Sixteen select idyls of Theocritus, with Engl. notes by D.B. Hickie

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Page 52 - I have found out a gift for my fair; I have found where the wood-pigeons breed; But let me that plunder forbear, She will say 'twas a barbarous deed...
Page 29 - Vel quae sublegi tacitus tibi carmina nuper, Cum te ad delicias ferres Amaryllida nostras : 'Tityre, dum redeo (brevis est via) pasee capellas, Et potum pastas age, Tityre, et inter agendum Occursare capro (cornu ferit ille) caveto.
Page 97 - Lycida mecum ipse voluto , si valeam meminisse; neque est ignobile carmen. 'huc ades o Galatea! quis est nam ludus in undis? hic ver purpureum, varios hic flumina circum fundit humus flores, hic candida populus antro imminet, et lentae texunt umbracula vites: huc ades ; insani feriant sine litora fluctus .' Lycidas Quid quae te pura solum sub nocte canentem audieram?
Page 18 - I gave a fweet-heart's name. This with the loudeft bounce me fore amaz'd, That in a flame of brighteft colour blaz'd. As blaz'd the nut fo may thy paffion grow; For 'twas thy nut that did fo brightly glow. With my fharp heel I three times mark the ground, And turn me thrice around, around, around.
Page 20 - Terna tibi haec primum triplici diversa colore licia circumdo, terque haec altaria circum effigiem duco : numero deus impare gaudet. 75 ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnim. Necte tribus nodis ternos, Amarylli, colores ; necte, Amarylli, modo ; et Veneris die -vincula necto.
Page 112 - On another view of the matter, we may suppose that they meant by Adonis the fruits of the earth ; which are for one while buried, but at length appear flourishing to the sight. When, therefore, the seed was thrown into the ground, they said Adonis was gone to Proserpine; but when it sprouted up, they said he had revisited the light and Venus. Hence, probably, it was, that they sowed corn, and made gardens for Adonis.
Page 96 - Saepibus in nostris parvam te roscida mala — Dux ego vester eram — vidi cum matre legentem. Alter ab undecimo tum me iam acceperat annus ; Iam fragilis poteram ab terra contingere ramos. Ut vidi, ut perii ! ut me malus abstulit error ! Incipe Maenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus.
Page 112 - It was celebrated at Alexandria in St. Cyril's time ; and when Julian the Apostate made his entry at Antioch, in the year 362, they were celebrating the feast of Adonis. The ancients differ greatly in their accounts of this divinity.
Page xiii - ... the personages who use it. In the age of Theocritus, this species of the Doric, much softer and smoother than the old dialect of the Dorians, was current in many parts of Greece ; another adventitious circumstance much in favour of our Poet. Hence his versification derives a melody, which no one of the ancients hath equalled ; while the frequent recurrence of the dactyl gives it an ease and lightness more peculiarly graceful in the pastoral Idyls.
Page vii - ... the reason that induced Theocritus to leave Syracuse for the more friendly climate of Alexandria, where Ptolemy Philadelphus then reigned in unrivalled splendour, the great encourager of arts and sciences, and the patron of learned men. In his voyage to Egypt he touched at Cos, an island in the Archipelago not far from Rhodes, where he was honourably entertained by Phrasidamus and Antigenes, who invited him into the country to celebrate the festival of Ceres, as appears by the seventh Idyllium.

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