Kennedy rightly says 'this verse should be constructed with the next and only a comma placed after Palaemon. This results from the fact that tantum (= dummodo) with its verb forms a protasis. See 2. 28 where the apodosis is imitabere, 3. 53 where the apodosis is fugio; while here the apodosis is efficiam. 'Be but our umpire-aye, even P. who is now approaching-I'll effectually prevent you from challenging anybody to sing in future.""

52. quin age, si quid habes] However, come on, if you have anything (worth hearing)': cf. Theocr. 5. 78 ela Néy', εἴ τι λέγεις.

53. quemquam] any one,' i.e. as umpire: he does not mind who the umpire is provided he gets his attention.

54. sensibus imis reponas] 'lay up in your inmost thoughts,' i. e. consider most carefully.

res, i.e. the contest. non parva, litotes = 'most important.' 59. alternis...alterna] alterna is the neuter plural of the adj. used as a substantive='alternate utterances' or 'songs,' cf. 7. 2 n. alternis is the ablative of alterna used adverbially= alternately, cf. Theocr. 8. 61 δι ̓ ἀμοιβαίων...ἄεισαν. Homer describes the Muses as singing in alternate songs, Il. 1. 604 Μουσάων θ' αἳ ἄειδον ἀμειβόμεναι ἐπὶ καλῇ.

D.

M.

60-84. D. Jove protects me. M. Apollo me. D. Galatea courts me. M. Amyntas me. D. I will send her some doves. M. I have sent him apples, and will send more to-morrow. Galatea says sweet words to me; may the gods hear them. Amyntas scorns me not, but keeps far away from me. D. Send Phyllis to me, Iollas. M. Phyllis loves me though I am absent, Iollas. D. All things have their bane, mine is the wrath of Amaryllis. M. All things have their delight, mine is Amyntas.

60. ab Iove...] Copied from the first lines of the Pawóμeva of Aratus, ἐκ Διὸς ἀρχώμεσθα...μεσταὶ δὲ Διὸς πᾶσαι μὲν ἀγυιαὶ | πᾶσαι δ ̓ ἀνθρώπων ἀγοραί κ.τ.λ., and Theocr. 17. 1 ἐκ Διὸς ἀρχώμεσθα καὶ ἐς Δία λήγετε, Μοῖσαι, this latter passage pointing to Musae being a voc. and not gen. sing. as some take it.

Iovis omnia plena: Aratus regards Zeús as a divine power pervading and animating all things.

61. colit terras] The word colit is used here partly= incolit pervades,' 'haunts,' as the passage of Aratus shows, partly-cherishes,' 'has a care for,' as the next words show, in which a special instance of this universal care is referred to. 62. sua] 'his special,' 'his fitting gifts.'

63. lauri ět] Examples of a similar hiatus where the

syllable is in arsis (i.e. with the accent on it) are not uncommon in Virgil, cf. line 6 pecori et; 7. 53 juniperī et; 10. 13 lauri, etiam; G. 1. 4 pecori, apibus; 3. 60 pati hymenaeos; 3. 155 pecori armentaque.

suave rubens: the cognate acc. of the neut. adj. is often used adverbially. As you might say dulcem risum ridere 'to smile a sweet smile,' so you can say briefly dulce ridere 'to smile sweetly,' or as here suave rubere 'to blush sweetly'; cf. line 18 multum latrante 'much barking,' G. 2. 400 aeternum frangenda; 3. 239 inmane sonat; 4. 270 grave olentia; Hor. Od. 3. 27. 67 perfidum ridere; Hom. Il. 2. 270 ǹdù yeλâv. So too in the plural G. 3. 149 acerba sonans; 226 multa gemens 'much lamenting'; 500 crebra ferit terram 'oft paws the ground'; 4. 122 sera comantem 'late-blooming.'

hyacinthus: Virgil often allows Greek words of four syllables at the end of a line, as hymenaeus, cyparissus, elephanto. The bay was sacred to Phoebus, and for the hyacinth cf. G. 4. 183 n.

64. petit] pelts.' Apples were sacred to Venus and pelting any one with apples was a recognised method of commencing a flirtation.

