That where yon hills slope gently to the plain, Their shatter'd tops where those old beeches raise, 10 15 Mær. So were you told, and fame so blazed abroad: But weak our lays, by clashing arms o'erawed, As when the eagle swoops, Dodona's dove. Nay-but that, croaking from the tree of Jove, The left-hand raven warn'd me not to strive, Nor Moris nor his lord had been alive. Lyc. And lives there who such deed of death would dare? Alas! how near had vanish'd into air With thee, Menalcas, all thy soothing verse! 20 For who the nymphs' soft wailings would rehearse ; As to my Amaryllis you repair'd? 'Till I return my flock, kind Tityrus, feed (Short is my journey) and to water lead; But as thou lead'st them, Tityrus, have a care: Of that old butting goat, dear boy, beware.' Mær. Or (sung to Varus) that unfinish'd strain; Varus, thy name-if Mantua still remain, Ah! to Cremona fatally too near ! Melodious swans to yon bright stars shall bear.' 25 30 9 It is generally believed that the poet in this line describes the actual position of his estate, between the foot of the hills and the Mincio. The old beeches' are too particular for a fictitious scene. In the first eclogue, vv. 56, 57, the lands of Tityrus are partly shingly,' and partly fenny,' which agrees very well with the site here referred to. 12 Most probably, as before observed, by the Daphnis. 22-24 Alludes perhaps to Eclog. v. 24. 48. &c. 27-30 An imitation of Theocritus, as is likewise v. 38. 45 -52.71. 76. Lyc. So may thy bees the poisonous yew forego; 35 Me, too, the Muses taught the sylvan strain; As gabbling geese with sweetest swans, to vie. 'Hither to land, O Galatea, haste: What joy can florish 'mid the wat❜ry waste? 40 45 Here bright-robed spring with verdure decks the bowers, And every streamlet's brink is strew'd with flowers; And let the surge rave idly on the strand.' 50 Lyc. One moonlight night, thou sung'st too-such a strain! The words forgotten, I the air retain. Mær. 'Why on old constellations, Daphnis, gaze? 55 See, where its beams the Julian star displays; A star, whence fields draw fatness as it rolls, And grapes grow duskier on their sunny knolls. Plant, Daphnis, for the rising race thy pears :' -Ah!. age, which pilfers all, not e'en the memory spares! Oft when, a careless boy, I trod the mead, Now, every lay is vanish'd from my head. 60 56 In reference to this phenomenon Augustus caused the statue of Julius Cæsar in the Forum to be adorned by the addition of a star.-See Martyn on Georg. i. 488. His very voice has hapless Moris lost; His path some wolf's first-darted glance has crost: 65 Lyc. My wish but grows with your apology. Here rest thy kids: we soon shall reach the town; Mor. Press me no more, but onward let us go: 70 75 65 It was the superstitious belief of the ancient Italians that if a wolf saw any man first, it for a time deprived him of the power of speech.-See Plin. Nat. Hist. viii. 22. 71 Sepulchres were anciently placed near the highways, whence their inscriptions are frequently addressed to travellers.' Bianor, surnamed Ocnus (son, as we learn from the tenth Eneid, of the Tiber by the prophetess Manto, the daughter of Tiresias), is said to have fortified Mantua, and to have given it a name derived from that of his mother. 79 This seems to prove that He (Menalcas, or Virgil) was then at Rome. ECLOGUE X.-GALLUS. ARGUMENT. As the Silenus appears to have been begun at the command of Varus, and the Pharmaceutria at that of Pollio, we have some reason to believe that this Eclogue, a fine imitation of Theocritus (in reference to whom he invokes the Sicilian nymph Arethusa), was undertaken A. U. C. 717, at the request of Gallus, whose hapless love it records: thus extending the period occupied in writing the Eclogues over seven years, from A. U. C. 710 to 717. The order of them appears to have been (different from their usual location) Alexis, Palemon, Daphnis, Tityrus, Maris, Silenus, Pollio, Pharmaceutria, Melibaus, and Gallus. THIS closing effort, Arethusa, aid; A few brief strains be to my Gallus paid: 5 10 Nymphs, o'er what lawns, what forests did ye rove, When Gallus faded in disastrous love? 3 So Pope, in his Windsor Forest ;' What muse for Granville can refuse to sing? The same poet has also in his second Pastoral happily imitated vv. 9, 10. Lycoris is supposed to have been Cytheris, an actress of those times. The old mythology states, that Alpheus, a river of Peloponnesus, fell in love with the nymph Arethusa; who flying from his pursuit, was metamorphosed by Diana into a fountain, and made her escape under the sea to Ortygia, an island near Sicily. See neid ix. 11 Imitated from Theocritus, and by Pope, as likewise by Milton in his Lycidas ;' Where were ye, nymphs,' &c. For then nor Pindus nor the Phocian mount 15 The sheep stand round, nor slight their master's pain; —Nor thou, bright bard, the humble flock disdain : 20 In beauty's prime beside the lucid flood, Well pleased, Adonis fed his fleecy brood.— 25 The shepherd came; and, with the herdsmen last, 'Braves barbarous camps and winter's dreary skies.' With woodland wreath came old Sylvanus crown'd, Fennel and largest lilies nodding round. 30 Pan, too, we saw: th' Arcadian god appear'd And yet this grief?' he asks. In vain it flows: No glut of tears insatiate Cupid knows. Sooner shall herbage moisture cease to love, 35 - But you, Arcadians, deign (sad Gallus cried) To sing my sorrows on each mountain's side: You, only, of the poet's art possest; And softly, sweetly, will my relics rest, 40 If by your simple reeds my suffering be exprest. 6 Ah! had I, one of you, your flocks or fed, 30. 32 On the fennel' and' elder,' see Martyn in loc.. 45 |
