Cr'.\-' >-ai'-*.'i^" «?.3*?tf mr Of CALIFORNIA (ilVERSlOE \^ |0^£>|^«fC? THE WORKS OF VIRGIL XRANStATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE, AS NEAR THE ORIGINAL AS THE DIFFERENT IDIOMS OF THE LATIN AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES WILL ALLOW. FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS AS WELL AS PRIVATE GENTLEMEN. A NEW EDITION, WITH ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES AND A COPIOUS INDEX ; TO WHICH 13 PREFIXED, THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. PUBLISHED BY STIRLING & KENNEY, EDINBURGH AND JAMES DUNCAN, AND GEO. COWIE & CO. LONDON. MDCcc::xxi. 'p,-,' 0^7 i- / ENTERED IN STATIONERS' HALL. \ ADVERTISEMENT. In preparing the present Edition of Davidson's Tbanslation of Virgil for the Press, the Editor has carefully compared the whole with the origi- nal, and also with the early Editions printed under the eye of the Translator, by which he has been enabled to correct numerous errors that had, from time to time, crept into former Editions. The il- lustrative Notes and Index will be found useful additions, and cannot fail to give a new interest to this popular Author. Geoege Street, Jan. 1831. PREFACE. With such charms does Virgil's poetry everywhere abound, that none can help being enamoured with the unaifected beauty of his Pastorals, the finished and chaste elegance of his Georgics, their entertaining descriptions, their useful precepts in husbandry, and their noble excursions upon every proper occasion, into subjects of a more sublime nature. "Who can read the divine JEneid, without being transported, and, as it were, lost in a mixture of plea- sure and admiration ? Who can help being astonished at that force of imagination, tempered with so cool a judgment ? In what human composition is there so exact a harmony, or so much beauty in all its parts ? It would be endless to enumerate the many different images of heroes, and the variety of manners, that ap- pear in it ; the conflict of the passions, and almost every object of the imagination, beautifully described, all nature unfolded, the great events, the surprising revolutions, the incentives to virtue, the most finished eloquence in the several speeches, the most sublime majesty in the thoughts and expressions ; in short, the most consummate art by which all these things are brought into one uniform and perfect piece. As to this translation of Virgil, though there have been many in verse, some of which are of great merit. vHi PREFACE. yet, as the translators have confined themselves to measure and numbers^ none of them have expressed the author's meaning so fully and exactly as may be done by a translator in prose. For the poet is often necessitated, for the sake of the measure, to add, re- trench, or otherwise deviate from the precise meaning of his author, especially if he be shackled and hem- med in by rhymes. Besides, as this work was chiefly intended for the use of schools, and of those who have made but small proficiency in the knowledge of the Latin tongue, it was judged necessary to be much more literal and exact than a poetical translation can well bear. When I call this translation literal, I do not mean that I have rendered Virgil's Latin, word for word, into English ; for this the different idioms of the two languages will not admit ; but that care has been taken all along to preserve the full sense of the au- thor, and to adhere as closely to the letter as was con- sistent with spirit, elegance, and propriety of style ; above all, to present to the reader the same ideas in English, which the author does in Latin, and care- fully to affix the precise determinate meaning to every one of his words, distinguishing them from others, commonly reckoned synonymous, or that nearly re- semble them in sense, however different in sound. And herein, if I am not mistaken, will be found to lie the precise difference between this and the inter- pretation of Ruaeus and others, which, in numbers of places, have not so much given the strict and proper sense of their author, as something like it ; that is, they substitute one idea for another, which is the more apt to mislead the reader, as it bears a near resem- blance to that of the author, without being exactly PREFACE. ix the same. And though this might happen in translat- ing some authors without doing them much injury, yet in so judicious and correct an author as Virgil, whose sentiments on every subject are so just, every little deviation from the ideas of the original becomes considerable ; for, if we alter them at all, it must be for the worse. I have only this farther to add with regard to the translation, that though prose seemed better adapted than verse to my design of being almost quite literal ; yet the nervous comprehensive style of the original obliged me frequently to adopt the language of poetry, setting aside the numbers- For which purpose, I not only consulted the best of our poetical versions, but borrowed aid from the works of our celebrated poets, who have made Virgil their standard, and happily imitated his manner. Nor will this work be useful only to boys at school, or to mere novices in the Latin, but may without vanity promise to be of some service even to greater proficients. l\Iany even of those who think them- selves nearly masters of Virgil, will find, upon reflec- tion, that they have but a confused, or, at best, but a very superficial and general knowledge of his meaning. To such it may possibly be no unprofitable labour to bestow some time and attention, even on studying the words of an author, whose choice is so nice and delicate. THE LIFE OF VIRGIL. VIRGIL was born at Mantua, in the first consulship of Poni- pey the Great and Licinius Crassus, in the year of Rome DCLXXXIV., sixty-nine years before the birth of our Saviour, on the fifteenth of October, which the I-atin poets observed annually in commemoration of his birth. His fa- ther Maro was a person of humble extraction ; but his mother, whose name was Maia, was nearly related to Quin- tilius Varus, who was of an illustrious family. He passed the first seven years of his life at Mantua ; thence went to Cremona, where he lived to his seventeenth year j at which ag-e, as was usual among the Romans, he put on the toga virilis, Pompey and Crassus happening' that year to be, a second time, consuls. From Cremona he went to Naples, where he studied the Greek and Latin languages with the utmost application and assiduity : he afterwards applied himself closely to the study of physic and the mathematics, in which he made a very great proficiency. After he had spent some years at Naples, he went thence to Rome, where he soon attracted the notice of some of the great men at Court, who showed the high esteem they had of him by introducing hira to Augustus. But whether Vir- gil did not like the hurry and bustle of a court life, or the air of Rome did not agree with his sickly constitution, is 1 xii LIFE OF VIRGIL. uncertain ; however, he retired again to Naples, where he set about writing his Bucolics, chiefly with a design to ce- lebrate the praises of PoUio, Varus, and Gallus, who re- commended him to Maecenas, by whose interest he was particularly exempted from the common calamity of the poor Mantuans : whose lands, as a reward to the veterans for their bravery at the battle of Philippi, were divided among them, Virgil's only excepted, as appears by the first Eclogue, M'herein he expresses the utmost gratitude for so singular a favour, in such a manner as ingratiated him more and more with Augustus. It is said he spent three years in writing his Eclogues ; and had he spent as many more, the time would have been well employed, that produced the finest pastorals in the Roman, or perhaps any other lan- guage. Italy being now reduced to extremity, the grounds lying uncultivated, and the inhabitants being in want of the very necessaries of life, the fatal but natural consequences of a civil war, in so much that the state seemed to be in danger, the people throwing all the blame on Augustus ; Mtecenas, sensible of the great parts and unbounded knowledge of Virgil, set him about writing the Georgics for the improve- ment of husbandry, the only means left to save Italy from utter ruin ; in which Virgil succeeded so well, that after their publication. Italy began to put on a new face, and every thing went well : for the Georgics are not only the most perfect of all Virgil's works, but the rules for the im- provement of husbandry are so just, and at the same time so general, that they not only suited the climate for which he wrote them, but have been found of such extensive use, that the greatest part of them are put in practice in most places of the world at this very day. Virgil was now thirty- four years of age; having spent seven of the prime of his years in composing this inimitable poem, which has been, and ever will be, admired as the most finished and complete piece that ever man wrote : for here indeed he shines in his meridian glory. LIFE OF VIROIL. xiii Having now finished his Georgics, after a few years' respite, he set about the ^neid, when turned of forty ; though it is generally believed he laid the foundation of that great and arduous work more early, to which he seems to allude in his sixth pastoral : Cum canerem reges et prcelia, Cynthius aurem Vellit, et admonuit : Pastorem, Tityre, pingues Pascere oportet oves, deductum dicere carmen. But when I try'd her tender voice, too young, And fighting kings and bloody battles sung, Apollo check'd my pride ; and bade me feed My fatt'ning flocks, nor dare beyond the reed. Virgil's design of writing the ^Eneid taking air, the ex- pectations of the Romans were raised so high with the thoughts of it, that Sextus Propertius did not scruple to prophesy, Cedite JRomani scriptores, cedite Graii, Nescio quid majus nascitur Iliade. And had Virgil designed the ^neid only as an encomium on Augustus, he might surely have written short panegy- rics on his prince, as Horace has done, at several times, and on proper occasions, at a far less expense of time and labour than the ^neid must of necessity have cost him : for he has not only given Augustus's character under that of iEneas, but has wrought into his work the whole com- pass of the Roman History, with that of the several nations, from the earliest times to his own ; and that with such exactness as to deserve the title of the Roman Historian much better than Homer did that of writer of the Trojan war : most Romans, in any controverted point, submitted rather to his authority than to that of the most learned historian. The ^neid is an epic poem, which being the noblest composition in poetry, requires an exact judgment, a fruit- ful invention, a lively imagination, and an universal know- xiv LIFE OF VIRGIL. ledge, all centring in one and the same person, as they did in Virgil, whose prodigious genius has been the admiration of all mankind, and will be so, while learning and good sense have a place in the world. Virgil spent about seven years in writing the first six books of this admirable poem, some part of which Augustus and Octavia longed to hear him rehearse, and hardly prevailed with him, after many entreaties. Virgil to this purpose fixed on the sixth, which, not without reason, he thought Avould aflfect them most ; as in it he had, with his usual dexterity, inserted the funeral panegyric of young Marcellus, (who died a little before,) whom Augustus designed for his successor, and who was the darling of his mother Octavia, and of all the Romans ; and as the poet imagined, so it happened ; for after he had raised their passions by reciting these ini- mitable lines, note, ingentem luctum ne queere tum'um : Ostendent ierrishunc tantumfata, neque ultra Esse sinent. Nimiuni vobis Romano propago Visa patens, superi, propria hcec si dona futssent. Quantos ille virdm magnam Mavortis ad urbem Campus aget gemitus ! vel qum, Tyberine, videbis Funera, cum tumulum prceterlabere receniem ! Nee pxicr Iliacd quisquam de genie Latinos In tantum spe toilet avos : nee Romula quondam Ullo se tantum tellus jactabit alumno. Heu pietas ! heu prisca fides ! invictaqtie bello Dextra ! 7ion illi quisquam se impune tulisset Obvius armato : seu cum pedes iret in hostem, Sen spmnantis equifoderet calcaribus armos. He at last surprises thera with, Heu miserande puer ! si qua fata aspera rumpas, Tu Marcellus eris. At which affecting words the emperor and Octavia burst both into tears, and Octavia fell into a swoon. Upon her recovery she ordered the poet ten sesterces for every line, LIFE OF VIRGIL. xv each sesterce making' about seventy-eight pounds of our money. A round sum for the whole ! but they were Vir- gil's verses. In about four years more he finished the ^Eneid, and then set out for Greece, where he designed to revise it as a bye- work at his leisure ; proposing to devote the chief of the remaining part of his days to philosophy, which had been always his darling study, as he himself informs us in these charming lines : Me vera primum dulces ante omnia Musts, Quarum sacra fero ingenti perculsus amore, Accipiant ; coslique vias et sidera monstrent, Defectus soils varios, lunaque labores ; Unde tremor terris ; grid vi maria alta tumescent Obicibus ruptis, rursusque in seipsa residant ; Quid tantum oceano properent se tingere soles Hiberni, vet qucB tardis mora noctibus obstet. Ye sacred muses, with whose beauty fir'd, My soul IS ravish'd and my heart inspir'd. Whose priest I am, whose holy fillets wear, Would you your poet's first petition bear : Give me the ways of wand'ring stars to know, The depths of heaven above and bell below ; Teach me the various labours of the moon, And whence proceed tb' eclipses of the sun ; Why flowing tides prevail upon the main. And in what dark recess they shrink again ; What shakes the solid earth, what cause delays The summer-nights, and shortens winter-days. But he had not long been in Greece, before he was seized with a lingering distemper. Augustus returning about this time from his eastern expedition, Virgil was willing to accompany him home ; but he no sooner reached Brundusium than he died there, in the year of Rome DCCXXXV., and in the fifty-first year of his age, and was buried at Naples, where his tomb is shown to this day. He was tall and of a swarthy complexion, very careless xvi LIFE OF VIRGIL. of his dress, extremely temperate, but of a sickly constitu- tion, being often troubled with a pain in his head and stomach ; he was bashful to a fault, and had a hesitation in his speech, as often happens to great men, it being rare- ly found that a very fluent elocution and depth of judgment meet in the same person. He was one of the best and wisest men of his time ; and in such popular esteem, that one hundred thousand Romans rose up when he came into the theatre, showing hira the same respect that they did to Caesar himself; and as he was beloved in his life, so he was universally lamented at his death. He went out of the world with that calmness of mind that became so great and good a man, leaving Augus- tus his executor, who committed the care of publishing the iEncid to Tucca and Varius, strictly charging them neither to cancel, nor add one word, nor so much as fill up the breaks or half-verses. A little before his death, it is said, he wrote this inscrip- tion for his monument, which does him the more honour, as it savours not the least of ostentation : Mantua me genuit ; Calabri rapuere ; tenet nunc Parthenope : cecini pascua, rura, duces. I sang flocks, tillage, heroes ; Mantua gave Me life, Brundusium death, Naples a grave. THE FOLLOWING ABGUMENTS HATE BEEN OMITTED t^— The Seventh Eclogue is a poetical contest between Corydon and Thyrsis, the former of whom Meliboeus declares victor. The Eighth Eclogue contains the song of Damon and Alphesibceus, who sing in alternate strains. In the Ninth Eclogue Virgil complains of having been for a time dispossessed of his lands. Mceris probably represents the father of our poet. VIRGIL S BUCOLICS. ECtOGUE I. Virgil, in this eclogue, celebrates tlie praises of Augustus, for restoring to him his lands, of which he had been dispossessed, having been bestowed upon the veteran soldiers who had fought in the cause of Augustus, at the battle o( Philippi, B. C. 42. Tityrus personates Virgil, or probably his father, and Me/ibceus, his less fortunate neighbours, the Mantuans. Meliboeus, Tityrus. M. JL OU, Tityrus, reclined under the covert of that full- spread beech, practise your ^vooc^land lays on a slender oaten pipe : We are forced to leave the bounds of our country, and our pleasant fields ; we fly our country ; while you, Tityrus, in the shade at ease, teach the woods to re-echo ^/ie/iame o/" fair ^Amaryllis. T. A god, (.) Melibceus, hath vouchsafed us this tranquil- lity ; for to me he shall always be a god ; a tender lambkin from our folds shall often stain his altar tvith its blood- It is he who hath permitted my heifers to feed at large, as you see, and myself to play what tunes I please on my ru- ral reed. M. Truly I envy you not ; imt rather am amazed at your good fortune ; now that all around there are such confusions in the country. Lo, myself, sick as I am, drive far hence my tender goats : this, too, O Tityrus, I drag along with great difficulty : For here just now among the thick hazels having yeaned twins, the hope of my flock, she left them, alas I on the naked flinty rock. This calamity, I remem- ber, my oaks stricken with lightning from heaven often pre- saged to me, had not my mind been under infatuation : often the ill-boding crow from an old hollow oak presaged it. But tell me, Tityrus, who is this god of yours. T. The city, Melibceus, which they call ^Rome, I fool- 1 Amaryllis^ the name of a country was founded by Komulus, B. C. ISS, girl. Some have supposed that the poet on the banks of the Tiber, about 16 spoke of Rome under that name. miles from the sea. It is now the 2 Rome, a celebrated city of Italy, capital of the Pope's dominions, and the capital of the Roman Empire, 2 BUCOLICS. 21. EcL. I. ishly imagined to be like this our '"Mantua^ whither we shepherds oft are wont to drive the tender oflFsprincf of our ewes. So I had known whelps like dogs, so kids like their dams ; thus was I wont to compare great things with small. But that city hath raised its head as far above others, as the cypresses use to do above the limber shrubs. M. And what important reason had you to visit Rome ? T. Liberty ; which, thoitgh late, yet cast an eye upon me in my inactive time of life, after my beard began to fall off with a greyish hue when I shaved ; yet on me she cast her eye, and after a long period of slavery came at last, when Amaryllis began to sway me, and *Galatea had cast me oflF. For I will not disown it, while Galatea ruled me, I had neither hopes of liberty, nor concern about my stock. Though many a victim went from my folds, and many a fat cheese was pressed by me for the ungrateful city, I never returned home with my hands full of money. M. I wondered, Amaryllis, why disconsolate you were still invoking the gods; and for whom you suffered the .ipples to hang on their native tree. Now I see the catise. Your Tityrus hence was absent. The very pines, O Tity- rus, the fountains, and these very groves, invited thee to return. T. What could 1 do ? It was neither in my power lohile here I staid, to deliver myself from my thraldom, nor else- where could I experience gods so propitious. Here, Meli- boeus, I saw that divine youth, to whom for twice six days our altars yearly smoke ivith incense. Here first he gave this gracious answer to me his suppliant : " Swains, feed your heifers as formerly, and yoke your steers." M. Happy old man, your lands shall then remain still in your possession, and large enough for you. Though naked stones and marsh with slimy rushes overspread all the pasture grounds; yet no unaccustomed fodder shall taint thy pregnant ewes ; nor noxious diseases of the neigh- bouring flocks shall hurt them. Happy old man ! here, among the well-known streams, and sacred fountains, you shall enjoy the cool shades. On the one hand, a hedge planted at the adjoining boundary, whose willow blossoms are ever fed on by the '^Hybla?an bees, shall often court you by its gentle hummings to indulge repose. On the other hand, the wood-cutter, beneath a lofty rock, shall siu"' aloud to heaven : Nor meanwhile shall either the 3 Mantua, a city in thp north of girl, frequently mentioned in the Italy, on the Mincio.in the neighbour, eclogues. hood of which Virgil was born. 5 Hybltean Bees, from Hybia, a i Galatea, the name of a country mountain of Sicily, celebrated for itt excellent honey. 9 EcL. II. BUCOLICS. 58. 3 hoarse wood-pigeons, thy delight, or the turtle from his lofty elm, cease to coo. T. Sooner therefore shall fleet stags feed on the air, and the seas leave fishes naked on the shore ; sooner, the bounds of each being mutually traversed, shall the ^Parthian exile drink the Saone, or Germany the Tigris, than his lovely image be effaced from ray breast. M. But we must go hence ; some to the parched "Afri- cans ; some of us shall visit Scythia, and Oaxes the rapid river of Crete, and the Britons quite disjoined from all the world besides. Say, shall I ever, after a length of time, with wonder see my native territories, and the roof of my poor cot covered over with turf, standing behind some ears of corn, my kingdom, my all? Shall then a ruffian soldier possess these so well cultivated lands of mine ? — A barba- rian, these my fields of standing corn ? See to what extre- mity civil discord hath reduced us, wretched citizens ! See for whom we have sown our fields ! Now, Meliboeus, graft your pear trees ; in order range your vines. Beg-one, my goats, begone, once a happy flock : no more shall I, extend- ed in my verdant grot, henceforth behold you hanging far above me from a rock with bushes overgrown. No carols shall 1 sing ; no more, my goats, tended by me, shall you browse the flowery cytisus and bitter willows. T. Yet here this night you may take up your rest with me on a bed of green leaves. We have mellow apples, chestnuts soft and ripe, and plenty of curds and cream. And now the high tops of the villages at distance smoke, and larger shadows fall from the lofty mountains. ECLOGUE II. The subject of this eclogue is copied from Theocritus. The shepherd Corydon is deeply enamoured of Alexis, an ungrateful youth of great beauty. Alexis. The shepherd Corydon burned for fair Alexis, the darling of his master; nor had he any hope q/" success. Only among the thick beeches, with high embowering tops, he continual- 6 Parthian, &c. Parthia, now part three divisions of the ancient world, of Persia, a country of Asia, The Scythia, a general name given by the Saone, & river of France, which falls ancients to the extreme northern part* into the Rhone at Lyons. Germany, of Europe and Asia. Oarey, a river in a large country of Europe, to the north the southern part of the island of Crete, of Italy. The Tigris, a river of Asia, The Britons, the inhabitants of Bri- forming a junction with the Euphra- tain, which some of the ancients be- tes. Ueved was once joinei to the continent 7 Africant, &c. Africa, one of the o( liurope. 4 BUCOLICS. 4. EcL. II. ly resorted : there, in solitude, with unavailing fondness, he threw away to the mountains and the woods these undi- gested complaints : Ah, cruel Alexis, to my songs thou hast no regard ; on me thou hast no pity ; thou wilt surely at last occasion my death. Even the cattle now in this noontide heat pant after shades and cool retreats ; now the thorny brakes shelter the vilest reptiles, even the green lizards ; and Thestylis pounds the garlic and wild thyme, strong-scented herbs, for the reapers spent with violent heat. But to the hoarse grasshoppers and me the groves resound, while under the scorching sun I trace thy steps. Was it not better to en- dure the rueful spite and proud disdain of Amaryllis ? Would it not have been better to endure Menalcas, though he was black, though thou art fair ? Ah, cornel}' boy, trust not too much to a complexion. White privets fall neglect- ed ; the purple hyacinths are gathered. By thee, Alexis, I am neglected ; nor once dost thou inquire who I am ; how rich in snowy docks, how abounding in milk. A thou- sand ewes of mine stray on the mountains of Sicily. I want not milk in summer ; I have it new even in the cold of ivin- ter. I warble the same airs which Theban ^Amphion was wont to practise, when on Attic -Aracynthus he called his }iGrds together. Nor am I so deformed as to he on object of disdain : upon the shore I lately viewed myself, when the sea stood unruffled by the \\ inds. I will not fear to compare even ivith Daphnis, thyself being judge, if the image cioes not deceive me- () wouldst thou but vouchsafe to inhabit with me our mean rural retreats and himible cots, to pierce the deer, and with a bundle of green twigs to drive together a flock of kids ! In the woods along with me thou shalt rival even ^Pan himself in singing. Pan first taught us to join several reeds with wax ; Pan guards both the sheep and the shepherds. Nor be thou averse to wear thy lip with a shepherd's reed. What pains did not Arayntas take to learn this same art of mine ? A pipe 1 have of seven unequal reeds compactly joined, of which Da- nicetas some time ago made me a present ; and in his dying 7noments said : Thou art now its second master. Damcetas said : Me the foolish Amyntas envied. Besides I have two young he-goats, which I found in a valley not altogether safe, whose skins even now are speckled with white; each 1 Amp/lion, the son of Jupiter and 2 Aracynthtis, a.mo\intn\nn{Bceotia, Antiope, and king of Thebes. Such or of jEiolia in Greece. was his skill in music, that he is said .) /'an, the God of .shepherds ; he to have L'uilt the walls of tiie city with was particularly worshipped in Arca- the charms of his lyre. dia, a pastoral district ot Greece. EcL. II. BUCOLICS. 42. 