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be fees me, be calls out ; Come bither, O Meliboeus; your goat is fafe and your kids; and if you can stay, reft under the fbade. Your bullocks will come bither through the meadows to drink of their own accord: bere the verdant Mincius bas covered the banks with tender

Vir gregis ipfe caper deerraverat: atque ego Daphnim I fee Daphnis: and as foon as
Afpicio: ille ubi me contra videt; Ocius, inquit,
Huc ades, O Meliboee; caper tibi falvus et hoedi;
Et, fi quid ceffare potes, requiefce fub umbra. IO
Huc ipfi potum venient per prata juvenci :
Hic viridis tenera praetexit arundine ripas
Mincius, eque facra refonant examína quercu.
Quid facerem? neque ego Alcippen, nec Phyllida

habebam ;

Depulfos a lacte domi quae clauderet agnos:

leaves; and the fwarms bus from the facred oak. What could I do? I had neither Alweaned lambs at bome: and it cippe nor Phyllis, to fhut up the was a great contention, Corydon and Thyrfis.

15

Et certamen erat, Corydon cum Thyrfide magnum.

NOTES.

holm-oak proves nothing; because those trees are green all the winter ; nor is any one circumftance mentioned, which does not agree with the beginning of the spring, the feafon which Catrou has rightly affigned. 7. Vir gregis.] This expreffion is ufed alfo by Theocritus, in the eighth Idyllium;

Ω τράγε, τῶν λευκῶν αἰγᾶν ἄνερ.

12. Hic viridis, &c.] The verdure of the fields adjoining to the Mincius feems to have been remarkable: our Poet mentions it again in the third Georgick;

"Et viridi in campo templum de

"marmore ponam Propter aquam, tardis ingens ubi "flexibus errat "Mincius, et tenera praetexit arun"dine ripas."

13. Sacra..... quercu.] The oak was accounted facred, not only by the Greeks and Romans; but alfo by the Britons and Gauls. Refonant examina.] Thus Theocritus, in the firft Idyllium ;

66

σε

Τηνεὶ δρύες, ὧδε κύπειρος.

δε καλὸν βομβεῦντι ποτὶ σμά νεσσι μέλισσαι.”

14. Alcippen nec Phyllida.] Servius is of opinion, that these were miftreffes of the fingers; and there, fore that the meaning of these words is; I neither had Alcippe, like one, nor Phyllis like the other. La Cerda agrees with Servius: but Ruaeus thinks they were the fervants of Meliboeus. Catrou embraces this laft opinion and indeed the former would have quite deftroyed his fyftem: for we cannot fuppofe, that Cebes and Alexander, who are faid to have been Virgil's flaves, had each of them a maid-fervant of his own. It must be confeffed however, that the opinion of Servius is the most natural.

16. Et certamen erat, &c.] cr He "fpeaks figuratively, it was a great " contention, one with another, ille "cum illo, as if you fhould fay, It is "a great contention, Virgil with "Cicero. He feems to have used "the nominative cafe for the ge"nitive, Corydonis." SERVIUS.

La

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with alternate verfes :

However I made my own bu Pofthabui tamen illorum mea feria ludo. finefs give way to their sport, Alternis igitur contendere verfibus ambo They began therefore to contend the Coepere: alternos Mufae meminiffe volebant. Mufes would have them fing Hos Corydon, illos referebat in ordine Thyrfis. 20 alternately. Corydon began, and CoR. Nymphae, nofter amor, Libethrides: aut Thyrfis answered in his turn. mihi carmen,

COR. O ye Libetbrian

Nymphs, my delight, either infpire me with fuch poems,

NOTE S.

La Cerda underftands it to be a figurative expreffion; certamen being put for certator; fo that, according to him, it fhould be rendered Corydon was a great contender. Burman fays, it is an elegant appofition, like that of Cicero ; “Unum66 que certamen erat relictum, fento tentia Volcatii.”

