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Induet in florem, et ramos curvabit olentes:
Si superant fœtus, pariter frumenta sequentur,
Magnaque cum magno veniet tritura calore.
At si luxuriâ foliorum exuberat umbra,
Nequicquam pingues paleâ teret area culmos.
Semina vidi equidem multos medicare serentes,
Et nitro priùs et nigrâ perfundere amurcâ,
Grandior ut fœtus siliquis fallacibus esset.
Et quamvis igni exiguo properata maderent,
Vidi lecta diu, et multo spectata labore,
Degenerare tamen; ni vis humana quotannis
Maxima quæque manu legeret: sic omnia fatis
In pejus ruere, ac retrò sublapsa referri.
Non aliter quàm qui adverso vix flumine lembum
Remigis subigit: si brachia fortè remisit,
Atque illum in præceps prono rapit alveus amni
Præterea tam sunt Arcturi sidera nobis,
Hodorumque dies servandi, et lucidus anguis;
Quàm quibus in patriam ventosa per æquora vectis
Pontus et ostriferi fauces tentantur Abydi.
Libra die somnique pares ubi fecerit horas,

NOTES.

189. Fatus: in the sense of flores. 190. Magno calore. Calor here seems to mean the sweat and heat of the laborer or thresher, rather than the heat of the summer.

191. At si umbra: but if the boughs abound in a luxuriancy of leaves, in vain, &c. The meaning seems to be this: that if the blossoms upon the tree shall exceed the leaves, then you may expect a plentiful But if, on the contrary, the leaves be the most numerous, you may expect a scanty crop-a crop rich only in husks and

crop.

chaff. Umbra: in the sense of rami.

193. Serentes: part. of the verb, sero, taken as a substantive: Sowers. The poet here gives the husbandınan to understand that the greatest care is to be taken in selecting his seeds; that it is sometimes useful to impregnate them with other qualities to prevent them from degenerating; and sometimes to soak and steep them over a slow fire, in order to hasten their sprouting and coming forward. And although care be taken in the selection, they will be found nevertheless to degenerate: and all that reinains for him to do, is, to select every year with his own hand the fairest and best seeds; and in this way only he may keep his crops from degenerating to any great extent. This advice is worthy the attention of every farmer.

194. Perfundere: this may either mean to sprinkle them (semina) over with, or put them into. Ruæus says, spargere.

195. Fallacious. The pods or ears are called fallacious, because they are sometimes large, when there is very little in them. Fatus: the grain or produce.

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In the

198. Humana vis: human care. sense of homines. Unless men should select with the hand, &c. Ruæus says, hominum industria.

201. Adverso flumine: against the current.

203. Atque. Ruæus, on the authority of Gellius, takes atque in the sense of statim. Davidson and Heyne take it in its usual signification as a conjunction, supposing an ellipsis of the words: ille ruit ac sublapsus refertur retrò. And carries him headlong down the stream. Alveus: properly the channel or bed of a river; here, the river in general: the current, or impetus of the water; by meton.

205. Hadi. Two stars in the shoulder of

Auriga, a constellation in the heavens.
Lucidus Anguis: a constellation called Dra-

Co.

The poet here intimates that it is the the various signs of the weather; and that duty of the farmer to observe the stars, and he will find it as useful to him in the course of his business, as it is to the mariner.

207. Fauces Abydi. The Hellespont or straits, which separate Europe from Asia: called ostriferi, because abounding in Oyaters. Abydus: a city on the Asiatic shore, over against Sestus. Tentantur: in the sense of navigantur.

208. Die for Diei. The gen, of the fifth declension was sometimes thus written. Somni, is elegantly put for noctis. Ubi Libra fecerit. Libra is one of the signs of the zodiac, which the sun enters the 23d of September; at which time he is on the equator, and makes the days and nights equal.

Et medium luci atque umbris jam dividit orbem
Exercete, viri, tauros, serite hordea campis,
Usque sub extremum brumæ intractabilis imbrem
Necnon et lini segetem et Cereale papaver

210

213. Tempus est tegere Tempus humo tegere, et jamdudum incumbere rastris, et segetem lini et Ce- Dum siccâ tellure licet, dum nubila pendent. reale papaver humo Vere fabis satio: tum te quoque, Medica, putres facere id, tellure siccâ, Accipiunt sulci; et milio venit annua cura: Candidus auratis aperit cùm cornibus annum

214. Dum licet tibi

et dum

vere: tum

215

215. Satio fabis est in Taurus, et averso cedens canis occidit astro./
At si triticeam in messem robustaque farra
Exercebis humum, solisque instabis aristis:
Antè tibi Eoæ Atlantides abscondantur,
Gnossiaque ardentis decedat stella coronæ ;
Debita quàm sulcis committas semina, quàmque
Invita properes anni spem credere terræ.

