P. VIRGILII MARONIS BUCOLICORUM ECLOGA SECUNDA. ALEXIS. FORMOSUM pastor Corydon ardebat Alexim, Formosum pastor, &c.] In this eclogue the poet describes the passion of a shepherd for a beautiful boy, with whom he is greatly in love. Some, indeed, have ventured to affirm, that this whole eclogue is nothing but a warm description of a pure friendship; but I fear an impartial reader will be soon convinced that many of the expressions are too warm to admit of any such interpretation.This, however, may be said in Virgil's commendation, that he keeps up to his character of modesty, by not giving way to any lascivious or indecent words, which few of his contemporaries could know how to avoid, even in treating of less criminal subjects. Corydon.] The commentators are unanimous almost in supposing that Virgil means himself under the feigned name of Corydon. They seem persuaded that he was always thinking of himself, and continually describing his own business and his own follies in these Bucolicks. In short, they make a mere Proteus of him, varying his shape in almost every eclogue. In the first, he was Tityrus, old, poor, and a servant; but here, under the name of Corydon, he is young, handsome, and rich. There he cultivated only a few barren acres, half covered with stones and rushes, on the banks of Mincius: here he is possessed of fine pastures, and has a thousand lambs feeding on the mountains of Sicily. These are such inconsistencies, that I wonder any one can imagine that Virgil is both Tityrus and Corydon. For my own part, I believe he is neither; at least, not Corydon, Delicias domini: nec, quid speraret, habebat. O crudelis Alexi, nihil mea carmina curas? Nil nostri miserere? mori me denique coges? 5 10 there being some room to Delicias.] It is a word com imagine that he might mean himself under the name of Tityrus, a shepherd near Mantua, and an adorer of Augustus. It seems most probable, that the person of Corydon is as fictitious as the name. Alexim.] The commentators are not so well agreed about the person of Alexis, as they are about that of Corydon. Servius seems to think it was Augustus, "Cæsar Alexis in persona inducitur." Surely nothing can be more absurd, than to imagine that Virgil, who in the first eclogue had erected altars to Augustus, should now degrade him to a shepherd's boy, delicias domini, and afterwards, O formose puer. Would the poet have dared to call Augustus a boy, the very term of reproach used by his enemies, which Servius himself tells us was forbidden by a decree of the senate, as we have seen already in the note on ver. 43. of the first eclogue? The best conclusion we can make seems to be, that Alexis was no real person at all, but a mere creature of the poet's fancy. monly used for a person or thing of which any one is very fond. O crudelis Alexi, &c.] Corydon expatiates on the cruelty of Alexis, and represents the violence of his own passion, by telling him, that even in the heat of the day, when all animals seek to repose themselves, and the weary reapers retire under the shade to eat their dinners, he alone neglects his ease, pursuing the steps of his beloved. Nunc etiam pecudes umbras et frigora captant.] In the warmer climates, the shepherds are obliged to shelter their flocks from the heat in the middle of the day under rocks or spreading trees. This is consequently the most convenient time for them to refresh themselves with food and rest. See the note on ver. 331. of the third Georgick. Virides lacertos.] The green lizard is very common in Italy, and is said to be found also in Ireland. It is larger than our common eft or swift. Thestylis.] Servius tells us, that Thestylis was a country Allia serpyllumque herbas contundit olentes. Nonne fuit satius tristes Amaryllidis iras servant, and seems to think her Allia serpyllumque, &c.] These herbs seem to have been used by the Roman farmers to recruit the exhausted spirits of those who have laboured in the heat. Pliny informs us, that garlick was much used in the country as a medicine : "Allium ad multa ruris præcipue medicamenta prodesse creditur." For serpyllum, see the note on ver. 30. of the fourth Georgick. Sole sub ardenti, &c.] The cicadae used to sing most in hot weather, and in the middle of the day. See the note on ver. 328. of the third Georgick. Nonne fuit satius, &c.] Corydon declares, that the cruelty of his former loves, however 15 great, was more tolerable than the scorn of Alexis, whom he exhorts not to trust too much to so frail a thing as beauty. Amaryllidis.] Servius tells us, that the true name of Amaryllis was Leria, a girl whom Mæcenas gave to Virgil, as he did also Cebes, whom the poet mentions under the feigned name of Menalcas. Alba ligustra cadunt.] It is not very easy to determine what plant Virgil meant by ligustrum. All that can be gathered from what he has said of it is, that the flowers are white, and of no value. Vaccinia nigra leguntur.] Many take the vaccinium to be our bilberry: others will have it to be the berry of the privet, imagining the alba ligustra to be the flower, and the vaccinia nigra to be the fruit of the same plant. But I have shewn, in a note on ver. 183. of the fourth Georgick, that Virgil