Perchance may pity my melodious moan- 70 The bright temptation caus'd the maid to stay; Yet heavenly Venus lov'd the shepherd-swain; The pleasures too divine for ears profane. Yet you regard not, so I'll sing no more➡ My head grows giddy-love affects me sore; 80 Stretch'd near your grotto, when I've breath'd my last, My flesh will give the wolves a rich repast, IDYLLIUM IV. THE SHEPHERDS. ARGUMENT. We have here a dialogue between Battus a shep herd, and Corydon a neatherd. The beauty of this Idyllium consists in that natural representation of sorrow which the poet makes the herds affected with in the absence of their master: Battus laments the death of Amaryllis. The latter part of this piece is very natural, but too much inclining to rusticity. BATTUS. 65. Hippomanes, &c.] See the story in Ovid's ARE these Philonda's cows that graze the mead? Met. b. 10. v. 664. 69. She look'd, she languish'd, &c.] The Greek is, Ως ιδεν, ως εμανή, ως ες βαθυν αλλετ' ερωτα! There is a similar ver. Idyl. 2. 82. Χως ίδον, ως εμενην, ως μεν περί θυμος κερα Virgil bas, Ut vidi, ut perii, ut me malus abstulit error! Ecl. 8. 41. Which is far inferior to the Greek; abstulit error is much more languid. CORYDON. No; Egon's-Egon gave them me to feed. BATTUS. Don't you play faise, and milk them by the by? CORYDON. My shrewd old master keeps too strict an eye; The calves he suckles, and prevents the fraud, BATTUS. CORYDON. 71. Othrys'] This was a mountain in Thessaly; But where is Ægon? is he gone abroad? which country was famous for such an extraordinary breed of oxen, that Neleu. king of Pylus refused to give his daughter in marriage to Melampus king of Tyrius, except he procured him some of them, which he soon after accomplished by the help of his brother Bias. Univer. Hist. vol. vi. p. 215. 8vo. Turpia perpessus vates est vincla Melampus. Prop. b. 2. ecl. 3. What, han't you heard it from the mouth of Fame? Milo entie'd him to th' Olympic game. BATTUS. Will he engage in that athletic toil, Who never yet beheld Olympic oil? CORYDON. 78. Nor dead dismiss'd him, &c.] Bion, in his Fame says, his strength with Hercules may vie; Epitaph on Adonis, has a beautiful thought in alusion to this, ver. 45. 10 Hor. b. 2. sat, 6. ver. 32. Virgil begins his third Eclogue with almost the same words. 1. Die mihi, Damceta, cujum pecus? an Mcliboi? D. Non, verum Egonis: nuper mihi tradidit Ægon. 3. Hic alienus oves custos bis mulget in horâ. Ecl. 3. 5. There was a peculiar kind of theft which the mercenary herdsmen among the ancients were guilty of, which was to milk the cattle they tended clandestinely in the absence of their masters: these delinquents were called apodyul. 10. Olympic oil?] It was customary for the wrestlers, and other combatants at the Olympic games, to anoint themselves with oil, not only to render their limbs more supple, but likewise that their antagonists might have no advantage over them, 13. His spade and sheep] Casaubon observes, that those who intended to be competitors at the Olympic games, came thirty days at least before they began, to be trained up and exercised by those who presided over the games, which lasted five days; so that the combatants remained at Elis near forty, at least five and thirty days: the twenty sheep therefore which Agon carried with him were for his provision during his stay at Elis, and perhaps for sacrifice, and to entertain his friends. A spade, sxanavn, was the emblem or badge of a wrestler, and therefore painters and sculptors, as Festus Pompeius observes, represented wrestlers with this instrument in their hands; his words are, Rutrum tenentis juvenis est effigies in capitolio, ephebi, more Græcorum, arenam ruentis exercitationis gratiâ; in the capitol there is the effigy of a youth holding a spade, and, after the Grecian manner, turning the sand for the sake of exercise. 16. The wolves] The Greek scholiast observes, that madness is a distemper to which dogs of all animals are most liable: thus Virgil, Geor. 3. 496. Hinc canibus blandis rabies, Hence gentle dogs run mad; at least much more so than wolves; therefore, says Battus, if Milo can prevail on the rustic Egon to go to the Olympic games, he might persuade even wolves to run mad. 17. These heifers, &c.] Moschus, idyl. 3. ver. 23. has a passage extremely similar to this, Ωρεα δ' εςιν αφωνα, και αι βόες αι ποτι ταύξοις Πλαζομεναι γραοντι, και εκ εθέλοντι νεμεσθαι. And now each straggling heifer strays alone, And to the silent mountains makes her moan; The bulls loud-bellowing o'er the forests rove, Forsake their pasture, and forget their love. vix ossibus hærent. 21. F. F. Ecl. 3. 102. 22. Dumque thymo pascentur apes, dum rore eiçada. Ecl. 5. 77. CORYDON. 40 No fear of that, for when he went away, lubber lout. 28. Lampriada] Heinsius takes the Lampriade to have been the inhabitants of Lacinium, a promontory not far from Croton, where there was a celebrated temple erected to Juno-Attollit se diva Lacinia contra, Æn. 3. 