THE WORKS OF VIRGI L TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE, AS NEAR THE ORIGINAL AS THE DIFFERENT IDIOMS OF THE BY JOS. DAVIDSON. FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS AS WELL AS OF PRIVATE GENTLEMEN, A NEW EDITION. Edinburgh: PRINTED FOR PETER HILL, PRINTER TO THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 1808. VIRGIL'S BUCOLICS. ECLOGUE I. YOU; MELIBOEUS. TITYRUS. OU, Tityrus, lying all along under the covert of that full-spread beach, practise your woodland lays on a slender oaten pipe: We are forced to leave the bounds of our country, and our pleasant fields; we fly our country; while you, Tityrus, in the shade at ease, teach the woods to reecho fair Amaryllis. TIT. A god, O Melibus hath vouchsafed us this tranquillity; for to me he shall always be a god: A tender lambkin from our folds shall often stain his altar with its blood. 'Tis he hath licensed my heifers to feed at large, as you see, and myself to play what tunes I pleased on my rural reed. MEL. Truly I envy you not; but rather am amazed at your good fortune; now that all around there are such confusions in the country. Lo myself, sick as I am, drive far hence my tender goats. This too, O Tityrus, I drag along with much ado: For here just now among the thick hazles having yeaned twins, the hope of my flock, she left them, alas! on the naked flinty rock. This calamity, I remember, my oaks struck with lightning from heaven often presaged to me, had not my mind been under infatuation. Often the ill-boding crow from an old hollow oak presaged it. But tell me, Tityrus, who is this god of yours? TIT. The city, Melibus, which they call Rome, I foolishly imagined to be like this our Mantua, whither we shepherds oft-times are wont to drive the tender offspring of our ewes. So I had known whelps like dogs, so kids like their dams; thus was I wont to compare great things with small. But that city hath raised its head as far above others as the cypresses use to do above the limber shrubs. MEL. And what important cause had you to visit Rome? TIT. Liberty, which, though late, yet cast an eye upon A |