La

Veniam quocunque vocaris.] Cerda interprets this ad quemcunque vel locum, vel judicem, vel conditionem. I take the meaning of it to be, I will engage with you on your . own terms; that is, I am fo fure of victory, that I will venture to take a cow, that you may have no excufe. 50. Audiat haec tantum.] Lacon, in the fifth Idyllium of Theocritus, wishes for a friend to come and judge between him and his antagonist;

̓Αλλὰ τὶς ἄμμε Tis apiver; and and wed'

ὧδε Λύκωπας, από

Si quid babes.] "Lambinus, in "his notes on Plautus, reads fiquid agis, as do feveral others alfo. "Horace has Quicquid habes, age, ' depone tutis auribus, and Terence "frequently, alfo our Poet in the "ninth Eclogue, Incipe fi quid

babes. Plotius alfo acknowledges babes in the fifth Eclogue, ver. 11. In the glofs of the royal "manufcript, it is explained fi quid "potes." BURMAN.

53. Nec quenquam fugio.] This is a direct answer to what Menalcas had faid; "Nunquam hodie effugies.":

affair!

PAL Begin then, fince we

herba.

moetas,

and do you follow, Menalcas,

Vicine Palaemon.] Servius obferves, that Damoetas fooths Palaemon, by giving him the friendly epithet of neighbour.

55. Dicite quandoquidem, &c.] Palaemon, being chofen judge of this controverfy, exhorts them to begin, describes the beauty of the place and feason, and appoints Damoctas to fing first, and Menalcas after him.

Dicite is ufed here for canite. It is very frequent among the Poets, both Greek and Roman, to ufe fay and sing promiscuously. Thus Ana

55

and agreeable, the fields fhew a fine verdure, the fruit-trees are full of bloffoms, the woods are all covered with green leaves. The harmony of the numbers is as delicate, as the feafon itfelf, which is here painted by the mafterly hand of our Poet.

56. Parturit.] This word does not neceffarily fignify the trees bearing fruit, for we fee it is applied also to the grafs of the field. Thus in the fecond Georgick, the Poet speaking of the fpring, fays,

Bodeo Aá Qur, TV didas apX€o Βωχολιάσδεο Δάφνη, πρᾶτος,

das apxeo #patos, petada do Μενάλκας.

JEA

You shall fing alternately, ede

plena :

DAM. Ye Mufes, begin from A 60 Jupiter, all things are full of Jupiter:

59. Alternis dietis. "Palaemon, as being judge, orders the "rivals to exercise themselves in "the Amebean way. We fhall foon "fee, that all it's laws are ftrictly "obferved, I am not furprized,

that this fort of poetry fhould be "fo pleafing to the Mafes; for it

has fomething particularly agree"able in it. Father Sanadon, in 66 a collection of poems, on the

"birth of the Prince of the Afturias, has revived this fort of Eclogue, and compofed one worthy of the time of Virgil." CATROU. Some copies have alterni inftead of alternis.

20

Camenae. So Varro thinks it fhould be written: we generally find Camoenae. It is a name used for the Mufes, and, according to Varro, derived from carmen.

60. Ab Fove principium, &c.] Damoetas being willing to open his fong in fuch a manner, that it fhall be impoffible for his antagonist to furpafs it, begins with Jupiter himfelf, whom he claims for his patron. Menalcas, in his turn, lays claim to the patronage of Apollo, which he enforces, by faying he is always provided with gifts fuitable to that deity.

Ab Fove principium Mufee.] Servius fays these words are capable of two interpretations, either The bes ginning of my fong is from Jupiter; or, O Muses, let us begin from Jupiter La Cerda underftands it in the former fenfe; but Ruaeus juftly pre fers the latter, because we have a parallel paffage in the feventeenth Idyllium of Theocritus, where the Mufes are invoked in like manner;

'Ex Aios apμeda, x iç Aíα ańo γετε, Μοῖσαι.

And Dr Trapp

...

"fong begin."

Jovis omnia plena.] Several of the ancient philofophers were of opinion, that one foul animated the univerfe, and that this foul was the deity. Plutarch, in his treatife on the opinions of philofophers, tells us that all, except those who affert the doctrine of a vacuum and atoms, held the univerfe to be animated,

See the note on ver. 221. of the fourth Georgick. In the fame treatife we find, that Thales, Pythagoras, Plato, Ariftotle, Dicaearchus, and Afclepiades the phyfician, fupe pofed the foul to be incorporeal, felfmoving, a thinking fubftance, and the conftant action of a natural organ endued with life ; Οὗτοι πάντες οι προτεταγμένοι ασώματον τὴν ψυχὴν ὑποτίθενται, φύσει λέγοντες αυτοκί

νηταν

apud me

νητον καὶ ουσίαν νοητήν, καὶ τοῦ φυσικοῦ ὀργανικοῦ ζωὴν ἔχοντος ἐντελέχειαν : and that, according to Pythagoras and Plato, the foul is immortal, and when it leaves the body, returns to the foul of the world; Πυθαγορας, Πλάτων ἄφθαρτον είναι τὴν ψυχὴν, ἐξιοῦσαν γὰρ εἰς τὸ τοῦ παντὸς ψυχὴν ἀναχορεῖν πρὸς τὸ ὁμο yevés. Thales feems to have been the first who advanced, that the foul or mind of the world is the Deity; for thus Plutarch informs us; eans νοῦν τοῦ κόσμου θεόν We learn from the fame author, that Socrates and Plato, who were of the fame opinion concerning the univerfe, fuppofed three principles, God, Matter, and Idea: that God is the mind of the world; Matter the firft fubject of generation and corruption; and Idea an incorporeal fubftance in the conceptions and ima

καὶ Πλάτων

ginations of God; Σwxpárns ΣwΦρονίσκου Αθηναῖος, Αρίστωνος Apíolwvos 'Anvaios, ai rag aura περὶ παντὸς ἑκατέρου δόξαι, τρεῖς ἀρχας, τὸν θεὸν, τὴν ὕλην, τὴν ἰδέαν ἔστι δὲ ὁ Θεὸς ὁ νοῦς, ὕλη δὲ τὰ ὑποκεί. μενον πρῶτον γενέσει καὶ φθορᾷ, ἰδέα δὲ οὐσία ἀσώματος· ἐν τοῖς νοήμασι καὶ ταῖς φαντασίαις τοῦ Θεοῦ· ὁ Θεὸς νοῦς ἐστι τοῦ κόσμου. Jupiter being the fupreme of the fabulous deities, his name is frequently used by the Poets to exprefs the one God, whom the wifeft of the Philofophers acknow

MEN. And Phoebus loves me: Phoebus always finds his own offerings with me,

61. Ille colit terras.] Servius interprets colit, amat, which he confirms by a paffage in the firft Aeneid, Unam pofthabita coluiffe Samo, where coluiffe means amaffe. Ruaeus renders it ille foccundat terras. Thus alfo his learned countryman Marolles, C'eft luy qui cultive les champs; and W. L. He fertile makes the land; and the Earl of Lauderdale, He clothes the earth; and Dr Trapp, He for the world provides indulgent ; and Catrou, I donne de la fecondite Il à nos campagnes Dryden's para phrafe feems to be in the fame fenfe ; « Το Jove the care of heavin and earth belongs; "My flocks he blefies."