18. Alternis igitur, &c.] In like manner we read in the third Eclogue ;

Thracians who inhabited thofe parts,
were called Pieres, and were after-
wards fucceeded by the Macedo-
nians ; Ὅ μὲν οὖν Ἑλικῶν οὐ πολὺ
διεστηκῶς τοῦ Παρνασσοῦ ἐνάμιλλος
ἐστὶν ἐκείνῳ, κατὰ τε
ἐστὶν ἐκείνῳ, κατὰ τε ὕψος καὶ περί-
μέτρον, ἄμφω γαρ χοινοβόλα τα
ὅρη, καὶ πετρώδη περιγράφεται δ'
οὐ πολλῇ χώρα. Ενταῦθα δ ̓ ἐστὶ τὸ
τε τῶν Μουσῶν ἱερὸν, καὶ ἡ Ἱππου-
κρήνη, καὶ τὸ τῶν Λειβηθρίδων Νυμ
φῶν ἄντρον· ἐξ οὗ τεκμαίροιτ ̓ ἄν τις,

to Alternis dicetis: amant alterna Θράκας εἶναι τοὺς τὸν Ἑλικῶνα ταῖς

"Camenae.'

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Μούσαις καθιερώσαντας· οἱ καὶ τὴ Πιερίαν, καὶ το Λείβηθρον, καὶ τὴν Πίμπλειαν ταῖς αὐταῖς θεοῖς ἀνε δείξαν ἐκαλοῦντο δὲ Πίερες· ἐκλιπόνων δ ̓ ἐκείνων, Μακεδόνες νῦν ἔχουσι τὰ χωρία ταῦτα.

τα

In the tenth book alfe, he tells us, that Libethrum anciently belonged to the Thracians, who inhabited Boeotia, and dedi cated the mountain Helicon, and the cave of the Libethrian Nymphs to the Mufes; Πιερία γὰρ, καὶ 0λυμπος, καὶ Πίμπλα, καὶ Λείβη θρον τὸ παλαιὸν ἦν Θράκια χωρία καὶ ὄρη νῦν δὲ ἔχουσι Μακεδόνες των τε Ἑλικῶνα καθιέρωσαν ταῖς Μούσαις Θράκες οἱ τὴν βοιωτίαν ἐποικήσαντες, οἵπερ καὶ τὸ τῶν Λειβηθριάδων Νυμ φῶν ἄντρου καθιέρωσαν. Pliny fpeaks of Libethra, a fountain in Mag

Quale meo Codro, concedite : proxima Phoebi

nefia;

NOTES.

"Theffaliae annexa Mag"nefia eft, cujus fons Libethra." Pomponius Mela seems alfo to fpeak of Libethra as a fountain; "Terrae interiores claris locorum no

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* minibus infignes, pene nihil ig• nobile ferunt. Hinc non longe eft Olympus, hic Pelion, hic Offa, montes gigantum fabula 4 belloque memorati: his Mufarum parens domufque Pieria: hic noviffime calcatum Graio Herculi folum, faltus Oeteus: hic facro nemore nobilia Tempe hic Libethra, carminumque fontes jacent. Solinus alfo mentions ibethrus, a fountain of Magnesia ; Sed ne tranfeamus praefidium poetarum, fons Libethrus et ipfe Magnefiae eft." Servius fays ibethrus is a fountain of Boeotia, here the Mufes were worshipped; id that the Poet calls them Liberides from that fountain, juft as ey might be called Hippocrenides om the fountain Hippocrene. He ds, from Varro, that the Nymphs e the fame with the Mufes, the afon of which is, that the motion of ater is musical. Vibius Sequefter entions Libethros a fountain of peotia, and Libethris a mountain of etolia. La Cerda contends, that e Libethrian Nymphs are diffent from the Mufes; in confirlation of which he quotes Strabo nd Paufanias. As for Strabo, the affages above quoted from that auhor feem rather to prove, that they re not different: but the quotation

as you have infpired my Codrus: be makes juch as are nexs to the verfes of Phoebus:

from Paufanias feems full to his purpofe; for that author calls it the Libethrian mountain, and fays there are ftatues upon it of the Mufes, and of the Libethrian Nymphs: Κορονείας δὲ σταδίους ὡς τεσσεράκονία ὄρος απέχει το Διβήθριον, αγάλματα, δὲ ἐν αὐτῷ Μουσῶν τε καὶ Νυμφῶν ἐπίσ κλησίν ἔστι Λιβηθρίων. Ruaeus feems to think it a fountain, on the authority of Solinus, and renders Nymphae Mules. Catrou fays' "The "Nymphs of Boeotia are called Li"bethrides: By thefe Nymphs we "ought perhaps to understand the "Mufes; to whom a cave in Boe"otia, called Libethrum was con"fecrated." Thus, according to these various authors, Libethrum, Libethra, Libethrus, or Libethris, may be either a cave, a mountain, or a spring, either in Boeotia, Magnefia, or Aetolia. In this great variety of opinions, I believe it will be fafeft to abide by the authority of Strabo, who, in two different places, affirms Libethrum to be a cave. By what he has faid of it, we may queftion, whether it was a cave in the mountain Helicon itself, or another hill in that neighbourhood, in which this facred cave was to be found. If we take the latter fenfe, we fhall make Strabo agree with thofe, who call Libethrum a mountain and thus the Libethrian

