field to another.-67. duplicat, doubles, i. e. lengthens; def. for indef.-68. Me tamen, etc. The fervour of the sun is mitigated; all nature is enjoying the cool of eve. I still am scorched as ever by the flame of love. 69-73. He bethinks him again of his folly, and calls to mind the work he has to do, and which he has left undone.-70. Semiputata, etc. You have left a vine only half pruned on the elm, which itself requires to have its superfluous foliage stript off. Servius says that there was a superstitious belief that any one who in sacrificing used wine made from unpruned vines was seized with madness. There was also a law of Numa, Diis ex imputata vite ne libanto. Voss hence regards v. 70 as a rural proverb to express madness. We cannot agree with him.-71. Quin. It is best to take this interrogatively, in its original sense qui ne-quorum indiget usus, which my business requires, such as baskets for holding cheese, etc., which were made of twigs or rushes.-72. detexere. This is more than the simple texere. It signifies to plait out, i. e. to finish. Quae inter decem annos nequisti unam togam detexere, Titin. ap. Non. i. 3.—73. Alium Alexim. Another as fair as Alexis. OBSERVATIONS. Date.-As we have observed in the Life of Virgil, the exact date of this eclogue cannot be fixed with certainty. All that can be asserted is that it is anterior in date to the fifth, and probably to the third. In assigning its composition to the year 709-11 we shall perhaps not be far from the true date. Subject. The subject is the hopeless love of a shepherd for a handsome youth, the favourite of his master. Virgil here imitates two beautiful Idylls of Theocritus, namely, the third, V. 68. ......θερμὸς γὰρ ἔρως αὐτῶ με καταίθει.—Theoc. vii. 56. Αἴκ ̓ ἐνθὼν ταλάρως τε πλέκοις, καὶ θαλλὸν ἀμάσας in which a slighted lover pours forth his amorous complaints before the cave of his mistress; and the eleventh, in which the Cyclops Polyphemus, seated on a rock looking over the sea, solaces in song the love-torments inflicted on him by the disdain of the sea-nymph Galatea. There would not seem to be any reason for going beyond this, or supposing the poet to have any other object in view than that of a trial of skill with his master in bucolic poesy. An opinion however prevailed, as early at least as the second century of our æra, that this eclogue was founded in reality. Martial asserts (vii. 29, viii. 56) that Alexis was a slave belonging to Maecenas, who acted as his cup-bearer, and whom he made a present of to our poet when he saw that he wished to possess him. On the other hand, Servius, Donatus and Apuleius (Apol. p. 279) tell us that under the person of Alexis is concealed that of Alexander, the cup-bearer of Asinius Pollio, who gave him to the poet when he saw that he was taken with his beauty, as he attended at a dinner to which he had invited him. If Martial's account be true, we may observe that it puts a complete end to the usual theory of the early date of this poem, for Virgil certainly was not known to Maecenas in 709-11. The other account might then seem to be devised by those who saw this difficulty. But Martial is not remarkable for accuracy, and Pollio is the name in Apuleius, who lived not long after Martial. According to another account, mentioned by Servius, Caesar himself was the Alexis of this eclogue; but this hypothesis is too absurd to merit a confutation. The reader must judge for himself on this subject; for our own part we entirely agree with those who, like Martyn, Heyne and Voss, see in this poem nothing more than an imitation of Theocritus. Characters.-Corydon, Alexis, and the other names which occur in this eclogue are plainly those of slaves. The use of the word dominus (v. 2) proves it in the case of Alexis, about whose condition in fact there never has been any doubt; but that of the word pastor (v. 1) must have proved to a Roman reader with equal force that the same was the condition of Corydon; whence in our opinion it follows, by natural con sequence, that Iollas (v. 57) was also a slave, and not the master of Alexis; for surely it would have been in the eyes of a Roman the very height of madness in a slave to think of vying with his master. The verses (19–21) in which Corydon dilates on his wealth may perhaps be explained on the principle noticed above (p. 14), but we rather think that they owe their origin, like the following vv. 25, 26, to the injudicious imitation of Theocritus, in the mouth of whose Cyclops they are beautifully appropriate and characteristic, while they are evidently unsuitable in that of a mere shepherd. With this exception, there is nothing in the eclogue which does not