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Ver. 79. The Scholiaft fays Triops was a king of Cos, from whom the promontory near Chidus took its denomination

Ver. 82. An ifland separated from Delos by a narrow ftrait about three imes as big as Delos.

Ver. 86. Thus Callimachus, Ez da Aing BariaVNS "kings are from Jupiter;" which Virgil has tranflated, Ab Jove funt reges;" but they all feem to have copied after Heliod. Thecg. ver. 96.

Εκ δε Διος βασιλης. Ο δ' οβλίος οντινα Μεσαι
Φιμούνται.

Kings are deriv'd from J. ve;
And bleft the mortal whom the mufes love.

Ver. 94. The Nile is the greatest wonder of Egypt as it feldom rains there, this river, which waters the whole country by its regular innundations, fupplies that defect, by bringing, as a yearly tribute, the rains of the other countries, To multiply fo beneficent a river, Egypt was cut into numberlefs canals, of a length and breadth proportioned to the different fituation and wants of the lands; the Nile brought fertility every where with its falutary ftreams; it united cities one with another, and the Mediteranean with the Red-fea; maintained trade at home and abroad, and fortified the kingdom against the enemy; fo that it was at once the noutifher and pro

tector of Egypt. There cannot be a more ded lightful profpect than the Nile affords at two feafons of the year; for if you afcend some mountain, or one of the great pyramids of Grand Cairo about the month, of July and Auguft, you behold a vaft fea, in which a prodigious number of towns, villages, turrets, and fpires appear, like the ifles in the Ægean fea, with caufways leading from place to place, intermixed with groves and fruittrees, whofe tops only are visible; this view is terminated by mountains and woods, which, at a diftance, form the most agreeable perfpective that can be imagined. But in the winter, that is, in the months of January and February, the whole country is like one continued fcene of beautiful meadows, enamelled with all kinds of flowers: you see on every fide herds and flocks fcattered over the plain, with infinite numbers of husbandmen and gardeners: the air is then embalmed by the great quantity of bloffoms on the orange, lemon, and other trees; and is fo pure, that a wholefomer and more agreeable is not to be found in the world: fo that nature, which is then as it were dead in fo many other climates, feems to revive only for the fake of fo delightful an abode. Rollin's Ant. H.

Ver. 97. The original is extremely perplexing; literally tranflated it would run thus, He has three hundred citics, Add three thousand

To thirty thousand,
Twice three

And three times eleven,

300 3000

30000

6

33

33339

I have made it the round number of thirty thoufand. We meet with an embarailed method of numeration in the 14th Idyl. ver. 55

Ver. 104. Waller has a paffage refembling this, Where'er thy navy fpreads her canvass wings, Homage to thee, and peace to all the brings. Which Creech ftuck in his tranflation. Ptolemy imended to engrofs the whole trade of the east and west to himself, and therefare fitted out two great fleets to protect his trading subjects; one of thefe he kept in the Red fea, the other in the Mediterranean: the latter was very numerous, and had feveral thips of an extraordinary fize; two of them in particular had thirty oars on a fide, one of twenty, four of fourteen, two of twelve, fourteen of eleven, thirty of nine, thirtyfeven of feven, five of fix, feventeen of five, and befides thefe, an incredible number of veffels with four and three cars on a fide. By this means, the whole trade being fixed at Alexandria, that place became the chief mart of all the traffic that was carried on between the east and the weft, and continued to be the greatest emporium in the world above feventeen hundred years, till another paffage was found out by the Cape of Good Hope: but as the road to the Red lea lay crois the deferts, where no water could be had, nor

any convenience of towns or houfes for lodging

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palengers, Ptolemy, to remedy both thefe evils, opaed a canal along the great road, into which he conveyed the water of the Nile, and built on it houfes at proper distances; so that paffengers found every night convenient lodgings, and necellary refreshments for themfeives, and their beafts of burden.

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drew feveral celebrated poets to his court. See Note on verfe 82. Idyl XIV.

Ver. 139. The original is a little perplexed, but I follow Heinfius, and take the fenfe to be this: "Ptolemy alone treading clofe in the footeps of "his forefathers, yet warm in the duft, defaced "and rofe over them." Theocritus allades to a conteft ufual among the ancients, wherein the antagonist ufed to place his right fout in the left footftep of his competitor, who went before him, and his left foot in the right footftop, which if he could exceed, he would cry aloud, Exißißnna oor Imigαve 144, I have ftept over you, I am beyond Homer, fpeaking of Ulyffes contending Ajax in the race, has fomething very fimi Iliad. B. 23. 763.