65. ante] With videri; she means to be seen before she reaches the willows.

66. ultro] 'unasked'; cf. 8. 53 n. meus ignis: 'my love.' 67. Delia] The name of some acquaintance, who is such an old friend that the dogs have ceased to bark at her. To understand it of Diana (as 7. 29) and say that she accompanied the shepherd hunting is absurd.

69. ipse] The pronoun emphasises the fact that he has taken personal trouble. So too aëriae does not merely mark that the birds fly high but that they build high up in trees, so that their nest or young ones could only be taken with difficulty. quo congessere: 'to which they have carried (materials for building)'; we should say 'where they have built.'

70. quod potui] lit. 'that which I have been able.' Render 'And I-'twas what I could-have sent....' He affects to speak slightingly of his gift.

71. aurea...] Theocr. 3. 10 ἠνίδε τοι δέκα μᾶλα φέρω...καὶ αὔριον ἄλλα τοι οἰσῶ.

altera, 'a second (ten)': he might have written altera decem (cf. Catull. 5. 8 mille altera) or totidem altera (Hor. Ep. 1. 6. 34).

73. partem...] 'some part of them, ye winds, waft duly to the ears of the gods.' He prays that the gods may hear some

of her vows of affection and so compel her to keep her word; cf. 8. 19 where Nisus complains that he has relied in vain on the witness of the gods.'

Many take this line as meaning that Galatea's words are so sweet that Damoetas prays that the gods may have the privilege of hearing them, but the parallelism with line 75, which seems to be a complaint, makes it probable that this line is a complaint also. referatis: see line 21 n.

74. quid prodest...] 'what avails it that you do not despise me?' quod...spernis is nom. to prodest and quid the cognate

acc. after it.

75. retia] The nets into which the hunters were driving the game.

77. cum faciam...] 'when I sacrifice a heifer for (i.e. on behalf of) the crops, then come yourself.' At the Ambarvalia the victim (ambarvalis hostia) was led three times round the fields (cf. G. 1. 345) and then sacrificed to procure the blessing of heaven on the harvest. The sarcasm consists in the fact that love-making and courtship were prohibited at the festival.

=

faciam is used technically, like péjew, 'perform (a sacrifice),''sacrifice,' the full phrase being sacra facere or res divinas facere; vitula is abl. of the instrument, 'with a heifer.' For this use of facio cf. Cic. Att. 1. 13. 3 quum pro populo fieret, and operatus G. 1. 339.

79. et longum...] The simplest explanation of this disputed passage is perhaps as follows. Both shepherds are gibing at Iollas, who is their rival for the affection of Phyllis. Damoetas accordingly issues an invitation to the lady for his birthday feast, but Menalcas caps this by saying that on his account she has left Iollas for good. Menalcas had pretended that he was going (discedere), whereupon Phyllis burst into tears and went off with him, crying out sarcastically 'Goodbye, goodbye, my beautiful Iollas.' In this case longum probably goes with inquit = 'aloud,' 'so as to be heard from a distance'; cf. Hor. A. P. 459 'succurrite' longum clamet; Hom. II. 3. 81 μaкpòv åvσev, or perhaps agrees with vale='a long farewell,' i.e. may it be long before I see you again.

Others, as Conington, make Menalcas retort in the person of Iollas, and say that Phyllis wept, etc., when he left her. But (1) if he was in love with her, he would not have left her, and (2) Menalcas elsewhere speaks in his own person.

A third explanation is to separate formose from Iolla, printing 'formose, vale, vale,' inquit, Iolla-and uttered a lingering "Farewell, fair youth, farewell," O Iollas.' Menalcas to cap

what Damoetas had said imitates him in addressing Iollas, but, instead of asking Iollas to let Phyllis come to him, he boasts that she already loves him and wept when she had to say goodbye to him and stay with Iollas. The objection to this is the extreme harshness of separating formose from Iolla: the defence is that Tolla is parallel to Iolla in 76 and is uttered contemptuously, as Benoist explains-'elle m'a dit "adieu, adieu, beau berger." Entends-tu cela, Iollas?'