5 day they drain both the udders of an ewe; these I reserve for thee. Long Thestylis has begged to have them from me ; and let her have them, since my presents are disdain- ed by yon. Come hither, O lovely boy ; behold the nymphs bring thee lilies in full baskets. For thee, fair Nais, cropping the pale violets and heads of poppies, joins the narcissus and tiower of sweet-smelling anise. Then, interweaving them with cassia, and other fragrant herbs, sets off the soft hya- cinths with saffron marigold. Myself will gather for thee quinces whitening with tender down, and chestnuts which my Amaryllis loved. Plums I will add of waxen hue. On this fruit' too shall honour be conferred. And you, ye laurels. I will crop ; and thee, O myrtle, next in digniiy to the laurel • For, thus arranged, you mingle sweet per- fumes. All, Corydon, thou art a silly clown thus to Jlatter thy- self. Alexis neither minds thy presents ; nor, if by pre- sents thou shouldst strive to icin him, would Idas, thy richer rival, yield. Alas, what was in my wretched mind ? Undone, undone ; I have let the south M'ind loose among my flowers, and the boars to pollute my crystal springs. Ah, witless boy, whom dost thou fly ? The gods themselves have dwelt in woods, and there the Trojan ^Paris dwelt. Let ^Pallas inhabit palaces, of which she is the foundress. Let us in Avoods above all things delight- The grim lioness pursues the wolf, the wolf himself the goat ; the wanton goat pursues the flowery cytisus ; and Corydon thee, O Alexis. Each is drawn away by some peculiar pleasure- See, the labouring steers bring home the plough borne liii-htly on the yoke, and the retreating sun doubles the oTowing shadows : but me love still consumes. For wliat bounds can be set to love ? Ah Corydon, Corydon, what frenzy hath possessed thee ? Half pruned is thy vine propped on the leafy elm. Why rather triest thou not to weave, of osiers and pliant rushes, some one or other at least of those implements which thy work requires? Thou wilt find another Alexis if this disdains thee- 4 Paris, the son of Priam, king of 3 Pallas, called also Minerva, ?. Troy, who was exposed on Mount daughter of Jupiter, the Goddess of Ida, the oracle having foretold that Wisdom and all the liberal arts. he was to be the destruction of Troy. BUCOLICS. I. ECLOGUE in. This eclogue exhibits a trial of skill in singing, between Damoetas and Me. nalcas. Palsemon, who is chosen judge, after hearing them, declares his inability to decide such an important controversy. Menalcas, Damcetas, Pal^mon. M. Tell me, Damoetas, whose is that flock ? Is it that of Meliboeus ? D. No ; but jEgon's. JEgon lately gave it to my care. M. Ah sheep, still a luckless flock ! while the master himself caresses Nesera, and fears that she may prefer me to him, this hireling shepherd milks his ewes twice in an hour; and by him the juice is filched from the flock, and milk from the lambs. D. Remember, however, that these scandals should with more reserve be charged on men. We know both who se- duced you, and in what sacred cave, while the goats look- ed askance j but the good-natured nymphs winked thereat, and smiled. M. Then, I suppose, when they saw me with a felonious bill cut down Mycon's grove and tender vines. D. Or here by these old beeches, when for spite you broke the bow and arrows of Daphnis : which when you, cross-grained Menalcas, saw given to the boy, you both re- pined, and had you not, by some means or other, done him a mischief, you had burst jfer envy. M. What may not masters do, when pilfering slaves are so audacious ? Miscreant ! did not I see thee insidiously snap that goat of Damon, while his mongrel barked with fury ? And when I cried out. Whither is he now sneaking off? Tityrus, assemble your flock j you skulked away be- hind the sedges. D. Ought he not, when vanquished in piping, to give me the goat which my flute by its music won ? if you know not, I will let you know, that goat was ray own : and Da- mon himself owned to me the debt, but alleged that he was not able to pay. M. You vanquish him in piping ? Or was there ever a wax-jointed pipe in your possession ? Wast thou not wont, thou dunce, in the cross-ways to murder a pitiful tune on a squeaking straw ? D. Are you willing, then, that each of us shall try by turns what we can do ? This young heifer I stake, and lest you should possibly reject it, she comes twice a-day to EcL. III. BUCOLICS. 30. 7 the milking pail : two calves she suckles with her udder : say what stake will you lay against me. M. I dare not stake any thing from the flock : for I have a sire at home, I have a harsh step-dame : and twice a-day they number the cattle both, and one the kids. But what thyself shall own of far greater value, since thou choosest to be mad, I will pawn my beechen bowls, the carved work of divine ^Alcimedon, round which a curling vine, superadd- ed by the easy skilful carver's art, mantles the clustering berries diffusely spread from a pale ivy-bough. In the midst two figures are embossed, Conon the one : And who was the other ? He who with his wand distributed among the nations the whole globe ; — who taught what seasons the reaper, what the bending ploughman, should observe. Nor have I yet applied my lips to them, but keep them carefully laid up. D. For me too the same Alcimedon made two bowls, and with soft foliage wreathed their handles : Orpheus in the midst he placed, and the woods following. Nor have I yet applied my lips to them, but keep them carefully laid up. If you consider the heifer, you have no reason to praise so much your bowls. M. By no means shalt thou this day escape : I will de- scend to any terms you name. Let but that very person who comes (lo, it is Palajmon) listen to this debate : I will take care that you shall not challenge any henceforth at singing. D. Come on then, if thou hast any manhood ; in me there shall be no delay : nor do I decline any Judge. Only, good neighbour Pala?raon, weigh this debate with the deepest attention ; it is a matter of no small importance. P. Sing then, since we are seated on the soft grass ; and now every field, now every tree, is budding forth : Now the woods look green ; now the year is in its highest beauty. Begin Damoetas : then you, Menalcas, follow. Ye shall sing in alternate verses : alternate verses please the Muses. D. From Jove, ye '^Muses, let us begin : all things are full of Jove : he cherishes the earth ; by him are my songs esteemed. M. And me Phoebus loves : For 'Phoebus are still with 1 Alci7nedon, an excellent carver, from Pieria in Macedonia, where they but of what country, is uncertain, were bom. Virgil also calls them S/- Conon, a Greek astronomer of Samos, cilifia Muses, because Theocritus, the the contemporary and friend of Ar. celebrated pastoral poet, was a Bative chimedes.who, probably, was the other of Sicily; ajid Libethriannymphs, from figure mentioned by the poet. Libethra, a mountain of Boeotia, in 2 Muses, goddesses who presided Greece. over poetry, music, &c. The nine 3 Fhtebus, a namegiven to Apolki. Muses were called the Pierian Sister*, 8 BUCOLICS. 63. Ecl. III. me his sacred gifts, the laurel and sweet-blushing hya- cinth. D. Galatea, a wanton girl, pelts me with apples; then flies to the willows, but wishes first to be seen. M. But my darling Amyntas voluntarily oflfers himself to me ; so that now not ''Delia's self is more familiar to our dogs. D. I have a present provided for my love : for I myself marked the place where the airy ring-doves have built theij- nests. M. What I could I sent to my boy, ten golden apples gathered from a tree iu the wood : to-morrow I will send him ten others. D. Oh how often, and what charming things Galatea spoke to me ! Some part, ye winds, waft to the ears of the gods. M. What avails it, O Amyntas, that you despise me not iu your heart, if, while you hunt the boars, I watch the toils, and share not ivith you the danger ? D. lolas, send home to me the charming Phyllis : It is my birth-day. When for the fruits I sacrilice a heifer, come thyself. M. lolas, I love Phyllis above others : For at ray depart- ure, she wept, and said. Adieu, fair youth, a long adieu. D. The wolf is fatal to the flocks ; showers of rain to ripened corn ; shaking M'inds to trees ; to me the wrath of Amaryllis. M. Moisture is grateful to the springing corn ; the arbu- tus to weaned kids ; limber willows to the teeming cattle ; to me Amyntas only. D. PoUio loves my muse, though rustic: Ye Pierian sis- ters, feed a heifer for your reader. M. Pollio himself too composes noble verses : feed for him the bull which already butts with the horn, and spurns the sand with his feet. D. Let him who loves thee, Pollio, rise to those honours to which he rejoices that thou hast risen ; for him let ho- ney flow, and the prickly bramble bring forth amomum. M. Who hates not ^Bavius's verse, may love thine, O Mfevius ; and the i^mefool may join foxes in the yoke, and milk he-goats. D. Ye swains Avho gather flowers, and strawberries that grow lowly on the ground, oh fly hence ; a cold deadly snake lurks in the grass. 4 Delia, Diana was so called, be- 5 5ai;ms and 3/a?[)2US, two contempt - cause she was born in the island of ibie poets in the age of Augustus, con- Dplos. temporary with Virgil. EcL. IV. BUCOLICS. 94. '6 M. Forbear, ynt/ sheep, to advance too far; it is not safe trusting to the bank ; the ram himself is but now drying- his fleece. D. Titynis, from the river remove your browsing goats; 1 myself, when it is time, will wash them all in the pool- M. Pen up the sheep, ye swains ; if the heat should dry up the milk, as of late, in vain shall we squeeze the teats with our hands. D. Alas, how lean is ray bull in a fertile field ; the same love is the bane of the herd and of the herdsman. M. Surely love is not the cause why these are so lean : they scarcely stick to their bones. I know not what malig- nant eye bewitches my tender lambs. D. Tell me, (and you shall be my great Apollo,) where heaven's circuit extends no farther than three ells. M- Tell me where flowers grow, inscribed with the names of kings ; and have Phyllis to thyself alone. P. It is not for me to determine this weighty controver- sy between you ; both you and he deserve the heifer ; and whoever so tvell shall sing the fears of sweet swcce5.«/«nove, and experimentally describe the bitterness of disappoint- ment. Now, swains, shut up your streams ; the meads have imbibed enough. o ECLOGUE IV. Virgil, in this eclogue, is supposed by some to refer to the birth of Marcel, lus, the son of Octavia the sister of Augustus ; or to a son of his patron, the consul PoUio, to whom the eclogue is inscribed. Others consider it to be founded on ancient predictions respecting the Messiah, and apply it to our blessed Saviour. Poixio. Ye Sicilian Muses, let us sing somewhat higher strains. The wroves and lowly tamarisks delight not all. If rural lays we sing, let those lays be worthy of a consul's ear. The last era, the subject of 'Cumaean song, is now arrived : The great series of revolving ages begins anew. Now too returns the virgin '^Astrcea, returns the reign of Saturn ; now a new progeny from high heaven descends. Be thou but propitious to the infant boy, by whom first the iron ace shall cease, and the golden age over all the Avorld arise, 1 Cumtean song, from Cumse, a city who resided on earth during the reign of Italy, north-west of Naples, in the of Saturn, or the golden age. Being vicinity of which resided the celebrat- shocked by the impiety of mankind, ed Cuniaean Sybil. she returned to hea%en, and became •2'Asira/j/iw?.s; nor let his (uire be my concern. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring Daphnis home to me. These garments the faith- less shepherd left with me some time ago, the dear pledges of himself; M'hich to thee, O earth, in the very entrance, I now commit : these pledges owe to me the return o/'Daph- nis. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring Daphnis home to me. These herbs, and these baneful plants, in '•'Pontus gathered, IMojris himself gave me : iu Pontus they numerous grow. By these have I seen Moeris transform himself into a wolf, and sculk into the woods, often from the deep graves call forth the ghosts, and trans- fer the springing harvests to another ground. My charm.**, bring Daphtiis from the town, bring Daphnis home to me. Bring forth the ashes, Amaryllis ; throw them into a flow- ing brook, and over thy head; look not back. Daphnis with these I will assail: nought he regards the gods, nought 9 Circe, a daughter of Sol and Per. licitation, restored them to their for. seis, celebrated for her knowledge of mer state. magic and jmlsonoiis herbs. She 10 Pontus, a country of Asia Mi. changed the companions of Ulysses nor, bordering on the Euxine ; it was into swine ; but afterwards, at his so- the kingdom of Mithridates the Great. 22 BUCOLICS. 103. EcL. IX. he regards my charms. My charms, bring' Daphnis from the town, bring Daphnis home to me. See the very ashes have spontaneously seized the altars with quivering flames, while I delay to remove them : may it be a happy omen. Something here, I knoAV not what, appears ; and "Ilylax in the entrance barks. Can I believe ? or do those in love form to themselves fantastic dreams ? Cease ; for Daphnis comes from the town ; now cease, my charms. ECLOGUE IX. Lycidas, Mceris. L. Whither is Moeris bound ? are you for the town, whither the way leads ? M. Ah, Lycidas, we have lived to see the day when an alien possessor of my little farm (what we never appre- hended) may say : These are mine ; old tenants, begone. Now vanquished and disconsolate, since fortune confounds all things, to him I convey these kids, of which I wish him little good. L. Surely, I heard that your Menalcas had saved by his verse all that ground where the hills begin invisibly to withdraw, and by an easy declension to sink down their ridges as far as the stream and now broken tops of the old beech. M. Thou heardst it, Lycidas, and it was reported ; but our verse just as much avails amid martial arms, as they say the 'Chaonian pigeons do, when the eagle comes upon them. But had not the ill-boding raven, from a hollow evergreen oak, warned me by any means to break off new pleas; neither your Mceris here, nor Menalcas himself, had been this day alive. L. Alas, is any one capable of so great wickedness ! alas, Menalcas, the charms of thy poetry were almost snatched from us with thyself! Who then had sung the nymphs! who with flowery herbs had strewn the ground, or covered with verdant shade the springs ? or who had sung those songs M'hich lately I secretly stole from you, when you re- sorted to our darling Amaryllis ? " Feed, Tityrus, my goats till I return, short is the way ; and when they are 11 Wy/aj-, the name of a dog. which was the sacred grove of Do- 1 Chaonian pigeons. — Chaonia was dona, where pigeons were said to de« a mountainous part of Epirus, in liver oracles. EcL. IX. BUCOLICS. 2h 23 fed, drive them, TItyrus, to watering; and while you are so doing-, beware of meeting the he-goat ; he butts m ith the horn." M. Nay, rather these, which to Varus, and yet unfinish- ed, he sang: " Varus the tuneful swans shall raise thy name aloft to the stars, if Mantua remain but in our pos- session; Mantua, alas, too near unfortunate ^Cremona!" L. If thou retainest any, begin ; so may thy swarms avoid 'Cyrnean yews : so may thy heifers, fed with cytisus, dis- tend their dugs- The muses have also made me a poet : I too have my verses ; and our shepherds call me bard ; but to them I give no credit : for as yet methinks 1 sing nothing worthy of a Varus or a ^Cinna, but only gabble like a goose among sonorous swans. M. That, Lycidas, is what I am about; and now con it over in silence with myself, if I can recollect it : nor is it a vulgar song. " Come hither, Galatea : for what pleasure have you among the roaring waves ? Here is blooming spring ; here, about the rivers, earth pours forth her vari- ous flowers : here the white poplar overhangs the grotto, and the limber vines weave shady bowers. Come hither: leave the mad billows to buffet the shores." L. But what are those, which I heard you singing in a clear night alone ? I remember the air, if I could recollect the words. M. Daphnis, why gaze you Avith admiration on the risings of the signs, which are of ancient date ? Lo, ^Dionseau Caesar's star hath entered on its course ; the star at whose rising the fields were to rejoice with corn ; at whose rising the grapes on sunny hills were to take on iheiv purple hue. Daphnis, plant thy pear-trees. Posterity shall pluck the fruit of thy plantations. Age impairs all things, even the mind itself. Often, I remember, when a boy, I sang long summer-days quite down the sky. Now all these songs I have forgotten ; now the voice itself has left Moeris; the wolves have seen Mceris first. But these Menalcas him- self will often recite to you. L. By framing excuses you tediously suspend my fond desire. And now the whole surface of the main for thee 2 Cremona, 2l city of Ttaly on the the yew trees, with which the island northern bank of the Po. Its lands abounded. were divided among the veteran sol. 4 Cinna, a grandson of Pompey, the diers of Augustus.! intimate friend of Augustus, and pa- 3 Ct/i-neanffcws.—Cymus, now Cor. tron of Virgil. sica, an island in the Mediterranean, 5 Dioncean, &c. Caesar is so called, near the coast of Italy. The honey as being sprung from .Sneas, whose produced here had a bitter taste, in mother, Venus, according to ancient consequence of the bees feeding on mythology, was the daughter of Ju- piter and the nymph Dione. 24. BUCOLICS. 57. Ecl. X. lies smooth and still ; and mark liou' every whispering breeze of wind hath died away. Besides, half of our jour- ney still remains : for ''Bianor's tomb begins to appear. Here, where the swains are stripping oiF the thick leaves, here, Mceris, let us sing. Here lay down your kids : yet we shall reach the town betimes. Or if we are afraid that the night may gather rain before we arrive, yet we maj' still go on singing ; the way will be less tedious. That we may go on singing, I will ease you of this burthen. M. Shepherd, urge me no more ; and let us mind the business now in hand. We shall sing those tunes to more advantage when Menalcas himself arrives. ECLOGUE X. Gallus, to whom this eclogue is inscribed, was the patron of Virgil, a soldier and a poet. He was greatly enamoured of Cj-theris, whom he calls Lycoris, celebrated for her beauty and intrigues ; but she forsook him for Mark An- tony, by whom she was in turn abandoned for Cleopatra. Gallus. Indulge me, 'Arethusa, this last essay. A iew verses, but such as Lycoris herself may read, I must sing to my Gallus. Who can deny a verse to Gallus ? So, when thou glidest beneath the Sicilian waves, may brakish ^Doris not intermingle her stream with thine. Begin : let us sing the anxious loves of Gallus, while the flat-nosed goats browse the tender shrubs. We sing not to the deaf; the woods reply to all. What groves, ye virgin Naiads, or Avhat lawns detained you, M'hile Gallus pined M'ith ill-requited love ? for neither any of the tops of Parnassus, nor those of "Pindus, nor Aonian Aganippe, the fountain of the muses, did retard you. There the very laurels, the very tamarisks condoled him : even pine-topped Ma^nalus bemoaned him as he lay beneath a lonely rock, and over him the stones of cold ^Ly- caeus wept. His sheep too stand mourning around him, nor are they ashamed to share our griefs ; nor of thy flock, di- 6 Bianor's tomb. Bianor, called also the sea itself. Naiads, nymphs, — God- Ocnus, was the son of Tiberius and desses who presided over rivers and Manto, and king of Etruria. His fountains. tomb was on the road between Man- 3 Pindus, a mountain between tua and Andes. Thessaly and Epirus, sacred to Apollo ) Arethusa, the nymph who presid- and the Muses. Aonian Aganippe, a ed over the fountain of the same name celebrated foimtain of Boeotia, of in Sicily. which Aonia was a district. ? Doris, a sea nymph, the mother i LyciEus, a mountain of Arcadia, of the Nereids ; here used to express sacred to Jupiter, and also to Pan. EcL. X. BUCOLICS. 17. 25 vine poet, be thou ashamed ; even fair ^Adonis tended sheep along the streams. The shepherd too came up : the slow- paced neatherds came : Menalcas came wet from gathering winter-mast. All interrogate whence this thy love ? Apol- lo came : Gallus, he says, why ravest thou thus ? Lycoris, for whom you pine, is following another lovei' through snows and horrid camps. ''Silvanus too came up with rural honours on his head, waving the flowery fennels and big lilies that adorned his brow. Pan, the god of Ai'cadia, came ; whom we ourselves beheld stained with the elder's purple berries and vermilion. What bounds, he says, will you set to mourning ? Love regards not such vain lamen- tations. Nor cruel love with tears, nor grassy meads with streams, nor bees with cytisus, nor goats with leaves, are satisfied. But he, overwhelmed with grief, said. Yet you. Arcadians, shall sing these my woes on your mountains ; ye Arcadians only skilled in song. O, how softly then my bones will rest, if your pipe in future times shall sing my loves ! and would to heaven I bad been one of you, and either keeper of your flock, or vintager of the ripe grape ! Sure whether Phyllis or Amyntas, or whoever else, had been my love, (what though Amyntas be swarthy ? the violet is black, and hyacinths are black,) they would have reposed with me among the willows under the limber vine; Phyllis had gathered garlands for me, and Amyntas would have sung. Here are cool fountains; here, Lycoris, are soft Jiowery meads, here a delicious grove : here with thee I could consume my whole life away. Now love, frantic through despair, detains me in the service of rigid Mars, in the midst of darts, and adverse foes. Thou, far from thy native land, (yet let me not believe it,) beholdest nothing but ''Alpine snows, and the colds of tlie Rhine, ah, hard- hearted/air / alone, arid without me. Ah, heaven forbid that these colds should hurt thee ! that the sharp ice should wound thy tender feet ! I will go, and warble on the Si- cilian shepherd's reed those songs which are by me com- posed in ^Euphorion's elegiac strain. I am resolved, rather tha7i pursue thee thus in vain, to submit to toils and dangers in the woods, among the dens of wild beasts, and to inscribe my loves upon the tender trees ; as they grow up, so you, 5 Adonis, a youth, the favourite of Switzerland, and Austria. The Rhine, Venus; having lost his life by the bite a celebrated river which rises in the of a wild boar, he was changed into Alps, and, after a course of 60(1 miles, the flower Anemone. discharges itself into the German 6 Silvanus, a rural Deity among the Ocean. Romans, who presided over woods. 8 Euphorion's strain, that is, in the 7 Alpine snows. The Alps are a elegiac strain of Euphorion,a Greek chain of mountains, the highest in Eu. poet of Chalcis in Euboea. rope, separating Italy from France, 26 BUCOLICS. 54. Ecl. X. my loves, will grow. Meanwhile M^Ith mingled troops of nymphs over Mjenalus will I range, Or hunt the fierce boars. No colds shall hinder me from traversing with my hounds the Tarthenian lawns around. Now over rocks and re- sounding groves methinks 1 roam : pleased I am to shoot Cydonian shafts from the Parthian bow ; fool that I am ! as if these were a cure for the rage of love ; or as if that god were capable of being softened by human woes. Now neither the nymphs of the groves, nor songs themselves, charm me any more : even to you, ye woods, once more I bid adieu. No sufferings can alter him ; even though amidst frosts we drink of ^°Hebrus, and undergo the Sithonian snows of rainy winter ; or even if we should tend our flocks in "Ethiopia, beneath the sign of Cancer, when the dying rind withers on the stately elm. Love conquers all; and let us yield to love. These verses, ye divine muses, it shall suffice your poet to have sung, while he sat and wove his little basket of slender osiers : these you will make acceptable to Gallus : to Gallus, for whom my love grows as much every hour, as the green alder shoots up in the infancy of spring. Let us arise : the cuenzn^-shade uses to prove noxious to singers ; even the juniper's shade, at other times the most wholesome, now grows noxious ; the eueniH^r-shades are hurtful even to the corn. Go home, the evening star arises, my full-fed goats, go home. 9 Parthenian lawns. — Parthenius runs into the ^gean Sea. Sithonian was a mountain of Arcadia, for which S7wt«i, from Sithonia, a part of Thrace, it is here used ; as Cydonian shafts is 11 Ethiopia, an extensive country used for Cretan darts, — Cydon (Cania) of Africa ; by the ancients, this name being a city of Crete. was applied to modern Abyssinia, and 10 Hebrus, the largest river of the southern regions of Africa. Thiace, rises in Mount lismus, and 27 VIRGILS GEORGICS. BOOK I. This admirable poem was undertaken at the particular request of that great pa- tron of poetry, Mscenas, to whom it is dedicated, and has justly been esteem- ed the most perfect and finished of Virgil's works. Of the four Books of which it consists, the First treats of ploughing and preparing the ground ; the Second of sowing and planting ; the Third of the management of cattle, &c. ; and the Fourth gives an account of bees, and of the manner of keeping them among the Romans. What makes the fields of corn joyous : under •what sign, Maecenas, it is proper to turn the earth and join the vines to elms : what care is requisite for kine, the nurture for breeding- sheep ; and what experience for managing the frugal bees ; hence will 1 begin to sing. Ye brightest lu- minaries of the world, that lead the year sliding along the sky ; thou Bacchus and fostering Ceres, if by your bounty mortals exchanged the Chaonian acorn for fattening ears of corn, and mingled draughts of ^Achelous with the invented juice of the grape : and ye Fauns propitious to the swains, ye Fauns and Virgin Dryads, both come tripping up to- gether : your bounteous gifts I sing. And thou, O Nep- tune, to whom the earth, struck with thy mighty trident, first poured forth the neighing steed ; and thou inhabitant of the groves, for whom three hundred snow-white bullocks cropped ^Csea's fertile thickets ; thou too, O Pan, guardian of the sheep, O 'Tegeaeau god, if thy own Majnalus be thy care, draw nigh propitious, leaving a while thy native grove, and the lawns of Lycseus ; and thou, ISIinerva, inventress of the olive ; and thou, O boy, the instructor in the use of the crooked plough ; and thou, Silvanus, bearing a tender cy- press plucked up by the root ; ye gods and goddesses all, whose province it is to guard the fields, both ye who 1 Achelous, (Aspro Potamo,) a river 2 Cisa, (Zea,) an island in the Ar- of Epirusin Greece, said by some to chipelago, one of theCyclades. have been the first river that sprung 3 Tegetean God, Pan is so called, from the earth after the deluge; hence from Tegjea, a town of Arcadia, in It was frequently put by the ancients, Greece, which was sacred to him. as it is here, for water. 28 GEORGICS. 22. Book I. nourish the infant fruits that spring from no seed sown by the hand of man ; and ye who on the sown fruits send down the liberal shower from heaven. And chiefly thou, great Ca;sar, whom it is yet uncertain •what councils of the gods are soon to have ; whether thou wilt vouchsafe to visit cities, and undertake the care of coun- tries, and the widely extended globe receive thee, giver of the fruits, and ruler of the seasons, binding thy temples with thj^ mother's myrtle : or whether thou comest god of the unmeasured ocean, and mariners worship thy divinity alone ; whether remotest 'Thule is to be subject to thee, and ^Tethys to purchase thee for her son-in-law with all her waves ; or whether thou wilt take thy seat among the stars, join thy- self to the slow months, a new constellation, where space lies open^b?' thy reception between Erigone and the Scor- pion^ s pursuing claws : the Scorpion himself, irapatient./br thy coming, already contracts his arms, and leaves for thee more than an equal proportion of the sky. Whatever deity thou wilt be, (for let not ^Tartarus expect thee for its king, nor let such dire lust of sway once enter thy mind ; though Greece admires her Elysian fields, and ''Proserpine, rede- manded, is not inclined to follow her mother to the upper ivorld,) grant me an easy course, favour my adventurous enterprise ; and, pitying with me the swains who are strangers to their way, commence a god, and accustom thy- self even now to be invoked by prayers. In early spring, when melted snows glide doM'n the hoary hills, and the crumbling glebe unbinds itself by the zephyr; then let my steer begin to groan under the deep-pressed plough, and the share worn on the fiirrow begin to glitter. That field at last answers the wishes of the covetous far- mer, which twice hath felt the summer's sun, and twice the clouds of winter : harvests immense even burst his barns. But, before we cut an unknown plain with the plough- share, let it be our care previously to learn the winds, and various quality of the climate, the ways of culture practised by our forefathers, and the genius and habits of the soil ; what each country is apt to produce, and what to refuse. Here com, there grapes, more happily groAV ; nurseries of 1 Thnle, an island in the most 3 Tartarus, the infernal regions, northern parts of the German Ocean, where, according to the ancients, the to which the ancients gave the epithet most impious and guilty among man- of Utthna. Some suppose that it is kind were punished, the island of Iceland, or part of Green. 