be admitted into this volume: Scaliger, Cafaubon, and Dan. Heinfius, have left more notes upon it in proportion than upon any of the other Idylliums. Creech has done it into English; but the spirit is evaporated, and nothing remains but a caput mortuum. Dryden generally improves and expatiates upon any fubject that is ludicrous, and therefore the tenor of his tranflation will be found very different. The last five lines in Greek he has expanded into fourteen. IDYLLIUM XXVIII. THE DISTAFF. ARGUMENT. THEOCRITUS, going to visit his friend Nicias, the Milesian physician, to whom he has addressed the 11th and 13th Idylliums, carries an ivory diftaff as a prefent for Theugenis, his friend's wife, and accompanies it with these verses, in which he modeftly commends the matron's industry and virtue. ODISTAFF, friend to warp and woof, Minerva's gift in man's behoof, Whom careful housewives ftill retain, And gather to their household's gain; With me repair, no vulgar prize, Where the fam'd towers of Nileus rife, Where Cytherea's fwayful power Is worshipp'd in the reedy bower. Thither, would Jove kind breezes fend, I fleer my courfe to meet my friend, Nicias, the graces' honour'd child, Adorn'd with fweet perfuafion mild; That I his kindness may requite, May be delighted, and delight. Thee, ivory diftaff I provide, A prefent for his blooming bride. With her thou wilt fweet toil partake, And aid her various vests to make. For Theugenis, the shepherds shear The Beep's foft fleeces twice a-year. 10 So dearly industry she loves, And all that wisdom points approves. I ne'er defign'd to bear thee hence Where troops of famous men abide. 30 NOTES ON IDYLLIUM XXVIII. Ver. 6. That is, Miletus, a famous city of lonia, lying fouth of the river Meander on the fea-coaft. It was founded, according to Strabo, by Nilius the fon of Codrus, king of Athens, when he first settled in that part of Afia. See Universal History. The fine garments made of Milefian wool were in great efteem with the Roman ladies: Horace has, Mileti textam chlamydem," B. 1. Ep. 17. and “ Virgil, Milesia vellera,” Geor. 3. Ver. 25. Syracufe, once the metropolis of all Sicily, and a moft flourishing commonwealth, was, according to Tully, the greatest and most wealthy of all the cities poffeffed by the Greeks. Thucydides equals it to Athens, when that city was at the height of its glory; and Strabo calls it one of the most famous cities of the world for its advantageous fituation, the statelinefs of its buildings, and the immenfe wealth of its inhabitants. It was built by Archias, one of the Heraclida, who came from Corinth into Sicily, in the second year of the eleventh Olympiad. Univ. Hift. Ver. 38. Ineft fua gratia parvis. IDYLLIUM XXIX. THE MISTRESS. THE ARGUMENT. Tars is an expoftulation with his miftrefs for her inconftancy in love. In the original it is called nadine. I have taken the liberty to make a change in the application of it, which renders it far more obvious and natural. WINE, lovely maid, and truth agree; Take counfel, and when crown'd with store Of bleffings, then you'll praise me more. "Build in one tree a single neft, 20 VENUS orders the Cupids to bring the boar that had flain Adonis before her: fhe feverely upbraids him with his crime, but being fatisfied that it was accidentally done, the orders him to be released. The measure of the verfe is Anacreontic. WHEN Venus faw Adonis dead, The boar that had her lover flain, And when the guilty boar they found, The more they urg'd, the more they dragg'd, By thee, fair queen; by all that's dear; By thy ford lover; by this chain; And by this numerous hunter-train; 'I ne'er defign'd, with impious tooth, • To wound so beautiful a youth: No; The queen relented at his