80. triste] Neut. adj. used as subst. ='a bane': the word as its position shows goes with all the four clauses which follow a bane is the wolf to the fold, rain to the ....' So too dulce in line 82' a delight.'

82. depulsis] 'weaned': the full phrase is depellere a lacte (7. 15) or ab ubere.

83. salix] For goats browsing on willow cf. 1. 78.

84-91. D. Ye Muses, feed a heifer for Pollio, who loves my poetry. M. Feed a bull for Pollio, who is himself a poet. D. May he who admires thee, Pollio, abound in blessings. M. May he who scorns not Bavius admire Maevius and labour at vain tasks.

84. Pollio] See Ecl. 4 Introduction. Virgil always elides the final syllable of Pollio (cf. 4. 12) rather than shorten the final o, as Horace ventures to do, Od. 2. 1. 14 consulenti Pollio curiae. The introduction by the poet of personal allusions into what is otherwise a purely imaginative piece seems scarcely artistic.

85. lectori vestro] The 'reader' is Pollio, who reads what Virgil writes; Menalcas 'caps' this by saying Pollio' himself too writes. vitulam: the calf is clearly to be sacrificed on Pollio's behalf with prayer for his welfare.

86. nova carmina] See Ecl. 4 Introd. Why Virgil calls Pollio's poems 'new' or 'novel' does not appear.

87. qui iam cornu petat] The subj. because qui= ut is : they are to feed the bull well so that though young it may 'already begin to butt,' which was a sign of vigour.

88. veniat...]=veniat quo te quoque venisse gaudet, 'may he attain the fame which he rejoices that you too have attained.' 89. mella fluant illi] Cf. the well-known phrase 'a land flowing with milk and honey.'

90. qui Bavium ..] Menalcas 'caps' the blessing of Damoetas with a curse. The humour of the first clause of the curse is admirable: to read Maevius is the worst fate Virgil can imagine. Cf. Macaulay (Burleigh and his Times sub in.) there

He chose the
He

was, it is said, a criminal in Italy, who was suffered to make his choice between Guicciardini and the galleys. history. But the war of Pisa was too much for him. changed his mind and went to the oar.'

Bavius and Maevius were two poets of whom we only know that they have been condemned to immortality by Virgil and Horace, to the latter of whom Maevius seems to have been peculiarly objectionable (Hor. Epod. 10. 1 olentem Maevium).

91. iungat...] To 'harness foxes' and 'milk he-goats' are proverbial expressions for attempting useless tasks. Cf. Lucian Demonax 28 τράγον ἀμέλγειν.

92-103. D. Fly, boys, there is a snake near! M. Stop, sheep, the bank is unsafe. D. Tityrus, drive the goats from the river; I will wash them at the fountain. M. Lads, fold the sheep, lest the sun dry up their milk. D. My bull, like his master, is wasting away with love. M. My sheep are all bones through the power of an evil eye.

93. frigidus...] The strange order of the words is intended to represent the speaker's confusion and alarm. anguis cf. Theocr. 15. 58 ψυχρὸν ὄφιν.

For frigidus

94. non bene...] ''tis unsafe to trust the bank': creditur is used impersonally: intransitive verbs are often thus used in the passive.

95. ipse aries...] He proves his statement by pointing to what had happened to the ram. ipse is added because, if there was danger for 'the ram himself,' there would be much more danger for the rest of the sheep, which if they fell in, being less vigorous, would be drowned.

96. reice] dissyllabic by syncope.

97. in fonte] Emphatic in opposition to flumine if they wanted a bath they had better wait until they could have one in safety at a fountain' under the superintendence of the master (ipse). The rivers of Italy rise quickly and are very rapid, so that the banks are often unsafe (Hor. Sat. 1. 58 cum ripa simul avulsos ferat Aufidus acer) and the danger to flocks through drowning consequently great.

For erit omnes see 1. 38 n.

98. cogite] 'drive together,' i. e. to the fold or into the shade, instead of letting them wander in the open. Flocks were regularly driven into the shade during the heat of the day; Georg. 3. 327-334.

praeceperit, shall have first caught,' i.e. dried it up before we take steps to prevent it.