DAM. Ought not be, when you skulked behind the rubes. Tityre, coge pecus: tu poft carecta latebas. I bad excelled him in mufick, to DAM. An mihi cantando victus non redderet ille, bave given up the goat, which Quem mea carminibus meruiffet fiftula, caprum my pipe had won ? To let you Si nefcis, meus ille caper fuit: et mihi Damon know, Sir: the goat was my Ipfe fatebatur, fed reddere poffe negabat. own and Damon bimself con 20 felled it to me; but faid it was MEN. Cantando tu illum? aut unquam tibi fistula not in his power to give it?. MEN. You conquer bim in cera playing? Was you ever master of a pipe joined with wax ? NOTES. Some take it to be the dog's name. Thus Dr Trapp; "Did I not fee you, varlet, by fur"prize "Filch Damon's goat, Lycica barking loud?" 66 20. Carecta.] See the note on ver. 231. of the third Georgick. Servius mentions a ftory, which fome old allegorical interpreters pretended that Virgil alluded to in this paffage. "Varus, a tragick Poet had a very learned wife, with "whom Virgil had a criminal con"verfation; and made her a pre fent of a tragedy, which fhe gave "to her husband, as if fhe had "compofed it herself. Varus re"cited it as his own, which Virgil "here mentions allegorically, it "having been the ancient custom to give a goat to thofe who excelled ❝in tragedy.' "Thus Virgil is fuppofed to fhadow the ftealing of his tragedy under the robbing Damon of his goat. But Servius treats this as an idle ftory, and thinks the moft obvious meaning is the best. He adds that allegories are to be rejected in paftoral writings, except where the mention of the lofs of lands neceffarily requires them. 25 21. An mihi cantando, &c.] Damoetas juftifies himself againft the accufation of Menalcas, by affirming, that he had fairly won the goat from Damon, by a trial of skill on the pipe. To this Menalcas anfwers with great contempt, treating him as a common piper about the streets, and unfit to engage in fuch a contention. 25. Cantando tu illum ? Some fuch word as overcome is here neceffarily understood to agree with tu. It is omitted, no doubt, in imitation of the contemptuous ftyle of the vulgar. Our common people would fay, You play! You Aut.] It is haud in the Medicean manufcript, according to Pierius. According to this reading, it ought to be interpreted: You conquer him in playing? You never was mafter of a pipe joined with wax. t Fistula cera junta.] Damoetas affirmed, that he had won a goat from Damon, by excelling him in playing on the pipe. Menalcas questions his being poffeffed of an inftrument deferving the name of a pipe, or fiftula, which was compofed of feveral reeds joined together, according to the invention of Pan, mentioned in the fecond Eclogue. This paffage is an imi Juncta fuit non tu in triviis, indocte, folebas. Is it not your custom, you blockbead, in the publick roads to Spoil a forry tune with a fcreaking straw? DAM. Are you willing therefore, that we should pur Bis venit ad mulctram, binos alit ubere foetus, 30 it to the trial, what each of us can an do 3 I lay this cow; and to let you know the value of her, she comes twice every day to the pail, and fuckles two calves: NOTES. tation of the fifth Idyllium of The- fcreaking noife; the tune he plays ocritus ; Τὰν ποίαν σύριγγα; τὸ γὰρ πόκα Αρκει το καλάμας αὐλὸν ποππυσδεν ἔχοντι ; "Thy pipe! what pipe hadst thou, Juncta.] Pierius found vinta in the Roman, and other manufcripts: but he juftly prefers juncta. 26. In triviis.] Trivia are the places where three roads meet; which are confequently very publick. Thus Menalcas reprefents Damoetas as a common piper in places of publick refort. 27. Stridenti miferum, &c.] It is hardly poffible to exprefs more conles tempt, than is used in these words. He will not allow his adverfary's inftrument to deferve the name of a pipe, but calls it a ftraw or ftubble, ftipula; and adds the epithet tridenti, to th fhew that even this ftraw, inftead of a mellow found, made a upon this inftrument is called miferum, a forry one; and even this forry tune he is faid to fpoil, difperdere. The very found of this verse is worthy of obfervation. Milton has imitated it in his Lycidas... Say what wager you are willing Depono: tu dic, mecum quo pignore certes. Ph to lay. ་ ་ ་ MEN. I dare not lay any part of the flock for a wager MEN. De grege non aufim quicquam deponere tecum. with you. For I bave a father Eft mihi namque domi pater, eft injufta noverca: at bome, and a fevere step mother; who both count the Bifque die numerant ambo pecus, alter et hoedos. Sheep twice every day, and one Verum, id quod multo tute ipfe fatebere majus, 35 of them the goats. But, fince Infanire libet quoniam tibi, pocula ponam you have a mind to be mad, I will lay what you yourself will Fagina, caelatum divini opus Alcimedontis: allows to be much better, two beechen cups, the carved work of the divine Alcimedon. NOTE S. "barely I will not lay, Virgil adds 66 an ornament, I dare not lay. "Theocritus fays My father is dif ficult, whereas fathers are ufu 66 ally very indulgent to their chil"dren. But Virgil mentions only "there being a father at home, "which is a fufficient reftraint to a " dutiful fon. Theocritus men"tions only a mother; but Virgil a Step-mother, and a fevere one too." 36. Pocula