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Univ. Hift. vol. ix. 8vo. p. 383. Ver. 111. The amiable picture Theocritus here gives us of the happiness the Egyptians enjoyed under the mild adminiftration of Ptolemy, very much refembles that which Paterculus gives of the happiness of the Romans, in the reign of Auguftus, B. 2. ch. 89. Finita vicefimo anno "bella civilia, fepulta externa, revocata pax, fo pitne ubibue armorum furor; reftituta vis legibus, judiciis auctoritas, fenatui majeftas, &c. prifca illa et antiqua reipublicæ forma revocata; "redit cultus agris, facris honos, fecuritas homi- I mbas, certa cuique rerum fuarum poffeffio; leges emendatæ utiliter, latæ falubriter In his twentieth year, all wars, both civil and foreign, were happily extinguifhed; peace returned; the rage of arms cealed; vigour was reftored to the laws; authority to the tribunals; ma jefty to the fenate, &c. the ancient and venera. ble form of the republic revived; the fields were again cultivated; religion honoured, and every one enjoyed his own poffeffions with the utmost fecurity; the old laws were revifed and improv. ed, and excellent new ones added.' Ver 118. Thus Horace;

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Αυτάρ οπισθεν

TUTTE modesσi, Augos novi apfixvonval.!!
Graceful in motion thus, his foe he plies,
And treads each footstep e'er the duit can rife.
Popea
Ver. 150. Virgil thus fpeaks of Venus embrac
ing Vulcan,

-Niveis hince atque hinc, &c.

An. B. 8. 387.
-Her arms, that match the winter fnows,
Around her unresolving lord fhe throws. Pitt

Ver. 158. Juno, speaking of herself, says,
Aft ego, quæ divûm incedo regina, Jovifque
Et forur et conjux.
En 1. 47.

But I, who move fupreme in heav'n's abodes,
Jove's fifter-wife, and emprels of the gods.

Pitt.

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IDYLLIUM XVIII.

THE EPITHALAMIUM OF HELEN.

ARGUMENT.

TWELVE Spartan virgins of the firft rank are here introduced finging this fong at the nuptials of He let, before the bride-chamber: first they are jocular; then they congratulate Menelaus on his being preferred to fo many rival princes, and made the fon-in law of Jupiter: they celebrate the beauty of Helen, and conclude with wishing the married couple profperity.

WEEN Sparta's monarch, Menelaus, led

The beauteous Helen to his bridal bed,

Twelve noble virgins, blooming, young, and fair,
With hyacinthine wreaths adorn'd their hair,

10

And pleas'd the vocal benifon to shower,
To the foft cithern danc'd before the bower;
As bounding light in circling steps they move,
Their feet beat time, and every heart beat love:
This was the nuptial fong- Why, happy groom,
Steal you thus early to the genial room?
Has fleep or wine your manly limbs oppreft,
That thus, thus foon you feck the bed of rest?
If drowsy flumbers lull you to a drone,
Go take refreshing fleep, but fleep alone;
Leave Helen with her maiden mates, to play
At harmless paftimes till the dawn of day:
This night we claim, then yield her yours for life,
From morn to night, from year to year your wife.
Hail happy prince! whom Venus wafted o'er,
With profperous omens to the Spartan fhore; 20
To blefs her bed, from all the princely crowd,
Fair Helen chose you--Cupid fneez'd aloud.
Of all our demigods 'tis you afpire,
Alone, to call saturnian Jove your fire:
Jove's daughter now your warm embraces meets,
The pride of Greece between two lily fheets.
Sure will the offspring from that foft carels,
The mother's charms in miniature express.
Thrice eighty virgins of the Spartan race,
Her equals we in years, but not in face,
Our linibs diffufing with ambrofial oil,
Were wont on fmooth Eurota's banks to toil
In manly sports; and though each nymph was fair,
None could with her in beauty's charms compare:
When winter thus in night no longer lours,
And fpring is ufher'd by the blooming hours,
The rifing morning with her radiant eyes,
Salutes the world, and brightens all the skies.
So fhines fair Helen, by the Graces dreft,
In face, fhape. fize, fuperior to the reft:
As corn the fields, as pines the garden grace,
As fleeds of Theffaly the chariot race;
So Helen's beauties bright encomiums claim,
And beam forth honour on the Spartan name.

