ECLOGA III. PALEMON. MEN. MENALCAS, DAMETAS, PALEMIN. DIC mihi, Damota, cujum pecus? an Melibai? DA. Parciùs ista viris tamen objicienda memento. DA. Aut hic ad veteres fagos, quum Daphnidis arcum 15 qui te corruperint, hœdis oblique spectantibus, et quo in delubro, sed bone Nymphæ riserunt. -Men. Tune, puto, riserunt, eùm viderunt me amputare improbâ falce arbores, et novas vites Myconis.-Dam. Vel potiùs hic prope fagos an tiquas, quando rupisti arcum et sagittas Daph nidis: quæ tu, maligne 25 Menalca, quando vidisti data esse puero illi et invidebas, et periisses, ni si damnum aliquod ipsi Nonne ego te ME. Cantando tu illum? aut unquam tibi fistula cerâ Juncta fuit? non tu in triviis, indocte, solebas Stridenti miserum stipulâ disperdere carmen? intulisses.-Men. Quid faciet herus Egon: siquidem servus furax audet talia mihi dicere? vidi, nequissime, dolo furari caprum Damonis lyciseâ multùm latrante? Et cùm clamarem: "Quem in loeum fugit ille? Tityre, collige gregem :" tu delitescebas post carecta.-Dam. An ille, canendo superatus, mihi non reddidisset caprum, quem avena mea meruerat cantilenis! si ignoras, caper ille erat meus, et ipse Damon id fatebatur, sed dicebat se non posse reddere.-Men. Tu illum vicisti canendo? an unquam habuisti avenam cerâ compactam? Nonne tu, imperite, solebas raucâ cicutâ spargere in plateis miserabiles cantilenas? NOTES. Damætas and Menalcas, after some smart strokes of rustic raillery, resolve to try who has the most skill at a song; and according ly make their neighbour Palæmon judge of their performance; who, after a full hearing of both parties, declares himself unqualified to decide so important a controversy, and leaves the victory undetermined. 7. Viris. A particular emphasis rests on viris, as much as to say, such indignities may be borne by such varlets as you, but not by men of honour, 10. Tum, credo, &c. Menalcas here slily accuses Damatas of what he charges himself with. 16. Fures, i. e. slaves; because slaves were much addicted to pilfering: hence Plautus, speaking to a slave, says: tu trium literarum homo, vituperas me? i. e. tu fur. 18. Lycisca. The mongrel breed of a wolf and a bitch, from auxos lupus, and xvav canis. 20. Coge, i, e. examine that none of them be wanting. uterque nostrum valeat Dam. Visue igitur ut DA. Tis ergo inter nos, quid possit uterque vicissim ME. De grege non ausim quicquam deponere tecum. grege non ausim collo sione tecum: habeo enim Fagina, cœlatum divini opus Alcimedontis: domi patrem, habeo no- Lentaquibus torno facili superaddita vitis quotidie recensent uter- Diffusis hederâ vestit pallente corymbos. vercam difficilem: et bis que gregem, alteruter In medio duo signa, Conon: et quis fuit alter, verò hudos. At, siqui- Descripsit radio totum qui gentibus orbem? dem tibi placet stultum, esse, opponam id quod tu Tempira quæ messor, quæ curvus arator haberet? frondibus hedera palli. Si ad vitulam spectes, nihil est quòd pocula laudes. 80 35 40 45 dæ corymbos suos disper-ME. Nunquam hodie effugies: veniam quòcunque vocâris. sos. In medio, duæ sunt Audia: hæc tantùm vel qui venit: ecce, Palæmon : effigies, Conon: et quis fuit alter, qui virga dis. Efficiam posthac ne quemquam voce lacessas. tinxit populis totum DA. Quin age, si quid habes; in me mora non erit ulla: mundum, et tempora Nec quemquam fugio: tantùm, vicine Palæmon, quæ essent apta messori, quæ curvo aratori? Ne.Sensibus hæc imis, res est non parva, reponas. que adhuc illos calices PAL. Dicite: quandoquidem in molli consedimus herbâ : attigi labiis, sed servo ab- Et nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbos : ditos.-Dam. Mihi quo-Nunc frondent sylvæ, nunc formosissimus annus. que idem Alcimedon fa bricavit duos calices, et Incipe, Damota: tu deinde sequêre Menalca. circumambiit ansas a Alternis dicetis: amant alterna Camenæ. cantho flexili, et locavit 50 56 in medio Orpheum et arbores sequentes. Neque adhuc illos attigi labiis, sed servo abditos. Si tamen ad ju” vencam respicies, non est eur æstimes calices.-Men. Nullatenus hodie evitabis certamen : descendam ad quascunque conditiones me adduxeris. Tantummodo, idem ille qui venit, en audiat: En Palemon: Faciama ne deinceps ullum provoces cantu.