Ne subeant herbæ, neu pulvere victa fatiscat. Inventusque cavis bufo, et quæ plurima terræ Monstra ferunt: populatque ingentem farris acervum Oculis capti talpa.] The poet speaks according to the vulgar opinion, when he says the moles are blind but it is certain that they have eyes, though they are small ones. Contemplator item, &c.] In this passage he shews the husbandman how he may form a judgment of his future harvest. Nux.] The commentators seem to be unanimous in rendering nux the almond-tree: but I cannot discover upon what grounds, I believe nux has never been used, without some epithet, to express an almondtree. That it is used for a walnut-tree, is plain from Ovid's poem De Nuce. Plurima.] Servius interprets this word longa, and thinks it 180 186 190 195 is designed to express the long shape of the almond. I take it to signify very much, or plentifully; in which sense it is to be understood in the second Georgick, ver. 166. Ramos olentes.] The strong smell of the branches is more applicable to the walnut than to the almond. The very shade of the walnut was thought by the ancients to be injurious to the head. Semina vidi equidem, &c.] In this place he adds a precept relating to beans: that they should be picked every year, and only the largest sown; without which care, all the artful preparation made by some husbandmen is in vain. Siliquis fallacibus.] The pods Et quamvis igni exiguo properata maderent, Degenerare tamen, ni vis humana quotannis 200 Non aliter, quam qui adverso vix flumine lembum are called deceitful, because they Atque.] Aulus Gellius observes, that atque is to be rendered statim in this passage. Præterea, &c.] In this passage the poet inculcates the necessity of understanding astronomy; which, he says, is as useful to the farmer as to the sailor. Arcturi.] Arcturus is a star of the first magnitude in the sign Bootes, near the tail of the Great Bear. The weather is said to be tempestuous about the time of its rising. Hodorum.] The kids are two stars on the arm of Auriga. They also predict storms, according to Aratus. Anguis.] The Dragon is a northern constellation. See the note on ver. 244. Pontus.] This is commonly taken to mean the Hellespont; 205 but that is to be understood by the straits of Abydos, fauces Abydi. I take it to mean the Black or Euxine sea, which has the character of being very tempestuous. Ostriferi Abydi.] Abydos situated on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont. It was famous for oysters. Libra dies, &c.] Here Virgil exemplifies his precept relating to astronomy. The time which he mentions for sowing barley is from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice. This, perhaps, may seem strange to an English reader; it being our custom to sow it in the spring. But it is certain that in warmer climates they sow it at the latter end of the year: whence it happens that their barley harvest is considerably sooner than their wheat harvest. Thus we find in the book of Exodus, that the flax and the barley were destroyed by the hail, because Et medium luci atque umbris jam dividit orbem : the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in seed; but the wheat and the rye escaped, because they were not yet come up. Dies.] Amongst the ancient Romans the genitive case of the fifth declension ended in es: thus dies was the same with what we now write diei. Usque sub extremum brume intractabilis imbrem.] Bruma certainly means the winter solstice; but what Virgil means by the last shower of it, I must acknowledge myself unable to explain. Pliny understands our poet to mean, that barley is to be sown between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. The autumnal equinox, in Virgil's time, was about the twenty-fourth of September; and the winter solstice about the twenty-fifth of December. The poet calls the winter solstice intractabilis, because the cold, which comes at that season, begins to put a stop to the labours of the ploughman. Vere fabis satio.] I do not find any of the ancient writers 210 215 on agriculture to agree with Virgil about the time of sowing beans. Medica.] This plant has its name from Media, because it was brought from that country into Greece, at the time of the Persian war, under Darius. It is of late years brought to us from France and Switzerland, and sown to good advantage under the name of lucern. Putres sulci.] Putris signifies rotten or crumbling. Thus we find, near the beginning of this Georgick, putris used to express the melting or crumbling of the earth upon a thaw. In the second Georgick, it is used to express a loose crumbling soil, such as we render the earth by ploughing. Perhaps Virgil may mean in this place, a soil that has been well dunged. Milio venit annua cura.] This expression of the annual care of millet is used by the poet to shew that the Medick lasts many years. Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum Taurus.] By the bull's opening the year, Vir. |