University of Virginia Library

The third booke of Virgils Georgiks written to a right honourable personage of Italie, as before.

O Pales great [of pasture grounds the goddesse] we also
Will sing [or praise] thee, and thee too O shepheard high renowmd
From Amphryse floud, and you O woods, and Licey lakes or streams,
The resdue of my verses which had held [kept occupide]
Minds void [of care] are common all and noised now abrode:
[For] who knows not Hurystheus [that] hard [and cruell king]
Or th' altars of Busiris dis-commended [tyrant fearce?]
To whom hath not beene told [the tale of] Hylas [Hercles] boy,
And th' iland of Latona, and the wench Hippodame,
And Pelops [Tantals sonne] so stowt on horsse-backe] famous for
His iuory shoulders [when his owne was eaten quite away.]
A trace or way must tried be, wherby I may lift vp
My selfe aloft from ground [beelow] and [like] a conqueror
Flie oft before mens faces [to be seene and talked of.]
I will bring downe from [Helicon or] th' hill of Aonian
Formost with me (if life may last) the muses to my countrie.
O Mantua first to thee will I bring Idumean palms
[Or giue to thee victorious praise] and I will place [or build]
A church of marble in the gree-nish feelds neere to the water
Where mightie Mincius [riuer] runs or straies with windings slowe,
And doth foreclose or fense the banks with yoong and tender reeds:
In midst for me shall Cæsar be, and shall possesse the church,
I conqueror [hauing my wish] and being seene of him
In Tyrian purple robe will driue vnto the riuer streames
A hundred chariots hauing foure yokt horsses [them to draw,]
And let all Grecia leuing Al-pheus [riuer] and the rooads
Of Molorch [in Arcadia land] trie maisteries with me
In running and raw banging bats [or bastinardos tipt
With raw hide lether and wrought full of plummets [studs] of lead.
I [Maro Virgill] being deckt about the head with leaues
Of shorne or cropped oliue tree, will bring and offer gifts:
It doth delight me now to lead great traines in solemne shews
Unto the temples of the gods, and to see bullocks slaine,
Or how curtens theatricall or pagents on the stage
Doo go asside [from former place] their frontiers being turnd,
And how the Brittons [English now] wouen [in tapstrie worke]
Beare purple hanging vp. I will make in the entrie doores
Of gold and sound [meere] iuory or tooth of th' oliphant
The skirmish of the Gangards [those folke by Ganges floud]
And th' arms of Suirine conqueror [Augustus Cæsars warrs]
And heere [ile make the riuer] Nile with battell broils abounding
And greatly flowing: pillers too raisd of the brasse of ships
Wherwith their noses strengthned be against all storms on sea
And [people neere] Nyphates [floud] chased and put to foile,
And Parthian [hoast] trusting in flight and shafts turnd [full at foes,]
Moreouer two victorious shewes taken by [Cesars] hand
From diuerse enimies [of his] and nations on each shore
[Both east and west of Ocean sea] in triumph lead away:
Yea [grauen] stones of Paros ile [white marble there] shall stand,
Breathing representations, or liuely images;
The offspring of Assaracus (of whose stocke Cæsar came]
The names of that same nation too from Iupiter descended,
A Troian was their father, and of Troy was Cynthuis founder.
Unhappie enuie [sore] shall feare the furies [feends below]
And Cocyte rigorous riuers too, and Ixions writhren snakes,
And the mayne wheels [of Sisiphus] and stone not conquerable.
O my Mecenas let vs in the meane time follow woods
Of Dryades [goddesses of trees, and parks [of beastes] toucht,
Thy biddinges or commandements are not light [in account]
Our mind begins no loftie thing without [consent of] thee.
Lo, go to, breake off slowe delaies, Cytheron [forrests] calls
With mightie noise, so dooth the dogs of Taiget hill also,
And [eeke the citie] Epidaure the tamer of [great] horsses,
The voice of them redoubled ringes with eccho of the woods:
Howbeit I will girded be [or readilie prepard]
Streight waies to tell the battels hot of Cæsar, and to beare
Or carrie by report his name, throughout so many years
As Cæsar is far off from the first birth of Tithon [old]
If anie body wondering at the [notable] rewards
Of victorie olympiacall [so nam'd of Olympia fields]
Dooth horsses feed; or who so [keeps] strong bullocks for the plow,
Then let him choose [them] cheefly [by] the bodies of their dams.
The fashion of a beetle browd or sterne cow is the best,
Whose head is fowly big, whose necke is very great withall,
And from whose chin a dewlap or a crop hangs to hir shanks;
Againe, in whose long sides there is no measure or proportion,
That hath all parts both great and large, yea euen hir very foot,
[Whose] eares are hearie rough vnder hir crooked [writhen] hornes:
Nor let [a cow] marked with specks and white, me discontent,
Or one refusing yoke [to beare] and sometimes shrewd with horne,
And neere in vissage to a bull, in growth hie all in all,
Which going sweeps hir fellowes trea-dinges with hir tayle below.
Th' age t'abide Lucina, and to suffer Hymens due,
[By Lucine I meane caluing, and by Hymen bulling time]
This age dooth end before ten yeeres, and after foure begins,
The rest of [th' age] vnable is for brood and bringing foorth,
Not strong for plow: in the meane time [betwixt foure years and ten]
Whiles lustie youth remaines in heards of cattell [cows or mares]
Let loose your horsses, put your beasts to Venus [breeding] first,
and store [your selfe] with gendring still one yoongling with another;
[For] euery best and first day of [our] age dooth slip away
From miserable mortall men, diseases follow after,
And sad old age, and labour too, th' ungentlenes of hard
[Or cruell] death dooth take away the life [of man and beasts.]
There shalbe [breeding mares and kine] alwaies [vpon thy ground]
Whose bodies thou hadst rather to be changed [for the best]
And euermore repare them [or renew them that decay.]