-Dam. Ergo age, si habes aliquid; ego nullo modo morabor: neque recuso allum judicem. Unum precor, ô Palæmon, mi vicine; id penitus defige animo, res est non levis.-Pal. Canite, siquidem sedimus in tenero gramine; et nunc omnis arbor, nunc omnis campus parit: nunc nemora virescunt, nunc annus pulcherrimus est. Incipe, ô Damœta; tu deinde succedes, o Menalca: canetis vivissim. vicissitudo placet Musis. NOTES. 31. Mecum quo pignore certes. Literally, With what stake you will contend with me. 38. Lenta quibus, &c. These two verses are somewhat intricate, and the commentators have made them much more so by their glosses. Ruæus takes vitis for vimen, but quotes no authority: and the whole of his interpretation appears harder than the original. Vitis we would take in the usual sense; by torno facili, the easy carving-tool, understand the ingenious carver, who handles the graving-tool with ease and address; and by diffusos edere pallente corymbos, the berries diffused on the ivy-boughs: so that the plain meaning will be, that each cup was engraven with vine and ivy-branches interwoven, in such sort, that the ivy-berries were shaded by the mantling vine. 40. Quis fuit alter? supposed to mean either Aratus or Archimedes. 45. Acantho. Acanthus is properly the plant called bear's-foot, or bear's-breech. 49. Nunquam hodiè effugies. Damotas seemed to construe Menalcas's backwardness to stake a heifer as an attempt to evadithe combat, and still insisted on that conde tion; upon which Menalcas turns short upon him, retorts the charge of faintheartedness, and takes him on his own terms: nunquam hodie, &c. Think not that any of your evasive arts will serve your turn; veniam quocunque vocâris; I will descend to any terms you name; if you insist on my staking a heifer, be it so; I agree to that, or any other condition you name. 54. Sensibus imis. Literally, Lay up these matters in your deepest thoughts. DA. Ab Jove principium, Muse; Jovis omnia plena: ME. Et me Phoebus amat: Phœbo sua semper apud me 60 Dam. A Jove ducamus initium, 6 Musæ: omnia plena sunt Jove: ille fœcundat terras, ille curat meos versus.Men. Phœbus quoque me a mat: sunt semper apud 65 me dona sacra Phœbo, lauri, et hyacinthus suaviter purpurascens.Dam. Galatea, jocosa puella, me ferit malo, es fugit ad salices, et optat se videri à me priusquam 70 fugiat.--Men. Amyntas verò, meus amor, se sponte exhibet mihi: ita ut jam Delia ipsa non sit familiarior canibus meis. Amynta,—Dam. Dona jam para DA. Phyllida mitte mihi, meus est natalis, Iola. D. Pollio amat nostram, quamvis est rustica, Musam. M. Pollio et ipse facit nova carmina: pascite taurum, 75 ta sunt amicæ meæ : nam observavi ipse locum, in quo palumbes aëriæ nidificaverunt.-Men. Misi Amynta decem mala flava electa ex arbore sylvestri: quod unum potui 80 facere: eras mittam toti 85 dem alia.-Dam. O quoties, et quæ verba mihi dixit Galatea! O venti, ferte ad auras Deorum aliquam eorum partem. -Men. Quid prodest mihi, 6 Amynta, quòd tu me non aspernaris animo, si ego servo retia, dum tu apros inseque ris?-Dam. O Iola, mit te ad me Phyllida, meus est dies natalis. Quando immolabo vitulam pro terræ fructibus, tu ipse veni.-Men. O Iola, diligo Phyllida præ aliis, me enim abeunte ploravit, et diu, dixit: vale, valc, ô formose.-Da. Lupus funesta res est gregibus, pluvia segetibus maturis, venti arboribus: nobis ira Amaryllidis.—Men. Humor grata res est teneris segetibus, arbutus hædis à lacte depulsis; salix flexilis gregi prægnanti: mihi solus Amyntas. -Dam. Pollio diligit mea carmina, licèt sint agrestia; ô musæ, nutrite juvencam Pollioni, qui vos legit.Men. Ipse etiam Pollio componit novos versus : nutrite illi taurum, qui jam cornibus feriat, et spargat arenam calcibus.-Dam. Quisquis te diligit, û Pollio, perveniat ad ea, ad quæ lætatur te quoque pervenisse : NOTES. 63. Lauri-hyacinthus. The laurel and hyacinth were sacred to Apollo: the one on account of Daphne, Apollo's mistress, who was transformed into the laurel; and the other of Hyacinthus, his favourite boy, whom he accidentally killed with a coit, and from whose blood sprang the flower of his name. See Banier's Mythology. 