NOTES ON THE BUCOLICS. ECLOGUE I.-TITYRUS. ARGUMENT. A SHEPHERD named Tityrus, while seated beneath a spreading beech-tree, where he is amusing himself with playing on his pipe and singing the praises of his mistress Amaryllis, is accosted by a neighbouring swain named Meliboeus, who having been turned out of his lands, is driving his flock of goats before him, uncertain whither to direct his course. He inquires of Tityrus how he had been able to escape the general calamity, and when informed, congratulates him on his good fortune, contrasting with his felicity his own hapless condition. Evening comes on, and Tityrus invites Meliboeus to stop for the night with him in his cottage. NOTES. 1-5. patulae. As we shall show hereafter, this, like most words of the same termination, is a participial. It therefore differs little from patens. Servius however makes a distinction, saying that the former was used of things which spread naturally, as nares, arbor, crux; the latter, of such as opened and shut, as ostium, oculi. Statius seems not to have known this distinction, for he says (Theb. i. 588), patulo caelum ore trahentem, and (iv. 792) patulo trahit ore diem, speaking in B both places of a child.―tegmine, a contraction of tegimine, or tegumine. Virgil in the employment of this word follows Lucretius, who uses it more than once, as sub eodem tegmine caeli, ii. 661.—fagus, the beech-tree. For this and the names of all other plants and flowers, see the Flora at the end of this volume.-2. Silvestrem musam, woodland or rural muse, i. e. song; the Muse, like Ceres and Bacchus for example, being put for the thing over which she presided.—tenui avena, slender oaten pipe. In the picture in the celebrated Vatican MS., which is supposed to be of the fifth century, and the pictures in which are probably copied from still older ones, Tityrus is represented as playing on an instrument resembling the Cennamella of the modern Italian peasantry, which we shall describe in our Observations on the third Eclogue. It is however probably the fistula, or Pandean pipes, the usual instrument of the ancient shepherds, that the poet means in this place. Avena is here apparently merely used as equivalent to calamus, the proper term for the reed of which the fistula was made, and which the poet uses v. 10. (Cf. vi. 8.) Ovid also (Met. ii. 677. viii. 191) uses it for the tubes of the fistula. Voss however, who takes all things in the most literal and narrow sense, understands by avena the corn-pipe of straw, such as young children amuse themselves with, not considering the ridiculous picture which a grey-headed man blowing a cornpipe presents.-meditaris, practise. Simulque ad cursuram meditabor me ad ludos Olympiae. Plaut. Stich. ii. 2, 33. Meditor is the Greek μeλeráw: for it is a curious fact, that though d and I are not letters of the same organ, or even of the same class, they are commutable; as dáкpvov, lacrima; cicada, cicala (Ital.), cigale (Fr.); hedera, ellera (Ital.), lierre (Fr.). In the Sicilian dialect the Italian is uniformly represented by dd. —3. Nos, i. q. ego, in the usual Latin manner.—et. This conj. is frequently used by Virgil to connect words which are epexegetic or explanatory of what precedes. It then answers to even in our translation of the Bible.-4. fugimus. There is an ascending gradation here from the preceding linquimus; I not merely quit my country, I fly, as it were, from it, such is the violence used toward me.-lentus, stretched, reclined. By a principle of the Latin language, hereafter to be explained, it is the same as lenitus, and is the part. of lenio, to relax or soften. Its primary meaning therefore is relaxed, from which those of flexible, slow, tough, etc. are easily deduced.-5. resonare, to give back or echo, xeîv. Cf. Geor. iii. 338.—Amaryllida, the name or praises of his mistress Amaryllis. 6-10. deus. He calls the person to whom he was indebted for his present felicity (otia) a god. There is no doubt that the person meant was Caesar Octavianus. As it was the general belief of at least the educated classes at that time at Rome, that the gods of the popular creed were merely deified men, there was little or nothing of impiety in giving to a man while living the divine honours which he was sure to obtain after his death. Cf. Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 15. Tityrus means that he would worship Caesar (or probably his Genius) along with his Lars or household-gods, as it sometime after became the general custom to do. See Hor. C. iv. 5, 34.—7. illius. Virgil here and elsewhere shortens the penult. in this word. Cf. Geor. i. 49; Aen. i. 16. etc. He takes, like other poets, the same liberty with ipsius, alius and solius.—8. nostris. The same as meos in next verse.-inbuet, sc. sanguine.-agnus. Some offered a pig, others a lamb, others a calf to their Lar, according to their circumstances or their piety. See Tibull. i. 1, 21.—9. ipsum i. e. meipsum.-10. ludere. This verb is not to be taken in the modern sense of the word play, as when we speak of playing the flute it was used to express any employment that was not of a serious nature. Cf. vi. 1. : 11-18. magis i. q. potius. See Lucr. ii. 385, 428, 868; Catull. Ixviii. 