Preuent or ouertake [that fault] and sort or choose out yeerly
Yoong cattell for thy heards [increase] least afterwards thou maist
seeke vp againe [such breeders as thou] missed [hast] and lost.
The selfe same choise there is likewise in horsses [to be made]
Bestow thou from their tender years [or lims] especiall paines
[Upon those horsses] which thou meanst [intendest] presently
For hope of kinde to put to mare [to couer and ingender.]
The fole or colt of gallant beast [which coms of a good kind]
Dooth by and by [when he is fold] tread hie [or goe vpright]
In fields or medows, and laies downe [to rest] his softly legs,
And dares go iornies first of all, and threatning riuers trie,
And put himselfe to seas vnknowne; ne feares he noises vaine;
His necke vpright, a fine made head, short beilie and fat backe,
His brest courragious dooth abound with brawns or lumps of flesh:
Bright bay and dapple gray the fai-rest horsses be and best,
Woorst colour is in [horsses] white, or branlie [horsse like box.]
Moreouer [horsse of gallant kind] knows not ne will stand still
In one and selfe same place, if war-like armor make a noise
He wags his ears and stirs or shakes his lims [with life and spirit]
And keeping downe the fire [or heat] which gathered is within
Doth roll or void it at his nose-trils [blowing all amaine]
His mane is thicke, and cast vpon his right shoulder [there] lies,
A double spine or large backe bone is drawne alongst his loines,
The ground he maketh hollow [where he treads he casts vp earth]
His hoofe with horne sound all about dooth greatly make a noise:
Such one was Cyllarus [that horsse tam'd with the rains and bit
Of Pollux Amycleus,, and [such horsses] as of which
The Grecian poets made report, horsses of [mightie Mars
Yokt [linked, coupled] two by two, and coch of great Achilles.
Swift Saturne at the comming of his wife was such a one,
And flang his maine on horsses necke [wherin he turnd himselfe]
And taking heels filld Pelion hills with wihhies shrill [of his.]
Hide thou [from vse of mare such gal-lant horsse as] this same is,
When he decaies or falles away, or greeued is with sicknesse,
Or lazie now or labourlesse with yeeres ne spare his age
Il fauourd [or beare with his age not fowle il fauoured.]
The elder horsse is cold for Venus [lustfull fleshly worke,]
And lingers labour much mislik'te and lost [in riding mares;]
And if at anie time he comes to skirmishes [or running]
He rageth and takes on in vaine: euen as a mightie fier
Is fearce a while withouten force: and therefore thou shalt marke
Especially his courage and his age and thereupon
Some other skills or vses, and their parents brood [also]
[What kinde of colts the horsse and mare (that bred these) were before]
What greefe there is in ech of them foiled and ouercome,
What glorie of the victorie [or getting of the game.]
Doost thou not see when coches [drawne with horsses] taken haue
The feeld at once in headlong race [or running all for life.]
And rush amaine let loose from rails [or lists where they stood tide]
When hope of youths is raised vp [and bent to win the game]
And panting feare [to loose it] draws [or sucks] their ioyfull harts?
They prease on forward with their [lash-ing] whip of writhen [cord]
And leaning forward giue the raines or bridels [to the horsses:]
The axelltree all fierie hot, doth flie with farre amaine
Now downe below now vp aloft through void and emptie aire,
They seeme for to be carried and t'arise into the skie,
Ne is there any lingering nor resting [by the way:]
But [then] a cloud or storme of yel-low sand is hoised vp,
[The horsse] wax wet with froth and fome, and with the blowing of
The [horsses] following [next to them in teeme or course of chase,]
Their loue of praises is so great, and victories care so great.
Ericthonie durst first of all ioyne coch and horsses foure,
And sit full fast on snatching wheeles [like to] a conqueror,
The Lapiths of Peletronie [a towne in Thessalie.]
Set on [horsses] backe gaue them bridels and running in the ring,
And taught the horsseman vnder arms [or hauing harnesse on]
To praunse vpon the ground and his proud pases for to round.
Each labour equall is [each tricke indifferently is taught,]
Namely, to praunse and roundly tread, to amble and to trot:
And horsmaisters seeke all alike a horsse yoong, hot, and quicke,
Althouge he chased hath in flight his foes put oft [to foile]
And make report or vaunt Epire his countrie soile to be,
And Mycen strong, and fetch his stocke from Neptunes race it selfe.
These [matters] well considered, th' horsmasters earnest be
Before the time [of mareroiling] and all their care bestow
To stuffe or fill with fatnesse thick [that horse] which they haue chosen,
And nam'd to be the husband to the beast [or breeding mare]
And they cut growing grasse for him, and giue him riuer water,
And corne or graine, least that he should not able be to serue
Sufficiently the pleasant la-bour [of ingendring yoong,]
And [least] the weakling foles or colts should beare in open shew
The leannesse of their parents [horse and mare of whom they came.]
[Th' horssmasters also slender make and lanke with leannesse thin,
Being willing [so to do] the [breed-ing] cattell [or the mares,]
And when the sport alredy knowne doth stir vp couplings first,
They do deny them leaues [so greene] and driue them from the springs,
And shake or mooue them often times with running [vp and downe]
And tire or weary them likewise with [labouring in] the sun:
[Then] when the threshing floore doth grone greatly or greeuously
With corne bethwackt and threshed out, and when as th' empty chaffe
Is cast against the westerne wind, rising with pleasant blast,
This do horssmasters least by too much ranknesse, duller vse
Might be in breeding fallow feeld, and fill with slimie stuffe
Th' unseruiceable furrowes. But that thirsting it may take
Venus the seed of breeding yoong, and inwardly lay vp
The same [within hir very wombe or due conceiuing place.]
