere fpight.

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16. Quid domini faciant, &c.] Menalcas keeps up the fame manner of infulting with which he began. He fet out at firft with treating him as a mean flave, asking him whofe ragged sheep he tended; and now he fays, what ufage may I expect from the mafter, when his flave dares to treat me with fuch infolence? He again accuses Damoetas as a thief, charging him with having ftolen a goat from Damon.

Faciant.] Some read facient; but Pierius found faciant in the Roman, and other ancient manuscripts.

Fures] Servius fays, fur is used for fervus, which he confirms by the authority of Plautus, who fpeaking of a flave, ufes this expreffion, "Homo es trium literarum" by which he means fur. But if we confider the whole paffage, as it ftands in Plautus, we fhall find it does not come up to the purpose, for which Servius quotes it. The fourth fcene of the second act of the Aulularia is a discourse between Strobilus a flave, and Congrio and Anthrax

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two cooks. Congrio reproaches Anthrax, as being unfit to drefs a wedding-dinner, being accustomed only to prepare entertainments at funerals 66 Coquus ille hondiali "'ft, in nonum diem folet ire coc

tum." Anthrax anfwers, "Tun' "trium literarum homo me vitu"peras? Fur!" To which Congrio replies, "Etiam Fur trifurci

fer!" Here it is plain, that the cooks do not call the flave, but each other thief; nor does it in the leaft appear, that fur, is ufed in this place, by Plautus, as fynonymous with fervus.

17. Non ego te vidi, &c.] Here he accufes him openly of theft; for he declares, that he himself faw him fteal Damon's goat.

Peffime.] This term of reproach is ufed to a flave, by Horace;

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"Non dices hodie, quorfum haec tam putida tendunt "Furcifer? Ad te, inquam. Quo "pacto, peffime ?"

18. Lycifca.] Servius tells us, that the mungrel breed of dogs, generated by a wolf on a bitch is called Lycifca. Both Ariftotle and Pliny mention this breed; but I have not found the word Lycifca in any author, except in this paffage of Vir

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