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Its firmness how the soil, the sea its bed
Received, and gradual vegetation spread:
How the new sun o'er wondering lands arose,
And buoyant clouds their liquid wealth disclose :
How rising woods first cast their little shade,
And few the beasts o'er unknown mountains stray'd:
The stones of Pyrrha, Saturn's golden time,
Prometheus' penal vulture, and his crime:

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And Hylas, whom his messmates loud deplore;
Whilst Hylas! Hylas!' rings from all the shore. 50
Happy had herds ne'er been, Pasiphäe next

He soothes, with love of her white steer perplext.
Ah, wretched fair! what madness fires thy brain?
Though Protus' maids with lowings mock'd the plain,
None ever coveted such foul embrace;

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Oft though they fear'd the plough, and o'er their face
Trembling essay'd the sprouting horn to trace.

Ah, wretched fair! thy heart in absence pines :
He on soft hyacinths his side reclines ;

Or in some shade reposed the cud he chews,
Or some congenial paramour pursues—

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'Close, nymphs of Crete! ye nymphs, now close the groves:

Some friendly chance, as near my favorite roves,

47-49, &c. Of Pyrrha and Prometheus, the 'miser-maid' Atalanta, and the sad sisters of Phaeton,' the reader can hardly require an account; but he may be less acquainted with Hylas, the young companion of Hercules in the Argonautic expedition, who was lost in a fountain where he went to draw water. Hence he was said to have been carried off by a Naiad. The Argonauts called for him a long time, but in vain. See Theocr. Idyl. xiii. Pasiphäe and the daughters of Prœtus are better left in silence. Gortyna, however (it may be geographically remarked), was a city of Crete, near which the remains of the famous Labyrinth, it is said, are still to be seen; including columns of marble, granite, and red and white jasper.

May give the rambler to my longing view;
Some emerald pasture, bright with morning dew,
May lure his taste; or, as her willing thrall,
Some Gnossian heifer lead him to her stall.'

And now his verse laments the miser-maid,
By lust of the Hesperian fruit betray'd;
And now with mossy bark, to alders grown,
He girdles thy sad sisters, Phäeton.

Next Gallus, wandering by Permessus' stream,
Supplies the minstrel's desultory theme:
How to Aonia him a Muse convey'd,

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70

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And all the sisters rose, and reverent homage paid; 75
While Linus, shepherd he of sacred song
(Flowers, and wild parsley, twined his locks among),
Cried, 'Take this reed, the Muses' gift, before
To Hesiod given; with this 'twas his, of yore,
'Midst Ascra's glades to charm the hours away,
When woods their hills forsook to list his lay.
With this to hymn Gryneum's grove be thine,
Nor seem there bower to Phoebus more divine.'
Why should I tell, how Scylla's deed he sung—
Scylla the false, of royal Nisus sprung;
Or her, who girt with howling monsters shook
Ulysses' keels, and as the surges broke
In fearful thunders on that barbarous shore,

85

Their shuddering crews with savage sea-dogs tore? Tereus' changed form; and, ere that change de

clared,

What foods, what gifts the vengeful dame prepared? 91

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82 See Martyn in loc.; as also for the fables (here slightly referred to in the close of Silenus' song) of Scylla of royal Nisus sprung, and Tereus, vv. 85-90. Dulichium, whence Ulysses' keels' are in the original_called Dulichian,' was one of the Echinades, islands in the Ionian sea, subject to the chieftain of Ithaca.

How fleetly to the desert she is flown :

95

How wing'd she skims o'er domes, ah! once her own
All, all he chaunts, which erst the god of verse
Taught blest Eurotas' laurels to rehearse.
The echoing vales, as swell the notes along,
Throw to the skies the far-resounding song:
Till eve's bright star the folding-hour led on,
Bade count their flocks, and claim'd, constrain'd, th'
ethereal throne.

95 The bank of the Eurotas, which rises (like the Alpheus) near Megalopolis, and runs by Sparta, abounds with baytrees; and hence perhaps that river partook so eminently of Apollo's favor.

98 Eve's bright star; i. e. Venus, which when a morning star preceding the sun, is called Lucifer; when following him, Hesperus, or Vesper. Cic. De Nat. Deor. ii.