220

225. Multi cœpere se- Multi ante occasum Maiæ cœpêre: sed illos Expectata seges vanis elusit aristis.

rere ante

Si verò viciamque seres, vilemque faselum,

NOTES.

211. Bruma: properly the shortest day of winter, or the winter solstice: this is its meaning here. By synec. it is sometimes put for the whole winter. The meaning is, that the farmer may extend his sowing as late as the winter solstice, which is about the 21st of December. Intractabilis: in the sense of duræ, vel aspera.

212. Cereale: an adj. from Ceres. The poppy was so called, most probably, because it was consecrated to her. Her statues were generally adorned with it. Necnon: in the sense of quoque.

213. Incumbere rastris: to ply the harrows. The poet is speaking of sowing, or committing to the earth the several crops: which could not be done til after the ploughing. Besides it requires dry weather to use the harrow: to which reference is made in the following line. But the plough may be used in wet weather. Heyne reads aratris. But he informs us that Heinsius, Pierius, and others read rastris, which the sense seems to require.

214. Pendent: in the sense of suspensa

sunt.

215. Medica. A species of grass, or plant, brought into Greece by the Medes in the time of the Persian wars. Hence called medica, now lucerne. It made the best provender for cattle, and when sown, it is said to last in the ground thirty years.

216. Milio. The milium was a species of grass, or plant, which required to be sown every year. Hence annua cura. Now called millet.

218. Cum candidus Taurus. Taurus is a sign of the ecliptic. The sun enters it about the 21st of April. The year was coinmonly thought to be opened by Aries, or the

225

month of March: but Virgil dissents from the received opinion, and assigns it to Taurus, or the month of April; because, as the etymology of the word implies, all nature seems to be released from the fetters of winter, and vegetation opens and shoots forth. Canis cedens, &c. The dog giving way to the retrograde sign, sets. Sirius (commonly called the dog star) is a star in the mouth of the great dog, a constellation in the heavens. Averso Astro. Astrum here is the constellation or sign Argo, which immediately follows the dog, and sets after him. It rises with its stern foremost, and in that manner goes through the heavens, contrary to the ordinary motion of a ship. The epithet averso, inverted, or turned about, is very proper.

221. Eow Atlantides. The morning Pleïades; that is, when they set in the morning, or go below the horizon about the rising of the sun. This is called their cosmical setting. See 138. supra.

222. Corona. The Corona is a constellation in the heavens called Ariadne's Crown. Gnossia: an adj. from Gnossus, a town in the island of Crete, where Minos reigned, whose daughter Ariadne was carried off by Theseus, and left in the island Naxus, where she married Bacchus. At the time of their nuptials, among the other presents she received from the gods, was a Corona or crown from Venus; which Bacchus translated to the heavens. Ardentis: in the sense of splendentis.

225. Maia. The name of one of the Pleïades, by synec. put for the whole of them.

227. Ficiam. The vicia is a species of pulse called the vetch. Faselum: the fasclus was a kind of pulse, common and

Nec Pelusiacæ curam aspernabere lentis;
Haud obscura cadens mittet tibi signa Bootes:
Incipe, et ad medias sementem extende pruinas.
Idcirco certis dimensum partibus orbem
Per duodena regit mundi Sol aureus astra.
Quinque tenent cœlum zonæ: quarum una corusco
Semper Sole rubens, et torrida semper ab igni :
Quam circùm extremæ dextrâ lævâque trahuntur,
Caruleâ glacie concretæ atque imbribus atris.
Has inter mediamque, duæ mortalibus ægris
Munere concessæ Divûm, et via secta per ambas,
Obliquus quà se signorum verteret ordo.
Mundus ut ad Scythiam Riphæasque arduus arces
Consurgit; premitur Libya devexus in Austros.
Hic vertex nobis semper sublimis; at illum
Sub pedibus Styx atra videt, Manesque profundi.
Maximus hic flexu sinuoso elabitur anguis
Circùm, perque duas in morem fluminis Arctos:
Arctos, Oceani metuentes æquore tingi.

NOTES.

cheap, which is the meaning of vilis, in this place.

228. Lentis. The lens was a kind of pulse, which abounded in Egypt, and particularly t Pelusium, a town situated near the eastern mouth of the Nile. Hence the adj. Pelusiaca.

229. Bootes cadens: the Bootes setting will give, &c. Bootes, a star in the constellation of the same name, near the north pole. It sets acronically, or with the sun, about the beginning of November; and cosmically, or at the time of his rising, about the beginning of March. The former is here meant. Mittet: in the sense of dabit. 232. Duodena astra. Astronomers divide the ecliptic, or the circle in which the sun appears to move, into 12 equal parts, called signs, and each of these signs into 30 equal parts called degrees. A space 8 degrees in breadth on each side of this circle is called the zodiac, because it contains the 12 constellations, which take the names of certain animals: as Aries, Taurus, &c. It also contains the orbits of the planets.

