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MEN. Parcite oves nimium procedere: non bene : ripae

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NOTES.

and his verfes allowed without difpute to be ridiculoufly bad. Let us fuppofe then, that Maevius was the adverfary of Pollio: the fatire in this cafe will be very plain, and ftrongly levelled against Maevius. The fenfe then will be, that none can bear the poetry of Maevius, but fuch as are fo fenfelefs as to like the wretched verfes of Bavius. This fenfe feems to me more delicate, and more like Virgil. We may ftrength-. en this interpretation by confidering an almoft fimilar circumftance. We are told that Settle was once a rival of the famous Dryden, and had a ftrong party on his fide. If any friend of Dryden would have fhewed his contempt of that unworthy antagonist, could he have done it better than by naming fome incontestably bad Poet, fuch as Withers, for inftance, and faying, "Let him "that does not hate Withers, ad"mire Settle?" Would not the fatire, in that cafe, be more delicate, and ftrong, than if that friend had named two of Dryden's antagonists, and faid, "Let him that does not "hate Blackmore, admire Settle?" There is no great matter of fatire in naming two Poets together, who are neither of them in efteem. But to compare a Poet, who has many admirers, with another that has none, is treating him with ridicule and contempt. We may conclude therefore, that Maevius had his admirers, and that Virgil, being incensed against him for abufing his

MEN. Yfheep, forbear to go farther, it is not fafe to truft the bank:

friend Pollio, was refolved to fhew his contempt of him, by telling him he was no better a poet than Bavius. Dryden has tranflated this line moft ftrangely;

"Who hates not living Bavius, let ❝ him be,

"Dead Maevius, doom'd to love "thy works and thee:"

Where this famous tranflator difcovered, that Maevius was dead, when this Eclogue was written, I cannot imagine.

91. Atque idem jungat, &c.] Here Menalcas fays, that fuch as can like the poetry of Maevius, are capable of employing themselves in the groffeft abfurdities.

92. Qui legitis flores, &c.] "In

thefe and the following couplets, "the fhepherds feem to be grown "friends": they do not 'fting one "another, as before; but only op

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pofe one fentence to another; in "which they appear to me to be always equal. The allegories, "which fome have imagined, do 66 not please me. Damoetas ad"monishes the boys, to avoid the "flowers of the meadows, where "fnakes lie hid: Menalcas warns "the fheep to keep from the banks "of the rivers, where there is danger." LA CERDA.

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Servius understands this allegorically. He fays it is a hint to the Mantuans, who lived among armed foldiers, that were as dangerous as

fo

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the nam bimfelf is even now Creditur: ipfe aries etiam nunc vellera ficcat. drying his fleece. DAM. O Tityrus, keep the DAM. Tityre, pafcentes a flumine reice capellas: goats back from the river:

.

NOTES.

95.

Servius alfo understands this couplet allegorically, and thinks it alludes to the ftory of Virgil's being in danger of his life from Arrius the centurion, if he had not thrown himfelf into the river. Vives tells us the whole ftory: "Arrius the "centurion was placed in Virgil's

fo many ferpents. Vives interprets it, "You that study the liberal 66 arts, avoid this venemous Poet.". Catrou thinks it is a metaphor taken from the country, to fhew the danger of those paffions, which captivate the heart. He understands love to be the fnake in the grafs. If this paffage must be understood al-lands, and when Virgil returned legorically, I fhould rather follow the interpretation of Vives, because it continues the fubject of the preceding couplet. But I believe it would be better, with La Cerda, to understand thefe verfes literally.

Humi nafcentia fraga.] This epithet humi nafcentia is very proper; it exprelles the manner in which ftrawberries grow; for the plants, which bear them trail upon the ground, and are therefore more likely to conceal ferpents.

