Ver. 59. Hippomanes here undoubtedly fignifies a plant, which is defcribed as having the fruit of the wild cucumber, and the leaves of the prickly poppy; perhaps a kind of mullien; though in Virgil, Geor. 3. 280. it means a poison, See Martyn. Ver. 60. Cum tibi flagrans amor & libido, Hor. B. 1. Od. 25. Ver. 65. Simæthe burns the borders of Delphis's garment, that the owner may be tortured with the like flame: Virgil's enchantress depofits her lover's pledges in the ground, under her threshold, in order to retain his love, and fecure his affections from wandering. Has olim exuvias mihi perfidus ille reliquit Ut fspectet ludos conducit Ogulnia vestem, Ver. 105. The Greek is Xos idov, os sμœnv. 2.7. X. Ut vidi, ut perii, ut me malus abftulit error. which is confeffedly inferior to the Greek. Ver. 113. The literal tranflation of this paffage is, And my colour was like thapfus-laos is a Scy. thian wood of a boxen or golden colour; fome take it to be the Indian guaiacum. The women that chofe to look pale, tinged their cheeks with it. Heinfius's Notes. Ver. 116. Our poet ufes the fame proverb, Idyl. 4. ver. 16. and Virgil has――vix oflibus hærent. Ecl. 3. 102. Solus hic inflexit fenfus, animumque labantem Impulit Ver. 22. Ver. 137. Diriguit vifu in medio: calor offa reliquit. En. B. 3. 308. If the learned reader will compare this paffage with Sappho's celebrat ed ode Eis any sowpany, he will find great fimila rity both in the thoughts and expreffions. Ver. 153. Heinfius obferves there was a custom at Athens, that whenever a young man was fmitten with the beauty of any lady, especially that of a courtezan, he wrote her name in a place appoint ed for the purpose, with fome encomium upon her; and having acknowledged his paffion, the day fol lowing he appointed for a feftival, προς την αναδησιν, that is, to crown her head with a wreath of flowers and ribbands. Thus in Plato, Alcibiades, at a feftival, reforts to Agatho, with a crown and ribbands to adorn his head. Ver. 158. The poplar was facred to Hercules. Virgil has, Populeis adfunt evincti tempora, ramis. Æn. 8. 286, Ver. 166. If, after rapping at the door, the lover was refufed admittance, προς την αναδησιν, το place the flowery crown on the head of his miftrefs, he then threatened axes and torches to break or burn the door-Thus Horace Hic hic ponite lucida Oppofitis foribus minaces- B. 3. Od. 26. Ver. 175. The Greek is #agfsver ex badaposo, the thalami fignified the inner chambers where the virgins were kept clofely confined, and not permitted to converfe with men. In Homer, Iliad, b. 6. the rooms where Priam's daughters livid are called Tyto faxapos, as being placed at the top of the house; for the womens lodgings were ufually in the uppermost rooms, as Euftathius remarks apon the passage; which was another means to keep them from company. Ver. 180. Esidugisdomus adu. See Idyl. i. v. 1. Ver. 193. That it was ufual for lovers to adorn their houses with flowers and garlands in honour of their mittreffes, is evident from a paffage in Catullus, de Aty, ver. 66. Mihi floridis corollis redimita domus erat, Linquendum ubi effet orto mihi fole cubiculum. Fair flowery wreaths around my house are spread, When with the rifing fun I leave my bed. IDYLLIUM III, AMARYLLIS. THE ARGUMENT. A goatherd declares his paffion for his mistress Amaryllis, laments her cruelty, commends her charms, folicits her favours, and, distracted at the thoughts of not obtaining them, threatens to drown himself; tries experiments to know if fhe loves him, fings love-fongs, and feems refolved to die, and be devoured by wolves. To Amaryllis, lovely nymph, I speed, Meanwhile my goats along the mountain feed : O Tityrus, tend them with affiduous care, In freshest pasture, and in pureft air; At evening fee them to the water led, And ware the Libyan ram with batting head. Sweet Amaryllis-once how bleft my lot When here you meet me in the confcious grot? I, whom you call'd your dear, your love, fo late, Say, am I now the object of your hate? Does my flat nofe or beard your eyes offend?