The Bvcoliks of Pvblivs Virgilivs Maro Prince of all Latine Poets; otherwise called his Pastoralls, or shepeherds meetings. Together with his Georgiks or Ruralls, otherwise called his husbandrie, conteyning foure books. All newly translated into English verse by A. F. [i.e. Abraham Fleming] |
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The fourth Eclog of Virgill intituled
Pollio, or the birth day of Soloninus.
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 | The Bvcoliks of Pvblivs Virgilivs Maro |  |
The fourth Eclog of Virgill intituled Pollio, or the birth day of Soloninus.
The Argument.
Asinius Pollio, an excellent orator and captaine of the Germane host vnder Augustus, after his taking of the citie Salonæ in Dalmatia, hauing triumphed, he was aduanced to the office of a consull. Not long after this, he begat a sonne, whom he named Salonius, in memorie of the citie Salonæ, which he had conquered and taken. For this yoong babes sake newly borne, as also (and that principallie) to please the father, who was in great fauour, and might doo much with Augustus, Virgill (whom Pollio greatly esteemed, releeued and maintained) in this eclog describeth the birth day of the said Salonius. Wherein this is to bee marked, that such thinges as the prophetesse Sybilla of Cuma foretold of the comming and birth of Christ (as Lactantius, Eusebus, & Augustine doo testifie) the poet vtterly ignorant of that diuinitie, applieth to the happinesse of Augustus his gouernment, and also to the child Salonine. And because this eclog, as likewise two more, are of somwhat a loftier stile than beseemeth the argument of a pastorall deuise, the poet beginneth very modestly with an honest confession or preface, as followeth.
O muses of Sicilia ile let's greater matters sing,
Shrubs [groues] and bushes lowe delight and please not euery man,
If we doo sing of woods, the woods be worthy of a consull,
Now is the last age come whereof Sibyllas verse foretold,
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Now is [a sonne] an ofspring new sent downe from heauen high,
O chast Lucina fauour thou the boy that's now in birth,
By whom the yron nation first shall cease and haue an end,
And ouer all the world this golden age shall rise [and spring]
O Pollio truly of this age the beauties and the hew,
Shall [then] begin [when] thou art con-sull and the moneths great
Shall [then] begin [forward to go and orderly] proceed,
I my marke or notes of our offense doo yet remaine,
The same made void deliuer shall, the earth from endlesse feare
Thou being guide and gouernor he [Cæsar I doo meane]
Shall take his life of gods [aboue] and also he shall see
Most noble states with heauenly gods mingled [in companie,]
Aad he likewise himselfe shalbe of them beheld and seene,
And shall with fathers vertues rule the world in quiet set:
O child the ground shall yeeld to thee hir first fruits, little gifts,
No dressing [thereupon bestowd] in places euery where,
Euen yuie spreding of itselfe with [gentle] lady flowre,
And beanes of Æygipt mingled with that plesant beatefoot herbe,
The little gotes themselues shall beare home to their [maisters house]
Their dugs stuft full of milke, the herds [of cattell] shall not feare
The lions great aud terrible, the very cradle too
[Wherein the infant lies] shall yeeld faire louelie floure to thee,
The serpent perrish shall and dy, the herbe of poison too
[Which is] deceptfull, it shall die [and withering fall away]
And deintie grapes of Syria shall very common grow,
But herewithall when as thou shalt the fame and praises read
Of noble men, and therewithall thy fathers acts and deeds,
And shall perceiue and vnderstand what [heauenlie] vertue is,
Then shall the feeld wax yellowish by little and by little,
With soft and tender eares of corne, and ruddie grapes shall hang
On thorne vntrimd [and wilde] hard okes shall sweat honny like deaw:
But yet of old deceipt and guile a few marks shall remaine,
Which may commaund to try the sea with ships, and compasse townes
With walles, and cut in furrowes deepe into the ground [with plow]
Another Typhis then shall liue, another Argus too,
Which may conuey and carry cho-sen men of noble race,
Then also other warres shalbe, and once againe to Troy,
Achilles great and valiant shalbe [set out] and sent,
Then hereupon soone after that thy [yeares] and settled age,
Hath made thee be a matt, the mer-chant he shall leaue the sea,
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All kind of ground all kind of things shall [carrie yeeld and] beare,
The earth shall bide no rake, the vine no hedgebill shall abide,
The plowman now shall loose the yokes from strong and sturdy buls,
The wooll shall learne to counterfeit colours of diuers kinds,
But in the medowes shall the ram his woollen fleeses change,
Now into purple sweetly red, now yellow saffron hew:
A colour bright and flaming red shall of it owne accord
Cloth [and adorne] the lambs feeding a fee-ding in the [pasture] field.
The fatall ladies all agree-ing in the stedfast law
And mightie power of destinie said to their spindels [thus,]
Run on such seasons [golden times and happie ages still]
O deere ofspring and child of gods, O great increase of Ioue,
Great honours vndertake, the time [ordaind] will shortly be,
Behold the world now staggering with burthen crooked bent,
The land, the coasts of sea, the heauen profound and passing high,
Behold how all things ioy at this same [golden] time to come.
O that the last part of my life might last so long to me,
My breath also, as might suffice to tell thine acts and deeds,
Not Orph of Thrace should passe me then in [sweet melodious] songs,
Nor Linus neither, though the mother of the one were by,
And th' others father present too, Calliope the muse
Is Orpheus mother, and of Line Apollo [father] faire.
Though Pan should striue with me [in song] Arcadia being iudge,
Euen Pan would say hee's ouercome, Arcadia being iudge,
O little boie begin to know thy mother by thy laughing,
Ten months brought vnto mother thine both long and tedious toiles,
O little boy begin [to know thy mother by thy laughing]
At whom thy parents laughed not [when thou wast but a babe]
Ne god thought worthie of his boord, ne goddesse of hir bed.
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