94. Parcite oves, &c.] Servius interprets parcite procedere to mean prohibete, fervate ne procedant. This Ruaeus justly thinks to be harsh and without example. The other interpretation, he obferves, is countenanced by this line of Catullus;

"Nil metuunt jurare, nihil pro

"mittere parcunt.'

It is conformable alfo to a like expreffion of Theocritus, in the fifth Idyllium;

Σιτῇ' ἀπὸ τᾶς κοτίνω, ταὶ μηκάδες" ὧδε νέμεσθε,

Ως τὸ κάταντες τοῦτο γεώλαφον, ὦ

σε μυρίκαι.

66

"from the city with Caefar's edict,
"by which Arrius was commanded
"to quit his poffeffion, the centu-
"rion affaulted Virgil with his
"drawn fword, and purfued him,
"till he threw himself into the
"Mincius, and fwam to the far-
"ther bank." Dr Trapp is of
opinion, that
to put the ram for
the fhepherd, however allegorical
it may be, is not very natural:
" and there is little agreement, fays
"he, between falling into a river
"accidentally, and leaping into it
"defignedly. Catrou thinks the
allufion to love is ftill carried on,
and that the meaning of this cou
plet is, that love is a flippery fhoar,
from which we may eafily fall head-
long into the torrent, if we do not
carefully avoid the brink. I believe
we had better keep to the literal in-
terpretation.

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I myself will wash them all in the fountain, when it shall be a

Ipfe, ubi tempus erit; omnes in fonte lavabo.
MEN. Cogite oves, pueri: fi lac praeceperit aeftus, proper time.

MEN. Fold the sheep, my boys: if the beat should dry up the milk,

NOTES.

σε

"

Servius thus allegorizes the paf-"reice. Thus we have eicit for fage before us; "O Mantua, re"frain from the endeavour to re

cover thy lands: for when it fhall "be a proper time, I will wash them all, that is, I will purge them all "before Caefar, when he fhall return from the fight at Actium.

« He ufes this expreffion in fonte "with great propriety; for he "himfelf was afraid to receive his “ land from Caefar's friends, as "from fome little ftreams;

but

now he tells the Mantuans, that "he will obtain the benefit from the fountain head, from Caefar "himself." But Virgil, if we may believe the writers of his life, finifhed all his Eclogues, feven years before the fight at Actium. Vives interprets this couplet in the fame manner, and takes in fonte to mean Auguftus; but he does not mention. Actium. Catrou understands it as a caution, to avoid being furprized by dangerous inclinations. Dryden tranflates this couplet thus ;

ejicit in Lucretius;

"Nec radicitus e vita fe tollit et "eicit." RUAEUS.

97. Omnes in fonte lavabo.] Thus Theocritus, in the fifth Idyllium s

*Αιγες ἐμαὶ θαρσεῖτε κερουχίδες· ἄνε

ριον ύμμε

Πᾶσας εγώ λουσῶ Συβαρίτιδος ἔνδοθε κράνας.

98. Si lac praeceperit aeftus.] "That is, praeripuerit, ante coe

perit, ante verterit. Hence pre"ceptors are fo called, because they "first take a thing, and conceive it in their mind, before they "teach others. Gifanius thinks "we fhould read perceperit for in" vaferit, after the manner of the "old Latin writers. Thus Pacu"vius, in his Medea, has Horror "percipit; and Plautus, in his "Amphitryo, Nam mihi, &c. mihi "horror membra mifero percipit dictis

"From rivers drive the kids, and tuis; and Lucretius, lib. 5.

66

fling your book:

"Anon I'll wash 'em in the fhal"low brook."

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we shall press their dugs in vain Ut nuper, fruftra preffabimus ubera palmis. with our bands, as we did fome time ago. DAM. Eheu, quam pingui macer eft mihi taurus

DAM. Alas! in bow fat.

in arvo!

100

tening a field is my bull lean! Idem amor exitium pecori eft, pecorifque magiftro. Love is the fame deftru&ion of MEN. His certe neque amor caufa eft; vix offibus,

the cattle, and of the master of the cattle.

