axation in the meanwhile. He was prevented by ill-health, but succeeded in meeting the emperor at Athens on his return. His health, however, continued to decline. He was taken ill at Megara, but insisted on being removed to Italy. He landed at Brundusium, where he died a few days after, on the twentysecond of September, in the fifty-first year of his age, and nineteen years before Christ. His body was conveyed to Naples at his own request, and interred within two miles of the city, on the road leading to Puteoli, where his tomb, is to be seen at this day. He died very wealthy, and left the principal part of his fortune to Mæcenas, Tucca, and Augustus, the last of whom he appointed his executor. He enjoined it on his executor to burn the Eneid, as he had not been able to revise it. But in this Augustus saw fit to depart from his instructions; and committed the poem to Tucca and Varus, with directions to revise and erase whatever they saw fit, but expressly forbade their adding any thing, even to the unfinished verses. This is probably the reason that there are so many unfinished verses, especially towards the close. Virgil was slender, and rather tall, his complexion swarthy, and his constitution sickly. He was exceedingly temperate, and paid little attention to dress; was modest and bashful to the extreme; so much so that he often took shelter in shops, or any retreat at hand, to screen himself from the gaze of an admiring throng. His countrymen were fully sensible of his merits, and delighted to honour them. He did not reside much at Rome, being fond of retirement. But when he did appear there, he received the most flattering testimonials of respect. Even a crowded audience of a hundred thousand people rose to salute him as he entered the theatre, voluntarily bestowing the same honour on him, which they did on the emperor himself.

Virgil wrote the following distich, and placed it, in the night, over the palace gate of Augustus, not intending to be known as the author.

Nocte pluit totâ, redeunt spectacula mane:
Divisum imperium cum Jove Cæsar habet.

Augustus was highly gratified by the compliment contained in these lines, which so fully and so delicately expressed the blessings of his reign, by saying that he shared with Jove the empire of the world. Inquiries were made for the author by his order; but, as Virgil was too diffident to discover himself, the verses were claimed by Bathyllus, a very ordinary poet of the time, who received a splendid reward from Augustus. This was more than Virgil would allow. He accordingly wrote the distich again, and placed under it the following:

Hos ego versiculos

and the beginning of another verse in these words,

Bathyllus was requested to complete the verses, but was un able to do it. Virgil then wrote them out thus:

Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores.
Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves.
Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves.
Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes.
Sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves.

And thereby proved himself the author of the distich, to the no small annoyance of Bathyllus, who afterwards became the subject of much ridicule.

As Virgil was one of the most benevolent and virtuous men of the age, so he lived beloved, and died universally lamented. Just before his death, he is said to have written for himself this very modest and expressive epitaph:

Mantua me genuit: Calabri rapuêre: tenet nunc
Parthenope: cecini pascua, rura, duces.

Notwithstanding the pre-eminent natural endowments of Virgil, he unquestionably owed much to circumstances, and the age in which he lived. He flourished in the brightest era of Roman literature. Several distinguished scholars and men of genius had immediately preceded him, and he was cotemporary with Nepos, Sallust, Livy, Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid, Horace, and Phædrus. With several of these he lived in habits of personal intimacy and friendship.

The refinement and moral purity of his writings, no less than the elegance and exquisite polish of his style, render the works of Virgil, above all others of the age, suitable for the study and contemplation of youth.

NOTES.

**In many instances, in the following notes, the authority is given by the letters, D. M. H. Voss., which stand respectively for Delphin: Martyn: Heyne: I. H. Voss.

ECLOGUE I.

AFTER the battle of Philippi, which decided the fate of the republican party of Rome, and placed the empire in the power of the Triumviri, Mark Antony, Lepidus, and Cæsar Octavianus, afterwards Augustus, these three agreed to confiscate, for the benefit of their troops, all the landed estates of eighteen Roman colonies. Early in the 713th year of Rome, this oppressive plan was put in execution. Among these devoted colonies was Cremona; the inhabitants of which were charged with the crime of adherence to the party of Brutus and Cassius. This territory was found insufficient for the rapacity of the soldiery to whom it was assigned, and that of Mantua was added, though no such delinquency was imputed to its inhabitants.