68. Veneri. The Greek and Roman poets frequently use Venus for a mistress. 74. Quid prodest, &c. Damotas mentions the happiness he had enjoyed in his mistress's presence and converse; and in her absence solaces himself with the delightful remembrance thereof: Menalcas here strives to go beyond him in sentiments of love and tenderness, and shows that it is impossible for him to have an enjoyment of himself while Amyntas is absent, nay, unless he share with him every danger. 76. Iola. The vocative Iola does not cor C respond with formose, but is to be construed at the beginning of the couplet, as in the couplet preceding. 77. Faciam vitulâ, i. e. Faciam sacra ex vitulá. 78. Me discedere flevit, for discessum meum flevit, a Grecism. 80. Stabulis. Stalls are here put for herds or flocks of cattle. 82. Depulsis, à lacte understood. It is expressed in the seventh eclogue, Depulsos à lacte domi quæ clauderet agnos. 82. Arbutus. The strawberry-tree, so called from the resemblance of its fruit to a strawberry. 86. Nova, i. e. magna, miranda, such as are rare and unmatched. 88. Veniat quò. May he arrive at the Consulship, and all those honours which you have attained. . mum,-Men. Quisquis vulpes, et exprimat lac illi mel fluat, et vepres Mella fluant illi, ferat et rubus asper amomum. hine fugite: serpens le tutò fiditur ripæ: ipse 90 95 aries siccat adhuc villos. D. Eheu, quàm pingui macer est mihi taurus in arvo! 100 -Dam. O Tityre, remo- Idem amor exitium pecori est, pecorisq; magistro. pellas: ego purgabo eas ve à fluvio pascentes ca- M. His certè neq; amor causa est: vix ossibus hærent. omnes in fonte, cùm erit Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos. ovile: si vis caloris cor opportunum.--Men. O D. Dic quibus in terris, et eris mihi magnus Apollo, bus.-Dam. Heu! quàm dominum gregis.-Men. 105 110 Non certe amor id importat his ovibus meis : tamen vix stant ossibus. Nescio quis oculus corrumpit mihi juDiores agnos.-Dam. Dic quâ in regione cœli spatium apertum sit uinis non plusquam tribus, et eris mihi magnus vates.-Men. Die quâ in regione oriantur flores notati regum nominibus: et possidebis solus Phyllida.-Pal. Non meum est dirimere tantam contentionem inter vos: Tu mereris vitulam, et hic quoque : et quicunque aut diffidet amoribus prosperis, aut experietur tristes. Nunc obstruite rivos, ô juvenes : prata satis irrigata sunt. NOTES. 89. Rubus is without doubt the blackberry bush. 89. Amomum. What is commonly called amomum Plinii, or berry-bearing nightshade but Salmasius thinks that the ancients called every sweet odour amomum. When Damatas wishes that Pollio's friends may gather amomum (some spice or perfume) from brambles, he makes an allusion to the golden age: Assyrium vulgò nascetur amomum. Dryden renders amomum, myrrh. 96. Reice. Here is first a syncope, rejice being changed into reice, then a contraction of the two short vowels into a long diphthong. So eicit for ejicit in Lucretius, 1.3.891. Na radicitùs è vitá se tollet et eicit. 98. Præceperit. Shall take it before us. 100. In arvo. Several manuscripts read in ervo. The ervum is a leguminous plant called the vetch. Aristotle and Pliny represent it as useful for fattening cattle. 104. Dic quibus, &c. Observing Menalcas prepared to continue his responses, to put an end to the contest, Damætas offers what he supposes an enigma too difficult for solution. 105. Tres pateat, &c. may mean, In the bottom of a well. Some suppose the shield of Achilles is meant, on which the constellations were depicted. Professor Martyn conceives it may allude to the space or body of the heavens as seen on a celestial globe. Globes had been before this time (probably Joy Atlas) invented. 106. Inscripti nomina regum, &c. The flower here meant is probably the hyacinth, of which Pliny says: Hyacinthum comitatur fabula duplex, luctum præferens ejus quem Apollo dilexerat, aut ex Ajacis cruore editi, ita discurrentibus venis, ut figura literarum Græcarum Ai legatur inscripta, Lib. XXI. Chap. 11. This account, I doubt, is like many others in Pliny, built on a slight foundation but it is sufficient for Virgil if there was such a tradition. Minelius observes that some suppose that this is to be understood of the money coined in the time of Augustus, by Florus the triumvir, on which a flower was impressed. 