domeftic dogs. ACHILLES, Il. b. 23, is defcribed with nine large dogs at his board. Two dogs attend EVANDER, in VIRGIL, b. 8, And SYPHAX, in LIVY, Inter duos canes ftans, Scipionem appellavit. Dr. WARTON.

LINE 102.

See troops of flaves, with tasks affign'd them all.

The following little paftoral effufion of FRACASTORIUS, is much in the manner of THEOCRITUS, whose principal beauty (as we have often remarked) confifts in particularizing.

POEM ITAL. vol. ii. p. 234.

Nox venit, et pafta redeunt ad tecta capella.
Præ caper it, cui barba jubat, cui cornua pendent
Intorta, et grandes olido de corpore feta.
Pone gregem reliquum compellit arundine virgo
Upilio, multo armantur cui baltea fuso.
At mater longæva, igni dum braffica fervet,
Mulatra effert, gravidoque recens lac ubere mulget.
Rufticus, interea, pinguis collector oliva,
Interea et validus primâ de nocte bubulcus,
Advenere domum: congeftâ tum focus orno

Ingenti, aut fago, vel fragmine roboris, ardet:
Tolluntur læta flammæ, lateque relucent.

LINE 122.

Were never known to caft the untimely young.

Thus we read, Genefis xxx. 30, 43. Thy cattle is now • increased to a multitude-And the man increased exceedingly, • and had much cattle.' And xxxi. 38. Thefe twenty years < have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy fhe-goats have not caft their young.'

LINE 130.

Rush on the mountain beafts, &c.

It

It is remarkable that both CREECH and FAWKES have tranflated the word Onges, lions-though we afterwards find (fee tranflation, l. 176) that

Bears, and tusky boars, and wolves alone'

were natives of the Grecian forests.

Onp fignifies a beaft in general. Though a lion in Homer, it may be a bear in THEOCRITUS.

The paffage alluded to, is thus tranflated by POPE, Il. b. 15.
As when a lion, rushing from his den

Amidst the plain of fome wide-watered fen,
(Where numerous oxen, as at eafe they feed,
At large expatiate o'er the ranker mead)
Leaps on the herds before the herdsman's eyes;
The trembling herdsman far to distance flies-
Some lordly bull (the reft difpers'd and fled)
He fingles out, arrefts, and lays him dead.

LINE 207.

'Twas now high noon. No roar I heard or faw, &c. A fine picture of noon-day folitude and filence. Thus APOLLONIUS RHODIUS, b. iv. l. 1247.

Ουδε τιν αρδμον, &c.

-They faw no winding path nor stream,
Or fhepherd's cottage at a distance gleam→
But all, one defert, in dead filence lay.

LINE 270.

Expir'd the monster of the Nemean wood.

Probably the conclufion, as well as the beginning of this Idyllium is loft. For admitting that HERCULES has finished his ftory of the Nemean lion, we might naturally expect some reply from PHYLEUS. We might expect HERCULES, alfo, to proceed with the relation of other adventures; not to mention that he afterwards cleanfed the ftables of AUGIAS. Surely the poet

could

could not have abandoned his hero thus abruptly. With refpect to the author of this poem, Mr. WARTON, with other learned men, hath his doubts, though he by no means thinks it unworthy of THEOCRITUS. But there is an abruptnefs in the style of THEOCRITUS, not fuiting the character of the piece before us. The diction of this Idyllium is more fertile and flowery, its periods more polished, and verfification eafier, than what we meet with in the Sicilian poet. His ftyle, in fhort, feems to be that of a writer to whom heroic fubjects had been familiar. REISKE is of opinion, that HERCULES the lion-flayer' is a fragment of a large work, faid to have been written by PISANDER, on the exploits of HERcules.

IDYLLIUM the TWENTY-SIXTH.

THE

HE characters, the fcenery, the catastrophe, and the morality, of this Idyllium, are evidently borrowed from the Baccha of EURIPIDES; which exhibits an extensive view of the Bacchanalian rites. The English reader may fee the Messenger's interefting narrative of the death of PENTHEUS very happily tranflated in WOODHULL's verfion. The lyric parts of this tragedy (as indeed of all the dramatic pieces of EURIPIDES) preferve their enthusiasm in POTTER's tranflation.

IDYLLIUM the TWENTY-SEVENTH.

ΤΗ

"HIS Idyllium forms a ftrange contraft with the twenty-fixth. Flippancy, familiarity, and the rudest rufticity, are opposed to romantic enthufiafm, and phrenzy, and tragical horror. Perhaps these Idyllia become interefting by their juxta-pofition. A regular arrangement of the pieces of THEOCRITUs might deftroy much of their effect.

IDYLLIUM the TWENTY-EIGHTH.

LINE 4.

Where rises VENUS' fane, embower'd in reed.

ΗΝ εν Σαμῳ Αφροδιτην ην οι μεν εν ΚΑΛΑΜΟΙΣ καλεσιν.

THN

ATHENAEUS, b. 13.

For a character of the ancient matrons, fee Epitaph. Spon.

Mifcell. Erudit. Antiq. p. 151.

HIC. SITA. EST. AMYMONE.

MARCI. OPTIMA. ET. PULCHER

RIMA. LANIFICA. PIA. PUDICA.

FRUGI. CASTA. DOMISEDA.

See St. PAUL'S Epiftle to TITUS, ii. 5.

Σώφρονας, αγνας, οικερός,

In HOMER, HELEN hath her golden distaff, and filver basket; and, in MOSCHUS, EUROPA has her golden basket, ornamented with a variety of emblematic figures.

LINE 24.

Traceft to ARCHIAS' city walls.

Syracufe was built by ARCHIAS, one of the Heraclida, whe came from Corinth into Sicily, in the second year of the 11th Olympiad. Univ. Hift.

IDYLLIUM the TWENTY-NINTH.

HORACE hath imitated this passage,

Ab te mea fi partem animæ rapit
Maturior vis, quid moror altera;

Nec carus æque, nec fuperftes
Integer ?

Ode xvii. 1. 2.

If the translator remember rightly, fome wicked wit hath stiled this paffage an Hibernicifm. HORACE, in the first place, confiders his friend as a part of himself; and in the second place intimates, that if this part should be taken away, the remainder would not be the whole. Perhaps a parliamentary word-coiner might rather call it a truism.

THIS

IDYLLIUM the THIRTIETH.

HIS piece (fays Mr. WARTON) was not written by THEOCRITUS. The nature and manner of it, indeed, are both very different from those of the other Idyllia. But might not THEOCRITUs have imitated ANACREON? The tranflator recollects more than one modern poet who hath occafionally affumed a shape fo unlike himself, as to render it impoffible to

recognize him.

N 2

THE