Among the persons thus driven from their possessions, as has been stated in his life, was Virgil; who, having had his property restored by Augustus, is here represented, under the name of Tityrus, in quiet possession of it. Melibus represents another Mantuan, who, after his expulsion, is driving his little flock before him, and approaching the spot where Tityrus is reclining. He commences the dialogue by expressing his astonishment that Tityrus is thus at his ease, exempt from the general calamity.

1. Tityre: Tityrus is a name borrowed from Theocritus; Idyl. iii. 2. It does not appear, however, that this name, or any of those that are usually prefixed as titles to the Eclogues, were so prefixed by Virgil himself.

2. Meditaris practise:' from uɛɛTάw. The interchange of the consonants d and I is not unfrequent, as in 'Odvooɛvs, Ulysses; dánovμa, lacryma. This verb, in its application to a musical instrument, means 'to practise, to play the same tune, or part of the same tune, over and over:'-Silvestrem musam:woodland lay!'-Avenâ: the rude instruments of music, used by the shepherds of antiquity, were formed of various materials; among others, of wheat or oat stalks, or of reeds shortened to unequal lengths, and joined together side by side with wax. Sic rustica quondam Fistula disparibus paulatim surgit avenis. Ovid. Met. viii. 192. The most simple consisted of a single reed. That of Tityrus seems to have been a simple pipe of one straw, as it is called calamo agresti in the 10th verse.

4. Lentus: at your ease' syncopated from the part. pass. of lenio. 5. Amaryllida: Amaryllis is a name also borrowed from Theocritus, Idyl. iii. 1. The belief that under this name a secret allusion was made to the city of Rome, Servius thinks to be without foundation; as alle

gory, or hidden meaning, is rarely admitted in bucolic poetry. The pastoral appears more beautiful by considering Amaryllis simply as the shepherd's mistress, whose charms he is celebrating at his ease.-Silvas: governed by per understood.

:

6. Melibae formed from té and Boor; a herdsman.-Deus: the poet calls Cæsar a god, for restoring his possessions to him. This is indeed extravagant adulation, but not unsuited to the times; as Oct. Cæsar and his colleagues in the Triumvirate had deified his uncle C. Julius Cæsar the preceding year.

9. Errare: that is, pasci; to graze at large. In the same manner to stray is employed by Milton:

"In russet lawns and fallows gray,

Where the nibbling flocks do stray."

13. Protenus: porrotenus, Serv. 'forward.'

In the same sense pro

tinus, or, more correctly, protenus, is used in En. x. 340.

Protinus

hasta fugit.-Eger grieving, afflicted.'-Duco: Melibœus, whilst employed in driving before him the other goats, was, with difficulty, 'leading' one of them by a cord.

15. Silice in nuda: 'on the bare rock.' Silex, usually masc., is here fem.; and likewise En. viii. 233.

16. Læva stupid, infatuated.' ii. 54; also by Horace, A. P. 301.

It is used in the same sense, Æn.

17. Tactas de cælo: struck with lightning.'

:

18. Cornix in several MSS. this line is not found; in others, added in posterior writing. Professor Martyn thinks it an imitation of Ecl. ix. 15. by some interpolator. A similar occurrence appears from Cicero, De Divin. i. to have given the augurs room to prognosticate a favourable conclusion. Quid habeat augur, cur a dextrâ, corvus, a sinistra, cornix, faciat ratum?

19. Da: tell, explain.'-Iste deus: the pronouns hic, iste, and ille may be thus distinguished; hic deus, is this god of mine, or whom I mentioned; iste deus, is that god of yours; and ille deus, that god of his, theirs, or of any third person.

21. Nostrato Mantua.'

22. Depellere: for pellere, 'to drive.'

24. Noram: I thought.'

26. Viburna: from vieo, 'to bind ;' a shrub applied to that purpose. The difference which Tityrus had expected to find between Rome and Mantua, was that of extent. The resemblance, he thought, would be nearly that which is observed between a young animal and its dam: but he was deceived: the two cities differed in nature, as much as a cypress and an osier.

