Mor. What can I give you, MOP. Quae tibi, quae tali reddam pro carmine what prefents, in return for Juch a fong? dona? NOTES. fifth Aeneid, where voti reus is ufed in the fame fenfe. Erythraeus juftly cenfures Nonius and Agretius, for interpreting damnabis, liberabis ; and affirms, that, on the contrary, it fignifies obligabis. He obferves, that this expreffion plainly declares Daphnis to be really a god; for he will not only have vows made to him by the husbandmen, but he will fhew himself to be a god, by granting their petitions, and thereby holding them to the performance of their vows. De Marolles tranflates it, Thou shalt oblige them by benefits to ferve thee; "Et par les "biens faits tu les obligeras à te " fervir." Catrou tranflates it, You shall have a right to exact the accomplishment of their vows; "Vous ferez en droit d'en exiger l'accomplitlement." This learned Critick finds fomething even here, to confirm his fyftem. He fays that tu quoque fignifies even you; and that thefe words exprefs a furprize, that even a fhepherd fhould receive the vows of mortals. But furely this is ftraining very hard for a confirmation. For does not tu quoque, in this place, fignify the very fame with Te quoque magna Pales at the beginning of the third Georgick? Could any one in his fenfes imagine, that the Poet means, in that place, any furprize that Pales fhould be celebrated, when he calls her magna at the fame time. The learned Father himself has no fuch imagination, when he translates that Nam neque me tantum venientis fibilus Auftri, MEN. Hac te nos fragili donabimus ante cicuta. 85 for neither do the whispers of the rifing South, nor the gentle dafbing of the waves delight fo much, nor rivers running among the rocky vallits.. MEN. But first I will make you a prefent this reed. This taught me to fing Formofum Corydon ardebat lexim;" NOTES. murmuring of the waves against the fhoar, and the fall of waters among rocks. 82. Venientis fibilus Auftri.] He compares the fong of his friend, not to the strong blafts of the South; but to the gentle gales, when it is beginning to rife. 83. Nec percuffa juvant, &c.] In like manner we must understand these words to mean the gentle dafhing and murmuring of the waves against the fhoar, and not the roaring of the billows in a ftorm. 84. Saxofas inter, &c.] Theocritus, in his firft Idyllium, compares the sweetness of a song to waters falling down from a high rock; Αδιον, ὦ ποιμάν, τὸ τεὸν μέλος, ή τὸ καταχὲς Τὴν ἀπὸ τᾶς πέτρας καταλείβεται πέτρας καταλείβεται ὑψόθεν ὕδωρ. pipe, to which he had fung the fe-cond and third Eclogue. Donabimus.] Some read donavimus, which is not countenanced by any manufcript of note. 86. Haec nos, &c.] Virgil feems pretty plainly to intimate, that he means himfelf under the name of Menalcas, by representing that fhepherd as the author of the Alexis and the Palaemon. It is evident, from this paffage that those two Eclogues were written before the prefent; because they are here exprefsly mentioned. And, as the Poet does not give the leaft hint here of his having composed any other, it seems probable, that these were the three firft Eclogues which our author compofed. Many Criticks are of opinion that the Tityrus was not really the firft, notwithfanding the place which is given it in all the editions. We may therefore venture to say that these three were written before it. The Tityrus was certainly written in the year of Rome 713, when the lands were divided among the foldiers: and the Pollio was compofed in 714, when Pollio was Conful. We must therefore endeavour to fix fome time before 713, for the writing of the other three Eclogues. It seems probable, that the Daphnis was written in 712, when divine honours were Q3 given this alfe taught me Cujum pe- Haec eadem docuit, Cujum pecus, an Meliboei. cus, an Melboei. NOTES. given to Julius Caefar; and before the battle of Philippi, which was fought at the latter end of that year. For the Roman affairs being at that time in a very unfettled ftate, the Poet would not venture to celebrate the apotheosis of Julius Caefar openly; but chofe to do it under the feigned character of a Sicilian fhepherd. As for the Palaemon, it feems to have been dedicated to Pollio, or at leaft written under his protection, as he is the only perfon therein celebrated. We must therefore feek for fome period of time, when Pollio was powerful in those parts. We find, by comparing the