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is required to feparate the drofs from the pure metal. Those who would imitate his Doric rufticity; ought to write in Greek: for it is not to be imitated in any other language. We have no dialect peculiar to the country people: for though many words are used, which are not known in cities; yet they are various in different counties; fome being peculiar to the Eaft, others to the Weft, others to the North, and others to the South. A Paftoral therefore, written in any of our ruftick dialects, would be almost unintelligible, except in two or three counties: and the phrafes of the most rude and ftupid of our people, instead of giving an air of innocence and fimplicity to a Foem, disgust the reader by their groffness and abfurdity.

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To conclude; whofoever would excel in Paftoral poetry, may find plenty of ore in the rich mine of Theocritus: but the art of refining and purifying it must be learned from Virgil.

THE

Year of

Rome

684.

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HE Hiftory of the Lives of moft of the famous perfons of Antiquity has been so obfcured by fiction, that the very existence of many of them has been rendered doubtful. This is fot entirely the cafe of Virgil; for we know, that there was fuch a perfon; and are at no lofs to dif cover his age and country. But fo many improbable and fabulous ftories, have been told concerning him, by the old Grammarians; that it is very hard, at this diftance of time, to diftinguish between truth and falfhood. We fhall therefore content ourselves with relating only what is certain, or probable; and return the idle and improbable fictions to the inventors of them.

T

PUBLIUS VIRGILIUS MARO was born at a village called Andes (a), now Petula (4) faid to be about three miles from Mantua, on the Ides (e) of fifteenth day of October, in the year of Rome 297956849

- Eufeb. Chron. Donat.
&c.

P. 221,

(C) Οὐιργίλιος Μάριν, το ποι ητῆς ἐγεννήθη τούτου τοῦ ἔτους Ray's Obfervations, &c. idols 'Oxтolgiais. Phlegon apud

272

Photium.

Majae

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684.

684, when Pompey and Craffus were Confuls (d). Year of It is agreed, that his mother's name was Maia: but Rome there is fome difpute about the very name and quality of his Father. Donatus, or the writer of Virgil's life under that name, fays it was Maro; and Servius and Probus affirm that it was Virgil. The latter feems to have been in the right: for, as Ruarts justly obferves, if the father's name had been Maro, the fon's would have been Publius Maro Virgilius, according to the custom of the Romans, inftead of Publius Virgilius Maro. Probus fays he was a countryman; Donatus tells us, that fome report him to have been a potter; though many are of opinion that he was at firft a hired fervant of one Magus or Magius, who gave him his daughter as a reward for his induftry; and intrufted him with the care of his farm and flocks, and that he increafed his fmall fortune, by buying woods, and managing bees. Ruaeus thinks, and not without reason, that if the daughter's name was Maia, as all agree, the father's name must have been Maius, and not Magus or Magius. He obferves farther, that this corruption of the name of Virgil's grandfather has given rife to a grofs miftake of fome later writers; that the old man was a Magician, and that he inftructed his grandfon in magical rites, which feems to be confirmed by the incantations mentioned in the feventh Eclogue. Servius affirms, that Virgil was a citizen of Mantua, which feems very pro

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Year of bable and indeed, the politenefs of his manners, Rome and his intimacy with fome of the greatest men of 684. that age, even in his younger days, feem to inti

mate, that his birth was not fo mean, as it is generally reprefented (e) ;;

has wivist 689. When Virgil was five years old, his intimater friend, and contemporary poet, Horace was born (ƒ), WAS (f); 691. and two years afterwards (g), his great patron Au 696. guftus. At the age of twelve years, he was fent to ftudy at Cremona (b), where he continued till he put on his manly gown, which, according to the. cuftom of the Romans, was in the feventeenth

7

year,

at the fame time. We'
e may
conclude from the fudden, and
great thriving of the poplar,
that the ditch was not a dry
one, and confequently not a
very commodious lying-in
chamber. This famous tree, it
feems, was confecrated by the
name of Virgil's tree, and the
breeding women ufed to make
vows under it for their fafe de-
livery.

Donatus tells us fome idle ftories of prodigies attending the birth of Virgil. His mother, when he was with child of him, dreamed the was delivered of a branch of a baytree, which no fooner touched the ground, than it took root, and grew up into a fair tree, adorned with flowers and fruits. One would have thought, that this denoted rather, that the child would become a great Conqueror. The grandeur of this omen feems however to be a little diminished; for the next day, as the good woman was trudging along the road, with her husband, fhe was delivered of our Poet in a ditch. The child did not cry, and had fo fweet a countenance, that it) Olymp. CLXXX. was not doubted but he would Virgilius Cremonae ftudiis eru of good fortune. A twig ditur. Eufeb to Chron

of a poplar was ftuck immedi
ately in the place, which foof
outgrew all that were planted

(f) O1. CLXXVIII. 4. Ho ratius Flaccus, Satyricus et Ly ricus Poëta, libertino patre Ve nufi nafcitur. Eufeb. Chron.

(g) Natus eft Auguftus, M. Tullio Cicerotie et Antônio Coff, ix. Cal. Octobr. paullo ante folis exortum. Sueton. Aug. c. 5.

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Donatus fays, he ftudied at Cremona, till his feventh year; "Initia aetatis, id eft, ufque

"ad

་་་་་

701.

year (2). Soon after he went to Milan (k), where Year of having ftaid but a fhort time, he proceeded to Na- Rome ples, as Donatus tells us; but, according to Eufe- 700. bius, to Rome, That he ftudied fome time at Naples, is affirmed alfo by Servius: fo that we may venture to believe Donatus, that he spent fome time there, in the ftudy of Roman and Greek literature, Phyfick and Mathematicks, before, he went to Rome (1). It is not eafy to determine, at what time

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"ad feptimum annum, Cre"monae egit." Jofeph Scaliger reads fedecimum inftead of Septimum; and takes the liberty to amend the whole paffage thus; Initia aetatis, id eft, "a xiii ufque ad fedecimum annum Cremonae egit, et "xvii anno virilem togam fumpfit." But, as this Critick adds a xiii, to make Donatus agree with Eufebius, and changes feptimum into fedecimum, without the authority of any manufcript; it feems more reasonable to believe that this paffage, in the life of Virgil, afcribed to Donatus, is erroneous, like many others.

(i) Donatus fays this was in the feventeenth year of Virgil's life, when the fame perfons were Confuls, under whom he was born. This cannot poffibly be true; for Virgil could but enter his fixteenth year, about two months before the expiration of the fecond Confulthip of Pompey and Craffus. Therefore either the age of Virgil, or the Confuls

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must be wrong: I believe the miftake lies in the Confuls, and that the age is right, being according to the Roman cuftom,, Probably he put, on the gown at the completion of his feventeenth year, which was at the latter end of 700, and went at the beginning of the following year to Milan, which agrees with what Eufebius has faid..

(A) O1. CLXXXI. 4. Virgilius, fumta toga, Mediolanum tranfgreditur et polt breve tempus Romam pergit. Eufeb. Chron..

Virgilius Cremona Mediolanum, et inde paullo poft Neapolim tranfiit.

(1) Here Donátus tells a heap of moft improbable and filly ftories. Virgil, it seems, having spent a confiderable time in his ftudies at Cremena, Milan, and Naples, and having acquired a confiderable knowledge in Phyfick and Philofophy, went to Rome, and fet up for a Horfe-doctor. He got himfelf recommended to the mafter of Auguftus's ftables,

where

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