Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

Ire: libet Partho torquere Cydonia cornu
Spicula tanquam haec fint noftri medicina furoris,
Aut deus ille malis hominum mitefcere difcat.

[ocr errors]

delight in hooting Cydonian

arrows with a Parthian bow:

as if these things were a cure 61 for my paffion, or if that god

Jam neque Hamadryades rurfum, nec carmina nobis could be appealed by buman mi

Ipfa placent: ipfae rurfum concedite fylvae.
Non illum noftri poffunt mutare labores:
Nec fi frigoribus mediis Hebrumque bibamus,

feries. Now again neither the Hamadryades, nor even verfes pleafe me: farebel again, Oye. 65 bend him, even though we woods. Our labours cannot

drink the waters of Hebrus, in the midst of the froft,

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]

and endure the Sitbonian fnows Sithoniafque nives hyemis fubeamus aquofae:: of the watery winter.

Not

even though, when the dying Nec fi, cum moriens alta liber aret in ulmo, bark withers on the lofty elm, Aethiopum verfemus oves fub fidere Cancri, mara we should feed the sheep of the Omnia vincit amor; et nos cedamus amori. Ethiopians, under the conftel

lation of Cancer. Love con- Haec fat erit, Divae, veftrum ceciniffe poetam, 70 quers all things, and let us Dum fedet, et gracili fifcellam texit hibifco, Jubmit to Love.

This, O Pierian Goddesses, will have been enough for your poet to have fung, whilft be was weaving a basket with fender twigs:

[blocks in formation]

Where woods with whirling tempefts
toft;

Where no relieving fummers breeze
Does murmur thro' the trees,
But all lyes bound and fixt in froft:

Or place me where the fcorching fun,
With beams too near, doth burn the
Zone';

Yet fearless there I'll gladly rove,
Let frowning, or let fmiling fate

'Or curfe, or blefs my ftate, Sweet Smiling Lalage I'll always love. CREECH.

Hebrum." A very great river "of Thrace, now called Marifa; which anciently rolled over gol "den fands. It flows into the Aegean fea; and rifes from the "mountain Rhodope, which is "taken by fome to be part of Haeand therefore Hebrus is "faid by them to flow from Hae"mus." RUAEUS.

"mus;

-66. Sithionafque nives.] Sithonia is a part of Thrace, a very cold and fnowy country.

[ocr errors]

the Tropick of Cancer to the Equinoctial line. Virgil therefore uses the conftellation of Cancer to exprefs the Tropick. The fun enters Cancer, on the tenth or eleventh of our June, which is the longest day of the year, and naturally the hotteft.

Verfemus.] "Verfo fignifies to "feed, because those who feed 66 fheep drive them here and there; "for the proper fenfe of verfo is to "drive about, as in the twelfth "Aeneid;

66

[ocr errors]

Tu currum deferto in gra"mine verfas."

70. Hoc fat erit, &c.] We are come now to the conclufion of the work, wherein the Poet tells us he has performed enough in this humble way of writing, which he figuratively expreffes by weaving baskets: he intreats the Mufes to add a dignity to his low verfe, that it may become worthy of Gallus, for whom his affection is continually increasing; and at laft defires his goats to go home, because they have been fed enough, and the evening approaches.

71. Gracili.] He uses this epithet to exprefs the meanness of his writing.

68. Aethiopum verfemus oves, &c.], Ethiopia is a large region of Africa,, within the torrid zone, lying to the uth of Egypt, and extending from 30. of the fecond Eclogue.

Hibifco.

See the note on ver.

72. Pierides.]

Pierides: vos haec facietis maxima Gallo:!!
Gallo, cujus amor tantum mihi crefcit in horas,
Quantum vere novo viridis fe fubjicit alnus.
Surgamus: folet effe gravis cantantibus umbra: 75
Juniperi gravis umbra nocent et frugibus umbrae:

you will make thefe great for Gallus: for Gallus, for whom my love increases every bour as much as the green alder rifes the beginning of the fpring Let us rife the fade ufes to be burtful to those who fing under it. The shade of the Juniper is burtful, and shade burts the corn.

NOTES.

