130 But may'st thou, if thou dar'st my boon deny, Where under Blemyan rocks scorch'd Nile retires. Leave, O ye Loves, whose cheeks out-blush the rose! The meads where Hyetis and Byblis flows: But in this school let some unmeaning sot 140 At distance far, conceal'd in shades, alone, The rich, ripe season gratified the sense Wine flow'd abundant from capacious tuns, Toil when the first cock crows, and hanging be his In Pholus' cave such bowls of generous juice? lot. 150 Rest be our portion! and, with potent charm, 140. Thy bloom, alas! &c.] Thus Anacreon, ede 11th, Aryusiv ai yuvain. Oft, with wanton smiles and jeers, 150. Pyxa] This is supposed to be a city in the island of Cos. 154. Lentisck] See Idyl. V. 138. 160. Shrill grasshoppers] I am aware that the Greek word, TT, and the Latin cicada, means a different insect from our grasshopper; for it has a rounder and shorter body, is of a dark green colour, sits upon trees, and makes a noise five times IDYLLIUM VIII. THE BUCOLIC SINGERS. ARGUMENT. DAPHNIS. I'll make the trial, and the wager stake. MENALCAS. DAPHNIS. I'll lay a calf, and thou a lamb full-grown. MENALCAS. A lamb I dare not; for my parents keep A contest in singing, between the shepherd Me- What shall we lay, to equal our renown? nalcas and the neatherd Daphnis, is related; a goatherd is chosen judge; they stake down their pastoral pipes as the reward of victory; the prize is decreed to Daphnis. In this Idyllium, as in the fifth, the second speaker seems to follow the turn of thought used by the first. Dr. Spence observes, there are persons in Italy, and particularly in Tuscany, named Improvisa- What wilt thou stake? and what the victor's gains? tori, who are like the shepherds in Theocritus, surprisingly ready at their answers, respondere parati, and go on speech for speech alternately, alternis dicetis, amant alterna camenæ. This Idyllium is addressed to his friend Diophantus. 1. Dear Diophantus] The Greek is, Maha vepwe (ως φαντι) κατ' ωρία μακρα Μενάλκας the expression w; pavi, as they say, seems very flat, and not correspondent with the native elegance of Theocritus: and therefore the learned and ingenious John Pierson (see his Verisimilia, p. 46.) proposes to read, Μαλα νέμων, Διοφάντε, κατ' ώρεα κ. τ. λ. observing that Theocritus inscribes several Idylliums to his intimate friends; for instance, he addresses the 6th to Aratus; the 11th and the 13th to Nicias the physician; and to this same Diophantus the 21st. This very plausible emendation I have followed in my translation. That the librarians often obliterated proper names will appear in the note on ver. 55 of this Idyllium. Virgil imitates this passage: Compulerantque greges Corydon et Thyrsis in unum; Thyrsisoves, Corydon distentas lacte capellas: Ecl. 7. 2. 6. Tu calamos inflare leves, ego dicere versus. 15. Vis er o inter nos, quid possit uterque, vi- DAPHNIS. MENALCAS. A pipe I form'd, of nine unequal strains, DAPHNIS. [pains, And I have one of nine unequal strains, MENALCAS. 30 Yon goatherd, let him judge the vocal lay; 18. Ego hanc vitulam, ne forte recuses, 22. Nine equal strains,] Though nine strains, or reeds, are here mentioned, yet the shepherd's pipe was generally composed of seven reeds, unequal in leugth, and of different tones, joined toge ther with wax. See note on Idyl. I. 169; and Virgil, Est mihi disparibus septem compacta cicut's Fistula. Ecl. 2.36. It is difficult to conceive how the ancient shopherds could pipe and sing at the same time: certainly that was impracticable. The most probabie opinion is, that they first play'd over the tune, and then sung a verse or stanza of the song answering thereto, and so play'd and sung alternately: which manner of playing and singing is very common with the pipers and fiddlers at our country wakes, who, perhaps, originally borrowed the custom from the Romans, during their residence in Britain. We find the old English minstrels used to warble on their harps, and then sing.-See Percy's essay on the subject. 29. Who shall decide, &c.] The same verse occurs Idyl. V. 71. 35. Alternis igitur contendere versibus ambo Hos Corydon, illos referebatin ordine Thyrsis, But in yon cave to carol with my friend, MENALCAS. To teats the drought, to birds the snare, the wind 70 Wolf, spare my kids, my young and tender sheep; tion between the extensive territories of Pelops, and the talents, or treasures of Croesus; and what adds to the probability that this is the true reading, Theocritus mentions the riches of Croesus in the 10th Idyl. ver. 39. and likewise Anacreon, ode 26. ver. 3. Δοκων δ' έχειν τα Κροίσο, Rich seem as Lydia's king: indeed every school-boy knows that the riches of Croesus became a proverb. 58. Nor speed, &c.] -Cursuque pedum Æn. 7. 807. prævertere ventos. Triste lupus stabulis, maturis frugibus imbres, Ecl. 3. 80. 70. Il fits, &c.] This seems to be an imitation of a verse in Homer: Ov Xen RavnXION EURELY xxnpopov avôça. II. b. 2. 24. Il fits a chief, who mighty nations guides, 57. Not Pelops' lands, not Cræsus' wealth, &c.] The Greek is, Μη μοι γαν Πέλοπος, μη μοι χρυσ σε ταλαντα Ειη εχειν! May the territories of Pelops, and golden talents never fall to my share! χρύσεια τάλαντα is very frigid; one expects something better than this from the Sicilian Muse, and there fore the ingenious Pierson (see his Verisimilia) observing that the librarians frequently obliterated proper names, instead of gudua reads Kpolodlo saharra; then a new beauty arises in the opposiYOL. XX. Warton. 