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| What nymph can rival Helen at the loom,
And make fair art like living nature bloom?
The blended tints in fweet proportion join'd,
Exprefs the foft ideas of her mind.
What nymph like her of all the tuneful quire,
Can raise the voice, or animate the lyre?
Whether of Pallas great in arms the fings,
Or Dian bathing in the filver springs.
A thousand little Loves in ambush lie,
And fhoot their arrows from her beaming eyes
O lovely Helen, whom all hearts adore,
A matron now you rife, a maid no more!
Yet ere another fun shall gild the morn,
We'll gather flowers your temples to adorn,
Ambrofial flowers, as o'er the meads we stray,
And frequent figh that Helen is away:
Mindful of Helen ftill, as unwean'd lambs
Rove round the paftures bleating for their dams;
Fair flowers of lote we'll cull, that fweetly breathe,
And on yon spreading plane fufpend the wreath.
But firft from filver thells fhall unguents flow,
Bedew the fpreading plane and all the flowers
below:

And on the rind we'll write, that all may fee,
"Here pay your honours, I am Helen's tree
30 Joy to the bride, and to the bridegroom joy,
And may Latona bless you with a boy!
May Venus furnish both with equal love!
And lafting riches be the gift of Jove !
May thefe defcend and by poffeflion grow,
From fire to fon, augmenting as they flow!

40

Now fweetly flumber, mutual love inspire,
And gratify the fulness of defire :
Rife with the blufhing morning, nor forget
The due of Venus, and discharge the debt:
And, ere the day's loud herald has begun
To speak his early prologue to the fun,
Again we'll greet your joys with cheerful voice,
O Hymen, Hymen, at this match rejoice!

63

70

80

NOTES ON IDYLLIUM XVIII.

There are two forts of Epithalamiums, or Nuptial Songs among the ancients; the first was fung in the evening, after the bride was introduced into the bride-chamber, it was named Koiuntixov, and intended to difpofe the married couple to fleep; the fecond was fung in the morning, termed Eyerie, and defigned to awaken them. See the conclufion of this Idyllium. As Theocritus lived at the polite court of Ptolemy Philadelphus, during the time that the feventy interpreters refided there, he would probably, by reading their tranflation of the Old Teftament, borrow fome beautiful images from the Scriptures, conceived in oriental magni ficence; a few fpecimens of thefe will be found in the notes on this Idyllium.

Ver. 6 Thus Horace,
Jundæque Nymphis Gratiæ decentes
Alterno terram quatiunt pede.

Ver. 22 Sneezing was fometimes reckoned a lucky omen. See Potter's Archæologia, ch. 17. and Catullus de Acme & Septimio; Hoc ut dixit, Amor finiftram, ut ante Dextram, fternuit approbationem.

See also the note on Idyllium 7. ver. 115.

That new-married perfons were attended by
fingers and dancers, Homer acquaints us in his
defcription of the fhield of Achilles, Iliad, B. 18.-
Here facred pomp and genial feast delight,
And folema dance, and Hymenaal rite;
Along the street the new-made brides are led,
With torches flaming, to the nuptial bed:
The youthful dancers in a circle bound
To the loft flute and cithern's filver found:
Through the fair firects, the matrons in a row,
B. 1. Ode 4. Stand in their porches, and enjoy the fhow. Pope.

Ver. 31. Thus the handmaids of Nauficäa in Homer anoint themselves with oil. Odys. B. 6. Then with a fhort repaft relieve their toil, And o'er their limbs diffuse ambrosial oil. Pope. Ver. 35. Thus Solomon's Song, ch. ii. ver, 11 Lo the waiter is paft, the rain is overjand gone.' Ver. 37. "Who is she that looketh forth as the "morning," ch. vi. ver. 10. and in the book of

Job, ch. xli. ver. 18. fpeaking of the Leviathan, we read His eyes are like the eye-lids of the "morning."

Here the marks of imitation appear very strong.
Ver. 41. Virgil has,

Fraxinus in fylvis pulcherrima, pinus in hortis.
Ecl. 7. 65.
Ver. 42. Theocritus ftill feems to borrow from
the royal author; " I have compared thee, O my
"love to a company of horfes in Pharoah's cha-
"riots," Solomon's Song, ch. i. ver. 9.—The ori-
ginal literally fignifies, "I have compared thee to
my mare, &c." Nor ought we to think the
comparison coarfe or vulgar, if we confider what
beautiful and delicate creatures the eastern horses
are, and how highly they are valued.

See Percy on Solomon's Song.
Ver. 53. Thus Hero is defcribed in Mufæus,
Εις δε τις Ηρες Οφθαλμος γελόων.
x. T. λ.
Ver. 64.