Againe, the care of horsses doth begin to fall or faile,
And care of mares to come in place: when [therefore] mares do stray
Being big with yoong, their mouths run out, let none [then] suffer them
To draw the yoke in heauie carts, nor t'ouercome the way
With leaping, and to passe through pa-stures with a speedy pase
[Or crop the grasse of medow grounds in going swiftly by]
And for to swim in catching streames [streams carrieng things away]
But let [horssmasters] feed them in void parks or empty feelds,
And neere vnto full riuers where mosse is, and also where
The banke is very greene with grasse, and caues may couer them,
And rockie shades may ouerreach [and keepe them from the sun.]
A flieng vermin haunteth much about the woods or groues
Of Siler [riuer] and about Alburne [that port or hauen]
Greene growne with holms; which [vermins] name in Latine is Asilus,
The Greekes haue turnd it [in their toong] by calling of it Oestrus,
Sharpe stinging, buzzing hatefully and too vnpleasantly,
Of whom the cattell all afraid, run here and there the woods
Th' aire being beaten with their mo-wing rageth furiously,
So do the woods, so doth the banke of drie Tanagrus [brooke]
Iuno hauing deuisd a plage for Inachs heifer, she
Did practise on a time hir wrath and anger horrible
With this same monster. Thou shalt driue from cattell big with yoong
This vermin, and shalt feed thy heards at sunrising betimes,
Or when the stars draw on the night [at euening not too late:]
For in the midday heats this flie most eagarly doth sting.
All care is put quite ouer [from the cowes] vnto the calues,
After the time of bringing foorth, and [owners then of beasts]
Doo by and by set marks on them, and of their kind the names,
And which they rather had to ride the cow for hauing cattell,
Or sand for holy altars, or to cut and plow the ground,
And vpside downe to turne the feeld all rough with broken clods:
The other [yoonger] beasts are fed vpon the grasse so greene,
Embolden now thy bullocks, those which thou wilt fashion to
Th' exercise and occu-pation of good husbandry,
And enter thou the way of ta-ming them, whiles that the na-
tures of the yoonglings gentle be, and trainable their age:
And first bind thou about their necks slacke collars of small twigs,
Then afterwards when as they shall accustome and enure
Their necks at liberty and free to seruice and to toile,
Ioine equall matches fitted by the very [necke] collars,
And then compell the bullocks to keepe pase or go together,
And let the void or emptie wheels be drawne oft now of them
Alongst the ground, and let them marke their feet on top of dust
[Let them learne lightly for to tread.] Then beechen apple tree
Forcing it selfe and labouring vnder a mighty waight,
Let it creake afterwards, and let the brasen wainbeame [strong]
Draw both the wheels together ioind. In the meane time thou shalt
Plucke vp or gather for thy yoong-ling cattell yet vntamde,
Not only grasse nor willow leaues sparing and very small,
And fennie seaweed [called Reeke of some] but also corne
Sowne by the hand; ne shall thy bree-ding kine fill vp the pales
Snowwhite [with milke] according to the maner of our fathers,
[As they were woont in our forefa-thers time full oft to doo.]
Thou shalt not milk the dams [the kine accompanied with their calues]
But they shall spend their vdders whole vpon their yoonglings sweet.
But if there be in thee a mind, or a desire to wars,
Troops [of horssmen] fierce, or to outflow and ouerrun
With wheeles th' Alphean streams of Pi-sa [that renowned towne.]
And oft to driue [swift] flieng co-ches in the game of Ioue,
Th' exercise or labour first of horsse is for to see
The courages and armor of stout warriors, and t'abide
The crooked trumpets, and to beare the groning wheele in draught,
And eke to heare in stable brasen bridles making noise:
Then after to reioise [and take a pleasure] more and more
In flattring prayses of his mai-ster, and to loue the sound
Of clapped necke [with palme of hand] and let the colt heare these
[Forenamed noises] presently so soone as he is weind
At first from teat or dug of dam, and let him giue [or vse]
His mouth to halters soft in steed [of snaffle or of bit]
Being but weake and fearefull too, and ignorant of his age,
[Unskilfull how to liue, wherein old horsses trained be.]
But when his fourth age, [or fourth yeare] approched is and come,
Three being past, let him begin streightwaies to tread the ring,
And make a trampling noise with trea-dings comely [downe by art]
And let him bow by course the ben-dings of his legs [his ioints]
And let him be like labouring [horsse] then let him chafe the aire
With runnings [or prouoke the winds too weake with him to run]
And flieng through th' open plaine feelds, as freed of his rains,
Let him skarse set his feet vpon th' vpmost of the sand.
As northerne wind when being thicke hath laid [on sea and land]
From Hyperborean [northerne] coasts, and driueth diuers waies
The Scythian winter storms and drie [or rainlesse] clouds also,
Then [whiles] the corne is growne [full] hie, and swimming feelds doo quake
With gentle smooth and euen winds; & highest tops of woods
Do giue a sound or make a noise; and waues or flouds from far
Force to the shores: that [wind] doth flie, sweeping both land and sea
At once in chase. This [horsse compard to northerne wind so swift]
Shall sweat at bounded races and great spaces of the field
Of Eleus, and shall cast out froth bloody at his mouth;
And he shall better beare and draw [French] Belgic coches with
His gentle soft or tender necke: then suffer thou at last,
Thy horsses being tamed now, their bodies great to grow
With prouender [or horssebread] thicke and grosse [wherein is tacke]
For yer their taming they will take vp courage great and stout,
And being catcht, they wil refuse t'abide the winding whips,
Or to obay [or take in mouth] hard bits [like teeth of woolues:]
But any diligence or skill set-tels not their strength more
Than for to turne or put away Venus [the worke of flesh]
And pricks or stings of [Cupid] loueblind [hidden and vnseen]
Whether the profit or the vse of oxen or of horsse
More pleasurable is or seruiceable to a man.
