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to mean Rome. See the note on ver. 31.

O Melibae, &c.] Tityrus informs his neighbour, that his felicity is derived from a god, complimenting Augustus with that name.

Otia.] Servius interprets it security or felicity. La Cerda will have it to mean liberty. Ruæus renders it quies. Lord Lauderdale translates it, this soft retirement; Dryden, these blessings; and Dr. Trapp, this freedom. In the fifth eclogue, our poet uses otia for peace or ease.

Namque erit ille mihi semper deus.] It was a common opinion among the ancients, that doing good elevated men to divinity. Tityrus, therefore, having received so great a benefit from Augustus, declares that he shall always esteem him as a god. If divine honours had then been ascribed to Augustus, the poet would not have mentioned him as a deity peculiar to himself; erit ille mihi semper deus.

Errare.] Id est, pasci, says Servius. It is certain, that by errare the poet cannot mean to wander or stray, in one sense of the word, which signifies to go astray, or be lost. Therefore, to

avoid ambiguity, I have translated it to feed at large, which is the true meaning of the word.

Non equidem invideo, &c.] Melibœeus, apprehending that Tityrus might imagine he envied his good fortune, assures him that he does not, but only wonders at his enjoying peace in the midst of the greatest confusions and disturbances, and concludes with enquiring who that god is from whom his tranquillity is derived.

Duco.] La Cerda would have us understand duco in this place to mean carrying on the shoulders. To confirm this interpre.. tation, he quotes several authors, who mention the shepherd's taking up the sheep on his shoulders. But all, or most of them, are christians, and allude to the parable of the good shepherd in the gospel; which only shews the frequency of this custom. However, not even one of these uses duco to express carrying on the shoulders. It certainly signifies, to lead or draw. In the first sense, it is used in the second Georgick, ver. 395, and in the latter sense in many places.

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Lava.] Servius interprets it stulta, contraria.

Urbem, quam dicunt, &c.] Tityrus, instead of answering directly who the deity is, deviates with a pastoral simplicity into a description of Rome.

Huic nostra.] Mantua, near which Virgil was born.

Sic canibus, &c.] "He means that Rome differs from other cities, not only in magnitude, but also in kind, being, as it were, another world, or a sort of heaven, in which he saw the god Cæsar. For in comparing a whelp to a dog, or a kid to a goat, we only express the difference of magnitude, not of kind. But, when we say a lion is bigger than a dog, we express the difference of kind, as well as of magnitude, as the poet does now in speaking of Rome. I thought before, says he, that Rome was to be compared with other ci

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ties, just as a kid is to be compared with its dam: for though it was greater, yet I took it to be only a city: but now I find, that it differs also in kind: for it is a mansion of deities. That this is his meaning, is plain from

Quantum lenta solent inter

viburna cupressi.

For the wayfaring-tree is a low shrub; but the cypress is a tall and stately tree." Servius.

Lenta. viburna.] The viburnum or wayfaring-tree is a shrub with bending, tough branches, which are therefore much used in binding faggots. The name is derived a viendo, which signifies to bind. The ancient writers seem to have called any shrub, that was fit for this purpose, viburnum: but the more modern authors have restrained that name to express only our wayfaring-tree.

Et que tanta, &c.] Tityrus having mentioned Rome, Melibæus immediately asks him what was the occasion of his going thither to which he answers, that it was liberty, which he did not enjoy till he was grown old, when Galatea forsook him, and he gave himself up to Amaryllis.

Libertas.] The commentators generally understand Tityrus to have been a slave; because he makes mention here of his being grown old before he obtained his liberty. But it is very plain that Virgil does not represent him in any such condition; for he is possessed of flocks and herds; and has a farm of his own; tua rura manebunt. The poet, therefore, must mean by liberty, either the restitution of the lands of Tityrus, or his releasement from the bondage of his passion for Galatea. It seems to be the latter; because we are told he had no hopes of liberty, so long as Galatea retained possession of him. It will be objected, perhaps, that Tityrus could have no occasion to go to Rome to obtain a dismission from his affection to a mis

tress; and therefore this cannot be the liberty here mentioned. But to this it may be answered, that his having obtained his liberty, by shaking off the yoke of Galatea, was the cause of his

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going to Rome: for during his passion for her, he neglected his affairs, and lived expensively, sending great quantities of cattle and cheese to market, and yet not being the richer for it.

Candidior postquam, &c.] The commentators, who generally affirm that Virgil describes himself under the name of Tityrus, are much confounded with this mention of his beard being grey, Virgil being but twenty-eight years old when he wrote this eclogue. They, however, seem to think it necessary that some one person should be represented under the name of Tityrus, and thereby lay themselves under inextricable difficulties in explaining their author; which might easily be avoided' by allowing that the poet's characters are general, and not intended to be personal.

Postquam nos Amaryllis, &c.] The allegorical commentators fancy that the poet meant Rome by Amaryllis, and Mantua by Galatea. Ruæus justly rejects the allegorical interpretation for the following reasons: 1. As the poet has twice mentioned Rome expressly, and by its proper name, in this eclogue, what could induce him to call it sometimes Rome and sometimes Amaryllis? 2. He distinguishes Galatea from Mantua also, when

he says, that whilst he was a slave to Galatea, he had no profit from the cheeses which he made for the unhappy city.

Peculi.] It is used for peculii. Peculium is commonly understood to signify the private stock which a slave is permitted to enjoy, independent of his master. It must be confessed, that the word is most frequently used in this sense; but there want not instances to prove that it also signifies the property of a freeman, or, as I understand it in the passage now before it, gain. Peculium, no doubt, as well as pecunia, is derived from pecus, because exchanges were made by cattle, before the invention of money; and the most ancient coin had cattle impressed on it.

Septis.] Servius tells us, that septa signified those places in the Campus Martius which were fenced in for the people to give their votes; and that because these septa resemble sheepfolds, or ovilia, the words are often put one for another.

Ingratæ urbi.] Mantua: but some doubt may arise why Mantua is called ingrata, and what is meant by that epithet. It is commonly used to signify either unpleasing or ungrateful. But ingratus signifies also unhappy,

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sad, or melancholy. We do not see any reason why Virgil should call Mantua ungrateful. Tityrus carried his cattle and cheese thither to sell, and if he did not bring his money home with him, it was his own fault to spend it. Nor is there any evident reason why he should call it unpleasing, unless, as Burman interprets it, because it was filled with soldiers. But there appears an evident reason why he should call it unhappy; for it was so in its situation, suffering on account of its nearness to Cremona, as the poet himself intimates in the ninth eclogue;

Mantua, væ miseræ nimium

vicina Cremona.

Mirabar, &c.] Melibœus seems by this last discourse of Tityrus to have found out the amour between him and Amaryllis, with which he was not acquainted before; and therefore wondered whose absence it was that Amaryllis lamented.

Amarylli.] It seems to me very evident that there is not any thing more mysterious in this passage, than that Galatea had been an imperious and expensive mistress to Tityrus, and kept him from growing rich, by draining him of his money as fast as he got it. When he was