Grow they will, ye will grow, my loves. Meanwhile 71 O'er Mæn❜lus will I range with mingled Nymphs, Or hunt the hot wild boars; no chills shall bar My compassing with hounds Parthenian glades. Meseems that now through rocks and ringing groves I'm roaming; 'tis my joy from Parthian bow "Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love: 80 And thou, thrice crowned queen of night, survey With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above, Thy huntress' name, that my full life doth sway. O Rosalind! these trees shall be my books, And in their barks my thoughts I'll character; That every eye, which in this forest looks, Shall see thy virtue witness'd everywhere. Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she." Drayton varies the idea in Quest of Cynthia, 5, 6: "At length upon a lofty fir It was my chance to find Where that dear name, most due to her, Which whilst with wonder I beheld, The bees their honey brought, And up the carvèd letters filled, As they with gold were wrought." Shirley uses tears instead of wood-cuts : The Imposture, iv. 5. Cowley makes such carvings fatal to the tree: "I cut my love into his gentle bark, And in three days, behold! 'tis dead." "Pardon, ye birds and nymphs, who loved this shade; And pardon me, thou gentle tree; I thought her name would thee have happy made, 'Notes of my love, thrive here,' said I, 'and And with ye let my love do so." " In solitude live savage: in some glade Hide me." Milton, P. L., b. ix. Once more give way. Our woes cannot change him, Nor if we in the midst of frosts were both Of Ethiopians under Cancer's star. And weaves with mallow slim his slender frail. Ye these of deepest interest will make The shades, too, harm the crops. Go, full- 100 100. "Shepherds all and maidens fair, Fold your flocks up, for the air 'Gins to thicken, and the sun Already his great course hath run. See the dewdrops, how they kiss, Every little flower that is, Hanging on their velvet heads, Like a rope of crystal beads: See the heavy clouds are falling, And bright Hesperus down calling, The dead night from under ground; At whose rising mists unsound, Damps and vapours fly apace, Hovering o'er the wanton face Of these pastures, where they come, Striking dead both bud and bloom." J. Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, ii. 1. THE GEORGICS. BOOK I. WHAT makes gay crops, beneath what star the earth To turn, Mæcenas, and to elms to wed The vines, 'tis meet; what be the care of beeves, What management in keeping of the flock; How vast the knowledge for the thrifty bees : I hence will undertake to sing. O ye, O Liber and boon Ceres, since the earth Hath through your gift Chaonian mast exchanged For the rich ear, and Acheloan cups Hath blent with [new] discovered grapes; and ye, The rustics' fav'ring Pow'rs, O Faunsadvance Your foot in time, both Fauns and Dryad maids : Line 3. "Two rows of elms ran with proportioned grace, Like Nature's arras, to adorn the sides; The friendly vines their lovèd barks embrace, With folding tops the checkered ground-work hides." Shirley, Narcissus, st. 13. "Or they led the vine To wed her elm: she, spoused, about him twines Shakespeare makes Titania say beautifully of the ivy: Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms: Midsummer Night's Dream, iv. 1. "Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine, Whose weakness, married to thy stronger state, Makes me with thy strength to communicate." Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, ii. 2. "Everlasting hate The vine to ivy bears, nor less abhors 11. Or, "draughts." 14. Or, "at once." 22 E'en thou, too, quitting thy paternal lawn, All, whose delight it be to guard the fields, Both ye, who rear from no [implanted] seed 30 The infant fruits, and who on seeded crops Drop down the plenteous show'r from heav'n; and thou, In chief, whom what assemblies of the gods Hereafter shall enjoy is unresolved : Whether to visit cities, Cæsar, and the charge Of countries mayest thou desire, and thee 4I 16. See the fabled dispute between Neptune and Minerva, treated by Spenser in his beautiful poem, Muio potmos. "Percussa" is rather "thrilled," or "shocked." 18. Or, "Tenant,” “haunter." 25. Inventrix, creatress; so repertor, creator: En. xii. 829. 