And therefore [cattell masters, gra-siers] they do put apart
The buls far off in pasture grounds alone behind a hill
Iust opposit or full against [from sight of any cow,]
And eke beyond brode riuers; or they keepe [their buls] shut vp
[In stals] at racke and manger full: for why the female [cow]
By little and by little gets away the strength [of bull]
And burns or sets him all on fire with seing hir, ne doth
She suffer him to thinke of woods, nor yet of grasse; but she
Doth eg and tempt with sweetish baits oft times the [buls so] proud
Louing [the kine] betweene themselues mastries to trie with horns.
The faire yoong cow [or heifer] is fed in the wood so great,
They keeping course [smiting avy] with violence very much
Mingle their skirmishes with many wounds and often hurts,
Blacke blood doth wash their bodies, and their horns being turnd ful butt
With rorings huge are thrust into the [fierce] not withstanding [buls]
The woods and great Olympus hill ring eccho with the noise.
Ne is't the maner vp to stall together fighting [buls]
But th' one quite ouercome departs, and banisht [leads his life]
In coasts vnknowne far off bewailing much his great disgrace,
And blowes or wounds of conqueror [or bull that ouercame.]
Then looking at the loues which he vnreuenged hath lost,
And at the stals [whereout] he went, the realms of his forefathers,
Therefore he practiseth his force with all care and regard,
And lodging all night long he lies among hard stones [twixt rocks]
Upon a couch vnmade [vnspread] being fed with rough greene leaues,
And sheere grasse sharpe or sedge, and tries himselfe and learns likewise
Angrie to be with his owne horns, striking at stocke of tree,
And chafes or challenges the winds with strokes, and proffers play
At fighting in the sand dispearst and scattered [with his heeles.]
Then after strength recouered and force receiu'd afresh,
He maketh signs or raiseth vp his standard [captaine like]
And headlong carried is against his [old] forgetfull fo:
Euen as a waue when it begins to wax or become white
In midst of sea drawes hollownesse alongst out of the deepe,
And after being rold to land, it rores amaine through rocks,
Ne fals it lesser than a hill; but water nethermost
Doth boile with whirlepools [rage with gulfes or swallowes turning round,
And from below flings vp aloft blacke sand [mingled with earth.]
Truly all kind of people and wild beasts, seafish, tamde beasts,
And painted [fairly coloured] birds rush in this rage and fire,
One selfe same loue in all. The she lion straid not in fields
At any other time [than when in loue] the crueller
Hauing forgotten hir [yoong] whelps, nor yet the shapelesse beares
Hauing giuen at none other time in places euery where
So many carcases [to ground] and slaughter through the woods:
Then cruell is the bore so wild, then is the tyger woorst,
And badly out alas, doth a-ny trauell then alone
In feelds of Lybia land [full ill alacke men trauell then
In desert feelds of wildernesse of Affrike hot and dry.]
Doost thou not see that trembling doth possesse and ouersway
The bodies whole of horsses, if but only smell [of mares]
Hath brought them airs well known [to them in rank mareroiling time]
[And seest thou not] that neither bit and bridle [vsd] of men
Nor cruell yerkings, no nor rocks, nor hollow hils or banks,
Nor riuers cast betweene [or laid against] do stop or stay
[Horsses from mares.] Nor riuers rol-ling hils, or mounteins [tall]
Caught vp, [and carried away] with water [of the streame.]
The Sabine hog himselfe doth rush and set his teeth on edge,
And deeply forward with his foot digs vp the ground and rubs
His ribs against or at a tree, and hardeneth his shoulders
Against his wounds on this side and on that side [being hurt.]
What did a yoong man, in whose bones hard loue [in enterprise]
Dooth stir and turne a great fyre vp: truly he swimmeth late
In blind night time through streights [of seas] troubled with broken stormes
On whom the gate so huge of heauen doth thunder, and the seas,
Driuen and dasht vpon the rocks, against him cry amaine,
Nor mournfull parents could call home, nor virgin like to dye
A cruell death [if parents did withstand hir in hir will]
Why [should I tell] what skirmishes the spotted Lynces of
[God] Bacchus giue, and cruell kind of woolues and eke of dogs?
What skirmishes also th' unwarlike stags or harts [do make.]
Marke this, that raging loue of mares is notablest of all,
And Venus gaue them such a mind [nature or qualitie]
At that time when the coches which foure yoked horsses [nam'd]
Potniades [of Potnia that citie] had consum'd
And with their chaps deuourd the lims of Glauc [their bringer vp.]
Loue leads them ouer Gargar hils, and Ascan roring floud,
They passe quite ouer mounteins and swim ouer streams,
Immediatly when fire is vn-derput and giuen vnto
Their greedie marrow [inward Iust:] in spring time more, bicause
In spring time heat coms to the bones: they stand all on hie rocks
[Or banks] hauing their faces turnd toward the westerne wind,
And inwardly receiue and take light aire [or gentle blasts]
And [war] bigbellide with the wind, without all wedlocke helpe,
[Without the breeding seed of a-ny horsse] strange to be told.
They gallop ouer rocks and hils, and vallies pressed low,
Not O thou easterne wind to thine arising, nor the suns,
But to the north and northwest wind, or [thither] whense the south
Most blacke doth rise, and maketh sad the heauen with rainie cold.
At length the lingring poison [or the clammie matter] which
The shepheards call by a true name Hyppomanes Horsrage,
Drops down from hense [this madding loue] euen from the secret parts
Horsrage, horsse madnesse, which oft times bad stepdames gathered haue
And taken vp, and mingled hearbs and hurtfull charms therewith.
But time in the meane season flits, flits irrecouerable,
Whiles we being taken [all] in loue, are carried round about
Particular things: this is enough for beasts of bigger growth.