ponam fagina.] Pliny tells us, that beechen cups s were anciently efteemed. Therefore we may fuppofe, these were fine oldfafhioned cups, which, though admired in the country, would have been defpifed at Rome in Virgil's time. The Commentators will have these beechen cups to be intended to exprefs the poverty of the fhepherds, which I think could not be the meaning of the Poet. Damoetas had offered to lay a good COW; and now Menalcas propofes father a beechen cup, which he fays is of far greater value. It was no great mark of poverty in a fhepherd, to be able to part with a cup, which was of much greater value than a good cow. 37. Divini opus Alcimedontis.] It feems probable, by this expreffion that Lenta quibus torno facili fuperaddita vitis NOTES. that there had been a famous car» ver, named Alcimedon. But I have not found the mention of him in any other author. Perhaps he was a friend of our Poet, who was willing therefore to tranfmit his name to pofterity. By his name, it appears, that he must have been a Greek, and confequently a man of fome quality; for Pliny informs us, that in Greece, none but gentlemen were permitted to learn that art, and painting; which law was firft procured by Eupompus, the mafter of Apelles; "Et hujus au"toritate effectum eft, Sicyone pri་ mum deinde et in tota Graecia, "ut pueri ingenui ante omnia diagraphicen, hoc eft, picturam in "buxo docerentur, recipereturque "ars ea in primum gradum libe"ralium. Semper quidem honos "ei fuit, ut ingenui eam exerce ་་ rent, mox ut honefti, perpetuo "interdicto ne fervitia docerentur. "Ideo neque in hac, neque in toreutice, ullius qui fervierit opera celebrantur." A bending vine is wreathed round them by his delicate art, It is hardly poffible for a tranflation to be more erroneous, than these two laft lines. two laft lines. Καρπῶ κροκόεντι fignifies a fruit of a yellow or faffron colour, which Creech has rendered Crocus. But Crocus or Saffron is a flower, not a fruit. I muft confefs, it was fome time before I could difcover where Creech found the kids in this paffage of Theocritus. I fuppofe it must be from miftaking the fenfe of the word nie. It fignifies thofe clafpers or tendrils, which the vine and other fcandent plants ufe to fuftain themfelves in climbing, The Romans call it clatranfator anding έλιξ to be capreolus vicula or capreolus. Hence the in Latin, which alfo fignifies a kid, took it in the latter fenfe. But he ought to have known, that though capreolus and overspreads the feattered Diffufos hedera vestit pallente corymbos. clusters with pale ivy. NOTES. capreolus is used both for a kid and a tendril; yet in fignifies only the latter. 66 : Torno.] "Salmafius and La "Cerda underftand two arts to be "here spoken of, that of the Turand that of the Graver. ner, "They fay, a vine, clufters, and "figures of men, cannot be formed by the tornus, or lath, which "fhaves and fmooths the wood, but only by the graving-tool, "caelum or fcalprum, by which the "wood or metal is cut and hol"lowed. They will have quibus, "in this paffage, to be the ablative "cafe, and torno the dative, ren"dering it thus, in quibus lenta vi"tis per caelaturam addita eft_torno, "five materiae jam tornatae, that is, "in which a bending vine is added by graving to the lath, or turner's "inftrument, or to the wood that has already been turned. In the first "place, I am of opinion that to "ufe tornus for the turned wood is "not Latin. 2. I find, that to" reumata, which, in the old gloffaries, are expounded opera torno "rafa, are promifcuously taken by the most approved writers, for carved work: fuch as cups and "bowls, that have the figures of 66 men and beafts emboffed. Thus "Martial, 1. 4. 39. Solus Phidiaci "toreuma caeli. Thus alfo Cicero, "against Verres, frequently in the "fame fenfe. 3. Pliny, 1. 34. 8. "mentions Phidias, as the inventor ❝ of the art of Turning, and Poly"cletus, as the perfecter of it; and "that these were Sculptors and "Statuaries, as well as Turners, is "manifeft. Wherefore I believe, "that though the tornus is really an "inftrument diftinct from the cae"lum and fcalprum, cuftom has ob"tained to use them promifcuously." RUAEUS. Vitis.] " Many understand a vine "and an ivy to be interwoven, I 66 agree with Nannius, that the ivy "alone is meant; and take vitis "for a branch of ivy, vimen he"derae, which Pliny calls viticula; "and hedera for the leaves of ivy, "in this fenfe; a branch of ivy "intermingles it's own clufters with "pale leaves." RUAEUS. "How can a vine cover ivy"berries, or any thing elfe, with "ivy-leaves? or can vitis fignify "ivy? Or if it fignifies a vine, can "hedera be put for pampini; or corymbos for racemos? Servius and "De La Cerda are filent upon this 66 great difficulty: and fo are all the "reft, except Ruaeus, who fays "that Pliny (I wish he had told us "where) ufes viticula for vimen he "derae. This, if it be true, goes a great way. For if vitis may "here fignify ivy, all is plain. "". The reft underftand ivy and a "vine intermingled: but then they "tell us not how to account for the 66 manner of expreffing, which is "the only point to be cleared. "They fay, This is meant but the "queftion is, How can fuch words "mean fuch a thing! For my part, "I think Ruaeus's opinion may be |