Recent German critics, such as Gebauer, in the treatise already referred to, and Ribbeck, have supposed themselves to have found the traces of symmetrical arrangement, amounting to something like strophical correspondence, throughout the Eclogues. That such a principle was present to Virgil's mind during the composition of some of them, the structure of the amoebean part of Eclogues 3, 5, 7, and 8 is sufficient to prove; nor does it seem an accident that the scraps of songs quoted in Eclogue 9 fall into two pairs of three and five lines respectively; but that is no reason for seeking symmetry in the Eclogues which are not amoebean, and torturing the text in order to bring it out'. It is true that the sense is more frequently ended with the line in the Eclogues than in the Georgics or Aeneid, so that the appearance of an imperfect parallelism is sometimes produced; but without stopping to enquire whether this may be connected with any tradition of bucolic music, which, though not accepted by Virgil as an invariable law, may still have influenced him, we may account for it sufficiently by considering that the hexameter, as handled by Lucretius and Catullus, is apt to present the same phenomenon of unbroken monotony, and that Virgil's earliest attempts at versification would naturally be characterized by a greater uniformity of cadence than his latest. In any case there can be no justification for resorting, as Ribbeck has done, to the hypothesis of interpolations on the one hand, and lacunae on the other. It is the trustworthiness of the MSS. that has preserved to us proofs of symmetry which had been overlooked for centuries, as in Eclogues 5 and 8; surely their authority is to be equally respected where they refuse to disclose any such proofs, especially when the two classes of cases are seen to be separated by an intelligible line.

the title to his own Pastorals; and Spenser, among others, followed the example. Johnson, who remarks (Life of A. Philips) that the word can only mean 'the talk of goats,' not, as it was intended, the talk of goatherds,' might have remarked further, that no such formation could have existed in Greek. The French spelling Eglogues may be otherwise explained.

1 Gebauer's theory obliges him in E. 10. 32, 33 to put a full stop after 'periti,' connecting the second 'Arcades' with the words that follow. Most readers will, I think, feel that the rhythmical beauty of 'soli cantare periti Arcades' is worth far more, to modern apprehensions at least, than any gain that can be supposed to accrue from the strophical arrangement of an entire Eclogue.

The historical groundwork of this Eclogue is the assignment of lands in Italy by the triumvirs to their veterans, in 713 A.U.C. "The spoliation," says Mr. Merivale (History of the Roman Empire, vol. iii. p. 222), "spread from the suburban lands to remote tracts, from municipal to private possessions. Even loyalty to the Caesarian party proved of no avail: the faithful Mantua shared the fate of its neighbour, the disaffected Cremona; and the little township of Andes, Virgil's birthplace, in the Mantuan territory, was involved in the calamities of its metropolis." The story, as drawn out from Donatus' Life and the scattered notices in Servius' Commentary, is that Virgil went to Rome on the seizure of his property, and obtained from Octavianus a decree of restitution, which however was resisted and nearly rendered ineffectual by the violence of the new occupant, referred to in the ninth Eclogue, so that a second appeal for protection had to be made. That the poet's inheritance was twice threatened seems evident from Eclogue 9, vv. 7 foll., while we know from the present Eclogue that on one occasion he received an assurance of protection from Octavianus himself, and it may be inferred from other passages that Alfenus Varus, the legatus in the Cisalpine after the battle of Perusia, if not his predecessor C. Asinius Pollio, interfered on Virgil's behalf. These facts agree sufficiently well with the traditional account, at the same time that they do not enable us to decide on all its details, even as contained in the abbreviated summary just given.