accord with the station which we assign to Corydon. With respect to the mention of the vine in v. 70, it may be observed that slaves, though shepherds, had occasionally either gardens of their own, or the charge of those of their masters, like Tityrus in the first eclogue, or Lamon and others in the Daphnis and Chloe of Longus. In this romance Daphnis, when urging his suit to Dryas, the reputed father of Chloe, says, "Give me Chloe to wife. I know how to play well on the syrinx and prune a vine and set plants. I also know how to plough and to winnow corn; and how I feed a flock, Chloe can tell." We will here observe that, while we quote this work of Longus as an authority, we find in it some things which seem to be in contradiction with the slave relations of antiquity. Such is the very circumstance mentioned here of Daphnis seeking in marriage Chloe, who was apparently the daughter of one who was himself the slave of a different master from that of Daphnis. We doubt if any other instance of such a practice could be produced. Scenery. The scene of this eclogue is laid in Sicily, as is plain from v. 21. where the needless introduction of the word Siculis, would seem to evince an anxiety on the part of the poet to convince the reader that it was only as fancy-piece, wrought in imitation of his master. 29 ECLOGUE III.-PALAEMON. ARGUMENT. Two swains, the one keeping his father's goats, the other the sheep of a neighbour, meet on the common pasture. After some rustic sparrings of wit, they challenge each other to a trial at extemporaneous song. A swain who is at hand is chosen as judge, who, after the contest has been carried on for some time with equal spirit, declares his inability to decide between the rival singers. NOTES. 1-9. cujum, whose. The pronoun cujus -a -um, which was frequently used by Plautus and Terence, had gone nearly out of use in Virgil's time, and only remained in the dialect of the peasantry see Life of Virgil.-2. nuper, just now.-3. Infelix, etc. The construction is o oves s. i. p. Cf. i. 75. Geor. iv. 168. He calls the sheep always unhappy, says Voss, because their master, thinking only of his love, neglected them himself and then committed them to a dishonest keeper.4. fovet, is courting. The original meaning of the verb foveo is to keep warm, hence to nourish, cherish, etc. Cf. Aen. i. 718, iv. 686, viii. 387.-5. alienus custos, a strange keeper. This does not say whether Damoetas was a hireling, or merely a neighbour who had taken charge of them. From v. 29 it might appear that the latter was the case.-bis mulget, etc. It is an exaggeration to say that he milked the ewes twice an V. 1. Β. Εἰπέ μοι, ὦ Κορύδων, τίνος αἱ βόες ; ἢ ῥα Φιλώνδα; Theocr. iv. 1. V. 3. Δειλαῖαί γ' αὗται, τὸν βωκόλον ὡς κακὸν εὗρον. Id. iv. 13. hour. The meaning is that he was constantly milking them, so that they had little left to give their lambs in the evening. It was usual with dishonest shepherds to milk their master's cattle secretly and to sell the milk.-6. sucus, not succus, from sugo, is the juice of either plants or animals. Here it is the very substance as it were of the ewes.-subducitur. The idea of secrecy and theft is probably intended to be conveyed, but such is not the usual sense of this verb.-7. Parcius, etc. If I am a thief, as you say, I am at least a man, not an effeminate like you. I know who was with you the other day, and in what grotto sacred to the Nymphs, though these goodnatured goddesses only laughed.-8. transversa, same as transverse, adj. for adv. Cf. Aen. v. 194. also Geor. iii. 149, 500, iv. 122. Aen. vi. 288, etc. 10, 11.-If they laughed, replies Menalcas, it was when they saw me injuring Micon's vines. He is speaking ironically, for he means that it was in reality Damoetas who had done it. ―mala falce, with a secret, mischievous hook: Burmann says with a blunt, rusty hook, but the former is the more simple and natural sense.-arbustum, see i. 39. As the grown vines were united to the elms and poplars, Spohn thinks that by arbustum and vites novellas it is intended to intimate that he had cut both the old and the young vines of Micon. 12-15. Or, rejoins Damoetas, when they saw you here at the old beeches, breaking Daphnis' bow and arrows; for you were annoyed when you saw them given to him, and you had died if you had not done him some injury. The shepherds, being also hunters, had bows and arrows and hunting-spears, which they likewise required against the beasts of prey.calamos, arrows, literally reeds, of which the arrows were made. Calami spicula Gnossi, Hor. C. i. 15, 17.-perverse, malignant, Liv. xxi. 33. V. 14. Τὸ Κροκύλος μοι ἔδωκε, τὸ ποικίλον, ἁνίκ ̓ ἔθυσε Theoc. v. 11. |