4 Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, land, while others imagine it to he the and wife of Pluto, who stole her away Shetland Isles. as she was gathering flowers in the 2 Tethys, the chiefof the sea-deities, plains of Enna in Sicily, was the wife of Oceanus. The word is often used by the poets to express the sea. Book I. GEORGICS. 55. 'i9 trees elsewhere, and herbs spontaneous bloom. Do not you see, how ^Tmolus sends us saffron odours, India ivory, the soft Sabseans their frankincense ? But the naked Chaly- bes send steel, Pontus strong-scented castor, ^Epirus the prime of the Olympic mares. These laws and eternal re- gulations nature from the beginning imposed on certain places : when Deucalion first threw those stones into the unpeopled world, whence men, a hardy race, sprang up. Come then, let your sturdy steers turn up a soil that is rich forthwith for the first month of the year ; and let the dusty summer bake the scattered clods with suns mature and vi- gorous. But, if the land be not fertile, it will be sufficient to raise it up with a light furrow, even so late as towards the rising of ^Arcturus ; in the former case, lest weeds ob- struct the joyous corn ; in the latter, lest the scanty mois- ture forsake the barren sandy soil. You will likewise suffer your lands after reaping to rest every other year, and the field to harden, and be overgrown with moss. Or, changing the season, you will sow there yel- low wheat, whence before you have taken up a joyful crop o/' pulse, with rattling pods, or the vetch's slender offspring and the bitter lupine's brittle stalks, and rustling grove. For a crop of flax burns the land ; as also oats and poppies impregnated with ^Lethsean sleep. But yet your labour will be easy, even though you should sow these kinds of grain every other year, provided only you be not backward to saturate the parched soil with rich dung, or to scatter sor- did ashes upon the exhausted lands : thus too, with this pre- caution, your land will rest merely by changing' the grain. In the mean time, should your field remain untilled/orone year, it will not be ungrateful. Often too it has been of use to set fire to barren lands, and burn light stubble in crackling flames ; whether the land thence receives secret strength and rich nourishment, as is the case with the land that is poor : or whether every vicious disposition is exhaled by the fire and the superflu- ous moisture sweats off, as it happens if the soil be watery ; or whether the heat opens more passages, and secret pores, through which the sap may be derived into the new-born 1 Tmolus, a mountain of Lydia, in 3 Arcturus, a star near the tail of Asia Minor, abounding in vines, saf- Ursa Major, whose rising and setting fron, &c. Sabeans, the inhabitants of was supposed to portend great tem- Saba, a town of Arabia, famous for pests. In the time of Virgi), it rose fiankincense, myrrh, and aromatic about the middle of September, plants. Chalybes, a people of Pontus, 4 Leihcean sleep. — Lethe was one in Asia Minor ; their country abound- of the rivers of hell, whose waters ed in iron mines. had the power of causing forgetfulness. 2 Epirus, (Albania,) a country of Greece, famous for its fine breed of horses. 30 GEORGICS. 90. Book I. herbs, which is the case of the stiff clay ; or whether it hardens more, and binds the gaping veins, as happens to a spongy soil, that the small showers, or keen influence of the violent sun, or penetrating cold of Boreas may not hiu-t it. He too greatly improves the lands who breaks the slug- gish clods with harrows, and drags osier hurdles over them, (nor does yellow Ceres view him with an unpropitious eye from high 'Olympus,) and he also who, after the plain has once been torn, again breaks through the land ; that raises up its ridges, and gives it a second furroiv, turning the plough across, and gives it frequent exercise, and rules his lands imperiously. Pray, ye swains, for moist summers and serene win- ters. In winter's dust most joyful is the corn, joyful is the field. This improves the fertile ^Mysia more than all her culture, and hence even Gargarus admires his own har- vest. Why should I speak of him, who, immediately after sow- ing the seed, persecutes the lands anew, and levels the heaps of barren sand ; then on the springing com drives the stream and ductile rills ? and when the field is scorched with raging heat, the herbs all dying, lo ! from the brow of a hilly tract he decoys the torrent; which falling down the ^vaoQih-ivorn rocks, awakes the hoarse murmur, and with gurgling streams allays the thirsty lands. Why of him who, lest the stalk with ot?er-loaded ears fall to the ground, feeds down the luxuriance of the crop in the tender blade, when first the springing corn is equal with the furrow; and who drains from soaking sand the collected moisture of the marsh, chiefly when, in the vari- able rainy months, the overflowing river bursts from its banks away, and overspreads all around with slimy mud, whence the hollow dykes sweat with tepid vapour ? After all, (when the labours of men and oxen have thus been tried in cultivating the ground,) the destroying goose, the *Strymonian cranes, succory with its bitter roots, and even the shades, are in some degree injurious to the grow- ing corn. Father Jove himself willed the ways of tillage not to be easy, and first commanded to cultivate the fields by art, whetting the minds of mortals with care ; nor suf- fered he his reign to lie inactive in heavy sloth. Before 1 Olymptis, a lofty mountain on 2 yiysia, a country of Asia Minor, the confines of Thessaly and Mace- bordering on Troas. Gargarus, a ilonia, separated from Ossa by the vale mountain, or rather a part of Mount ofTempe. The ancients supposed that Ida in Troas. it touched the heavens with its top, 3 Str;/nionian cranes. — Strymon, a and on that account, the poets made riverof Macedonia, theancientbound- it the residence of the Gods, ary between that country and Thrace, Book I. GEORGICS. 123. 31 Jove no husbandman subdued the fields ; nor was it even lawful to mark out, or by limits divide the ground. They enjoyed all things in commou, and earth of herself produced every thing freely, without any solicitation. He infused the noxious poison into the horrid serpent, commanded the wolves to prowl, and the sea to be put in commotion; he shook the honey from the leaves, removed fire out of the sight of mortals, and restrained the wine that ran common- ly in rivulets ; that experience by dint of thought might gradually hammer out the various arts of lije, in furrows seek the blade of corn, and from the veins of flint strike out the hidden fire. Then first the rivers felt the excavated alders ; then the seamen gave the stars their numbers and their names, the ^Pleiades, Hyades, and the bright bear of Lycaon. Then were invented the arts of catching wild beasts in toils, deceiving with bird-lime, and encompassing the spacious lawns with hounds. And now one seeking the depths, lashes the broad river with his casting-net ; and on the sea another drags his humid lines along. Then arose the rigid force of steel, and the flat blade of the grating saw, (for the first mortals cleft the fissile wood with wedges ;) then various arts ensued. Incessant labour and want, in hardships urgent, surmounted every obstacle. Ceres first taught mortals with steel to turn the ground ; when now the acorns and arbutes of the sacred wood failed, and ^Do- dona denied her wonted sustenance. Soon too was distress inflicted on the corn ; that noxious mildew should eat the stalks, and the lazy useless thistle shoot up its horrid spikes in the field. The crops of corn die ; burrs and brambles, a rugged prickly wood, succeed ; and, amidst the gay shining fields, unhappy darnels and haxren wild OAts bear sway. But unless you both vex the ground with assiduous harrows, fright away the birds with noise, and with the pruning-knife restrain the shades of the darkened field, and by prayers call down the showers ; alas, ivhile thy labour proves in vain, thou shalt view another's ample store, and in the woods so- lace thy hunger by shaking acorns from the oak. We must also describe what are the instruments used by the hardy swain ; Avithout which, the crops would neither be sown nor spring. First, the share and heavy timber of the plough, and the slow-rolling wains of the Elusinian mo- 1 Pleiades, a name given to the of Lycaon, was changed by Juno into seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, a bear, but Jupiter made her the con- made a constellation in the heavens, stellation Ursa Major. Hyades, the five daughters of Atlas, 2 Dodona, an ancient city of Epirus, who were also changed into stars, and in Greece, where was a sacred grove, placed in the constellation Taurus, with a celebrated oracle and temple of Bear qf Lycaon, Calisto, the daughter Jupiter. 32 GEORGICS. 163. Book I. ther, Ceres, the planks and sleds foi- pressing out the corn, and the harrows of unwieldy weight ; besides the mean osier furniture of 'Celeus, arbute hurdles, and the mystic van of Bacchus; all which, with mindful care, you will provide long- before-hand, if the blissful country has due honour in store for thee. Straight in the w oods a stubborn elm beat with vast force is subdued into the plough tail, and receives the form of the crooked plough. To this, at the lower end, are fitted a beam extended eight feet in length, two earth- boards, and share-beams with their double back. The light lime-tree also is felled before-hand for the yoke, and the tall beech, and the plough-staif, to turn the bottom of the carriage behind ; and the smoke seasons the wood hung up in the chimneys. 1 can recite to you many precepts of the ancients, unless you decline them, and think it not worth while to learn these trifling cares. The threshing-floor chiefly must be levelled with the huge cylindric roller, and wrought with the hand, and consolidated with binding chalk, that weeds may not spring up, and that overpowered with drought it may not chap. Then various pests mock your hopes ; often the di- minutive mouse has built its cell, and made its granaries ; or the moles, deprived of sight, have dug their lodges under ground; and in the cavities has the toad been found, and vermin which the earth produces in abundance ; the weevil plunders vast heaps of corn, and the ant, fearful of indigent old age. Observe also, when the almond shall clothe itself abun- dantly with blossom in the woods, and bend its fragrant bough: if the rising fruit exceed the leaves in number, in like quantity the corn will follow, and a great threshing with great heat will ensue. But, if the shady boughs abound ■with luxuriance of leaves, in vain the floor shall bruise the stalks, fertile only in chaff. I have indeed seen many sowers artificially prepare their seeds, and steep them first in nitre and black lees of oil, that the produce might be larger in the fallacious pods : and though, to precipitate them, they were soaked over a slow lire, selected long, and proved with much labour, yet have I seen them degenerate, unless human industry, with the hand culled out of the largest every year. Thus all things, by destiny, hasten to decay, and, gliding away, insensibly are driven backward ; not otherwise than he who rows his boat with much ado against the stream, if by chance he slackens 1 Celeus, a king of Eleusis, was the instructed in husbandry, father of Triptoleraus, whom Ceres Book I. GEORGICS. 202. 33 his arms, is instantly gorie, and the tide hurries him head- long- down the river. Further, the stars of Arcturus, and the days of the Kids, and the shining Dragon, must be as much observed by us, as by those who, homeward borne across the main, attempt the ^Euxrne sea, and the straits of oyster-breeding ^Abydos. When Libra makes the hours of day and night equal, and now divides the globe in the middle between light and shades; then work your bulls, ye swains, and sow barley in the fields, till toward the last shower of the inclement winter solstice. Then too is the time to hide in the ground a crop of flax, and the poppy of Ceres, and high time to ply your harrows; while the ground, yet dry, you may, and while the clouds are yet suspended. In the spring is the sowing of beans : then thee too, O 'Medic ;^/tz«^ .' the rotten furrows receive, and millet comes, an annual care, when the bright Bull with gilded horns opens the year, and the Dog sets, giving way to the back- ward star. But if you labour the ground for a wheat-har- vest and strong grain, and are bent on bearded ears alone : let the Pleiades in the morning be set, and let the *Gnosiaa star of Ariadne's blazing Crown emerge from the sun, before you commit to the furrows the seed designed, and before you hasten to trust the unwilling earth with the hopes of the year. Many have begun before the setting of Maia ; but the expected crop hath mocked them with empty ears. But if you are to sow vetches, and mean kidney beans, nor despise the care of the Egyptian lentil ; setting Bootes will afford thee signs not obscure. Begin, and extend thy sow- ing to the middle of the frosts. For this purpose, the golden sun, through the twelve con- stellations of the world, rules the globe measured out into certain portions. Five zones embrace the heavens ; whereof one is ever glowing with the bright sun, and scorched for ever by his fire ; round which tivo others on the extremities of the globe, to the right and left, are extended, pinched and frozen up with cerulean ice, and horrid showers of snoiv. Between these and the middle zones two by the bounty of the 1 Euxine (or Black) sea, is situated 3 Medic plant, a species of trefoil, between Europe and Asia, and com- so called, because introduced from municates with the Mediterranean by Media into Greece. the sea of Marmora and the Darda- 4 Gnosian star, &c. — Ariadne's iielle>-. crown, consisting of seven stars, was 2 Abydos, a city of Asia Minor, on so called from Gnossus, a famous city the Hellespont, (Dardanelles,) opposite of Crete, where Minos, the father to Sestos, in Thrace ; famous for the of Ariadne, reigned. Maia, one of bridge of boats which Xerxes made the Pleiades, and the most luminous there across the Hellespont, when he of the seven. Bootes, a constellation invaded Greece ; and for the loves of near the Vrsa Major, or Great Bear. Hero and Leander. 34 GEORGICS. 238. Book 1. gods are given to weak mortals ; and a path is cut through both, where the series of the signs might revolve obliquely. As the world rises high towards Scythia and ^Riphsean hills : so, bending towards the south winds of '^Libya, it is depressed. The one pole to us is still elevated ; but the other, under our feet, is seen by gloomy ^Styx and the infernal ghosts. Here, after the manner of a river, the huge Dragon glides away with tortuous windings, around and through between the Bears ; the Bears that fear to be dipped in the ocean. There, as they report, either dead night for ever reigns in silence, and, outspread, wraps all things up in darkness ; or else ^Aurora returns thither from us, and brings them back the day : and when the rising sun first breathes on us with pant- ing steeds, there ruddy Vesper lights up his late illumina- tions. Hence we are able to foreknow the seasons when the sky is dubious, hence the days of harvest, and the time of sow- ing ; and when it is proper to sweep the faithless sea with oars, when to launch the armed fleets, or to fell the pine in the woods in season. Nor in vain do we study the settings and the risings of the signs, and the year equally divided in- to four different seasons. If at any time a bleak shower confines the husbandman, then is his time to provide many things, which, as soon as the sky is serene, must be done with expedition. Then the ploughman shai'pens the hard point of the blunted share, scoops little boats from trees, or stamps the mark on the sheep, or the number on his sacks of corn. Others point stakes and two-horned forks, and prepare 'Amerine osier bands for the limber vine. Now let the pliant basket of bramble-twigs be woven ; now parch your grain over the fire, now grind it with the »n7/-stone : for even on holy-days, divine and human laws permit to perform some works. No religion hath forbidden to drain the fields, to raise a fence before the corn, to lay snares for birds, to fire the thorns, and plunge in the wholesome river a flock of bleating sheep. Often the driver of the sluggish ass loads his ribs with oil, or common apples ; and, in his return from the town, brings back an indented ?Hi7/-stone, or a mass of black pitch. 1 Ripharan hills, in the north of the Styx in such veneration, that they Scythia, near the rivers Tanais and always swore by them; an oath which Rha. was inviolable. 2 Libya, an extensive country of 4 Aurora, ihe Goddess of the Morn- Africa, lying between Egypt and the ing. Vesper, the evening star ; often Syrtis Major ; by the ancients it was used for the evening, as Aurora is for often api)lied to Africa in general. the morning. 3 Styx, one of the rivers of hell, 3 Amerine bands, from Ameria, a round which it was said to flow nine city of Umbria, in ltaly,which abound- times. The Gods hcU the waters of ed in osiers. Book I. GEORGICS. 276. 35 The moon too hath allotted days auspicious to works, some in one order, some in another. Shun the fifth : on this pale ^Pluto and the Furies were born. Then at a mon- strous birth the earth brought forth ^Coeus, lapetus, and stern Typhoeus, and all the ^/law^brothers who conspired to scale the skies. For thrice did they essay to lay -^Ossa upon Pelion, and to roll woody Olympus upon Ossa: thrice father Jove, with his thunder, overthrew the piled-up mountains. The seventh next to the tenth is lucky both to plant the vine, and break the oxen Jirst caught m the yoke, and to add the woof to the web : the ninth is better for a journey, but ad- verse to thefts. Many works too have succeeded better in the cool night ; or when morning sprinkles the earth with the rising- sun. By night the light stubble, by night the parched meadows are better shorn : the clammy dews fail not by night. And some by the late fires,' their winter light, watch all night, and with the sharp steel shape matches into a tapering point. Meanwhile, his spouse, cheering by song her tedious labour, runs over the webs with the shrill-so?«ic?- ing shuttle ; or over the fire boils the liquor of the luscious must, and skims with leaves the tide of the trembling cal- dron. But reddening Ceres is cut down in noontide heat ; and in noontide heat the floor threshes out the parched grain. Plouo-h naked, and sow naked : winter is an inactive time for the hind. In the colds of winter the farmers mostly en- joy the fruit of their labour, and rejoicing with one another, provide mutual entertainments : the genial winter invites them, and relaxes their cares ; as is the case in weather- beaten ships, when they have reached the port, and the joy- ous mariners have planted garlands on the sterns. But it then is the time both to strip the mast of oak, and the bay- berries, the olive, and the bloody myrtle-berries ; then to set springes for cranes, and nets for stags, and to pursue the long-eared hares ; and whirling the hempen thongs of the *Balearian sling, to pierce the does, when the snow lies deep, when the rivers shove the ice along. Why should I speak of the storms and constellations of 1 Pluto, in ancient mythology, was mountains of Thessaly, in Greece, the son of Saturn and Ops, and brother which the Giants, in their war against to Jupiter and Neptune ; in the divi- the Gods, were feigned to have heaped sion of his father's empire, the king- on each other, that they might with dom of Hell was allotted to him. more faciUty scale the walls of Hea. 2 Ca?M*, /a;)e<««, &c.— Famous giants, ven. sons of Coelus and Terra, who, accord. 4 Balearian sling, from the Baleares, ing to the poets, made war against the a name given to the islands of Ma- Gods; but Jupiter at last put them to jorca and Minorca, in the Mediter- flight with his thunderbolts,and crush, ranean, because the inhabitants were ed them under Mount Etna, in Sicily, expert slingers. 3 Ossa, Pelion, &c.— Celebrated 36 GEORGICS. 312. Book 1. autumn ? and what accidents must be gfuarded against by the swains when the day is shorter, and the summer more soft and mild ? or when the showery spring pours down its stores, the spiky harvest bristles in the fiehls, and the milky corn swells on the green stalk ? Often have I seen, when the farmer had just brought the reaper into the yellow fields, and was binding up the barley with the brittle straw, all the tierceness of the winds combine, which far and wide tore up the full-loaded corn from the lowest roots, and tossed it up; just so with blackening whirlwind a wintry storm would drive light straw and flying stubble. Often also an immense band of vapours gather on the sky, and clouds col- lected from the deep, brew thick a deformed storm of black showers : the lofty sky pours down, and with torrents of rain sweeps away the joyful corn, and labours of the oxen : the ditches are filled, and the deep rivers swell with roar- ing noise, and in the steaming frothy friths the sea boils and rages. Father Jove himself, amidst a night of clouds, launches the thunders with his flaming right hand ; with the violence of which earth trembles to its utmost extent ; the beasts are fled, and through the nations humble feai- hath sunk the hearts of men. He with his flaming bolts strikes down or 'Athos, or Rhodope, or the high Ceraunia : the south winds redouble, and the shower is more and more condensed ; now the MOods, now the shores, in howling notes resound with the tempestuous wind. In fear of this, observe the months and constellations of the heavens : which way the cold star of Saturn shapes his course, towards which of the heavenly orbs Mercury's fiery planet wanders. Above all, pay veneration to the gods ; and renew to great Ceres the sacred annual rites, ofl^ering up thy sacrifice upon the joyous turf, at the expiration of the last days of winter, when the spring comes on serene. Then the lambs are fat, and then the wines most mellow ; then slumbers on the hills are sweet, and thick the shades. In thy behalf let all the rural youths adore Ceres ; in honour of whom mix thou the honey-comb with milk and gentle wine ; and thrice let the auspicious victim go round the n- cent grain ; which let the whole chorus of the village and thy associates accompany in jovial mood, and with acclam- ation invite Ceres into their dwellings : nor let any one put the sickle to the ripe corn, till, in honour of Ceres, having his temples bound with wreathed oak, he perform the rus- tic artless dance, and sing hymns. 1 ^/Aoi, a lofty mounUin of Mace- it. Ccraareia, large mountains of Epi- tlonia, in Greece, on a peninsula ; it riis, in Greece, stretching out far into is now called Monte Santo, from the the Adriatic. number of racnasteries erected upon Book I. GEORGICS. 351. 37 And that we may learn these things by certain signs, both heats and rains, and cold-bringing winds, father Jove him- self has appointed what the monthly moon should betoken ; with what signs concomitant the south-winds should fall ; from what common observations the husbandman should learn to keep his herds nearer their stalls. Straight, when the winds are rising, the friths of the sea -with tossings begin to swell, and a dry crashing noise to be heard in the high mountains ; or the far-sounding shores begin to be disturbed, and the murmurs of the grove to rise louder. Now hardly the billows refrain from the crooked ships, when the cormorants fly swiftly back to land from the midst of the sea, and send their screams to the shore ; and when the coots sport on the beach ; and the heron for- sakes the well-known fens, and soars above the lofty cloud. Often too, when wind is approaching, you will see the stars shoot precipitate from the sky, and behind them long trails of flame whiten athwart the shades of night ; often the light chaff and fallen leaves flutter about; or feathers swimming on the surface of the water frisk together. But when it lightens from the quarter of surly Boreas, and M'hen the house of 'Eurus and Zephyrus thunders, all the fields are floated with full ditches) and every mariner on the sea furls his humid sails. Showers never hurt any unforewarned : either the airy cranes have shunned it in the deep valleys as it rose ; or the heifer, looking up to heaven, hath suuflfed the air with wide nostrils ; or the chattering swallow hath fluttered about the lakes; and the frogs croaked their old complaint in the mud. And often the ant, wearing a narrow path, hath conveyed her eggs from her secret cell ; the spacious bow hath drunk deep ; and an army of ravens, on their return from feeding, have beaten the air, and made a noise, ^^ith wings close crowded. Now you may observe the various sea-fowls, and those that rummage /o?- ^Aetr/oorf about the Asian meads, in ^Cayster's pleasant lakes, keenly lave the copious dews upon their shoulders ; now on the banks offer their heads to the work- ing tides, now run into the streams, and, sportive, joy Avith eagerness to wash their plumes in vain. Then the inaus- picious crow with full throat invites the rain, and solitary stalks by herself on the dry sand. Nor were even the maids, carding their tasks oficool by night, ignorant of the approaching storm; when they saw the oil sputter in the heated potsherd-/awp, and foul fungous clots grow thick around the wick. 1 Eurus and Zephyrus, the east which falls into the ^gean sea, near and west winds. Ephesus. 2 Cayster, a river of Asia Minor, 38 GEORGICS. 393. Book I. l^or with less ease may you foresee, and by sure signs dis- cern, sunshine succeeding rain, and open serene skies. For neither are the stars then seen with blunted edge, nor the moon to rise obscure, as indebted to her brother's beams ; nor thin fleecy clouds to be carried through the sky. Nor do the halcyons, beloved by 'Thetis, expand their wings upon the shore to the warm sun : the impure swine are not heed- ful to toss about with their snouts loosened bundles of straw. But the mists sink down to the lower grounds, and rest upon the plain : and the owl, observant of the setting sun from the high house-top, practises her evening songs in vain. 'Nisus, transformed into a haioh, in the clear sky appears a- loft, and Scylla, inform of the lark, is punished for having cut her father^ purple lock. Wherever she flying cuts the light air with her wings, lo, hostile, implacable Nisus, with loud screams pursues her through the sky : where Nisus mounts into the sky, she swiftly flying cuts the light air with her wings. Then the ravens, with compressed throat, three or four times repeat their notes clear and shrill ; and often in their towering nests, affected with 1 know not what unusual joy, they caw aud make a bustle together among the leaves : the rains now past, they are glad to revisit their little offspring, and beloved nests : not, indeed, I am persuad- ed, as if they had a spirit of discernment from the gods, or superior knowledge of things by fate : but the temperature of the air and fluctuating vapours have changed their course, and Jove, veiled in showers, by his south-winds condenses those things which just before were rare, and rarefies what things were dense; the images of their minds are altered, and their breasts receive new motions of one sort, now of another, while the wind rolled the clouds- Hence that concert of birds in the fields, and hence the cattle frisking for joy, and the ravens exulting in hoarse notes. But if you give attention to the rapid sun, and the moons in order following ; the hour of ensuing morn shall never cheat you, nor shall you be deceived by the treacher- ous aspect of a Vi\g\itfair and serene. When first the moon collects the returning rays, if M'ith horns obscure she en- closes dusky air; a vast storm of rain is preparing for the swains and mariners. But, if she should spread a virgin blush over her face, wind will ensue: golden 'Phoebe still reddens with wind. But if at her fourth rising (for that is 1 Thetis, one of the sea-deities, into a hawk, and hia daughter, Sc^//a, daughter of Nereus and Doris, and into a lark . mother of Achilles. 