T. Urbem, quam dicunt Romam, Meliboee, putavi 20 Stultus ego huic nostrae similem, quo saepe solemus Pastores ovium teneros depellere foetus. Sic canibus catulos similes, sic matribus hoedos Verum haec tantum alias inter caput extulit urbes, 25 e f M. Et quae tanta fuit Romam tibi causa videndi ? 30 Non unquam gravis aere domum mihi dextra redibat. Tityrus hinc aberat. Ipsae te, Tityre, pinus, 35 40 the word laeva, commentators are divided in their opinions; it being sometimes used in a good sense, and sometimes in a bad one. Virgil however, Martyn observes, has never used Laevius in a good sense, except in two instances, where it relates to thunder. Here it is plainly used in a bad sense. e Viburnum lantana, fig. 2. f Galatea, a name for a shepherdess. 7. Quid facerem? neque servitio me exire licebat, 45 50 Hinc, tibi quae semper vicino ab limite saepes, 55 Saepe levi somnum suadebit inire susurro. Nec T. Ante leves ergo pascentur in aethere cervi, Et freta destituent nudos in littore pisces : Ante, pererratis amborum finibus, exul Aut Ararim Parthus bibet, aut Germania Tigrim: 60 g Flumina nota, may be supposed to mean the Po and the Min cius. The river Arar of the ancients is now called the Saone. M. At nos hinc, alii sitientes ibimus Afros; Pars Scythiam et rapidum Cretae veniemus Oaxen, i En unquam patrios longo post tempore fines, Carmina nulla canam; non, me pascente, capellae, 65 70 75 81 T. Hic tamen hanc mecum poteras requiescere noctem Et jam summa procul villarum culmina fumant; i Oaren. A river of Crete. Among the ancient authors Virgil is the only one who mentions a river in Crete by this name. There was an ancient city Oaxus in this island, as appears by Herodotus, 'El τῆς Κρήτης Οαξος πόλις. The river was probably in its neighbourhood. * Medicago arlorea, fig. 3. ECLOGA II. ALEXIS. FORMOSUM pastor Corydona ardebat Alexin, O crudelis Alexi, nihil mea carmina curas? Nil nostri miserere? mori me denique coges. 5 10 Atque superba pati fastidia? nonne Menalcan ? e 15 a Corydon is a fictitious name for a shepherd, and most probably alludes to no individual person. b Thestylis. The name of a female servant. Thymus serpyllum. Fig. 4. d Amaryllis by some commentators is supposed to be a girl, and Menalcas a boy, given to Virgil by Mæcænas; but these are opi Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses. 25 Nec sum adeo informis: nuper me in littore vidi, O tantum libeat mecum tibi sordida rura nions more of imagination than authority. In the filth eclogue, under the name of Menalcas, Virgil would seem to mean himself. e The ligustrum of the ancients is generally supposed to be the common privet, Ligustrum vulgare, fig. 5; nevertheless, there is reason to believe that it may be our great Bind-weed, Convolvulus sepium. f Vaccinium, as mentioned by Virgil, both here and in the tenth eclogue, is not different from what, in other places, he calls hyacinthus; the latter being the same as the axes of the Greeks, and the former a Latin name derived from it. From different passages in Moschus, Ovid, and Virgil, this hyacinthus, or vaccinium, would seem to be, not the flower that is known to us by that name, but the Liium martagon of Linnæus, fig. 6. |