 | The eclogues and georgics of Virgil (1753) |  |
ECLOGUE the First. TITYRUS.
ARGUMENT.
To reward the veteran soldiers that conquered Brutus and Cassius at the battle of Philippi, Augustus distributed amongst them the lands of Cremona and Mantua: Virgil's estate was seized among the rest, but he recovered it by the interest of Pollio, who warmly recommended him to the emperor. This eclogue was written on this occasion out of gratitude to Augustus. Some commentators, fond of allegorical interpretations, imagine that by the names of the two mistresses Amaryllis and Galatea, are meant Rome and Mantua; but this interpretation cannot justly be supported. Dr. Trapp very ingeniously conjectures, that Virgil insinuates his old mistress Galatea was of Brutus's party; and his new one Amaryllis of Octavius's; and would suppose, that by changing mistresses he hints at his changing parties; and in consequence of that, at his leaving Mantua, and going to Rome. Let the reader consider the following verses, in which he gives the reason of that conduct.
Namque, fatebor enim, dum me Galatea tenebat,Nec spes libertatis erat, nec cura peculî.
Quamvis multa meis exiret victima septis,
Pinguis et ingratæ premeretur caseus urbi,
Non unquam gravis aere domum mihi dextra redibat.
Meliboeus.
In beechen shades, you Tit'rus, stretcht along,
Tune to the slender reed your sylvan song;
We leave our country's bounds, our much-lov'd plains,
We from our country fly, unhappy swains!
You, Tit'rus, in the groves at leisure laid,
Teach Amaryllis' name to every shade.
Tityrus.
O 'twas a god these blessings, swain, bestow'd,
For still by me he shall be deem'd a god!
Shall oft in solemn sacrifices bleed.
He gave my oxen, as thou see'st, to stray,
And me at ease my fav'rite strains to play.
Meliboeus.
Nay, mine's not envy, swain, but glad surprize,
O'er all our fields such scenes of rapine rise!
And lo! sad part'ner of the general care,
Weary and faint I drive my goats afar,
While scarcely this my leading hand sustains,
Tir'd with the way, and recent from her pains;
For mid' yon tangled hazles as we past,
On the bare flints her hapless twins she cast,
The hopes and promise of my ruin'd fold!
These ills prophetic signs have oft foretold;
Oft from yon hollow tree th'hoarse raven's croak,
And heav'n's quick lightning on my blasted oak:
O I was blind these warnings not to see!—
But tell me, Tit'rus, who this god may be?
Tityrus.
The city men call Rome, unskilful clown,
I thought resembled this our humble town;
Where, Meliboeus, with our fleecy care,
We shepherds to the markets oft repair.
So like their dams I kidlings wont to call,
So dogs with whelps compar'd, so great with small:
But she o'er other cities lifts her head,
As lofty cypresses low shrubs exceed.
Meliboeus.
And what to Rome could Tit'rus' steps persuade?
Tityrus.
'Twas Freedom call'd; and I, tho' slow, obey'd.
When age had silver'd o'er my beard with white;
But ne'er approach'd till my revolting breast
Had for a new exchang'd its wonted guest:
There Amaryllis reigns; yet sure 'tis true,
While Galatea did my soul subdue,
Careless I liv'd of freedom and of gain,
And frequent victims thinn'd my folds in vain;
Tho' to th'ungrateful town my cheese I sold,
Yet still I bore not back th'expected gold.
Meliboeus.
Oft, Amaryllis, I with wonder heard
Thy vows to heav'n in soft distress preferr'd.
With wonder oft thy lingering fruits survey'd;
Nor knew for whom the bending branches stay'd:
'Twas Tit'rus was away—for thee detain'd
The pines, the shrubs, the bubbling springs complain'd.
Tityrus.
What could I do? where else expect to find
One glimpse of freedom, or a god so kind?
There I that youth beheld, for whom shall rise
Each year my votive incense to the skies.
'Twas there this gracious answer bless'd mine ears,
Swains feed again your herds, and yoke your steers.
Happy old man! then still thy farms restor'd,
Enough for thee, shall bless thy frugal board.
What tho' rough stones the naked soil o'erspread,
Or marshy bulrush rear its watry head,
No foreign food thy teeming ewes shall fear,
No touch contagious spread its influence here.
Happy old man! here mid' the custom'd streams
And sacred springs, you'll shun the scorching beams,
While from yon willow-fence, thy pastures' bound,
The bees that suck their flowery stores around,
Shall sweetly mingle, with the whispering boughs,
Their lulling murmurs, and invite repose:
While from steep rocks the pruner's song is heard;
Nor the soft-cooing dove, thy fav'rite bird,
Mean while shall cease to breathe her melting strain,
Nor turtles from th'aërial elm to plain.
Tityrus.