3 Phoebe, a name of Diana, or 2 A7iKS, a kingof Megara, in Greece, Luna, (the moon;) as Phcebus is a was, according to the poets, changed name ol 'Apollo, or Sol, (the sun.) Book I. GEORGICS. 432. 39 the most unerring^ monitor) she walks along the sky pure and hright, nor Avith blunted horns ; both that whole day and all those that shall come after it, till the month be finished, will be free from rain and winds : and the mariners, preserved fj-om shipwreck, will pay their vows upon the shore to ^Glaucus, Panopea, and Melicerta, Ino's son. The sun, too, both rising, and when he sets in the waves, will give signs. The surest signs attend the sun, both those which he brings in the morning, and those when the stars arise. When he shall chequer his new-born face with spots, hidden in a cloud, and coyly shun the sight with half his orb, you may then suspect showers : for the south-wind, pernicious to trees and corn, and flocks, hastens from the sea. Or when, at the dawn, the rays shall break and scat- ter themselves diversely among the thick clouds ; or M'hen Aurora, leaving the saffron bed of ^Tithonus, rises pale; ah, the vine-leaf will then but ill defend the mild ripening grapes; so thick the horrid hail abounds rattling on the roofs. This too it will be more advantageous to remember, when, having measured the heavens, he is just setting ; for often we see various colours wander over his face. The azure threatens rain ; the fiery, wind. But if the spots be- gin to be blended with bright fire ; then you will see all embroiled together with wind and storms of rain. Let none advise me that night to launch into the deep, or to tear my cable from the land. But if, both when he ushers in, and ivhen he shuts up, the revolving day, his orb is clear and lucid ; in vain shall you be alarmed by the clouds, and you will see woods waved by the fair north-wind. In fine, the sun will give thee signs of what tveather late Vesper brings, from what quarter the wind will roll the clouds serene and fair, what humid 'Auster meditates. Who dares to call the sun a deceiver? He even forewarns often tliat dark insurrections are at hand, and that treache- ry and secret wars are swelling to a head. He also sym- pathized with Rome on Caesar's death, when he covered his bright head with a dark ensanguined hue, and the impious age feared eternal night ; though at that time the earth too, and ocean's watery plains, dogs in hideous bowlings, and birds by importunate unseasonable screams, gave ominous 1 G/aucus, a fisherman of Anthe- also by the names of Palasmon and don, in Boeotia, son of Neptune and Portumnus. Nais, changed into a Sea- Deity. /"fljio- '2 Tithonus, a son of Laomedon, uea, a sea-nymph, one of the "Nereids, king of Troy, was so beautiful, that Melica-ta, the son of Athanias and Aurora became enamoured of him, Ino, changed into a Sea-God, known and carried him away to Ethiopia. o A-uiter, the south.wind. 40 GEORGICS. 471. Book I. signs. How often have we seen mount '^tna from its burst furnaces boil over in waves on the lauds of the ^Cyclops, and shoot up mto the air globes of flame, and molten rocks ! Germany heard a clashing ofarms over all the sky; the Alps trembled with uncommon earthquakes. A mighty voice too was commonly heard through the silent groves, and spectres hideously pale, were seen under cloud of night ; and the very cattle (O horrid!) spoke; rivers stopped their courses, earth yawned wide; the mourning ivory weeps in the temples, and the brazen statues sweat. ^Eridanus, su- preme of rivers, overflowed, whirling in his furious eddy whole woods along, and bore away the herds with their stalls over all the plains. Nor at the same time did either the fibres fiiil to appear threatening in the baleful entrails, or streams of blood to flow from the wells, and cities to re- sound aloud with wolves howling by night. Never did lightning fall in greater quantities from a serene sky, or direful comets so often blaze. For this ^Philippi twice saw the Roman armies in intestine war engage; nor seemed it_ unbecoming to the gods, that "'Emathia and the extensive plains of Hsemus should twice be fattened with our blood. The time also will come, when in those regions the hus- bandman, labouring the ground with the crooked plough, shall find javelins half-consumed with corrosive rust, or with his cumbrous harrows shall clash on empty helmets, and, having dug up graves, be astonished at the huge bones. Ye guardian deities of my country, ye ^Indigetes, and thou, O ^Romulus, and mother ** Vesta, who presidest over 1 .^tna, (Gibello.l a celebrated vol- 5 Ematlua, an ancient name of Ma- canic mountain of Sicily. This im- cedonia and 'I'hessaly. HiEmiis, an mense mountain is of a conical form ; extensive chain of mountains through it is two miles in perpendicular height, Thrace, &c. in length about 400 miles. 100 miles round at the base, with an 6 Jndigetes, a name given to those ascent, in some places, of 30 miles, deities who were worshipped in par- and its crater is a circle of about 3% ticular places, or to such heroes as miles in circumference. were deified. 2 Ctjclops, a gigantic race of men, 7 Romulus, a son of Mars and Ilia, sons of Coelus and Terra ; they were grandson of Numitor, king of Alba, Vulcan's workmen in fabricating the and twin brother of Remus. He was thunderbolts of Jupiter, and were re- the founder and first king of Rome, presented having only one eye in the which he built on Mount Palatine, middle of their forehead. B. C. 753. By the triumphs of their 3 Eridamis, called afterwards Padu?, arms, and the terror of their name, (the Po,) the largest river of Italy, rises the Romans gradually rose, during a in the Alps, and, after a course of succession of ages, to universal em- nearly400 miles, falls into the Adriatic, pire, and Rome became, for a time, to the south of the city of Venice. mistress of the woild. After his death, 4 Pkilippi, a city of Macedonia, on Romulus was ranked among the Gods, the confines of Thrace, famous for the and received divine honours, under defeat of Brutus and Cassius by An- the name of Quirinus. tony and Augustus, B. C. 42. By 8 /Vito, daughter of Rhea and Sa. the other battle at Philippi, mentioned turn, called the Mother of the Gods, here, Virgil issupposed toallude to that was the Goddess of Fire, and the pa. between Ca?sar and Pompcy on the troness of the Vestal virgins, among plains of Pharsalia, in Thcssaly, which the Romans, was fought near a town also called Philippi, B. C. 48. Book II. GEORGICS. 499. 41 the Tuscan 'Tiber, and the palaces of Rome; forbid not at least that this young prince repair the ruins of the age. Long since have we with our blood atoned for the perjuries of '^Laomedon's Troy. Long since, O Cjesar, the courts of Heaven envy us the possession of thee, and complain that thou art concerned about the triumphs of mortals; since among them the distinctions of right and wrong are per- verted ; so many wars, so many species of crimes, prevail throughout the world ; the plough has none of those honours that are its due; the fields lie '.vaste, their owners being forced to bear arms : and the crooked scythes are forged into rigid swords. Here 'Euphrates, there Germany, raises war; neighbouring cities, having broken their mutual leagues, take arms against each other; unfeeling ^JNIars rages ove:* all the world. As when the four-horsed chariots have started from the goal, tliey ily out swifter and swifter to the race, and the charioteer, stretching in vain the bridle, is hurried away by the steeds, nor is the chariot heedlul of the reins. BOOK II. Virgil having, in the first book, treated of tillage, proceeds in the second to the subject of planting ; describes the varieties of tree?, with the best methods of raising thera ; gives rules for the management of the vine and olive, and for judging of the nature of soils ; and in a strain of exalted poetry, celebrates the praises of Italy, and the pleasures of a country life. Thus far of the culture of fields, and of the constellations of the heavens ; now, Bacchus, will I sing of thee, and with thee of woodland trees, and of the slow growing olive's off- spring. Hither, O father *Lenseus, (here all is full of thy bounties : for thee the field, laden m ith the viny harvest, flourishes -.for thee the vintage foams in the full vats :) hi- ther, O father Lenseus, come ; and, having thy buskins stripped off, stain thy naked legs with me in new Avine. First, nature is various in producing trees; for some, without any cogent means applied by men, come freely of 1 jTV&fr, a celebrated river of Italv, 3 Enpkratcs, a celebrated river ot rises in the Apennines, and falls into Asia, which rises in the mountains of the Mediterranean sea, 16 miles below Armenia, and discharges itself into the city of Rome. the Persian Gulf. 2 Lcomedon, king of Troy, and the 4 Mars, the God of War. Among father of Priam. He built the walls the Romans, this Deity received the of Troy with the assistance of Apollo most unbounded honours. and Neptune; but, on the work being 5 Leiupus, a surname of Bacchus, finished, he refused to reward them the God of Wine, from Xr,to;, a ivine- for their labours, and, in consequence, press. incurred the displeasure of the Gods. 42 GEORGICS. 10. Book II. their own accord, and widely overspread the plains and winding rivers; as the soft osier, and limber broom, the poplar and the whitening willows, with sea-green leaves. But some arise ft"om deposited seed ; as the lofty chestnuts, and the ^iesculus, which, in honour of Jove, shoots forth its leaves, the most majestic of the groves, and the oaks reput- ed oracular by the Greeks. To others a most luxuriant wood of suckers springs from the roots ; as the cherries, and the elms ; thus, too, the little bay of Parnassus raises itself under its mother's diflfusive shade. Natiu'e at first ordain- ed these raeansywr the jiroduction of trees ; by these every species blooms, of woods, and shrubs, and sacred groves. Others there are, which experience has found out for itself by art. One cutting off the suckers from the tender body of their mother, sets them in the furrows ; another buries the stocks in the ground, and stakes, whose bottom is split in four, and poles with the wood sharpened to a point; and some trees luxuriant expect the bent-down arches of a lay- er, and living nurseries in their own native soil. Others have no need of any root; and the planter makes no scru- ple to commit to earth the topmost shoots, giving them back to her care. Even (what is wondrous to relate) after the trunk is cut in pieces, the olive-tree shoots forth roots from the dry wood. Often we see the boughs of one tree trans- formed, with no disadvantage, into those of another, and a pear-tree thus changed bear engrafted apples, and stony Cor- nelian cherries grow upon plum-tree stocks. Wherefore come on, O husbandmen, learn the culture proper to each kind, and soften the wild fruits by cultiva- tion : nor let even poor and infertile grounds lie neglected : it is worth while to plant even rugged mountains such as Ismarus with vines, and clothe vast ^Taburnus with olives. And thou, my glory, to ivhom I justly owe the greatest portion of my fame, be present, O Maecenas, pursue with me this task begun, and flying set sail on this sea, now opening wide. I choose not to comprise all in my verse, even if I had a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths, and an iron voice ; be present, and coast along the nearest shore. The land is still in view ; I will not here detain thee with fictitious song, or with circumlocution and tedious preamble. Those which spring up spontaneously into the regions of light are unfruitful indeed : but they rise vigorous and strong : for in the soil lies hidden some natural quality 7>e- culiarly suited to them. Yet, if any one engraft even these, or deposit them transplanted in trenches well prepared, they 1 jEsculus, a species of oak. pania, in Italy, which abounded with 2 TaOurnus, a mountain of Cam- olives. Book II. GEORGICS. 51. 43 will put off their savage nature, and by frequent culture will not be slow to follow whatever arts and methods of im- provement you call them to. And the suckers also which sprout up barren from the low roots, will do the same, if they be distributed through fields where they have room to strike their roots : now in their natural state the high shoots and branches of the mother overshadow them, and hinder them from bearing fruit as they grow up, or pinch and starve them when they bear. The tree, again, that is raised from seed throuTi into the ground, grows up slowly, so as to form a shade for late posterity ; and its fruits degenerate, forget- ting their former juices : thus even the vine bears sorry clusters, a prey for birds. For labour must be bestowed on all, and all must be reduced into the trench, and tamed, and made prolific with vast pains. But olives answer our wishes better ivhen propagated by truncheons, vines by lay- ers, the myrtles of the 'Paphiau goddess by sets from the solid wood. From suckers the hard hazels grow, the huge ash, and the shady poplar-tree that furnished a crown for Hercules, and the oaks of the Chaonian father Jove : thus also the lofty palm is propagated, and the fir-tree doomed to visit the dangers of the main. But the rugged arbute is engi'afted on the offspring of the walnut, and barren planes have borne stout apple-trees. Chestnut -trees have borne beeches, and the mountain ash hath whitened with the snowy blossoms of the pear : and swine hath crunched acorns under elms. Nor is the me- thod of engrafting the same with that of inoculating. For inoadating is thus .- where the buds thrust themselves forth from the middle of the bark, and burst the slender coats, a small notch is made in the very knot : hither they enclose an eye from another tree, and teach it to unite with the moist rind. Or again, in engrafting, the knotless stocks are cut, and a passage is cloven deep into the solid icood with wedges ; then fertile scions are inserted ; and in no long time, a huge tree shoots up to heaven with prosperous boughs, and admires its new leaves and fruits not its own. Moreover, the species is not single, either of strong elms, or of willows, of the lote-tree, or of the ^Idjean cypresses; nor do the fat olives grow in one form, the orchites, and 1 Paphian Goddess, Venus was so described by Homer, dustumian and called, from Paphos, (Baffa,) a city of Syrian pears ; the first were so called Cyprus, where she was worshipped. from Crustuminum, a town of Etruria, 2 Idcean cypresses, from Mount Ida, in Italy ; and the latter from Syria, a in the island of Crete. Orchards of country of Asia, along the eastern Atcinous, king of Phaeacia, afterwards shore of the Mediterranean. Phoeni. called Corcyra, (Corfu,) one of the cia and Palestine were generally rec- Ionian islands; his gardens, which koncd provinces of Syria, were greatly famed, are beautifully 44 GEORGICS. 86. Book II. the radii, and tlie pausia with bitter berries ; nor apples, and the orchards of Alcinoiis ; nor are the shoots the same of the Crustumian and Syrian pears, and of the heavy volemi. The same vintage hangs not on our trees, which 'Lesbos gathers from the Methymnaean vine. There are the Tha- sian vines, and there are the white Mareotides; these fit for a rich soil, and those for a lighter one ; and the Psythian more serviceable when dried, and the thin light lageos, which will try the feet at length, and bind the tongue ; the purple and the rathripe : and in what numbers shall I sing of thee, O Rhsetian grape ? nor therefore vie thou with the =^Falernian cellars. There are also Amminean vines, best- bodied wines; which even Traolus and Phansfi king of mountains honour; and the smaller Argitis, which none can rival, either in yielding so much juice, or in lasting so many years. 1 must not pass thee over, Rhodian grape, grateful to the gods and second courses, nor thee bumastos, with thy swollen clusters. But we neither can recount how nume- rous the species, nor what are their names, nor imports it to comprise their number ; which whoever w^ould know, the same may seek to learn how numerous are the sands of the Libyan sea tossed by the zephyr; or to know how many waves of the ^Ionian sea come rolling to the shores, when Eurus, more violent, falls upon the ships. But neither can all soils bear all sorts oj trees. Willows gro«' along the rivers, and elders in miry fens ; the barren wild ashes on rocky mountains : the shores rejoice most in myrtle groves : Bacchus, in fine, loves open hills ; the yews the north wind and the cold. Survey also those parts of the globe that are subdued and cultivated hy hinds most remote, both the eastern ha- bitations of the ^Arabians, and the painted Geloni. Coun- tries are distinguished by their trees. India alone bears black ebony : the frankincense-tree belongs to the Sabteans 1 Lesbos, (Mytiline,) a large island from Rhodes, a large and fertile island in the Archipelago, celebrated, parti- in the Mediterranean, near the coast cularly the city of Methymna, for its of Asia Minor, celebrated for a colossal excellent wines. Thusian vines, those statue of Apollo. of Thasof, also an island in the Ar. 3 /o«;a» «fa, a part of theMediter- chipelago, near the coast of Thrace, ranean sea, at the bottom of the Adri- Mareotities, a vine from Mareotis, a atic, and between Sicily and Greece, lake in Egypt, near Alexandria. Pfy 4 Arabians, ^c. the inhabitants oi thian, from Psythia, an ancient town Arabia, an extensive country of Asia, of Greece, famous for its grapes. Rh^e- forming a Peninsula between the Per- //an grope, from Rhatia, (the Tyrol, sian and Arabian Gulfs; the latter Stc.) a mountainous country to the separates it from Africa. Geloni, a north of Italy. people of Scythia. Seres, a nation ot 2 Falernian, &c.— Falernus, a fertile Asia, between the Ganges and Fastern mountain and plain of Campania, in ocean ; the modern Tibet, or probably Italy. Amminia, a district of Cam- China. Media, a celebrated country pania. Pfiante, a promontory cf the of Asia, to the south of the Caspian jslandof Chios, (Scio.) Rhodian grape, sea. Book II. GEORGICS. 118. 45 only. Why should I mention to thee balms distilling from the fragrant Avoods, and the berries of the ever-green acan- thus? why the forests of the Ethiopians whitening with downy wool ? and how the Seres comb the fine silky Heeces from the leaves? or the groves which India, nearer the ocean, the utmost skirts of the globe, produces ? where no arrows by their flight have been able to surmount the airy summit of the tree : and yet that nation is not unskilful in archery. Media bears the bitter juices and the permanent flavour of the happy apple ; than which no remedy comes more seasonable, and more effectually expels the black ve- nom from the limbs, when cruel stepmothers have poisoned a cup, and mingled herbs and not innoxious spells. The tree itself is stately, and in form most like a bay ; and if it did not widely diffuse a different scent, would be a bay. Its leaves fall not off by any winds ; its blossoms are ex- tremely tenacious. With it the Medes correct their breaths and unsavoury mouths, and cure their asthmatic old men. But neither the forests of Media, that richest country, nor the beautiful 'Ganges, and Hermus, turbid with golden sands, can match the praises of Italy : not ^Bactra, nor the Indians, and Panchaia, all enriched with incense-bearing soil. Bulls breathing fire from their nostrils never plough- ed these regions, to be sown with the teeth of a hideous dragon ; nor did ever a crop of men shoot dreadful up with helmets and crowded spears : but teeming corn and Bac- chus' Campanian juice have filled the land, olives and joy- ous herbs possess it. Hence the warrior-horse with state- ly port advances into the field ; hence 'Clitumnus, thy white flocks, and the bull, chief of victims, after they have been often plunged in thy sacred stream, accompany the Roman triumphs to the temples of the gods. Here is perpetual spring, and summer in months not her own : twice a-year the cattle are big with young, twice the trees productive of fruit. But here are no ravening tigers, nor the savage breed of lions ; nor poisonous Molfsbane deceives the wretched gatherers : nor here the scaly serpent sweeps his immense orbs along the ground, nor with so vast a train collects him- self in spires. Add so many magnificent cities and M'orks 1 Ganges, a celebrated river of In- 2 Bactra, (Balkh,) the capital of dia, which rises in the Himalaya Bactriana, a country of Asia. Pan. mountains, and, after a course of chaia, a district of Arabia Felix. 1500 miles, falls into the bay of Ben. 3 Cliiumnus, a river of Umbria, in gal, below Calcutta. Hermus, (Sara. Italv, which falls into the Tiber. It bat,) a river of Lydia, in Asia Minor, was' famous for its milk-white flocks, whose sands were mingled with gold ; selected as victims in the celebration it receives the waters of the Pactolus of the triumph, near Sardis, and falls into the .^gean, north-west of Smyrna. 46 GEORGICS. 155. Book It. of elaborate art ; so many toM'ns upreared with the haad on craggy rocks ; and rivers gliding under ancient walls. Or need I mention the sea which Mashes it above, and that be- low ? or its lakes so vast ? thee, ^Larius, of largest extent ? and thee, Benacus, swelling with the waves and roaring of the sea ? Or shall I mention its ports, and the moles raised to dam the '^Lucrine lahe^ and the imprisoned sea raging indignant with loud murmurs, where the Julian wave far resounds, the sea being driven back, and where the Tuscan tide is let into the straits of Avernus ? The same land hath in its veins disclosed rivers of silver and mines of copper, and copious flowed with gold. The same hath produced a warlike race of men, the 'Marsi and the Sabellian youth, and the Ligurian inured to hardship, and the Volscians armed with sharp darts : this same produced the '*Decii, the Marii, and the great *Camilli, the Scipios invincible in war, and thee, most mighty Caesar ; who, at this very time victorious in Asia's remotest limits, avertest from the Ro- man towers the Indian peaceful and disarmed. Hail, '^Sa- turnian land, great parent of fruits; great parent of heroes; for thee I enter on a subject of ancient renown and arti venturing to disclose the sacred springs ; and [ sing the As- crean strain through Roman cities. Now it is time to describe the qualities of soils ; what strength and energy to each belong, what colour, and what its nature is most apt to produce. First, intractable lands, and unfruitful hills, M'here lean clay abounds, and pebbles 1 Larius, (Como,) a beautiful lake 4 Z)r«V, a noble family of Rome, who of Cisalpine Gaul, through which the devoted themselves to death for the Addua runs in its course to the Po, safety of their country. Marii, the above Cremona. Benacvs, {'L.d.iGa.x. Marian family, the chief of whom was da,) a large lake, from which the Min- Caius Marius, who, from a peasant, cius issues, and flows into the Po. became one of the most powerful and 2 Lucrinc Lake, near Cuma?, on cruel tyrants that Rome ever beheld the coast of Campania ; during an during her consular government, earthquake, A.D. 1538, this lake dis- 5 Camilli, two celebrated Romans, appeared, and in its place was formed father and son ; the latter was chosen a mountain, two miles in circumfer- five times Dictator, expelled the ence, and 1000 feet high, with a crater Gauls under Brennus from Rome, in the middle. Avernus, a lake of and, on account of his services to his Campania, whose waters were so put- country, was called a second Romu. rid, that the ancients regarded it as lus. The Scipios. — P. Corn. Scipio, the entrance of the infernal regions, sumamed Atricanus, the conqueror Augustus united the Lucrine and of Hannibal, and his grandson, P. Avernian lakes by the famous Julian ^Erail. Scipio, called Africanus the harbour, and formed a communication younger, on account of his victories between the latter lake and the sea. over Carthage, B.C. 146. The two 3 Marsi were a people of Germany, Scipios may justly be ranked among who emigrated to Italy, and settled the brightest ornaments of Roman near the lake Fucinus. The Sabel- greatness. Hans were descended from the Sa- 6 Sa^Mrm'an /anrf, Italy was «o call, bines, or from the Samnites ;— the ed, from Saturn, who, on being de- Ligurians inhabited Piedmont ; — the throned by Jupiter, fled to Italy, where Volscians were a warlike people of he reigned during the golden age. Latium. (Campagna di Roma.) Book II. GEORGICS. 180. 47 in the bushy fields, rejoice in Pallas's wood of lonf>-"lived olives. The M-ild olive rising copious in the same soil is an indication, and the fields strewTi with woodland berries. But, to the ground that is fat, and gladdened with sweet moisture, and to the plain that is luxuriant in grass, and of a fertile soil, (such as we are often wont to look down upon in the hollow valley of a mountain,) streams glide from the high rocks, and draw a rich fattening slime along : and that which is raised to the south, and nourishes the fern ab- horred by the crooked ploughs, will in time afford vines ex- ceedingly strong, and flowing with plenty of generous wine: this will be prolific of grapes, this of such liquor as we pour forth in libation from golden bowls, when the fat Tuscan has blown the ivory trumpet at the altars, and we offer up the smokinar entrails in the bendins: char^-ers. But if you are studious to preserve herds of kine and calves, or the offspring of the sheep, or kids that kill the nurseries; seek the lawns and distant fields of fruitful ^Ta- rentum, and plains like those which hapless Mantua hath lost, feeding snow-white swans in the grassy stream. There neither limpid springs nor pastures will be wanting to the flocks : and as much as the herds will crop iu the long dav^s, so much will the cool dews in one short night i-estore. A soil that is blackish, and fat under the deep-piercing share, and whose mould is loose and crumbling, (for this we imitate by ploughing,) is generally best for corn ; (from no plain will you see more waggons move homeward with slow heavy 'laden oxen:) or that from which the angry ploughman has borne away a wood, and felled the groves that have been at a stand for many years, and with their lowest roots grub- bed up the ancient habitations of the birds; they abandon- ing their nests soar on high; but the field looks gay as soon as the ploughshare is driven into it. For the lean hungry gravel of a hilly field scarcely furnishes humble cassia and rosemary for the bees : and no other lands, they say, yield so sweet food to serpents, or afford them such winding co- verts as the rough rotten-stone, and chalk corroded by black water-snakes. That land which exhales thin mists and fly- ing smoke, and drinks in the moisture, and emits it at plea- sure ; — and which always clothes itself with its own ver- dant grass, nor hurts the ploughshare with scui-f and salt rust ; — will entwine thine elms with joyous vines ; that also is fertile of olives : that ground you will experience, in ma- nuring, both to be friendly to cattle and submissive to the I Tarentum, (Tarento,) a maritime a noble bay of the same name, city of Calabria in Italy, situated on 48 OEORGICS. 