LYCIDAS. How all things listen, while thy muse complains! Such silence waits on Philomela's strains, In some still ev'ning, when the whisp'ring breeze To thee, bright goddess, oft a lamb shall bleed,' If teeming ewes increase my fleecy breed. While plants their shade, or flow'rs their odours give,' Thy name, thy honour, and thy praise shall live!" THYRSIS. But see, Orion sheds unwholesome dews:" Arise; the pines a noxious shade diffuse; Sharp Boreas blows, and nature feels decay, Time conquers all, and we must time obey.' The four opening lines of the speech of Lycidas were as follows in the MS. : Thy songs, dear Thyrsis, more delight my mind Than the soft whisper of the breathing wind, Or whisp'ring groves, when some expiring breeze Pants on the leaves, and trembles in the trees. The first couplet of the original reading, and the phrase "trembles in the trees," in the second couplet, were from Dryden's Virg. Ecl. v. 128: Not the soft whispers of the southern wind, That play through trembling trees, delight me more. 2 Milton, Il Penseroso: When the gust hath blown his fill Ending on the rustling leaves. 3 Virg. Ecl. i. 7: illius arata Sæpe tener, nostris ab ovilibus, imbuet agnus.-POPE. He partly follows Dryden's translation of his original: The tender firstlings of my woolly breed Shall on his holy altar often bleed.WAKEFIELD. 80 85 4 Originally thus in the MS. While vapours rise, and driving snows descend. Thy honour, name, and praise shall never end.-WARBURTON. 5 Virg. Ecl. v. 76: Dum juga montis aper, fluvios dum piscis amabit, Dumque thymo pascentur apes, dum rore cicada, Semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt.-WAKEFIELD. 6 Virg. Ecl. x. 75: solet esse gravis cantantibus umbra; Juniperi gravis umbra.-POPE. Dryden's version of the passage is, From juniper unwholesome dews distil.- WAKEFIELD. 7 Virg. Ecl. x. 69: Omnia vincit amor; et nos cedamus amori. Vid. etiam Sannazarii Ecl. et Spenser's Calendar.-WARBURTON. Dryden's verse is : Love conquers all, and we must yield to love.-WAKEfield. Adieu ye vales, ye mountains, streams, and groves, Adieu, my flocks;' farewell, ye sylvan crew; 90 There is a passage resembling this knowledge of the previous pieces. in Walsh's third eclogue: Adieu, ye flocks, no more shall I pursue; Adieu, ye groves; a long, a long adieu.WAKEFIELD. These four last lines allude to the several subjects of the four Pastorals, and to the several scenes of them particularized before in each-POPE. They should have been added by the poet in his own person, instead of being put into the mouth of a shepherd who is not presumed to have any The specific character which Pope ascribes to each of his Pastorals is not borne out by the poems themselves. There is as much about "flocks" in the first Pastoral as in the second; and there is as much about "rural lays and loves" in the second Pastoral as in the first. The third Pastoral contains no mention of a "sylvan crew," but a couple of shepherds are absorbed by the same "rural lays and loves" which occupied their predecessors. ADVERTISEMENT. In reading several passages of the Prophet Isaiah, which foretell the coming of Christ and the felicities attending it, I could not but observe a remarkable parity between many of the thoughts, and those in the Pollio of Virgil. This will not seem surprising, when we reflect, that the Eclogue was taken from a Sibylline prophecy on the same subject. One may judge that Virgil did not copy it line by line, but selected such ideas as best agreed with the nature of pastoral poetry, and disposed them in that manner which served most to beautify his piece. I have endeavoured the same in this imitation of him, though without admitting anything of my own; since it was written with this particular view, that the reader, by comparing the several thoughts, might see how far the images and descriptions of the prophet are superior to those of the poet. But as I fear I have prejudiced them by my management, I shall subjoin the passages of Isaiah, and those of Virgil, under the same disadvantage of a literal translation.' Pope printed in his notes only those passages of Isaiah which had some resemblance to the ideas of Virgil. To the other portions of the prophet which he put into verse le merely gave references. |