cave will be a cave in the moun

tain Libethrum, of Boeotia, near Helicon. We have feen that Pliny T

places

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er if we cannot all do all things, Verfibus ille facit: aut fi non poffumus omnes,

NOTES.

places the fountain Libethra in Magnefia; but he does not fay a word of it's being facred to the Mufes; nor do they feem ever to have made their habitation either in Magnesia or Aetolia. There might poffibly be a fountain called Libethra in Magnefia, as well as a mountain called Libethrum in Boeotia: for we find there was not only the mountain Helicon in that country; but also a river of the fame name in Macedonia. Hence the other Geographers may eafily be fuppofed to have confounded the Magnefian fountain with the Libethrian mountain or cave; and to have afcribed to one what belongs to the other. We may therefore venture to conclude, that the Libethrian Nymphs are no other than the Muses; and that they were fo called from a cave in Libethrum, a mountain of Boebtia, which, as well as Helicon, was confecrated to thofe deities."

22. Meo Codro.] We have the authority of fome copies of Servius, to prove, that Valgius, in his Elegies, mentioned Codrus, as contemporary with Virgil;

Codrus "poeta ejufdem temporis fuit, ut "Valgius in fuis Elegis refert." But the verfes, not only of Codrus, but of Valgius alfo, are now us is loft: doubtful; for according to Burman, it is wanting in several manufcripts. We may conclude however, that this Codrus was contemporary with Virgil, from his being here menfioned that he was his friend,

and even this note of Servius is

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σε

togatas, "Hic elegos? impune diem confumpferit ingens "Telephus? aut fummi plena jam "margine libri

"Scriptus, et in tergo, nec dum "finitus Oreftes?"

Shall I but hear ftill? never pay that Score?

Vex'd with boarfe Codrus' Thefeis on and o're?

Shall be, unpunish'd, read me tedious playes?..

He elegies? huge Telephus whil

dayes Unpunish'd spend me? or Oreftes,

writ

Margent and outfide, but not finifl'

STAPYLTON.

yet. He alfo ridicules the poverty of that poet, in his third Satire; ** Lectus

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m, fix little jugs on's cupboards head;

m, beneath it stood a two ear'd pot Chiron's herbal: laftly he had got cheft with fome Greek authors, where the fierce rbarous mice gnaw'd never dying verfe.

ho knows not Codrus nothing had? yet croft

fire, poor wretch, he all that nothing loft:

ut to accumulate the beggar's grief one gave him houfe-room, or a meal's relief. STAPYLTON.

is poverty is mentioned alfo by lartial, in the fifteenth Epigram,

f the third book ;

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"Plus credit nemo, quam tota "Codrus in urbe.

"Cum fit tam pauper, quomodo?

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But as thefe poets, who flourifhed in the reign of Domitian, fpeak of Codrus as their contemporary; he cannot be the perfon, whom Virgil. here mentions.

1

Proxima. Underftand carmina. 23. Facit.] Facit carmina is ufed alfo in the third Eclogue;

"Pollio et ipfe facit nova carmina."

Aut fi non poffumus omnes, &c.] This paffage feems to be very obfcure; and the Commentators give us very little light into it. Servius only refers us to a like expreffion in the eighth Eclogue; and thinks he ought to have faid aut fi ego non poffum. The fenfe of the paffage in the eighth Eclogue is this; The Poet having related the verfes of Damon, calls upon the Mufes to relate those of Alphefiboeus, because we cannot all do all things; non omnia poffumus omnes. It seems therefore to be a proverbial expreffion, of our not being able to do every thing of ourselves, without the affiftance of a Deity. It is agreed by general confent, that, by hanging his pipe on a pine, is meant that he will relinquifh his art. But then, why fhould he for ever give over finging, if he cannot equal his friend Codrus, whom he allows to be fecond to Apollo? La Cerda inT 2 terprets

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