224. Book II. crooked share. Such a soil rich i Capua tills, and the ter- ritory adjoining to Mount ^Vesuvius, and the Clanius not kind to depopulated 'Acerrie. Now I will tell by what means you may distinguish each. If you desire to know whether it be rare and loose, or un- usually dense and stiff; (because the one is fit for corn ; the other for wine ; the stiff is best for Ceres, and the most loose for Bacchus :) first you shall mark out a place with your eye, and order a pit to be sunk deep in solid ground, and again return all the mould into its place, and level with your feet the sands at top. If they prove deficient, the soil is loose, and more fit for cattle and bounteous vines : but, if they deny the possibility of returning to their places, and there be an overplus of mould after the pit is filled up, it is a dense soil ; expect reluctant clods, and stiff tenacious rid- ges, and tear up the land with sturdy bullocks. But saltish ground, and what is accounted bitter, where corn can never thrive, (it neither mellows by ploughing, nor preserves to grapes their kind, or to fruits their qualities,) will give an experimental proof to this effect. Snatch from the smoky roofs baskets of close- woven twigs, andthe strain- ers of thy wine-press. Hither let some of that vicious mould, and sweet water from the spring, be pressed brim- ful : be sure all the water will strain out, and big drops pass through the twigs. But the taste will clearly make discovery ; and its bitterness will distort the countenances of the tasters, offended with the sensation. Again, what land is fat. Me briefly learn thus: when squeezed by the hand it never crumbles, but, in handling, it sticks to the fingers like pitch. The moist soil produces herbs of a larger size, and is itself luxuriant beyond due measure. Ah, may none of mine be thus too fertile, nor show itself too strong at the first springing of the grain ! The heavy land betrays itself by its very weight, with- out my telling you ; and likewise the light. It is obvious to distinguish the black at first sight, and what is the colour of each. But to search out the mischievous cold is no easy task : only pitch-trees, and sometimes noxious yews, or black ivy, disclose its signs. 1 Capua, a famous city of Italy, the arid ashes. The discovery of these capital of Campania. towns, afi er having lain above 1600 2 Vesuvius, a celebrated volcanic years buried and unknown, has fur. mountain ofCampania, about six miles nished the world with many curious south-east of Naples, and 3780 feet and valuable remains of antiquity, high. The first great eruption of Ve- 3 Acerrce, a town of Campania, near suvius on record was accompanied by the city of Naples ; the river Clanius an earthquake, A. D. 7!l, when the almost surrounded the town, and by towns of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and its inundations frequently depopulat- Stabise, were overwhelmed under lava ed it. Book II. GEORGICS. 259. 49 These rules observed, remember to dry and bake the soil Joug' before, to encompass the spacious hills with trenches, and expose the turned-up clods to the north Avind, before you plant the vine's joyous race. Fields of a loose crumb- ling soil are best : this eft'ect the winds and cold frosts pro- duce, and the sturdy delver, close plying- his acres, tossed and turned upside down. But those, whom not any vigilance escapes, first seek out a piece of ground similar to that whence the plants are taken, where the first nursery may be provided for their trees, and whither it may soon be transplanted in rows ; lest the slips take not kindly to this Tieio mother tliat is suddenly changed upon them. They even mark on the bark the quarter of the sky, that, in whatever manner each stood, in what part it bore the southern heats, what sides it turned to the northern pole, they may restore to it the same positio7i. Of such avail is custom in tender years. Examine, first, A\hether it is better to plant your vines on hills or on a plain. If you lay out the fields of a rich plain, plant thick ; Bacchus will not be the more backward to grow in such a soil, icheii planted thick : but if i/ou lay out a soil rising with a gentle ascent, and sloping hills, give room to your ranks ; yet, so that your trees being exactly ranged, each space may square with the path cut across it. As often in dreadful war, when the extended legion hath ranged its cohorts, the battalions stand marshalled on the open plain, the armies set in array, and the whole ground wide waves with gleaming brass; nor yet are they engaged in horrid battle, but Mars hovers dubious in the midst of arms : thuSy 1-et all your vineyards be laid out in equal proportions, not only that the prospect may feed the mind with vain delight, but because the earth will nototherwise supply equal strength to all ; nor will the branches be able to extend themselves at large. Perhaps, too, you may demand what depth is proper for the trenches. I could venture to commit my vine even to a slight furrow. Trees, again, are sunk deeper down, and far into the ground : especially the sesculus, which shoots downward to hell with its roots, as far as it rises with its top to the ethereal regions. Therefore not wintry storms, nor blasts of winds, nor showers, can overthrow it : it re- mains unmoved, and, rolling many ages of men away, out- lasts them for many years ; then stretching wide its sturdy boughs and arras this way and that way, itself in the midst sustains a mighty shade. Nor let the vineyards lie tonards the setting sun ; nor plant the hazel among your vines ; nor gather your cuttings C so GEORGICS. 299. Book IL from the top of the tree, but those that are near the roots, which ivill thrive best, having already contracted a fondness for the earth ; so much love to the earth avails : nor hurt your shoots with blunted steel; nor plant among them the truncheons of the wild olive. For fire is often let fall from the unwary shepherds, which, at first secretly lurking' under the unctuous bark, catches the solid wood, and shooting up into the topmast leaves, raises a loud crackling to heaven; thence pursuing its way, reigns victorious among the branches and the lofty tops, involves the whole grove in flames, and, condensed in pitchy vapour, darts the black cloud to heaven ; chiefly if a storm over-head rests its fury on the woods, and the driving wind m hirls tlie flames aloft. When this happens, their strength decays from the root, nor can they recover though cut, or sprout up from the deep earth such as they were : the unblest wild olive with its bitter leaves alone survives the disaster. Let no counsellor bo so wise in your eyes as to persuade you to stir the rigid earth when Boreas breathes. Then winter shuts up the fields with frost ; and M'hen the slip is planted, suffers not the frozen root to fasten to the earth. The plantation of the vineyard is best, when in the blushing spring the white bird comes in, which the long snakes abhor ; or towards the first colds of autumn, when the vehement sua does not yet touch the winter with his steeds, and the sum- mer is just gone. The spring is chiefly beneficial to the foliage of the groves, the spring is beneficial to the woods : in S2)ring the lands swell, and demand the genial seeds. Then almighty father ^^ther descends in fructifying showers into the bosom of his joyous spouse, and great him- self, mingling with her great body, nourishes all her off- spring. Then the retired brakes resound Mith tuneful birds; and the herds renew their loves on the stated days. Then bounteous earth is teeming to the birth, and the fields open their bosoms to the warm breezes of the Zephyr : in all a gentle moisture abounds ; and the herbs dare safely trust tliemselves to the infant suns ; nor are the vine's tender shoots afraid of the rising south winds, or of a shower precipitated from the sky by the violent north winds; but put forth their buds, and unfold all their leaves. No other day, methinks, had shone at the first origin of the rising world ; it was reigning spring, the spacious globe en- joyed spring, and the east winds withheld their wintry blasts ; when first the cattle drew in the light, and man's laborious race upreared their heads from the hard glebe, and I ^ther, used for Jupiter, the supreme Godof tbe Heathens. Book II. GEORGICS. 342. 51 the woods were stocked with wild beasts, and the heavens with stars. Nor could the tender productions of nature bear this labour, if so great rest did not intervene between the cold and heat, and if heaven's indulgent season did not visit the earth in its turn. For what remains, whatever layers you bend down over all the fields, overspread them with fat dung, and carefully cover them with copious earth ; or bury about them spongy stones, or rough shells: fovf/tus the rains will soak through the subtile vapour, penetrate info their pares, and the plants become stout and vigorous. We find some too who are for pressing them from above with a stone, and the weight of a great potsherd ; this is a defence against the pouring rains: this a defence when the sultry dog-star cleaves the gaping fields with drought. After your layers are planted, it remains to convey earth often to the roots, and ply the hard drags ; or to work the soil under the impressed share, and guide your struggling bullocks through the very vineyards ; then to adapt to the vines smooth reeds, and spears of peeled rods, and ashen stakes, and two-horned forks; by whose strength they may learn to shoot up, to contemn the winds, and climb from stage to stage along the highest elms. And, while their infont age sprouts with new-bom leaves, you must spare the tender vines; and while the joyous shoot raises itself on high, wantoning through the open air with loose reins, the edge of the pruning-knife itself must not be applied; but the leaves should be plucked with the in-bent hands, and culled here and there. Thereafter, when they have shot forth, embracing the elms with firm stems, then cut their locks, then lop their arras. Before this they dread the steel : then, and not till then, exercise severe do- minion over them, and check the loose straggling boughs. Fences, too, should be woven around them, and all cattle must be restrained ; especially while the shoots are tender and unacquainted with hardships ; which, besides the rigor- ous winters and vehement heat of the sun, the wild buffaloes and persecuting goats continually insult ; the sheep and greedy heifers browse upon them. Nor do the colds con- densed in hoary frosts, or the severe heat beating upon the scorched rocks, hurt them so much as the flocks, and poison of their hard teeth, and a scar imprinted on the gnawed stem- For no other offence is the goat sacrificed to Bacchus on every altar, and the ancient plays come upon the stage : and/or this the Athenians proposed to the traffic wits prizes of goats about the villages and crossways ; and, joyous amidst their cups, danced in the soft meadows on goat-shin 52 GEORGICS. 384. Book II. bottles smeared with oil. On the same account, the 'Auson- ian colonists also, a race derived from Troy, sport in un- polished strains, and unbounded lauirhter; assuming horrid masks of hollowed barks of trees : and thee, O Bacchus, thay invoke in jovial songs, and to thee hang- up soft images from the tall pine. Hence every vineyard shoots forth with large produce ; the hollow vales and deep lawns are filled tvith plenty, And wherever the god hath moved around his graceful head- Therefore will we solemnly ascribe to Bacchus his due honours in our country's lays, and offer to him chargers, and the consecrated cakes; and the sacred goat led by the horn shall stand at his altar, and we will roast the fat entrails on hazel spits. There is also that other toil in dressing the vines; in ex- rcrtting which you can never bestow pains enough : for the whole soil m.ust be ploughed three or four times every year, and the clods are continually to be broken with bended drags ; the whole grove must be disburthened of its leaves. The farmer's past labour returns in a circle, and the year rolls round on itself in its own steps. And now when at length the vineyard has shed its late leaves, and the cold north wind has shaken from the groves their honours ; even then the active SM'ain extends his cares to the ensuing year, and closely plies the desolate forsaken vine, cutting off the supejjiitous roots with Saturn's crooked hook, and forms it by pruning. Be the first to trench the ground, be the first to carry home and burn the superfluous shoots, and the first to return beneath your roof the stakes that propped your vines : be the last to reap the vintage. Twice a luxuriant shade of leaves assails the vines: twice thick prickly weeds overrun the field ; each a subject of hard labour. Com- mend large farms ; cultivate a small one. Besides all this, the rough twigs of butcher's broom are to be cut through- out tlie woods, and the watery reed on the banks : and the care of the uncultivated willow gives him new toil. And now his labour seems at an end, now the vines are tied ; now the vineyard lays aside the pruning-hook ; now the exhausted vintager salutes in song his utmost rows : yet must the earth be vexed aneic, and the mould still put in motion ; and now after all, Jove and the iveather are to l)e dreaded by the ripened grapes. On the other hand, the olives require no culture ; nor do they expect the crooked pruning-hook and tenacious har- rows, when once they are rooted in the ground, and have 1 Auionian, Sfc, the inhabitants of who were supposed to be (iescendcti Ausonia, an ancient name of Italy, from JEneits. Book It. GEORGICS. 422. 53 sustained the air. Earth of herself supplies the plants with moisture, when opened by the hooked slipping-iron, and weighty fruits, when opened by the share. Nourish with this the fat and peace-delighting olive. The other fruit- trees too, as soon as they feel their trunks vigorous, and acquire their strength, quickly shoot up to the stars by their own inherent virtue, and need not our assistance. At the same time, every grove is in like manner ivithout culture loaded with offspring, and the uncultivated haunts of birds glow with blood-red berries : the cytisus is browsed on by cattle; the tall wood supplies it with torches; and thence our nocturnal fires are fed, and shed on us beamy light. And after this do men hesitate about planting and bestowino' care. Why should I insist on greater things ? the very willows and lowly broom supply either browse for cattle, or shade for shepherds, fences for the corn, and materials for honey. It is delightful to behold 'Cytorus waving with the groves of Narycian pitch : it is delightful to see the fields not in- debted to the harrows, or to any care of men. Even the barren woods on the top of Caucasus, which the fierce east winds continually are crushing and tearing, yield each their different produce : they yield pines, an useful wood for ships, and cedars and cypresses for houses. Hence the husbandmen have laboured spokes for wheels; hence they have framed solid orbs for waggons, and bending keels for ships. The willows are fertile in twigs, the elms in leaves for cattle ; the myrtle again is useful for sturdy spears, and the Cornell for war; the yews are bent into ^Ityrsean bows. In like manner the smooth-grained limes, or box that po- lishes with the lathe, receive any shape, and are hollowed with sharp steel. Thus too the light alder launched on the ^Po swims the rapid stream : thus too the bees hide tlieir swarms in the hollow bark, and in the heart of a rotten holm. What have the gifts of Bacchus produced so worthy of record ? Bacchus has given occasion to offence and guilt: he quelled by death the furious ''Centaui-s, Rhoetus 1 C^torus, (Kidros,) acityandmoun- about 30 miles south of the city of tain of Paphlagonia, on the Eiixine. Venice. Narycian pitch, from Narjcia, a town 4 Centatirs, a people of Thessaly, r«- of the Locrians in Magna' Greecia, in presented as monsters, half men, and the neighbourhood of which were fo- half horses. The LapithiE, also a peo- rests of pine, &c. pie of Thessalj-, who inhabited the a //^/•<£-a« 6o«'S, from ItjTa^a, a pro- country about Mount I'indus and vince of Syria, whose inhabitants were Othrys. The allusion here is to the famous archers. battle of the Centaurs and Lapitha, at 3 Po, anciently called also Erdanus, the celebration of the nuptials of Pi- thelargestriver of Italy, risesin Mount nthous, king of the latter, who in. Vesulus, one of the highest mountains vited not only the heroes of his age, of the Alps, and, atler an easterly but also the gods themselves. In the course of nearly 400 miles, and receiv- contest that ensued, many of theCen- ing numerous' tributary streams, dis- taurs were slain, and the rest saved charges its waters into' the Adriatic, themselves by flight. S* GEORGICS. 456. Book II. and Pholus, and Hylseus threatening the Lapithse with a hug-e goblet. Thrice happy swains, did they but know their own bliss! to whom, at a distance from discordant arms, earth, of her- self most liberal, pours from her bosom their easy suste- nance. If there the palace high-raised M'ith proud gates vomits not forth from all its apartments a vast tide of morn- ing visitants ; and if they dote not on porticoes variegated with beauteous tortoise-shell, and on vestments curiously embroidered v^ith gold, and on vases of Corinthian brass ; and if for them the white wool is not stained with the As- syrian drug, nor the use of the pure oil corrupted with Cassia's aromatic bark : yet theirs is peace secure, and a life of solid unfallacious bliss, rich in various opulence : yet theirs are peaceful retreats in ample lields, grottos, and living lakes ; yet to them cool delicious vales, the lowings of kine, and soft slumbers under a tree, are not wanting. There are lawns and dens for beasts of chase, and youth patient of toil, and inured to thrift; the worship of the gods, and fathers held in veneration : Justice, when she left the world, took her last steps among them. Eut me may the s\\eet Muses, whose sacred symbols I bear, smitten with the violent love of philosophic song, first, above all things else, re( eive into favour ; and show me the paths of heaven, and constellations; the various eclipses of the sun, and labours of the moon ; whence the trenibliug of the earth ; from what powerful cause the seas swell high, bursting their barriers, and again sink back into themselves ; why the winter suns make such haste to dip themselves in the ocean, or what delay retards the slow- paced summer nights. But if the cold blood about my heart hinders me from penetrating into these parts of nature ; let tields and streams gliding in the valleys be my delight; may I court the rivers and the woods, inglorious and obscure. C) that I might be where are the pleasant ^ Thessalian plains, and the river Sperchius, and '^Taygetus, the scene of Bacchanalian revels to Spartan maids! O who will place me in the cool valleys of Hsemus, and shelter me \v'\t\\ a thick shade of boughs ? Happy is he who can trace out the causes of things, and who has cast beneath his feet all fears, and inexorable Des- 1 Thessalian plains. — Thessaly, a 2 Taygetus, a mountain of Laco- country of Greece, soutli of Macedo- nia in Peloponnesus, (Morea,) on nia_, in which was the celebrated vale which were celebrated the orgies of of Tempe. Sperchius, a. rweroi Thus. Bacchus; it hung over i he city of saly, rises in Mount CEta, and runs Spar a, and extended from T«narus into the Maliac Gulf, near the PatS to Arcadia, of Thermopylje. Book 11. GEORGTCS. 492. 55 tiny, and the noise of devouring 'Acheron ! Blest too is he who has known the rural deities, Pan and old Silvanus, and the sister nymphs ! him not the fasces of the people, nor the purple of kings, nor discord persecuting faithless brothers, nor the Dacian descending from the conspiring 'Danube ; nor the revolutions of Rome, or perishing king- doms, have moved or shaken. He neither pined with grief, lamenting the poor, nor envied the rich. What fruits the boughs, what fruits the « iiling fields spontaneously yield, ed, he gathered ; nor saw the rigorous iron laws, the madly litigious bar, or the public courts. Some vex the dangerous seas with oars, some rush into arras ; so7ne work their way into courts, and the palaces of kings. One destines a city and wretched families to de- struction, that he may drink in gems, and sleep on 'Tyriau purple. Another hoards up wealth, and broods over buried gold. One, astonished with the eloquence f/the rostrum, grows giddy ; another, peals of applause, (for it is redoubled,) along the rows l)Oth of the people and the fathers, have captivated, and set agape ; some rejoice in being stained with their brother's blood; and exchange their homes and sweet mansions for exile, and seek a country lying under another sun. The husbandman cleaves the earth with a crooked plough ; hence the labours of the year ; hence he sustains the country, and his little offspring ; hence his herds of kine, and deserving steers. Nor is there any intermis- sion, but the year either abounds with apples, or with the breed of the tiocks, or with bundles of Ceres' stalks ; loads the furrows with increase, and overstocks the barns. Win- ter comes ; the *8icyonian berry is pounded in the oil-press- es, the swine come home gladdened with acorns; the woods yield their arbutes, and ivild fruits ; and the autumn lays down its various productions ; and high on the sunny rocks the mild vintage is ripened. Meanwhile the sweet babes twine round their parents' neck : his chaste family maintain a virtuous economy ; the cows hang down their udders full of milk ; and the idifrisny kids wrestle together with butt- ing horns on the cheerful green. The swain himself cele- brates festival days ; and, extended on the grass, where a 1 Acheron, one of the rivers of 3 Tyrian purple, from Tyre, a city hell, accoriiing to the ancient poets; of I'lioenicia in Asia, celebrated for in often taken for hell itself early commerce and numerous cole. 2 Danube, the largest river of Eu- nies, and for the invention of scarlet rope, rises in the black forest of Sua- and purple colours ; its ancient name bia, and, after a course of about 1600 was Sarra, now Soor. miles, discharges itself mto the Euxine 4 Sicyonian berry, the olive, with sea. The Dacians inhabited an ex- which sicyonia, a rtistrict of Pelopon. tensive country north of the Danube, nesus in Ureece, abounded, now called W'allachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia. 56 GEORGICS. 528. Book iH. fire is in the middle, and where his companions crown the howl, invokes thee, O Lenreus, making- libation ; and on an elm sets forth to the masters of the flock prizes to be contended for with the wing-ed javelin; and strips their hardy bodies in the rustic rinjr. This life of old the ancient 'Sabines ; this Remus and his brother strictly observed ; thus ^Etruria grew in strength ; and thus did Rome become the glory and beauty of the world, and, sing-le, hath encompassed for herself seven hills with a wall. This life, too, golden Saturn led on earth, be- fore the sceptred sway of the 'Dictsean king-, and before au impious race oj mortals feasted on slain bullocks. Nor yet had mankind heard the warlike trumpets blow ; nor yet heard the swords laid on the hard anvils clatter. But we have finished this immensely extended field ; and now it is time to unloose the smoking- necks of our steeds. o BOOK III. In the third book, after invoking the rural deities, and eulogising Augustus, Virgil treats of the management of cattle, laying down rules for the choice and breeding of horses, oxen, sheep, &c. The book abounds in admirable descriptions; many passages are inimitably fine. Thee, too, great Pales, and thee, O shepherd, famed from "•Amphrysus; ye woods and Arcadian rivers, will I sing. Other songs, that might have entertained disengaged minds, are now all trite and common. Who is unacquainted either with severe ^Eurystheus, or the altars of infiiraous Busiris? By whom has not the boy Hylas been recorded, and Lato- nian "Delos ? or 'Hippodame, and Pelops, signalized by his ivory shoulder, victorious in the race ? I, too, must at- 1 Sabines, an ancient people of Italy, the name of the twelve labours of Her- reckoned among the aborigines, or cules, i'«s;)M, a king of Egypt, noted thoseinhabitants whose origin was un. for his cruelty in sacrificing all fo- known; their country was situated be- reigners who entered his country, tween the rivets Tiber, Nar, and Anio, G Delos, a small but celebrated is- having the Apennines on the east. land of the .Egean sea, nearly in the 2 Eiruria, (Tuscany,) a country of centre of the Cyclades, in which Late- Italy lying west of the Tiber. na gave birth to Apollo and Diana; 3 Dicttean king, Jupiter is so called, hence the former is frequently called from Mount Dicte in Crete, where he JJelius, and the latter Delia. was worshipped. 7 Hippodame, a daughter of ffino- 4 jimphrysits, a river of Thessaly, maus, king of Pisa in Elis. Her fa- on the banks of which Apollo fed the tlier refused to marry her excejit to flocks of king Admetus. Arcadian him who could overcome him in a rjiierx; Arcadia was a pastoral district chariot race; thirteen had already ot Peloponnesus in Greece, of which been conquered, and forfeited their Pan was the tutelary deity. lives, when Pelops, the son of Tanta- 5 Eurystheus, king of Argos and lus, entered the lists, and by bribing IMycena", who, at the instigation of Myrtilus, thecharioteerof (Enomaus, Juno, imposed upon Hercules the most ensured to himself the victory, perilous enterprises, well known by Book III. GEORGICS. 8. 57 tempt a way, whereby I may raise myself from the ground, and victorious spread my Hying fame through the mouths of men. 1 first returning from the Aonian mount will (provided life remain) bring along the Muses with me into my coun- try ; for thee, Mantua, I first will gain the 'Idumrean palms, and on thy verdant plains erect a temple of marble, near the stream, where the great Mincius winds in slow meanders, and hath fringed the banks with tender reed. In the middle will I have Cuesar, and he shall command the temple. In honour of him will I victorious, and in Tyrian purple conspicuous, drive a hundred four-horsed chariots along the river. For me all Greece, leaving ^Alpheus and the groves of Molorchus, shall contend in races and the ri- gid gauntlet. I, myself, graced with leaves of the shorn olive, will distribute the prizes. Even now I am well pleased to lead on the solemn pomps to the temple, and to see the bullocks slain; or how the scene with shifting front retires; and how the inwoven Britons lift up the purple curtain. On the doors will I delineate, in gold and solid ivory, the battle of the ■'Gangarides, and the arms of coa- (jueriug Quirinus; and here the *Nile swelling with war, flowing majestic, and columns rising with naval brass. I will add the vanquished cities of Asia, and subdued *Nipha- tes, and the Parthian presuming on his flight and arrows shot backward, and two trophies by personal valour snatched from two widely distant foes, and nations twice triumphed over on either shore. Here too shall stand in ^Parian mar- ble, breathing statues, the offspring of 'Assaracus, and the chiefs of the Jove-descended race ; both Tros the great an- cestor of Rome, and the Cynthian Apollo, founder of Troy. Here baneful envy shall dread the Furies, and the grim ri- 1 IdumtBan palms, from Idumjea, low Cairo it divides itself into two great a country of Syria, rin the south of Ju. branches, which enclose the Delta, daea, famed for its palm trees. and fall into the Mediterranean, the 2 ^/p/igMS, (Rouphia,) a river of Elis western branch at Kosetta, and the in Peloponnesus, where the Olympic eastern at Damietta, games were celebrated. Molorchus, a. 5 Niphates , a mountain of Aimenia, shepherd of Argolis, who kindly re. partoftherangeof Taurus, from which ceived Hercules, and in return the the river Tigris takes its rise, hero slew the Nemsean lion which laid 6 Parian marble, from Paros, an is. waste the country; hence the institu- land ot the >Egean sea, one of the Cy- tionofthe Nema;an games. clades, famed for its beautiful while 3 Gangarides, a people of Asia, near marble. the mouth of the Ganges. 