Page images
PDF
EPUB

(Preller, Röm. Myth. 571): as Horace says (Od. iv. 5), laribus tuum miscet numen. Ovid (Fast. ii. 636) describes the ceremony: Parca precaturi sumite vina manu,

Et Bene vos, bene te, patriæ pater, optime Cæsar
Dicite, suffuso per bona verba mero.

-fumant, i. e. the service is already an established custom: this dialogue being supposed to be held in the autumn (see line 82). — altaria, high altars, see note, verse 7.

45. responsum dedit, the phrase used properly of an oracular response, keeping up the thought of Cæsar as a divinity. — primus, i. e. this was the first assurance of security and favor, anxiously sought.

46. pascite, etc.: here Virgil drops the allegory: he went to Rome to beg his freedom; and the answer he is supposed to get is to keep his farm, — feed your cows and breed your bullocks as before. -submittite, properly, to raise for the purpose of breeding, apparently a technical word of graziers and cattle-breeders (see Georg. iii. 73, 159, and Lexicon).

47. tua rura manebunt, the fields will continue yours. Tityrus is here no longer the poor slave herdsman, but the yeoman landowner, representing the poet himself.

48. lapis omnia, etc., however the bare stone and marsh with muddy bulrush may cover all the grazing-ground. This description of a country alternately marshy and gravelly will be recognized by any one who has travelled in the territory of Mantua. Virgil disparages his own lot, to show his contentment, while he puts the disparagement, along with praise of his good fortune, into his neighbor's mouth, as if there were a touch of jealousy in it. By some, the passage from quamvis is less naturally connected with non insueta, etc., below, and some have referred it to the neighboring farms.

[ocr errors]

50. non insueta, etc., no strange pasturage will distress your sickly flock.gravis fetas, the weakling cattle, which have lately dropped their young (compare line 15).

51. mala, baneful. —contagia: plural, meaning many cases of the disease.

52. flumina nota, familiar streams: i. e. the course of the "smooth-sliding Mincius," which flows by Mantua.

53. fontis sacros, sacred founts, "from the pretty superstition which assigned a divinity to every source and spring."-frigus opacum, cool shade (see note, v. 4).

54. hinc tibi, etc., on this side, as ever, the hedge on the neighboring roadway, whose willow-flower is fed on by Hyblaan bees, shall often, with its soft whispering, win you sleep. In this perplexed sentence, quæ semper means as it always has done; florem is acc. of specification (§ 52, 3, c; G. 332) by a common Greek construction, after depasta, fed upon; salicti is the contracted form of saliceti, willow-grove; susurro, the whispering of leaves mingled with the hum of bees; limite, strictly, the line run by public surveyors (agri mensores), dividing off the land for purposes of cultivation (see Georg. i. 126. The term was also extended to the lands of municipia, and other public boundaries, where the strict formalities of the Roman system were not followed. It always means a public boundary, while finis is used of private estates. The limes was not a line, but an open tract 8, 12, 20, or 40 feet wide, serving as a roadway. The sæpes here described was therefore, strictly, a roadside hedge). — Hyblæis, Hybla, is the name of a hill in Sicily, celebrated for its honey.

56. suadebit, shall invite (root SVAD as in suavis).

57. hinc alta sub rupe, on the other side beneath the high rock (opposed to line 54).—frondator, leaf-pruner. The foliage of the vine requires excessive pruning in the latter part of summer. The cooing of the wood-pigeon (see Georg. ii. 365) is a sign that autumn is coming on. -—ad auras, upon the breeze.

58. nec tamen, and yet not (though the pruner sings). — cura, pets.

[ocr errors]

59. aeria ab ulmo, on the lofty elm (see Hor. Od. i. 2, 10). 60. ante quam, sooner shall, &c., than (a common expression for never). ergo, so then: resumptive, referring back to 41-46.—lěves, light-footed (notice the short penult: lēves would be sleek).æquore, the level, commonly used, in poetry, for

the sea.

61. destituent nudos =

leave (to dwell) exposed.

62. pererratis, having wandered over.

63. The Arar (Saone) is a river of Gaul, the Tigris of Asia: the contrast is of farthest East and West, respectively.

65. at nos, etc.: the mention of his good fortune had excited the gratitude of Tityrus to his benefactor (illius); but, unheeding this expression, Melibus contrasts the exile of the others: but we must wander to the most distant corners of the earth.alii . . . pars, correlative. — sitientis, thirsty : the drought is vividly referred to the people. Afros: acc. of end of motion, preserving an earlier

[ocr errors]

usage. [In the primitive languages the cases express place of themselves, the prepositions being only adverbs.]

66. Cretæ, sometimes understood as a common noun following rapidus, which bears down chalk, i. e. turbid, referring to the Oxus, a Scythian river. But there is a town in Ċrete, Axus or Oaxus (0 here representing the digamma found on coins), whose stream is probably meant, - Crete being quite far enough eastward for the rustic fancy. It was, besides, a Roman province; and exiles from Capua were settled there by Augustus.

67. orbe (abl. of means), by a world.

68-70. en, Ah! giving emphasis and pathos to the question (compare ecquis, x. 28). —patrios finīs mirabor aristas, shall I gaze long hereafter, upon my native bounds, and the sodded (congestum cæspite) roof of my poor hut, beholding again (post) my little realm, a few scant wheat-ears? That is, a kingdom to me, though so little. Another interpretation, perhaps better, makes aristas equivalent to messes, and governed by post, meaning after several harvests. Either way, the construction is very strained and harsh. tuguri (root TEG in tego), rustic hut.

