BUCOLICA ET GEORGICA

WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY

T. E. PAGE, M.A.

FORMERLY FELLOW of St. John's college, caMBRIDGE

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

1916

First Edition 1898 Reprinted 1903, 1907, 1910, 1913, 1916

PREFACE

FOR some reason which it is not easy to understand, young students seem now to limit their reading of Virgil chiefly to the Aeneid, while his other writings are comparatively neglected. Yet, without entering on any comparison between the two works, it may certainly be stated with justice that there is nothing in the Aeneid or indeed in Latin poetry-which surpasses the artistic perfection of the Georgics. They repay the most careful and loving study, and the First Book, for example, within the space of four hundred lines, illustrates almost every literary and poetic excellence. In the introduction which follows, and also in the notes, an attempt has been made to point out some of their chief merits, in the hope of directing more general attention to the rich ore which they everywhere contain, not always on the surface, but only awaiting the diligent explorer, who is sure of his reward.

Of commentators Conington seems to me to take a foremost place, and I feel pleasure in remembering that my native county-reputed the Boeotia of Englandhas in this century produced not only a poet who, for delicate accuracy of observation, fine felicity of phrase, and perfect mastery of rhythm, is the most

Virgilian of the moderns, but also a Virgilian critic who has scarcely an equal and certainly no superior. If at times he weighs minute possibilities in too sensitive a balance and so is led to disregard the more important facts on which a judgment should be formed, yet this scrupulous nicety of examination often throws new light upon the subject, and in the study of work so elaborate as Virgil's is always instructive, while, even where it is necessary to differ from his conclusions, it is impossible not to learn much from his arguments. Kennedy's notes on this part of Virgil are fuller than on the rest, and his discussion of many difficult passages is marked by rare insight and acumen. Martyn's edition, although defective in scholarship, is full of most valuable matter and still worthy of the high popularity it once enjoyed. Of foreign editions I have consulted a considerable number, but it has been my aim not to render the notes confusing by too many references to the numberless views which have been put forward, often needlessly, by a host of commentators. Notes which are merely brief dogmatic statements of a particular opinion are, in my judgment, of little educational value; on the other hand even a concise summary of what has been said on many passages of Virgil must be tedious and perplexing to all but specialists. To attain a happy mean and afford the average reader sufficient but not excessive information is difficult, but it has been the object which I have set before me.

CHARTERHOUSE, Godalming,

December 1897.

T. E. PAGE,