72. Pierides.] Thefe Pierian goddeffes are the Mufes.

73. Cujus amor.] The Earl of Lauderdale understands this, not of Virgil's love for Gallus; but of the paffion of Gallus for Lycoris;

"Ye facred Mufes, make this fong divine,

"For Gallus fake, let ev'ry accent "fhine.

"His am'rous flame spread ev'ry ❝hour as far "As the green alders fhoot each ❝ vernal year."

in

"Ufque adeo, capitis faciant ut "faepe dolores,

"Si quis eas fubter jacuit proftratus "in herbis."

But Lucretius does not affirm this of trees in general; and it has never been thought, that the juniper had any thing particularly noxious in it. Nay it is rather efteemed to afford a wholesome smell. The fenfe therefore of the paffage before us must be this; Night is now coming on, and it may be dangerous to fit under the fhade of a tree any longer; even though it is the

75. Surgamus: folet effe gravis, fhade of a juniper, which is ac&c.] Thus Pope;

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

counted the moft wholesome of any.

Nocent et frugibus umbrae.] The hurtfulness of hade to the corn is mentioned in the firft Geor gick;

"Quod nifi et affiduis terram in fectabere raftris,... "Et fonitu terrebis aves, et ruris. "opaci

"Falce premes umbras, votifque vocaveris imbrem; "Heu magnum alterius fruftra "fpectabis acervum, Concuffaque famem in fylvis fo<labere quercu.

[ocr errors]

Bb 3

[ocr errors]

77. In

Go home, ye well fed goats, Ite domum faturae, venit Hesperus, ite capellae. go home, for Hesperus is coming

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

CLOGUEI.

EC

CLOGUEI. p. 14. col. 1. 1. 20. for Num read Nunc
p. 25, col. 1. 1. 2. for et read and.
II. p. 58. col. I. 1. 4. for Par read Per.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

12. for Authorem read. Anthorem.

p. 67. col. 2. 1. penult. for Damaci read Damafci. III. p. 101. col. 2. 1. 19. for Canone read Conone... IV. p. 186. col. 1. 1. 21. for at read et.

1

p. 190. col. 2. 1. 13. for tont read tout. V. p. 223. col. 2. 1, 33. for modesty read modeftly, p. 242, col. 1. 1. 4. for laedefque read laudefque. VIII. p. 334. col. 2. l. 13. for eighth read fourth. Kun 2019035egalo p. 373. col. 1. 1. 21. for Rofcommon read Lauderdak.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]

The following REMARKS were fent me, after the Publication. of the Georgicks, by the learned EDWARD KING, Efq; in a Letter dated from Milkftreet near Bromley in Kent, May

11, 1743

EORGICK 1. ver. 388. I prefer rauca voce, which is the oppofite to liquidas voces, ver. 410. Angelus Politianus, in his tokens of wet weather, has latrant corvi, which I have often heard.

Ver. 480. Moeflum illacrymat ebur. Ovid's mille modis lacrymavit ebur, and Tibullus's lacrymas fudiffe tepentes are nothing more than what is common in moift weather': but Virgil exprefsly refers the weeping into a prodigy by moeftum.

Georg. II. ver. 78. Aut rurfum. Perhaps this means, that the fame ftocks, which were inoculated, upon the buds failing, are again cut for ingrafting.

Ver. 97. Thefe mountains rife, or grow ftill higher, with vineyards of these grapes upon them.

Ver. 251, 252, 253. This with is, that in moift foils the rank grafs fhould not be too prevalent, Ne fit illa terra, quae majores herbas alit, nimium fertilis, viz. majoribus herbis, with the inexpugnabile gramen, as Ovid calls it. He would not wifh his crop fhould not be praevalida, for it was like to be too rank, there is a remedy prescribed Georg. I.

ver. 112.

[ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

Ver. 408. Contains a double precept, 1. That you fhould be early in cutting off the shoots. 2. That they fhould not be burnt in the vineyard. If they were burnt there, they would fcorch the vines, or perhaps totally confume them. The burning fmall-coal in our woods greatly damages the trees that are to be left.

Ver. 455. Mr B-'s remark amounts to nothing; for his reasoning returns to what he objected againft. Though Rhoetus and Pholus were not flain, yet in general

Luxuriem fegetum tenera depaf- may be faid hoftes domare letho, though all are not killed. B b 4

"cit in herba."

Ver

« PreviousContinue »