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of the bitter lupine." In Italy the common practice was to allow land a year's rest after producing a corn crop. But those who held only small farms could not afford this. In the latter case, therefore, the land was refreshed by an alternation of crops, as by sowing leguminous plants and corn alternately. Comp. Varr. Res Rust. i. 44: Agrum alternis annis relinqui oportet, aut paullo levioribus sationibus serere. Mutato sidere: "the season being changed." Compare Æn. iv. 309: hiberno sidere. The poet recommends that a leguminous crop having been gathered from a field in summer, a corn crop should be sown there in the following autumn; or, in other words, that legumes and corn should be sown alternately, the advantage of such a practice being, that a crop will thus be obtained from the land every year, without impoverishing the soil. See note on verse 83. Heyne considers mutato sidere=altero anno, "in the following year," understanding the poet to recommend that a leguminous crop having been gathered in from a field in the summer, a corn crop should be sown there in the SPRING of the following year. But this cannot be Virgil's meaning, for in verses 208-210, and 219-224, he mentions the autumn as the proper season for sowing corn. Voss considers italio (alterius) anni tempore, "in a different season of the next year," understanding the poet to recommend that a field which has been sown with legumes in spring should be sown with corn in the autumn of the FOLLOWING YEAR. This interpretation has been adopted by Jahn, Wagner, and Forbiger, and also by Anthon, and is now generally approved. Yet it seems by no means satisfactory. In verses 71-76, two distinct modes of renovating land are proposed, one or other of which the farmer is recommended to adopt; viz. either (1st) by allowing the land to rest every second year, verses 71, 72; or (2nd) by sowing a leguminous crop and a corn crop alternately, verses 73-76. The explanation of Voss will amount to this :-A farmer sows a field in spring with beans; these become ripe, and are gathered in summer. He sows corn next, but not until the autumn of the following year: thus allowing the land a FULL YEAR'S REST between the two crops. Hence we perceive that if the explanation of Voss be correct the second mode of renovating land is not essentially different from the first. The explanation first given, though not suggested by any of the commentators, is simple and intelligible, and removes all difficulty. According to this, mutato sidere merely denotes the change of season, viz. from the summer, when the leguminous crop is gathered in, to the autumn, when the corn crop is sown. The common practice, in our own country, is to sow a green crop in spring, and a corn crop in the following autumn or spring. Flava...farra, "the yellow corn." Farra is here used, as it frequently is elsewhere, in a general sense for frumentum. See note on verse 219. 74. Lætum. Compare verse 1, where see note. Siliquâ quassante legumen. A poetic periphrasis for the simple term legumen. reference is to the bean (faba), as is plain from Pliny, who quotes this passage substituting fabam for legumen. The generic term legumen (χέδροπες, οι ἔσπριον), “legumes, pulse," comprises under it faba (rúaμos), "the bean," lupinus (épuos), the lupine," phasēlus (páonAos), "the kidney bean," vicia, "the vetch," &c. Legumen is generally derived from lego, "to gather," because legumes are gathered by the hand, and not reaped. Compare the similar derivation of xédрOTES (quasi χειρόδροπες) from χείρ and δρέπω. Quassante, "rattling," used intransitively for quassante se, or quassatá; and so volventia is used in verse 163, where see note.

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75. Tenuis fetus viciæ, “the produce of the tiny vetch,” poet. for tenuem viciam (see note on verse 55); or, "the tiny produce (i. e. 'the small seeds') of the vetch." In either case the epithet tenuis refers to the seeds (small in comparison with those of the bean), and not to the stems; for the latter, as Heyne observes, are equally slender in all the legumes mentioned here. Tristisque lupini. The lupinus of the Romans, called Oépuos by the Greeks, is not what we call "lupine," though it is always so translated, but a species of pulse of a bitter taste (the lupinus albus of LINN.), which was the ordinary food of the poor, as well as of the Cynics. It is here styled tristis, i. e. amarus, because contristatur degustantis vultus; i. e. its bitter taste sours or distorts the countenance. Compare Geo. ii. 126, 247; and see note on ver. 80. The pulse which we call "lupine" is the phaselus of the Romans; i. e. the kidney-bean. TristisQUE: the que ve.

