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The above portrait of the Cyclops (or at least a fimilar one in HOMER'S Odyff.) is evidently copied by the writer of the Arabian Nights Entertainments. See vol. iii.

LINE 57.

For thee, ten does, all mark'd with moons, I rear.

CASAUBON and HEINSIUS would read Mavvopogws, wearing collars, according to the Vatican MS. The ancients, it is true, were fond of ornamenting, in this manner, the animals they had brought up tame. But the common reading hath more fimplicity-Apopopos-all of them pregnant. The tranflator, however, hath preferred REISKE's conjecture both to the Vulgate and Vatican-Mnvopopws, marked with little moons. A paffage in HOMER'S Iliad, B. 23, may not unappofitely illuftrate this emendation: HOMER is fpeaking of a horse,

On whofe broad front a blaze of shining white
Like the full moon flood obvious to the fight.

LINE 58.

And four fine cubs, I plunder'd from a bear.

OVID hath foftened the ferocity of these favage bears-pre

fents that aptly characterize the monster POLYPHEME.

Inveni geminos, qui tecum ludere poffint,
Villofa catulos in fummis montibus ursæ.

LINE 63.

There, ivy round my bays and cypress twines;

There, grapes delicious load my blushing vines.

The repetition of ET in the original, is particularly beautiful.

LINE 71.

On the red hearth unquench'd my embers live;
Then to the flame my beard-my eye-brows give.

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The Cyclops here alludes, perhaps, to TELEPHUS's prediction, that his eye fhould be burnt out by ULYSSES. If we take this with us, the sense is obvious and easy. I could even fuffer this ' eye, which I value fo much, to be burnt by thee, Galatea, And, as he had been talking of his fire before, it seems

• &c.

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à natural tranfition.'

WARTON.

HEINSIUS hath given a very different interpretation, which, however, is far-fetched and improbable. This paffage, indeed, hath been abfolutely a Crux Criticorum. The tranflator hath not followed WARTON, whofe conftruction, he thinks, is neither obvious nor easy.'

LINE 81.

But yet, at once, my flowers I could not bring;
For these in winter rife, and those in spring.

The diftinctness and fimple beauty of this paffage (in the original) cannot escape the admirers of THEOCR.TUS.

LINE 105.

Full many a pretty maid, at dusky eve,

My fmiles and jokes with frolic laugh receive.

Lenefque fub noctem fufurri

Compofita repetantur horâ, &c.

HORACE.

CORNELIUS GALLUS hath defcribed a frolicfome nymph in a pleafing and natural manner

Erubuit vultus ipfa puella meos;

Et nunc fubridens latebras fugitiva petebat,
Non tamen, effugiens, tota latere volens.
Sed magis ex aliquâ cupiebat` parte videri,
Latior hoc multo quod male tecta foret.

We

We meet with fome curious lines in Mr. WILLIAM BRowne's
Paftoral Poems, corresponding with the above-

As that her fonne, fince day grew old and weake,
Staid with the maids to run at barlibreake:

Or that be cours'd a parke with females fraught,
Which would not runne except they might be caught,

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IDYLLIUM the TWELFTH.

THIS is one of the Idyllia that (for obvious reasons to the

learned reader) would not admit of a very close translation. The Greek and Latin poets (it is well known) published, without the flightest confcioufnefs of impropriety, fuch paffages as, among us, would meet with univerfal reprobation: But, melancholy reflection! they were read and admired in the literary ages of Greece and Rome. Is not this circumftance too ftriking an evidence, that the connection above alluded to, was countenanced, at least, among the ancients? From too passionate an expreffion in the poet's painting-a warmth of coloring too vivid -we may often fufpect fomething more than pure attachments founded on a rational efteem.

IDYLLIUM

IDYLLIUM the THIRTEENTH.

OR

LINE 15.

R the hen fhook her wing, by twilight's gleam,
Gathering her chicken to the smoky beam.

This picture of a hen and chicken is drawn exactly from nature. Nothing can be more pictorefque than the Couevos πλερα ματρος.

LINE 25.

And HYLAS, with a filial friendship fraught.

HYLAS is introduced, in a fimilar manner, in the Argon. of ORPHEUS. See line 225.

LINE 33.

The flower of heroes.

These Argonauts, the flower of heroes, (or of failors, as PINDAR calls them) were fifty-two in number.

LINE 41.

Sharp oxtongue's flowery plant, and rushes broad.

The oxtongue (Beтoμov ožυ) was probably the Carex acuta of VIRGIL. The leaves of this plant are so sharp, that it wounds the tongues of oxen, as the word Berouos expreffes. See Butumus in MILLER. For Cyperus, or the three-cornered Rush, see note on the firft Idyllium, line 131ft in translation.

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LINE 65.

Meantime, ALCIDES, clouded o'er by grief.

VALERIUS FLACCus admirably well paints the fudden and vehement emotion of HERCULES, on the lofs of HYLAS. Arg. B. 3. 1. 570.

Sed neque apud focios, ftru&afque in littore menfas
Unanimem videt æger Hylam; nec longius acrem
Intendens aciem. Varios hinc excitat æftus
Nube mali percuffus amor: quibus hæferit oris,
Quis tales impune moras, cafufne deufne,
Attulerit: denfam interea defcendere noctem
Cum majore metu: Tum vero et pallor, et amens
Cum piceo fudore rigor.

Yet we obferve his usual pomp of words. All his descriptions, indeed, are inflated. We are delighted by his ardent imagination; but his turgid expreffions intervene, and the pleasure is-momentary. WARTON.

LINE 71.

From the deep water HYLAS thrice replied

And

-Ut littus, Hyla, Hyla, omne fonaret.

every wood, and every valley wide

He fill'd with Hylas' name, the nymphs eke Hylas cride.

LINE 72.

FAIRY QUEEN.

Tho' near, each feeble murmur, as at diftance, died!

This line is meant to express the found iffuing from the water, with an undulatory motion, and dying gradually away.

LINE 87.

In vain his HYLAS number'd with the bleft,
The flarry feats,in blooming youth, poffeft.

The

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