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Mecum una in Sylvis imitabere Pana canendo.
Pan primus calamos cera conjungere plures
Instituit; Pan curat oves oviumque magistros.
Nec te poeniteat calamo trivisse labellum:

Haec eadem ut sciret, quid non faciebat Amyntas? § 35
Est mihi disparibus septem compacta cicutis

Fistula, Damoetas dono mihi quam dedit olim,

Et dixit moriens: Te nunc habet ista secundum :

Dixit Damoetas; invidit stultus Amyntas.

Praeterea duo, nec tuta mihi valle reperti,

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Capreoli, sparsis etiam nunc pellibus albo,
Bina die siccant ovis ubera; quos tibi servo.
Jam pridem a me illos abducere Thestylis orat;
Et faciet; quoniam sordent tibi munera nostra.
Huc ades, o formose puer: tibi liliai plenis
Ecce ferunt Nymphae calathis; tibi candida Nais, k
Pallentes violas' et summa papavera m carpens,

4.5

Amyntas is not known to allude to any particular person; nor, Damoetas, by the best commentators, supposed to personify any known poet.

i Lilium candidum, fig. 7. White lilies are those which were best known and most celebrated among the ancients. Theophrastus speaks of red lilies as flowers he had only heard of, but never saw. k Naides were nymphs of the springs and fountains.

1 Pallens viola is thought, with great probability, to mean our stock-gilliflower, Cheiranthus incanus, fig. 8.

m The Poppy here alluded to is our common garden poppy, which is the black poppy of the fields in a state of cultivation.

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Narcissum, et florem jungit bene olentis anethi;
Tum, casia atque aliis intexens suavibus herbis,
Mollia luteola pingit vaccinia caltha. ¶

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Ipse ego cana legam tenera lanugine mala,'
Castaneasque nuces, mea quas Amaryllis amabat.
Addam cerea pruna; honos erit huic quoque pomo;
Et vos, o lauri, carpam, et te, proxima myrte : *
Sic positae quoniam suaves miscetis odores.
Rusticus es, Corydon; nec munera curat Alexis;
Nec, si muneribus certes, concedat Iolas.

apros.

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55

Heu, heu, quid volui misero mihi! floribus austrum
Perditus, et liquidis immisi fontibus
Quem fugis, ah demens? habitarunt di quoque sylvas,
Dardaniusque Paris :" Pallas, quas condidit, arces

n Narcissus poeticus, fig. 9.

• Anethum graveolens, fig. 10.

P Daphne gnidium, fig.11.

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9 Caltha. This plant cannot be ascertained with certainty; but it is supposed to be a marigold, of which genus there are fourteen species, and this may probably be the field marigold, Calendula arvensis, fig. 12.

• Lanugine mala. It is probable that this fruit was some kind of apricot or peach, though Pliny's account of the introduction of these fruits into Italy, militates somewhat against this opinion. s Laurus nobilis of Linnaeus,

t Myrtus communis, fig. 13.

"Dardaniusque Paris. Paris was called Dardanius, from Dardanus the son of Jupiter and founder of the royal family of Troy.

ECLOGA II.

ALEXIS.

FORMOSUM pastor Corydona ardebat Alexin,
Delicias domini; nec, quid speraret, habebat.
Tantum inter densas, umbrosa cacumina, fagos
Assidue veniebat; ibi haec incondita solus
Montibus et sylvis studio jactabat inani :

O crudelis Alexi, nihil mea carmina curas?

Nil nostri miserere? mori me denique coges.
Nunc etiam pecudes umbras et frigora captant;
Nunc virides etiam occultant spineta lacertos;

Thestylish et rapido fessis messoribus aestu

с

Allia serpyllumque herbas contundit olentes:
At mecum raucis, tua dum vestigia lustro,
Sole sub ardenti resonant arbusta cicadis.
Nonne fuit satius, tristes Amaryllidis iras

5

10

Atque superba pati fastidia? nonne Menalcan ? e

15

a Corydon is a fictitious name for a shepherd, and most probably

alludes to no individual person.

b Thestylis. The name of a female servant.

c Thymus serpyllum. Fig. 4.

d Amaryllis by some commentators is supposed to be a girl, and Menalcas a boy, given to Virgil by Mæcænas; but these are opi

Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses.
O formose puer, nimium ne crede colori.
Alba ligustra cadunt, vaccinia' nigra leguntur.
Despectus tibi sum, nec, qui sim, quaeris, Alexi;
Quam dives pecoris, nivei quani lactis abundans.
Mille meae Siculis errant in montibus agnae.
Lac mihi non aestate novum, non frigore desit.
Canto, quae solitus, si quando armenta vocabat,
Amphion Dircaeus, in Actaeo Aracyntho.

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Nec sum adeo informis: nuper me in littore vidi, Cum placidum ventis staret mare; non ego Daphnim, Judice te, metuam, si nunquam fallat imago.

O tantum libeat mecum tibi sordida rura

Atque humiles habitare casas et figere cervos, Hoedorumque gregem viridi compellere hibisco! 30

mions more of imagination than authority. In the filth eclogue, under the name of Menalcas, Virgil would seem to mean himself.

e The ligustrum of the ancients is generally supposed to be the common privet, Ligustrum vulgare, fig. 5; nevertheless, there is reason to believe that it may be our great Bind-weed, Convolvulus sepium.

f Vaccinium, as mentioned by Virgil, both here and in the tenth eclogue, is not different from what, in other places, he calls hyacinthus; the latter being the same as the bands of the Greeks, and the former a Latin name derived from it. From different passages in Moschus, Ovid, and Virgil, this hyacinthus, or vaccinium, would seem to be, not the flower that is known to us by that name, but the Liium martagon of Linnæus, fig. 6.

Ipsa colat: nobis placeant ante omnia sylvae.
Torva leaena lupum sequitur; lupus ipse capellam;
Florentem cytisum sequitur lasciva capella;

Te Corydon, o Alexi; trahit sua quemque voluptas. 65
Aspice, aratra jugo referunt suspensa juvenci,

Et sol crescentes decedens duplicat umbras :

Me tamen urit amor; quis enim modus adsit amori ?
Ah Corydon, Corydon, quae te dementia cepit!
Semiputata tibi frondosa vitis in ulmo est.

Quin tu aliquid saltem potius, quorum indiget usus,
Viminibus mollique paras detexere junco ?

Invenies alium, si te hic fastidit, Alexin.

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x Pallas, the goddess of wisdom, is also said to be the inventor of building.

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