76. Fragiles," brittle;" i. e. when ripe and dry. Silvam sonantem, "the rustling crop." Silva is frequently used, as here, to denote a multitude of things crowded together. Thus Juv. Sat. ix. 13, silva coma; Cic. de Or. iii. 26, silva rerum sententiarumque. Compare infra, verse 152; Geo. iv. 273; and vid. Quæst. Virg. viii. § v. 3.

77. Urit ENIM lini campum seges, &c.- Heyne explains the force of enim here by supposing the ellipsis of some antecedent sentence; as, "I would not recommend you, however, to sow flax, oats, or poppies, alternately with corn; FOR a crop of flax exhausts the soil," &c. Wagner, in his late edition (Leipsic, 1845), also supposes an ellipsis, which he supplies thus: "The system of alternating crops is advantageous ; FOR a crop of flax exhausts the soil; so do oats and poppies; BUT NEVERTHELESS (sed tamen), if sown only every second year, the exhaustion of the soil will be comparatively light;" the sense being, that the system of alternating crops is advantageous; FOR, although flax, oats, and poppies exhaust the soil, STILL, if sown alternately with other crops, they will not do much injury. Hand (Tursell. ii. p. 387 et sq.) contends that there is no ellipsis whatever, but that enim is here, aз frequently elsewhere, equivalent to quidem, which is also the explanation given by Jahn and Forbiger, and formerly by Wagner. See note on verse 79. Urit avena, scil. seges. The verb urere is here=

exsiccare.

78. Lethæo perfusa....somno, "imbued with Lethean sleep," poet. for vi soporifica prædita. Compare Geo. iv. 545; Æn. iv. 486, v. 854. Papavera. The esculent poppy of the Romans appears to have been the same as that of our gardens, from the figure of its head in the hands of many statues of Ceres. Pliny mentions three sorts of poppies, -the white, the black, and the red. The white was the esculent poppy; the black was that from which the opium was obtained; and the red, which he calls cheas, appears to have been the wild poppy, or corn rose. The head of the white or garden poppy is round, but that of the red is long and slender.

79. Sed tamen, "but nevertheless;" i. e. but, notwithstanding that flax, oats, and poppies do exhaust the soil, still if sown alternately with other crops, the injury done to the land will be slight, provided manure be plentifully applied. The sentence introduced by the particles sed tamen serves to restrict and qualify the general assertion contained in verses 77, 78,-the sense and connexion being as follow Urit quidem agrum linum, avena, papaver: sed tamen, si alterna seres, facilis erit agri labor, ubi stercorando eum refeceris. It is not to be supposed, with Heyne and some other commentators, that the poet

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discountenances the cultivation of flax, oats, and poppies. He merely alludes to them to show the advantage of an alternation of crops; observing that successive crops of flax, or oats, or poppies impoverish the soil, but that if sown alternately with other crops the exhaustion will be trifling, in case the land be well mauured. Alternis, scil. annis or vicibus, as in verse 71, "in alternate years" = alterna serendo, i. e. by sowing these crops alternately with others. Facilis (erit) labor, scil. agri, "the labour of the soil (in producing these exhausting crops) will be easy," i. e. light. The expression is poetic: "If these crops be sown only every second year (other crops intervening), the land will not have to exert itself so much (i. e. will not be so much exhausted) in produc ing them, as it otherwise would. 'Labor' tribuitur agro, quemadmodum 'defatigari,' 'refoveri,' 'recreari' ille dicitur."-HEYN. Compare verse 150. Some commentators, and amongst them Anthon, understand labor to mean the labour of the husbandman in cultivating these crops; but this is inconsistent with the spirit of the entire passage.

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80. Fimo pingui, "with rich manure.' Manure renders the soil rich, and hence it is itself styled rich, the epithet being transferred from the effect to the cause, as in tarda senectus, pallida mors, &c.; and so tristis lupinus, in verse 75. Sola. This word is not unfrequently employed in the plural, as here. Even Cicero (pro Balb. v. 13) used it so; Vos denique, mutæ regiones, imploro, et sola terrarum ultimarum.

81. Effetos.-This is the correct orthography; see note on verse 55. Cinerem, "wood-ashes." It appears from Pliny (xvii. 9) that ashes formed the manure most commonly used in Virgil's country, Gallia Transpadana. It is also recommended by Columella. The Romans generally scattered it over the land after the seed was sown.