78. Et longum, formose, vale, vale, inquit, Ioia! Ecl. 3. 79. 81. This verse occurs, Idyl. 9. ver. 7. in the Greek. 83. Fortunate senex, hic inter flumina nota, Menalcas next shall sing; while pasturing near Calves mix with cows, the heifer with the steer; The bulls together with the herd may browze, Rove round the copse, and crop the tender boughs Daphnis, begin the sweet bucolic strain; Menalcas next shall charm the shepherd-swain. DAPHNIS. 10 Sweet low the herds along the pastur'd ground, There I regard no more bright summer's fires Thus Daphnis chanted his bucolic strain; Here ceas'd the youths; I prais'd their pastoral strains, The herdsman Daphnis and the shepherd Me-Than toothless men hard nuts when pulse is near. nalcas are urged by a neighbouring shepherd to contend in singing; the song is in alternate strains, and each receives a prize; Daphnis a finely-finished club, and Menalcas a conch. The beauty of this Idyllium consists in the true character of low life, full of self-commendation, and boastful of its own fortune. DAPHNIS, begin! for merrily you play, 85. Vitis ut arboribus decori est, ut vitibus uvæ, Dryden. 91. Tale tuum carmen nobis, divine poeta, &c. Ecl. 5. 45. Mr. Gay has imitated this passage, in his fifth pastoral; Albeit thy songs are sweeter to mine ear, Than to the thirsty cattle rivers clear; Or winter porridge to the labouring youth, Or buns and sugar to the damsel's tooth. 93. Hos tibi dant calamos, en accipe, Musæ Ecl. 6. 69. 101. Ex illo Corydon, Corydon est tempore nobis. Ecl. 7. 70. 1. Daphnis, begin, &c.] The first eight lines in the translation of this Idyllium are supposed to be spoken by the shepherd, who endeavours to engage Daphnis and Menalcas to sing : And gave to each a present for his pains: 9. This verse occurs Idyllium 8th, 77, in the original; Dulce satis humor, depulsis arbutus hædis, 19. Hos Corydon, illos referebat in ordine Thyr mus's cave: ignis Semper, & assiduâ postes fuligine nigri. Here ever-glowing hearths embrown the Here blazing pines expel the pinching frosts, Here cold and Boreas' blasts we dread no more Than wolves the sheep, or torrent streams the shore. Warton. prehend signifies wheat boiled, without having 30. Pulse] The Greek is avhoto, which I ap been first ground in the mill, something in the nature of frumenty. 31. Here the shepherd resumes his account of the contest between Daphnis and Menalcas, and describes the presents he made them. So exquisitely shap'd from end to end, An artist might admire, but could not mend. And to five friends a plenteous meal supply'd. Hail, rural Muses! teach your bard those strains Which once I sung, and charm'd the listening swains: 50 Then would my tongue repeat the pleasing lore, IDYLLIUM X*. THE REAPERS, ARGUMENT. Milo and Battus, two reapers, have a conference as they are at work; Battus not reaping so fast as usual, Milo asks him the reason of it; he frankly confesses it was owing to love; and, at the request of Milo, sings a song in praise of his mistress: Milo afterwards repeats the po etical maxims of Lytierses. MILO and BATTUS. MILO. BATTUS, some evil sure afflicts you sore; BATTUS. Milo, thou moiling drudge, as hard as stone, An absent mistress didst thou ne'er bemoan? MILO. Not I-I never learnt fair maids to woo; BATTUS. Did love then never interrupt thy sleep? MILO. No, Battus: dogs should never run at sheep. BATTUS. But I have lov'd these ten long days and more. MILO. 45. Nymphæ, noster amor, Libethrides, aut Yes, you're a wealthy man, and I a poor. mihi carmen, Quale meo Codro, concedite. Ecl. 7. 21. BATTUS. Give me the lays, Nymphs of th' inspiring Hence all things round me in confusion lie. springs, Which Codrus, rival of Apollo sings, Warton. 48. And painful blisters, &c.] The ancients believed that a lie was always followed by some punishment, as a blister on the tip of the tongue, a pimple on the nose, &c. See Idyl. 12, verse 32. See also Hor, b. 2. ode 8. 49. Juvenal has a similar passage, Sat. 15. 163. Indica tigris agit rabidâ cum tygride pacem Perpetuam: sævis inter se convenit ursis. Tiger with tiger, bear with bear you'll find In leagues offensive and defensive join'd. Tate. 52. Me verò primùm dulces ante omnia Musæ, Mr. Pope has something very similar: Not bubbling fountains to the thirsty swain, Not balmy sleep to labourers faint with pain, Not showers to larks, or sunshine to the bee, Are half so charming as thy sight to me. MILO. But tell me who's this charmer of your eye? Old Polybuta's niece, the gay, the young, * This Idyllium, as Dr. Martyn observes, being a dialogue between two reapers, is generally excluded by the critics from the number of the pastorals and yet, perhaps, if we consider that a herdsman may very naturally describe a conversation between two of his country neighbours, who entertain each other with a rural song, we may soften a little the severity of our critical temper, and allow even this to be called a pastoral. 4. Like a wounded sheep, &c.] Virgil, speaking of a sickening sheep, says, you will see it. Extremamque sequi, aut medio procumbere campo Pascentem. |