233. Quinque zona. Geographers divide the surface of the earth into five grand portions called zones: one of which they denominate the torrid or burning; two the temperate; and two the frozen zones.

The torrid is that portion of the earth's surface included between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. In every part of which the sun is vertical twice in every year. The ancients supposed it to be uninhabitable on account of its great heat. Those parts of the earth's surface that lie between the two tropics and polar circles, are denominated the temperate zones. The two frozen zones embrace those parts between the polar circles and the poles.

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235. Trahuntur: are extended-stretched out.

239. Obliquus ordo: the ecliptic. It is called obliquus, because it makes an angle with the equator. The quantity of the angle is 23° 28'.

240. Scythiam: a vast country lying toward the arctic circle. See Ecl. i. 66. Ri phaas arces: the Riphæan mountains. An extensive range stretching along the north of Europe, and covered with perpetual snow. Ut as. In austros: simply, to the south. 242. Hic vertex. The poles are two inaginary points in the heavens directly in a line with the axis of the earth. On the equator these points are in the horizon. In all places on the north of the equator, the north pole is visible; while the south pole will be depressed below the horizon. Illum: the south pole.

244. Maximus anguis. The dragon, (Draco,) the keeper of the garden of the Hesperides, after he was killed by Hercules, was translated to heaven, and made a constellation near the north pole. With his tail he touches Ursa major, and with the flexure of his body einbraces Ursa minor: the greater and lesser bears: here called Arctos. This will be seen by looking upon a celestial globe.

246. Arctos metuentes: fearing to be touched in the waters of the ocean. The elevation of the pole at any given place is always equal to the latitude of that place. Consequently all those stars that are nearer the pole than the distance any place is from the equator in degrees, will not set be low the horizon at that place, but continue to revolve about the pole. This is the ca with the two constellations here ment in the latitude of Italy.

247. Ime, (ad austra- Illic, ut perhibent, aut intempesta silet nox lem pólum) ut perhibent Semper, et obtentâ densantur nocte tenebræ :

homines, aut

quæ mox forent properanda, cœlo sereno:

Aut redit à nobis Aurora, diemque reducit ;
Nosque ubi primus equis oriens afflavit anhelis,
Illic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper.
Hinc tempestates dubio prædicere cœlo

Possumus; hinc messisque diem, tempusque serendi
Et quando infidum remis impellere marmor
Conveniat; quando armatas deducere classes,

Aut tempestivam sylvis evertere pinum.

Nec frustrà signorum obitus speculamur et ortus,
Temporibusque parem diversis quatuor annum.

259. Si quando frigi- Frigidus agricolam si quando continet imber:
dus imber continet agri- Multa, forent quæ mox cœlo properanda sereno,
colam domi, tunc tempus Maturare datur: durum procudit arator
datur maturare multa, Vomeris obtusi dentem; cavat arbore lintres :
Aut pecori signum, aut numeros impressit acervis.
Exacuunt alii vallos, furcasque bicornes,
Atque Amerina parant lentæ retinacula viti.
Nunc facilis rubeâ texatur fiscina virgâ :
Nunc torrete igni fruges, nunc frangite saxo.
Quippe etiam festis quædam exercere diebus
Fas et jura sinunt: rivos deducere nulla
Religio vetuit, segeti prætendere sepem,
Insidias avibus moliri, incendere vepres,
Balantûmque gregem fluvio mersare salubri.

NOTES.

248. Densantur: is thickened-rendered still more dark, night being extended, or lengthened out. At the poles there are six months day, and six months night, alternately.

She

249. Aurora: Aurora returns to them, from us. She was goddess of the morning, the daughter of Titan and Terra. She fell in love with Tithonus, the son of Laomedon, king of Troy, by whom she had Memnon, who came to assist Priam against the Greeks, and was slain by Achilles. obtained for her lover immortality; but forgot, at the same time, to ask for perpetual youth and beauty. At last he grew old and infirm; and requested her to remove him from the world; but as that could not be done, she is said to have changed him into a grasshopper: which, as often as it grows old, renews its age. By meton. elegantly put for the morning.

250. Oriens: in the sense of Sol.

250

255

260

265

270

dug out of the solid body of trees-troughs bowls, &c.

263. Signum: in the sense of notas. Acervis. Acervus is a heap or pile of any thing -a heap of grain. Here, probably, it is taken for the sacks or bags that contained the grain.

265. Amerina retinacula: osier strings, to fasten the limber vine. Amerina: an adj. from Ameria, a town in Umbria, a spacious country in Italy, where osiers abounded.