--This love will furely bring me to my end--Lo' ten fair apples, tempting to the view, Pluck'd from your favourite tree, where late they grew; Accept this boon, 'tis all my prefent ftore--- 20 Fed with her whelps, and nurs'd him in the wild : 5 ft are your looks, but flinty is your heart; 30 Ah me what pangs I feel? and yet the fair Headlong I'll plunge into the foamy deep; hate' For you my care a milk-white goat supplied, She plung'd into the gulf of deep defire. 70 Alphefiboa's mother, fam'd for charms Yet heavenly Venus lov'd the shepherd swain ; 80 Täfion too was happy to obtain The pleasures too divine for ears profane. My head grows giddy---love affects me fore; My flesh will give the wolves a rich repast, NOTES ON IDYLLIUM III. Ecl. 8. 43. This Idyllium affords us a fpecimen of ancient Nec noftri generis puerum nec fanguninis edunt. gallantry, namely, of the wagaxλaveilupov, or mournful fong, which excluded lovers used to fing at the doors of their miftreffes. They had two methods of performing this: one was to fing it as they lay on the ground; thus Horace, Ode 10. B. 3. was fung while the lover was porrectus ante fores; but this was performed ftanding, and with great gefticulation of body, and motion of the feet: It is called Comastes, which fignifies, according to Hefychius, a fhepherd that dances and fings at the fame time. The turns in this fong are very abrupt, fudden, and ftriking, and gives us a lively picture of a distracted lover. objects, are not paftoral, and therefore improper : These ideas, not owing their original to rural fentiments like thefe, as they have no ground in nature, are indeed of little value in any poem; but because they are more proper for tragic, or heroic in paftoral they are particularly liable to cenfure, writings. Ramblar, No. 37. Ver. 2. Pafcuntur vero fylvas et fumma Lycæi. Geor. 3. 314. Ver. 3. Virgil has tranflated these three lines, Tityre, dum redeo, brevis eft via, pasce capellas: Et notum paftas age, Tityre: et inter agendum Occurfare capro, cornu ferit ille, caveto. Ecl. 9. 23. This paffage of Virgil, Dr. Martyn thinks, feems to intimate, that he was engaged in tranflating the Idylliums of our poet. Ver. 6. The Greek is svega, which in this place undoubtedly fignifies a ram. Thus Homer has Πεντίκοντα δ' ενορχα. κ. τ. λ. Full fifty rams to bleed in facrifice. Pope's Iliad. B. 23. Creech and Dryden have rendered it Ridgil: Dryden and Warton alfo have rendered the word capro in Virgil by the fame term. Pope, endeavouring to copy Virgil, was carried to ftill greater impropriety; I know thee love! on foreign mountains bred, Ver. 32. Εστι και εν κινεοισι φιλαμασιν αδε Exactly the fame verfe occurs, Idyl. 27. 1 4. Mofchus calls it, yupevor to Qihapa, a naked kifs. Ver. 49. The Greek is Aygow, and generally taken for a proper name; but Heinfius, with good reafon, thinks it fhould be wrote a year, an old woman. We have a fimilar paffage in the 6th Idyl. ver. 40. Ταύτα γαρ α γραια με Κοτυτταξι 12101dage, For this the old woman Cottytaris taught me. Ver. 50. This was another fort of divination. Ed. 2. 40. Ver. 59. The palpitation of the right eye was reckonned a lucky omen. Potter. Ver. 65. See the ftory in Ovid's Met. B. 10. ver. 664. Ver. 69. The Greek is, Ως ίδες, ως εμανή, ως ες βαθυν αλλετ' ερωτα! Ver. 71. This was a mountain in Theffaly; which country was famous for fuch an extraordinary breed of oxen, that Neleus, king of Pylus, refused to give his daughter in marriage to Melampus, king of Tyrius, except he procured him fome of them, which he foon after accomplished by the help of his brother Bias. Univ. Hift. vol. vi. p. 215. 