MEN. Thefe certainly do not

haerent.

fuffer by love; their flesh scarce flicks to their bones.

NOTES.

not remember to have feen elfe- fubject to the paffion of love, as where ;

well as himself. Menalcas answers, that love is not the occafion of the

"If heate, as erft it did, the milk leannefs of his sheep, but fome fascination.

foreftowe."

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Eheu.] Some read Heu, Heu, which answers to the Greek expreffion *A, .

Macer eft mihi taurus.] Thus Theocritus, in his Noμes;

Λεπτὸς μὲν χω ταῦρος ὁ πύῤῥιχος.

In arvo.] Pierius and Burman find in ervo in feveral manuscripts, which reading they approve, because the ervum, a fort of vetch, is faid by Aristotle, Columella, and Pliny, to fatten cattle. La Cerda quotes a paffage from Plautus, in confirmation of this reading'; Ervum daturin' eftis, bubus quod feram: but he fays, he follows the moft learned,

who retain in arvo.

102. His certe, &c.] Damoetas had afcribed the leannefs of his himfelf was tormented; but Mebull to love, a paffion by which nalcas tells him, that this cannot be the cafe of his young lambs, which fome other caufe ought to be affign are mere fkeletons; and therefore ed, which he thinks to be fafcina tion or witchcraft.

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Nefcio quis teneros oculus mihi fafcinat agnos.
DAM. Dic quibus in terris, et eris mihi magnus

Apollo,

I know not what eye bewitches the tender lambs.

DAM. Tell me in what land, the space of heaven is extended three ells and no more;

NOTES.

Vix offibus haerent.] Thus Theo- which the philofophers digged at critus, in his Nouεis;

Syene, to fhew, that on the eighth of the kalends of July the fun fhone

Τήνας μὲν δέ τοι τὰς πόρτιος αυτὰ perpendicularly over that place:

λέλειπται

Τωστέα.

103. Oculus... fafcinat.] It is an opinion, which still prevails among the ignorant, that witches, and other evil difpofed perfons, have a power of injuring both perfons and cattle, by looking at them with a malicious eye.

104. Dic quibus in terris, &c.] Damoetas, to put an end to the controverfy, propofes a riddle to his antagonist, who, instead of solving it, proposes another.

Afconius Pedianus, according to Servius and Philargyrius, affirmed that he had heard Virgil himself declare, that he had left these riddles, on purpose to torture the grammarians in folving them, and that the firft alluded to Caclius of Mantua. This Caelius, it seems, was an extravagant fellow, that spent his eftate in luxury and left himself no more land, than fufficed for his fepulchre. This folution makes the riddle to be a forry pun upon the name of Caelius, fpatium caeli being fuppofed to mean, not the space of heaven, but the space of Caelius. But Virgil does not use to trifle in this manner. Servius tells us, that others think it alludes to the well,

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that others would have it mean the fhield of Ajax, on which the form of the heavens was expreffed; others a cave in Sicily, through which Proferpine was carried off by Pluto: and others the place called mundus in the rites of Ceres: but these he thinks are too high for a countryman. Philargyrius speaks of a well, into which they ufed formerly to defcend in order to celebrate their myfteries, the orb, or circumfeference of which was no more than three ells, that they might thereby discover the produce of the year: when they were at the bottom, they could fee no more of the sky, than what answered to the circumference of the well. He mentions also the Sicilian cave, and the shield, not of Ajax, but of Achilles. Plutarch tells us, in his life of Romulus, that when Rome was founded, they dug a trench round the place, where afterwards the Comitia ftood, and threw into it the first-fruits of every thing that was either useful or neceffary; and then that every man took a turf of his own country, and threw it into the trench; that this trench was called Mundus, which they took for their centre, and defcribed the city in a circle round it. This he fays was done according to the rites of the Tufcans, Feftus relatēs,

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