10

Nor do the charms of beauty only sway
Our mortal breasts, the beings of a day:
Amphitryon's son was taught his power to feel,
Though arm'd with iron breast, and heart of steel,
Who slew the lion fell, lov'd Hylas fair,
Young Hylas graceful with his curling hair.
And, as a son by some wise parent taught,
The love of virtue in his breast he wrought,
By precept and example was his guide,
A faithful friend, for ever at his side;
Whether the morn return'd from Jove's high hall
On snow-white steeds, or noontide mark'd the wall,
Or night the plaintive chickens warn'd to rest,
When careful mothers brood, and flutter o'er the
That, fully form'd and finish'd to his plan, [nest:
Time soon might lead him to a perfect man.
But when bold Jason, with the sons of Greece,
Sail'd the salt seas to gain the golden fleece,
The valiant chiefs from every city came,
Renown'd for virtue, or heroic fame,
With these assembled, for the host's relief,
Alcmena's son, the toil-enduring chief.
Firm Argo bore him cross the yielding tide
With his lov'd friend, young Hylas, at his side;
Between Cyane's rocky isles she past,
Now safely fix'd on firm foundations fast,

20

Of chiefs a valiant band, the flower of Greece,
Had plann'd the emprise of the golden fleece,
In Argo lodg'd they spread their swelling sails,
And soon past Hellespont with southern gales,
And smooth Propontis, where the land appears
Turn'd in straight furrows by Cyanean steers.
With eve they land; some on the greensward
spread

Their hasty meal; some raise the spacious bed 40
With plants and shrubs that in the meadows grow,
Sweet flowering rushes, and cyperus low.
In hrazen vase fair Hylas went to bring
Fresh fountain-water from the crystal spring
For Hercules, and Telamon his guest;
One board they spread, associates at the feast:
Fast by, in lowly dale, a well he found
Beset with plants, and various herbage round,

trance of the Euxine, or Black Sea, in the mouth of the straits of Constantinople, over against one another; at so small a distance, that to a ship passing by they appear but one; whence the poets fancied, that they sometimes met, and came together, therefore called them concurrentia saxa Cyanes. Juvenal, sat. 15. 19. See also Idyl.

22. ver. 29.

29. As an eagle swift] volucrique sagittâ

Illa noto citius,

Ad terram fugit, & portu se condidit alto.
Æn. 5. 242.

30. Phasis] A large river of Colchis which dischargeth itself into the Euxine. Ovid, speaking of the Argonauts, says,

Multaque perpessi claro sub Jäsone, tandem
Contigerant rapidas limosi Phasidos undas.
Met. b. 7. 5.

31. Pleiades] The Pleiades rise with the Sun on the twenty-second of April, according to Columella.

33. A valiant band] The Argonauts were fiftytwo in number: Pindar calls them the flower of sailors, Theocritus, the flower of heroes, and Virgil, chosen heroes, delectos heroas; see ver. 21.

42. Sweet flowering rushes]. The Greek is ByTv ožu, which there is great reason to believe is the carex acuta of Virgil,

Frondibus hirsutis, & carice pastus acutâ.
Geor. b. 3. 231.

Cerulean celandine, bright maiden-hair,

60

, And parsley green, and bindweed flourish'd there.
Deep in the flood the dance fair Naiads led, 51
And kept strict vigils, to the rustic's dread,
Eunica, Malis form'd the festive ring,
And fair Nychéa, blooming as the spring:
When to the stream the hapless youth apply'd
His vase capacious to receive the tide,
The Naiads seiz'd his hand with frantic joy,
All were enamour'd of the Grecian boy;
He fell, he sunk; as from th' etherial plain
A flaming star falis headlong on the main;
The boatswain cries aloud, "Unfurl your sails,
And spread the canvas to the rising gales."
In vain the Naiads sooth'd the weeping boy,
And strove to lull him in their laps to joy.
But care and grief had mark'd Alcides' brow,
Fierce, as a Scythian chief, he grasp'd his bow,
And his rough club, which well he could command,
The pride and terrour of his red right hand:
On Hylas thrice he call'd with voice profound,
Thrice Hylas heard the unavailing sound;

70

Volvitur in præceps, longoque per aëra tractu
Fertur; ut interdum de cœlo stella sereno,
Etsi non cecidit, potuit cecidisse videri.
Met. b. 2. 319.

The breathless Phaeton, with flaming hair,
Shot from the chariot, like a falling star
That in a summer's evening from the top
Of Heav'n drops down, or seems at least to
drop.
Addison.

60. A star falls headlong] These sort of meteors were reckoned prognostics of winds,

Sæpe etiam stellas, vento impendente, videbis
Precipites cœlo labi.
Geor. b. 1. 365.

61. Unfurl your sails] Solvite vela citi.

En. 4. 574.

65. But care and grief, &c.] Virgil says of Hercules,

Hic vero Alcidæ furiis exarserat atro

From the deep well soft murmurs touch'd his eat,
The sound seem'd distant, though the voice was
As when the hungry lion hears a fawn [ncar.
Distressful bleat on some far-distant lawn,
Fierce from his covert bolts the savage beast,
And speeds to riot on the ready feast.
Thus, anxious for the boy, Alcides takes
His weary way through woods and pathless brakes;
Ah, wretched they that pine away for love!
O'er bil's he rang'd and many a devious grove. 80
The bold adventurers blam'd the hero's stay,
While long equipt the ready vessel lay; [night,
With anxious hearts they spread their sails by
And wish'd his presence by the morning light:
But he with frantic speed regardless stray'd,
Love pierc'd his heart, and all the hero sway'd.
Thus Hylas, honour'd with Alcides' love,
Is number'd with the deities above,
While to Amphitryon's son the heroes give
This shameful term, "The Argo's fugitive:"
But soon on foot the chief to Colchos came,
With deeds heroic to redeem his fame.

