IDYLLIUM the NINETEENTH. THE tranflation here given was part of a school exercise. See ANACREON, Ode 40. D IDYLLIUM the TWENTIETH. ANIEL HEINSIUS afcribes this Idyllium to MOSCHUS. Whether it belongs to MoscHUS or THEOCRITUS, it certainly poffeffes a high degree of poetical merit. LINE II. She spoke, and spitting thrice. This is cov ewoluσe noλov-Literally, thrice spit into her bosom. It was customary for the ancient Grecians to fpit three times into their bofoms, at the fight of a madman, or one troubled with an epilepfy. This they did in defiance, as it were, of the omen; for fpitting was a fign of the greatest detestation and contempt. Hence aluev (to spit) means to contemn. POTTER. LINE 23. Or, elfe, what God hath fashion'd me anew. Here the poet (fays MARTYN) seems to allude to the fudden transformation of ULYSSES in HOMER'S Odyff. xiii. 429. LINE 25. -like clasping ivy. Kiddos. PLINY and THEOPHRASTUS (fee note on first Idyll. 1. 40 in tranf.) have obferved, that Kiddos was a fpecies of ivy that that grew without fupport. If, however, the authority of THEOCRITUS have any weight in botany, this paffage proves the direct contrary. Κισσος ποτι πρέμνον. The Greek and Latin poets have often used the ivy as an illustration, in their defcriptions of perfonal beauty. Thus VIRGIL: Hedera formofior alba. On which SPENCE remarks: More beautiful than ivy to us • may seem but an odd fimile.' It might found otherwise to an Italian, whofe country abounds with evergreens, most of them of a rufty and disagreeable color; whereas ivy is of a clean lively green. They used it, of old, in the most beautiful parts of their gardens. PLINY, fpeaking of his garden, and of the Hippodrome, (which feems to have been one of the prettiest things in it) fays: Platanis circuitur; illa hedera veftiuntur; utque fummæ fuis, ita imæ alienis frondibus virent.' HORACE Compares young beauties to ivy, and old women to dead withered leaves. LINE 30. Ev'n as MINERVA's eyes more sweetly beam'd. MINERVA's eyes were of a sparkling azure. ANACREON, fee Ode 28, opposes the vivid blue of MINERVA's eyes to the soft languifhing of thofe of VENUS. Naturalifts obferve, that the blue eye hath the most powerful effect in beauty, as it reflects the greatest variety of lights, being compofed of more various colors. Our poets feem to have different ideas of the blue eye from that of THEOCRITUS and ANACREON. The Circafian ladies have been celebrated for Their eyes' blue languish, and their golden hair. So fings the sweetest of our modern bards-borrowing what hath been commonly thought original, from POPE: And the blue languish of foft ALIA's eye. Nor can COLLINS's much-admired expreffion Her eyes of dewy light Iliad xviii. 50. (applied to pity) boaft the originality generally attributed to it. ANACREON, in his portrait of BATHYLLUS, applies the epithet Δροσώδες to the eye. LINE 32. Dropt music than the honey-comb more sweet. Εκ (οματων δε Έρρεε μοι φωνα γλυκερώτερα η μελικηρω Κηριον αποςαζουσι χείλη σου, νυμφη μέλι και γαλα υπο την γλωσ sav C8. Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honey-comb; honey and milk are under thy tongue. LINE 45. And was not fweet ENDYMION's felf a fwain The Sophift LONGUS who (not excepting VIRGIL) may be confidered as the most elegant imitator of THEOCRITUS, hath plainly a view to these verses in the following paffage: If I have been in love with a fhepherd, I have but imitated the Gods. ANCHISES was a herdfman, yet VENUS delighted in his perfon. BRANCHIUS fed his goats, and APOLLO was enamoured of the fwain. GANYMEDE was a fhepherd, yet JUPITER fnatched him to heaven.' WARTON. IDYLLIUM the TWENTY-FIRST. THERE HERE is a tradition, that THEOCRITUS fung this flory to the Egyptian fishermen. He might with more propriety, perhaps, have entertained his own countrymen with this fimple and pleasing tale. For ASPHALION's allufion to the Prytaneum, a place (as the commentators fay) on the coaft of Sicily, proves the characters of this piece to be Sicilian. LINE I. 'Tis penury, DIOPHANTUS, &c. Tum variæ venere artes, &c. VIRGIL. And And PERSIUS Prol. Quis expedivit pfittaco, &c. Thus tranflated by DRYDEN: Who taught the parrot human notes to try, The introductory lines do not feem well adapted to the dialogue that follows. We find, that though indeed care might intrude on the fishermen during the period of reft, it was care of no very melancholy complexion. They were, on the whole, happy; being represented as content with their fituation. They deemed their cot a palace-and lived in glee. LINE II. Befide them many an inftrument of toil. Jam fragilem in ficco munibant faxa phaselum; LINE 21. Not ev❜n a dog or pot was theirs: Ou uva-an happy emendation of JOANNES AURAŢUS. It was before read 8x ενα. LINE 23. They pass'd their hours, with poverty their friend. The poverty, fimplicity, and contentment of these good old fishermen, are very pleasingly delineated. The African,' who • lives upon his bow,' as defcribed by Mr. ADDISON, here recurs to memory. Coarse Coarfe are his meals, the fortune of the chace; There is a fimilar painting, and equally beautiful, in Natalis Comes, De Venat. lib. i. Ipfa fames jucunda venit venantibus; ullas LINE 49. He seems, my friend, the fhrewdeft judge of dreams, &c. Taken, probably, from a verfe of EURIPIDES, which we meet with in PLUTARCH. Μαντις δ' αριςος οτις εικαζει καλώς TULLY hath thus tranflated it: Qui bene conjecit, vatem perhibebo optimum. LINE 54. Indeed the living light In Prytaneum, burns both day and night. If |