CORYDON.

Both junipers and prickly chestnut-trees

Stand bristling; strewed about lie every where
Its fruits beneath each tree; now all things smile:
But if the fair Alexis from these mounts

Depart, you e'en would see the rivers dry.

THYRSIS.

Parched is the field; through taint of th' atmosphere
The dying herbage thirsts; his viny shades
Hath Bacchus grudged the hills: at the approach
Of our own Phyllis all the grove will bloom,
And plenteous Jove drop down in joyous rain.

CORYDON.

Poplar most charming is to Hercules,

Line 72. See note on Eclogue v. 25:

"But neither breath of Morn, when she ascends
With charm of earliest birds; nor rising sun
On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower,
Glistening with dew; nor fragrance after showers;
Nor grateful evening mild; nor silent Night,
With this her solemn bird; nor walk by moon,
Or glittering star-light, without thee is sweet."

Milton, P. L. iv.

77. Cowley gives a different turn to the idea: speaking of spring, he

says:

"How could it be so fair, and you away?

How could the trees be beauteous, flowers so gay?
Could they remember but last year,

How you did them, they you delight,
The sprouting leaves which saw you here,
And call'd their fellows to the sight,

Would, looking round for the same sight in vain,
Creep back into their silent barks again."

The Mistress: Spring.

79. So Pope, Past. 1, somewhat less slavishly than usual:

"Celestial Venus haunts Idalia's groves;

Diana Cynthus, Ceres Hybla loves;

The vine to Bacchus, unto Venus fair

The myrtle, unto Phoebus his own bay;
[My] Phyllis doth the hazel-bushes love:
While these shall Phyllis love, nor myrtle-tree,
Nor Phœbus' bay the hazels shall surpass.

THYRSIS.

The ash-tree in the woods is passing fair,
The pine in gardens, poplar by the floods,
The silver fir upon the lofty mounts:
But if thou oftener wouldst revisit me,
O lovely Lycidas, the ash in woods,

The pine in gardens, should give place to thee.

MELIBUS.

These I remember, and that all in vain
Competed conquered Thyrsis. From that time
Is Corydon the Corydon for us.

If Windsor shades delight the matchless maid,
Cynthus and Hybla yield to Windsor shade."

Line 93. It does not seem quite clear that "Corydon for ever," (which is, after all that has been written about it, the meaning of the last line in the Latin,) is exactly a judicious cheer. It may be a question whether it was he that had the best of the contest.

ECLOGUE VIII. PHARMACEUTRIA.

DAMON. ALPHESIBUS.

THE shepherds Damon and Alphesibœus' song,
At whom, unmindful of her pasturage,

The heifer gazed in marvel as they strove;
At whose lay wonder-stricken were the pards,
And, changed in their career, the rivers paused;-
We Damon's and Alphesibous' song will chant.
Whether for me you now o'erpass the rocks
Of huge Timavus, or you coast the marge
Of the Illyrian sea;-lo! will that day
E'er come, when it may be allowed to me
To celebrate thy deeds? Lo! will it come,
That it may be allowed to me to bear

10

Line 5. Or:

And the changed rivers did their current stay.

But I confess that the active use of requiesco seems to me to rest on slender foundation. The passage from Ciris proves nothing; and that from Propertius, ii. 22, 25, little more. However, there is one from the latter author much more to the point: ii. 34, 75: "Quamvis ille suam lassus requievit avenam." Able authors take both views of the matter; and this is certain, that no one can say that the word is not used actively here, though such a use is extremely rare.

The skill of Damon and Alphesibous is attributed to Thyrsis by Milton in his Comus:

"Thyrsis? whose artful strains have oft delayed
The huddling brook to hear his madrigal."

See also note on Eclogue x. 19, and on En. i. 574.

Through the whole universe thy lays, alone

Of Sophoclean buskin worthy?

My spring [of song], from thee, on thee shall end;
Receive the lays, commenced at thy behests,

And suffer thou this ivy round thy brows

To creep along among thy conquering bays.

Night's chilly shade had scarce from heaven withdrawn, What time the dew, most pleasing to the flock,

[Lies] on the tender grass; on rounded crook Of olive leaning, Damon thus began:

DAMON.

Arise thou, and, forestalling the boon day,
Usher it in, O Lucifer; beguiled
By my betrothed Nisa's traitorous love,
While I am plaining, and the gods, (though I
Nought by their being witnesses have gained,
Yet,) dying, at my latest hour address.

Begin with me, my pipe, Mænalian strains.
Mænalus both a tuneful wood and speaking pines
Aye hath; aye shepherds' loves he hears, and Pan,
The first who did not brook inactive reeds.

Begin with me, my pipe, Mænalian strains.
To Mopsus is my Nisa given away;
What may we paramours not apprehend?
Forthwith shall griffins be with horses yoked,

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30

Line 15. "Then ever, beauteous Contemplation, hail!

From thee began, auspicious maid, my song;

With thee shall end." Warton, Pleasures of Melancholy. Such anomalies are graphically paralleled by Pope in the 3d Book of the Dunciad:

36.

"Thence a new world, to Nature's laws unknown,

Breaks out refulgent, with a heaven its own:

Another Cynthia her new journey runs,

And other planets circle other suns.

And in the following age along with hounds
Shall fearful fallow-deer come to their draughts.
O Mopsus, thy fresh torches cut: for thee
A bride is being escorted [home]: strew nuts,
Bridegroom; for thee doth Hesper Eta quit.

Begin with me, my pipe, Mænalian strains.
O mated to a worthy spouse! while you
Look down on every wight, and while my pipe
Is thy abhorrence, ay and my she-goats,
And shaggy eyebrow, and my dangling beard,
Nor deem you any god minds human things.

Begin with me, my pipe, Mænalian strains.
In our enclosures thee, a tiny maid,
(I was your guide,) I with thy mother saw
The dewy apples culling. Then the year
Next from th' eleventh had admitted me;
I just was able from the ground to reach
The brittle branches. When I looked, how I was lost!
How fell distraction carried me away!

Begin with me, my pipe, Manalian strains.

Now know I what is Love: on flinty crags

Him doth or Tmaros, or doth Rhodope,

Or do the utmost Garamants, an imp

40

50

Nor of our breed, nor of our blood, bring forth.

60

The forests dance, the rivers upward rise,

Whales sport in woods, and dolphins in the skies."

Line 45. I know of no way of literally rendering the third dum (v. 33) without an offensive weakness.

54. Similarly Marcus, of the sight of Lucia, in Addison's Cato, iii. 1: "And yet, when I behold the charming maid,

I'm ten times more undone."

And Cowley:

"I came, I saw, and was undone."

Mistress: The Thraldom.