Not one king's wealth he thought them, nor of Though greatest of the rulers over men: And twice an hundred of bright gloffy red, Defcend terrific on the berds below, 150 Rush to the war, the favage foe they gore, 210 Thus Phyleus spoke, and as the path grew wide, Eurytheus first enjoin'd me to fulfil, "But hop'd me flain: on the bold conflict bent. At one bold push exerted all his ftrength, Rough in his rugged rind my right hand sway'd: 170 Hard to diftinguish in the greenwood fhades. By your last bold atchievement it appears, Great chief, your fame long fince has reach'd 'my ears, 180 For here arriv'd a youthful Argive swain, Who for a truth among th' Epëans told, • Whether the chief from facred Argos came, 199 "When the clofe covert I approach'd, where lay "The lordly lion lurking for his prey, 230 "I bent my bow, firm fix'd the string, and strait "Notch'd on the nerve the meffenger of fate : "First, unobferv'd, the ravenous beaft to spy. "Stern was his face, his cheft with blood be- "beard. "Fall at his flank I fent a fhaft, in vain, 250 The harmless shaft rebounded on the plain. Stunn'd at the fhock, from earth the favage "rais'd His tawny head, and all around him gaz'd: Wondering from whence the feather'd ven"geance flew, " He gnash'd his horrid teeth, tremendous to the "Ver'd that the first had unavailing fled, 261 "So hard his fkull, that with the sturdy ftroke, "The forceful onfet had confus'd his brain, 66 "With all my might on his broad back I preft, "And ftrangled thus the felleft of the fell; 300 With inftant ire his main erected grew, "His hair look'd horrid, of a brindled hue; "Circling his back, he feem'd in act to bound, "And like a bow he bent his body round: "As when the fig-tree skilful wheelers take, 270" For rolling chariots rapid wheels to make; * The fellies first, in fires that gently glow, "Gradual they heat, and like a circle bow; "Awhile in curves the pliant timber stands, Then (prings at once elastic from their hands. "On me thus from afar, his foe to wound, Sprung the fell lion with impetuous bound. "My left hand held my darts direct before, "Arcand my breast a thick ftrong garb I wore ; "My right, club guarded, dealt a deadly blow 288 * Full on the temples of the rushing foe: "dint "Of pointed wood, keen fteel, or sharpest flint : "Some god infpir'd me, ftanding still in pause, "To flay the lion with the lion's claws. "This I accomplish'd, and the fpoil now yields "A firm fecurity in fighting fields: "Thus, Phyleus, was the Nemean monster slain, "The terror of the foreft and the plain, "That flocks and herds devour'd, and many a 1 village fwain." 310 66 NOTES ON IDYLLIUM XXV. Though this noble Idyllium is by far the longest of any that Theocritus has left us, containing, exdave of the beginning which is loft, no less than 181 verfes, yet the commentators, Scaliger, Cafaubon, and D. Heinfius, have not left us one fingle emendation or note upon it: and therefore I fhall trouble the reader with but few obfervations: yet thefe gray old critics have been lavish of their remarks upon the 27th Idyllium, infinitely the moft obscene of all the pieces that have been at tributed to Theocritus. One remark is very obvious, that the first part of this Idyllium, as far as ver. 178 in the tranflation, is entirely paftoral and becolic; containing beautiful deferiptions of mea-694." Alpheum fama eft,' &c. dows, paftures hilis, vales, rivers, fhepherds, herdfmen, and their ftalls and dogs, flocks and herds innumerable: the fecond part is an account of a famous exploit performed by Hercules, and therefore the whole must surely belong to the Arcadian poetry. and four fquare; nothing but the head was finish. -Truncoque fimillimus Hermæ. Ver. 6. The ancients erected ftatues to Mercury in the public roads, as guides to travellers, which they called Herme; they were of marble Ver. 14. A famous river of Arcadia near Elis, which the ancients feigned to have funk under ground, and so paffed through the sea, without mixing its ftreams with the falt waters, till arriv ing at Sicily, it mingled its current with the fountain Arethufa near Syracufe. Thus Virgil, Æn. 3. Hither 'tis faid Alpheus from his fource Thafe where fair Elis and Buprafium join. Pitt Pope's 11. B. 2 Kj Dis equidem aufpicibus reor, et Junone fecundâ, Huc curfum Iliacas vento tenuiffe carinas. En. 4. Ver. 81. Here Theocritus imitates Homer; fee Odyf. B. 14. 20. Soon as Ulyffes near th' enclofure drew, With open mouths the furious maftiffs flew. Pope. On which Mr. Pope obferves, What Homer fpeaks of Ulyffes, Theocritus applies to Hercules; a demonftration that he thought it to be a picture of nature, and therefore inferted it in that heroic Idyllium.' Ver. 88. Thus alfo Eumæus did, With fhow'rs of ftones he drives them far away, The fcattering dogs around at distance bay. Pope. Ver. 100. Thus the herds in Virgil return home in the evening, Vefper ubi e paftu vitulos ad tecta reducit. Till black as night the fwelling tempest shows The clouds condenfing as the weft-wind blows. Pope. Ver. 122. Thus Virgil fays in regard to the management of bulls, Aut intus claufos fatura ad præfepia fervant. Ver. 126. Thus Virgil, -Ibat rex obfitus ævo; Geor. 3. 