40 Be warn'd; let none the jolly god offend, IDYLLIUM XXVII. Is by the commentators generally attributed to Moschus, and therefore I may well be excused from translating it as a work of Theocritus. Were that not the case, it is of such a nature that it cannot be admitted into this volume: Scaliger, Casaubon, and Dan. Heinsius, have left more notes upon it in proportion, than upon any of the other Idylliums. Creech has done it into English, but the spirit is evaporated, and nothing remains but a caput mortuum. Dryden generally improves and expatiates upon any subject that is ludicrous, and therefore the tenour of his translation will be found very different. The last five lines in Greek, he has expanded into fourteen. 45. Jove, enclos'd, &c.] Ovid mentions the same thing, Met. b. 3. 310. Imperfectus adhuc infans genetricis ab alvo Eripitur, patrioque tener (si credere dignum) Insuitur femori, maternaque tempora complet. 46. Semele] She was the mother of Bacchus, and sister to Ino, Agavé, and Autonoë. 50. "Tis not, &c.] There is a similar thought in Bion, Idyl. 6. Κρίνειν εκ επέοικε θεμία έργα βροτοισι. F.F. With me repair, no vulgar prize, IDYLLIUM XXIX. ARGUMENT. 10 20 30 40 This is an expostulation with his mistress for her inconstancy in love. In the original it is called Пaidina: I have taken the liberty to make a 6. The towers of Nileus] That is, Miletus, a famous city of Ionia, lying south of the river Mæander on the sea-coast; it was founded, according to Strabo, by Nileus the son of Codrus, king of Athens, when he first settled in that part of Asia. See Universal History. The fine garments made of Milesian wool were in great esteem with the Roman ladies: Horace has, Mileti textam chlamydem, b. 1. ep. 17. and Virgil, Milesia vellera, Geor. 3. 25. In that city] Syracuse, once the metropolis of all Sicily, and a most flourishing commonwealth, was, according to Tully, the greatest and most wealthy of all the cities possessed by the Greeks. Thucydides equals it to Athens, when that city was at the height of its glory; and Strabo calls it one of the most famous cities of the world for its advantageous situation, the stateliness of its buildings, and the immense wealth of its inhabitants. It was built by Archias, one of the Heraclidæ, who came from Corinth into Sicily, in the second year of the eleventh Olympiad. Univ. Hist. 38. Inest sua gratia parvis. change in the application of it, which renders it far more obvious and natural. WINE, lovely maid, and truth agree; The other half, alas! is dead. Whene'er you smile auspicious love, I'm happy as the gods above; Whene'er your frowns displeasure show, Sure 'tis unmeet with cold disdain To torture thus a love-sick swain: But could my words your thoughts engage, Take counsel, and when crown'd with store IDYLLIUM XXX*. THE DEATH OF ADONIS. ARGUMENT. 10 20 30 Venus orders the Cupids to bring the boar that had slain Adonis before her: she severely upbraids him with his crime, but being satisfied that it was accidentally done, she orders him to be released. The measure of the verse is Anacreontic. WHEN Venus saw Adonis dead, 1. Wine and truth] In vino veritas. 6. Half-existence] Thus Horace, Et serves animæ dimidium meæ. B. 1. Od. 3. 10. I'm happy, &c.] Deorum vitam adepti sumus. Ter. Heaut. act. 4. sc. 3. 16. Experience, &c.]-Seris venit usus ab aunis. Consilium ne sperne meum. Ovid. Met. b. 6. This little poem is a fine imitation of Anacreon: Theocritus had before in his nineteenth Idyllium copied that delicate master in every thing The boar that had her lover slain, One pinch'd his tail to make him go, The more they urg'd, the more they dragg'd, Guilt in his conscious looks appear'd; He much the angry goddess fear'd. To Venus soon the boar they led"O cruel, cruel beast!" she said, "Durst thou that thigh with blood distain? Of no more use they now can prove My guilty lips, if not content, but the measure of his verse. 20 30 40 Bion has a most beautiful Idyllium on the same subject. Longepierre says of this ode of Theocritus, Cette petite piéce m'a toujours paru si jolie, que je croy qu'on me pardonnera aisément si j'en donne icy une traduction. 14. Another beat him with his bow:] Thus Ulysses drives the horses of Rhesus with his bow, I. b. 10. Ulysses now the snowy steeds detains, 23. I swear by thee, fair Venus, &c.] Thus Sinon in Virgil, I. 2. Are sacred, &c.] That the rose was consecrated to the Muses, appears from Anacreon, ode 53. χαρειν φυτον σε Μάσεων. In fabled song, and tuneful lays, And Sappho, frag. 2. For thy rude hand ne'er pluck'd the lovely rose. Voveram album Libero caprum. B. 3. O. 8. II. 1. Daphnis] This Daphnis was probably the son of Mercury, the same whose story is sung in the first Idyllium: Diodorus Sicuius supposes him to be the author of bucolic poetry; and agreeable to this, Theon, an old scholiast on Theocritus, in his note on the first Idyllium, ver. 141, mention ing Daphnis, says, Καθο πρωτος ευρα το Βυκολικην, Inasmuch as he was the inventor of bucolics; however that be, probably this Daphnis was the first subject of bucolic songs. III. 6. Gold ivy's leaves, &c.] The Greek is, x00alba XOETA NIGGOV: This is probably the pallens, or hedera of Virgil, on which Dr. Martyn observes, (see his notes on Ecl. 7. ver. 38.) it is most likely that sort of ivy with yellow berries, which was used in the garlands with which poets used to be rowned, and Ecl. 8. ver. 13. The poetical ivy is that sort with golden berries, or hedera baccis aureis. And rude Priapus, on whose temples wave THYRSIS HAS LOST HIS KID. WHAT profit gain you, wretched Thyrsis, say, ON THE STATUE OF ÆSCULAPIUS. IV. 2. Of fig-tree] The ancients often bewed the image of Priapus out of a fig-tree. Olim truncus eram ficulnus, &c. Hor. Sat. 8. b. 1. 