Another peece of care remains to beat our wits about,
Wooll bearing flocks [sheepe bearing fleese] and rough haire gotes also.
From hense coms worke, from hense O strong and sturdy husbandmen
Hope [after] praise: ne doubt I [or, ne doubtfull am of mind]
How great a thing it is t'aduance or hoist aloft with words
These matters, and to giue vnto small things this honour [due,]
But sweet or pleasant loue doth catch, and carry me away
Through deserts hie of Parnasse hill, it doth delight me much
To passe the mounteine tops [that way] where as no beaten path
Of former fellowes [poets old] is toward turnd [or leads]
Unto Castalia [springs] with soft or easie rising banke.
O venerable Pales [thou goddesse of prouender]
Now must I sound with mightie voice [smal things in verses great,]
Beginning here I charge your sheepe to crop or feed on hay
In easie sheepcotes [temperat] paued, or flat and plaine,
Till summer season full of leaues be brought againe anon,
And t'vnderstrew or spread the bare ground with much straw, and with
Handfuls of ferne, least coldish ice [or frost and cold] should hurt
The tender cattell, and should bring the scab and filthie gowte.
Then after passing hense I charge to serue sufficiently
Your gotes with tree sprigs bearing leaues, and water fresh to giue,
And for to set your sheepcotes full against the winter sun
From winds; [the winter sun before, and northerne winds behind]
And turnd vnto the middle day [or to that very place
Where doe at noonetide see the sun, which is indeed full south.]
Then when cold Aquarie doth fall [in Ianuary month,
Or thereabouts, as at the midst of March] and brings in dew
At latter ending of the yeare [when springtime doth begin]
These cattell [namely gotes] also preserued are to be
And safely kept of vs with no care ligh-ter [than are sheepe.]
Ne is their vse and profit lesse, although Milesian fleeses,
[Or sheepe of Milet countrie] staind or dide in Tyrian reds
Are changed for a great [hie price or for some other wares.]
Thicker the yoonglings [breed] from hense, from hense [I meane from gotes]
Abundance of large milke [of both much more then coms of sheepe]
And how much more the milking pale shall fome from dug drawne drie,
So much the more their dugs shall yeeld, their niples being prest:
Neuerthelesse in the meane time heardsmen shall sheere or poll
The beards of gotes Cinyphian [by Cinyps towne or floud
Bred and brought vp] their hory chins, and briffely growing haires
For vse of teats and couerings for wofull mariners,
Gotes truly feed in woods, vpon Lycean [mounteine] tops,
On bushes rough, and thorns that loue [to grow in] places hie,
And mindfull they come to their homes, and bring their yoonglings [too]
And skarsly step the threshold ouer with big dugs [full of milke.]
Therefore thou shalt remoue [and turne or put away from them]
With all thy care and diligence the frost and snowish winds;
The lesse regard that mens necessitie hath vnto them:
And gladly thou shalt beare them meat, and twigs of trees for food,
Ne shalt shut vp thy haybarns all the midst of winter time:
But when as pleasant summer [coms] thou shalt send both the flocks
[Of gotes and sheepe] into the woods, and into pasture grounds,
The westerne winds calling [or bid-ding thee and them do so.]
Let vs crop the cold country grounds at Lucifers first star,
[By morning star, and euening star, before and after sun,]
Whiles morning time is fresh and gay, and grasse is hory gray,
And dew most pleasant vnto beasts is on the tender hearbs.
Then when the fourth houre [after sun is risen] gather shall
The drought of heauen [thirst of aire] and chirping grashoppers
Shall riue or rent the groues of trees with singing: then bid thou
Thy flocks go drinke at wels, or else at standing waters deepe,
Or waters running out of pipes [spouts made of wood] of holme;
[And bid thy flocks] seeke out the dale or vallie full of shade
In midst of sommer, if somwhere the oke tree huge of Ioue,
Doo reach and spred from ancient trunke or stocke his mighty boughs,
Or if somwhere the wood so blacke [and darke] with holy shade
Lies neere vnto the holmtrees thicke: and giue them then againe
Thin water, and feed them againe at setting of the sun,
When coldish [Uesper] euening star asswageth [heat of] aire,
And dewish moone doth new refresh the woods and shores of seas
Do sound againe the Halcyon, bird [or singing kings fisher]
And so do bushes [sound againe] the singing thistle finch.
What should I further wade in verse for thee [to vnderstand]
The shepheards; what the pasture grounds of [Affrike] Lybia land
And cottages dwelt in [of them] with thin and slender roofes.
The cattell [there] is fed oft times by day and eke by night,
And all the month in order and goes into deserts large
Without all inning [housing, fense, shroud, houell, or such like,]
So much there of the feeld lies [void of corne and serues for grasse.]
T' Affrike heardsman driueth all [the goods he hath] with him,
Both house and houshold trinkets, tools, and Amyclean cur,
Nam'd Candie quiuer, not vnlike a Roman [soldiour] stout
In arms for countries cause [in warlike furniture] when he
Taketh his way vnder a lode vneasie [heauie arms]
And stands against his enemie yer looking for: the campe
Being pitcht and placed in the host [amongst the armed men.]
But not [so as in Affrica where beasts be harbourlesse,
In that part of the world] wherein the Scythian people be,
And water of Meotis fen, and troubled Ister floud
Rolling his yellowish sands; and where the mounteine Rhodope
Goes backe being stretcht out along vnder the mid northpole.
