labores

whence the hollow ditches sweat with warm moisture. Though all these constant lathe culture of the earth, yet these are not all, for the wicked goose, and Strymonian cranes, and succory with bit

ter roots, are injurious, and

shade is hurtful to the corn.

Jupiter himself

118. Nec tamen, &c.] Having spoken of these labours which attend the culture of the earth, the poet adds that these are not all; for birds that infest the corn are to be scared away, weeds are to be rooted up, and trees to be lopped, that overshade the field. Hence he takes occasion to make a beautiful digression concerning the golden and silver ages.

Boum.] One of Dr. Mead's manuscripts has bovum throughout the book.

119. Anser.] The goose is injurious wheresoever it comes by plucking every thing up by the roots. Columella quotes the following words to this purpose from Celsus: "Anser neque sine aqua, nec sine "multa herba facile sustinetur, 66 neque utilis est locis consitis, quia quicquid tenerum contingere pot"est carpit." Palladius has almost the same words, and adds that the dung of geese is hurtful: "An

ser sane nec sine herba, nec sine 66 aqua facile sustinetur: locis con"sitis inimicus est, quia sata et morsu lædit et stercore." This notion, of the dung of geese burning up the grass where they feed, still prevails amongst our country people. But I have observed that will grass grow as well under their dung, as under that of other animals. The many bare places, which are found where geese frequent, are occasioned by their drawing up the grass by the roots.

120. Strymonia grues.] The cranes are said to come from Strymon, a river of Macedon, on the borders of Thrace.

Amaris intuba fibris.] Intybum, or Intybus, is commonly translated Endive: but the plant which Virgil means is Succory. Columella, when he recommends intubum to be sown for geese, tells us, it must be that sort which the Greeks call σέρις : "Sed præcipue genus intubi, quod

66

Egy Græci appellant." Dioscorides tells us there are two sorts of dégis, one wild, and the other cultivated: the wild sort is called wings and succory: Zégis ärgia nai nμsgos" ὧν ἡ μὲν ἄγρια πίκρις, ἡ καὶ κιχώριον καλεμένη. It is called πίκρις no doubt from its bitterness: whence Virgil describes it to be amaris fibris. It is a very common weed about the borders of our corn fields; and may be two ways injurious. The spreading of its roots may destroy the corn; and, as it is a proper food for geese, it may invite those destructive animals into the fields where it grows. La Cerda, in his note on this passage, takes occasion to correct an error which has crept into the editions of Pliny. In lib. viii. cap. 27. he says, Fastidium puranseres, cæteræque aquaticæ herba siderite." That judicious commentator observes that we ought to read seride instead of siderite.

66 gant-anates,

66

121. Umbra nocet.] That trees overshading the corn are injurious

tillage not to be easy, and first of all commanded the fields to be cultivated with art, to whet the minds of mor

artem

suffer his reign to rust in sloth.

no husbandmen subdued

fields: nor was it lawful to

them with bounds: all things

were in common: and the

earth of her own accord pro

duced every thing more freely,

without compulsion. He gave a noxious power to horrid serpents,

to it, is known to every body. The poet has said the same thing in his tenth Eclogue:

Nocent et frugibus umbræ.

Pater ipse colendi haud facilem esse viam voluit.] That the husbandman may not repine at so many obstacles thrown in his way, after all his labour, the poet in a beautiful manner informs him, that Jupiter himself, when he took the government of the world upon him, was pleased to ordain, that men should meet with many difficulties, to excite their industry, and prevent their minds from rusting with indolence and sloth.

122. Primus per artem movit agros.] Mr. B has justly observed, that this does not mean that Jupiter invented tillage, but that "he made it necessary to stir the ground, because he filled it with "weeds, and obliged men to find "out ways to destroy them." Servius seems to think that movit may be interpreted jussit coli. The poet tells us presently afterwards, that Ceres was the inventor of husbandry. Dryden was not aware of this when he wrote,

Himself invented first the shining share,
And whetted human industry by care:
Himself did handicrafts and arts or-
dain.