14. That Daphne, &c.] I have taken the liberty to address this epigram to Daphne, instead of Daphnis, puellæ et non pastori. 15. Grant this, &c.] Here I follow the ingenious interpretation of Dan. Heinsius. V. 8. And rob, &c.] In the first Idyllium the shepherds are afraid of disturbing the Arcadian god's repose. See ver. 20. VII. 1. Pæon's son] Esculapius, the son of Apollo, was called Pæon or Пawy, because of his art in asswaging and curing diseases. The cedar statue by Eëtion wrought, ORTHON'S EPITAPH. To every toping traveller that lives, IX. ON THE FATE OF CLEONICUS. O STRANGER! spare thy life so short and frail, X. ON A MONUMENT ERECTED TO THE MUSES. HERE Xenocles hath rais'd this marble shrine, Skill'd in sweet music, to the tuneful Nine: He from his art acquires immortal fame, And grateful owns the fountain whence it came. XI. EPITAPH ON EUSTHENES THE PHYSIOGNOMIST. To Eusthenes, the first in wisdom's list, This tomb is rais'd: he from the eye could scan XII. ON A TRIPOD DEDICATED TO BACCHUS BY DEMOTELES, who near this sacred shrine VIII. 5. And for my native land, &c.] I here follow the ingenious emendation of Heinsius. IX. In all the editions of Theocritus in the original, there is only the first distich of this epigram, but in Pierson's Verisimilia, I find two more added from a MS. in the Palatine library, which was collated by D. Ruhnkenius; as I have translated, I likewise take the liberty to transcribe, the whole. Ανθρωπε, ζωής περιφείδεο, μηδε πας ωραν Ναυτίλος ίσθι, ως ο πολύς ανδρι βιος. Δείλαμε Κλεονίκέ, συ δ' εις λιπαρήν Θασον ελθειν Ήπειγες κοίλης εμπορος εκ Συρίης. Εμπορος, ο Κλεονίκε, δυσιν δ' από πλειάδος αυτήν, Ποντοπόρων αυτης πλειαδε συγκατεδες. 4. Thasos] An island near Thrace, formerly famous for gold, marble, and wine. XI. Heinsius has rendered this epigram intelligible, whose emendations I follow. XII. 6. And fair the tenour, &c.] The Greek is, Και το καλον, και το προσηκον όρων. Thus Horace, Whom blithest of the deities we call, In all things prov'd, was temperate in all: XIII. ON THE IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY VENUS. XIV. EPITAPH ON EURYMEDON. DEAD in thy prime, this tomb contains, XV. ON THE SAME. O TRAVELLER, I wish to know Quid verum, atque decens, curo et rogo, et omnis in hoe sum. B. 1. Ep. 1. 11. | Or to poltroons you give the same: Light lie the stone upon his head." THE style is Doric; Epicharmus he, XIII. 1. Venus, not the vulgar, &c.] Plato in Convivio says, there were two Venuses, one was the daughter of Coelus, which we call ugaviar, or celestial; the other the daughter of Jupiter and Dione, which we call mavenμor, or popular. XVII. 1. Epicharmus] Was brought to Sicily when an infant from the island of Cos, and is there. XX. Pisander was a native of Camirus, a city of Rhodes; he is mentioned by Strabo and Macrobius, as the author of a poem styled Heraclea, which comprehended in two books all the exploits of Hercules: he is said to have been the first that Univ. Hist. b. 2. ch. 1. fore called a Sicilian; he was the disciple of Pytha- represented Hercules with a club. goras, and said to be the first inventor of comedy. Plautus imitated him, according to Horace, charmi. Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare EpiB. 2. Ep. 1. 58. Even Plato himself borrowed many things from him. He presented fifty-five, or as some say, thirty-five plays, which are all lost. He lived, according to Lucian, 97 years. Laertius has pre served some verses which were inscribed on one of his statues, which, as they are a testimony of the high esteem antiquity had for his worth, I shall transcribe. Ει τι παραλλάσσει φαεθων μέγας αλιος αςρών, As the bright Sun outshines the starry train, Πολλά γαρ ποτταν ζωών τοις παισιν είπε χρήσιμα. Mr. Upton, in bis observations on Shakespeare, instead of matciy children, reads now all mankind; which is plausible, for the philosophic comedian spoke what was useful for all mankind to know, and fitting for common life; and then the translation may run, Much praise, much favour he will ever find, XIX. 1. Archilochus] He was a Greek poet, born at Paros, in the third Olympiad, His invectives XXI. Hipponax was a witty poet of Ephesus, but so deformed, that the painters drew hideous pictures of him; particularly Bupalus and Anther mus, two brothers, eminent statuaries, made his image so ridiculous, that in resentment he dipped his pen in gail, and wrote such bitter iambics against thein, that, it is said, they dispatched themselves: at least they left Ephesus upon the occasion. Horace calls Hipponax, Acer hostis Bupalo, Epod. 6. Alcæus on Hipponax. Anthol. b. 5. ch. 25. No vines the tomb of this old bard adorn Leonidas on the same. Ibid. Softly this tomb approach, a cautious guest, Another on the same. Ibid. Fly, stranger, nor your weary limbs relax |