University of Virginia Library

Ver. 1. Thy praise propitious Pales.] This is the book which appears to me the most charming of all the Georgics. Mr. Addison's favourite is the fourth, which indeed is more sweet and elegant, but the beauties of this are more great and sublime. He invokes Pales as the goddess of shepherds, and Apollo who fed the herds of king Admetus on the banks of the river Amphrysus.

5. Familiar are the songs.] Virgil here strongly ridicules the trite and fabulous subjects of the Grecian poets. 'Tis ingeniously conjectured by Fulvius Ursinus, that he alludes to particular authors who had treated of the fabulous stories he mentions. Thus Homer has related the fable of Eurystheus in the eighteenth Iliad. Athenaeus quotes the Busiris of Mnesimachus in his ninth book. Theocritus and Apollonius relate the story of Hylas and Hercules his grief for his loss. Callimachus is referred to in Latonia Delos, and the first Olympic ode of Pindar is to be understood by the mention of Hippodamia and Pelops. He breaks out at last into a noble triumph of assurance, that he shall rival these Greek poets:

Mr. Pope used to say, that this triumph of Virgil over the Greek poets, was one of the vainest things that ever was writ.

17. These hands.] Mr. Hurd in his notes on Horace's Epistle to Augustus, hath discoursed so entertainingly on the introductory lines of this third book, that it was thought proper to insert the following extract from that judicious work.

On the idea of the Apotheosis, which was the usual mode of flattery in the Augustan age, but, as having the countenance of public authority, sometimes inartificially enough employed, Virgil hath projected one of the noblest allegories in ancient poetry, and at the same time hath given to it all the force of just compliment, the occasion itself allowed. Each of these excellencies was to be expected from his talents. For as his genius led him to the sublime; so his exquisite judgment would instruct him to palliate this bold fiction, and qualify as much as possible, the shocking adulation, implied in it. So singular a beauty deserves to be shewn at large.

The third Georgic sets out with an apology for the low and simple argument of that work, which yet the poet esteemed, for its novelty, preferable to the sublimer, but trite, themes of the Greek writers. Not but he intended, on some future occasion, to adorn a nobler subject. This was the great plan of the Aeneis, which he now prefigures and unfolds at large. For, taking advantage of the noblest privilege of his art, he breaks away, in a fit of prophetic enthusiasm, to predict his successes in this projected enterprize, and, under the imagery of the antient triumph, which comprehends, or suggests to the imagination, whatever is most august in human affairs, to delineate the future glories of this ambitious design. The whole conception, as we shall see, is of the utmost grandeur and magnificence; tho', according to the usual management of the poet (which as not being apprehended by his critics, hath furnished occasion even to the best of them, to charge him with a want of the sublime) he hath contrived to soften and familiarize its appearance to the reader, by the artful manner, in which it is introduced. It stands thus:

The idea of victory, thus casually dropped, he makes the basis of his imagery; which, by means of this gradual preparation, offers itself easily to the apprehension, though it thereby loses, as the poet designed it should, much of that broad glare, in which writers of less judgment love to shew their ideas, as tending to set the common reader at a gaze. The allegory then proceeds:

The projected conquest was no less than that of all the Grecian Muses at once; whom, to carry on the decorum of the allegory, he threatens, 1. to force from their high and advantageous situation on the summit of the Aonian Mount; and 2. to bring captive with him into Italy; the former circumstance intimating to us the difficulty and danger of the enterprize; and the latter, his complete execution of it.

The palmy, triumphal entry, which was usual to victors on their return from foreign successes, follows:

But ancient conquerors did not hold it sufficient to reap this transient fruit of their labours. They were ambitious to consecrate their glory to immortality, by a temple, or other public monument, which was to be built out of the spoils of the conquered cities or countries. This the reader sees is suitable to the idea of the great work proposed; which was, out of the old remains of Grecian art, to compose a new one, that should comprize the virtues of all of them: as, in fact, the Aeneid is known to unite in itself whatever is most excellent not in Homer only, but, universally, in the wits of Greece. The everlasting monument of the marble temple is then reared:

And, because ancient superstition usually preferred, for these purposes, the banks of rivers to other situations, therefore the poet, in beautiful allusion to the site of some of the most celebrated pagan temples, builds his on the Mincius. We see with what a scrupulous propriety the allusion is carried on.

