This Idyllium is of the dramatic kind: Comates a goatherd, and Lacon a fhepherd, after exchanging fome very coarfe railleries, a true image of vulgar freedom, contend in finging. The beauty of this piece confifts in that air of fimplicity in which the fhepherds are painted; full of themfelves, boaftful of favours received, and making sudden transitions, agreeable to the desultory genius of uncivilized nature.

Comates.

My goats of Lacon, Sybarite base take heed;
He fiole my goatskin-at a distance feed.

Lacon.

Comates.

What Crocylus beftow'd, of fpecial note,
When to the nymphs he facrific'd a goat;
Thou envied'ft me the prefent, and by theft

Fly, fly, my lambs, these springs-nor longer flay, Haft bafely of the speckled pelt bereft.
Comates comes who stole my flute away.

Comates.

What flute, thou fervile Sybaritic brute!
Pray, when waft thou e'er master of a flute ?
'Twas all thy pride, with Corydon, to draw
The ruftic rout with fcrannel pipes of straw.
Lacon.

The Blute which Lycon gave me frank and free:
But pray, what goatskin did I fteal from thee? 10
What goatkin e'er hadft thou, thou lubber lout?
It is well known thy master sleeps without.

Lacon.

I ftole it not; I fwear by mighty Pan;
Comates, thou'rt miftaken in thy man;
Or may I, feiz'd with instant frenzy, leap
Headlong from this high rock into the deep. 20
Comates.

Thy flute I stole not; by the nymphs I swear,
The fountain nymphs, to me for ever dear.
Lacon.

If I believe thee, goatherd, may I prove

The defperate pains of Daphnis, pin'd with love

NOTES ON IDYLLIUM V.

farts of skins; thus in Homer, Iliad ro., fpeaking Hic gelidi fontes, hic mollia prata, Lycori;

Ver. 69.

Nunquam hodiè effugies; veniam quocunque vo- produces maftich.

caris.

Ver. 77.

-Ocyus, inquit,

Hunc ades, ô Melibae.

Ver. 87.

Quin age fi quid habes, &c.

Ecl. 3.

Ecl. 7. 8.

Ecl. 7. 52.

Ver. 142. There was a particular fort of kiss, which is called by Suidas xlgov, the pot, when they took the perfon, like a pot, by both his cars; it is mentioned by Tibullus,

Natufque parenti
Ofcula comprenfis auribus eripiet.

Ver. 145.

Ver. 155.

B. 2. Eleg. 5.

Ecl. 8. 55

Ver. 89. Theocritus, as well as Virgil lays it Certent et cycnis ululæ. down as an indifpenfible rule to himfelf, in these Amæbæan verfes, to make the refpondent fhepherd answer his opponent in exactly the fame number of lines: which muft be allowed to be extremely difficult in a tranflation; how I have fucceeded, must be left to the determination of the candid reader, who, it is hoped, will make proper allowances for fuch a constraint.

Ipfe, ubi tempus erit, omnes in fonte lavabo.

Ver. 91.
Et me Phoebus amat.

Ecl. 3. 62.

Ver. 92. This was a feftival obferved in moft of the cities of Greece, in honour of Apollo, furnamed Carpcus, from one Carnus an Arcanian,

Ecl. 3. 97

Ver. 160. The fate of Melanthius, one of the
fuitors of Penelope, is thus defcribed by Homer,
See his Odyffey, B. 22. as tranflated by Mr. Pope.
Then forth they led Melanthius, and began
Their bloody work: they lopp'd away the man,
Moriel for dogs then trimm'd with brazen sheers
The wretch, and fhorten'd of his nofe and ears;
His hands and feet next felt the cruel fteel:
He roar'd, and torments gave his foul to hell,

IDYLLIUM VI.

THE HERDSMEN.

THE ARGUMENT.

DAMOZTAS and Daphnis drive their herds together into one place, and fing alternately the passion of Polyphemus for Galatæa. Daphnis begins firft, and addreffes himself to Damatas as to the Cyclops; Dametas answers him, as in the perfon of Polyphemus. Galatea's love is defcribed from her wanton actions, and Polyphemus's obduracy from his neglect of the fea-nymph. This Idyllium is inscribed to Aratus, who was the friend of Theocritus, and fuppofed to be the author of an astronomical poem, called Arati Phænomena.

20

Ah! call him back, left on the maid he leap,
And tear her limbs emerging from the deep.
Lo! where the wantons, frolic light, and fair,
As down of bearsfoot in soft summer air;
And still impell'd by strange capricious fate,
Flies thofe that love, and follows thofe that hate.
lu vain the blandishments of love the plies,
For faults are beauties in a lover's eyes.
Thus Daphnis fung, Damætas thus reply'd:
Damatas.

By mighty Pan, the wily nymph I spy'd
Pelting my flock, I faw with this one eye-
May heaven preferve its luftre till I die :
Though Telemus prefages ills to come;
Let him referve them for his fons at home.
To traze, I feem regardless of her game,
And drop fome items of another flame :

bright:

49

My teeth array'd in beauteous order fhone,
Well match'd, and whiter than the Parian ftone.
And left enchantment should my limbs infeft,
I three times dropt my spittle on my breast;
This charm I learnt from an old forcerefs' tongue,
Who harvest-home at Hipocoon's fung.

Damætas ended, and with eager joy
Daphnis embrac'd, and kiss'd the blooming boy;
Then gave, as beft his fprightly taste might suit,
A pipe melodious, and receiv'd a flute.
Damætas deftly on the flute could play,

And Daphnis fweetly pip'd, and caroll'd to hie

30 Their heifers gambol'd on the grafs green fields; In finging neither conquers, neither yields.

Ver. 1.

NOTES ON IDYLLIUM VI.

Ver. 12.

Compulerantque gregis Corydon et Thyrfis inu, Tityre, lentus in umbri

unam.

Ver. 10. See Idyl. V. ver. 97.

Virg. Ecl. 7. 2. | Formofam refonare doces Amaryllida fylvas.
Ecl. I.