30.-12. Usque adeo, to such a degree. This is a common Lucretian phrase. With respect to adeo, where ad is apparently joined with an abl. we may notice the following observation of Priscian (De xii. vers. Aen. xii. 200): "Solent componi ablativi cum praepositionibus quae etiam accusativo separatim solent conjungi, quapropter, quocirca, praeterea; sic etiam interea." Adeo, antea, postea, antehac and posthac would seem to have escaped his observation. This theory is however disputed at the present day, and in fact we do not see how the ea in interea, for instance, could be an ablative.-turbatur, there is such distraction and confusion all through the country.-ipse, I myself, a sharer in the common calamity.-13. Protenus i. q. protinus, i. e. according to the critics, porro tenus, on, onwards. We however rather think that pro is taken here in the same sense as the Greek po, and as in projicio, progredior.-aeger, sick at heart. This adj. is used of the mind as well as the body. Cf. Aen. i. 208, 351, etc.-vix duco, I lead with difficulty, she is so weak.15. Spem gregis, the hope of my flock, i. e. the means of keeping it up. Cf. Geor. iii. 73.-silice in nuda, on the bare rock or stones. Possibly it means the road, as the Roman roads were paved with silex. We cannot see, with Heyne, an allusion to the practice of putting straw or fern under the sheep in the stalls. Geor. iii. 297. In all countries sheep and goats yean in the fields, in Italy frequently on the roads as they are driven along them.-connixa. This is the only instance of the employment of this word in the sense of bringing forth. Servius says it is used for enixa to avoid a hiatus; but we rather think, with La Cerda and Fea, that the poet selected it to express the pain and difficulty of the goat's labour.—reliquit. This would seem to intimate that the kids were born dead, or died soon after their birth; for kids and lambs can walk as soon as they are born, and Meliboeus would probably have carried them sooner than leave them to die of hunger.-16. laeva, stupid, as dexter is quick, expert. The idea is taken from the hands.-17. De caelo tactas sc. fulmine, struck with lightning. This is a common expression in Livy and other prose writers.-praedicere i. e. praedixisse. The inf. pres. for the inf. past.-quercus. The striking of the oak Pomponius tells us indicated exile. The verse Saepe, etc. which follows here in some editions is wanting in all the good MSS. It occurs in its proper place Ec. ix. 15, and was probably written in the margin of some ancient copy by way of illustration, and was thence taken into the text,-a common practice.18. da, i. e. dic, as accipe is i. q. audi. Cf. Aen. ii. 65. vi. 136, Sed da mihi nunc: satisne probas? Cic. Acad. i. 3, 10. Aeneas eripuisse datur. Ovid. Fast. vi. 434. etc. 20-26. The following roundabout narrative was probably intended for an imitation of the mode of narration of the peasantry.-21. huic nostrae, this town of ours. He nowhere mentions its name.-22. depellere fetus. The usual sense of this is to wean, and it is so understood by Servius, who is followed by Burmann and Fea; but La Cerda, Ruaeus, Heyne, and all the late editors render it to drive, in favour of which they quote In inferas partes depelli (succum), Plin. N. H. ii. 78, and Silicem quem montibus altis Depulerat torrens, Sil. ix. 396, neither of which appears to us to be to the purpose. They also refer to the relative situation of Virgil's farm on an eminence at Andes, and Mantua lying in the plain. But see the Observations on this eclogue. In favour of the first interpretation it may be observed, that young lambs and kids are never driven to market in any country. The Roman shepherds of the present day, Fea says, carry to market in panniers on horses their young lambs, which they call abacchi (i. e. abacti ?); and Columella tells us (vii. 3), that the shepherds who lived near towns sold their lambs when very young to the butchers, in order that they might have the entire profit of the milk, a valuable article in hot countries. Horace seems to speak (Ep. i. 15, 35) of lamb's flesh as a cheap and inferior kind of food, and at the present day the lamb to be bought in Rome and other Italian towns is miserably small. It is objected, that if this be the sense of depellere in this place, we must, with Burmann, change quo in v. 21 into quoi, the ancient dative. But there is no necessity for this; for the adverb quo, whither, is, it would seem, a dative (contr. of quoi) signifying to which; and the only difference is, that it would be for instead of to which. Perhaps the whole difficulty arises from Virgil, who was not a practical farmer, not being always strictly correct in his use of rural terms.-25. urbis. Here and in v. 20 we must render urbs, town, for Tityrus knew nothing of cities.-26. cupressi. There is a violation of poetic propriety here, for the cypress is not one of the indigenous trees of Italy, and so could hardly be familiar to shepherds. 27. tanta, so great, that could take you so long a journey. 28-36. Libertas, liberty, the desire of obtaining my freedom. Tityrus, like nearly all other farm-servants at that time |