266. Rubea virgâ: with the osier or wicker twig. Rubea: an adj. probably from Rubi, a town of Campania, near which the virga, or wicker abounded. Dr. Trapp understands it in this sense, and as a reason for so doing, he observes that rubeus, from rubus, the bramble, is no where found. Heyne is of the same opinion.

267. Torrete: dry. Fruges: grain-corn. 269. Fas et Jura sinunt exercere, &c.

255. Deducere: to launch the armed fleets. There is a difference of signification between Marmor: in the sense of mare.

256. Tempestivam: seasonable-denoting the time proper for cutting the pine. Evertere: in the sense of cadere.

261. Maturare: to do in season-or, at leisure.

262. Dentem: the edge of his dull or blunt share. Lintres. These were vessels

fas and jus. The former implies a divine law, or what may be done, or is permitted to be done, by the laws of God. The latter a natural right-or a law founded in reason-common law. Deducere rivos: to drain the water from his fields.

272. Balantum: gen. plu. of the pres. part. of balo, here used as a substantive-sheep.

Sæpe oleo tardi costas agitator aselli,
Vilibus aut onerat pomis: lapidemque revertens
Incusum, aut atra massam picis, urbe reportat.
Ipsa dies alios alio dedit ordine Luna'
Felices operum. Quintam fuge: pallidus Orcus,
Eumenidesque satæ tum partu Terra nefando
Cœumque, lapetumque creat, sævumque Typhœa,
Et conjuratos cœlum rescindere fratres.
Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam
Scilicet, atque Ossæ frondosum involvere Olympum:
Ter Pater extructos disjecit fulmine montes.
Septima post decimam felix, et ponere vitem,
Et prensos domitare boves, et licia telæ
Addere nona fugæ melior, contraria furtis.
Multa adeò gelidâ meliùs se nocte dedêre :
Aut cùm Sole novo terras irrorat Eoüs.
Nocte leves stipulæ meliùs, nocte arida prata
Tondentur: noctes lentus non deficit humor.
Et quidam seros hyberni ad luminis ignes
Pervigilat, ferroque faces inspicat acuto.
Intereà longum cantu solata laborem
Arguto conjux percurrit pectine telas :
Aut dulcis musti Vulcano decoquit humorem,
Et foliis undam tepidi despumat aheni.

NOTES.

274. Lapidem incusum: a furrowed or indented stone, for the purpose of grinding corn; something like our mill-stone.

276. Alios dies: other days. Alio ordine: in a different order from those above mentioned. The ancients superstitiously thought some days of the month to be lucky, and others unlucky.

278. Eumenides: the furies. They were said to have sprung from the blood of a wound, which Cœlus received from his brother Saturn. Some say they were the daughters of Acheron and Nox, or of Pluto and Proserpine. They were three in number: Tisiphone, Megara, and Aleclo. They were supposed to be the ministers of vengeance to the gods, and to be constantly employed in punis ning the wicked in hell. They were sometimes called Furia and Erinnyes. They were worshipped; but the people dared not to mention their names, or even to fix their eyes upon their temple. They were represented holding a burning torch in one hand, and a whip of scorpions in the other hand.

:

278. Creat in the sense of edidit, vel produxit.

279. Cœumque, &c. These are the names of three giants, who attempted to scale heaven and dethrone the gods. They were the sons of Titan and Terra. Those here named were the principal ones. Conjuratos fratres. These included the whole fraternity, that were engaged in the enterprise.

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281. Pelio. The mountains here men tioned were very high mountains in Thessaly, near the Sinus Thermaicus. The latter is sometimes taken for heaven.

286. Fuga: in the sense of itineri; and, contraria, in the sense of adversa, vel sinistra.

288. Eous: the morning star; by meton. the morning. Novo sole: in the sense of die incipiente, vel oriente.

289. Stipula: in the sense of aristœ, says Rumus. Mowing in general is best effected when the dew is upon the grass.

292. Inspicat: he forms matches with a sharp knife. Any instrument made of iron may be called ferrum.

295. Decoquit: she boils away the liquor of sweet must, and skims, &c. Mustum is sweet or new made wine. The juice of the grape, when boiled down one third part, formed what was called sapa, and when one half, it formed the defrutum. Vulcanus: was the son of Jupiter and Juno. On account of his deformity, he was cast down from heaven upon the island of Lemnos, where he taught the inhabitants the smith trade, and married Venus. The Cyclops were his workmen and assistants. He was the god of fire; hence Vulcanus, by meton. often is put for fire itself, as in the present instance. He was sometimes called Mulciber, Ignipotens, and Pandamator.

296. Undam. By this we are to under stand the liquor in the boiling kettle. Terit

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