plea, NOTES ON IDYLLIUM XXX. Ver. 23. Thus Sinon in Virgil, This little poem is a fine imitation of Anacreon: These, with his bow unbent, he lash'd along. Theocritus had before, in his nineteenth Idyllium, copied that delicate master in every thing but the mature of his verfe. Bion has a moft beautiful Idylum on the fame subject. Longepierre fays of this Ode of Theocritus, " Cette petite piéce m'a toujours paru fi jolie, que je croy qu'on me *pardonnera eifément si j'en donne icy une tra"duction." Ver. 14. Thus Ulyffes drives the horfes of Ulyffes now the fnowy steeds detains, You, the eternal fplendours, he exclaims, Pope. Pitt. Ver. 45. The Greek is, Eman rws seuras, exuffit amores, i. e. amatorios dentes. THE EPIGRAMS OF THEOCRITUS. 1. Offerings to the Mufes and Apollo. THIS wild thyme, and these rofes, moift with Are facred to the Heliconian Muse, II. An Offering to Pan. DAPHNIS the fair, who with bucolic fong, To Pan prefents these emblems of his art, III. To Daphnis Sleeping. ON earth's foft lap, with leafy honours spread, IV. A Vow to Priapus. Ir by those oaks with roving ftep you wind, 5 ΙΟ Prompt for the pranks of pleasure he appears V. The Concert. 15 SAY wilt thou warble to thy double flute, VI. Thyrfis has loft bis Kid. WHAT profit gain you, wretched Thyrfis, fay, VII. On the Statue of Efculapius. AT fam'd Miletus, Pæon's fon the wife VIII. Orthon's Epitaph. To every toping traveller that lives, IX. On the Fate of Cleonicus, O STRANGER: fpare thy life fo fhort and frail, 5 5 The Pleiads funk as he approach'd the shore; $ With them he funk, to rife, alas! no more. X. On a Monument Erected to the Muses. HERE Xenocles hath rais'd this marble shrine, Skill'd in fweet mufic to the tuneful nine: He from his art acquires immortal fame, And grateful owns the fountain whence it came. XI. Epitaph on Euflbenes the Phyfiognomift. To Eufthenes, the first in wisdom's lift, This tomb is rais'd: he from the eye could fean S XVII. On Epicharmus. Tuz ftyle is Doric; Epicharmus he, 5 This ftatue, Bacchus, facred stands to you; XVIII. Epitaph on Clita, the Nurfe of Medeus. XIX. On Archilochus. ALCHILOCHUS, that ancient bard, behold! ΙΟ NOTES ON THE EPIGRAMS. Thefe epigrams were never tranflated into English before. The fix that firft prefent themfelves, are a true model of the ruftic sweetness, and delicate fimplicity of the ancient Greek epi gram. Ver. 2. That the rofe was confecrated to the Mufes, appears from Anacreon, Ode 53. Xaguy la fabled fong, and tuneful lays, And Sappho, Frag. 2. For thy rude hand ne'er pluck'd the lovely rose, F. F. that be, probably this Daphnis was the first subject of bucolic fongs. III. Ver. 6. The Greek is, xgoxovra X. This is probably the pallens, or alba bederas of Virgil, on which Dr. Martyn obferves (fee his notes on Ecl. 7. ver. 38.), it is most likely that fort of ivy with yellow berries, which was used in the garlands with which poets used to be crowned, and Ecl. 8. ver. 13. The poetical ivy is that fort with golden berries, or bedera baccis aureis. IV. Ver. 2. The ancients often hewed the image of Priapus out of a fig-tree. Olim truncus cram ficulnus, &c. Hor. Sat. 8. B. 1. Ver. 5. Virgil and Horace have fomething fi- Epigram to Daphne, instead of Daphnis, puella et vilar. on paftori. Ver. 15. Here I follow the ingenious interpretation of Dan. Heinfius. V. Ver. 8. In the firft Idyllium, the fhepherds are afraid of disturbing the Arcadian god's repose. See ver. 20, VII. Ver. 1. Æfculapius, the fon of Apollo, was called Pæon or Пav, becaufe of his art in affuaging and curing diseases. VIII. Ver. 5. I here follow the ingenious cmendation of Heinfius. IX. In all the editions of Theocritus in the ori ginal, there is only the firft diftich of this Epi |