uses vaccinium only to express the Greek word váкivos, and that it is the very same flower with the hyacinth of the poets. Despectus tibi sum, &c.] In this paragraph Corydon boasts BUCOLIC. ECL. II. Quam dives pecoris nivei, quam lactis abundans. of his wealth, his skill in music, Quam dives pecoris nivei, quam.] In this place, it seems best to join nivei to pecoris, rather than to lactis, because it is more particularly expressive of the beauty of the former, and has not once been added to the latter by Virgil. Besides, our poet himself, in the third Georgick, gives particular direction to choose white sheep for the flock; and is so nice in this point, that he will not suffer the ram to have a black tongue, for fear he should occasion dusky spots in his offspring. He Mille mea Siculis, &c.] mentions Sicily in this place, because that island was famous for sheep; perhaps also because Theocritus, the father of pastoral poetry, was of that country. sheep. He justly observes, that the new milk mentioned in the fifth eclogue is the same, because he speaks of its frothing. Frigore.] Cold is here used poetically for winter. Si quando armenta vocabat.] This expression of calling the cattle seems to be taken from the manner of the ancient shepherds, who did not drive their sheep before them, as the custom is now; but went first calling them, and playing on their pipes; and the sheep readily followed them. We have frequent allusions to this custom in the holy scriptures. Amphion Dirceus in Actæo Aracyntho.] Amphion and Zethus the sons of Jupiter, and Antiope the daughter of Asopus, built the walls of Thebes, which had seven gates, and fortified them with towers. The story of his extraordinary skill in music, and his receiving from Mercury a harp, by the sound of which he caused rocks and stones to follow him in order, and form the walls of Thebes, seems to have been invented since the time of Homer. Euripides mentions the coming of the gods to the nuptials of Harmonia, when the walls of Thebes were raised by a harp, and a tower by the lyre of Amphion, between Dirce and Ismenus.Dirce is the name of a celebrated spring near Thebes. Strabo Lac mihi non estate novum, non frigore defit.] Servius observes, that Virgil excels Theocritus in this place, who does not speak of milk, but of cheese. For there is nothing extraordinary in having cheese all the year round but to be always supplied with new milk, or colostrum, in winter as well as summer, is a great excellence. La Cerda thinks, with better reason, that the sense of the passage is, that Corydon has so large a flock, that there never passes a day without a supply of milk just taken from the Nec sum adeo informis: nuper me in littore vidi, 25 Cum placidum ventis staret mare: non ego Daphnim, Judice te, metuam, si nunquam fallat imago. O tantum libeat mecum tibi sordida rura Atque humiles habitare casas, et figere cervos, Hædorumque gregem viridi compellere hibisco ! Mecum una in sylvis imitabere Pana canendo. places it in the plain wherein Thebes is situated, through which also the rivers Asopus and Ismenus flow. Therefore it can hardly be doubted that Virgil calls Amphion Dircæon from this famous fountain of Boeotia, because he built the walls of the Boeotian Thebes. Nec sum adeo informis.] "This is a modest expression of his own beauty. Thus Cicero in his oration for Coelius; ut eum pœniteut non deformem esse natum, where he means very handsome." Servius. O tantum libeat, &c.] In this paragraph Corydon invites Alexis to live with him in the country, and partake of his rural labours; and promises him in recompense to teach him to play on the shepherd's pipe like Pan himself. Figere cervos.] Some understand these words to mean the fixing of the forked poles, called furca or cervi, to support the cottages. Nor does it seem amiss, that Corydon, having just mentioned the cottages or huts of the shepherds, should immediately add, the props which support them. He is not inviting Alexis to partake of pleasures, but to engage with him in rural labour, to content 30 himself with living in a poor hut, fixing poles, and driving goats; as a reward for which labour, he promises to teach him to excel in music. This sense is not wholly to be rejected. But the general opinion is, that the poet means hunting in this place, which is confirmed by a similar passage in the first Georgick, ver. 308. Hence he Imitabere Pana canendo.] "You shall play on the pipe with me, after the example of a deity. For Pan is the god of the country, formed after the similitude of nature. is called Pan, that is, universal: for he has horns in likeness of the rays of the sun, and of the horns of the moon: his face is red, in imitation of the ather: he has on his breast a starry nebris, or spotted skin, to represent the stars: his lower part is rough, for the trees, shrubs, and wild beasts: he has goats' feet, to shew the solidity of the earth: he has a pipe of seven reeds, because of the celestial harmony, in which there are seven sounds: he has a crook, because of the year, which returns into itself: because he is the god of all nature, he is said to have fought with Cupid, and to have been overcome by him, because, as |