Next, this temple was to be dedicated, as a monument of the victor's piety, as well as glory, to some propitious, tutelary deity, under whose auspices the great adventure had been atchieved. The dedication is then made to the poet's divinity, Augustus:

Templum tenebit. The expression is emphatical; as intimating to us, and prefiguring the secret purpose of the Aeneis, which was, in the person of Aeneas, to shadow forth and consecrate the character of Augustus. His divinity was to fill and occupy that great work. And the ample circuit and magnificence of the epic plan was projected only, as a more awful enclosure of that august presence, which was to inhabit and solemnize the vast round of this poetic building.

And now the wonderful address of the poet's artifice appears. The mad servility of his country had deified the emperor in good earnest: and his brother poets made no scruple to worship in his temples, and to come before him with handfuls of real incense, smoking from the altars. But the sobriety of Virgil's adoration was of another cast. He seizes this circumstance only to embody a poetical fiction; which, on the supposition of an actual deification, hath all the force of compliment, which the fact implies, and yet, as presented through the chaste veil of allegory, eludes the monstrous offence, which the naked recital must needs have given to decency and common sense. Had the emperor's popular divinity been flatly acknowledged, and adored, the praise, even under Virgil's management, had been insufferable for its extravagance; and without some support for his poetical numen to rest upon, the figure had been more forced and strained, than the rules of just writing allow. As it is, the historical truth of his apotheosis authorizes and supports the fiction, and the fiction in its turn, serves to refine and palliate the history.

The Aeneis being, by the poet's improvement of this circumstance, thus naturally predicted under the image of a temple, we may expect to find a close and studied analogy betwixt them. The great, component parts of the one, will no doubt, be made, very faithfully, to represent and adumbrate those of the other. This hath been executed with great art and diligence.

1. The temple, we observed, was erected on the banks of a river. This site was not only proper for the reason already mentioned, but also, for the further convenience of instituting public games, the ordinary attendants of the consecration of temples. These were generally, as in the case of the Olympic and others, celebrated on the banks of rivers.

To see the propriety of the figure in this place, the reader needs only be reminded of the book of games in the Aeneid, which was purposely introduced in honour of the emperor, and not, as is commonly thought, for a mere trial of skill between the poet and his master. The emperor was passionately fond of these sports, and was even the author, or restorer of one of them. It is not to be doubted, that he alludes also to the quinquennial games, actually celebrated, in honour of his temples, through many parts of the empire. And this the poet undertakes in the civil office of victor.

2. What follows is in the religious office of priest. For it is to be noted, that, in assuming this double character, which the decorum of the solemnities, here recounted, prescribed, the poet has an eye to the political design of the Aeneis, which was to do honour to Caesar, in either capacity of a civil and religious personage; both being essential to the idea of the perfect legislator, he was to adorn and recommend. The account of his sacerdotal functions is delivered in these words:

The imagery in this place cannot be understood, without reflecting on the customary form and disposition of the pagan temples. Delubrum, or Delubra, for either number is used indifferently, denotes the shrine, or sanctuary, wherein the statue of the presiding God was placed. This was in the center of the building. Exactly before the delubrum, and at no great distance from it, was the altar. Further, the the shrine, or delubrum, was inclosed, and shut up on all sides by doors of curious carved work, and ductile veils, embellish'd by the rich embroidery of flowers, animals, or human figures. This being observed, the progress of the imagery before us will be this. The procession ad delubra, or shrine: the sacrifice on the altars, erected before it: and, lastly, the painted, or rather wrought scenery of the purple veils, inclosing the image, which were ornamented, and seemed to be sustained or held up by the figures of inwoven Britons. The meaning of all which, is, that the poet would proceed to the celebration of Caesar's praise in all the gradual, solemn preparation of poetic pomp: that he would render the most grateful offerings to his divinity in those occasional episodes, which he should consecrate to his more immediate honour: and finally, that he would provide the richest texture of his fancy, for a covering to that admired image of his virtues, which was to make the sovereign pride and glory of his poem. The choice of the inwoven Britons, for the support of his veil, is well accounted for by those, who tell us, that Augustus was proud to have a number of these to serve about him in quality of slaves.

