translation, for these two reasons: first, Virgil has this following line, Matri longa decem tulerunt fastidia menses, as if the infant's smiling on his mother was a reward to her for bearing him ten months in her body, four weeks longer than the usual time. Secondly, Catullus is cited by Joseph Scaliger, as favouring this opinion, in his Epithalamium of Manlius Torquatus: Torquatus, volo, par-volus, Matris e gremio suæ Dulce rideat ad patrem, &c. What if I should steer betwixt the two extremities, and conclude that the infant, who was to be happy, must not only smile on his parents, but also they on him? For Scaliger notes that the infants who smiled not at their birth, were observed to be aythaσto, or sullen (as I have translated it), during all their life; and Servius, and almost all the modern commentators, affirm that no child was thought fortunate, on whom his parents smiled not at his birth. I observe, farther, that the ancients thought the infant who came into the world at the end of the tenth month, was born to some extraordinary fortune, good or bad. Such was the birth of the late prince of Condé's father, of whom his mother was not brought to bed, till almost eleven months were expired after his father's death yet the college of physicians at Paris concluded he was lawfully begotten. My ingenious friend, Anthony Henley, esq. desired me to make a note on this passage of Virgil; adding (what I had not read) that the Jews have been so superstitious, as to observe not only the first look or action of an infant, but also the first word which the parent or any of the assistants spoke after the birth and from thence they gave a name to tlie child, alluding to it. PASTORAL VI. My lord Roscommon's notes on this Pastoral are equal to his excellent translation of it; and thither I refer the reader. The Eighth and Tenth PASTORALS are already translated to all manner of advantage, by my excellent friend Mr. Stafford. So is the episode of Camilla, in the eleventh Æneid. This Eighth Pastoral is copied by our author from two Bucolics of Theocritus. Spenser has followed both Virgil and Theocritus, in the charms which he employs for curing Britomartis of her love. But he had also our poet's Ceiris in his eye: for there not only the enchantments are to be found, but also the very name of Britomartis. In the Ninth PASTORAL, Virgil has made a collection of many scattering passages, which he had translated from Theocritus: and here he has bound them into a nosegay. more sublime And if ever GEORGIC I. The poetry of this book is than any part of Virgil, if I have any taste. I have copied his majestic style, it is here. ment he makes Augustus almost in the beginning, is ill imitated by his successors, Lucan and Statius. They dedicated to tyrants; and their flatteries are gross and fulsome. Virgil's address is both more lofty and more just. In the three last lines of this Georgic, I think I have discovered a secret compliment to the emperor, which none of the commentators have observed. Virgil had just before described the miseries which Rome had undergone betwixt the triumvirs and the commonwealth party in the close of all, he seems to excuse the crimes committed by his patron Cæsar, as if he were constrained, against his own temper, to those violent proceedings, by the necessity of the times in general, but more particularly by his two partners, Antony and Lepidus Fertur equis auriga, neque audit currus habenas. They were the headstrong horses, who hurried Octavius, the trembling charioteer, along, and were deaf to his reclaiming them. I observe farther, that the present wars, in which all Europe and part of Asia are engaged at present, are waged in the same places here described: Hinc movet Euphrates, illinc Germania, bellum, &c. as if Virgil had prophesied of this age. GEORGIC II. The Praises of Italy, (translated by the learned and every way excellent Mr. Chetwood) which are printed in one of my Miscellany Poems, are the greatest ornament of this book: wherein, for want of sufficient skill in gardening, agriculture, &c. I may possibly be mistaken in some terms. But, concerning grafting, my honoured friend sir William Bowyer has assured me, that Virgil has shewn more of poetry than skill, at least in relation to our more northern climates; and that many of our stocks will not receive such grafts as our poet tells us would bear in Italy. Nature has conspired with art to make the garden at Denham Court, of sir William's own plantation, one of the most delicious spots of ground in England: it contains not above five acres (just the compass of Alcinoüs's garden, described in the Odysses): but Virgil says, in this very Georgic, Exiguum colito. Laudato ingentia rura ; 1 GEORGIC III. Line 45. Next him, Niphates, with inverted urn, &c. It has been objected to me, that I understood not this passage of Virgil, because I call Niphates a river, which is a mountain in Armenia. But the river arising from the same mountain is also called Niphates: and, having spoken of Nile before, I might reasonably think that Virgil rather meant to couple two rivers, than a river and a mountain. Line 224. The male has done, &c. The transition is obscure in Virgil. He began with cows, then proceeds to treat of horses, now returns to cows. Line 476. Till the new Ram receives th' exalted sun. Astrologers tell us that the sun receives his exaltation in the sign Aries: Virgil perfectly understood both astronomy and atrology. GEORGIC IV. Line 27. That, when the youthful prince My most ingenious friend, sir Henry Shere, has observed through a glass hive, that the young prince of the bees, or heir presumptive of the crown, approaches the king's apartment with great reverence; and, for three successive mornings, demands permission to lead forth ́a colony of that year's bees. If his petition be granted (which he seems to make by humble hummings), the swarm arises under his conduct. If the answer be, le roi s'avisera that is, if the old monarch think it not convenient for the public good to part with so many of his subjects the next morning the prince is found dead before the threshold of the palace. Line 477. The poet here records the names of fifteen river-nymphs; and for once I have translated them all. But in the Æneïs I thought not myself obliged to be so exact; for, in naming many men who were killed by he roes, I have omitted some, which would not sound in English verse. Line 660. The episode of Orpheus and Eurydice begins here, and contains the only machine, which Virgil uses in the Georgics. I have observed, in the epistle before the Æneïs, that our author seldom employs machines but to adorn his poem, and that the action which they seemingly perform, is really produced without them. Of this nature is the legend of the bees restored by miracle; when the receipt which the poet gives, would do the work without one. The only beautiful machine which I remember in the modern poets, is in Ariosto, where God commands St. Michael to take care, that Paris, then besieged by the Saracens, should be succoured by Rinaldo. In order to this, he enjoins the archangel to find Silence and Discord - the first to conduct the Christian army to relieve the town, with so much secrecy, that their march should not be discovered the latter to enter the camp of the infidels, and there to sow dissention among the principal commanders. The heavenly messenger takes his way to an ancient monastery- not doubting there to find Silence in her primitive abode - but, instead of Silence, finds Discord: the monks, being divided into factions about the choice of some new officer, were at snic and snee with their drawn knives. The satire needs no explanation. And here it may be also observed, that ambition, jealousy, and worldly interest, and point of honour, had made variance both in the cloister and the camp; and strict discipline had done the work of Silence, in conducting the Christian army to surprise the Turks. ENEïd I. Line 111. And make thee father of a happy line. This was an obliging promise to Æolus, who had been |