facilities for this mode of interpretation, was the one to whom it was chiefly applied; and to what an extent it was carried, we have shown in our View of Bucolic Poetry. It is needless therefore to expatiate on it here; and Servius, in effect, elsewhere (on iii. 20) seems to give us the opinions of the more judicious critics, when he says, “Melius simpliciter accipimus. Refutandae enim sunt allegoriae in bucolico carmine; nisi cum, ut supra diximus, ex aliqua agrorum perditorum necessitate descendunt;" of course meaning the first and ninth eclogues. Characters. According to the hypothesis which we follow, Mopsus, Menalcas, and the other characters are Sicilian shepherds. Servius tells us, that Menalcas is Virgil himself, Mopsus his friend, Aemilius Macer a Veronese poet, and Stimicon Maecenas. Catrou says that Mopsus was Alexander (the Alexis of the second eclogue), and Amyntas Cebes another supposed slave and pupil of our poet. Scenery. The scene, as in the first eclogue, is in an ideal region of mountains (v. 8), valleys and streams (v. 84), in which there are caverns (v. 6) and beech-trees (v. 13), elms (v. 3), and other trees and plants (v. 7), and which is near the sea (v. 83). It accords perfectly well with Sicily, as described in Theocritus, and hardly at all with the plain of Lombardy. ECLOGUE VI.-SILENUS. ARGUMENT. THE god Silenus had often tantalised two satyrs, or shepherds, with a promise of a song. At length one day they seized and bound him while he was sleeping under the influence of wine. Being unable to escape, he commenced, and sung the origin of the world and some of the most remarkable events of the mythic ages of Greece. NOTES. 1-12. Prima, etc. My Muse first deigned, or thought fit, to sing in pastoral verse, and blushed not to dwell in the woods.' By prima most interpreters understand the poet to mean that he was the first Latin bucolic poet. But it is perhaps better to suppose, with Heyne and Wagner, his meaning to be, that it was in pastoral poetry his muse made her first essay. This corresponds better with the modesty of this introduction. -Syracosio, Theocritean or bucolic. Instead of the Latin Syracusio, the poet (probably on account of the metre) employs the Greek Zvparooių.—dignata est. This does not perhaps mean condescended, for the poet is speaking in a humble tone, but rather she thought fit, thought suited to her powers. -ludere, see on i. 10.-2. Thalia may be merely equivalent with Musa; but, owing to her name (from 0áλλw, vireo,) this Muse was held to preside over the growth of plants. See Plut. Symp. ix. 14. Sch. Apol. Rh. iii. 1.—3. Cum canerem, etc. It would seem from this that Virgil had commenced, or at least meditated, something in the epic strain on the exploits of Varus. See Ec. ix. 26. But perhaps it is only a part of his fiction in this place.-reges. If the civil wars in which Varus had been engaged had been his proposed theme, the reges were probably the rival chiefs. Perhaps reges et proelia is merely a hendyadis, the wars of kings, the usual theme of epic poetry. It is said that Virgil had commenced a poem on the deeds of the kings of Alba, but gave it up, deterred by the harshness of their names. Their names however are not harsh, and the whole fiction is no doubt indebted to this verse for its origin.Cynthius, a name of Apollo, from Mount Cynthos in Delos.— aurem vellit. The ear was regarded as the seat of knowledge, because knowledge among the ancients was chiefly attained by means of it: the ear was pulled to awaken the attention. See Hor. S. i. 9,77; Plin. xi. 103.-4. Tityre, a general name for a shepherd: it has nothing to do with the Tityrus of the first eclogue.-pinguis, "ut pinguiscant," SERVIUS, to feed them fat.-5. Pascere, etc., the only business of a shepherd should be to feed his flocks and to make slight rustic songs.'-de ductum carmen, a drawn-out (i. e. thin, slight) song, as opposed to the firm solid epic. The metaphor is taken from spinning, where the thin thread was drawn down from the wool on the distaff. Horace (Ep. ii. 1, 225) says tenui deducta poemata filo, of poems which had been composed with great care and skill, as the thinner the thread the greater the skill of the spinster. Quintilian (viii. 2, 9) says, that Virgil was the first to hazard the expression deductum carmen. Macrobius (vi. 4) shows that deducta voce had been used by the poets Afranius and Cornificius.-6. super tibi erunt, i. e. supererunt tibi; a tmesis.-7. Vare. See the Observations.-tristia bella, i.e. the civil wars.-8. Agrestem, etc. See i. 2.-9. Non injussa, because Apollo had desired him, v.5.—Si quis, etc. 'If any who love rural poetry, or who like verses of which you are the subject, will read these rustic strains as well as those epic lays (v. 6) in your honour, then also the woods and plains will resound your praises.'-11. nec Phoebo, etc. 'Nor is there any poem in which Phoebus more delights than one which bears on its title the name of Varus.'--12. pagina is the page of a book: it is here for charta. Perhaps, though the poet is speaking in his own person, there is a slight departure from bucolic simplicity.