The ornaments of the doors of this delubrum, on which the sculptor used to lavish all the riches of his art, are next delineated.

Here the covering of the figure is too thin to hide the literal meaning from the commonest reader, who sees, that the several triumphs of Caesar, here recorded in sculpture, are those, which the poet hath taken so much pains to finish, and hath occasionally inserted, as it were, in miniature, in several places of his poem. Let him only turn to the prophetic speech of Anchises' shade in the VIth, and to the description of the shield in the VIIIth book.

Hitherto we have contemplated the decorations of the shrine, i. e. such as bear a more direct and immediate reference to the honour of Caesar. We are now presented with a view of the remoter, surrounding ornaments of the temple. These are the illustrious Trojan chiefs, whose story was to furnish the materials, or, more properly, to form the body and case, as it were, of this august structure. They are also connected with the idol deity of the place by the closest ties of relationship, the Julian family affecting to derive its pedigree from this proud original. The poet then, in his arrangement of these additional figures, with admirable judgment, completes and rounds the entire fiction.

Nothing now remains but for fame to eternize the glories of what the great architect had, at the expence of so much art and labour, completed; which is predicted, in the highest sublime of ancient poetry, under the idea of envy, whom the poet personalizes, shuddering at the view of such transcendent perfection; and tasting, beforehand, the pains of a remediless vexation, strongly pictured in the image of the worst, infernal tortures.

Thus have I presumed, but with a religious awe, to inspect and declare the mysteries of this ideal temple. The attempt after all might have been censured, as prophane, if the great Mystagogue himself, or some body for him , had not given us the undoubted key to it. Under this encouragement I could not withstand the temptation of disclosing thus much of one of the noblest fictions of antiquity; and the rather, as the propriety of allegoric composition, which made the distinguished pride of ancient poetry, seems but little known or attended to by the modern professors of this fine art.

In these lines,

Accingar is of frequent use in the best authors, to denote a readiness and resolution to do any thing; but as joined with an infinitive mood, accingar dicere, I do not remember to have ever seen it. 'Tis often used by Virgil, but, if the several places be consulted, it will always be found with an accusative and preposition, expressed or understood, as magicas accingier artes, or with an accusative and dative, as accingere se praedae, or lastly with an ablative, expressing the instrument, as accingor ferro. La Cerda, in his notes upon the place, seemed sensible of the objection, and therefore wrote, Graeca locutio: the common, but paltry, shift of learned critics, when they determine, at any rate, to support an ancient reading.

2. Ardentes pugnas, burning battles, sounds well enough to a modern ear, but I much doubt, if it would have passed in the times of Virgil. At least, I recollect no such expression in all his works; ardens being constantly joined to a word, denoting a substance of apparent light, heat, or flame, to which the allusion is easy, as ardentes gladios, ardentes oculos, campos armis sublimibus ardentes, and by an easy metaphor, ardentes hostes, but no where, that I can find, to so abstract a notion, as that of fight. It seems to be to avoid this difficulty, that some have chosen to read ardentis, in the genitive, which yet Servius rejects as of no authority. 3. But the most glaring note of illegitimacy is in the line,

It has puzzled all the commentators from old Servius down to Mr. Martyn, to give any tolerable account of the poet's choice of Tithonus, from whom to derive the ancestry of Augustus, rather than Anchises, or Assaracus, who were not only more famous, but in the direct line. The pretences of any or all of them are too frivolous to make it necessary to spend a thought about them. The instance stands single in antiquity; much less is there any thing like it to be found in the Augustan poets.

II. But the phraseology of these lines is the least of my objection. Were it ever so accurate, there is, besides, on the first view, a manifest absurdity in the subject-matter of them. For would any writer, of but common skill in the art of composition, close a long and elaborate allegory, the principal grace of which consists in its very mystery, with a cold, and formal explanation of it? Or would he pay so poor a compliment to his patron, as to suppose his sagacity wanted the assistance of this additional triplet to lead him into the true meaning? Nothing can be more abhorrent from the usual address and artifice of Virgil's manner. Or,

III. Were the subject-matter itself passable, yet, how, in defiance of all the laws of disposition, came it to be forced in here? Let the reader turn to the passage, and he will soon perceive, that this could never be the place for it. The allegory being concluded, the poet returns to his subject, which is proposed in the six following lines:

Would now any one expect, that the poet, after having conducted the reader thus respectfully, to the very threshold of his subject, should immediately run away again to the point, from which he had set out, and this on so needless an errand, as the letting him into the secret of his allegory?