110. Metuet dulces, &c. Literally, Shall either fear sweet amours, or experience the bitter, i. e. shall sing the fears and jealousies that mingle with sweet successful love, and from experience describe the pangs and bitterness of disappointment. The one was the case of Menalcas, Dulce satis humor, &c. the other that of Damætas, Triste lupus stabulis, &c. In the language of poetry, persons are said to do what they naturally describe. So Ecl. VI. 62. Tum Phaethontiadas musco circumdat ama ree. Corticis, &c. 111. Claudite, &c. An allegorical expression, denoting that it was time to give over their songs, now that they had given sufficient proof of their talent. So in Catullus, Claudite ostia, virgines, lusimus satis. ECLOGA IV. POLLIO. SICELIDES Musæ, paulò majora canamus. INTERPRETATIO. ca non placent omnibus. Si cantamus sylvas, syl væ deceant consulem. Nunc attigimus extremum sæculum vaticinii Cumex Sibyllæ. Magna series temporum oritur de novo. Nunc Astres 10 revertitur, regnum Saturni revertitur: nune novum genus hominum mittitur è summo cœlo. Tu tantùm, ô pudica Diana, adsis nascenti puero: sub quo ferrea ætas primùm finietur, et aurea per totum orbem orietur : tuus frater Apollo jam imperat. NOTES. Among the various conjectures about the design of this pastoral, the most probable is, that Virgil therein celebrates the birth of the famous Marcellus, the nephew of Augustus by Octavia; the same who died in the flower of his age, and whose memory the same poct has perpetuated by that celebrated funeral eulogium in the sixth Æneid. The time of his birth agrees to the year of Pollio's consulship, A. U. C. 714, when the child here described is said to have come into the world. This event occurred in a happy conjuncture, just after Augustus and Antony had ratified a league of peace, and Octavio, by marrying Antony, sealed that peace; which restored plenty to Rome, and re-established the tranquillity of the empire, as in the time of the golden age. Yet many, not without ground, think this pastoral a prophecy of our blessed Saviour, there being several remarkable passages in it applicable to him. 1. Sicelides Musa. Sicilian or pastoral muses; because Theocritus, the original pastoral poet, was a native of Sicily. 2. Non omnes; for, as Horace observes, Multos castra juvant, et lituo tube Permistus sonitus, bellaque matribus detestata. 2. Myrica. The tamarisk generally grows low and shrubby. It is common on the banks of the rivers in Italy, and was first introduced into England in the reign of Elizabeth. 3. Sylva. Woods, here put for pastoral, rural subjects. 3. Consule digne. Minelius is of opinion that the poet alludes to a custom of the old Romans, among whom it was provided, that the consuls themselves should have the care of the mountains and woods, lest at any time timber might be found deficient for building vessels for the sea. 5. Magnus ordo. Thought to refer to the great Platonic year, which Cicero says, tum efficitur, cùm Solis, et Lunæ, et quinque errantium ad eandem inter se comparationem confectis omnium spatiis, est facta conversio. 2. de Nat. Deor. And Clavius, C. 1. Sphæ ræ quo tempore quidam volunt omnia, quæcunque in mundo sunt, eodem ordine esse reditura, quo nunc cernuntur. 9. Gens aurea. Hesiod mentions five ages of the world. 1. The golden age, in the days of Saturn, when men lived like the gods, without labour, trouble, or decay. 2d. The silver age, in which men were less happy, being injurious to each other, and indevout. 3d. The copper or brazen age, in which men made themselves armour, and were given to war. 4th. The age of demigods and heroes, who warred at Thebes and Troy. 5th. The iron age, in which Hesiod lived, and which was to end when the men of his time grew old and gray. Hence Virgil means to teach that the golden age, by a natural revolution, was returning. |