Tityre, tu patula, &c.] After the battle of Philippi, wherein Brutus and Cassius were overthrown by Augustus Cæsar and Mark Anthony, in the year of Rome 712, Augustus returned to Italy, in order to reward the soldiers, by dividing among them the lands belonging to several cities. But these not being sufficient to satisfy the avarice of the soldiers, they frequently transgressed the bounds assigned them, and seized on the lands belonging to the neighbouring cities. These injuries caused the inhabitants, both old and young, to flock in great numbers to Rome, to seek for redress. We may gather, from a passage in the ninth eclogue, that Cremona was one the cities given to the soldiers, and that Mantua, happening to be situated near Cremona, the inhabitants of that territory were involved in the calamity of their unhappy neighbours. It is said

that, among the rest, Virgil, being dispossessed of his estate, went to Rome, where being presented to Augustus, he was graciously received, and restored to his possessions. It is reasonable to think, that some of his neighbours, if not all, obtained the same favour though the commentators seem almost unanimous in representing Virgil as the only Mantuan that met with such good fortune. This is the subject of the first eclogue. The poet introduces two shepherds under the feigned names of Melibœus and Tityrus; of whom the former represents the unhappy Mantuans, and the latter those who were restored to their estates: or perhaps Tityrus may be intended to represent Mantua, and Melibus Cremona. Melibœus begins the dialogue with setting forth the miseries of himself and his neighbours.

Tityre.] La Cerda produces

three reasons, why the name of Tityrus might be applied to an Italian shepherd: 1. Because the poet imitated Theocritus, who gave that name to a shepherd in the third Idyllium. 2. Because a pipe made of reeds was called Tityrinus in Italy. 3. A shepherd might be properly so called, as the word signifies dancing,—an exercise much in use among shepherds. To these he adds a fourth reason; that Tityrus signifies a goat in the African language, whence the name has been ascribed to those who feed them. He concludes with observing, that Servius only says that the greater hegoats are called by the name of Tityrus among the Laconians. I believe the first reason is the true one; and that Virgil had no farther meaning than to borrow the name of a shepherd from Theocritus.

I have already said, that the commentators generally agree, that the poet intended to describe himself under the feigned name of Tityrus. But to this opinion I think some material objections may be opposed. The poet represents his Tityrus as an old man. In ver. 29, he mentions his beard being grey. In ver. 47, Melibus expressly calls Tityrus an old man, fortunate senex, which words are repeated in ver. 52. Now Virgil could not call himself an old man, being under thirty when

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he wrote this eclogue, in which he calls Augustus juvenis, who was but seven years younger than himself: and at the end of the Georgicks he tells us expressly that he wrote it in his youth.

Fagi.] La Cerda contends, that the fagus is not a beech, but a sort of oak or esculus; and quotes several authorities to support his opinion. This mistake has arisen from an imagination that the fagus is the same with the onyos of the Greek writers, which is, indeed, a sort of oak. But the description which Pliny gives of the fagus, can agree with no other tree than that which we call a beech. "Fagi glans nuclei similis, triangula cute includitur. Folium tenue, ac levissimum, populo simile."

Meditaris avena.] This verb, in its application to a musical instrument, means to practise, to play the same tune, or part of the same tune, over and over. "The musical instruments used by shepherds were at first made of oat and wheat-straw; then of reeds, and hollow pipes of box; afterwards of the leg bones of cranes, horns of ani mals, metals, &c. Hence they are called avena, stipula, calamus, arundo, fistula, buxus, tibia, cornu, as, &c." Ruaus.

Amaryllida.] Those who understand this eclogue in an allegorical sense, will have Amaryllis,