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SANNAZARIUS, in his Pifcatory Eclogues, gives frequent defcriptions of fhells; as indeed it might be expected from the nature of his fubject. In his firft eclogue, MYCON exclaims,

En tibi cærulei muscum æquoris: en tibi conchas
Purpureas; necnon toto quæfita profundo,

Et vix ex imis evulfa corallia faxis,

Adferimus.

In the third Idyllium of SANNAZARIUS, MOPSUs rewards CHRONIS and IOLAS with a conch and a branch of coral; just as the umpire-fhepherd in this Idyllium prefents MENALCAS and DAPHNIS with a conch and a club. The principal excellence of this club (by the way) feems to be defcribed by the word AuroQua -It was a fingle plant.

LINE 46.

O that fhe fill'd my foft melodious hours!
For neither to the honey-bee the flowers
So fweet-or easy fleep, &c. &c.

VIRGIL's are charming lines

Tale tuum carmen nobis, divine poeta,

Quale fopor feffis in gramine-quale per æftum
Dulcis aquæ faliente fitim reftinguere rivo.

Nor are POPE's lefs pleasing:,

Not bubbling fountains to the thirsty fwain,
Not balmy fleep to laborers faint with pain:
Not showers to larks, or funshine to the bee,
Are half fo charming as thy fight to me.

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IDYLLIUM the TENTH.

LINE 17.

OF meagre vinegar I've fcarce a flask!

Thou, rich in wine, canst pierce the purple cask !

JOHN UPTON reads Пnλov (inftead of Anλov) in this place—an old word for wine.

LINE 19.

Ah! hence it is, my fallows are unsown.

ΤοUPE would read Σποδῳ for Σπορῳ, the common reading. But this paffage does not feem to want emendation.

LINE 25.

Go, clafp her! hug thy little chirping fright.

See the original. Zappos ypaus was a proverbial expreffion, equivalent to anus quæ in virginitate confenuit: metaphora fumta eft a fylveftri locuftâ, quam vocant yeavy Cepiony parlıy.

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SUIDAS.

If you marry this old and loquacious virgin, (fays MILO) you will have a Cicada (or locuft) to disturb you all night.' The vulgar perfonages of THEOCRITUS are full of adages. It is remarkable, that the common people, in general, manage proverbs of their country with great adroitnefs. The harvestfield is a fine fcene for ruftic humour:

'Tis there

The rural fcandal, and the rural jeft
Fly harmless, to deceive the tedious time;
And feal unfelt the fultry hours away.

LINE 46.

Delightful girl! how beauteous are thy feet!

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In SOLOMON'S Song we read: How beautiful are thy feet with 'fhoes!' JUDITH's fandals ravished the eyes of HOLOFERNES.', And a fine-shaped foot was thought a point of beauty, among the lowest ruftics in Sicily.

The following ftanzas from a ballad, remarkable for its ease and vivacity, and curious felicity of expreffion, will fhew the ideas of the moderns on this fubject.

Meya

Her foot-it was fo wondrous Small,
So thin, fo round, fo flim, fo neat,
The buckle fairly hid it all,

And feem'd to fink it with the weight.
And just above the Spangled foe,
Where many an eye did often glance,

Sweetly retiring from the view,

And feen by Stealth, and seen by chance,
Two flender ankles peeping out

Stood like love's heralds.

LINE 26.

Hah, mouthing it so big.

Jeva immediately afterwards-in the original. The word mouth was probably derived from Mulos.

LINE 35.

Yet, in my eyes, a honey-colour'd maid.

In the original μελίχλωρον Such epithets fhould always be literally tranflated. Though they may appear uncouth to the English reader, they contribute to give him an idea of the manner of the original.

LINE 53.

But haft thou LYTIERSES' numbers heard?

LYTIERSES was a bastard fon of MIDAS, king of Phrygia. He reigned after his father, at Celana, the chief city of Phrygia;

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and is defcribed as a ruftic, inhuman tyrant; of an insatiable appetite; devouring in one day three large baskets of bread, and drinking ten gallons of wine. He took great pleasure in agriculture: but, as acts of cruelty were his chief delight, he used to oblige fuch as paffed by, while he was reaping, to join with him in the work; and then, cutting off their heads, he bound up their bodies in the fheaves. For these and fuch-like cruelties he was put to death by HERCULES, and his body thrown into the Meander: Yet his memory was cherished by the reapers of Phrygia, and an hymn, from him called "LYTIERSES," fung in harvest-time, in honor of their fellow-labourer.

Univ. Hist. vol. iv. 8vo. p. 459.

The above anecdote is taken from one of the tragedies of SOSIBIUS, an ancient Syracufian poet, who, according to Vossius, flourished in the 166th Olympiad. Mr. FAWKES hath printed the original paffage, together with a tranflation-but it only contains the information already given." LYTIERSES” seems to be a fet of formulary maxims, as HEINSIUS obferves. MENANDER speaks of this song in his Carchedonium:

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When in brisk eddies the light chaff is borne.

See, in Scripture, the ox that treadeth out the corn.' This custom exifts in modern Italy. Mr. SWINBURNE tells us, that the corn at Canofa is feparated from the ear by the trampling of a great number of mares tied in a ftring by their tails, and whipped round and round. This operation is performed in the Terra di Otranto by a pair of oxen, who drag between them a very heavy rough ftone that breaks the fheaves, and shakes out the grain.

IDYLLIUM

IDYLLIUM the ELEVENTH.

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LINE 25.

than the curd more white!

"O the English reader, perhaps, an inelegant comparison. It was, at first, omitted (with some others of the like nature) by the translator: But a critical friend who perused the MS. advised him to preferve fuch ideas with a fcrupulous exactness, as they were evidently characteristic of the original.

LINE 34.

When wandering round the hyacinthine hill. Thus VIRGIL, in imitation:

Sepibus in noftris parvam te rofcida mala,

Dux ego vefter eram, vidi cum matre legentem.

SCALIGER thinks VIRGIL's apples preferable to our poet's hyacinthine leaves. WARTON, however, prefers the latter; and discovers an agreeable fimplicity in the leaves of the hyacinth, to which the flowers have no pretenfion. Though it appears, from numberless inftances, that the fimplicity of particularizing conftitutes one principal charm in the compofitions of THEOCRITUS, yet fuch criticism as the above will strike most readers as too minute and trivial.

LINE 42.

Thy eye-brows, ftretch'd so shaggy and fo wide!

Hirfutumque fupercilium, prolixaque barba.

Many of the critics have obferved, that VIRGIL's judgment hath here forfaken him, in transferring to his little Italian shepherd the fhaggy eye-brow, &c. of POLYPHEMUS. LE CERDA thinks, that the meaning to be conveyed by this paffage in VIRGIL, is, my violent love hath made me neglect my person.'

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