34. That is, though it might be known in heaven, it is a question on earth. And Tethys buy thee for her son-in-law With all her waves ;-or whether thou a star, New [-born], annex thee to the lazy months, There where a space between Erigone And the pursuing Claws is opened out :The fiery Scorpion of himself for thee E'en now draws in his arms, and hath resigned 50 A more than due proportion of the sky :Whate'er thou'lt be-for let nor Tartarus Expect thee for its monarch, nor on thee Let so accurst a lust of ruling come, Though Greece may her Elysian plains admire, Nor Proserpine recovered feel concern T'attend her mother :-grant an easy course, And nod [thy sanction] to my bold emprize : And pitying with me the rural [swains], Unknowing of the path, advance, and now, Inure thee now to be invoked with vows. 61 In early spring, when rimy moisture thaws On hoary mountains, and the crumbling clod Unbinds itself before the western breeze, Let now at once the bull begin for me Beneath the deeply sunken plough to groan, And, by the furrow worn, the share to flash. That corny seedland answers at the last The greedy tiller's prayers, which twice the 51. "But this fair gem, sweet in the loss alone, Be drawn with horses, white as Venus' doves, Shirley, The Politician, ii. 1. 62. "And made the downy Zephyr, as he flew, But he introduces a harbinger, still more charm. ing: "I grant the linet, lark, and bullfinch sing, But best the dear good angel of the spring, The Nightingale.' The Sad Shepherd, ii. 2. To learn before, and both the native tilths And dispositions of the spots, and what Each district may produce, and what may each Refuse. Here cereal crops, there clusters come More happily; the fruits of trees elsewhere; And uncommanded wax the grasses green. Dost thou not see how Tmolus saffron scents, 80 Ind iv'ry sendeth, Saba's tender sons Their iron; Pontus, too, rank castory, stones Upon an empty globe, whence men were born, A flinty race. Then come, the soil of earth That's rich, let straightway from the year's first months 90 Thy sturdy bulls upturn, and as they lie, Prolific, towards Arcturus' very [rise], May harass the delighted produce; here— 100 To idle, and the listless plain to cake With rust; or there shalt sow the golden spelts Beneath a constellation changed, whence The fields repose; nor meanwhile no re turn Ariseth from the earth unploughed. Oft, too, It hath bestead to fire the barren fields, And burn light stubble in the crackling flames : Whether thereby the lands secreted powers Unloosens, where to th' infant blades the sap May come; or hardens more, and braces close The gaping arteries, lest filmy rains, With rakes, and hurdles of the osier trails, With plough transversely turned, and works his ground Incessantly, and lords it o'er his lays. For dropping summers and for winters And beeves, in turning up the earth, essayed, Naught do the graceless goose, and Stry. mon's cranes, 161. See note on 1. 115, where examples are quoted of Milton's imitation of such constructions as those in verses 118-120. 163. Improbus has a variety of meanings, whether applied to persons, qualities, or things; all of which arise from the radical signification of "improper," and hence "immoderate." In the present instance, the great mass of commentators refer the expression more to the physical desires of the goose than to his (poetically) moral turpitude; that is, the goose was rather a glutton than a rogue. Now the fact is, that he was both,-and a mischievous bird besides ; an exact parallel to his brother in crime, the anguis, in the third Book. The following remarks may serve as a help to ascertain its sense in the present It is applied eleven times to persons, and five times to qualities or things. Of the eleven times used of persons, in seven moral guilt. Twice it is doubtful, leaving the applicases it is used in the strongest sense, implying cation to anser and anguis to be determined. Of the five occasions on which it is used in connection with qualities or things, thrice it bears a bad, and twice a harmless, sense. Upon the whole, then, considering the immense mischief perpetrated by the wild goose, joined to his extraordinary appetite; (for he eats hugely, and tramples and scalds what he does not eat :) considering