But this inserted triplet agrees as ill with what follows, as with what precedes it. For how abrupt is the transition, and unlike the delicate connection, so studiously contriv'd by the Augustan poets, from

to

When omit but these interpolated lines, and see how gracefully, and by how natural a succession of ideas, the poet slides into the main of his subject.—

On the whole, I have not the least doubt, that the lines before us are the spurious offspring of some later poet; if indeed the writer of them deserve that name; for, whoever he was, he is so far from partaking of the original spirit of Virgil, that at most, he appears to have been but a servile and paltry mimic of Ovid; from the opening of whose Metamorphosis the design was clearly taken. The turn of the thought is evidently the same in both, and even the expression. Mutatas dicere formas is echoed by ardentes dicere pugnas: dicere fert animus, is, by an affected improvement, accingar dicere: and Tithoni prima ab origine is almost literally the same as primaque ab origine mundi. For the insertion of these lines in this place, I leave it to the curious to conjecture of it, as they may; but in the mean time, must esteem the office of the true critic to be so far resembling that of the poet himself, as within some proper limitations, to justify the honest liberty here taken.

19. Spreading wide his ling'ring waters.] This description of the Mincio is, as exact as possible; the force of it lies chiefly in the epithets, tardis, ingens—the wide spreading and almost stagnation of the river, which forms the lake of Mantua.

35. I see the turning scene.] The commentators seem not sufficiently to have explained the expression of, ut versis discedat frontibus in the original. The ancient scenes were painted on a triangular machine, mark'd in the plate, D; which was so formed as to turn upon an axle or pin; each of its three sides, mark'd in the ground-plan of the plate, 1. 2. 3. represented a different subject; viz. 1. a city. 2. a palace or magnificent portico. 3. a wild forest, cave, or meadow. When a comedy was play'd, the first of these three frontispieces was turned towards the spectators; when a tragedy, the second; when a satyrical piece (such, for instance, as the Cyclops of Euripides) the third was exposed to view. And these triangular machines were placed under the arches of the theatre, marked in the plate, A, B, C. See Vitruvius B. 5. and L'Antiquite expliqueè, par D. Ber. Montfaucon, tom. 3. p. 235.

38. High on the gates.] These beautiful verses, containing an allegory of his design to publish the Aeneid in honour of Augustus, must have been added in the year of Rome 734, after Augustus had subdued the Indians and Parthians, and recovered the eagles which had been lost by Crassus. The invidia infelix points at those persons, which must have been many, that secretly repined at the imperial dignity of Augustus. Let me add the following passage from Polymetis.

“The persons he is speaking of are the enemies of the Julian family: or the faction, as he calls it, against the Caesars. These, he says, should be represented on the temple he would build to Augustus, as in the tortures of Tartarus; and more particularly as punished in the same manner as Ixion and Sisyphus. Ixion was punished there for his ingratitude and impiety: Sisyphus as a villain and a robber. So that this is calling all the party against Augustus, rascals and ingrates; and infers the highest compliment to that prince, at the same time that it is the most cruel of invectives against his enemies.

96. The days of youth.] This tender moral reflection thrown in, diversifies and exalts the low subject the poet is treating of.

108. Ev'n now the colt.] Having spoken of the marks of good cows, the poet proceeds to speak of horses, and gives a beautiful description of a colt that is fit to be chosen for a stallion. There is some difficulty concerning the meaning of spadices: but after much enquiry Dr. Martyn thinks it is, the colour we call bay, chesnut, or sorrel.

116. Grey.] Glaucus, when spoken of the colour of an horse, signifies a dark or iron-grey; our people in Wales, still call a grey horse kephal glauce. Holdsworth.

119. Restless he paws.] This is a beautiful description of a mettlesome horse; but it is far excelled by that noble one in the book of Job. Particularly, “He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage, neither believeth he (for joy!) that it is the sound of the trumpet,” is more spirited and strong than any circumstance in Virgil's picture.

132. Such Saturn.] Saturn, to avoid being discovered by his wife Ops while he was engaged with Phylyra his mistress, turned himself into a beautiful horse. Chiron the famous centaur was the son of this nymph Phylyra.