— Vari praescripsit nomen. It would seem from this that the true title of the eclogue was Varus, and not Silenus. 13-17. Pergite, Pierides. He now begins the narrative. The Muses were called Pierides from Pieria, where they were born or first worshiped. See iii. 85.-Chromis et Mnasylos, two young satyrs, say the critics, following Servius. Yet it may be doubted if the pueri of the next line would be used of deities, even though of a low order. See Observations. -14. jacentem somno, exactly answering to our, lying asleep, i. e. in sleep.-15. Inflatum venas, the Greek accusative.-ut semper, for he was always, according to the poets, wholly or half-drunk.-16. Serta procul, etc. His garland, which had just fallen from his head, was lying at a (little) distance. There should be a comma after procul. Tantum is here equivalent to modo, and was so understood by Servius. Valerius Flaccus says (viii. 289), Quaeque die fuerat raptim formata sub uno, Et tantum dejecta suis a montibus arbor. —17. Et gravis, etc. The cantharus, probably so named from its resemblance in form to the body of a beetle, was a large drinking-vessel with handles. The poet perhaps conceived Silenus to have fallen asleep while sitting drinking, otherwise it is not easy to see why he would say that the cantharus was hanging by its well-worn handle. He represents the god as still holding it, though drunk. 18-22. Having him thus at their mercy, they lay hold on him and bind him while asleep. The binding, as it was effected with his own garland of flowers, must have been slight indeed; perhaps the poet, as the tone is sportive here, meant that it should be so understood. The idea of binding the god in order to make him speak was doubtless taken from the adventure of Meneläus with Proteus in the Odyssey. There was however a story (said by Servius to have been related by the historian Theopompus) of Silenus having been taken when drunk and bound by some Phrygian shepherds, who led him to king Midas, to whose questions respecting the origin of things and the events of former days he gave responses. The poet may have had this tale in his mind. We may observe that Ovid, when relating the capture of Silenus (Met. xi. 90), describes him as vinctum coronis, having no doubt this place of Virgil in view.-20. timidis supervenit Aegle. While they were hesitating from fear, the nymph Aegle, who we may suppose suggested the stratagem, comes to their aid and encourages them. Aegle answers to the Eidothea of the Odyssey, and to the Cyrene of Geor. iv. 315, etc.-timidis, i. q. timentibus, see on ii. 10.-21. jam videnti, as he was wakening.-22. Sanguineis, etc. Out of sport she presses blackberries on his forehead, and stains it red with their juice. The ancients, we may recollect, used to paint their rural deities of a red hue: Ec. x. 25. 23-30. Laughing at their plot, he says, 'What are you binding me for, my lads? let me go; it is quite enough that you seem to be able to bind me.' It is thus that the modern commentators, after Servius, understand the latter part of this passage. Servius however also explains it thus: "sufficit enim quia potui a vobis, qui estis homines, videri ;" for he adds, "the semigods could only be seen when they pleased." If this be the true interpretation, it tends to show that the two youths were men, which is confirmed by the timidis of v. 20, and the analogy that, in all the cases related of seizing gods, the agents were men, as Menelaus, Peleus, Aristaeus, Numa.26. Huic aliud, etc., I'll pay her in another way.'-27. Tum vero in numerum, etc. The power of his song affects all nature. The rural gods and the wild animals dance in rythmic measure (in numerum), and the trees wave their heads in cadence. Mount Parnassus and the beasts of its woods did not rejoice so much in the music of Phoebus Apollo, nor the Thracian mountains Ismarus and Rhodope in that of Orpheus. For the effect of music on nature, under another sky and another system of manners and religion, see the Swedish ballads of Sir Thynne and Little Kersten in the Fairy Mythology. 31-40. Virgil was probably a follower of the Epicurean philosophy, then so much in vogue at Rome, and which had not long before been clothed in verse, of no common merit, by Lucretius. He naturally therefore put that system into the mouth of Silenus, when about to make him sing the creation. According to Epicurus, the universe consisted of an immense space, in which were in incessant motion countless solid particles, which, from their minuteness and solidity, being incapable of section, he termed atoms (aroμo). By their continual motion numbers of these atoms were brought into conjunction and formed various masses, but it was only when similar atoms happened to come together that anything permanent was produced. Hence, according to this philosopher, gradually arose the world. The system was ingenious, and to a certain extent true, but it had the great and incurable defect of excluding a V. 31. "Heidev d'is yaîa kaì ovpavòs ýdè Oáλaooa* Τὸ πρὶν ἐπ ̓ ἀλλήλοισι μιῇ συναρηρότα μορφῇ, |