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Vel quae fublegi tacitus tibi carmina nuper,
Cum te ad delicias ferres Amaryllida noftras
Tityre, dum redeo, brevis eft via, pafce capellas:

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or fing those werfer, which lately read to you in private when you went to vifit my dar Ling Amaryllis Feed my goats, Tityrus; vill I return, I am going but a little ways

NOTES.

without recurring to this, we may render it by tegeret; having "Caefar's authority for that ufe of "the word; inducere fcuta pellibus. "Ruaeus renders it by that word; but gives no authority for it” DFTRAPP.

21. Sublegi.] The Criticks agree, that this word fignifies reading furreptitiously, Plautus feems to use it for fecretly overhearing a difcourfe, in his Miles gloriofus; « Clam nof" "trum hunc illae fermonem fuble"gerunt." Therefore we may fuppofe, that Moeris had gotten these verfes from Menalcas; and that he' and Lycidas read them together without his knowledge.

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22. Amaryllida.] Catrou fays the fame allegory is carried on, that we had in the firft Eclogue: Rome being meant by Amaryllis. But it has already been fhewn, that Amaryllis is not put for Rome by the Poet. This paffage makes against Catrou's fyftem; for he fuppofes the Tityrus of the first Eclogue to be Virgil's father, and Amaryllis to be his mistress: but here we find Amaryllis to be the miftrefs, not of Moeris, whom he will have to be the fame with Tityrus, but of Lycidas, who calls her delicias noftras.

23. Tityre, dum redeo, &c.] In this Eclogue, Virgil takes occafion to introduce feveral little pieces, as fragments of his other writings. This before us is a tranflation of a

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and when they are fed, Tityrus, Et potum paftas age, Tityre, et inter agendum drive them to water, and as you Occurfare capro, cornu ferit ille, caveto.225 drive them, take care boay you MOE. Immo haec, quae Varo, necdum perfecta

come in the way of the be-gear;

for be butts with bis born.

Moz. Or rather thofe which

canebat.

be fung to Varus, though be Vare, tuum nomen fuperet modo Mantua nobis, bad not finished them. Va- Mantua, vae miferae nimium vicina Cremonae!

rus, the finging Swans shall
bear thy name aloft to the fkies, if Mantud is but preferved to us,

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made among the foldiers, to whom "the lands were allotted. But if "the land did not prove fufficient "to reward the foldiers, the neigh " "bouring lands were added, to "fupply the deficiency. Hence arifes the complaint of the Poet: "for when the civil war broke out between Auguftus and Anthony, the former, getting the better, gave the lands of Cremona to his "foldiers, because the people of "that city had fided with Anthony. "But the lands of Cremona not "being fufficient, part of the "territory of Mantua was added "to them. Lucan alludes to this "cuftom, lib. 1.

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26. Immo hace quae Varo, &c.]" The Poet artfully introduces three verfes addreffed to Varus, which Moeris relates, as part of a poem not yet finished, and gives them the preference to the three verfes tranflated from Theocritus.

Varo. Varus has been already fpoken of, in the note on ver. 6. of the fixth Eclogue, which poem is dedicated to him.. We may gather. from this paffage, that he was at that time a person of great power: but whether it was by his intereft with Auguftus, or by, his having a command at that time about Mantua and Cremona, is uncertain.

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Nec dum perfecta.] "Some an"cient manuscripts read nondum " perfecta : but nec dum is more "generally received." PIERIUS, 28. Mantua vae miferae, &c.] According to ancient cuftom, the generals ufed to order the lands s to be measured out into acres;, that an equal divifion might be

"Quae fedes erit emeritis? quae rura dabuntur,

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"Quae nofter veteranus aret?”

LA CERDA.

"

I fuppofe this learned Commentator, by Anthony, means Lucius the brother of the Triumvir: for the civil war between Auguftus and Mark Anthony did not break out, till fome years after all the Eclogues are faid to be finifhed, as has been already obferved. But I do not remember to have read, that any diftribution was made of the lands of thofe who had fided with Lucius Anthony.

Cantantes fublime ferent ad fidera cycni.somu je
Lyc. Sic tua Cyrneas fugiant examina taxos;

NOTES.

Anthony. The famous divifion, to which our Poet is generally fuppofed to allude, is that which was made after the battle of Philippi, and occafioned very great diforders in Italy.

