IDYLLIUM I. All the beauties and graces that can poffibly embellish a poem of this nature, are united in this delicate Idyllium. And, therefore, the most polite fcholars, and the beft critics of every age, have defervedly esteemed it one of the finest and moft perfect remains of antiquity. Ver. 20. See Mofchus, ver. 97, &c. See Venus too her beauteous bofom beat! She lov'd her fhepherd more than kiffes sweet, More than those last dear kiffes which in death She gave Adonis, and imbib'd his breath. Ver. 43. Virgil, Eclogue 5. Daphni, tuum interitum, montes fylvæque lo Mofchus. Ver. er. 72. Thus Spenfer, Faery Queen, B. 3. C. 4. St. 38. O! what avails it of immortal feed To been ybred, and never born to die? Ver. 14 Thus Catullus, Ver. 81 The Ceftus of Venus is thus defcribed by Homer. Η, και απο τηθίσειν έλυσα το κεσον, κ. τ. λ. Iliad 14. ver. 214. She from her fragrant breast the zone unbrac'd, Ver. 55. There is a fimilar beautiful defcription Silence that fpoke, and eloquence of eyes. Pope. in Ovid's Metamorphofes, Book 4. But when her view her bleeding love confefs'd, Then her warm lips to the cold face apply'd, Ver. 93. Some authors fay, that anemonies, and not roles, fprung from the blood of Adonis. Sec Ovid's Metamorph. Book 1o. at the end. -Where the blood was fhed, A flower began to rear its purple head : The feeble ftems to ftormy blasts a prey, Ver. 114. Mofchus imitates this in his poem on the death of Bion: The little loves, lamenting at his doom, ancients differ greatly in their accounts of this`di" Beat their fair breasts, and weep around his tomb. morph. book ro at the end. Ecce puer Veneris fert everfamque pharetram, Et fractos arcus, & fine luce facem. Afpice demiffis ut eat miferabilis alis, Pectoraque infefta tundit aperta manu. Excipiunt lacrymas fparfi per colla capilli, Oraque fingultu concutiente fonant. Amor. B. 3. El. 9. The custom of catching the parting breath may be compared with the 65th and 66 verses above, "ill in my breaft," &c. See a beautiful complaint made by the mother of Euryalus, in the Eneid, book 9. ver. 486. -nec te tua funera mater Nor throw the rich embroider'd mantle o'er. Pitt. -Cupid caught my trembling hand, Ver. 136. The time appointed for mourning for the dead, among the ancients, was ten months which was originally the year both of the Greeks and Romans, The anniversary of the death of Adonis was celebrated through the whole Pagan world. The -luctus monumenta manebunt IDYLLIUM II. Eufden |