Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

volveret, Eurydicen vox ipsa et frigida lingua
a miseram Eurydicen ! anima fugiente vocabat;
Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripae.

haec Proteus, et se iactu dedit aequor in altum, quaque dedit, spumantem undam sub vertice torsit.

531

540

at non Cyrene; namque ultro adfata timentem: nate, licet tristes animo deponere curas. haec omnis morbi causa, hinc miserabile Nymphae, cum quibus illa choros lucis agitabat in altis, exitium misere apibus. tu munera supplex tende petens pacem et faciles venerare Napaeas; namque dabunt veniam votis irasque remittent. sed modus orandi qui sit, prius ordine dicam. quattuor eximios praestanti corpore tauros, qui tibi nunc viridis depascunt summa Lycaei, delige, et intacta totidem cervice iuvencas. quattuor his aras alta ad delubra dearum constitue, et sacrum iugulis demitte cruorem, corporaque ipsa boum frondoso desere luco. post, ubi nona suos Aurora ostenderit ortus, inferias Orphei Lethaea papavera mittes et nigram mactabis ovem lucumque revises; placatam Eurydicen vitula venerabere caesa.' haud mora; continuo matris praecepta facessit; ad delubra venit, monstratas excitat aras, quattuor eximios praestanti corpore tauros ducit et intacta totidem cervice iuvencas. post, ubi nona suos Aurora induxerat ortus inferias Orphei mittit lucumque revisit. hic vero subitum ac dictu mirabile monstrum aspiciunt, liquefacta boum per viscera toto stridere apes utero et ruptis effervere costis, inmensasque trahi nubes, iamque arbore summa

confluere et lentis uvam demittere ramis.

[ocr errors]

haec super arvorum cultu pecorumque caneba 550 eximio praestante

531 componere.

540 intactas.
551 intactas.

et super arboribus, Caesar dum magnus ad altum 560 fulminat Euphraten bello victorque volentes per populos dat iura viamque adfectat Olympo. illo Vergilium me tempore dulcis alebat Parthenope, studiis florentem ignobilis oti, carmina qui lusi pastorum audaxque iuventa, Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi.

NOTES

ECLOGUE I

After the defeat of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi (42 B.C.) the Triumvirs promised to assign to their veterans the lands of eighteen Italian cities. Among these cities was Cremona, but its territory proving insufficient, the soldiers either received or seized upon that of the neighbouring Mantua (9. 28), and among others Virgil's father was ejected from his farm at Andes. Virgil applied for help to C. Asinius Pollio (see Ecl. 4 Intr.), who in 41 B. C. had been the legate of Antony in Transpadane Gaul, and was by him advised to proceed to Rome and make a personal appeal to Octavian. His appeal was successful and the farm was 'exempted' from confiscation (fundus concessus or exceptus). See Introduction, p. vi.

This Eclogue is a dialogue between two shepherds: Tityrus, who represents Virgil, is described as reposing at his ease in the fields among his sheep, when Meliboeus, who has just been ejected from his farm, enters driving before him his weary and unhappy flock.

Although Tityrus represents Virgil, he is in the main an imaginary character and only speaks for the poet occasionally. So too the scenery of the Eclogue is purely imaginary, and does not in any way describe the country round Mantua.

1-10. M. You, Tityrus, enjoy leisure and sing of love on your own farm: we are driven from our dear country. T. Το a god, Meliboeus, I owe it all—a god to whom I shall ever pay reverence due.

1. tu...nos patriae... : nos patriam...tu] Notice the marked antithesis between tu and nos repeated in inverse order, and the pathetic repetition of patriae and patriam.

nos: not 'I' but we,' i.e. I and my neighbours; cf. 64, where nos must be plural.

2. silvestrem...] 'rehearse' or 'practise a woodland melody on the slender pipe.' Musam meditaris: Milton endeavours to make this phrase English, cf. Lycidas 66 'and strictly meditate the thankless Muse.' avena: as an oat-straw could not be made into a musical instrument, avena must be used for a reed' or something of the sort; Milton however (Lycidas 33) ventures to talk of the 'oaten flute.'

4. lentus] This word (connected with lenis 'soft') seems to mean 'sticky' (G. 4. 41 pice lentius, 160 lentum gluten) and then 'tough,' 'pliant' (cf. 3. 38 lenta vitis, 5. 16 lenta salix; G. 4. 170), or 'slow,' 'sluggish,' and so ‘lazy,' 'at ease' as here.

5. formosam resonare Amaryllida] 'to re-echo (the words) "beauteous Amaryllis. formosam Amaryllida is cognate acc. after resonare: the sound which the woods re-echo is the phrase which the lover keeps repeating as he sings-formosa Amaryllis.

6. deus] 'a god,' i.e. Octavian: the word is emphatic by position, as is deus in the next line by its contrasted position at the end of the clause.

The formal ascription of divine honours to the Emperor at Rome did not take place until 29 B.C., and the use of the term deus here is only the extravagant expression of personal gratitude. None the less it is in the growing use of similar language in common speech that the subsequent formal deification of the Emperor partly finds its origin.

7. ille...illius...ille (line 9)] Notice the emphatic repetition. 9. ille meas...] 'he vouchsafed (to me) that my oxen should roam ... and that I myself should play whate'er I would on the rural reed.' Conington rightly remarks that the rendering 'permitted my oxen to roam' is wrong, as this would require the dat. bobus: permitto takes a dat. of the person to whom anything is granted and acc. of the thing granted; here the dat. mihi is omitted and the clause meas boves errare forms the acc.

10. ludere quae...] Many intransitive verbs become transitive in a secondary sense (cf. G. 1. 312 n.): so ludere 'to sport' or 'play' can often mean 'to do something in sport' or 'playfully.' It is especially used by the poets, as here, of composing light or playful songs; cf. G. 4. 565 carmina qui lusi; Hor. Od. 4. 9. 9 si quid olim lusit Anacreon.

11-25. M. I envy you not, but marvel rather at your good fortune in these troubled times. Look! I can scarcely drive my

« ForrigeFortsæt »