48. Aggredere, O magnos, &c.] Virgil having now brought his hero on to the full state of manhood, calls upon him to affume his deftined honours, and to fave the tottering world; and then breaking forth into a poëtical rapture, wishes that he himfelf may but live fo long, as to have an opportunity of celebrating his actions. He affirms, that fo divine a fubject will raife his verfe above the poëtry, even of Orpheus infpired by his mother Calliopea, and of Linus affifted by his father Apollo. Nay he goes fo far as to fay, that Pan himself fhall yield to him, even though his own Arcadia fhould be judge.

Magnos honores.] Thefe great honours mean the magiftracies, the great offices and dignities of the Roman Commonwealth.

Aderit jam tempus.] Thefe words mean the completion of that age, in which it was lawful to fue for magiftracies.

49. Cara Deum foboles, &c.] Deûm is here for deorum. put

J

"Would it have been proper to "bestow thefe illuftrious appellati

<6

world any child of the family of "Caefar, except young Marcellus? "Tiberius was not yet entered into "the houfe of Octavian by his mo"ther, and Drufus was not yet born. "Certainly, the more we think, "the more we difcover Marcellus "to be the perfon." CATROU.

It has been already obferved, that Octavia, the half fifter of Auguftus, and mother of Marcellus, was not defcended from the Caefars. We muft therefore have recourfe to the adoption of Marcellus by Auguftus.

50. Afpice convexo, &c.] Servius interprets this," the world "bends with it's prefent evils, and

rejoices in it's future good.' "Others, fays La Cerda, explain "the paffage thus; Behold, that is, "take care, that the world may rejoice. But this changing of "the fignification of the verb feems very poor. The verb afpice is

66

66

evidently to be taken in the com"mon fenfe in both places. But "I will here beg leave to give ano"ther explication of thefe three "verfes. What if the Poet should "fay, not Behold how the world

bends to deftruction behold how "all things are joyful under thy influence; but Behold how the world

66

"bends

bends from the destruction, into which it was funk, towards a golden ftate; behold and contem"plate how all things are now more joyful? Thus the fenfe will be, that the world bends from the iron age to the golden, and not the contrary. This explica

tion is favoured by Servius and "Germanus, who here acknow"ledge an aromatáblatis, that is, fays Servius, a revolution of all things by means of the ftars. But what will be the change, if the world falls into deftruction; for which it was ready before? Bea fides, after the childhood and youth of Saloninus, in which al "moft all things were golden, why fhould the world run again to deftruction? The fenfe therefore is properly this: In your infancy the golden age fhall begin, for the earth fhall produce flowers, &c. in your youth it fhall be "brought to perfection, for the ears fhall grow yellow in the "fields, &c. but there fhall still ἐσ be fome footsteps of ancient «fraud: when you are quite a man,

186

there fhall be no fraud, no plow*ing, no fowing, the earth fhall "afford every thing fpontaneously; "purple fhall grow upon the rams,

and thefe times fhall be very "happy, with the confent of the "Fates. Surely, at this point of "time, it would be impertinent to

fay, that the world bends to evil: "it would fquare better with this felicity to fay, See how the world

"moves and changes itself to every

fort of felicity, which shall happen, "when you are a man.' Ruaeus affents to this opinion, and interprets it the world moving itself for joy; "Geftientem, et prae laetitia

commoventem fe." Catrou paraphrafes this paffage, according to the interpretation of Servius: "Voyez, d'une part, le monde "chancellant fous le poids de fa "grandeur! La mer, la terre et "les cieux, tont s'ebranle. Voyez, * de l'autre, l'allégreffe revenir à "l'Univers, aux approches d'un "fiécle heureux.' But his learned countryman De Marolles had rendered it in the other sense; * Re

garde le monde balancé fur fon 66 propre poids. Voy les terres, les "feins de mer, et les cieux élevez, " avec tout le refte des creatures "qui fe rejoüiffent pour le retour "d'un fiecle fi heureux." Our old tranflator, W. L. feems to be of La Cerda's opinion;

"Come fee the world, decrepit

"now, and feere, "E'ne nodding ripe, with it's own "pondrous heape; "The feas, and earth, and highest "heavens view; "How all things in them all doon ❝even leape

"For joy of this fame age now to "enfue."

The Earl of Lauderdale follows Servius';

* And

Behold how all things rejoice að the approaching age!

