T. Urbem, quam dicunt Romam, Meliboee, putavi 20 Stultus ego huic nostrae similem, quo saepe solemus Pastores ovium teneros depellere foetus.

Sic canibus catulos similes, sic matribus hoedos
Noram; sic parvis componere magna solebam.

Verum haec tantum alias inter caput extulit urbes, 25
Quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi.

e

f

M. Et quae tanta fuit Romam tibi causa videndi ?
T. Libertas: quae, sera, tamen respexit inertem;
Candidior postquam tondenti barba cadebat;
Respexit tamen, et longo post tempore venit,
Postquam nos Amaryllis habet, Galatea reliquit.
Namque, fatebor enim, dum me Galatea tenebat,
Nec spes libertatis erat, nec cura peculi.
Quamvis multa meis exiret victima saeptis,
Pinguis et ingratae premeretur caseus urbi:

30

Non unquam gravis aere domum mihi dextra redibat.
M. Mirabar, quid moesta Deos, Amarylli, vocares;
Cui pendere sua patereris in arbore poma.

Tityrus hinc aberat. Ipsae te, Tityre, pinus,
Ipsi te fontes, ipsa haec arbusta, vocabant.

35

40

the word laeva, commentators are divided in their opinions; it being sometimes used in a good sense, and sometimes in a bad one. Virgil however, Martyn observes, has never used Laevius in a good sense, except in two instances, where it relates to thunder. Here it is plainly used in a bad sense. e Viburnum lantana, fig. 2. f Galatea, a name for a shepherdess.

7. Quid facerem? neque servitio me exire licebat,
Nec tam praesentes alibi cognoscere Divos.
Hic illum vidi juvenem, Meliboee, quotannis
Bis senos cui nostra dies altaria fumant.
Hic mihi responsum primus dedit ille petenti :
Pascite, ut ante, boves, pueri; submittite tauros.
M. Fortunate senex, ergo tua rura manebunt !
Et tibi magna satis; quamvis lapis omnia nudus
Limosoque palus obducat pascua junco.
Non insueta graves tentabunt pabula foetas;
Nec mala vicini pecoris contagia laedent.
Fortunate senex, hic inter flumina nota s
Et fontes sacros frigus captabis opacum.

45

50

Hinc, tibi quae semper vicino ab limite saepes,
Hyblaeis apibus florem depasta salicti,

55

Saepe levi somnum suadebit inire susurro.
Hinc alta sub rupe canet frondator ad auras;
Nec tamen interea raucae, tua cura, palumbes,
gemere aërea cessabit turtur ab ulmo.

Nec

T. Ante leves ergo pascentur in aethere cervi, Et freta destituent nudos in littore pisces :

Ante, pererratis amborum finibus, exul

Aut Ararim Parthus bibet, aut Germania Tigrim:
Quàm nostro illius labatur pectore vultus.

60

g Flumina nota, may be supposed to mean the Po and the Min

cius.

The river Arar of the ancients is now called the Saone.

M. At nos hinc, alii sitientes ibimus Afros;

Pars Scythiam et rapidum Cretae veniemus Oaxen, i
Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos.

En unquam patrios longo post tempore fines,
Pauperis et tuguri congestum cespite culmen,
Post aliquot, mea regna videns, mirabor aristas?
Impius haec tam culta novalia miles habebit?
Barbarus has segetes? en, quo discordia cives
Perduxit miseros! en, queis consevimus agros!
Insere nunc, Meliboee, pyros; pone ordine vites.
Ite meae, felix quondam pecus, ite capellae.
Non ego vos posthac, viridi projectus in antro,
Dumosa pendere procul de rupe videbo;

Carmina nulla canam; non, me pascente, capellae,
Florentem cytisum et salices carpetis amaras.

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70

75

81

T. Hic tamen hanc mecum poteras requiescere noctem
Fronde super viridi; sunt nobis mitia poma,
Castaneae molles, et pressi copia lactis ;

Et jam summa procul villarum culmina fumant;
Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae.

i Oaren. A river of Crete. Among the ancient authors Virgil is the only one who mentions a river in Crete by this name. There was an ancient city Oaxus in this island, as appears by Herodotus, 'El τῆς Κρήτης Οαξος πόλις. The river was probably in its neighbourhood.

* Medicago arlorea, fig. 3.

ECLOGA II.

ALEXIS.

FORMOSUM pastor Corydona ardebat Alexin,
Delicias domini; nec, quid speraret, habebat.
Tantum inter densas, umbrosa cacumina, fagos
Assidue veniebat; ibi haec incondita solus
Montibus et sylvis studio jactabat inani :

O crudelis Alexi, nihil mea carmina curas?

Nil nostri miserere? mori me denique coges.
Nunc etiam pecudes umbras et frigora captant;
Nunc virides etiam occultant spineta lacertos;
Thestylish et rapido fessis messoribus aestu
Allia serpyllumque herbas contundit olentes:
At mecum raucis, tua dum vestigia lustro,
Sole sub ardenti resonant arbusta cicadis.
Nonne fuit satius, tristes Amaryllidis iras

5

10

Atque superba pati fastidia? nonne Menalcan ? e

15

a Corydon is a fictitious name for a shepherd, and most probably alludes to no individual person.

b Thestylis. The name of a female servant.

Thymus serpyllum. Fig. 4.

d Amaryllis by some commentators is supposed to be a girl, and Menalcas a boy, given to Virgil by Mæcænas; but these are opi

Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses.
O formose puer, nimium ne crede colori.
Alba ligustra cadunt, vaccinia nigra leguntur.
Despectus tibi sum, nec, qui sim, quaeris, Alexi;
Quam dives pecoris, nivei quam lactis abundans.
Mille meae Siculis errant in montibus agnae.
Lac mihi non aestate novum, non frigore desit.
Canto, quae solitus, si quando armenta vocabat,
Amphion Dircaeus, in Actaeo Aracyntho.

25

Nec sum adeo informis: nuper me in littore vidi,
Cum placidum ventis staret mare; non ego Daphnim,
Judice te, metuam, si nunquam fallat imago.

O tantum libeat mecum tibi sordida rura
Atque humiles habitare casas et figere cervos,
Hoedorumque gregem viridi compellere hibisco! 30

nions more of imagination than authority. In the filth eclogue, under the name of Menalcas, Virgil would seem to mean himself.

e The ligustrum of the ancients is generally supposed to be the common privet, Ligustrum vulgare, fig. 5; nevertheless, there is reason to believe that it may be our great Bind-weed, Convolvulus sepium.

f Vaccinium, as mentioned by Virgil, both here and in the tenth eclogue, is not different from what, in other places, he calls hyacinthus; the latter being the same as the axes of the Greeks, and the former a Latin name derived from it. From different passages in Moschus, Ovid, and Virgil, this hyacinthus, or vaccinium, would seem to be, not the flower that is known to us by that name, but the Liium martagon of Linnæus, fig. 6.