feveral hiftorians of thofe times, that this great man was a conftant companion of Julius Caefar, during the civil wars between him and Pompey. We read that he was prefent, at the very beginning of that war, when Caefar paffed the Rubicon. We find him alfo in the fame company, at the battle of Pharfalia, and in Africa. Dio tells us, that, when Caefar returned from the Spanish war, Pollio was left in Spain, with the command of an army, which he did not quit till after the death of Caefar. Since therefore we find, that Pollio was engaged abroad, from the breaking out of the Civil War to the death of Caefar, which was in March, 710, it is moft probable, that the Eclogue in queftion was written between that time and the year 712. The year 711 began with the march of the new Confuls, Panfa and Hirtius, in conjunction with young Caefar, as Auguftus was then called, to relieve Decimus Brutus, who was then befieged in Modena by Mark Anthony. After the raising of this fiege, Auguftus marched to Rome, where he procured himself to be chofen Conful, about the latter end of Auguft, and Anthony towards the Alps, when he was joined by the army of Lepidus. We may gather from Appian, that Pollio was at the head of two legions, when Anthony marched against D. Brutus; that the Senate wrote to him to war against Anthony, when he retreated towards the Alps; that Auguftus wrote to him, to join with them, after the recon-. ciliation between him and Anthony was begun; and that accordingly Pollio joined Anthony foon after with his two legions, and brought over Plancus also to join him with three more. Thefe affairs were tranfacted in the Cifalpine Gaul, in ́ which Mantua was fituated, and about the end of the year 711. At this time therefore, when Pollio was fo, confiderable in those parts, we may reasonably fuppose, that the third Eclogue was written, in which he, and he alone, is celebrated. As for the Alexis, it is Mor. At tu fume pedum, quod me, cum faepe Mor. But you must accept, rogaret, my Menalcas, of this crook," remarkable for it's even joints, and adorned with brass: Antigenes often defired to bave it, he was then worthy to be beloved,, Non tulit Antigenes, et erat tum dignus amari, NOTES. death of Julius Caefar, and approved by him; for the Poet has hinted already, in this Eclogue, that he was favoured by Caefar, amavit nos quoque Daphnis. 88. At tu fume pedum, &c.] Mopfus at last infifts upon his friend's acceptance of a fhepherd's crook, the value of which he fets forth, by telling him, that another had earnefly defired it in vain, and by defcribing the beauty of the crook itself. Pedum is the fhepherd's crook; a ftaff with a hook at the end, by nor was the ashamed to dwell Noftra, nec erubuit fylvas habitare, Thalia, in the woods. NOTES. "one place, that the Tityrus was "the first Eclogue which the Poet compofed. It appears, fays he, "that Virgil had not compofed any "Eclogue before the Tityrus, from "the fourth Georgick; where he "diftinguishes his Bucolicks by the "Eclogue of Tityrus, plement to Syro the Epicurean, "who instructed Virgil and Varus "in the principles of that Philofo-"compofed. <6 phy, Silenus acts as tutor, "Chromis and Mnafylus as the "two pupils." Lord RoscoMMON.) Some give this Eclogue the title of Metamorphofis, others, of Theologia, and others of Varus: in many of the old manufcripts, it is Fauno-Tityre te patulae cecini fub tegrum, Satyrorum, Silenorum, delectatio: the common title is Silenus. ; The Poet, by way of introduction to this Eclogue, tells us, that he was the firft that attempted to write in imitation of Theocritus that he had once attempted heroic poetry, but Apollo reproved him, and advised him to tend his fheep. Prima.] It is here ufed adverbially for primo. See the note on ver. 12. of the first Georgick. Some underftand by this word prima, that this was the firft Eclogue that Virgil compofed; but, as Ruaeus juftly obferves, thefe very words, Prima Syracofio dignata eft ludere verfu, prove that this was not the first Eclogue: for, as he here tells us, that he was the first who imitated Theocritus, it is plain that he had imitated him before the writing of this Eclogue. "It is not from this verfe, that I "conjecture, that this Eclogue ought to precede that of Tityrus, It is for another reafon, that I am going to produce. It is true, that the author of the life of Virgil feems here to contradict himself. He affirms, in mine fagi. |