148. Dost thou not see.] No description was ever more spirited and lively than this of the chariot race. The poet has crowded into a few lines all the circumstances that are most striking in the famous description of Homer, and it must be owned has here excelled the Greek poet. One may say, as Longinus does on almost a similar occasion, that the soul of the reader is, as it were, mounted in the chariot, and whirled along in the race with it.

160. Erichthonius.] Bigas primum junxit Phrygum natio, quadrigas Erichthonius. Pliny. He likewise says, that Bellerophon invented the backing of horses, Pelethronius bridles and furniture, and the centaurs of Thessaly the fighting on horseback.

163. Form his pliant feet.] There are several lines in this third Georgic, which shew that the manége was found out much earlier than some would imagine. Witness the following passage,

And that other,

The simile just after was meant to shew, a violently swift, but at the same time a level and uniform motion.

170. Without these virtues.] I received the following observations on this passage from a very ingenious gentleman.

I have always been absolutely at a loss to make out the connection of these three lines [in the original] with the foregoing. Translators and commentators make quamvis refer to something which is certainly not expressed there, nor I think implied, or insinuated; nor indeed consistent with what is there expressed. How can the horse be supposed, saepae versos hostes egisse, if he was not calidus animis? Quamvis implies an opposition between these two, whereas no two things can be more naturally connected. You have got over the difficulty as well as your neighbours, but I think it is insuperable, as the text now stands. Besides, quamvis implies that the horse above described was rejected, not that he was sought out, and chosen. In short I am persuaded, these three lines are not in their right place Suppose them placed as follows;

Hunc quoque—abde domo—quamvis—Observe that the horses here above mentioned are war-horses; Pollux', Mars' and Achilles' his horses; qui versos hostes egerint; now see how well the other passage goes on without the lines in question.

By way of precedent, there are two remarkable transpositions of this kind in the Aeneid, which the critics have rectified against all authority of manuscripts—Aeneid 6. 745. Donec longa dies—and the two next lines, which should follow, after exuritur igni.

Aeneid 10. 717. Ille autem impavidus—and the next, which should come after clamoribus instant.

176. With genial herbs.] Varro and Columella speak of the necessity of feeding the bulls amply for two months before the time. Tauros duobus mensibus ante admissuram herbâ, et paleâ et focno facio pleniores et a faeminis secerno. Varro.

182. New desires.] Voluptas nota in the original, does not signify the experienced pleasure, says Dr. Martyn, but the desire which now first begins to be known by the young mare. Jam nota, just now (and not before) known.

203 Asilus.] This insect is a dreadful plague to the cows of Italy. An Italian writer quoted by Dr. Martyn informs us, that it resembles a wasp, has two membraneous wings, with which it makes a most horrible whizzing. The belly is terminated by three long rings, one within another, from the last of which proceeds a formidable sting. This sting is composed of a tube thro' which the egg is emitted, and two augres, which make way for the tube to penetrate into the skin of the cattle. These augres are armed with little knives which prick with their points, and cut with their edges, causing intolerable pain to the wounded animal.

226. Correction bear.] Mr. Dryden talks here of sending the calf to school, restraining him from the bad examples of the world, and instructing him in moral precepts. Virgil says only, ad studium et usum agrestem dum faciles animi.

263. Like Boreas.] It cannot be imagined, by the severest critics, who think such beauties of style in the ancients chimerical, that Virgil did not intend to represent by this swift line of dactyles the course of the wind.

270. Elean plain.] This alludes to the Olympic games celebrated about Olympia in the region of Elis. Whoever would have a just notion of the great political usefulness of these celebrated games of Greece, will meet with much pleasure and instruction from the learned and ingenious Mr. West's dissertation prefixed to his translation of an author, to whom he alone, of all the moderns, has done justice, in a spirited and elegant translation of his odes. See Mr. West's Pindar.

285. The mighty rivals.] The description of the bulls contending for the female is admirable; particularly, that fine circumstance of the vanquish'd bull looking back on his old accustomed stall and pastures when he is forced to retreat. And still more so, the circumstance of his lying down, sullenly disconsolate, on the stones, feeding upon rushes and prickly leaves, and exercising his horns against the trunks of trees, to enable himself to contend again with his hated rival. All these beautiful strokes are concluded by the noble simile of a vast wave rolling towards a rocky shore. The pause at procumbit—

is very expressive of the thing intended.