The speakers in the Eclogue are two shepherds, one of whom is enjoying rustic life, singing of his love and seeing his cattle feed undisturbed, when he is encountered by the other, who has been expelled from his homestead and is driving his goats before him, with no prospect but a cheerless exile. This is simple enough, but it is complicated by an unhappy artifice. The fortunate shepherd is represented as a farm slave who has just worked out his freedom: and this emancipation is used to symbolize the confirmation of the poet in his property. The two events, with their concomitants, are treated as convertible with each other, the story being told partly in the one form, partly in the other. See vv. 41 foll. and notes. This confusion arises from the identification of the shepherd and the poet, spoken of in the Introduction to the Eclogues: but in the present case its very grossness has prevented its being observed by the editors, who suppose Tityrus, like Moeris in Ecl. 9, to be Virgil's ' villicus,' who goes

to Rome to purchase his liberty of his master, and there hears from Octavi his master's property is safe-a cumbrous hypothesis, and not really reconci the language of the Eclogue. The earlier commentators, such as La Cerda a did not feel this difficulty, but they created one for themselves in the sh allegory, according to which Tityrus' two partners, v. 30, stand for Rome an respectively. Trapp, in rejecting the allegory, himself supposes that the partners is intended to intimate a change of parties, Virgil's abandonment of of the republicans for that of the triumvirs.

The scenery, as in other Eclogues, is confused and conventional, the beec caverns (v. 75), mountains (v. 83), and rocks (vv. 15, 47, 56, 76) bel Sicily, while the marshy river (v. 48) is from Mantua. See Introducti Eclogues, p. 9. In other respects the poem appears to be original, only t Tityrus, Galatea, and Amaryllis, being borrowed from Theocritus.

M. TITYRE, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi
Silvestrem tenui Musam meditaris avena;
Nos patriae finis et dulcia linquimus arva:
Nos patriam fugimus; tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra
Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida silvas.
T. O Meliboee, deus nobis haec otia fecit.

1-5.] How is it that while I am wan-
dering an outcast from my native fields,
you are lying in the shade and singing
like a happy shepherd of your mistress?'
1.] Of the three principal MSS., the
Medicean, the Palatine, and the Roman, the
first is defective till we come to E. 6. 48.
Tityrus (Tirupos) is one of the Theo-
critean shepherds (Theocr. 3. 2 foll.). The
word is apparently the Doric form of
Zárupos, being applied in the same way to
designate a kind of tailed ape, and per-
haps a goat. Another account, that it
means a reed, was also received among
the ancient critics (Schol. on Theocr. 1. c.),
and is to some extent supported by the
words τιτύρινος (αὐλός), τιτυριστής; but
these may be explained by supposing that
the name had come to have a conventional
sense as a shepherd or rustic minstrel.

2.] Silvestrem,' pastoral; as 'silvae' is used for pastoral poetry, 4. 3. Forbiger observes that the Italians pasture their cattle in summer among the woody slopes of the mountains. Silvestrem Musam' is from Lucr. 4. 589, "Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere Musam." "Tenui,' like "Agrestem tenui meditabor arundine Musam," 6. 8, where it is evident from the context that tenui' is meant to be in keeping with 'agrestem,' and to suggest the notion of simplicity and humility, at the same time that it is a natural epithet of the reed, like 'fragili cicuta,' 5. 85. 'Musam: the Muse had come to be used

for the song personified as early cles and Euripides, and the usa quent in Theocr. Meditaris,' Comp. Hor. 1 S. 9. 2, "Nescio c tans nugarum et totus in illis." not a straw (which would be ab a reed, or perhaps a pipe of re like a straw. So stipula,' of 27, though the word there is contemptuous. Milton howev Lycidas talks seriously of the o as he talks contemptuously of wretched straw.'

3.1

"Patrios finis," v. 67. 4.] He repeats the contrast verse order, so that we shall p best to put with Jahn a semicolo 2, a colon after v. 3. Gebauer, remarks that this repetition is manner of Theocritus, compari 9.1—6, where the editors have ready to suspect interpolation also Theocr. 8. 28-32. Fugi youev, are banished from it. securus.' Comp. Ovid, Her. 19. 8 ego tum ventos audirem lenta so

I

5.] "Resonent mihi Cynthi Prop. 1. 18. 31, probably in in this passage.