"Convexo pondere, fays this learned "Gentleman, is here the fame with "convexi ponderis, or molis; not "govern'd of nutantem, as moft

imagine: it being impoffible that "the globe fhould bend, or reel, with it's own weight. But what "then is the meaning of nutantem? "With, or under what, does it "nod or ftagger? With it's guilt,

and mifery, fay fome; and fo "wants to be fuccour'd by this "new-born heroe. But that to

even to the firft divifion, to the "beginning of this happy age. "And therefore they fay it either "nods, i. e. moves and shakes it"felf, with joy and exultation "which is pretty harsh to my ap "prehenfion: or, which is not "much better, inclines and tends

to another, i. e. a yet more hapру ftate; vergentem, fay they, nutantemque in meliorem ftatum. "After all, I like the firft inter"pretation beft; for as to that rea"fon alledged against it, the change "of the world from bad to good, "from miferable to happy, could "not be inftantaneous. "Twould "be idle for Virgil to fay, that "while he wrote this, the world 66 was actually in fo good and hap ἐσ py a ftate, when all the world "knew the contrary. His mean

ing therefore muft be, that the child being now born, the age "is as good as come; it will commence very fpeedily; even in "his infancy. 'Twas excellent "fenfe therefore to fay, the world

at prefent labours with it's guilt

and mifery; but yet rejoices at "the very near profpect of the "happy change, which is in a man"ner begun already. So that Af"pice mundum nutantem, i. e. malis "fuis praefentibus, is perfectly re"concileable with the next words,

afpice venturo laetentur ut omnia "faeclo." The folution of this difficulty feems principally to depend

OR

Befides, this nedding of the tree is mentioned, as the fimilitude of the ruin of a great city. I believe it would be difficult to produce even a fignify the nodding, or bending of fingle inftance of nuto being used to any thing, from a worse state to a better we may therefore venture fore us, it fignifies, that the world to conclude, that in the passage befall, or at leaft, that it is bending, is nodding or tottering towards it's fhaking, and in danger of ruin. La Cerda is miftaken, when he

imagines, that the Poet ufes this expreffion at that point of time, when his heroe is upon the verge of manhood. It would indeed ther have been impertinent to have faid ger of ruin. But it is evident, that the world was at that time in danger of ruin. But it is evident, that fon, at the time of writing the Ec Virgil now speaks in his own perlogue: for otherwife he would not have faid venturo faeclo; whereas La Cerda underftands him to speak of the new age as confiderably advanced. The fenfe therefore is this; he calls upon the child to behold the depraved condition of mankind, the Roman state almost torn in pieces, by a long feties of civil wars, and juft ready to fink by it's own weight; yet even now, when at the very brink of deftruction, comforted by the profpect of future happiness, under his influence. This they had good reason to hope for,

feeing his mother, yet with child of him, was at this time the bleffed inftrument of a peace between the two great Triumvirs, when they were at the very point of tearing the world afunder by their difcord.'

52. Laetentur.] It is laetantur in the Roman manufcript, according to Pierius Heinfius, according to Burman, found laetentur in all his manuscripts.

53. Tam longae.]" In the Lome bard and Medicean manufcripts, it is tam longe. But tam longae vitae is the true reading, which is acknowledged alfo by Servius." PIERIUS.

55. Thracius Orpheus.] He was the fon of Oeagrus, a king, or river of Thrace, by the Mufe Calliope. See the notes on ver. 454. of the fourth Georgick, and ver. 46. bf the third Eclogue.

156. Linus.] He was the fon of Apollo, by the Mufe Terpfichore, and the mafter of Thamyras, Hercules, and Orpheus, whom he in-ftructed in mufick and poetry. Diogenes Laërtius fays, he was a Theban, "and the fon of Mercury by the Mufe Urania. The fame author tells us, that he wrote concerning the generation of the world, the courfes of the fun and moon, and the generations of animals and fruits, in heroick verfe: that he was killed with an arrow by Apollo, in Euboea, where his epitaph was

and fpirit fufficient to declare Orpheus fhall not furpass me in thy actions! Even Thracian poetry, nor Linus; though one fhould be favoured by his mother, and the other by bis father:

to be feen, expreffing, that he was a Theban, and the fon of the Mufe Urania. do your wapa per AnἸδοὺ γοῦν παρὰ μὲν Αθη ναίοις γέγονε Μουσαῖος, παρὰ δὲ Θη βαίοις Λίνος.... βαίοις Λίνος. . . . . Τὸν δὲ Λίνου παι

δα είναι Ἑρμοῦ καὶ μούσης Ουρανίας· ποιῆσαι δὲ κοσμογονίας, ἡλίου και σε λήνης πορείαν, καὶ ζώων καὶ καρπῶν γενέσεις. Τούτῳ ἀρχὴ τῶν ποιημάτ των ήδε,

"Ην ποτέ τοι χρόνος οὗτος ἐν ᾧ ἅμα παι ̓ ἐπεφύκει.

Τόν δὲ Λίνου τελευτῆσαι ἐν Ευβοία τοξευθέντα ὑπὸ Ἀπόλλωνος• καὶ αὐτῷ ἐπιγεγράφθαι,

Ωδε Λίνον Θηβαῖον ἐδέξατο γαῖα θανόντα,