notavi

DAM. I have provided a prefent for my Venus: for 1 have marked the place, where the lofty ring-doves have built their neft.

Meae Feneri.] It is no unusual thing with the Greek and Roman writers, to ufe Venus for a mistress. 69. Aëriae.... palumbes.] The palumbes or palumbus of the Latin writers, and the Párra or parox of the Greeks, is our ring-dove, or queeft, called alfo in the North, a It differs from the common cufbat. pigeon, or dove, in being larger; and having white fpots on each fide lace, whence it is called palumbus of the neck, like a collar or necktorquatus, and by us ring-dove. Ariftotle, in the thirteenth chapter of the fifth book of his Hiftory of Animals, fays There are feveral "fpecies of the pigeon or dove

kind. One fort is called wiλICS, "which is fmaller than the common pigeon, and hard to tame:

it has blackifh feathers, and it's "feet are red and rough; for "which caufes it is' never bred in "houfes. The Qarra is the largest

fort of all, and the next is the "oivas; this is a little bigger than "the common pigeon: and the « leaf of all is the τρυγών;” Τῶν δὲ περιστεροειδῶν τυχάνει πλείω ὅλα τὰ γένη· ἔστι γὰρ ἕτερον πελειὰς καὶ περιστερά· ἐλάττων μὲν οὖν πελειάς· τιθασ σὸν δὲ γίνεται μᾶλλον ἡ περιστερά ἡ δὲ πελειὰς καὶ μέλαν καὶ μικρὸν καὶ ἐρυθρόπουν, καὶ τραχύπουν, διὸ καὶ οὐδεὶς τρέφει μέγιστον μὲν οὖν τῶν τοιούτων ἡ φατία ἐστὶ, δεύτερον δὲ ἡ H 4

οινάς

οἶνάς· αυτη δὲ μικρῷ μείζων ἐστὶ τῆς περιστερᾶς· ἐλάχιστον δὲ τῶν τοιούτων ἡ τρυγών. The πελειάς is probably our rock-pigeon, which is small, of an afh-colour, and breeds on the rocks, The oiás is our flock-dove or wood-pigeon, which has purple feathers, as if ftained with wine, whence it is called ones and vinago. The τρυγών is the turtle-dove, and the parla is the ring-dove. Thefe laft build in high trees, whence Virgil calls them aëriae. The amorous difpofition of doves, and their reputed conjugal fidelity, make them a proper prefent from a lover to his miftrefs, Propertius feems to have meant our ring-dove by his columba torquata;

"Sed cape torquatae, Venus O re"gina columbae "Ob meritum ante tuos guttura

fecta focos.??

"minem vortier. "Illic in columbum, crede, leno

" vertitur. "Nam in columbari ejus collum "haut multo poft erit; In nervum mille hodie nidamenta " congeret."

70

"Ten apples I have fent, you fhew'd the tree;

"Ten

more to morrow; all I pluck for thee." CREECH.

We fee here, that Theocritus fays apples fimply without any epithet; and perhaps Virgil might mean no more by golden, than to exprefs the excellence of the apples. It is however the general opinion of the Criticks, that fome particular fruit, different from what we call fimply apples, is intended. Some will have citrons to be the fruit in queftion : but they were not planted in Italy, till long after Virgil's time. Our Poet himself, in the fecond Georsick, where he speaks of the diftinguishing of countries by their trees, makes the citron peculiar to Media.

Therefore this fruit cannot be the golden apple, which the fhepherd gathered in a wood, fylveftri ex arbore leta. Much leis can it be the orange, as Catrou has tranflated it, making it to be gathered alfo from a wilding; "C'étoit dix, oranges, que j'avois cueillies fur un Sauva geon." So far was the orange

66

66

from

from growing in the woods of Italy in those days, that the fruit itself was wholly unknown to the Ancients. The more general opinion of the learned is, that these golden apples are quinces, which fome affirm to have been spoken of by the Ancients under the name of melimela, being fo called from their yellow colour like honey. But Pliny fays exprefsly, that the melimela were named from their having the tafte, not the colour, of honey; " Muftea a celeritate mitefcendi, quae nunc melimela dicuntur a fapore "melleo." Thus alfo Martial,

66

"cognita funt in Italia: fiquidem "inibi et in hortis, et in vinetis, et in "viridariis eorum frequentiffime vi"funtur arbores. Sylveftre alterum, "alterum domefticum. Sylveftres "fponte nafcuntur in collibus, et "maritimis locis, et aridis." Thus far it agrees with the golden apples, which either grew on a wild tree, or were gathered in a wood, fylveftri ex arbore. Let us now confider the defcription, which Ovid gives of the golden apples, with which Hippomenes won Atalanta, in the tenth book of the Metamorphofes;

part to the cars of the Gods.

that tree,

By chance I brought :

Pliny mentions Tamafcus, as one of the fifteen towns of Cyprus. We learn from a Greek poet, quoted by Athenaeus, that a pomegranate tree was planted in that ifland by Venus, which was highly efteemed; Ἔριφος δὲ ἐν Μελιβοίᾳ αὐτὰ ταῦτα τα ιαμβεία προσθεὶς ὡς ἴδια, το τοῦ Αντιφάνους ἐπιφέρει,

Αὗται δὲ Ῥοιαὶ

More authors might be quoted, but what we have already faid is fufficient to prove, that the golden ap ples of the Poets are pomegranates.

In thefe couplets Menalcas seems to have the advantage; for Damoe→ tas only had a prefent in view for Galatea; but Menalcas has already made a prefent of ten pomegranates to Amyntas, and defigns to fend him as many more.

72. O quoties, &c.] Damoetas fpeaks in a rapture of the foft things,

Κύπρῳ Δένδρου Φυτεῦσαι, τοῦτό φασιν, ἔν μόνον

Βέρβεια πολυτίμητε.

By comparing this Greek author with Ovid, we find that the tree planted in Cyprus, and bearing golden apples, was a pomegranatetree. Now, that the fruit of this tree was described to be of a yellow, or golden colour, we find in the fifth book of the Metamorphofes, where it is called pallenti, which we have already obferved, in the note on ver. 46. of the fecond Eclogue, be afcribed to gold by the fame Poet:

Puniceum curva decerpferat ar-
66 bore ротит :
Sumtaque pallenti feptem de cor-
❝tice grana

invokes the winds to carry part of them even to the ears of the Gods. Menalcas, in oppofition, expreffes a complaint of Amyntas leaving him to keep the nets, whilft he himself goes to hunt.

73. Partem aliquam venti, &c.] The Commentators are divided about the meaning of this paffage. Servius underftands it to fignify, that the words of Galatea are fo fweet, as to be worthy of being heard even by Gods. La Cerda is of the fame opinion, and adds, that the winds were thought by the Ancients to be meffengers between the Gods and men. Thus Dryden tranflates it,

"Winds on your wings to heav'n her accents bear, "Such words as heav'n alone is fit ❝ to hear."

Catrou