7 Assaracus, a Trojan prince, father 4 Nile, a great river of Africa, and of Capys, and grandfather of Anchises. one ofthe most celebrated in the world, Tros, a son of Erichthonius, king of is generally supposed to have its Troy, which was so named after him. sources in that immense chain of Cynthian Apollo, the surname is from mountains in central Africa, called Cynthus, a mountain in the island of \.he Mountains oj the Moon. Itscourse Delos, where Apollo and Diana were runs in a northerly direction, flowing born, and which was sacred to them, through Nubia and £gypt ; a little be. 68 GEORGICS. 38. Book III. Ter of ^Cocytus, Ixion's twisted snakes, the enormous rack- ing wheel, and the stone's insurmountable labour. Meanwhile, let us pursue the woods of the Dryads, and untrodden lawns ; thy commands, Maecenas, of no easy im- port. Without thee my mind enterprises nothing sublime; come then, break off idle delays. ^Citheron calls with loud halloo, and the hounds of Tayf>etus, p.nd Epidanrus, the tamer of horses also call ; and the voice doubled by the as- senting' groves re-echoes. Yet ere long- shall I be prepared to sing- of Ca?sar's ardent battles, and to transmit his name with honour through as many years as Ctesar is distant from the first origin of Tithouus. Whether any one, aspiring t© the prizes of the Olym- pian palm, breeds horses, or whether any one breeds sturdy bullocks for the plough, let him choose with special care the bodies of the mothers. The sour-looking heifer's form is best, whose head is hideously large, v\ hose neck is brawny, and whose dewlaps hang from the chin down to the leg's. Then there is no measure in her lenjrth of side : all her parts are huge, even her foot : and her ears are rough under her crankled horns. Nor would I dislike her if streaked with »hite spots, or if she refuses the yoke, and sometimes is surly with her horn, and in aspect ap- proaches neaier to a bull, and if she is stately throughout, and sweeps her steps, with the extremity of her tail, as sho goes alongf. The age to undergo Liicina and just hymeneal rites ends before ten, and begins after four years : the other years q/' cows are neither fit for breeding, nor strong for the plough. Meantime, while the flocks abound with sprightly youth, let loose the males : be the first to indulge thy cattle in the joys of love ; and by generation raise up one race after an- other. All the best days of life fly fast a\vay from ^retch- ed mortals : diseases succeed, and disconsolate old age, and pain ; and the inclemency of inexorable death snatches them away. There will always be some whose bodies j-ou would choose to have changed Jbr better. Therefore continually repair them; ami, that you may not regret them when lost, be before-hand, and yearly provide a uew offspring for the herd. Nor is the same discriminating care less requisite for a 1 Cocylus, a rirer of Epirus in Greece, 2 CUUcron, a mountain of Bceotia in called by the poets one of the rivers of Greece, sacred to Jupiter and the hell. Zrion, a kingot Thessaly, whom Muses. Epidaurns, [\'\i\a.vxn,) a c\\.)i Jupiter is fei: ned to hnve struck with of Argolis in Peloponnesus, famed for his thunder for having attemptid to a temple of Esculapius, and for its fine seduce Juno, when he was bound to a breed of horses, wheel in hell, which was perpetually in motion. 1 Book III. GEORGICS. 72. 59 breed of horses. But still, on those which you intend to bring up for the hope of the race, bestow your principal diligence immediately from their tender j^ears. The colt of generous breed from the very first walks stately in the fields, and nimbly moves his pliant legs; he is the first that dares to lead the way, and tempt the threatening Hoods, and trust himself to an unknown bridge; nor starts affrighted at vain alarms- Lofty is his neck, his head little and slen- der, his belU"^ short, his back round and plump, and his proud chest swells luxuriant Avith brawny muscles, (the bay-bro\in and bluisii-grey are in most request ; the worst colours are the \^hite and dun.) Then, if he hears the dis- tant sound of arms, he knows not how to stand still ; he is all action : he pricks up his e.irs, trembles in every joint, and snorting rolls the collected fire under his nostrils. Thick is his mane, and wavin^if rests on his right shoulder. A double spinal bone runs down between his loins, his hoof scoops up the ground, and deep resounds with its solid horn. Such Mas Cyllarus, broken by the reins of 'Amyclaean Pollux, and such (which the Grecian poets have describ- ed) the harnessed brace of Mars, and the chariot-Aor^cs of great Achilles. Such Saturn too himself precipitant on the arrival of his wife spread out a full mane on his as- stimed horse's neck, and iiying filled loft)^ Pelion with shrill neighing. Him too, when with sickness oppressed, or now enfeebled with years he fails, shut up in his lodge, and spare his not inglorious age. An old horse is cold to love, and in vain drags on the ungrateful task, and, if ever he comes to an engagement, he is furioa>ly keen with no eflFect, as at times a great fire rayes without strength among stubble. Therefore chiefly mark their spirit and age ; then their other qualities, their parentage, and what sorrow each re- ceives when vanquished, what pride when victorious- See you not ? M-hen in the rapid race the chariots have seized the pbiin, and pouring forth rush along ; when the hopes of the youth are elevated, and palpitating fear heaves their throbbing hearts: they ply the twisted lash, and bending forward give/i/// reins ; the axle flies glowing with the impetuosity. And now low, now high, they seem to be borne aloft through the open air, and to mount up into the skies. No stop, no stay: but a thick cloud of yellow sand is tossed up ; the foremost are wet with the foam and 1 Ainycltsan Pollux was the son of clas, a city of Laconia, where he was Jupiter by Leda, and the twin brother born, of Castor; he was soctilled from Amy- 60 GEORGICS. 111. Book III. breath of those that follow. So powerful is the love of praise, so anxious the desire of victory. First 'Erichthonius dared to yoke the chariot and four steeds, and over the rapid wheels victorious to preside. The Pelethronian Lapithse first mounted on horseback applied the reins, and turned him in the ring; taught the horsemen under arms to bound insulting over the plain, and with proud ambling pace to prance along. Either toil, that of the chariot and of the manege, is equal ; with equal care the masters in eitber case seek after a steed that is youthful, of warm mettle, and sprightly in the race : they do not make choice of an old horse, though often he may have driven before him the Hying foes, may boast of Epirus, or of warlike ^Mycense for his country, and derive his race even from Neptune's breed. These things observed, they are very careful about the time of generation, and bestow all their care to plump him up with firm fat whom they have chosen leader, and as- signed stallion to the herd : they cut for him downy, ten- der herbs, and supply him with fulness of water and corn, that he may be sutiicient for the soothing toil, and lest the puny sons should resemble the meagerness of their sires. But they purposely extenuate the breed-mares with lean- ness ; and, when now the known pleasure solicits the first enjoyment, they both deny herbs, and debar them from the springs : often too they shake them in the race, and tire them in the sun, when beneath the beaten grain the barn floor deeply groans, and in the rising zephyr the empty chaff is tossed about. This they do, that excessive pam- pering may not blunt the powers of the genial soil, and choke up the sluggish passages ; but that it may with eagerness drink in the joys of love, and lay them up more deeply within. Again the care of the sires begins to fiiil, and that of the dams to succeed, when now, their months elapsed, they rove about pregnant: let no one then suffer them to drag the yokes of heavy waggons, or to leap across the way, scamper over the meads with sprightly career, and swim the rapid floods. Let them feed in spacious lawns, and be- side full rivers, where moss, and grassy banks of prime ver- dure, and caves, may shelter them, and over them a shady rock project. 1 Erkhthonius, a son of Vulcan and Pelion, inhabited by the Lapiths, who kiTig of Athens ; the invention of cha. were excellent horsemen, riots is ascribed to him. Pelclhronian 2 Mycen/ style, and add these poetical ornaments to things so low. But the sweet love of the muses transports me through the thorny deserts of Parnassus ; pleased I am to range those moun- tain-tops, where no path trodden by the ancients winds down with gentle descent to ''Castalia. ^ow, adorable Pales, now must I sing in lofty strain. To begin, I appoint the sheep to be foddered in soft cots, till lirst tlie flowery spring return : and that the hard ground under them be strewn with plenty of straw, and with bun- dles of ferns, lest the cold ice hurt the tender cattle, and bring on the scab, and foul gouts. Next, leaving them, I order to provide the goats with leafy arbutes, and to supply them with fresh streams : and sheltered from the woods, to oppose their cots to the winter sun, turned towards the south : when cold ^Aquarius now sets at length, and in the extremity of the year sheds his dews. Nor are these to be 1 Glaucus, a son of Sisyphus, king 3 Caurui, the north-west wind ; Aus- of Corinth, who was torn to pieces at to-, the south wind. Potnia in Boeotia, by his own mares. 1 Castalia, a celebmtcd fountain of 2 Ascanius, afterwards called the Mount Parnassus, sacred to the Muses. Hyliis, a river of Bithynia in Asia 5 Aquarius, one of the signs of the Minor, flowing into the Propontis near Zodiac, rises in January, and as its Cius. name imports, frequently accompanied with rain. Book III. GEORGICS. 305. 65 tended by us with less care : nor will their usefulness be less; though 'Milesian fleeces, that have drunk the Tyrian glow, be sold for a great price. From these icill arise a more numerous l)reed, tVom these a greater quantity of milk. Tl>e more the pail froths with their exhausted ud- der, the more m ill joyous streams flow from their pressed dugs. Meanwhile the shepherds also shear the beards, and hoary chins, and long waving hair of the ^Cinyphian he- goat, for the service of the camp, and for coverings to the adventurous mariners. And tlien they easUy And ])asture from the woods, from the summits of Lyrcens, from the rough brambles, and from brakes that love the craggy Tocks. And mindful of their time the goats of themselves return home, and bring their young w ith them, and can scarcely get over the threshold with their teeming udders. Therefore, the less they themselves provide against the wants of mortality, the more careful must you be to defend them from the ice and snowy winds ; and you will cheer- fully bring them food, and browse of tender twigs ; nor shut up from them your stores of hay during the whole winter. But when the gay summer comes invited by the Zephyrs, you shall send forth both flocks into the laAvns and pas- tures: when Lucifer first arises, let them crop the fields yet cold ; while the morning is new, aa hile the grass is hoary, and the dew, most grateful to the cattle, is on the tender herb. Then, as soon as the fourth hour of day has brought on thirst, and the plaintive grasshoppers shall rend the groves with their son"-; order the flocks to drink the \A ater running in oaken troughs, or at the wells, or at the deep pools; but in the noontide heats let them seek out a shady vale, wherever Jove's stately oak of ancient ivood e.\tends its huge boughs, or wherever a grove, embrowned with thick ever-green oaks, projects its sacred shade. Then give them once more the translucent streams, and once more feed them at the setting of the sun, when cool Vesper tempers the air, and now the dewy moon refreshes the lawns, and the shores resound with Ilalcyone, and the bushes with the goldfinch. Why should I trace in song the shepherds and pasture* of Libya, and their cottages where scattering!}' they dwell? Their flocks often graze both day and niglit, and for a whole month together, and repair into long deserts without I Milesian fleeces, from Miletus, a 2 Cinyphian lie-goais, from Ciny- city of Asia iMinor, the ancient capi. phus, a river and country of Africa tal of Ionia; it was famous for its ex- near Tripolis. cellent wool. C6 GEORGICS. 343. Book III. any shelter ; so wide the plain extends. The African shepherd carries his all with him, his house, and household god, his arms, his Amyclean dog, and 'Cretan quiver: like the fierce liomaii, « hen armed for his country, he takes his way under the unequal load, and, having pitched his camp, stands in array of battle against the foe, before he is expected. But it is not so, where are the Scythian nations, and the 'Miotic waves, and the turbid Ister whirling his yellow sand; and whore Rhodope winds about, stretching itself under the middle of the pole: there tliey keep their herds shut up in stalls ; nor are either any herbs to be seen in the fields, or leaves on the trees; but the country lies de- formed with mounts of snow, and deep ice all around, and rises seven ells in height. It is always winter, always north-west winds, blowing cold. Then the sun never dis- sipates the pale shades, either m hen borne on his steeds he climbs the lofty sky, or when he bathes his chariot in the ocean's ruddy plain. Crusts of ice suddenly are congealed in the running river: now on its back the wave sustains wheels bound « ith iron ; the wave hospitable to broad ships before, to waggons now. Vases of brass frequently burst asunder, their garments grow stiff on their back, they cut with axes the liquid vine, whole pools turn to solid ice, and the horrid icicle hardens on their uncombed beards. Mean- while it snows incessantly over all the air; the cattle pe- rish ; the large bodies of oxen stand wrapped a'lout with hoar frost ; and the deer crowding all together. He benumb- ed under the unusual load, and scarcely appear with the tips of tlieir horns. These they pursue not with hounds let loose, nor with any toils, nor scare them with the ter- ror of the crimson plume ; but as in vain they are shoving with their breasts the opposed mountain oj'snoic, they stab them with the sword close at hand, and put them to death piteously braying, and with loud acclamation bear them off triumphant. The inhabitants themselves, in caves dug deep under ground, enjoy undisturbed rest, and roll to their hearths piled oaks, and whole elms, and give them to the flames. Here they spend the night in play; and, joyous, imitate the juice of the grape with their beer and acid cider. 1 Cretan quiver; Crete, (Candia,) one hood and othci- vices. The island was of the largest islands in the Mediter- subdued by the Hoinans, B. C. G6. ranean, at the south of the Cyclaoes. 2 iltpotic iviivcs, v.ow the fca of It was anciently famed for its' lOU ci Asoph, a large lake, or rr.ore properly ties, and for the laws of Minos esta- i)art of the sea betiveen Europe and blished there; the Cretans were excel- Asia, north of the Eux-ne.with which lent archers, but infamous for false- it communicates by the Cimmerian Bosphorus. Book III. GEORGICS. 381. «t Such is that savage race of men lying^ under the northern sio^n of Ursa Major, buffeted by the Riphaean east-wind, and whose bodies are clothed with the tawny furs of beasts. If the woollen manufacture be thy care ; first let prickly woods, and burs, and caltrops, be far away: shun rich pas- tures : and from the beginning- choose iiocks that are white with soft wool. And that ram, though he himself be of the purest white, under whose moist palate there lurks but a black tongue, reject, lest he should sully the fleeces of the new-born lambs; and lookout for another over the well- stocked field. Thus Pan, the god of Arcadia, (if the story be \vorthy of credit,) deceived thee, O moon, captivated with a snowy offering of wool, inviting thee into the deep groves: nor didst thuu scorn his invitation. But let him, who is studious of milk, carry to the cribs with his own hand, the cytisus, and plenty of water-lilies, and salt herbs. Hence the animals are both more desirous of the river, and distend their udders the more, and in their milk return a faint relish of the salt. Many restrain the kids as soon as grown up from their dams, and fasten muzzles with iron spikes about the extre- mity of their mouths. What they milk at the sun-rising and the hour of morn, they press at night : what they milk now in the evening and at sun-setting, the shepherd at day- break carries to to«n in baskets; or they season it with a small quantity of salt, and lay it up for winter. Nor let your care of dogs be the last : but feed at once with fattening whey the swift hounds of 'Sparta, and the fierce mastiff of 3Iolossis. While these are j'our guards, you need never fear that the nightly robber will approach your stalls ; nor icill you have cause to dread the incursions of the wolves, or the restless Siberians coming upon you by stealth. Often too in the chase you will pursue the timor- ous wild asses, and with hounds you will hunt the hare, with hounds the hinds. Often, driving on with full cry, you will give chase to the boar roused from his sylvan soil ; and over the lofty mountains with shouts pursue the stately stag into the toils. Learn also to burn fragrant cedar in the folds, and to drive away the rank water-snakes with the scent of galba- num. Often under the mauiiers, when not moved, either the viper of pernicious touch lies concealed, and affrighted 1 Si)arfa, called also I.acedaBmon, sis, a district in the south of Epiruf, (Misitra,) a famous city of Peloponne. celebrated lor its fierce bleed of dogs, sus ill Greece, the capital of I.aconia, 2 Iberians, the L-iMoiaids were so and long the lival of Athens. — Molot. called, from Iberus, (.the libro,) a large river ot Spain. 66 GEORGICS. 418. Book III. flies the light ; or that snake, the direful pest of kine, which uses to shelter itself under a roof and shade, and sheds its venom on the cattle, keeps close to the ground. Snatch up stones, shepherd, snatch up clubs ; and while he rears his threatening gorge, and swells his hissing neck, knock him down: and now in fright he has deeply hidden his dastardly head, while his middle-knots and the wreaths in his tail's extremity are unfolded, and his last tortuous joint now drags its slow spires along'. There is also that baneful snake in the 'Calabrian lawns, winding up his scaly back, with breast erect, and a long belly speckled with broad spots ; who, while any rivers burst from their fountains, and while the lands are moist with the dewy spring and rainy south-winds, haunts the pools, and, lodging in the banks, intemperately gorg'es his horrid maw with, fishes and croaking frogs. When the fen is burned up, and the earth gapes with drought, he darts forth on dry ground, and, rolling his indamed eyes, rages in the fields, exasperated with thirst and aghast with heat. Let me not then choose to indulge soft slumbers in the open air, or to lie along the grass in the slope of a ^\'Ood, when, renewed and sleek with youth by casting his slough, he rolls along, leaving either his young or eggs in his den, reared to the sun, and in his mouth quivers a three-forked tongue. I will also teach thee the causes and the signs of their diseases. The filthy scab infects the sheep, when the raw shower hath pierced deep into the quick, and winter, rough with hoary frost ; or, ^hen the sweat unwashed away ad- heres to them after shearing, and prickly briars have torn their bodies. On this account, the shepherds drench the whole flock in sweet rivers, and the ram with humid fleece is plunged into the pool, and sent to float along the stream ; or they besmear their bodies after shearing with bitter leesof oil, and mix with zY litharge, native sulphur, Idtean pitch, and fat unctuous wax, and the sea-leek, rank hellebore, and black bitumen. But there is not any more eft'ectual remedy for their distress, than to lance the head of the ulcer Avith steel ; the distemper is nourished, and lives by being covered, M'hile the shepherd refuses to apply his healing hand to the wound, or sits still, begging the gods to order all for the better. Moreover, when the malady, penetrating into the inmost bones of the bleating sheep, rages, and the scorching fever preys upon their limbs, it has been of use to drive out the kindled inflammation, and between the under parts of the feet to open a vein spouting with blood ; in such manner as 1 Caiabrian lawns. — Calabria is a country in the south of Italy, anciently })an ol Magna Gra;cia. Book III. GEORGICS. 461. 69 the 'Bisaltfe use, and the fierce Gelonian, when he flies to Rhodope, and the deserts of the Geta?, and drinks milk thickened with the lilood of horses. Whatever sheep thou seost either creep away at a distance from the rest, under the mild shade, or listlessly crop the tops of the grass, and follow the flock in the rear, or lie down as she is feeding in the middle of the plain, and return by herself late in the evening ; forthwith cut oft" the faiilty animal, before the dire contagion spreads among the unwary flock. The whirlwind, that brings on a wintry storm, rushes not so frequent from the sea, as the plagues of cattle are nume- rous. Nor do diseases only sweep away single bodies, but also whole folds suddenly, the offspring and the flock at once, and the whole stock from the first breed. Whoever views the aerial Alps, and the Bavarian castles on the hills, and the fields of lapidian Timavus, and the realms of the shepherds even now after so long a time deserted, and the lawns lying waste far and wide, may then be judge of this sad truth. Here, in former times, a doleful sweeping plague arose from the distemper of the air, and grew more and more inflamed through the whole heat of autumn; and delivered over to death all the race of cattle, all the savage race : poi- soned the lakes, and tainted the pastures with contagion. Nor was the way of their death simple and uncomplicated ; but when the burning fever, revelling in every vein, had shrunk up their wretched limbs, again the ViHievy pestilential humour overflowed, and converted into its substance all the bones piece-meal consumed by the disease. Often amidst the service of the gods, the victim standing at the altar, while the woollen fillet with snowy label binds its temples, has dropped down gasping to death in the hands of the linger- ing officiators. Or, if the priest had stabbed any one before it fell, neither do its entrails when laid on the altars burn, nor is the augur when consulted able thence to give respon- ses ; and the knives applied are scarcely tinged with blood, and the surface of the sand hardly stained with the thin meagre gore. Hence the calves every where expire in the luxuriant pastures, and render up their sweet lives at the full cribs. Hence the gentle dogs are seized Avith madness; and wheezing cough shakes the diseased swine, and sutfocates them with tumours in the throat. The unfortunate horse, once victorious, noiv forgetful of his exercises and his pas- ture, pines away, loathes the springs, and often paws the ground with his foot; his ears hang down ; their intermitting I BisaltcE, a people of Macedonia or Scythia, inhabiting that part of Dacia, Thrace. Gc/*, a people of European near the mouths of the Uter, (Danube.] 70 GEORGICS. 501. Book III. sweat breaks o?//,and that too cold at the approach of death: his withered skin feels hard, and in handling- resists the touch. These symptoms they give before death iu the fir^t days of their illness. But if in process of time the disease begfins to rankle, then are their eyes inflamed, and the breath fetched from the bottom of the breast is sometimes mixed with a heavy groan; and with a long- sob they distend their inmost bowels : black blood gushes from their nostrils, and the rough tongue clings to their choked up jaws. At first it was of service to pour wine down their throats ; this ap- peared the sole remedy for the Aymg animids : soon after, this very thing proved their destruction; and being recruited, they burned with hideous rage, and they themselves, now in the agonies of de.ath, (may the gods award better things to the good, and such phrensy to our foes !) tore their own mangled limbs with their naked teeth. Lo the bull too, smoking under the oppressive share, drops down, and vomits out of his mouth blood mingled with foam, and fetches his last groans. The ploughman, un}-oking the steer that mourns his brother's death, goes awaj'^ sad, and in the midst of his work leaves the plough fixed down in the earth. Neither the shades of the deep groves, nor the soft meadows, can affect his mind, nor the river which rolling' over the rocks glides to the plain more pure than amber : but his deep sides grow lank, deadness rests upon his heavy eyes, and his neck with unwieldy weight drops to the ground. What do their la- bours or good offices now avail them ? what avails it to have turned the heavy lands with the share ' Yet they never in- jured themselves by the rich gifts of Bacchus, or by sump- tuous banquets. They feed on leaves and the nourishment of simple herbs ; the crystal springs and running rivers are their drink ; and no care interrupts their healthful slumbers. Then, andat no other time, they tell us that kine were want- ing in those regions for Juno's sacred rites, and that the cha- riots were drawn to her lofty shrine by buffaloes ill-matched. Therefore, w'\th painful labour, they tear the ground with harrows, and with their very nails set the corn, and over the high mountains drag- the creaking- waggons with their strained necks. The wolf now meditates no ambuscades around the folds, nor proivling roams about the flocks by night ; a sharper care subdues him. The timorous deer and fugitive stags now saunter among the dogs, and about the houses. Now the craves wash out upon the extremity of the shore the breed of the immense ocean, and all the scaly race, like shipM'recked bodies : and sea-calves fly to the rivers, their unusual haunt. The viper, too, in vain defended by her winding den, expires, and the astonished water- Book IV. GEORGICS. 545. 