214. Et comitem Æneam juxta natumque tenebat. B. S. Ver. 133. We may here obferve, that Theocritus makes the great increase of the herds of Augéas, to arife from the gift and influence of the fun, his father. Ver. 140. This circumftance muft occafion a prodigious propagation: thus exceedingly increas ed the cattle of Jacob. Genefis xxx. 30-43." Thy cattle is now increafed to a multitude: and the man increafed exceedingly, and had much cattle." And chap. xxxi. 38. Jacob fays, "Thefe twenty years have 1 been with thee; thy ewes and thy fhe-goats have not caft their young." Ver. 149. The Greek word is ges, and in this place properly fignifies lions, as it does alfo in the Iliad, B. 15. ver. 586.; and the bull Phacton's be ing alarmed at fecing the fkin of the Nemean lion, ver. 158. feems in a very agreeable manner to determine this contruction. Ver. 182. Was once a city of Achaia, three quarters of a league from Corinth, but swallowed up by the fea. Geor. 4.433. At fi tantus amor cafus cognofcere noftros. When evening homewards drives the calves and fheep, Warton Ver. 105. This Gaile finely reprefents the unnumbered herds of Augéas, and is very like a paffige in Homer's Il. B. 4. which I fhall beg leave to tranfcribe. In one firm orb the bands were rang'd around, En. B. 2. 10. Ver. 217. Inhabitants of a city in Argos: Pho reneus, the fon of Inachus, fucceeded his father, enlarged his territories, and gathered the people, who were before difperfed about the country into one city, which was called from him Phoronium. Univerfal Hift. B. 1. Cb. 16. Virgil compares Pyrrhus to a flood. Æn. 2. 496. Not halffo fierce the foamy deluge bounds, And bursts refillefs o'er the levell'd mounds; Pours down the vale, and roaring o'er the plain, Sweeps herds and hinds, and houfes to the main. Ver. 242. -Ut duros mille labores Reges fub Eurytheo, fatis Junonis iniquæ, Pertulerit. a. B. 8. 291. The thousand labours of the hero's hands, Enjoin'd by proud Euryftheus' ftern commands. Ver. 224 Virgil fays of Hercules: Ver. 232. Thus Pandarus in Homer, Il. 4. Fits the fharp arrow to the well-ftrung bow. Ver. 237. Ovid fpeaking of the Calydonian boar, fays, Diffugiunt populi; nec fe, nifi mænibus urbis, ་་ Pope. Ver. 164. There is an image in Virgil very fimilar to this; B. 12. v. 6. " Tum demum," &c. As, pierc'd at diftance by the hunter's dart, The Libyan lion roufes at the fmart; And loudly roaring traverses the plain; Scourges his fides; and rears his horrid mane; Tugs furious at the spear; the foe defies, And grinds his teeth for rage, and to the combat flies. Pitt. IDYLLIUM XXVI. BACCHE. THE ARGUMENT. Tais Idyllium contains a fhort account of the death of Pentheus, king of Thebes; who refusing to ewn the divinity of Bacchus, and endeavouring to prohibit his orgies, is torn in pieces by his own mother Agave, and by his aunts Ino and Autonoë. AUTONOR, and Agavé, whofe rough cheeks As pleas'd the god, and what himself had taught. Lodg'd in a lentisk-tree, conceal'd from fight, Autonoë thus: You'll feel before you hear.' Ino, her foot upon his breaft difplay'd, And grief, not Pentheus, from the mountain brought. Be warn'd; let none the jolly god offend, For me, the works of righteousness I love, : NOTES ON IDYLLIUM XXVI. Mr. Warton obferves, "That Euripides, in his Bacchantes, has given a very fine defcription of the Bacchanalian women tearing Pentheus in pieces, for fecretly infpecting their myfteries, which is worked up with the greatest fire, and the trueft poetical enthufiafm. Theocritus has likewife nobly defcribed this event. Ver. 1. These were all fifters and the daughters of Cadmus and Harmonia. Ver. 5. Anacreon, Epig. 4. defcribes three Bacchæ, and ivy is one of their oblations to Bac chus: First Heliconias with a thyrfus past, En quatuor aras : Ecce duas tibi, Daphni, quoque altaria Phœbo. Ver. 15. The flory of Pentheus is told by Ovid in the Metara. B. 3. in a manner fomething different, which I shall give in Mr. Addifon's tranflation. Here the rash Pentheus, with unhallow'd eyes, And cries, "The boar that lays our country "waste! "The boar, my fifters! aim the fatal dart, "And ftrike the brindled monster to the heart." Pentheus aftonish'd heard the difmal found, And fees the yelling matrons gathering round, He fees, and weeps at his approaching fate, And begs for mercy, and repents too late. "Help! help my aunt Autonoë, he cry'd; Ver. 34. There is great beauty in the original. Εξ οριος πένθημα, και ο Πένθησε, φέρουσαι, which, arifing from the fimilarity of the words and Пvena, cannot be kept up in the translation. Ver 45. Ovid mentions the fame thing, Met B. 3. 310. Imperfectus adhuc infans genetricis ab alvo Eripitur, patrioque tener (fi credere dignum) Infuitur femori, maternaque tempora complet. Ver. 46. She was the mother of Bacchus, and fifter to Ino, Agavé, and Autonoë. Ver. 50. There is a fimilar thought in Bion, Idyl. 6. Κρίνειν εκ επτοικεβιηΐα έργα βρίζοισι. It ill becomes frail mortals to define What's beft and fitteft of the works divine. F. F. IDYLLIUM XXVII., Is by the commentators generally attributed to Mofchus, and therefore I may well be excufed from tranflating it as the work of Theocritus, Were that not the cafe, it is of fuch a nature that it can as |