When Hero fmiles, a thoufand Graces rife, Sport on her cheek, and rival in her eyes. F. F. Ver. 63 Millar fays the leaves of the lote-tree, or nettle tree, are like thofe of the nettle; the flower corfifts of five leaves, expanded in form of a rofe, containing many fhort ftamina, in the bofom; the fruit, which is a roundish berry, grows fingle in the bofom of its leaves. Dr. Martyn fays,

it is more probable, that the lotus of the Lotophagi is what we call zizyphus or the jujube-tree; The leaves of this are about an inch and a half in length, an inch in breadth, of a fhining green colour and ferrated, about the edges; the fruit is of the fhape and fize of olives, and the pulp of it has a sweet taste like honey; and therefore cannot be the nettle-tree, the fruit of which is far from that

delicacy which is afcribed to the lotus of the ancients. See Martyn on the Geor. B. 2 84. But the lotus here fpoken of is most probably an herb B. 9. and which Euftathius takes to be an herb; the fame which Homer defcribes in the Odyssey, he fays, there is an Egyptian lotus which grows in great abundance along the Nile, in the time of its inundations. Profper Alpinus, an author of good credit, who travelled into Egypt, affures us, that the Egyptian lotus does not at all differ from our great white water-lily.

Ver. 67. The custom of writing on the bark of trees was very common among the ancients, thus Virgil;

Centum eft in fylvis, inter fpelæa ferarum
Malle pati, tenerifque meos incidere amores
Arboribus: crefcent illæ, crefcetis amores Ecl. 10.
See Ovid in Oenone, Propertius, B. 1. Eleg.
18. &c.

Nothing can be more beautifully paftoral than this infcription on the bark of the plane-tree, as alfo the fimile at the 61ft and 62d verfes.

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IDYLLIUM XIX.

THE HONEY-STEALER.

THE ARCUMENT.

As Cupid is ftealing honey from a bee-hive, he is flung by a bee; on which he runs and complains to his mother, that fo fmall an animal should inflict so great a wound; fhe immediately anfwers, that he himself is but little like a bee, yet the wounds he gives are grievous.

As Cupid, the flieft young wanton alive,

Of its board of fweet honey was robbing a hive,
The centinel bee buzz'd with anger and grief,
And darted his fling in the hand of the thief.
He fotb'd, blew his fingers, ftamp'd hard on the
ground,

And leaping in anguish show'd Venus the wound;

Then began in a forrowful tone to complain, That an infect fo little fhould caufe fo great pain. Venus fmiling, her fon in fuch taking to fee, Said, "Cupid, you put me in mind of a bee; 10 "You're just fuch a bufy, diminutive thing, "Yet you make woful wounds with a desperate "fting."

NOTES ON IDYLLIUM XIX.

Straight he fills the air with cries,
Weeps and fobs, and ruas and flies;
Till the god to Venus came,
Lovely, laughter-loving dame:
Then he thus began to plain;

In this fmall poem Theocritus has copied the 40th Ode of Anacreon, in every thing but the measure of his verfe: the original of this is in Hexameter, and therefore I thought it improper to give it Anacreontic numbers. I fhall take the liberty to infert a tranflation of the Teian bard's" Oh! undone-I die with painlittle poem, that the English reader may have the "Dear mamma, a ferpent finall, pleasure to fee the manner in which the ancient "Which a bee the ploughmen call, poets copied their predeceffors. "Imp'd with wings, and arm'd with dart, "Oh!--has ftung me to the heart." Venus thus replied, and fmil'd; Dry thofe tears, for fhame! my child; If a bee can wound fo deep, Caufing Cupid thus to weep, Think, O think, what cruel pains He that's stung by thee fuftains."

Once, as Cupid, tir'd with play, On a bed of rofes lay,

A rude bee that flept unfeen,

The sweet breathing buds between,
Stung his finger, cruel chance!
With its little pointed lance.

F. F.

IDYLLIUM XX.

EUNICA, OR THE NEATHERD.

THE ARGUMENT.

A ROUGD neatherd complains of the pride and infolence of a city girl, who refufed to let him kifs her, and rallied his aukward figure: he appeals to the neighbouring fhepherds, and afks them if he is not handfome; if his voice is not fweet, and his fongs enchanting and relates examples of goddeffes that have been enamoured of herdimen. In this Idyllium the poet is thought to be severe on thofe who with arrogance despile the sweetness and fimplicity of bucolic numbers. It is frange that the commentators will not allow this piece to be ftyled a paftoral: furely it is bucolical enough.

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