332. How fares the youth.] The poet alludes to the celebrated story of Hero and Leander, perhaps the most entertaining of all the ancient love-tales; the Musaeus who has written an elegant poem on this subject, was not the ancient Musaeus; for several false conceits and thoughts, rather pretty than solid, and contrary to the simplicity of the older Grecian writers, evidently betray the later age of the piece. 'Tis observable Virgil hints, that the whole species would encounter the same dangers as Leander did for the sake of love.

357. Hippomanes.] The hippomanes signifies two things. 1. A certain liquor that flows from a mare ready to take horse. 2. An excrescence of flesh which the new foaled colts have upon their foreheads. It is black, round, and of the bigness of a dried fig. It is pretended that these two hippomanes's have a peculiar virtue in philtres, and other such compositions designed for fascinations. And that the last is of such a nature, that a mare has no sooner dropped her colt, but she eats this piece of flesh, without which she would not suckle it. A curious reader may see a learned dissertation on this subject at the end of Mr. Bayle's Dictionary.

371. Where never poet.] This is an imitation of Lucretius:

372. Pales.] The third is the most epic of all the Georgics; and the introduction to it, as well as several passages in it, particularly this, shew that Virgil regarded it as such himself. Holdsworth.

391. Tents.] Varro speaking of the usefulness of goats, says, they are shorn for the use of sailors and war.

404. The freshness of the morning is painted in the liveliest colours.

407. Shrill cicada's lay.] Several of the modern Italian poets mention the singing of the cicada, as very loud and troublesome in the great heats of summer. Per gli ombrosi rami le argute cicale cantando si affatica vano sotto al gran caldo. Arcadia del Sannazaro, Prosa 10.

412. Or where.] How beautifully has the poet enlivened these dry precepts concerning the time of watering cattle by this description of a little landscape! of a vast old oak standing in a valley, or an ilex or ever-green oak, spreading a thick and solemn shade! The description of the cool of the evening is delightful,

412. Ilex-forest dark and deep.] We have not a full idea of this image, from our not knowing of how deep a green the ilex is, and what a vast shade it casts in Italy, where there are great numbers of this tree.

422. By day.] Thi digression to the shepherds of Africa cannot be sufficiently praised—one sees them

The vastness of those plains are represented by the very flow of this line,

428. So Rome's.] The Roman soldiers were wont to carry in their campaigns, not only their swords, helmets and shields, but likewise provisions for a fortnight, and stakes and utensils.

432. Not so.] The contrast is very strong between the scenes of Africa and Scythia, and has a fine effect. This variety, this magic art of conveying the reader from one climate to another, constitutes one of the greatest beauties of poetry.

M. de Maup rtuis, who, with some other academicians, was sent by the king of France, in 1736, to measure a degree of the meridian, under the arctic circle, says, that brandy was the only liquor, which could be kept sufficiently fluid for them to drink: Pendant un froid si grand, que la langue et les levres se geloient sur le champ, contre le tasse, &c. And a little afterwards he tells us, that the spirits of wine froze in their thermometers. See Dr. Martyn for other instances.

442. Or when he climbs.] This winter-piece has ever been admired as one of the capital paintings of Virgil. Mr. Thomson has given us a noble imitation of it, in his view of winter within the polar circle; and has added some striking circumstances, not to be found in Virgil, which modern travellers have observed. I cannot forbear transcribing his conclusion, where he describes winter personally. The image is very sublime.

478. Tho' white thy ram.] If the tongue of the ram be black or speckled, (says Varro) the lambs will be of the same colour. See Aristotle of animals, to the same purpose.

497. Nor mean the toil] The poet says but little concerning the care and breeding of dogs, or of hunting. Mr. Somerville, in his poem entituled the Chace, one of the best productions of this age, has in some measure supplied the defect.

513. The viper too.] Dr. Martyn thinks the serpent here described to be that which Pliny calls boas. This author affirms they grew to a prodigious bigness, and that a child was found in the belly of one of them in the reign of Claudius: that they feed on cow's milk, whence they have their name. The line a little below

is exactly expressive of hurry and eagerness: there are no particles in it; so in the fourth Aeneid,

523. Calabria's forests.] The poet here speaks of another serpent called chersydrus, from its living both in water, and on earth.