71 snakes erecting their scales expire^ To the very birds the air becomes pernicious ; and they, falling' headlong', leave their lives beneath the lofty cloud. Nor moreover avails it now the cattle to have their pasture changed ; the medicinal arts to which they had recourse prove noxious : the able masters in the science failed, ^Chi- ron, the son of Phillyra, and Melampus, the son of Araytha- on. Pale ^Tisiphone sent from the Stygian glooms to light, rages ; drives before her diseases and dismay : and daily rising, higher erects her baneful head. With plaintive bleat- ing of the flocks, and frequent lonings, the rivers, the withered banks, and sloping hills resound; and now by droves and flock she deals destruction, and in the very stalls heaps up carcases rotting away with foul contagion, till they learn to bury them in the ground, and bide them in pits. For neither were their hides for use, nor could any cleanse their flesh with water, or purge it bj^ tire; nor durst they so much as shear the fleeces corrupted with disease and filthy sores, or touch the putrid stuffs. But yet if any one tried the odious vestments, tiery blanes and filthy sweat overspread his noisome body ; and then, no long time intervening, the pestilential tire preyed upon his infected limbs. BOOK IV. The subject of the fourth book is the management of bees ; their habit?, eco- nomy, polity, and government, are described with the utmost fidelity, ami with all the charms of poetry. The book concludes with the beautiful episode of Aristeeus recovering his bees. Next will I set forth the heavenly gift of aerial honey. Vouchsafe, Maecenas, thy regard to this part also of my work. I will sing a spectacle worthy of your admiration, thouo-h of things minute : the magnanimous leaders, the manners and employments, the tribes and battles of the whole race in order. Laborious essay on a mean subject I but not mean the praise, if the adverse deities permit any one to execute the task, and Apollo invocated hear. First, a seat and station must be sought for the bees, where neither winds may have access, (for the winds hinder them from carrying home their food,) nor sheep and frisky 1 Chiron, one of the Centaurs, son 2 Tisiphone, one of the Furies, who of Saturn and F'hillyra, was famous for was the minister of Divine vengeance, his skill in music, physic, and shoot- and punished the wicked in Tartarut. \nf^.—Melampus, a celebrated sooth- sayer and physician of Argos. 72 GEORGICS. 10. Book IV. kids may insult the flowers, or heifer, straying in the plain, spurn off the dews, and bruise the lisin"- herbs. And let the lizards with speckled scaly backs be far from the rich hives, and wood-peckers, and other birds; and 'Progne, whose breast is stained with her bloody hands. For they lay all things waste around, and in their mouths bear away the bees themselves while on the wing, a sweet morsel for their merciless young. But let clear springs, and pools edged with green moss, be near, and a small rivulet swiftly running through the meads; and let a palm or stately wild-olive overshade the entrance ; that, when the new kings lead forth the first swarms in their own spring, and the youth, issuing from the hives, indulge in sport, the neighbouring bank may invite them to withdraw from the heat, and the tree just in their way may receive tliem in its leafy shelter. Into the midst of the neighbour' ing water, whether it stagnates idle, or purling runs; throw willows across and huge stones, that they may rest upon frequent bridges, and spread their wings to the sum- mer sun, if the impetuous east-wind has by chance dispersed those that lag behind, or immersed them in the flood. Around these places let green cassia, and far-smelling wild thyme, and store of strong-scented savoury, flower; and let beds of violets drink an irriguous fountain. But as for your hives themselves, whether they be com- pacted of hollow bark, or woven with limber osier, let them have their inlets narrow ; for v\ inter congeals the honey with its cold, and the heat melts and dissolves the same : either force is equally dreaded by the bees : nor is it in vain that they smear with wax the minute vents in their houses, and fill up the edges with fucus and flowers, and preserve for those very uses collected glue, more clinging than bird- lime, or the pitch of ^Phrygian Ida. Often, too, if fame be true, they have cherished their families in cells dug under ground, and have been found deep down in hollow pumice- stones, and the cavity of a rotten tree. But do thou, to keep them warm, daub their chinky chambers round with smooth mud, and strew it thinly over with leaves; and suffer not a yew near their lodges, nor burn in the fire the reddening crabs, nor trust them to a deep fen, or where a noisome smell of mud arises, or where hollow rocks re-echo 1 Progne, the wife of Tereus, king &c. and commanding an extensive view of Ttiiace, was feigned to have been of the Hellespont and the adjacent changed into a swallow. See note 17 countries; from Mount Ida issued the on Eel. R. Simois, Scamander, and other rivers, 2 Phrygian Ida, a celebrated moun. and here it was that Paris adjudged the tain, or ridge of mountains, in the vi. prise of beauty to the gotldess Venus, cinity of Ttoy, covered with pine trees, Book IV. GEORGICS. 50. T.*? to the impulsive sound, aud the struck image of the voice rebounds. For what remains, when the g'olden sun has driven the winter under ground, and openetl the heavens with summer liii;ht : they forthwith traverse the hiwns and woods, crop the empurpled dowers, and iiohtly skim the surface of the streams. Hence, gladdened with I know not nhat agree- able sensation, they gro«' fond of their offspring and young- breed : hence they labour out with art new waxen cells, and form thj clammy honey. In consequence of this, when j'ou see the swarm, after emerging from the hives into the open air, swim through the serene summer sky, and the blackening cloud driven about by the wind, mark the little insects ^\■ell : they always seek the waters and leafy coverts: here sprinkle the //a^ra/i^ juices that are prescribed, bruised balm and the vulgar herb of honey wort : awake the tinkling sounds, and beat around the cymbals of mother ^CV/fte^f. They of themselves will settle on the medicated seats ; they of themselves, after their manner, Mill retreat into the in- most chambers. But if they should go forth to battle, (for often discord with huge commotion seizes two rival kings,) you may from the beginning know long before-hand both the animosity of the populace, and their hearts in trepidation for war : for that martial clang of hoarse brass rouses the loiterers, and a voice is heard resembling the broken sounds of trum- pets. Then in a hurry they assemble, quiver with their wings, sharpen their stings with their beaks, fit their claws, crowd thick around their king and to his pavilion, and with loud hummings challenge tlie foe. As soon, therefore, as they find the vernal sky serene, and the fields of air open, forth they rush from their gates; they join battle : buzzing sounds arise in the sky above : mingled they cluster in a mighty round, and fliU headlong: hail rains not thicker from the air. nor fall such quantities of acorns from the shaken oak. The kings themselves amid the hosts, distinguished by their wings, exert mighty souls in little bodies; obstinately determined not to yield till the dread victor has compelled either these or those to turn their backs in flight. These commotions of their minds, and this so mighty fray, quashed by the throw of a little dust, will cease. But when you have recalled both leaders from the battle, put him to death that appears the baser, lest by idle prodi- gality he do hurt; and suffer the more valorous king to 1 Cybele, called the Mother of the Gods, was the daughter of Coelus and Terra, and wife of Saturn. D n GEORGICS. 90. Book IV. reign in the court without a rival. The one Avill glow with refulgent spots of gold ; for there are two sorts : this is the hetter, distinguishable both by his make, and conspicuous with glittering scales : the other is horribly deformed with sloth, and ingloriously drags a large belly. As the kings are of two different figures, so are the bodies of their people. For the one looks hideously ugly : as when a parched traveller comes from a deep dusty road, and spits the dirt out of his dry mouth : the others shine and sparkle with brightness, burnished with gold, and their bodies spangled with equal drops. This is the better breed : from these at the stated season of the year you will press the luscious honey ; yet not so luscious as pure, and tit to correct the hard relish of the grape. But when the roving swarms fly about and sport in the air, disdain their hives, and leave the habitations cold, you will restrain their unsettled minds from their vain play. Nor is there great difficulty in restraining them ; do you but clip the wings of their kings : not one will dare, while they stay behind, to fly aloft, or pluck up the standard from the camp. Let gardens fragrant with saflfron flowers invite them; and the protection of Hellespontiac Priapus, the averter of thieves and birds, with his willow sithe preserve them. Let him ^vho makes such things his care, bring thyme himself and pines from the high mountains, to plant them far and wide about their hives : let him wear his hands with the hard labour, set himself the fruitful plants in the ground, and Vi'ater them with kindly showers. And here, indeed, were I not just furling my sails at the last period of my labours, and hastening to turn my prow to land ; perhaps I might both sing what method of culture would adorn rich gardens, and the rose-beds of twice bloom- ing iPiestum ; and how endive and verdant banks of parsley delight in drinking the rills ; and how the cucumber wind- ing along the grass swells into a belly; nor had I passed in silence the late-flowering daffodil, or the stalks of the flexile acanthus, or the pale ivy, and the myrtles that love the shores. For I remember that, under the lofty turrets of -CEbalia, where black Galesus moistens the yellow flelds, I saw an old ^Corycian, to whom belonged a few acres of ne- 1 Pwsfiitn, (Pesto,) a town of Liica- Oaleyit.t, a river of Calabria, flowing nia, on the Gulf of Salerno, where the into the Bay of I'arentum. roses blossom twice a year. . 3 Coiycius, a contented old man of 2 CEbalia, Tarentum, in the south of Tarentum, whose time was employed Italy, was so called, because built by a in taking care of his bees. Some sup. colony under Phalanthus, who came pose that bv Corycius, Virgil mcint a from CKbalip, or Laconia, in Gieece. — native of Corycus, (a town of Cilicia,) who had settled in Italy. Book IV. GEORGICS. 128. 75 glected land ; nor was the soil rich enough for the plough, proper for flocks, or commodious for vines. Yet here among the bushes planting a i'ew pot-herbs, white lilies, vervain, and esculent poppies all around, he equalled in a col tented mind the wealth of kings; and returning late at night, loaded his board with nnbought dainties. Be was the tirst to gather the rose in spring, and fruits in autumn ; and, even when sad winter split th^ rocks with cold, and bridled up the current of the rivers with ice, in that very season he M-as cropping the locks of the soft acanthus, chiding the late summer, and the lingering zephyrs. He, therefore, was the lirst to abound with pregnant bees and numerous swarms, and to strain the frothing honey from the pressed combs : he had limes and pines in great abundance ; and as many fruits as the fertile tree had been clothed with in early blossom, so many it retained ripe iu autumn. He too transplanted into rows the hitefar-grotvn elms, and hard pear-trees, and sloe-trees now bearing dama- scenes, and the plane now ministering shade to drinkers. But these 1 for my part waive, restrained by the narrow bounds I have prescribed to myself, and leave to others hereafter to record. Come, now, 1 h ill unfold the qualities which J;ipiter him- self has implanted iu the bees ; for which reward accom- panying the shrill sounds and tinkling brass of the ^Curetes,^ they fed the king of heaven under the Dictiean cave. They alone of all the animul creation make the young the public care, share the buildings of a city in common, and pass their lives under inviolable laws ; and they alone have a country of their own, and a lixed abode. Mindful of the coming winter, they experience toil in summer, and lay up their acquisitions into the common stock. For some are provident for food, and by fixed compact are employed in the tieU^ ; some \A itliin the enclosure of their hives lay ^ Narcissus' tears, and clammy gum from bark of trees, for the first foundation of the combs, then build into arches tfG viscid wais. ; others bring up to their full growth the y£)ung, the hope of the nation ; others condense the purest !K)ney, and distend the cells with liquid nectar. S^ome t'icre are to whose lot has fallen the \\ atching at the gates, and these by 1 Curates, or Corybdntes, the priesls drowned his cries by the noise of their of Cybele, who inhabited Mount Ida in cymbals. Crete; they were entrusted with the i A'arczMM.?, a beautiful youth, who, education of the infant Jupiter, and to on seeing his iin.ige reflected in a foiin- prevent his being uiscovered by his tain, became enamoured ot it, thinking lather, who sought to destroy him, it to be the i.ymiih of the place. He they invented a kind of dance, and aied of grief, and was changed into a flower, which still beats his name. 76 GEORGICS. 166. Book IV, turns observe tlie waters and clouds of heaven ; or receive the loads of those Mho return, or, forraing- a band, drire from the hives the drones, a sluggish generation. The work is warmly plied ; and the honey smells fragrant of thyme. As when the Cyclops urge on the thunderbolts from the stubborn m.'isses, some receive and render back the air in the buU-hide bellows; some dip the sputtering brass in the trough : ^tna groans nnder the weight of their anvils : they alternately ^vith vast force lift their arms in time, and turn the iron with the griping pinchers: just so, if we may compare small things m ith great, the innate love of having AoMey prompts the 'Cecropian bees, each in his proper func- tion. The elder have the care of their towns, and to fortify the combs, and frame the artifici.il cells. But the younger return fatigued late at night, their thighs laden with thyme; they feed at large on arbutes, and grey wil- lows, on cassia, and glowing crocus, on the gummy lime, and purple h)'acinths. All have one rest from work, all one tiine q/labour. In the morning they rush out of the gates without delay. Again, when the evening at length has warned them to return Irom feeding in the fields, then they seek their habitations, and then refresh their bodies ; the flrowsy hum arises, and they buzz about the borders and entrance of their hives. Soon after, m hen they have com- , losed themselves in their cells, all is hushed for the night; ^ nd their proper sleep seizes their weary limbs. Nor do til '^y remove to a great distance from their hive when rain i«i T'^"^^* ^^ trust the sky when east-winds approach ; but iv*. safety supjjly themselves with water all around under f " \e wali^ of their city, and attempt but short excursions ; an "^ often take up little stones, as unsteady vessels do ballast in a tossing sea ; with these they poise themselves through the v^ "^i^ ^^^y regions. Chii ^% y^" "^'^ admire this custom peculiar to the bees, thit the ^ neither indulge in conjugal embrace, nor softly dissolve't '^^"" hodies in the joys of love, nor bring forth vonn"- witi"^ ^ mother's throes. But the individuals spon- taneo"isly ci '^^ their progeny with their mouths from leaves and fragrant herbs: they themselves raise up a new king and littfe subjt ots, and hmlAfor them new palaces and wa.Keu Often too in wandering among the flinty rocks have they torn the'ir wings, and voluntarily yielded up their lives un- der their burthen ; so ardent is their passion for fiowers, and such their glory in making honey. Therefore, though they 1 Cecropian lees, that is, Attic or Athenian bees, from Cecrops. the founriet and tint king ot Athens. Book IV. GEORGICS. 200. 7t themselves be limited to a narrow term of life, (for it is not prolonged beyoud the seventh summer,) yet the immortal race remains, and for many years the fortune of the family subsists, and grandsires of g-randsires are reckoned in a loiuj series of generations- Besides, not Egypt's self, nor great ^ Lydia, nor the nation of tlie Parthians, nor Median Hydaspes, are so obsequious to their king, \yhilst the king is safe, all live in perfect harmony: when he is dead, they dissolve their union : they themselves tear to pieces the fabric of their honey, and de- molish the contexture of their combs. He is the guardian of their works : him they admire ; and all encircle him with thick humming, and guard him in a numerous body; often they lift him up on their shoulders, in his defence expose their bodies in war, and through wounds seek a glorious death. Some, judging from these appearances, and led by these examples of sagacity, have alleged that a portion of the di- v\we mind, and a heavenly emanation, may be discovered in bees; for that the deity pervades the whole earth, the tracts of sea, and depth of heaven; that hence the flocks, the herds, men, and all the race of savages, each at its birth, derive their slender lives. Accordingly, they affirm that all of them, when dissolved, return thither hereafter; nor is there any place for annihilation ; but that they mount up alive each into his proper order of star, and take their seat in the high heaven. When you intend to rifle the narrow mansions ofthebees, and their honey preserved in their treasures, first gargle your mouth with a draught of water, and squirt it out upon them, and carry in your hand before you persecuting smoke. Twice they press the teeming cells; there are two seasons of that harvest; 07ie,as soon as the Pleiad ^Taygete has dis- played her comely face to the earth, and spurns with her foot the despised waters of the ocean ; or when the same star, fly- ing the constellation of the watery Fish, descends in sadness from the sky into the wintry waves. They are wrathful above measure, and when provoked, infuse venom into their stings, and leave their hidden darts fixed in the veins, and lay down their lives in the wound. Yet, if you are afraid of a hard winter, you ought to spare their future nourishment, and have pity on their drooping spirits and aSiicted state : but who would hesitate to fumi- 1 Lydia. a country of Asia Minor, 2 Tc.ygele, a daughter of Atlas ami south of Mysia, now part of Anatolia. Pleione, who became one of the Pleia- — Hydaspes, a river of Persia, supposed des after death, to be the Choaspes, or the Araxes. 18 GEORGICS. 241. Book IV. o;ate i7ieir hives with thyme, and cut away the empty wax ? for often the lizard preys unseen upon the combs, and the vacant cells are stuffed with jjrubs that shun the light; the drone also that sits exempt from duty at another's repast, or the fierce hornet has en^rajfcd them with unequal arms; or the moth's direful breed ; or the spider, hateful to Minerva, has suspended her loose nets in their gates. The more tliey are exhausted, the more vigorously will they all labour to repair the ruins of their decayed race, to fill up the cells, and weave their magazines of flowers. But since life has on bees too entailed our misfortunes, if their bodies shall languish with a sore disease, which you may know by undoubted signs; immediately the sick change colour; horrid leanness deforms the countenance : then they carry the bodies of the dead out of their houses, and lead the mournful funeral processions; or clinging together by the feet, hang about the entrance, and loiter all within their houses shut up, listless througli famine, and benumbed with contracted cold. Then a hoarser sound is heard, and in drawling hums they buzz; as at times the south-wind M-hispers through the woods; as the ruffled sea murmurs ■with refluent waves; as rapid fire in the pent furnace roars^ In this case now I Vvould advise to burn gummy odours, and to put in honey through pipes of reed, kindly tempt- ing and inviting the drooping insects to their known re- past. It will be of service also to mix with it the juice of pounded galb, and dried roses, or wine thickened over a strono- fire, or raisins from the Psythian vine, Cecropian thyme, and strong-smelling centaury. There is also in the meadows a flower, to which the husbandmen have given the name of amellus; an herb easy to be found ; for from one root it shoots a vast luxuriance of stalks, itself of golden hue ; but on the leaves, which are spread thickly around, the purple of the dark violet sheds a gloss. The altars of the gods are often decked «ith plaited ^^■reaths oflhisjloicer. Its taste is bitterish in the month : tlie shepherds gather it in new-shorn valleys,and near the winding-streams of 'Mella. Boil the roots thereof in fragrant wine : and present it as food for the bees in full baskets at their door. But if the whole stock should suddenly fail any one, and ho should have no means to recover a new breed ; it is time both to unfold the memorable invention of the Arcadian master, and how the tainted gore of bullocks slain has often produced bees : I will disclose the whole tradition, tracing 1 Mella, a small river of Cisalpine Gaulj falling into the Ollius, and wiUi ii into the Po. Book IV. GEORGICS. 286. 79 it big-h from its first source. For where tbe bappy nation of Pelkean ^Canopus inhabit the banks of the Nile, floating the plains with his overflowing river, and sail around their fields in painted goudohis ; and where the river, that rolls down as far as from the swarthy Indians, presses on the borders of quivered Persia, and fertilizes verdant Egypt with black slimy sand, and pouring along divides itself into seven diifereut mouths ; all the country grounds infallible relief on this art. First a space of ground of small dimen- sions, and contracted for this purpose, is chosen ; this they strengthen with a narrow tile-roof and confined walls ; and add four windows of slanting light from the four winds. Then a bullock, just bending the horns in his forehead two years old, is sought out ; whilst he struggles exceeding- ly, they close up both his nostrils, and the breath of his mouth ; and, when they have beaten him to death, his bat- tered bowels burst M'ithin the hide that remains entire. When dead, they leave him pent up, and lay under his sides fragments of boughs, thyme, and fresh cassia. This is done when first the zephyrs stir the waves, before the meadows blush with new colours, before the chattering swallow sus- pends her nest upon the rafters. Meanwhile the juices warmed in the tender veins ferment : and animals, (wonder- ful to behold I) first short of their feet, and in a little while buzzing with wings, swarm together, and more and more fan the thin air; till they burst away like a shower poured down from summer clouds; or like an arrow from the whizzing string, w hen the swift Parthians first usher in the tight. What god, ye Muses, what god disclosed to us this mys- terious art ? whence took this new experience of men its rise ? The shepherd ^Aristajus, flying from ^Peneian Tempe, having lost his bees, as it is said, by disease and famine, stood mournful by the sacred source of the rising river, dolefulh^ complaining ; and with these accents addressed his parent : 1 Canopus, (near Aboukir,) a city of in Tliessaly, between mount Olympug Egypt, 12 miles east from Alexandria, and Os~a, through which the river It is here called Pelican, having been Pen^-KS flows into the .^gean. Tempe founded by a colony Jrom Pella, a city wasabout five miles in length, but ver>' of Macedonia, or in allusion to the narrow, in few places above a quarter conquest of the country by Alexander of a mile broad. The ancient poets the Great, who was born at Pella. have described it as one of the most 2 Arislieus v!as tUe son of Apoiio and delightful spots in the world; hence Cyrene. He became enamoured of all valleys that are pleasant are by the Kurydice, the wife of Orpheus, and poets called Tempe. T/iymbra, aplam was the first who taught mankind the in Troas, through which the river culture ofolives, and the management Thymbrius flowed in its course to the ofbees; after death he was worshipped Sca'mander. Apollo had there a as a god. temple, and thence he is called Thym- 3 Peneian Tempe, a celebrated vale braan. 80 GEORGICS. 321. Book IV. O mother Cyrene, O raotlier, \\ho inhabitest the depth of this flood, why hast thou brouirht me forth of the inustrious race of - his mother's palace, and humid realms, the lakes pent I Drymo &c. These wore sea nymphs, Apollo to that part of Africa which the attendants of Cyrene, daughter of was called Cyrenaica, wliere Uie be- ttie river Peneus, who was carried by came the mother of Anstaui. Book IV. GEORGICS. 304. Hi up in caverns, and the sounding groves, he passed along, and, amazed at the vast motion of the waters, surveyed all the rivers gliding under the great earth in different places ; 'Phasis and Lycus, and the source whence deep Enipeus iirst hursts forth, whence father ^Tiberinns, and whence Anio's streams, and "'Hypanis roaring down the rocks, and Mysian Caicus, and Eridanus, his bull-front decked with two gilt horns, than whom no river pours along the fertile fields with greater violence into the empurpled sea. After his arrival under the roof of her bed-chamber, hung with pumice-stones, Cyrene being then informed of the idle lamentations of her son, the sisters in order serve up the crystal streams for the hands, and bring smooth towels. Some load the board with viands, and plant the full cups. The altars blaze with Panchrean tires. Then the mother thus speaks : Take these goblets of Mreonian wine, and let us offer a libation to Ocean. At the same time she herself ad- dresses Ocean, the parent of things, and the sister nymphs, who preside over a hundred woods, over a hundred rivers. Thrice she sprinkled glowing Vesta with the liquid nectar; thrice the tlame shot to the top of the roof, brightened : with which omen encouraging her soul, she thus begins : In Nep- tune's Carpathian gulf there dwells a seer, cierulean 'Pro- teus, who measures the great sea with harnessed fishes, and in a chariot yoked with two-legged steeds. He now re- visits the ports of Emathia and his native *Paliene : him both we nymphs, and old *'Ncreus himself, adore ; for the prophet knows all things that are, that have been, and the whole concatenation of future events. For such is the will of Nep- tune ; whose unwieldy droves, and ill-shaped sea-calves, he feeds under the deep. Him, my son, you first must sur- prise with chains, that he may explain to you the whole cause of the disease, and make the issue prosperous. For no instructions will he give without compulsion, nor can 1 Phasis, (Plir.zor Rliion,) a river of 3 Hypanh, [V,o?,) a river of P:uro- Colchis, rising ill mount Caucasus, and pean tcytliia, winch runs into the tailing into the Euxine. — Lycus, a Euxine. — Caicus, (Griraakli,) a ri\er river of Armenia. — Enipeus, a river of Mysia, failing into the ^Egeaii. of Tliessaly, falling into the Peneus. 4 I'roteus, a sea deity, son of Ocean- 2 Tiber, a celebrated river of Itidy, us and 'i'ethvf. He is represented by on whose banks the city o( Rome was the poets as usually resuling in the built. It was originally called Albula, Ccirijalhian sea between Crete and from the whiteness of its waters, and Rhodes; he possessed the gift of pro- afterwards Tiber, from Tibcrinu,i,Wms phecy. and also the power of assum. of Alba, who was drowned iu it. The ing different shapes. 'liber rises in the Apennines, and, 5 PrjWt'Ht', a small peninsula of Ma. after dividing Latium from Etruria, cedonia, on the .Egean sea. falls into the Mediterranean Ifi miles 6 Ncreus, a sea god, son nf Oceaiius below Rome. — .iji/'o, (Tcverone,) a and lerra, and hu.>.band of Doiis, by river of Italy, which falls into the whom he had titty daughters, the Ne, Tiber. reids. 82 GEORGICS. 