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IDYLLIUM VIII.

THE BUCOLIC SINGERS.

THE ARGUMENT.

A conteft in finging, between the fhepherd Menalcas and the neatherd Daphnis, is related; a goat herd is chosen judge; they stake down their pastoral pipes as the reward of victory; the prize is decreed to Daphnis. In this Idyllium, as in the fifth, the second speaker feems to follow the turn of thought used by the firft. Dr. Spence obferves, there are perfons in Italy, and particularly in Fufcany, named Improvisatori, who are like the fhepherds in Theocritus, furprisingly ready at their andwers, refpondere parati, and go on fpeech for fpeech alternately, alternis dicetis, amant alterna camena This Idyllium is addressed to his friend Diophantus.

Daphnis, Menalcas, Goatherd.

DEAR Diophantus, fome few days ago,
Menalcas, on the mountain's breezy brow,
By chance met Daphnis, bonny, blithe, and fair;
This fed his herds, and that his fleecy care.
Both grac'd with golden treffes, both were young,
Both fweetly pip'd, and both melodious fung:
Then first Menalcas, with complacent look,
Survey'd the master of the herd, and spoke : ·
Menalcas.

Daphnis, thou keeper of the bellowing kine!
Wilt thou to me the palm of fong refign?
Or try thy skill, and then thy mafter own?
Thus Daphnis antwer'd:

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Where Milo walks, the flower-enamour'd bees
Work food nectareous, taller are the trees,
The goats bear twins; if he no longer stay,
The herdsman withers, and the herds decay.
Menalcas.

O goat, the husband of the white-hair'd flock!
Drink at the fhady fount by yonder rock,
'Tis there the lives; and let young Milo know,
Proteus fed fea-calves in the deep below.

Dapbnis.

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Not Pelops' lands, not Crœfus' wealth excite
My wifh, nor speed to match the winds in flight;
But in yon cave to carol with my friend,
And view the ocean, while our flocks we tend. 60
Menalcas.

To trees, and toils are fatal to the hind;
To teats the drought, to birds the fnare, the wind
To man the virgin's fcorn. O, father Jove!
Thou too haft languish'd with the pains of love.

Thus in alternate ftrains the contest ran, And thus Menalcas his last lay began: "Wolf, fpare my kids, my young and tender fheep;

Though low my lot, a numerous flock I keep.

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Roufe, Lightfoot, roufe from indolence profound;
Ill fits a fhepherd's dog to fleep fo found.
Fear not, my fheep, to crop the verdant plain;
The paftur'd herbage foon will grow again:
Feed well, and fill your udders in the vale,
And when my lambs have fuckled, fill the pail."
He fung, and Daphnis fweetly thus reply'd:
"Me, from her grot, a lovely nymph cfpy'd,
As late I drove my cattle cross the plain; [fwain.
A long, long look she cast, and call'd me handsome
I answer'd not, but, as in thought profound,
Purfu'd my road, with eyes upon the ground.
The heifer fweetly breathes, and fweetly lows,
Sweet is the bullock's voice, and fweet the cow's :
'Tis palling fweet to lie by murm'ring streams,
And wafte long funimer-days in gentle dreams.
On oaks fmooth acorns ornamental grow,
And golden apples on the pippen glow;
Calves grace the cows, light-fkipping on the plain,
And lufty cows commend the careful swain."

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They fung; the goatherd thus:

Goatherd.

Thy verfe appears

So fweet, O Daphnis! to my ravish'd ears,
More pleasing far thy charming voice to me
Than to my taste the nectar of the bee.
Receive thefe pipes, the victor's rightful meed :
And wouldst thou teach
me, while my kids I feed,
This goat rewards thy pains, that never fails
Each morn to fill the largest of my pails.
As fkips the fawn her mother doe around,
So Daphnis leap'd for joy, and dancing beat the
ground:

As grieve new-married maids their fires to leave,
So deeply fighing, did Menalcas grieve.

100

Since that time Daphnis, chief of fhepherd-
fwains,

Daphnis fupreme without a rival reigns:
And, to complete his happiness, he led
The blooming Nais to his nuptial bed.

NOTES ON IDYLLIUM VIII.