There [heardsmen] keepe their heards shut vp in stables or in stals,
Neither doo any hearbs appeare in field, or leaues on tree,
But fashionlesse, ilfauoured, vnhandsome lies the land
With heaps of snow and with deepe frosts [in places all] abrode,
And riseth seuen faddoms hie: there winter alwaies [lasts]
And westerne winds are blowing e-uermore cold [wether] there;
Yea there the sun doth neuer driue away the shadowes pale,
Nor when being borne or carried vpon his horsses [backs]
He mounts vp to the loftie skie [ariseth in the east,]
Nor when he washeth or dooth wet his hedlong running coch
In the red sea of th' Ocean swift [goes downward in the west:]
The sudden crafts or flakes of [yce] do grow together hard
In running streame; and now the water runneth on his backe
Wheeles wrought about with yron worke. That [water] at the first
Was harborous to brode wide ships, now harborous to wains:
And brasen [tooles] doo commonly in sunder start and rent,
And garments put [vpon the barke] become stiffe [with the frost]
And they [the people] hew with hat-chets watrish wines, and whole
Diches haue turnd [themselues] into sound and substantiall yce,
And ragged ysicle hath become hard on their beards vncombd.
In the meane time it snowes all o-uer th' aire or skie no les,
Cattell doo perish and the bo-dies huge of oxen stand
Compast about with frosts, and stags in herds thicke and threefold
Are stiffe with heapes [of snow] new [falln, or heapes both rare & strange]
And skarse stand out therof with th' high-est tops of all their horns.
The Scythians doo not chase or hunt these fearfull stags or harts
With putting dogs or hounds to them, nor yet with any nets,
Or with the feare of arrow red: but hard at hand them kill
With weapon sharpe, thrusting before them with their brest in vaine
The mounteine full against them set [the mounteine huge of snow]
And staie them braieng greeuously; and so glad [merrie] men
They carrie them away with a great shout or mightie crie.
[The Scythians] take their careles rest vnder the ground so deepe
In digged caues or dens, and haue rolld to their chimnie harths
Okes [or the trunks of trees] toge-ther laid [logs in a pile,]
And they haue giuen to the fier [or set on fire] whole elms;
Heere doo they passe or driue away the night in sport and plaie,
And merrie men they counterfet their vinetree quaffing cups,
[They make them wines by art in steed of that which grapes doo yeeld]
With leuen and sowre seruice be-ries [crusht and pressed out]
A kind of men vnbridled, [wilde] subiect [or which abide]
Under Septentrio [or Charles waine, seuen stars trianglifide]
[Cold] Hyperborean [northerne blastes] and such [a people] is
Beaten with th' east Riphean winds [winds from Riphean hills:]
Their bodies couered be with haire like brussels hard of beasts,
[Of sheeps rough wooll] russet or li-on tawnie [coloured.]
If yarne for cloth be vnto thee a care, first thornie thickets
And burrs and brambles must away; shun pasture grounds too ranke,
[Or flie thou and auoid such food as maketh beastes too fat]
And choose or cull out presently [as quickly as thou canst]
The whitish flocks with softish wooll: but driue away the ram
(Though he be white) whose doong alone is blacke vnder the moist
Roufe of his mouth, least with his blac-kish spots he should make dim
Duskish and darke the fleeses of the growing [lambs,] and eke
Looke round about in feeld full [fraught with flocks] another ram.
O Luna, Pan of Arcadie the God deceiued thee
(If so be that it be a thing well worthie to beleeue)
With [such] a gift of snow white wooll [a ram with fleese snow white]
Calling thee into loftie woods; ne didst thou skorne him calling.
But he to whome the loue of [ha-uing] nilke [is a regard]
Let him beare in his hand vnto the sheepcotes Cythise [shrub]
And Lotos [leaues] full oft, and sal-ted herbs or weeds [likewise]
Hereby they loue water the more, and stretch their dugs the more,
[By this means doo they drinke the more, and doo yeeld milke the more]
And giue a secret smacke or taste of saltnes in their milke.
Many keepe off or driue away the full growne kids from dams,
[Doo waine them] and make fast the foreparts of their lips with strings
Wrought full of yron nailes [to pricke the teat and so be waind.]
Many doo presse at night that which they milke at rising sun
And hours by day [before noonetide] and carrie out in baskets
Yer day that which [they milkt] by the darke night and setting sun,
The shepheard goes to villages and townes [to sell the same:]
Or else they touch and season it with sparing [thriftie] salt,
And lay it vp in store for win-ter [when as milke is skant,]
Ne may the care of dogs be last [or least regard] to thee,
But feede together like fat whelps of Sparta [countrie] and
The fearce Molosson [countrie] cur, with whey [to make them] fat:
And thou shalt neuer feare, they being keepers [of thy beasts]
The night theefe in thy folds or stalls, and runnings in of wolues,
Or discontented [Spaniards] Iberians at thy backe.
Thou also oftentimes shalt driue in chase fearfull wilde asses,
The hare with hounds, and thou shalt hunt the fallow deere with dogs,
And chasing wild bores driuen from their wallowing puddels [fowle,]
Thou shalt them rowse with barking [of thy hounds] and shalt compell
And force with yolping noise [of them] vnto thy trapping nets
Ouer the mounteins hie a huge and mightie stag or bucke.
Learne thou to kindle in thy stalls [places to keepe thy beasts]
Sweet smelling Cedar wood, and driue away the noisome serpents
Chelydri with the smokie smell of Galbanum [that gum:]
Either the viper dangerous and euill to be taught
Lurkes oft in stables [full of doong] vnstird [and seldome clensd]
And being fraid auoids the heauen [or shuns the light so cleere:]
Or else the adder woonted and accustomed to go
Into the couert [of the shade] a cruell place of oxen,
[And woont also] to sprincke hir strong poison vpon cattell,
Dooth sit abrood vpon the ground [dooth couch vnto the earth.]
