Nyctilon ut cantu rudis exsuperaverit Alcon? Astyle, credibile est, si vincat acanthida cornix, Vocalem superet si dirus aedona bubo.-CAL. Ecl. 6, 5. These associations, of course, are symbolical of the impossible. Here the songs of the acalanthis and the nightingale are obviously taken as types of the highest beauty in bird-song, in antithesis to the "raucous calls" of the cornix, and the "lugubrious plaints" of the owl. Erasmus classified the above as popular proverb. The association of the acalanthis and nightingale on the same side of the equation is instructive. The more so if we recall that here the acalanthis takes a place in the proverb usually held by another of the immortal four. Tum tenuis dare rursus aquas, et pascere rursus Here we have in Virgil a calm summer scene. Evening approaches. The background of bird-song is portrayed without its usual touch of sorrow, as, for example, in Hor. Epod. 2, 26, who in a somewhat similar situation uses queruntur of the birds as they sang. Cf. also Ov. Her. 15, 151. The association here of the acalanthis with the halcyon, again in company with one of the immortal four, indicates Virgil's high appreciation of the little singer. As Glover points out, it may well be a reminiscence in the master poet's mind of his boyhood days on the banks of the Mincio. There are only these two references in the Roman poets. But surely if two appreciative nature poets like Virgil and Calpurnius thought so highly of the acalanthis, there is nothing a priori improbable in a confusion of the birds and a blending of their names in the folk-mind and observation. Virgil says that the dumi, i. e. the thickets, resound. This word and its parallel dumetum are glossed by axavdɛóv, which again points to the bird acalanthis. In this connection Warde Fowler, referring to Lenz, Botanik der Griechen, observes that the word axavdıg in Greek does not necessarily mean the thistle, but is applied to all kinds of thorny trees and shrubs, such as the dumi in which Virgil makes the voice of the bird resound. I do not believe for a minute that Virgil confused the acalanthis and nightingale. He was far too good an observer for that. But later, as we should expect, if our hypothesis be correct, others did confuse the two birds. Observe now, in view of our discussion, what Servius says in a note on the acalanthis passage in hand: Acalanthis alii lusciniam esse volunt, alli carduelim. This means, if it means anything at all, that in the time of Servius the confusion assumed as the source of ruscinia, and clearly implied in the glosses, was already in evidence. On this hypothesis alone can we explain the glosses and this Servian note, with their double association, of luscinia on one hand and acalanthis on the other. If this theory for the origin of ruscinia be accepted, its survival in the r- forms of the Romance languages seems to present no serious difficulty. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE PRINCIPAL LITERATURE CONSULTED. Allen, Katherine: Treatment of Nature in the Poetry of the Roman Republic. Madison, 1899. American Poets: Vid. Preface. Baehrens, A.: Fragmenta Poetarum Romanorum. Leipzig, 1886. Baehrens, A.: Poetae Latini Minores. Leipzig, 1879. Baethgen, E.: De Vi ac Significatione Galli in religionibus et artibus Check List of North American Birds. Ed. by A. O. U. New York, 1895. Cheney, S. P.: Wood Notes Wild. Boston, 1892. Columbian Muse, The: A Selection of American Poetry. New York, 1794. Coues, Elliott: Birds of the Colorado Valley. Washington, 1878. Coues, Elliott: Check List of North American Birds. Boston, 1882. Coues, Elliott: Key to North American Birds. New York, 1872. Duyckinck, E. A. and G. L.: Cyclopedia of American Literature. New York, 1855. Elliot, D. G.: Wild Fowl of North America. 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Marx, A.: Griechische Märchen von dankbaren Thieren. Stuttgart, 1889. Miller, M.: Das Jagwesen der alten Griechen und Römern. Munich, 1883. Morris, F. O.: A History of British Birds. London, 1857. Neri, F. Gli animali nelle opere di Virgilio. Pisa, 1896. Newton, A.: A Dictionary of Birds. London, 1896. Nuttal, T.: Ornithology of North America. Boston, 1897. Pascal, C.: Sul Carme 'De Ave Phoenice' attribuito a Lattanzio. Pischinger, A.: Der Vogelgesang bei den griechischen Dichtern des klassischen Alterthums. Eichstatt, 1901. Pischinger, A.: Der Vogelzug bei den griechischen Dichtern des klassi schen Alterthums. Eichstatt, 1904. Poetae Latini: Vid. Preface. |