Shall I ever after a long time En unquam patrios longo poft tempore fines, 68 wondering bebold the borders of my country,

NOTES.

Onpaios Europos Ev TO: but does not fay a word of the river. To conclude; fince it appears evidently, from the authors above quoted, that there was a city in Crete called Oaxus; and as there was probably a river of the fame name; we may conclude, that Virgil did not with out good reafon place this river in Crete. I must not however omit an objection of Eobanus, who thinks the quotation from Apollonius, inftead of ftrengthening the argument in fupport of which it is produced, entirely fubverts it. He obferves, that the firft fyllable of Oaxes, in Virgil, is fhort, whereas it is long in Apollonius; whence he infers that they are not the fame. If any one shall think this merits any attention I would defire him to confider, that in the very next verse, the first fyllable of Britannos is fhort, whereas it is long in Lucretius';

Nam quid Britannum caelum

"differre putamus.

'ent, than any hiftory now extant.
Thofe who affirm that Britain was
once a peninfula, look upon the verse
now before us, as an argument in
'their favour, thinking that Virgil
would not have called the Britons
divifos toto orbe, if he had not known
from good authority, that their
country was originally joined to it.
To this may be answered, that, if
it had been known to the Romans,
it could not have been unknown to
Julius Caefar, who was no lefs
verfed in literature than in arms;
nor would he have omitted the men-
tion of fo remarkable a pieces of
history, in the account which he
gives of our island. Befides, divifos
does not neceffarily imply, that Bri-
tain was once joined to the conti-
nent. We may fay, that France is
divided from Italy by the Alps; but
then we do not intend to exprefs,
that France and Italy were ever
joined together, without the inter-
vention of thofe mountains. Thus
'we find in the fecond Georgick,
·Divifae arboribus patriae, by which
words it cannot poffibly be imagined,
that the Poet intended to fignify,
that countries, which were formerly
joined together, are now feparated
by trees. Therefore, in the paffage
before us, we cannot understand
Virgil to mean any more, than that
Britain is a country fo diftinguished
from all the then known parts of the
earth, as to feem another world;
just as America has in later ages been
called a new world,idw Skoda daw

Paupèris et tuguri congeftum cefpite culmen, Poft aliquot mea regna videns mirabor ariftas?

NOTES.

Shall the impious foldier poffefs Impius haec tam culta novalia miles habebit? thefe fo well cultivated fields?

NOTES.

"firmed by the three following "verfes; in which the fhepherd "complains, that his fields and ❝ cultivated lands will be deformed "by the impious foldier, and his "corn wafted by a Barbarian, "which is nothing elfe, than that "only a few ftraggling beards will "remain. For what elfe can be expected, when the fields are in the "poffeffion of a foldier and a Bar"barian?" To thefe objections may be answered, that there is no contradiction between after a long time and after fome years. Surely any man may call fome years of banishment, with the lofs of his eftate a long time. That Meliboeus does not fay he fhall never fee his country, or he shall not fee it after a long time; but makes a question whether he fhall ever be permitted to return; at the fame time expreffing fome little hope, that it may come to pafs, as was obferved in the note on ver. 68. That there is no impropriety in ufing beards for years, it being very natural for a countryman to measure time by harvefts. The beards are a very confpicous part of the bearded wheat, which was the only fort known to the Roman husbandmen. Hence we very frequently find arifta put for the corn itself, as in the first Georgick, “Chaoniam pingui glandem muta"vit arifta.

And

And

66

"At fi triticeam in messem, robusta-
que farra
"Exercebis humum, folifque infta-
"bis ariftis."

The beard, fays Varro, is called
arifta, becaufe arefcit primo, it
withers first. Therefore it is the

firft fign of the ripeness of the wheat, and confequently of the harvest: hence it is no harsh figure in Poetry, to use the firft confpicuous fign of harveft to exprefs the harvest itself. Meffis is ufed for fummer in the fifth Eclogue;

"Ante focum fi frigus erit; fi meffis in umbra:"

66

and nothing is more frequent among
the Poets, than to use fummers and
years promifcuously. In the laft
place, that it feems more harsh, to
understand aliquot ariftas to mean
the bad husbandry of the foldiers to
whom the lands were given, than
to take poft aliquet ariftas for post
aliquot annos. Ruaeus is willing to
fancy post ariftas to be used in the
fame manner, as tu poft carecta la-
tebas in the third Eclogue; and to
be a defcription of the lands of Me-
liboeus, whofe farm confifted of a
few acres, adjoining to a poor little
cottage, the roof of which was fo
low, as hardly to appear above the
tall corn, and therefore it might be

Ne gravidis procumbat cul- faid to lie hid among the beards or
mus ariftis
behind them, poft ariftas. I cannot

help

Barbarus has fegetes? En quo difcordia cives
Perduxit miferos! en queis confevimus agros!
Infere nunc, Meliboce, pyros, pone ordine vites:
Ite meae, felix quondam pecus, ite capellae.
Non ego vos pofthac, viridi projectus in antro,
Dumofa pendere procul de rupe videbo.
Carmina nulla cañam: non, me pafcente, capellae
rock, whilft I repofe myself in the molly cave. No more fhall I fing:

NOTES.

手

fball you pluck from my band Florentem cytifum et falices carpetis amaras.
the flowering cytifus, and bit-
TIT, Hic tamen hanc mecum poteris requief-
cere noctem

ter willows.

TIT. But yet you may reft bere this night with me

NOTES.

ral manufcripts, and in Arufianus.
The common reading in his time
was Dumofa de rupe procul pendere.
He found Frondofa pendere procul de
rupe in the Medicean manufcript.
But he thinks it flipped in there from
the paraphrafe of Feftus.

79. Cytifum.] See the note on
ver. 431. of the fecond Georgick.

80. Hic tamen, &c.] Meliboeus
feems to propofe going on with his
journey; but Tityrus kindly invites
him to stay that night, and partake
of fuch fare as his cottage affords.
Hanc...
. noctem.]
"In the
Lombard, Medicean, and moft
"other manuscripts, it is hac me-
"cum poteris requiefcere nocte, in the
sablative cafe, as moft of the com-
"mon copies have it. But Arufi-
86 anus Meffus, in Elocutionum li-
"bello, has hanc noctem, in the ac-
"cufative." PIERIUS.

80

"Erramus pelago totidem fine fi"dere noctes."

And in the fixth,

"Noctes atque dies patet atri janua "Ditis."

And,

In the Milan editions of 1481 and
1539, the Paris editions of 1541 and
1600, the old, London edition by
Pynfon, and in the Antwerp edition
of 1543, it is hac nocte. The fame
reading is acknowledged alfo by
Robert Stephens, Ruaeus, and Maf-
vicius. Guellius, Suffannaeus, Al-
dus, Pulman, La Cerda, Heinfius,
Cuningam and Burman, read hane
noctem, which I find alfo in the Ve-
nice edition of 1562, and in the And in the ninth,
printed copy of the Medicean. Hanc
noctem feems to be the beft reading,
as it expreffes an invitation to stay

the whole night. We have feveral

"Veftibulum infomnis fervat noctef que diefque."

Tibi quam noctes feftina diefque

"Urgebam."

Poteris.]