8vo. Turpia perpeffus vates eft vincia Melampus. Prop. B. 2. Ecl. 3. Ver. 78. Bion, in his epitaph on Adonis, has a beautiful thought in allufion to this, ver. 45. Έγριο τυτθον, Αδωνι, το δ' αν πυματον με φιλασον, x. 5. λ. Raife, lov'd Adonis, raife thy drooping head, O kifs thy Venus, while the kiffes live; Ver. 81. The fon of Jupiter and Electra: he lay with Ceres, and was by Jupiter ftruck with thunder: Scarce could läfion tafte her heavenly charms, arms. Ver. 82. IDYLLIUM IV. THE SHEPHERDS. THE ARGUMENT. We have here a dialogue between Battus, a fhepherd, and Corydon, a neatherd. The beauty of this Idyllium confifts in that natural representation of forrow which the poet makes the herds affected with in the abfence of their mafter: Battus laments the death of Amaryllis. The latter part of this piece is very natural, but too much inclining to rufticity. What, han't you heard it from the mouth of fame? Say, does the live, like grafhoppers, on dew? Mio entic'd him to th' Olympic game. Corydon. No, troth! by Æfer's banks fhe loves to ftray, And there I bring her many a lock of hay; And oft the wantons in Larymnus' fhades, And crops fresh pasture in the opening glades. Battus. That red bull's quite reduc'd to fkin and bone; 20 A wretched offering suits a wretched state. 38 Corydon. And yet on Phyfcus, or the marsh, he feeds, Alas! Thefe herds will perish on the plain, 40 No fear of that, for when he went away, Baltus. Firm is my truft-but fee! these hungry cows Away, Cymatha, to the bank! by Jove, Battus. Pray, Corydon, fee here! thy aid I beg; Do'ft fee't?-'twas long of her; plague take the Coryden. Here comes the thorn! your throbbing pain I've found. Battus. How great the anguish yet how fmall the wound! Corydon. NOTES ON Virgil begins his third Eclogue with almost the fame words, Ver. I. Dic mihi, Damata, cujum pecus? an Melibai? gon. Ver. 3. Hic alienus oves cuftos bis mulget in horâ. IDYLLIUM IV. five and thirty days: the twenty fheep therefore trum tenentis juvenis eft effigies in capitolio, "ephebi, more Græcorum, arenam ruentis exerci"tationis gratiâ;" in the capitol there is the effigy of a youth holding a spade, and, after the Grecian manner, turning the fand for the lake of exercise. "6 Ecl. 3 5. There was a peculiar kind of theft which the mercenary herdsmen among the ancients were guilty of, which was to milk the cattle they tended clandeftinely in the abfence of their masters: these delinquents were called apagos. Ver. 10. It was cuftomary for the wreftlers, and other combatants at the Olympic games, to anoint themselves with oil, not only to render their limbs more fupple, but likewife that their antagonists might have no advantage over them. Ver. 13. Cafaubon obferves, that those who intended to be competitors at the Olympic games, came thirty days at least before they began, to be trained up and exercifed by thofe who prefided over the games, which lafted five days; fo that the combatants remained at Elis near forty, at least Ver. 16. The Greek Scholiaft obferves, that madness is a diftemper to which dogs, of all animals, are moft liable: thus Virgil, Geor. 3. 496. "Hinc canibus blandis rabies." Hence gentle dogs run mad; at leaft much more fo than wolves: therefore, fays Battus, if Milo can prevail on the ruftic Egon to go to the Clympic games, he might perfuade even wolves to run mad. Ver. 17. Mofchus, Idyl. 3. ver. 23. has a paffage extremely fimilar to this, Ωρεα δ' ειν αφωνα, και αι βοῖς αι ποτι ταύροις |