Sooner the stag in fields of air shall feed,
Seas leave on naked shores the scaly breed,
The Parthian and the German climates change,
This Arar drink, and that near Tigris range,
Than e'er, by stealing time effac'd, shall part
My patron's image, from my grateful heart.
Meliboeus.
But we far hence to distant climes shall go,
O'er Afric's burning sands, or Scythia's snow,
Where roars Oäxis, or where seas embrace,
Dividing from the world, the British race.
Ah! shall I never once again behold,
When many a year in tedious round has roll'd,
Gaze on my little realm, and turf-built cot?
What! must these rising crops barbarians share?
These well-till'd fields become the spoils of war?
See, to what mis'ry discord drives the swain!
See, for what lords we spread the teeming grain!
Now, Meliboeus, now, renew your cares,
Go, rank again your vines, and graft your pears:
Away, my goats, once happy flocks! away!
No more shall I resume the rural lay:
No more, as in my verdant cave I lie,
Shall I behold ye hang from rocks on high:
No more shall tend ye, while ye round me browze
The trefoil flow'rs, or willow's harsher boughs.
Tityrus.
Yet here, this night, at least, with me reclin'd
On the green leaves, an humble welcome find;
Ripe apples, chesnuts soft, my fields afford,
And cheese in plenty loads my rural board.
And see! from village-tops the smoak ascend,
And falling shades from western hills extend.
Ver. 2. Reed.] Avenâ, says the original.—The musical instruments used by shepherds were at first made of oat and wheat straw; then of reeds and hollow pipes of box; afterwards of leg bones of cranes, horns of animals, metals, &c. —Hence they are called avena, stipula, calamus, arundo, fistula, buxus, tibia, cornu, aes, &c. Ruaeus.
7. 'Twas a god.] This is pretty high flattery. Octavius had not yet received divine honours, which were afterwards bestowed on him: but Virgil speaks as if he were already deified. This was the language of the courtiers of that time.
Presenti tibi maturas largimur honores,says Horace.
41. There Amaryllis reigns.] Some fanciful critics imagine that the poet meant Rome by Amaryllis, and Mantua by Galatea. But Ruaeus justly looks on these allegorical interpretations as trifles, and rejects them for the following reasons. 1. As the poet has twice mentioned Rome expressly, and by its proper name, in this eclogue, what could induce him to call it sometimes Rome, and sometimes Amaryllis? 2. He distinguishes Galatea from Mantua also; when he says, that whilst he was a slave to Galatea, he had no profit from the cheeses which he made, from that unhappy city. 3. If we admit the allegory, that verse Mirabar quid moesta deos, is inextricable. 4. Servius has laid it down as a rule, that we are not to understand any thing in the Bucolics figuratively, that is, allegorically. Ruaeus and Martyn.
52. The shrubs.] The arbusta were large pieces of ground planted with elms or other trees, at the distance commonly of forty feet, to leave room for corn to grow between them. These trees were pruned in such a manner, as to serve for stages to the vines, which were planted near them. The vines fastened after this manner, were called arbustivae vites. See the 12th chapter of Columella de arboribus. Martyn.
58. Swains feed.] The word submittite in the original may mean of the breeding the cattle, as well as of yoking oxen.
61. What tho' rough stones.] The reader of taste cannot but be pleased with this little landscape, especially as some critics think Virgil is here describing his own estate. 'Tis a mistake to imagine the spot of ground was barren, for we find it contained a vineyard and apiary, and good pasture land; and the shepherd says he supplied Mantua with victims and cheeses.
85. Ah! shall I never.] By en, in the original, say the commentators, is meant unquamne, aliquandone, or an unquam. Ruaeus observes that these expressions are in general only a bare and cold interrogation, but surely in this passage the poet means an interrogation joined with an eager desire; a sort of languishing in Meliboeus after the farms and fields he was obliged to leave. We find the same expression in the same sense in the eighth eclogue.
------ En erit unquamIlle dies, mihi cum liceat tua dicere facta!
86. Many a year.] By post aliquot aristas in the original, is certainly meant after some years It is natural for shepherds to measure the years by the harvests. Arista is the beard of the wheat; the Roman husbandmen sow'd only the bearded wheat.
87. Ah! ne'er.] These short and abrupt exclamations are very natural, and have quite a dramatic air. The image of his little farm and cottage being plunder'd, breaks in upon the shepherd, and quite disorders his mind. The irony in the following lines,
Insere nunc, Meliboei, pyros, &c.strongly expresses both grief and indignation.
97. No more, as in] I have seen in Italy (and on the Vatican hill near Rome, in particular) a little arch'd cave made by the shepherds of ever-greens, not high enough to stand in; there they lie at their ease to observe their flocks browsing. Is it not such a sort of cave which is meant here? Viride is not a proper epithet for the inside of a natural cave, especially for such rocky ones as one finds in Italy. Spence.
| The eclogues and georgics of Virgil (1753) | |