82. Sic quoque, "thus also," "in this way too;" viz. by an alternation of crops. The particle sic refers to the entire preceding sentence, verses 73 sqq. Forbiger refers it merely to the two antecedent verses. Sic, i. e. si ager fimo et cinere saturatur. But the poet seems to have added mutatis fetibus in explanation of sic, lest the reference of the latter should be mistaken; the spirit of the line being obviously this: Sic quoque, viz. mutatis fetibus, requiescunt arva. Mutalis.. fetibus, "by the crops being changed;" i. e. by an alternation of crops. Fetus is not restricted to meaning "animal offspring," but may be employed to denote any useful production. Compare verse 55, where see note, and Geo. iv. 231. Requiescunt arva, "the fields obtain repose," and therefore recover their strength. Strictly fields can be said requiescere only when allowed to lie fallow; but the poet here intimates that alternate crops will be as good as so many fallows to the land.

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83. Nec nulla interea est inaratæ gratia terræ: “nor, in the mean time, does there result the unproductiveness (nulla gratia, lit. the unthankfulness') of land untouched by the plough (i. e. of fallow land); i. e. by adopting an alternation of crops you obtain all the benefit of a fallow for your land, with the additional advantage of having an actual crop every year; whereas, by allowing your land to rest every second year (alternis annis cessare, verse 71) you incur the loss of a year's produce; since your land, while lying fallow, yields you nothing-it is, as it were, unthankful for the repose you grant it. Nec is a negation to the whole clause, and nulla gratia are to be taken together. The above is the explanation given of this passage by Voss, Wagner, Forbiger, and Anthon, and now universally adopted. Heyne's is quite different. He considers nec=nec tamen, a force which it often possesses, and connects nec nulla aliqua, i. e. " considerable," and thus the sense of the

passage will be: "At the same time, however, the advantage of leaving your land unploughed (i. e. of allowing your land to lie fallow every second year) is by no means inconsiderable." With nulla gratia, as explained above, compare Colum. ii. 2, 7. Siccum, densum, et macrum agri genus, ne tractatum quidem, GRATIAM REFERET; i. e. "will not return you thanks" for your labour.

84-93. Land may also be refreshed and improved by burning the stubble. See note on verse 297. Martyn considered that two distinct operations are recommended in verses 84, 85: 1st, (in verse 84) the paring and burning af the superficial soil itself; 2nd, (in verse 85) the burning of the stubble. But the ancient agricultural writers make no mention of the former process. Besides, Pliny evidently understood Virgil to allude to the burning of the stubble alone; for in Lib. xviii. 30, he says: Sunt qui accendant in arvo et stipulas, magno Virgilii præconio. Summa autem ejus ratio, ut herbarum semen exurant. must conclude, therefore, that verse 85 is merely explanatory of verse 84.

84. Steriles agros; i. e. effeti agri stipulam.—WAGN.

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85. Atque levem, &c.-The dactylic metre of this verse is expressive of the rapidity with which the flame spreads over the stubble field. See note on verse 65. Levem, "grainless."

86-91. Sive inde, &c...; sive illis, &c...; seu plures, &c...; seu durat, &c.-Four different advantages are here mentioned as resulting from the burning of the stubble; each, however, referring to a particular quality or condition of soil:-1st, If the soil be poor and meagre, or exhausted by previous cropping, the ashes of the stubble will serve as a rich manure. 2nd, If the soil be wet, the excessive moisture will be evaporated by the heat. 3rd, If the soil be too dense and sluggish, the heat will crumble it, and open its pores for the admission of moisture to the roots of the plants. 4th, If the soil be too loose and porous, the heat will condense and harden it, so as to protect it from the effects of excessive rains, or intense heat of the sun, or scorching winds. Pliny mentions the destruction of the seeds of weeds as the chief benefit derivable from this process.

86. Sive inde, &c., "whether the lands thence receive secret strength and rich aliment." Inde, "from thence;" i. e. from the burning of the stubble.

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87. Sive illis, &c., "or whether by means of the fire every baneful quality is burned out of them, and the injurious moisture is evaporated.” 88. Vitium; i. e. vitiositas, as in Ecl. vii. 57: vitium aëris. dat, "exudes," evaporates." Inutilis, by litotes for vitiosus, noxius. 89. Seu plures, &c., " or whether the heat thus applied (calor ille; lit. that heat') opens more passages and secret pores, whereby (quà, for per qua) the sap may come to the young herbs." Vias and spiramenta are the chinks and pores through which the earth imbibes moisture. Caca, i. e. occulta, latentia; compare Æn. i. 356, ii. 453. 90. Vias et...spiramenta...QUA, for per quæ. occurs in Æn. v. 590, and also in Æn. ii. 455. suck." The usual orthography is succus.