also the plain predominance of the bad sense in Virgil, " graceless "would seem to meet the necessities of the case, or the excellent term employed by Dr. Kennedy, "felon." If the more usual view be taken, "glutton" is And succory with bitter roots, obstruct, Or shade molest. The Father hath himself Decreed that easy should not be the path Of tilth, and he first roused the lands by skill, Whetting with cares the hearts of human kind; Nor suffered he his realms to lie benumbed In leaden torpor. Ere [the reign of] Jove No swains reduced the fields: not e'en to mark, 171 Or parcel off the champaign by a bourn, Was lawful. For the common stock they sought, And of her own accord the earth her all More freely, at demand of none, produced. He baleful venom to the sable snakes Imparted, and commanded wolves to prowl, And ocean to be roused; and from the leaves Shook honies down, and he sequestered fire, And, everywhere in rills careering, wines He stayed; that practice, by the dint of thought, 181 The various crafts might slowly hammer out, an effective rendering: which word is surely an adjective, though Johnson and Webster do not recognise it as such. Richardson differs from them, as well he may; for it is too constantly joined by the poets to nouns substantive to admit of "apposition:" e. g. Spenser, Muiopotmos, 179, "glutton sense;" Shakespeare, 2 Hen. IV. i. 3, glutton bosom;" and again, glutton eye;" Dryden, Rel. Lai. 33. 6. glutton souls;" Hind and P. 2275, "glutton kind;" &c. 166. 66 "For sloth, the nurse of vices, And rust of action, is a stranger to him." Massinger, The Great Duke of Florence, i. 1. "The fort, that's yielded at the first assault, Is hardly worth the taking." ii. 3. "The thrifty heavens mingle our sweets with gall, Least, being glutted with excess of good, We should forget the giver." Rawlins, The Rebellion, v. end. 174. "Covered with grass more soft than any silk, The trees dropt honey, and the springs gushed milk; The flower-fleeced meadow, and the gorgeous grove, Which should smell sweetest in their bravery strove;" "Whilst to the little birds' melodious strains The trembling rivers tripped along the plains ;" "The battening earth all plenty did afford, And without tilling, of her own accord." Drayton, Noah's Flood. 176. Or, perhaps: "He wicked venom to the baleful snakes.' 182. How poor are they, that have not patience!" Shakespeare, Othello, iii. 3. And in the furrows seek the blade of corn; That from the veins of flint it forth might strike The hidden fire. Then first the rivers felt The hollowed alders; then the mariner Numbers and names invented for the stars, The Pleiads, Hyads, and Lycaon's sheeny Bear. In nooses then wild creatures to entrap, And dupe them with the lime, it was devised, 190 And mighty glades to girdle round with dogs. And one now lashes with his casting-net The spacious river, searching for its depths; And through the main another trails along His dripping lines. Then stiffness of the steel, And blade of grating saw; for primal 183. Or, "through," "by." 185. "These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights That give a name to every fixed star." Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, i. 1. 186. Or: "Then the sailor coined Numbers and names for stars, the Pleiad-train, The Hyads," &c. 192. With the great weight of commentators, it is better to make alta refer to amnem. Notwithstanding Forbiger's steadiness, and Wagner's change of mind, does there seem to be sufficient warrant for the awkwardness which their view involves? Does it not impose an unfair duty upon the conjunction que? 198. "Impossible! Nothing's impossible! We know our strength only by being tried. If you object the mountains, rivers, woods Impassable, that lie before our march :Woods we can set on fire: we swim by nature; What can oppose us then but we may tame? All things submit to virtuous industry: That we can carry with us; that is ours." Southern, Oroonoko, iii. 4. 205. This primitive condition of the earth, prior to culture, is realised by the loss of Peace; which miserable state of things is feelingly described by the Duke of Burgundy in King Henry V. v. 2: Alas! she hath from France too long been chas'd, Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart, |