ECLOGUE VII.-MELIBUS.

ARGUMENT.

THE Melibaus is the only Eclogue which contains nothing within itself to ascertain its date. Martyn thinks it may be referred to A. U. C. 716, as 'that year would otherwise have passed without any apparent mark of the poet's genius.' It contains the report of an Amœbæan contention between two shepherds, Corydon and Thyrsis. Daphnis appears to have been appointed their judge. Melibus happening to pass by in quest of a stray goat is detained to hear the dispute, and records its result in favor of Corydon. The commentators Servius, Vives, La Cerda, De la Rue, &c. &c. are, as usual, divided about the persons supposed to be represented under the above names. Το

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Martyn it more correctly appears to be, in imitation of Theocritus (vv. 2. 16. 62. 67. 70. 73–84, &c.), purely pastoral.

DAPHNIS beneath a whispering holm reclined,
And near him Corydon and Thyrsis join'd
Their flocks; his sheep one pastured on the lawn,
And one his goats with udders yet undrawn :
Both freshly blooming, both of Arcady,
Skill'd or to lead the lay, or to reply.

Here, as I seek the father of my fold

(Stray'd hither, while my shrubs I shield from cold), Daphnis I see; who, soon as me he spies,

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'Safe are your goats, your kids,' delighted cries: 10 ‘Here, friend, this morning be the truant play'd!

Haste, Melibœus, join us in the shade.

Hither your steers will cross the meads to drink : Here with slim reeds green Mincius veils his brink; And, cheering so his toils, the tiny bee

Hums his low music round Jove's sacred tree.'

15

chest

1 Holm. This tree, as well as the pine,' and the nut' (Ray informs us), grows abundantly in most of the provinces of Italy; as does likewise, if we may believe Matthioli, a learned botanist of that country, the juniper,' which is also mentioned below. Castelvetri, it seems (as quoted by Burman), has affirmed that none of them are to be found in the Mantuan territory.

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5 Not really of Arcady,' for the scene is laid near Mantua; but so skilful in singing, that they might be taken for Arcadians, who were celebrated for their musical talents.

8 The myrtus communis Italica C. B., which grows plentifully in Italy, especially on the coast of the Tyrrhene sea, does not even there (we are told by Matthioli) love cold.' The season of this Eclogue appears-from the greenness of the banks, the growing of the reeds, the buzzing of the bees, and the shade of the holm-oak-to be the early spring, perhaps March or April, when the weather is usually cold enough to require a shelter for the more tender trees.

What should I do? for no Alcippe mine,
No Phyllis, who my lambkins might confine
Wean'd from their bleating dams: and, rivals long,
The shepherds twain were met to vie in song.
To their sweet play my graver cares I yield;
In strains alternate they dispute the field:
Alternate strains the sacred Muses please;
Those Thyrsis sung, and Corydon's were these.

Cor. Dear to my heart, ye Muses, or bestow
Such lays, as from the reed of Codrus flow-
Codrus, who Phoebus all but mates in verse;
Or, if denied such numbers to rehearse
(Since not to all is given the power divine),
My pipe shall hang upon yon hallow'd pine.'

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Thyr. Shepherds of Arcady, with ivy crown
Your rising bard, though furious Codrus frown,
And eating jealousy consume his heart:

Or should mock praise betray the envier's art,
With spikenard amulet protect my head,
That no ill tongue malignant influence shed.'

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30

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Cor. Dian, this head, the boar's late bristled pride, These branching antlers by the stag supplied, My little Micon hangs upon thy shrine ; But would'st thou grant success like this were mine, Whole in bright marble thou should'st stand enshrined, And purple buskins should thy ancles bind.'

30 i. e. I will never attempt to make any more verses.' This custom of devoting the instrument after it had ceased to be used, and hanging it up in some sacred place, is referred to both by Horace and Propertius.

31 The ivy with yellow berries is said by Pliny to be the sort used in the crowns of poets.

40 i. e. As I have succeeded in the hunting of the boar and the stag, so may this success be perpetual.'-De la Rue. 41 Whole. It was a frequent practice to make only the head and neck of a statue in marble.'-Martyn.

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