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Sucus from sugere,

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91. Seu durat magis, scil. terras, which is to be supplied from ver. 86, or renders the land more hard, and closes up the gaping veins." Venas, the same as vias and spiramenta in the preceding sentence; except that there the veins or pores are spoken of as closed in consequence of the soil being dense and sluggish, whereas here they are represented as gaping from the soil being too loose and spongy.

92. Ne tenues pluvia, &c., "lest the penetrating rains should injure it, or the too violent influence of the scorching sun or the piercing cold of Boreas should parch it." To tenues pluvia supply noceant, which is to be inferred from adurat by the figure zeugma, the latter verb being strictly applicable only to potentia solis and penetrabile frigus. Tenues. From the allusion to "EXCESSIVE heat" and "EXCESSIVE cold" in this sentence, Wagner concluded that the poet, when he used the word pluvia, must have been thinking of "EXCESSIVE rain" also. He therefore concurred in the opinion of Heyne, who considered tenues to be a mere ornative epithet serving no special purpose in the present sentence; observing that the Roman poets were much in the habit of employing epithets for the sole purpose of ornament, even in passages where they might be better dispensed with. Vid. Quæst. Virg. xxxvii. § 1. But Forbiger, considering that Virgil would never have used the expression TENUES pluvia, if he really meant NIMIE pluvia, conceives that he must have been thinking of land which, either from its own humidity, or in consequence of the nature of the climate, was liable to receive injury rather than benefit from rain at some certain period of the year; and accordingly he considers that pluvia here means simply "rains," without any reference to excess, and that tenues does serve a special purpose in the sentence, as it points to that quality of rain (viz. its tenuitas, i. e. its subtile, penetrating nature) which enables it to insinuate itself into even the smallest veins and pores, and thus occasion considerable damage to land that already contains a sufficiency of moisture. Wagner's note in his late edition (Leip. 1845) is as follows: Ne tenues pluviæ, i. e. ne pluvia, si forte nimia erit, ipsa sua tenuitate occultissimos terræ meatus penetrans, noceat. He has therefore compounded Forbiger's explanation with his own. Rapidi (i. e. vehementis) solis," of the scorching sun." The metaphor is drawn from those qui RAPIDO CURSU feruntur, adeoque INCALESCUNT, fervent.-HEYNE. Compare Ecl. i, 10; Geo. i. 424, iv. 425.

93. Boreas, Bopéas, "the NNE wind," of which the Latin name was Aquilo; but it is here emploved to denote any northern wind. Penetrabile, "penetrating," "piercing," used actively, as in Æn. x. 481: Aspice, num mage sit nostrum penetrabile telum. Adurat. The verbs urere and adurere are used to denote the effects of intense cold as well as of intense heat, the sensation experienced by the human body being in both cases pretty much the same. The Greek kale is similarly used; thus Xenoph. Cyr. viii. 2: xv kalei tŵv kuvŵv Tàs pîvas and Arist. Meteor. iv. 5, 5: Kalew λéyetaι To Yuxpóv. For other uses of urere, vid. ver. 77, and Geo. ii. 196; Hor. Od. i. 6, 19; Epist. i. 10, 43.

94-99. The soil should be well crumbled and pulverized, either (1) by breaking the hard clods with the rastrum, and then drawing hurdles over the ground, or (2) by cross-ploughing it.

94. Multum adeo, &c., "much, too, does he improve his fields, who breaks down the inert clods with rakes, and draws the osier hurdles over the surface." The terms employed to denote the process here spoken of were occare and occatio; thus Varr. Res Rust. i. 29; Occare, i. e. comminuere, ne sit gleba. Plin. xviii. 19, 49: Aratione per transver· sum iteratâ OCCATIO sequitur, ubi res poscat, crate vel rastro. Adeo, i. q. etiam; vid. Quæst. Virg. xxiv. 5. But see note on verse 24, Rastris. This is one of that class of nouns, called by grammarians substantiva abundantia; i. e. substantives having two forms in the plural; thus singular rastrum, plural rastri and rastra, the latter form being but rarely used. There are also the forms raster and rastrus, all

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