Ovid also ascribes the invention of agriculture to Ceres, in the fifth book of his Metamorphosis:

Prima Ceres unco glebam dimovit aratro : Prima dedit fruges, alimentaque mitia terris:

Prima dedit leges: Cereris sumus omnia

munus.

125. Ante Jovem nulli subigebant arva coloni.] Thus Ovid:

Ipsa quoque immunis rastroque intacta, nec ullis

Saucia vomeribus, per se dabat omnia tellus.

126. Nec.] It is ne in the Roman manuscript, according to Pierius, which is no unelegant reading.

127. In medium quærebant.] In medium signifies in common. Thus Seneca, speaking of the golden age, says, "Cum in medio jacerent be"neficia naturæ promiscue utenda:" and after having quoted this passage from Virgil, he adds: Quid "hominum illo genere felicius? In

commune rerum natura frueban"tur: sufficiebat illa, ut parens, in "tutelam omnium."

Ipsaque tellus omnia liberius nullo poscente ferebat.] Thus Hesiod:

Καρπὸν δ ̓ ἔφερε ζείδωρος ἄρθρα Αυτομάτη, πολλόν τε καὶ ἄφθονον.

129. Malum virus.] Malum is not a superfluous epithet; for virus is

to prowl, and the sea to swell: and shook the honey from the leaves of trees, and concealed the fire, and withheld the wine, which ran commonly before in rivulets: that experience might gradually strike out various arts by frequent thinking, and seek the blades

of corn in furrows: that it

might strike the hidden fire

out of the veins of flints.

'Then did the rivers first feel the hollowed alders: then did the sailor first give numbers and names to the stars, the Pleiades, the Hyades, and the bright bear of Lycaon.

133. Ut.] leian, and in manuscripts.

It is et in the Bodone of Dr. Mead's Ut is certainly

πολλὰ δὲ λυγρά.

See the note on virosa Castorea,

ver. 58.

131. Mellaque decussit foliis.] The poets feign, that, in the golden age, the honey dropped from leaves of trees. Thus Ovid:

Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella.

Our poet, speaking, in the fifth Eclogue, of the restoration of the golden age, says that the oaks shall sweat honey:

Et duræ quercus sudabunt roscida mella.

It is no uncommon thing to find a sweet, glutinous liquor on oak leaves, which might give the poets room to imagine, that, in the golden age, the leaves abounded with honey. Ignemque removit.] He did not totally take the fire away, but only concealed it in the veins of flints. Thus Hesiod: Keifs dè wug. Κρύψε πυρ.

132. Et passim rivis currentia vina repressit.] It is feigned that there were rivers of milk and wine in the golden age. Thus Ovid:

Flumina jam lactis jam flumina nectaris ibant.

right.

Extunderet.] Pierius says it is ex

scripts: but in the Roman, the Medicean, and other good copies, it is extunderet. The King's, one of the Arundelian, and one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts have excuderet: in the Bodleian it is exfoderet. Extunderet is admitted by most of the editors.

135. Ut.] So I find it in the Cambridge, and one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts. Pierius says it is ut in all the ancient copies he had seen. Servius, Heinsius, some of the old printed editions, and Masvicius read In most of the modern editions

ut.

beasts in toils, and the deceiv

ing with bird-lime, and the

with dogs discovered.

And now one seeking the deep places lashes the broad river with a casting net, and another drags his wet lines in the sea.

Or of Homer,

tus.

140

Πληϊάδας 9', Τάδας τε, τό, τε σθένος

Ωρίωνος.

Αρκτον Θ', ἣν καὶ ἅμαξαν ἐπίκλησιν και λέουσιν.

The Pleiades are seven stars in the neck of the bull, not in the tail, as we find in Pliny, lib. ii. cap. 41. "In cauda tauri septem, quas ap"pellavere vergilias." They are fabled to have been the seven daughters of Atlas, king of Mauritania, whence they are called also by Virgil Atlantides. The Latin writers generally call them Vergiliæ, from their rising about the vernal equinox. Pleiades is generally thought to be derived from waw, to sail, because their rising pointed out the time in those days proper to adventure to sea. Others derive this name from weloves, many, because they appear in a cluster; thus we find Manilius call them sidus glomerabile. The Hyades are seven stars in the head of the bull. This name is derived from w, to rain, because they are thought to bring rain at their rising and setting. The old Romans, thinking hyades to be derived from 3, a son, called these stars sucule; as we are informed by Cicero: "Ejus (Tauri) caput stellis conspersum est frequentibus:

66

"Hæc Græci stellas: Hyadas vocitare suerunt:

"A pluendo: " enim est pluere. "Nostri imperite suculas; quasi a “ suibus essent, non ab imbribus no“minatæ.” Pliny makes the same observation: " Quod nostri a simili

❝tudine cognominis Græci propter

sues impositum arbitrantes, impe"ritia appellavere suculas." Servius mentions another etymology, that these stars represent the form of the Greek letter Y, and are therefore called 'rades. It is certain that the five principal stand in the shape of that letter. Callisto, the daughter of Lycaon, was violated by Jupiter, Jupiter afterwards translated her and turned into a bear by Juno. into the constellation called by the Greeks "Agros, by the Romans Ursa

major, and by us the Great Bear.

book of Ovid's Metamorphosis. See the whole fable in the second

139. Laqueis.] It is laqueo in one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts.

140. Inventum, et magnos.] In one of the Arundelian manuscripts it is Mead's it is inventum est: magnos. inventum: magnos. In one of Dr. Canibus circumdare saltus.] Thus we have in the tenth Eclogue:

Non me ulla vetabunt Frigora Parthenios canibus circumdare

saltus.

145

66

Humida lina.] La Cerda observes that linum is often used for a net. Mr. B says, "The sea-fishing is finely painted; for in this business "the lines are so long, by reason " of the depth of the water, that the "fisherman's employment seems to "be nothing else but trahit humida "lina." Whether Virgil intends, by these words, to express the dragnet, or fishing with the hook, I shall not venture to determine.

144. Primi.] The King's, the Cambridge, and one of the Arundelian manuscripts, have primum: but primi seems more poetical. Thus,

Tuque O cui prima frementem

Fudit equum tellus.

And,

Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere

terram

Instituit.

Scindebant.] It is findebant in the Cambridge manuscript: but this must be a mistake; for findebant fissile lignum is by no means worthy of Virgil.

་

145. Vicit.] In most of the manuscripts and printed editions it is vincit. Pierius says it is vicit in the Roman manuscript; and adds, that it is vincit in the Medicean copy; but that there is a mark under the n, which shews it is to be expunged. It is vicit in one of the Arundelian manuscripts: all the rest which I have collated, have vincit. Heinsius, who made use of one of the best copies, reads vicit.

148. Arbuta.] Virgil uses arbu

Then the tempering of steel was invented, and the blade of the grating saw; for in the first age they clave the splitting wood with wedges. Then various arts were discovered.

Incessant labour and necessity pressing in difficult affairs overcame all things. Ceres first taught mankind to plough the ground, when mast and arbutes began to fail in the sacred wood,

tum for the fruit in this place. In the second Georgick he uses arbutus for the tree; and in the third, he makes arbutum to signify the tree. The Greek writers call the tree xóμagos, and the fruit unuainvλov. Pliny calls the fruit unedo. The commentators observe that Horace uses arbutus for the fruit,

Impune tutum per nemus arbutos
Quærunt latentes, et thyma.

But as Horace joins arbutos with thyma, which cannot mean fruit, I rather believe we are to understand that he meant the trees themselves. Lucretius uses arbuta for the fruit in two places; in one of which we find glandes atque arbuta, as in this passage of Virgil. The arbute or strawberry-tree is common enough in our gardens. The fruit has very much the appearance of our strawberry, but is larger, and has not the seeds on the outside of the pulp, like that fruit. It grows plentifully in Italy, where the meaner sort of people fréquently eat the fruit, which is but a very sorry diet. Hence the poets have supposed the people of the first age to have lived on acorns and arbutes in the woods, before the discovery of corn. Thus Lucretius:

Quod sol, atque imbres dederant, quod terra crearat

Sponte sua, satis id placabat pectora donum,

Glandiferas inter curabant pectora quer

cus

Plerumque, et quæ nunc hyberno tempore cernis

Arbuta phoeniceo fieri matura colore.

F