552. They formerly were opulent, but afterwards reduced to extreme penury and wretchedness. 31. Saltibus in vacuis pascant, & plena secundum Flumina; muscus ubi & viridissima gramine ripa. Geor. 3. 34. The Greek is, Aıyıñugos, xai xvuša, xai suwing μελιτεία. The virgins that attended at the feast held in honour of Ceres, called sμopogia, strewed on their beds such herbs as were thought effectual to destroy all appetite for venereal pleasures, as wv, fleabane, agnus castus, &c. See Potter. 40.- I can sing] & me facere poetam Pierides; sunt & mihi carmina. Ecl. 9. 32. 41. Glauca was a lutanist of Chios, Pyrrhus a Lesbian poet. 44. Horace says of a glutton-Porcius infra, Ridiculus totas simul absorbere placentas. B. 2. Sat. 8. 49. Sweet Amaryllis] This short elogy on the deceased Amaryllis, late the mistress of Battus, CORYDON. IDYLLIUM V. THE TRAVELLERS. ARGUMENT. This Idyllium is of the dramatic kind: Comates a goatherd, and Lacon a shepherd, after exchanging some very coarse railleries, a true image of vulgar freedom, contend in singing. The beauty of this piece consists in that air of simplicity in which the shepherds are painted; full of themselves, boastful of favours received, and making sudden transitions agreeable to the desultory genius of uncivilized nature. COMATES. My goats, of Lacon, Sybarite base, take heed; He stole my goatskin-at a distance feed. LACON. Fly, fly, my lambs, these springsnor longer Comates comes who stole my flute away. [stay, COMATES. What flute, thou servile, Sybaritic brute! Pray when wast thou e'er master of a flute? 'Twas all thy pride, with Corydon, to draw Here comes the thorn! your throbbing pain I've The rustic route with scrannel pipes of straw. found. 1. Sybarite] Sybaris was once a powerful city of Calabria near Croton, in the bay of Tarentum; the inhabitants were so much addicted to pleasure and effeminacy, that their luxury became a pro❤ verb. 5. What flute]-aut unquam tibi fistula cerâ Juncta fuit? non tu in triviis, indocte, solebas Stridenti miserum stipulâ disperdere carmen? Virg. ecl. 3. 25. 8. The Greek is καλαμας αυλον ποππυσδεν εχοντιο The word vody seems very expressive of the inean idea Comates had of the shepherd's piping. -Milton had both Theocritus and Virgil in view. -Their lean and flashy songs Hor. b. 2. Sat. 7. Pope, 20 Into the deep] The Greek is ; Kay, into Crathis, the name of a river near Sybaris. 25. Nought now is sacred] This is a proverb that seems to have taken its rise from the follow ing circumstance: Hercules, on his arrival at Dios, a city of Macedonia, saw several people coming out of a temple; and being himself desirous to enter and worship, he inquired to whom it belonged; and being informed it was dedicated to Adouis, he answered, day goy, nothing is sacred; for Adonis being no deity, he did not think him deserving of any honour or worship; by which seems to be meant, things that make a show of something great and sacred, but in reality are nothing but soriy and ridiculous trifles, Potter. 27. A sow, &c.] Ys nor Abavalay egy nice, an adage that is used, when ig oran' people put themselves in competition with men of learning. 32. has, Τις κακαν κυνα δηλετ' αμελγειν; Virgil -Idem jungat vulpes et mulgeat bircos. Ecl. 3. 91. 40. Hic seldi foutes, hic mollia prata, Lycori; Hic nemus. Ecl. 10. 42. 42. -Resonant arbusta cicadis. Eel 2. 13. COMATES. Hasty I'm not, but greatly vex'd at heart bred, Ungrateful, they'll devour you for the deed. LACON. Ye goatherds love beyond the truth to stretch; COMATES. Here rest we; lo! cyperus decks the ground, 51 Their honied hives; here two cool fountains With me retreat, where skins of lambs I keep, So rank they smell, nay rather worse than thee. 60 COMATES. Retire with me to more sequester'd bowers, 48. When learnt I, &c.] There was a necessity in this place to omit translating four lines in the original, which are infinitely too indelicate for modest ears. 50. Efficiam posthàc ne quenquam voce lacessas. Ecl. 3. 51. 51. Lo! cyperus, &c.] The Greek is-Terw δρυες, ώδε κύπειρος, Ωδι καλον βομβεύντι ποτι σμάνεσσι μελίσσαι. Which occurs in the first Idyllium. See ver. 136. 52. Bees murmur, &c.] Eque sacrâ resonant ex• amina quercu. Ecl. 7. 18. 56. Scatter cones] The Greek word is, xaves; Virgil has, poma. Strata jacent passim sua quæque sub arbore Ecl. 7. 54. 58. Softer than sleep] The Greek is, un paλακωτέρα. We find the same expression in the fifteenth Idyl. ver, in the Greek, 125. Πο φύρεοι င်း ταπητες άνω, μαλακώτεροι υπνώ, Virgil bas, somno mollior herba. Ecl. 7. 45. Softer than sleep, seems full as proper a figure as downy sleep, which is frequently used by modern poets. 62. Pocula bina novo spumantia lacte quotannis, Craterasque duos statuam tibi pinguis olivi. Ecl. 5. 67. 64. Fern] See the note on ver. 22. Idyl. III. Fragrant flowers] The Greek is, yλaxww, which an eminent botanist informs me is the horned poppy. |