539. Brandishes.] Micare in its true and natural signification relates to any quick motion. So Virgil, micat auribus; and Cicero, digitis micare; of that old game so common in Italy of darting out their fingers, and guessing at the number of these darted out each time, so often mentioned by others of the Roman writers. Holdsworth.

542. Scabs oft the flock.] Columella remarks, that a sheep as soon as it is sheared, should be anointed with a mixture of the juice of lupines, the lees of old wine, and the dregs of oil, in equal quantities; and be washed four days afterwards in the sea, or in rain water salted; and quotes the authority of Celsus, who affirms that a sheep treated after this manner, will be free from the scab a whole year, and that the wool will be the softer, and the longer for it. See Dr. Martyn on the place.

567. And fierce Gelonian] Several northern nations at this time drink mare's milk mixed with blood. Pliny says, they mixed millet with it.

579. This truth to know.] The sense is, if any one knows what sort of places these were, when they were full of cattle, he may now see them empty, tho' it is a long time since the pestilence. Servius.

580. The pastures where Timavus'.] Timavus is a river of Carniola.

581. And Noric cliffs.] Noricum was a region of Germany bordering on the Alps.

585. Here sprung of old.] We now enter upon the celebrated description of the plague. Virgil puts forth all his strength to endeavour to excel Lucretius's sixth book on the plague at Athens. Neither can I think he has so far excelled his master (for such he was) as some critics imagine. Many hints in this description are borrowed from Thucydides his famous account of the plague at Athens. See Dr. Martyn for a full and particular account of this pestilence.

607. The victor horse.] Infelix studiorum in the original is an expression resembling laeta laborum, victus animi, fortunatus laborum. Read the description of these symptoms from this line to fauces premit aspera lingua: see how nobly the poet acquits himself on a subject, so exceeding difficult to be described, and let us compare it with a singularly fine one in Lucretius of the same kind:

628. The bullock sinks.] How exquisitely beautiful is the pause in this verse at the word gemitus! it tristis arator, by the very melancholy flow of the words places the action of the ploughman full in our sight: the next line proceeds as slow as possible, consisting of all spondees,

The circumstance of the brother heifer grieving is most tenderly imagined. Non umbrae altorum nemorum is an imitation of Lucretius, where the dam is lamenting her calf that was sacrificed;

It was upon reading these exquisite lines, that Scaliger declared, he had rather have been the author of them, than to have been the first favourite of Craesus or Cyrus. I wish there was no sentiment in Scaliger's works more extravagant than this.

652. The wily wolf.] Observe these circumstances of the wolves prowling no more, because acrior illum cura domat, and the deer wandering near the dwellings of men.

656. On the shores.] Virgil, 'tis observed, expressly contradicts Aristotle, who asserts, that pestilential diseases never affect fishes.

660. Th'astonish'd hydra.] I know not a stronger image in any poet whatever, than this of the serpents dying with their scales erect and stiffened: attoniti (which is a most expressive word in this place) squamis astantibus hydri!

The poet brings into his subject the inhabitants of every element, making as it were all nature affected with this dreadful plague.

665. Chiron, Melampus.]The poet does not mean that the plague happened in the days of Chiron and Melampus, but that the very best physicians acknowledged their skill useless in this case. Particulars are named for generals. Lucretius speaks personally of the art of physic, which has a fine effect.

667. Tisiphone from hell.] The figure of Tisiphone driving before her a train of diseases and fear, is nobly conceived. It puts one in mind of that exalted image in Habakuk, where the prophet speaking of Jehovah in his wrath, says, “Before him went the pestilence.” The circumstance of the fury Tisiphone's growing every day larger and larger, is truly admirable, as it so justly alludes to the daily increase of the pestilence. This is the beauty of an allegory, to have it supported by truth.

672. The withering banks] What can be more pathetic than the circumstance of the hills perpetually echoing with the mournful bleatings of the sheep, &c.

683. Th'insatiate flame.] Some imagine that by sacer ignis an erysipelas or St. Anthony's fire may be meant.

But perhaps sacer may mean accursed, or direful—auri sacra fames—sacer esto.