MENALCAS. Ah! what avails it me, my love's delight, DAMETAS. I keep my birthday: send my Phyllis home: MENALCAS. With Phyllis I am more in grace than you: 44 DAMCETAS. The nightly wolf is baneful to the fold, Storms to the wheat, to buds the bitter cold; Than from the wolves, and storms, and winter-wind. MENALCAS. The kids with pleasure browse the bushy plain; DAMCETAS. Pollio my rural verse vouchsafes to read : MENALCAS. My Pollio writes himself :-a bull he bred, DAMCETAS. Who Pollio loves, and who his Muse admires, MENALCAS. Who hates not living Bavius, let him be (Dead Mævius !) damn'd to love thy works and thee! The same ill taste of sense would serve to join Dog-foxes in the yoke, and shear the swine. DAMCETAS. Ye boys, who pluck the flow'rs, and spoil the spring, Beware the secret snake that shoots a sting. MENALCAS. Graze not too near the banks, my jolly sheep: DAMCETAS. From rivers drive the kids, and sling your hook, MENALCAS. To fold, my flock !—when milk is dried with heat, In vain the milkmaid tugs an empty teat. DAMCETAS, How lank my bulls from plenteous pasture come ! But love, that drains the herd, destroys the groom. MENALCAS. My flocks are free from love, yet look so thin, DAMCETAS. Say, where the round of heav'n, which all contains, To three short ells on earth our sight restrains : Tell that, and raise a Phoebus for thy pains. MENALCAS. Nay, tell me first, in what new region springs A flow'r, that bears inscribed the names of kings; And thou shalt gain a present as divine As Phoebus' self; for Phyllis shall be thine. PALÆMON. So nice a diff'rence in your singing lies, PASTORAL IV. OR, POLLIO. ARGUMENT. The poet celebrates the birthday of Salonius, the son of Pollio, born in the consulship of his father, after the taking of Saloæn, a city in Dalmatia. Many of the verses are translated from one of the Sibyls, who prophesied of our Saviour's birth. S ICILIAN Muse, begin a loftier strain ! Tho' lowly shrubs, and trees that shade the plain, Delight not all; Sicilian Muse, prepare To make the vocal woods deserve a consul's care. And haste the glorious birth! thy own Apollo reigns! The lovely boy, with his auspicious face, Shall Pollio's consulship and triumph grace: Majestic months set out (with him) to their appointed race. The father banished virtue shall restore; And crimes shall threat the guilty world no more. The son shall lead the life of gods, and be By gods and heroes seen, and gods and heroes see. The goats with strutting dugs shall homeward speed, His cradle shall with rising flow'rs be crown'd: Unlabor'd harvests shall the fields adorn, And cluster'd grapes shall blush on every thorn; Another Argo land the chiefs upon th' Iberian shore ; And great Achilles urge the Trojan fate. But, when to ripen'd manhood he shall grow, The greedy sailor shall the seas forego : No keel shall cut the waves for foreign ware; The lab'ring hind his oxen shall disjoin: No plough shall hurt the glebe, no pruning-hook the vine; Nor wool shall in dissembled color shine; But the luxurious father of the fold, With native purple, and unborrow'd gold, Beneath his pompous fleece shall proudly sweat ;. The Fates, when they this happy web have spun, O, of celestial seed! O, foster-son of Jove! See, lab'ring Nature calls thee to sustain The nodding frame of heav'n, and earth, and main ! See to their base restor'd, earth, seas, and air; And joyful ages, from behind, in crowding ranks appear. Not Thracian Orpheus should transcend my lays, Though each his heav'nly parent should inspire; The Muse instruct the voice, and Phoebus tune the lyre. Should Pan contend in verse, and thou my theme. Arcadian judges should their god condemn. Begin, auspicious boy! to cast about Thy infant eyes, and, with a smile, thy mother single out. Thy mother well deserves that short delight, The nauseous qualms of ten long months and travail to requite. Then smile! the frowning infant's doom is read: No god shall crown the board, nor goddess bless the bed. |