6-10.] These rural libertie one whom I shall ever own as a

6.] Meliboeus is explained b ὅτι μέλει αὐτῷ τῶν βοῶν, a pla indeed obvious etymology, bu ported by analogy, which wou

Namque erit ille mihi semper deus; illius aram
Saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus.
Ille meas errare boves, ut cernis, et ipsum
Ludere, quae vellem, calamo permisit agresti.
M. Non equidem invideo; miror magis: undique totis
Usque adeo turbatur agris. En, ipse capellas
Protinus aeger ago; hanc etiam vix, Tityre, duco.
Hic inter densas corylos modo namque gemellos,
Spem gregis, ah! silice in nuda connixa reliquit.
Saepe malum hoc nobis, si mens non laeva fuisset,

De caelo tactas memini praedicere quercus.
Sed tamen, iste deus qui sit, da, Tityre, nobis.
T. Urbem, quam dicunt Romam, Meliboee, putavi
Stultus ego huic nostrae similem, quo saepe solemus
Pastores ovium teneros depellere fetus.

Sic canibus catulos similis, sic matribus haedos
Noram, sic parvis conponere magna solebam.
Verum haec tantum alias inter caput extulit urbes,
Quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi.

17.] '1
'Memini praedicere,' Madvig, Lat.
Gr. § 408. b, obs. 2. 'De caelo tangi' is a
phrase for to be struck by lightning, Livy
25.7, &c. The striking of a thing or person
by lightning was an omen of evil: see Cic.
De Div. 1. 10-12. Hence the practice of
enclosing the 'bidental.' Pomponius says
on the authority of the lost works of
ancient Grammarians, that the blasting of
fruit-bearing trees was ominous, that of
the olive being supposed to forebode bar-
renness, that of the oak banishment. If
this could be established, it would fix the
'malum hoc' to be Meliboeus' exile, not
the loss of the goat's twins. After this
line most editions insert, "Saepe sinistra
cava praedixit ab ilice cornix;" but the
verse is unknown to all Ribbeck's MSS.,
and the two chief copies which contain it
are not agreed (a strong proof of inter-
polation), one of them reading "dice-
bat." It is evidently made up from 9. 15.
18.] Da' for 'dic,' as 'accipe' for 'audi.'
"Da
quae ventrem placaverit esca,"
Hor. 2 S. 8. 5. 'Iste,' 'tuus.' Several MSS.
(none of Ribbeck's) have 'quis' for 'qui.'
The difference between the two is not easy
to ascertain, the common distinction being
that quis asks the name, qui,' like
'qualis, roos, the nature, while Wagner
contends that in Virg. at least 'quis' is
generally used in direct questions, 'qui'
in indirect. No precise rule is laid
down by Madvig (§ 88, obs. 1). Zumpt
makes it a question of euphony, and Drak-
enborch thinks they are used indiscrimi-
nately. Nothing can be settled from the
present passage, as Tityrus does not reply
directly to the question.

...

19-25.] Why, I used to think Rome differed from Mantua only as a dog does from a puppy, but I found it was much more like the difference between a cypress and an osier.' Tityrus begins "ab ovo," in rustic fashion. This seems to have misled Apronianus, who thought Virg.'s deity might be not Octavianus, but Rome.

21.] Depellere,' or, in the fu sion, depellere a lacte,' is to 82., 7. 15, G. 3. 187, &c.: and son so here, reading 'quoi' for quo, rendering 'quo,' 'for' instead of But the sense requires something lent to going to the city. Pel driving a flock, is found in comp 30, &c. The 'de' need not be by supposing that Andes was o which was not the case: it der destination, as in deducere,' ' navis (in portum),' &c. It may the custom in Columella's tim lambs very young, and it may custom now to sell them so yo they are obliged to be carried butcher: but these observations valuable as illustrations of the te not be allowed to override it. F thinks Virg. may have misapp the technical sense of the word, a practical man: and it might suggested that he may have w combine the notions of wean taking to market.

23.] It may be questioned 'parvis conponere magna' means pare cities with dogs and goats argue from the latter to the fo to compare the larger member o with the smaller: but the latter natural, and recommended by 's Sic' then becomes emphatic; 's the comparisons I made.' Hdt. σμικρὰ μεγάλοισι συμβαλέειν, Τη μικρὸν μεγάλῳ εἰκάσαι. “Si pa conponere magnis," G. 4. 176, bees and the Cyclopes.

24.] Extulit' seems to have a forceelatum gerit.' Comp. A. 10. 262, notes. But it might be e with reference to the time when visited Rome and was undece found her raising.'

25.] The cypress, though n genous to Italy (Pliny 16.33), was