29. Cantantes fublime ferent, &c.] It was a common opinion of the Ancients, that fwans ufed to fing, efpecially before their death. Plato, in his aid, reprefents Socrates fpeaking to his friends, when he was to die, in the following manner; "When you imagine, that I 66 may be more melancholy at pre"fent than in the former parts of "my life; you feem to think me seem to think me "inferior to the fwans, in divina"tion. For those animals, when "they perceive the approach of "death, ufe to fing more, and "with greater melody, than they "ever did before. But men, be

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ing afraid of death themselves, "erroneously imagine, that this finging of the wans proceeds "from grief not confidering, that "birds do not fing, when they are "hungry, or cold, or fuffer any pain not even the nightingale, "the fwallow, or the hoopoo, "which they fancy to fing for grief.

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"and rejoice more at that time, "than ever they did before. For my own part, I confider myself as a fellow-fervant with the "fwans, and facred to the fame "God; and believe I have no "worfe divination than they from " the same master ; and that I fhall "not die with a lefs eafy mind." We may gather from this paffage," that fwans were thought to fing; not only at the time of their death, which is the vulgar notion ; but af other times alfo. La Cerda quotes fome authorities, to prove, that fwans make a harmonious found with their wings when they fly which has been taken for finging. The whole ftory of the finging of fwans, I believe, is fabulous: but as the notion has for far obtained, that Poets are frequently compared to fwans, it is no wonder, that Vir gil fhould make use of these celebrated birds, in carrying the name of his patron to the skiess

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30. Sic tua Cyrneas, &c.] Ly cidas, being pleased with thefe verfes of Moeris, defires him to favour him with fome more; to which he aflents. alt som

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Sic.] "A form of obtefting, and

"But I am of opinion, that nei-wifhing well, when we afk any "ther those birds, nor the fwans

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fing because they are melancholy: "but being facred to Apollo, and "endowed with a fpirit of divina"tion, they forefee, I believe the

happiness of another life; and "therefore fing: more chearfully,

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thing of any one it means, fo may your bees avoid the yews, as you fhall repeat fome verfes to me." "RUAEUS,

La Cerda quotes feveral paffages from other poets ; where fic is ufed in the fame manner. Thus Horace,

fe may your cows, being fed Sic cytifo pastae diftentent ubera vaccae • with cytisus, diftend their ud

ders

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fays the wax was made by a Coffi can bee; but the imputes the ill quality of it, not to yew, but to hemlock;GARAM

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"Ite hinc, difficiles, funebria lig

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"Tuque negaturis cera & referta

notis.

"Quam puto de longae collectam "flore cicutae

"Melle fub infami Corfica mi fit apis.

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Martial alfo alludes to the bafenes

"Sic crine fruaris femper Apol- of the Corfican honey; when he

lineo;"

and Sannazarius;

"Bacche bimater ades, fic fint tibi "nexa corymbis

Cornua, fic nitidis pendeat uva "comis."

Cyrneas taxes.] Corfica, an illand of the Mediterranean fea, near the continent of Italy, was called Cyrnus by the Greeks, Yews are generally accounted poisonous; but I do not find in any other author, either that Corfica particularly abounded in yews, or that the yews of that ifland were accounted remarkably poisonous. See the notes on ver. 257. of the fecond Georgick, and ver. 47. of the fourth. The honey however was infamous. Thus Ovid, being out of humour with an unsuccessful letter that he had fent to his miftrefs,

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Incipe, fi quid habes: et me facere poëtam Begin, if you have any thing & Pierides: funt et mihi carmina: me quoque dicunt alfo: and I bave verses of my the Mufes bave made me a Poet own: and the shepherds fay I am infpired,

NOTES.

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and yet he is fo modest as not to bew lieve them. It appears to the, that Lycidas rather boafts a little in this place; and endeavours to invite Moeris to communicate. fome verfes to him, as to one that is a Poet himself, and able to make a return in kind. He declares, that he has been fo far favoured by the Mufes as to be endowed with a genius for poetry; and that he has even compofed fome poems: and then indeed he adds, with fome appearance of modefty, that the fhepherds even account him a professed master; but he does not know how to believe them.

The reader will obferve, that though we ufually give the fame fense both to poëta and vates, yet there is a diftinction here made between them: for though Lycidas afirms that he is a polla yet be dares not presume to think that he is a vates. Vates feems to be an appellation of greater dignity, and το anfwer to our Band, one that not only made verfes, but was even

infpired, and reputed a facred per fon. Varro fays the ancient poets were called vates, and mentions

them together with the Fauns, or deities of the woods; Verfus quos olim Fauni, Vatefque care"bant. Fauni, dei Latinorum,

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Servius takes notice of this expref-itant Faunus et Fauna fint in veron as a great inftance of the mo- "fibus quos vocant Saturnios; in defty of Lycidas: because he tells filveftribus loceis traditum eft fohis friend only that they fay she is a litos fari: a quo fando Faunos Poet; and then this is not faid by "dictos. Antiquos poetas Vates apthe learned, but only by Shepherds; pellabant a verfibus viendeis, ut

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