Thou shepheard [or thou husbandman by fortune finding such]
Take stones in hand, catch cudgils [clubs] and throw or strike [the same]
Lifting aloft his angry threates and hissing necke all swolne,
Euen now when he by skipping thense hath hid his fearfell head
Deepe [in some hole] and when his mid-dle winding and the rownds
Of his tailes and are loosd, and the last ring or circle drawes
Slow windinges [when his head is hid, and middle parts are loose
From hindmost parts and stretching out his body, seeming dead.]
That snake also [Chelydrus] hurtfull in Calabrian woods
Folding his skalie backe toge-ther with brest lifted vp,
And spotted all the bellie long with specks great and large,
Which [worne] whiles any streams are bro-ken out of running springs,
And whiles grounds moistoned be in spring-time wet and waterish
With raine southerne winds, dooth hunt the standing waters, and
Dwelling or keeping on banckesides, this serpent [mischeefous]
Dooth fill his fowle blacke gorge with fish, & speaking [croking] frogs,
After the fen is drawne out drie, and ground with heat doo gape,
He leapes out on drie land, and wrething round his flaming eyes
Tyranniseth, or practiseth great crueltie in feelds,
Eger with drowght and fraid with heat. It may not please me then
To take sweet sleeps in open aire, nor on my backe to ly
Upon the grasse in woods; when he is new become againe
Hauing cast off his skin, and trick-sie trim with youth afresh
Is rolled hie or turnd against the sun, and wags himselfe
Or glistereth with a three edged toong in his [malicious] mouth,
Leauing at home in house his yoong-ling [serpents] or his egs.
I will thee teach the causes and the tokens of diseases.
The filthie scab dooth cumber sheepe, when cold and mistie raine
Hath setled and sunke deepe into the quicke, [life parts and bones]
And quaking winter with gray frosts, or sweat vnwasht away
Dooth cleaue vnto them being shorne; and when sharp pricking thorns
Haue rent or torne their bodies. Now therfore doo sheepmasters
Wash well and throughly all their beasts in [running] riuers sweet;
The ram also with fattie fleese, or moist and greasie wooll
Is diued often in the gulfe, and being let alone
[Or put into the streame] he down-ward swims with merie tide,
Or else [men] doo annoint and rub their bodies polld and shorne
With smarting dregs of oile, and they doo mingle therwithall
The spume of argent, sulphur quicke, [or brimstone naturall]
And pitch of trees on Ida hill, and fattish wax with grease,
And Scilla [onion of the sea] and heauie Hellebore,
And blacke Bitumen [lime of Iu-da lake or Syrian earth,]
But yet there is not any lucke of labours present more,
[No medcine of more redie helpe] than if so be a man
Could cut and lance or open with a knife the very mouth
Or vpmost part of rotten sore: the sicknes and disease
Or the corruption nourisht is, and liues by hiding it,
Whiles that the shepherd dooth deny to put to helping hands
Unto the wounds, or sitteth still beseeching gods [aboue]
All things the better [to befall]. Moreouer when as paine
being falln into the very bones [or marow closd within]
Of bleating sheepe outragious is, and when a feuer drie
[On lingering consumption] dooth cut away the lims,
It hath bene profitable to auert or turne away
The kindled heats, and for to strike a veine stuft full of bloud
Betweene the lowest hoofes [or sole and bottome] of the foot,
In maner as Bisalts [people in Macedonie]
And Gelons [people] fearce [in warrs] accustomd are [to doo]
When he doth flie to Rhodope [a hill in Thracia land]
And wildernesses of the Ghets [a people bordering there]
And drinketh milke thickned with bloud of horsses [or of mares.]
Auoid or take away with knife [or burning yron] the fault
[Or sicknes of that sheepe] which thou shalt see oft far behind,
Or [oftentimes] to goe into the gentle [pleasant] shade,
Or slowly cropping th' upmost [parts or tops of] grasse or weeds,
And hindermost or very last to follow [all the droue,]
And to giue place alone vnto the lateward [comming] night,
[Auoid I say the fault] before infection horrible
May creepe quite through or ouer all th' unwarie multitude
[Or flocke of sheepe not hauing wit to shun so shrewd a plage]
Ne doth a whirle winde forcing win-ter [storms or shours of haile]
In sea [or plaine fields] rush or fall so oft as many plages
Of beastes; ne doo diseases take their bodies seuerall,
But all [the cattell] suddenly summering [in shadie places,]
Yea th' hope [of flocke] and flocke at once [the yoong and old for brood]
And all the kind or sort of them euen from the very first.
If any man [had] then [behold] the mounteins [aierie Alps
Diuiding Italie from France and Germanie likewise.]
And Norike castels [built] on lit-tle hislocks, or the fields
Of Timaue [floud] in Iapis [of Venice being part]
And now also so long after should see the realms [or grounds]
Of shepheards made a wildernes, or vtterly forsaken,
And vp landes far and wide lie void: let that man vnderstand
[What I haue said before of beasts, all sicke at once, not some.]
A miserable tempest [or plage] sometimes arose
Heere [in this land] by sicknes or infection of the aire,
And burned [during] all the heat of haruest [burned sore
With feruent fits of feuers hot like heat of haruest time]
And gaue to death all kind of beasts and cattell tame and wild,
Corrupted ponds or lakes and poi-sond pastures with the rot:
Ne was the way of death all one [alike or naturall]
But when the fierie thirstines being forste to all the veins
had drawne away [or made to shrinke] their miserable lims,
A thin superfluous water did abound againe, and did
Draw all their bones togither falln by little and by little
With their disease: a sacrifice standing at th' altar oft
In th' honor of the gods among or in the midst of people,
Whiles that the woollen miter with a snow white fillet [or
a ribben] compassed or hembd about, hath fallen downe
Faintfull and like to die among the leasurable preestes:
Or if the sacrificer had slaine with a knife some [beast]
Before [it fell downe fainting] nor that th' altars burnd therwith
The bowels being laid theron: ne can the prophet giue
Or make his answeres being askt his counsell and aduise;
And kniues thrust in are skarsly staind and coloured with the bloud,
And vpmost stand is duskish made with matter leane and thin.