399- Book IV, you move liim by entreaty : ply him, when taken, with ri- jfid force and chains : all his tricks to evade these proviuj^' vain Avill at length be baffled. I myself, as soon as the sun has inflamed his noon-tide heats, — when the herbs thirst, and the shade becomes more grateful to the cattle, — will conduct thee into the senior's recess, whither he retires from the m aves lohen fatigued ; that }'ou may easily assail him overpowered with sleep. But when you shall hold him fiist confined within your arms and chains, then va- rious forms and features of wild beasts will mock your grasp. For suddenly he will become a bristly boar, a fell tiger, a scaly dragon, and a lioness with a tawny mane ; or he will emit the roarhig sound of flame, and so escape the chain ; or, liquified into fiuid waters, glide away. But the more he shall transform himself into all shapes, still closer draw, my son, the hampering chains, till, rechanged, he shall become such as you saw him when ushering in sleep he closed his eyes. She said, and shed around the liquid odour of ambrosia, wherewith she sprinkled over the whole body of her son. Now from his trimmed locks a delicious fragrance breathed, and active vigour was infused into his limbs. In the side of a hollowed mountain is a spacious cave, whither the waves in great numbers are driven by the wind, and divide themselves into winding bays; at times a station most secure for weather-beaten mariners. Within this cave Proteus hides himself behind the barrier of a huge rock. Here the nymph places the youth in ambush remote from view, ivhile she stays herself at a distance, shrouded in a misty veil. Now the sultry dog-star, scorching the thirsty Indians, blazed in the sky, and the fier)' sun had finished half his course : the lierbs withered; and the rays made the shallow overheated rivers boil, their channels being drained to their slimy bottom ; when Proteus, repairing to his accus- tomed den, advanced from the waves. The watery race of the vast ocean, gamboling around him, scatter the briny spray far and near. The sea-calves apart lay themselves down to sleep along the shore. He himself (as at times the keeper of a fold upon the mountains, when evening brings home the bullocks from the pasture, and (he lambs with noisy bleat- ings whet the hunf/er of the wolves) sits in the centre on a lock, and i-eviews their numbers. Of seizing whom since so favourable an opportunity offered itself to Arista?us; scarcely suffering the aged god to compose his weary limbs, he rushes upon him with a great shout, and surprises him with chains reclining. He, on the other hand, not forgetful of his art, transforms himself into all the wondrous shapes in nature ; tire, and a fierce savage, and flowing river. But when no Book IV. GEORGICS. U3. 83 shifts could find hira an escape, overpowered he returned to himself, and at leng^th thus spoke in human accent : Who, most presumptuous youth, enjoined thee (he said) to ap- proach my habitation ? or what demandest thou here ? But he ansicered. Thou knowest, O Proteus, thou knowest of thyself; nor is it in any one's power to deceive thee : but do thou cease to try tliy idles on me. For, in pursuance of divine command, I come hither to consult thy oracle about my ruined affairs. lie said. Then the prophet at length, with mig-hty force, rolled his eyes flashing with azure light, and gnashing his teeth fiercely, thus opened his mouth to disclose the fates : It is tl>e vengeance of no mean deity that pursues thee : thou art making atonement for thy heinous crimes : these sufferings, by no means proportioned to thy guilt, unhappy Orpheus entails upon thee, unless the fates oppose ; and lie sorely rages for his ravaged queen. And indeed it was, whilst she fled precipitately from you along the river, that the maid doomed to death was so un- happy as not to see the hideous water-snake before her feet, guarding the banks in tlio tall grass. But her coeval choir of Dryads fllled the highest mountains with her shrieks : the rocks of Rhodope wept; so did lofty 'Pangfea, and the martial land of Khesus, the Get:?, and Hebrus, and attic Orithyia. ''Orpheus himself, soothing the anguish of liis love Avith his concave shell, sang of thee, his sweet Eurydice, of thee by himself on the lonely shore ; thee when the day arose, thee when the daj' declined, he sang. He entering even the jaws of Ta?uarus, Pluto's gates pro- found, and the grove overcast with gloomy horror, visited the Manes, and their tremendous king, and hearts incapable of relenting at human prayers. But the airy shades, and phantoms of the dead, affected with his song, advanced iiom the deep recesses of 'Erebus, in such throngs as birds that shelter themselves by thousands in the woods, m hen evening, or a wintry shower, drives them from the moun- tains ; matrons, and men, and ghosts of gallant heroes de- ceased, boys and unmarried virgins, and youths laid on the funeral piles before the faces of their parents ; whom the black mud, and unsightly reeds of Cocytus, and the un- lovely lake with sluggish aa ave, enclose around, and Styx 1 FangcEa, a mountain on the con. he had gained the upper regions ; but fines ot Macedonia and 'Ihiace. he forgot hisiiromise.and liis Eurydice 2 Or/jAcui was feigned by the poets instantly vanished. to have descended into the infernal 3 Erdus, a god of hell ; often used regions to recover his wife Euryaice, to signify liell itself — Cerberus, repre- when he so charmed Plj.to and Pro- seiited as a dog with three heads, that scrpinelwith the music of his lyre, that watched the entrance into the infer- thev consented to restore her, pro. nal regions, billed he forbore looking behind until 84 GEORGICS. 480. Book IV. nine times interfused confines. The very habitations and deepest dunofeons of death were astonished, and the Furies, with whose hair blue snakes were interwoven ; and yawn- ing' Cerberus repressed his three mouths ; and the rotation of Ixion's wheel was suspended by the sonjj. And now re- tracino; his way, he had overpassed all dang^ers; and restored Eurydice was just approaching the superior regions, fol- lowing hiin ; for Proser|)ina had given him that law ; when a sudden phrenzy seized the unwary lover, pardonable, in- deed, if the Manes knew to pardon. He stopped, and on the verge of light, ah ! unmindful, and not master of him- self, looked back on his Eurydice : there was all his labour lost, and the law of the relentless tyrant broken ; and thrice a dismal groan was heard through the Avernian lake. Ah J Orpheus, she says, who hath both unhappy me and thee undone ? what deep infatuation is this ? see once more the cruel Fates call me back, and sleep closes my swimming eyes. And now, farewell : 1 am snatched awa)% encompass- ed with thick shades of night, and stretching- forth to thee my feeble hands, ah ! thine no more. She said ; and sud- denly fled from his sight a difi'erent way, like smoke blended with thin air : nor more was seen l)y him grasping the shades in vain, and wishing to say a thousand things ; nor did the ferryman of hell suffer him again to cross the inter- vening lake. What should he do ? whither should he turn himself, his love twice snatched away? with what tears assuage the Manes, ^\ ith w liat accents the infernal powers ? She, already a cold shade, was sailing in the Stygian boat. For seven whole months, it is said, he mourned beneath a bleak aerial rock, by the streams of desert Strymon, and re- volved these woes under the cold caves, softening the very tigers, and leading the oaks with his song : as mourning 'Philomel under a poplar shade bemoans her lost young, which the hard-hearted clo^n observing in the nest has stolen unfledged; she continues to weep through the night, and, perched upon a bough, renews her doleful song, and tills the places all around with piteous waiiings. No loves, no hymeneal joys, could bend his soul. Alone he traversed the Hyperborean tracts of ice, the snowy ^Tanais, and fields never free from the Riphaean frosts, deploring his ravished Eurydice, and Pluto's useless presents ; for m Inch neglected nuptial rite the 'Ciconian matrons, amidst the sacred service 1 Philomel, a daughter of Pandion, Russia, which divides Europe from kiiiK of Athens, and sister to Progne, Asia, and falls into the sea of Asoph. said to have been changed into a night- 3 Ciconian matrons; the Cicones ingale. were a people of 1 hrace, who tore to 2 Tanais, (Don,) a large river of pieces Orpheus, and threw his head into the Htbrus. Book IV. GEORGICS. 521. 85 of the ffods and nocturnal orfjies of Bacchus, havin» torn the youth in pieces, scattered his limbs over the wide rields- And even then, whilst (Eagrian Ilebrus rolled, down the middle of its tide, his head torn from the alabaster neck, the voice of itself, and his faltering- tong-ue, invoked Kury- dice, ah, unfortunate Eurydicel with his ileoting' breatii ; the banks re-echoed Eurydice all alont,' the river. Thus Proteus said, and plunged \\\\X\ a bound into the deep sea ; and, where he plunged, he tossed up the foaming billov\s under the \^ hirluig tide. But not so Cyrene : for kindly she bespoke her trembling son : My son, you may ease your mind of all vexatious cares. This is the u hole cause of your disaster : hence the nymphs, with whom she celebrated the mingled dances in the deep groves, have sent this mournful devastation on your bees ! now humbly tender offerings, supplicating peace, and venerate the gentle wood-nymphs ; for at your suppli- cations they will grant forgiveness, and mitigate their urath. But first will I show you in order what must be your man- ner of worship. Single out four choice bulls of beauteous form, \Ahich now graze for you the tops of green Lycseus ; and also as many heifers, whose necks are untouclied l/j/ the yolie. For these erect four altars at the lofty temples of the goddesses : from their throats emit the sacred blood, and leave the bodies of the cattle in the leafy grove. After- wards, when the ninth morn has displaj'ed her rising beams, vou may offer Lethtean poppies by way of funeial rites to Orpheus, venerate appeased Eurydice M'ith a slain calf, sacrifice a black yew, and revisit the grove. Without delay, he instantly executes the orders of bis mother ; repairs to the temple ; raises the altars as directed ; leads up four chosen bulls of surpassing form, and as many heifers, whose necks were untouched by the yoke- There- after, tlie ninth morning having ushered iu her rising beams, he offers the funeral rites to Orpheus, and revisits the grove. But here thej'^ behold a sudden prodigy, and won- derful to relate ; bees through all the belly hum amidst the putrid bowels of the cattle; pour forth with the fermenting juices from the burst sides, and in immense clouds roll along ; then swarm together on the top of a tree, and hang down in a cluster from the bending boughs. Thus of the culture of fields and flocks, and of trees, I sang, whilst great Caesar at the deep Euphrates was thunder- ing in war, was victoriously dispensing laws among the « illiiig nations, and pursuing the way to heaven. At that 86 iENEID. 1. Book I. time did I, Virgil, nourished by sweet 'Parthenope, flourish in the studios of inglorious ease ; who warbled pastoral songs, and, adventurous through youth, sang thee, O Tity- rus^ under the covert of a spreading beech. VJRGILS ^NEID. BOOK I. The subject of the ^neid is the settlettient of iEiieas in Italy. This noble poem, on the composition of which Virgil was engaged eleven years, consists of twelve books, and comprehends a period of eight years. In the first book, the hero is introduced, in the seventh year of his expedition, sailing from Si- cily, and shipwrecked upon the coast of Africa, where he is kindly receiv- ed by Dido, Queen of Carthage. The description of the storm in this book is particularly admired. Arms I sing, and the hero, the first who, in obedience to the decree of heaven, having fled from the coast of Troy, came to Italy, and the Lavinian shore : much was he tossed both on sea and land, by the powers above, to gratify the uni-elenting rage of cruel Juno : much too he sufl^"ered in war till he raised the city "^ Laviiiimn, and introduced his gods into Latium ; from whom sprang the Latin progeny, the Alban father.s, and the walls of lofty Rome. Declare, O Muse ! the causes tchy he suffered, what deity he had offended, and why the queen of heaven was pro- voked to doom a man of such distinguished piety to struggle M'ith a series of calamities, to encounter so many hardships. Dwells such resentment in heavenly minds ? An ancient city there was, named ^Carthage, inhabited by a colony of Tyrians, fronting Italy, and the mouth of the Tiber, but far remote ; a city of vast riches, and yet extreme- 1 Par/AfMope, afterwards called Nea- north-east of Tunis, was built by a jiolis, (Naples,) a celebrated city of colony of Tyrians under Dido, about Campania, in Italy, seated on a beau- 100 years before the foundation of tiful bay, from which it rises like an Rome. After having been long mis- amphitheatre. It received the name tress at sea, and the rival of Home, of I'arthenope from one of the Sirens Carthage was totally destroyed by who was buried there- Scipio Africinus the younger, in the 2X,at7«n(?H,(Pratica,)acity of Lati- third Punic war, 13. C. 146, an event urn, built by jTineas, and called by to which the memorable words, " 7)f- thatname, iii honour of Lavinia. Icntia est Carthago," of the elder Cato 3 Carthage, a powerful city of ar- mainly contributed, cient Africa, on a peninsula, 12 miles 1 Book L ^NEID. 14. 67 ly hard by warlike exercises ; which city Juno is said to have honoured more than any other place of her residence preferably even to ^Samos. Here lay her arms ; here stood her chariot : here the goddess even then designs and fondly hopes to establish the seat of universal empire, ^^ oiild the fates permit. But she heard of a race to be descended from Trojan blood, that was one day to overturn the Tyrian towers : that hence a people of extensive reo^al sway, and renowned in war, would come to the destruction of Libya : so the Destinies ordained. This the slaughter of Satuni dreading-, and bearing still in mind tlie long-continued war which she had the principal hand in carrying on before '■'Troy, in behalf of her beloved "Argos ; nor as yet were the causes of her rage and keen resentment worn out of her mind; the judgment of Paris dwells deeply rooted in her soul, the affront offered to her neglected beauty, the detest- ed Trojan race, and the honours conferred on ravished ^Ganymede : she, by these invectives fired, having tossed on the whole ocean the Trojans, whom the Greeks and merciless Achilles had left, drove them far from ^Latiuni ; and thus, for many years, they were forced by fate to roam round every sea : so vast a work it was to found the llomau state. Scarcely had the Trojans, losing sight of "Sicil}', with joy launched out into the deep, and were plougliing the foaming billows with their brazen prows, when Juno, har- bouring everlasting rancour in her breast, thus arrjues with 1 Santos, an island in the iEgean burnt, B. C. 11S4. No vestige now sea, near the coast of Ionia. It is ex- remains of ancient Troy; and even its tremely fertile, producing the most de. site has liecome matter of uncertainty, hcious fruits, and is famous as being 3 Argos, the capital of Argolis, a the birth-place of Pytliagoi as. Samos district of Peloponnesus, ot which Ju was sacred to Juno, who had here a no was the chief deity. During the most magnificent temple. Trojan war, Agamemnon was kinj of 2 Troy, or Ilium, one of the most the united kingdom of Argos and My- renowned cities of antiquity, the ca- cen». pitalof Troas in Asia Minor, was built 4 Gany7ncdc, the son of Tros, king on a small eminence near Mount Ida, of Troy, feigned to have been taken between the Simois and Scamander, a up to heaven by Jupiter, and there be- short distance above their confluence, came the cupbearer of the Gods in the and about four miles from the .aigean place of Juno's daughter, Hebe, shore. Of all the wars that havebeen 5 Latium, (Campagna di Roma,) a carried on among the ancients, that country of Italy, on the east of the of Troy is the mot famous, whether Tiber. 'J'he Latins rose into import- we regard the celebrity of the chiefs aiice when Romulus had founded the engaged in it, cr the deeds in arms city of Rome in their country. which it called forth. According to C Sicily, the largest and most ccle. the generally received account, the bratcil island in the Mediterranean »ea Trojan war was undertaken by the to the south of Italy, and separated Greeks to recover Helen, the wife of from it by the Straits of Messina. It Menelaus, whom Paris, the son of is of a triangular form, and from its Priam, king of Troy, had carried three promontories was anciently call- away. All Greece united to avenge ed Trinacria. Its name Sicily was de- tho cause of Menelaus, and Troy, af- rived from the .Siculi, a people of Italy tcr a siege of ten years, was taken and who settled in it. 68 ^NEID. 37. Book I. herself: Shall I then, baffled thus, desist from my purpose, nor have it in my power to avert the Trojan king from Italy ? and why, because 1 am restrained by fate ! was Pallas able to burn the Grecian ships, and bury the men themselves in the ocean, for the offence of one, even the phrenzy of 'Ajax, Oileiis' son ? She herself darting from the clouds Jove's rapid fire, both scattered their ships, and upturned the sea with the winds : him too she snatched away in a whirlwind, breatiiing flames from his transfixed breast, and dashed him against the pointed rock. But I, who move majestic, the queen of heaven, l)oth sister and wife of Jove, must maintain a series of vAars with ona poor race for so many years. And who ^> ill henceforth adore Juno's divinity, or humbly offer victims on her altars ? The goddess by herself revolving such thoughts in her inflamed breast, repairs to ^^Eolia, the native land of storms, regions pregnant with boisterous winds. Here in a capa- cious cave, king ^olus controls «ith imperial sway the reluctant Avinds and blustering tempests, and confines them with chains to tlieir prison. They roar indignant round their barriers, tilling the holluiv mountain with loud mur- murs. ^Eolus is seated on a lofty throne, wielding a sceptre, and therewith assuages tlieir fury, and moderates their rage. For, unless he did so, they, in their rapid career, Avould hurl away sea and earth, and heaven sublime, and su eep them through the air. But almighty father Jove, guard- ing against this, hath pent them in gloomy caves, and thrown over them the ponderous weight of mountains, ap- pointing them a king, who, by fixed laws, and at command, knows both when to curb tliem, and when to relax tlieir reins : « hom Juno then in suppliant words thus addressed : Great j^oIus, (for the sire of gods and the king of men hath given thee power both to smooth the waves, and raise them with the wind,) a race by me detested sails the Tuscan sea, transporting Ilium, and its conquered gods, into Italy. Add impulse to thy winds, overset and sink the ships; or drive them different ways; and strew the ocean \\\i\\ JloatirKj carcases. I have twice seven lovely nymphs, the fairest of whom, Dciopeia, I will join to thee in firm wedlock, and assign to be thine own for ever ; that with thee she may spend all her years for this service, and make thee fixthcr of a beautiful offspring. 1 Aj'ix, the son of Oileiis, king of 2 JEolia, now the Lipari isles, seven I.iicris, one of tlie Grecian chiefs in in number, near the northern coast of the i'rojiii w;ir. He was surnamed Sicily; they were the kingiiom of I.ocrian, to distinguish him from Ajax Mi\\ii, tlie God of Winds and Storms, the son of Telamun. Book I. tENEID. 76. 89 To whom jEoIus replies : To you, illustrious queen, it belongs to consider what you would have done: on nie it is incumbent to execute your commands. To thee I owe whatever of power I have, to thee ray sceptre and the smiles q/" Jove. By j'our favour I sit at the tables of the gods : and you make me lord of storms and tempests. Thus having' said, whirling the point of his spear, he struck the hollow niountaiu'< side; the Minds, as in a form- ed battalion, rush fbith at every vent, and scour over the lands in giddy whirls. They ply the ocean furiously, and at once, east and south, and stormy south-west, plough up the whole deejj from its lowest bottom, and roll vast billows to the shores. The cries of the seamen succeed, and the cracking of the cordag-e. In an instant, clouds snatch the heavens and day from the eyes of the Trojans : sable night sits brooding on the sea, thunder roars from pole to pole, the sky glares with repeated flashes, and all nature threat- ens them with immediate death. Forthwith '^Eneas' limbs are relaxed with cold shuddering fear. He groans, and, spreading out both his hands to heaven, thus expostu- lates : () thrice happy they, M'ho had the good fortune to die before their ))arents' eyes, under the high ramparts of Troy ! O thou, the bravest of the Grecian race, great ^Ty- deus' son, why was I not destined to fall on the Trojan plains, and pour out this soul by thy right hand ! even there, where stern ^Hector lii.'S slain by the sword of Achilles ; where mighty ^Sarpedon lies ; Mhere, in impetuous whirls, ■"•Simois, my native river, rolls along v\ ith its stream, the shields, and helmets, and bodies of so many gallant heroes. Thus, while he mourns in vain, a tempest, T'oaring from the north, strikes across his sails, and heaves the billows to the stars. The oars are shattered ; then the prow indines, and exposes the side of the ship to the waves, which now swell up, one after another, into broken /ia/i^w^ mountains. These hang' trembling on the towering surge ; to those the 1 jEneas, a Trojan prince, son of An- Achilles, who dragged the body, with chises and Venus, who, after the fall insulting triumph, three times round of rroy, came to Italy, where he mar- the tomb of Patroclus iind the walls of ried l-a\inia, the daughter of Latinuj, Troy. whom he succeeded in his kinedom. 1 Saipedon, a son of Jupiter by 2 Tydeus' son i Diomedes, the son of Europa, and brother to Minos, went 3ydeus and Deiphyle, was king cf to the Troj in war to assist Priam, and JEtolia, and one of the most renowned was slain by Patroclus. According to of the Grecian chiefs in the Trojan some authors, the Sarptdon who z(- war, where he performed many heroic sisted I'riam was king uf Lycia, and deeds. son of Jupiter by Liodamia, thedaugh- 3 Hector, the son of Priam and He. ter i.f Kellerophon. Cuba, was the most valiant of all the 5 Simois, a river of Troas, whiive victoiy 3 I/loneus, &on of Phorbas, was dif - o%er that ofthe Carthaginians, which tinguished for his eloquence. Achates, put an end to the first Punic war, B.C. a (riend of ^^neas, whose fidelity was ^♦I. so exemplary, that Fidus Achates be- •i Oronlcf coniniaDded the Lycian cime a proverb. Book I. ^NEID. 142. 91 So speaks the god, and, more swiftly than speech can issue, smooths the swelliii<>- seas, disperses the collected clouds, and brim's back the day. With him ^Cymothoe, and Triton with exerted might, heave the ships from the pointed rock. He himself raised them Mith his trident ; lays open the vast sand banks, and calms the sea; and in his light chariot glides along the surface of the waves. And as when a sedition has arisen among- a mighty multitude, as often happens, and the minds of the ignoble vulgar are all on lire : now stones, now firebrands fly ; their ftny supplies them with arms ; if, then, b}' chance, they espy a man re- vered in piety and worth, all are hushed, and stand with listening- ears : he, by persuasive eloquence, rules their pas- sions, and calms their breasts. Thus all the raging- tumult of the ocean subsides, as soon as the parent of the ^floods, surveying the seas, and wafted througii the open sky, ma- nages his steeds, and throws up the reins, flying in his easy chariot. In the mean time, the weary Trojans direct their course towards the nearest shores, and make tlie coast of Lib3'a. Here, in a long recess, a station lies ; an island forms it in- to a harbour by its jutting sides, against which every wave from the ocean is broken, and divided runs into a remote, winding- bay. On either side vast cliffs arise, and two twin- like rocks, totoeritir/ above the rest, tlireaten heaven; under whose summit the waters all around are calm and still. Above, a sylvan scene appears with waving woods, and a dark grove with awful shade hangs over the flood. Under the opposite fiont a cave is for mid of pendent roi^ks, Avith- in which are fresh springs, and scats of living stone, the cool recess of nymphs. Here tempest-beaten ships ride safe, though neither cables hold, nor biting anchors moor them. To this retreat /Eneas brings seven ships, collected from all his fleet; and the Trojans, longing much for laud, now dis- embark, enjoy the wished-for shore, and stretch their brine- drenched limbs upon the beacti. Then first Achates struck the latent s^ni'li from a flint, received the fire in leaves, round it applied diy combustible matter, and instantly blew up the fuel into flame. Then spent with toil and hunger, they pro- duce their grain, damaged by the sea water, and the in- struments of Ceres; and prepare J?;-*'^ to dry over the fire, and then to grind with stones, their corn saved from the wreck. Meanwhile vEneas climbs a rock, and takes a pro- 1 Cymothoe, one of the Nereids, name was generally applied to those Triton, a powerful sea deity, son of only who were represented half nitH Neptune and Amphitritc. Many of the and half fishee, sea gods were called Tritons, but the 92 ^NEID. 181. Book 1. spect of the wide ocean all around, if, by any means, he can descry Antheus tossed by the wind, and the Phrygian palleys, or 'Capys, or the armis of Caicus, on the lofty deck. He sees no ship, but three sta<^s straying' on the shore ; these the whole herd follow, and are feeding through the valley in a long-extended train. Here he stopped short, and snatching his bow and winged arrows, (weapons which the faithful Achates bore,) first overthrows the leaders, bearing their heads high with branching horns ; next the vulgar throng; and disperses the whole herd, persecuting them with darts through the leafy woods. Nor desists he froin the. chace, till his conquering arm stretches seven huge deer on the ground, and equals their number with his ships. Hence he returns to the port, and shares the spoils amongst all his companions. Then the hero divides the wine which the good ^Acestcs had stowed in casks on the Sicilian shore, and given them at parting, and with these words cheers their disconsolate hearts : O friends and fellow-sufferers, who have sustained severer ills than these, (for we are not strangers to former days of adversity !) to these, too, God will grant a happy period. You have seen both Scylla's furious coast, and those hideous roaring rocks : you are acquainted even with the dens of the Cyclops : resume then your courage, and dismiss j'our desponding fears: perhaps the day may come-, when even these misfortunes shall be remembered with joy. Through various scenes of woe, through so many perilous adventures, we steer our course to Latiura, where the fates give us the prospect of peaceful settlements. There Troy's kingdom is allowed once more to rise. With patience persevere, and reserve yourselves for prosperous days. So spoke the chief; and though op- pressed with heavy cares, yet wears the looks of well dis- sembled hope, ^chile he buries deep anguish in his breast. Now they address themselves to the spoil and future feast ; tear the skin from the ribs, and lay the entrails bare : some divide the flesh into parts, and fix on spits the quiver- ing limbs : others place the brazen caldrons on the shore, and pre|iare the fires. Then they repair their strength with food : and, stretched along the grass, regale themselves with generous old wine and choice venison. When the rage of hunger is appeased, and the tables are removed, in long dis- course they explore the fate of their companions lost, ho- 1 Capys, this brave Trojan was one 2 Acestes, a king of Sicily, who as- nf those who, against the advice of sisted l'ri