28. Libertas: the agriculture of Italy was then carried on, not by the hands of hired labourers, but of slaves of this unhappy class, Tityrus is represented as one; not that Virgil or his father was really a slave; but he speaks of the oppression at home, in his own country, as a kind of slavery which disheartened him.-Inertem: feeble; past labour.' Slaves were seldom enabled to redeem themselves till they had attained an advanced period of life.

30. Post here, and again, verse 68, used adverbially.

33. Pecult this term was applied to the private property of slaves, which they were allowed to acquire and retain of this, during his connexion with Galatea, he was careless, and cherished no hope of freedom. After her departure, with a more frugal mate probably, he attained his object.

35. Ingratæ: from which he returned without money. Though Tityrus carried to market the produce of his dairy, and his fat cattle, he never could return home full-handed.

37. Amarylli Melibœus calls to mind the grief of Amaryllis, the cause of which he now perceives to have been the absence of Tityrus, and breaks out in this exclamation.

38. Poma: this name is given, in general, to fruit growing on trees. 40. Vocabant: the gods were sometimes invoked, as if at a distance, with loud prayers. Geo. i. 347. Durind the absence of Tityrus, these circumstances Melibaus had observed, and had been unable to account for them.-Arbusta: these were spots of ground in which elms and other trees were planted at distances from each other of about forty feet; the boughs of these were trimmed, and vines trained round them, named arbustivæ vites. Colum. de Arb. iv.

42. Præsentes: 'propitious; favouring; assisting personally.'

43. Juvenem Cæsar Octavianus was then about twenty-two years of age. Decreverat senatus ne quis eum puerum diceret, ne majestas tanti imperii minueretur. Serv.

44. Cui.... fumant: 'to whom-in whose honour I have vowed twelve sacrifices yearly.' Tityrus speaks of the future as present, having already commenced these sacrifices (one probably each month) which he had vowed.

45. Responsum .... dedit. petenti: this does not imply that any conversation had passed, or any application been made, personally, by Tityrus to Cæsar Octavianus. The response of a protecting divinity, verse 46, is given to the inquiry of his worshipper, solicitous as to his master's fate and his own. In dubiis responsa petunt. En. vii. 86.

Voss.

46. Submittite: jugo, understood. D.

49. Junco the poet gives no favourable description of this spot, either in point of health, beauty or fertility. The passage may be understood two ways; either as descriptive of Tityrus's farm (by which Virgil's is understood), or, more probably, that he had a farm sufficiently large and fertile, surrounded by the farms of others, whose upland he terms 'naked rock;' and that bordering on the lake, a reedy fen.' "Andes, where was situated Virgil's farm, is said traditionally to be the modern village Pietole, distant from Mantua three miles." Eustace's Classical Tour in Italy. i. 102.

50. Graves....fatas: 'heavy with young.' D.

6

52. Flumina nota: twelve miles below Mantua, the Mincius (Mincio) falls into the Po, (Eustace, i. 103.) and near the town forms a lake. Under the term flumina, the poet more probably refers to the small streams crossing his domain, than to these rivers. Ecl. v. 84. Geo. iv. 54. Voss.

53. Frigus

....

opacum: 'coolness in the shade.'

54. Hinc. susurro: the sentence may be thus placed : Hinc sepes, a limite vicino, quæ semper. depasta est quod ad florem salicti Hyblais apibus, sæpè levi susurro suadebit tibi inire somnum. A boundary hedge is planted with willows: to these the bees resort, whose gentle humming lulls to sleep. The epithet Hyblæan is applied to them on account of the superior quality of the honey produced in that district of Sicily.-Florem depasta: a Græcism; as, os humerosque deo similis. En. i. 589.-Salicti: contracted from saliceti. D.

57. Frondator in order to assist the ripening of the grape, he is represented as clearing away the leaves, and pruning. See Geo. ii. 400. -Ad auras: 'to the breezes.'