Ver. 1. The Greek 'is, Maλa nμwv (ws puyti), Eft mihi difparibus feptem compacta cicutis κατ' ωρα μακρα Μενάλκας the exprefion ως φαντι, Fiftula. Ecl. 2. 36. as they fay, feems very flat, and not correspondent with the native elegance of Theocritus: and there- herds could pipe and fing at the fame time: cerIt is difficult to conceive how the ancient fhepfore the learned and ingenious John Pierfon (fee tainly that was impracticable: the most probable his Verifimilia, p. 46.) propoles to read Maa vas, opinion is, that they first played over the tune, Διοφάντε, κατ' ωρια κ. τ. λ. obferving that Theoand then fung a verse or stanza of the fong anfwercritus infcribes feveral Idylliums to his intimate friends; for instance, he addreffes the 6th to Ara-ing thereto, and fo played and fung alternately; tus, the 11th and the 13th to Nicias the phyfician, and to this fame Diophantus the 21t. This very plaufible emendation I have followed in my tranílation. That the librarians often obliterated proper names will appear in the note on ver. 53. of this Idyllium. Virgil imitates this paffage; Compulerantque greges Corydon et Thyrfis in

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which manner of playing and finging is very com-
wakes, who, perhaps, originally borrowed the
mon with the pipers and fiddlers at our country
in Britain.
custom from the Romans, during their refidence
We find the old English minfirels
ufed to warble on their harps, and then fing-See
Percy's effay on the subject.

Ver. 29. The fame verfe occurs, Idyl. 5. 71.
Ver. 35.

Alternis igitur contendere verfibus ambo Capêre:
Hos Corydon, illos referebat in ordine Thyrfis.
Ecl. 7. 18.

Ver. 45.

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Ver. 51. At fi formofus Alexis Montibus his abeat, videas et flumina ficca.

Eel. 7. 55.

Ver. 55. The Greek is, Mn i gav Midomos, μη και χρύσεια ταλαντα Eim έχειν ! May the terri. tories of Pelops, and golden talents, never fall to my fhare! xpurea raλavra is very frigid; one expects fomething better than this from the Sicilian mufe, and therefore the ingenious Pierfon (fee his Verifimilia) obferving that the librarians frequently obliterated proper names, instead of xgvστις τελdς Κρουσειο ταλαντα; then a new beaucy arifes in the oppofition between the extensive territories of Pelops, and the talents, or treasures of Crefus; and what adds to the probability that this is the true reading, Theocritus mentions the riches of Crafus in the tenth Idyl. ver. 39. and likewife Anacreon, Ode 26. ver. 3. Aoxov d'exer a Keur, Rich I feem as Lydia's king: indeed every school-boy knows that the riches of Crafus became a proverb.

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Ver. 58.

Georg. 4. 395.

-Curfuque pedum prævertere ventos. En. 7. 807. Ver 61. The prefent reading in the original is, stas axes, the drought is fatal to waters; but a friend of mine reads on auxμos, drought is fatal to the teats, which is far more natural, and agreeable to the idea of a fhepherd. Trifte lupus ftabulis, maturis frugibus imbres, Arboribus venti; nobis Amaryllidis iræ.

Ed. 3. 80. Ver. 10. This seems to be an imitation of a verfe in Homer:

Οι χρι παννύχιον εύδειν βυληφόρον ανδρά.

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11. B. 2. 24.

IDYLLIUM IX.

DAPHNIS AND MENALCAS.

THE ARGUMENT.

The herdiman Daphnis, and the fhepherd Menalcas, are urged by a neighbouring shepherd to con tend in finging: the fong is in alternate strains, and each receives a prize; Daphnis a finely-finished club, and Menalcas a conch. The beauty of this Idyllium confifts in the true character of low life, full of felf-commendation, and boastful of its own fortune.

DAFENIS, begin! for merrily you play,
Daphnis begin the fweet bucolic lay;
Menalcas next fhall fing; while paturing near
Calves mix with cows, the heifer with the fteer;
The bulls together with the herd may browse,
Rove round the copfe, and crop the tender boughs;

Daphnis, begin the fweet bucolic strain ; Menalcas next fhall charm the shepherd-fwain.

Daphnis.

Sweet low the herds along the paftur'd ground, Sweet is the vocal reed's melodious found;

ΤΟ

Sweet pipes the jocund herdfman, fweet I fing,
And lodge fecurely by yon cooling spring,
Where the foft fkins of milk-white heifers, fpread
In order fair, compofe my decent bed:

Ah lucklefs! browfing on the mountain's fide, The fouth wind dafh'd them headlong, and they died.

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There I regard no more bright fummer's fires
Than youthful lovers their upbraiding fires.
Thus Daphnis chanted his bucolic ftrain;
And thus Menalcas charm'd the fhepherd-fwain.
Menalcas.

Atna's my parent; there I love to dwell,
Where the rock-mountains form an ample cell:
And there, with affluence bleft, as great I live,
As fwains can wish, or golden flumbers give;
By me large flocks of goats and sheep are fed,
Their wool my pillow, and their skins my bed:
In cauldrons boil'd, their flesh fuftains me well;
Dry beechen faggots wint'ry frosts expel.
Thus I regard no more the cold fevere
Then toothless men hard nuts when pulfe is
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Here ceas'd the youths; I prais'd their paftoral
ftrains,
And gave to each a prefent for his pains:

near.