Hereby calues and yoong bullocks die in ranke grasse euery where
And yeeld their sweet liues vnto stalls full [of conuenient food]
Hereof coms madnes vnto fawn-ing dogs, the breathing cough
Dooth shake sicke swine and strangles them with fowle fat chops [big blowne]
The conquerous horsse vnluckie and vnmindfull of his gaines
And of his grasse falls [faintingly] and water springes refuseth,
And strikes the ground oft with his foot, his eares are hanged downe,
Sweat doubtfull [vpon cause vnknowne] is there, and the same [sweat]
In horsses truly like to die is cold, their skin is drie,
And being hard withall resistes the handler in the touching:
These signes they giue in the first dayes before their end and death.
But if the sicknes hath begun to be more raw and sore,
In processe or continuance, then firie be their eies,
Their breathing combersome is fetcht, sometimes with groning deepe,
And straine their inward bowels with much yexing [or long sobbing]
Blacke bloud out of their nosetrils goes, their rugged toong also
Doth put to paine their chaps shut close [not able to be open.]
It hath beene good and profitable to poure in at their mouth
With horne put thereinto the wine of [Bacchus] Lenæus;
That [helpe to] health one and alone was seene in dieng horsse:
And by and by againe the selfe same wine was to their death,
And being much amended with their madnesse [which doth seeme
T'affoord them strength and lustinesse, but lasts a little while]
They burned [more in frantike fits] and rent with their bare teeth
Their tatterd lims all torne, a while before their greeuous death.
The gods graunt good men better [lucke] and giue our foes that rage;
And lo the ox vnder hard plow smoking [with sweat] fals downe,
And vomits at the mouth his blood mingled with froth or fome,
And casteth vp his latter grones or gasps [and then he dies:]
The plowman he goes sad away, vnyoking th' other ox
Greeuing or sorrowing at his bro-thers death, and leaues the plow
Sticke fast in the midst of his worke; not shadows of the woods,
Not pleasant grasse can moue his mind, not riuer cleerer than
Amber, which being rold by rocks [or streaming thorow stones]
Romes to the feeld: but yet his sides below at nether parts
Are loosed [or be faint] and dul-nesse or else giddinesse
Oppresseth his ill sighted eies, his necke and head also
Doth waue vnto the ground with stoo-ping weight [down right yborn]
What good doth labour [taking paine] what doth well doing helpe?
What helps it to haue turned vp the ground with plough?
But how [coms it to passe?] for why, the Massike gifts of Bacchus,
[Wines comming of the grapes which grow on Massike mountein hie]
Haue not annoid ne hurt [those beasts] nor meat stord vp [oft eaten,]
For they are fed with leaues of trees, and food of simple hearbs,
Their drinks are running waters cleere, and riuers exercisd
With flowing, ne doth carefulnesse breake off their wholesome sleeps.
Folke say that oxen are desird or sought in those same coasts
For Iunos sacrifices at none other time [than when
They perish all: and folke do say] that coches driuen be
Unto the [gods] hie treasuries with buffs vnequall matcht.
Therefore do plowmen painfully breake vp or cleaue the ground
With mattocks, rakes or harrowes; and dig deepe or burie with
Their very nailes [or fingers ends] the corne [that serues for food]
And drag quite ouer mountains hie their creeking carts or wains
With stretched necke. The woolfe doth not watch [to lay] snares about
The sheepfolds, neither walks by night before the flocks of sheepe:
A care more eager tameth him. The fearfull fallow deere
And coursing bucks do wander then, and go among the hounds,
And all about mens houses the waues wash the brood of sea
Unmeasurable big, and all the kind of swimming fishes
On furthest [part of all the] shore like shipwracke carcases.
Unwoonted seacalues flit vnto the riuers or the flouds,
The viper also vainly fenst in crooked lurking holes
Dooth perish: so doo watersnakes or adders all amazd
With skales vpstanding. Th' aire is not vpright and iust to birds,
So that they headlong leaue their life vnder a loftie cloud.
Moreouer, neither dooth it skill, their meat now to be changed,
Meanes medcinable now doo hurt, maisters [phisicians]
Haue ceast [or giuen ouer th' art of phisicke, or be dead]
Chyron Phillyrides, and A-mythaon Melampus,
[Two famous old phisicians haue ceast to be, are dead.]
[The hellish hag] Tisiphone pale [faced] plaies the tyrant
And being sent from Stygian darck-nes [or the diuels lake]
Into the light abrode doth driue sicknes and feare before hir,
And rising vp she daily lifts aloft hir greedie head,
Riuers and bankes being drie: and hills which vpward lie [to heauen]
[Or mounteins hie] doo make a noise with bleating of the sheepe,
And often bellowinges or the mow-inges [both of ox and cow]
And now she makes a slaughter great by companies or troupes,
And heapeth vp within the stalls the carrions falln downe dead
With fowle consuming filthie rot, vntill men learne [the meanes]
To couer or to burie them within the ground, and eke
To hide them ouer head and eares in ditches or in pits.
For in their hides there was no vse [or profit to be found]
Nor any body able is to clense their bowels [flesh]
With water, [boile it in a pot and porridge make therewith,]
Or t'ouercome it with the fire, [make rostmeat of the same:]
Nor yet to sheere their fleeses ea-ten through with their disease
And running matter, neither can atteine vnto or get
A rotten web of cloth [of such vnseruiceable wooll.]
Moreouer if that any had made proofe or tride therewith
To make him hated garments, wheales and burning blisters too,
And nastie sweat did follow [and consume] his stinking lims,
Yea and Saint Ant'nies curssed fire [a plagie running sore]
Did eat in no long lingering time the ioynts togither shrunke.