And Spenser,

90

And every wood and every valley wide
He fill'd with Hylas' name, the nymphs eke
Hylas cride. Fairy Queen, b. 3. c. 12.

Antoninus has given us an explanation of the circumstance of Hylas's name being so often repeated, which is so particularly insisted on by the poets: "Hercules," says he, "having made the hills and forests tremble, by calling so mightily on the name Hylas; the nymphs who had snatched him away, fearing lest the enraged lover transformed him into Echo, which answered Hyshould at last discover Hylas in their fountain, las to every cail of Hercules."

vatum

Robur.

able;

En. b. 8. 219.

'Alcides seiz'd his arms, inflam'd with ire, Rage in his looks, and all his soul on fire; Fierce in his hands the ponderous club he shook. Pitt.

69. On Hylas] Ut littus, Hyla, Hyla, omne sɔEc. 6. 44.

naret.

Ούτω μεν καλλίςος Ύλας μακαρων αριθμείται, Thus the beautiful Hylas is numbered among the blessed.

He would not say, Outws o Thas Tev, thus Hylas died; but, thus he is numbered with the blessed. See his notes.

She rose, and, gathering in a knot her vest,
Flew swiftly: as the swallow from her nest,
Beneath the tiling skims in quest of food,
To still the clamours of her craving brood.
Thus from her downy couch in eager haste,
Through the first door, and through the gate she
past,

Where'er her feet, where'er her fancy led;
The proverb says,
"The bull to wood is fled."
Now twenty days are past, ten, nine, and eight,
Two and eleven add-two months complete,
Since last we met, and like the boors of Thrace,
In all that time I never trimm'd my face.
Wolf now enjoys her, is her sole delight;
She, when he calls, unbers the door at night:
While I, alas! on no occasion priz'd,
Like the forlorn Megarcans am. despis'd.
Oh could I from these wild desires refrain,
And love her less, all would be well again!
Now like a mouse insnar'd on pitch I move;
Nor know I any remedy for love.

50

60

Yet in love's flames our neighbour Simus burn'd,
Sought ease by travel, and when cur'd return'd;
I'll sail, turn soldier, and though not the first
In fighting fields, I would not prove the worst.

70 47. Gathering, &c.]-Nodoque sinus collecta Æn. 1. 324. fluentes.

Close, in a knot, her flowing robes she drew.

Pitt.

48. As swallows, &c.] Virgil has plainly borrowed this simile from our author, though Mr. Warton says he is obliged to Apollonius for it: it is not improbable but that Virgil's may be the copy of the copier.

Nigra velut magnas domini cum divitis ædes
Pervolat, et pennis alta atria lustrat hirundo,
Pabula parva legens, nidisque loquacibus escas,
Et nunc porticibus vacuis, nunc humida circum
En. b. 12. 473.
Stagna sonat.

As the black swallow, that in quest of prey,
Round the proud palace wings her wanton way,
When for her children she provides the feast,
To still the clamours of the craving nest;
Now wild excursions round the cloyster takes;
Now sportive winds, or skims along the lakes.

Pitt.

Virgil has spun this simile into more than four lines, whereas Theocritus comprehends it in two.

54. The bull to wood is fled] A proverb signifying that he will not return.

55. The literal interpretation is, And how twenty and eight, and nine, and ten days are past, to day is the eleventh, add two more, and A similar but more there will be two months. perplexing method of numeration we meet with in the 17th Idyl. ver. 95.

62. The Megareans, entertaining a vain conceit that they were the most valiant of the Grecians, inquired of the oracle if any nation excelled them: the conclusion of the answer was,

Υμείς δ', Μεγαρείς, ὅτε τρίτοι, ότε τετάρτοι,
Ούτε δυωδέκατοί, απ' εν λόγῳ, ὅτ' εν αριθμῳ.
Nor in the third, nor fourth, Megareans call,
Nor in the twelfth, nor any rank at all.

65. Now like a mouse] The Greek is, we mus yeupeða misaaç, like a mouse I have tasted pitch.

THYONICHUS.

ESCHINES.

THYONICUS.

A royal spirit,

IDYLLIUM XV.

THE SYRACUSIAN GOSSIPS.

ARGUMENT.

Two Syracusian women, who had travelled to Alexandria, go to see the solemnity of Adonis's festival, which had been prepared by Arsinoe, the queen of Ptolemy Philadelphus: the

71.

Tibi Di, quæcunque preceris,
Commoda dent.

Hor. b. 2. sat. 8. 82. To this noble encomium of Ptolemy by the Sicilian poet, I shall briefly show the favourable side of his character, as it is given by the historians. He was a prince of great learning, and a zealous promoter and encourager of it in others, an industrious collector of books, and a generous patron to all those who were eminent in any branch of literature. The fame of his generosity drew seven celebrated poets to his court, who from their number, were called the Pleiades: these were Aratus, Theocritus, Callimachus, Lycophron, Apollonius, Nicander and Philicus. To him we are indebted for the Greek translation of the scripture, called the Septuagint. Notwithstanding his peculiar taste for the sciences, yet he applied himself with indefatigable industry to business, studying all possible methods to render his subjects happy, and raise his dominions to a flourishing condition. Athenæus called him the richest of all the princes of his age; and Appian says, that as he was the most magnificent and generous of all kings in laying out his money, so he was of all the most skilful and industrious in raising it. He built an incredible number of cities, and left so many other public monuments of his magnificence, that all works of an extravagant taste and grandeur were proverbially called Philadelphian works. Univ. Hist.

90. While youth, &c.] Dumque virent genua. Hor. Epod. 13.