A well-form'd club became young Daphnis' due,
Which in my own paternal woodlands grew,
So exquifitely fhap'd from end to end,
An artist might admire, but could not mend.
A pearly conch, wreath'd beautifully round,
Late on the Icarian rocky beach I found,
The fhell I gave Menalcas for his share ;
Large was the conch, its flesh was rich and rare,
(This in five equal portions I divide)
And to five friends a plenteous meal supply'd.
Pleas'd he receiv'd, and lik'd his prefent well,
And thus he sweetly blew the fhining fhell:

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Hail, rural mufes, teach your bard those ftrains Which once I fung, and charm'd the lift'ning fwains: Then would my tongue repeat the pleasing lore, And painful blifters never gall it more. To grafhoppers the grafhoppers are friends, And ant on ant for mutual aid depends; The ravenous kite protects his brother kite; But me the mufe and gentle fong delight. O, may my cave with frequent fong be bleft! For neither rofeat fpring, nor downy rest, So fweat the labourer footh; nor to the bee Are flowers fo grateful, as the mufe to me: For Circe's ftrongest magic ne'er can harm Those whom the mufes with foft rapture charm.

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Ecl. 3. 82.

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Here cold and Boreas' blafts we dread no more Than wolves the sheep, or torrent freams the fhore. Warton.

Ver. 30. The Greek is apuano, which I apprehend fignifies wheat boiled, without having been firft ground in the mill, fomething in the nature of frumenty.

Ver. 31. Here the fhepherd refumes his account of the contest between Daphnis and Menaicas, and defcribes the prefents he made them.

Ver. 45.

Nymphæ, nofter amor, Libethrides, aut mihi carEcl. 7. 21.

men,

Quale meo Codro, concedite.

Give me the lays, nymphs of th' infpiring fprings, Which Codrus, rival of Apollo, fings. Warten.

Ver 48. The ancients believed that a lie was always followed by fome punishment, as a blifter on the tip of the tongue, a pimple on the nose, &c. See Idyl. 12. verfe 32. fee alfo Hor. B. 2. Ode 8.

Ver. 49. Juvenal has a fimilar paffage, Sat. 15. 163.

Indica tigris agit rabidâ cum tygride pacem
Perpetuam: favis inter fe convenit urfis.
Tiger with Tiger, bear with bear you'll find
In leagues offenfive and defensive join'd. Tate,

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Mico and Battus, two reapers, have a conference as they are at work; Battus 'not reaping so fast as ufual, Milo afks him the reafon of it: he frankly confeffes it was owing to love; and, at the request of Milo, angs a fong in praise of his miftrefs: Milo afterwards repeats the poetical maxims of Lytierfes.

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With mufic's charm's our pleafing toils prolong;
Your miftrefs be the fubject of your fong.

Battus.

Ye mufes fweetly let the numbers flow,
For you new beauty on all themes beftow.
Charming Bombyce, though fome call you thin,
And blame the tawny colour of your skin;
Yet I the luftre of your beauty own,
And deem you like Hyblæan honey brown.
The letter'd hyacinth's of darkfome hue,
And the sweet violet a fable blue;

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Yet these in crowns ambrofial odours fhed,
And grace fair garlands that adorn the head.
Kids flowery thyme, gaunt wolves the kid purfue,
The crane the plough-fhare, and I follow you.
Were I as rich as Crafus was of old,
Our ftatues foon fhould rife of pureft gold.
In Cytherea's facred fhrine to ftand,
You with an apple, rofe, and lute in hand;
I like a dancer would attract the fight,
In gaudy fandals gay, and habit light.
Charming Bombyce, you my numbers greet;
How lovely, fair, and beautiful your feet!
Soft is your voice-but I no words can find
To reprefent the moral of your mind.

Milo.

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How fweetly, fwain, your carols you rehearse?
How aptly fcan the measure of your verse?
A wit fo barren with a beard fo long-
Attend to tuneful Lytierfes' fong.

O fruitful Ceres, blefs with corn the field;
May the full ears a plenteous harvest yield! [fay,
Bind, reapers, bind your fheaves, left strangers
"Ah, lazy drones! their hire is thrown away."

To the fresh north wind, or the zephyrs rear
Your fhocks; thofe breezes fill the fwelling car.
Ye threshers, never fleep at noon of day;
For then the light chaff quickly blows away, 60
Reapers should rife with larks to earn their hire
Reft in the heat, and when they rooft, retire.

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