71. miles: here again is a bitter reference to Virgil's own experience of these legalized robbers. — novalia, fallows : i. e. land which I have broken in by my own toil (land alternately sown and fallow, from novus).

72. barbarus: the armies of Cæsar had come to be made up chiefly or largely of barbarian foreigners, Gauls, Germans, and Spaniards. It is for them then that I have sown my fields! (his nos, etc.). To such a pass has civil strife brought our wretched state!

74. nunc: this word (as often in English) gives a bitterly sarcastic force to the imperative, graft your pears now (if you can).

76. non posthac, never more. — viridi . . . antro, in the bushgrown grot. (Observe the vivid image in the words pendere de rupe.)

78. me pascente under my tending.

79. cytisum, a flowering shrub, excellent for its milk-giving properties: a kind of lucerne, or coarse clover.

80. tamen poteras, you might at least, i. e. if you wished (§ 60, 2, c; G. 246, R2).

82. castaneæ, a large and mellow sort, still much used as food in Italy and Spain.

83. villarum, farm-houses (villa rustica): the country-seat of a

rich city resident was villa urbana. — culmina fumant: in lack of chimneys, the smoke of the hearth or brazier (focus) escaped through the well-ventilated roof. These smoking roofs announce that supper-time has come.

ECLOGUE II.

THE third Idyl of Theocritus, from which the general style and sentiment of this eclogue are imitated, is the complaint of a shepherd to his love Amaryllis; the eleventh is addressed by the monster Polyphemus to the sea-nymph Galatea, and seems to be the model for

Corydon's defence of his personal appearance. But the giant's

single eyebrow reaching from ear to ear (v. 32), his one precious eye (v. 58), and his wish he were born with gills, so as to carry flowers to the nymph under water (v. 60), make his plea a piece of grotesque humor in the original; while there is nothing in the Greek which at all equals the extreme beauty and sweetness of the natural imagery in this rather lackadaisical poem.

=

I. formosum: notice the position before the Cæsura, corresponding with that of Alexim at the close of the line. This is a very common arrangement in Latin verse. -— ardebat, burned with love amabat, and so governing the accusative by a forced construction, apparently first introduced by Virgil. — Alexim: the form of the acc. in m is always used by Virgil, except when n is required by the metre.

[ocr errors]

2. delicias, darling (only in plur.).—nec habebat, nor knew: cf. dare, tell (i. 40), and accipe, hear. quid speraret, what to hope for: in direct disc. quid sperem, what can I hope? (§ 57, 6; G. 251, 258).

3. tantum, only (i. e. all that he could do). cacumina, in appos. with fagos: showing what he came for, shelter from heat. 4. veniebat, would come.—incondita, rude (ill put together). There are in do both verb-roots DA and DHA, give and put; here, put.

[ocr errors]

5. jactabat, flung out. inani studio, idle (or unrequited) fondness.

[ocr errors]

7. mori. coges: in Theocritus, "you will make me go hang myself."

8, 9. nunc etiam, etc.: these images, especially the hiding of the lizards in the thornbush, suggest the extreme heat of noontide. 10. rapido æstu, the reapers, weary with the consuming heat:

rapido (root in rapio), from the association of heat with devouring flame.—æstu, originally, the ebullition of boiling water; hence used of ocean tides, and of extreme heat.

II. allia, etc.: a sort of salad (moretum) flavored with garlic, a favorite dish in Southern Europe, where flesh is scarce. "It was composed of flour, cheese, salt, oil, and various herbs (herbas olentis) brayed together in a mortar."

12, 13. at ... cicadis: the lover and the katydid (cicada) are the only creatures that find no rest.— arbusta, see i. 40. In prose; the subject would be cicada; hence mecum.

=

14. fuit: fuisset (§ 60, 2, c; G. 246, R). — tristīs (acc. plur.), ill-tempered. — iras, cf. iii. 81. Amaryllis and Menalcas are old flames of Corydon.

16. niger, swarthy, or dark-skinned: notice that the succeeding lines are in apology for this style of beauty, contrasted with candidus, fair, or brilliantly white.

18. ligustra, privet; vaccinia, uncertain; perhaps (from a Greek diminutive), hyacinth: the blossom of pure white falls neglected, while the darker flower (or berry) is prized and gathered. (Vaccinia is sometimes understood as a shrub similar to whortleberry.) 19. despectus, looked down on. — qui sim, what sort of person 1 am : qui being here used as adjective, and not (as sometimes) for mere euphony.

20. quam dives, etc.: this description of rustic wealth is from the plea of Polyphemus, in Theocritus: pecoris referring to sheep, and lactis to cows (for the genitive see § 50, 3, b; G. 373, 4).

21. meæ agnæ, ewe lambs of mine. — Siculis, loosely used because many wealthy Romans had estates in Sicily; and hence, perhaps, taken as part of the stock imagery from Theocritus.

22. æstate, frigore, the times when fresh milk is most apt to fail. The lac novum is a curious recommendation of his love; but it accords with the conventional simplicity of pastoral verse.

23. quæ solitus Amphion, etc.: what Amphion used to do. He was the mythic builder of Thebes, whose walls rose to the music of his lyre. He with his brother Zethus-sons of Zeus and Antiope were exposed on the mountain ridge Aracynthus, which separates Boeotia from Attica (Acte). Dirce is a fountain near Thebes. The verse is copied verbally from the Greek: hence the hiatus after Actæo. These epithets and allusions are pure affected imitations of authors in whom they meant something.

25. non sum adeo informis: see preliminary note.

« PreviousContinue »