bution to the common stock of honey. In the exordium of the E Book, at the end of a summary which speaks of nothing but hu labour, an epithet is introduced which strikes a chord, as some thought, out of harmony with the context by commemorating the gality of the bee side by side with the weight of experience required rearing and keeping it. If that epithet was not intended, as it may have been, to announce to the reader that the poem would treat of as fully as of their keepers, it may at least witness to the division of terests even then existing in the poet's mind, and show that in the glance with which he took in the whole of his subject he thought of man alone, but of all that can combine intelligence with energ toil. The biographer informs us that the composition of the Georgics o pied seven years. From whatever source this statement was derive appears to meet the facts of the case as nearly as possible. The date of the Eclogues, as we saw, is probably 717; the concluding of the Georgics tell us that Virgil was writing while Caesar was quering in the East, a time which seems most naturally to refer to victorious progress of Octavianus after the battle of Actium in 724 Merivale, vol. iii., pp. 358, 359). Forbiger rightly maintains that t is nothing to favour Wagner's inference from those lines, that the p was entirely composed during the events there spoken of. It is likely that the poet rested on his oars for five years after the comple of the Eclogues; it is not likely that he employed himself on any o work and we can easily understand that his habits of composition, the preparation necessary for an undertaking of such a character magnitude, may have made a period of seven years not more than s cient for the production of the poem. At the same time it is nat enough that he should have made alterations in it during the remai years of his life, though it was doubtless published soon after its com tion. Perhaps the only passage which inevitably points to a later than 724 is vv. 31 foll. of Book 3; but the legend mentioned in the troduction to Book 4 would support the hypothesis of more exter : Mantua better, as I have there observed, while Spohn argues ern Italy can hardly have been sufficiently tranquil to indu fix his residence there before 718. It would be easy to s the poem was written partly at Mantua, partly, if not p Naples: but perhaps we have not data enough even for so a hypothesis. LIBER PRIMUS. corn. THE subject of the First Book is the tillage of the ground with a view to crops, chie The mention of the uncertainty of the weather at different times of the year le the poet to give a list of the signs of a storm and of fair weather, which he abridges fr the Diosemeia of Aratus. From this he passes to the signs of the political storm wh had broken over Rome, and shows that external nature had been no less eloquent the while he prays that Octavianus Caesar may yet be spared to save society. The various events mentioned in the concluding lines are generally considered to po to the earlier part of the period of seven years during which Virgil is supposed to h been composing the Georgics, or to the time immediately preceding that period. I Merivale, on the other hand, believes the passage to have been written in the early p of 722, during the general expectation of war between Octavianus and Antonius. explanation of the poet's supposed position deserves quoting, both for the ingenuity the conception and for the rhetorical ability with which it is enforced. "The prevail sentiment of gloomy yet vague foreboding found expression in the voice of a youthful thusiast. Cherished by Maecenas, and honoured with the smiles of Octavius hims Virgil beheld in the sway of the chief of the Romans the fairest augury of legitimate a peaceful government. With strains of thrilling eloquence not less musical than th with which Lucretius had soared into the airy realms of imagination, he descended to subject of the hour, and gave words to the thoughts with which every bosom was he ing. He invoked the native gods of Italy, with Romulus and Vesta, guardians of Tus Tiber and Roman Palatine, to permit the youthful hero to save a sinking world. He minded his countrymen of the guilt of their fathers' fathers, which had effaced the la marks of right, and filled the world with wars and a thousand forms of crime. mourned the decay of husbandry, the dishonour of the plough, the desolation of fields he sighed over the clank of the armourer's forge, and the training of the rus conscript. It was not the border skirmishes with the Germans or the Parthians that co excite such a phrenzy of alarm: it was the hate of neighbour against neighbour, the i pending conflict of a world in arms. The foes of Rome were indeed raging against h but her deadliest enemy was of her own household. Virgil pointed to the Rhine and Euphrates, but his eye was fixed upon the Nile." (Hist. vol. iii. pp. 303, 4.) In a note, af quoting vv. 509-511, he adds: "In the year 717 there was actual warfare on the Rhine a the Euphrates, but at that time there was apparent harmony between the triumvirs, and prospect at least of universal pacification. On the other hand, in the year 722, th QUID faciat laetas segetes, quo sidere terram 1-5.] 'Agriculture, the cultivation of vines, the care of cattle, and that of bees, are to be my subjects:' a more or less precise enumeration of the matters actually treated of in the Georgics, though the subjects of Books 1 and 2 are rather indicated poetically than fully described. 1.] This division of the subjects of Book 1 seems to be taken, as Serv. remarks, from the title of Hesiod's poem, "Epya kai 'Huέραι. So 2. 1, "Hactenus arvorum cultus et sidera caeli." Laetae segetes seems to have been a common expression, used even by country people, as we find from Cic. de Or. 3. 38, "gemmare vites, luxuriem esse in herbis, laetas segetes etiam rustici dicunt," where it is instanced as a metaphor. Laetamen' is a technical term among agricultural writers for manure. Keightley thinks that the physical sense of 'laetus' was the primary one, and that it was thence transferred to the mind; but Cicero's view seems more natural. It is not easy to determine whether 'segetes' refers to the land or the corn. Columella (2. 15) has segetes laetas excitare,' which points rather to the latter: but a few lines above he uses 'segetem' unmistakeably of the field where the corn is to be sown. 'Laetus' would apply equally to both, as may be seen from vv. 101, 102. 'Quo sidere' like 'quo signo,' v. 354. Addison (Essay on the Georgics prefixed to Dryden's translation) says that "Virgil, to deviate from the common form of words, would not make use of 'tempore,' but 'sidere :' " the stars enter prominently into Virgil's plan, constituting in fact the shepherd's calendar (vv. 204 foll.). but 2.] Vertere terram as in v. 147, where 'ferro' is added. "Vertentes vomere glebas," Lucr. 1. 211. Vertere' is used without an ablative by conjunction with 'subigere Dict. Biog., the person to is inscribed, as the Work to Perses, the poem of Lu mius. 3.] Cura-cultus.' So 'curatio' occur in a sim Cic. N. D. 2. 63, quot 'Habendo pecori,' as we breeding cattle:' nearly e habendum pecus,' a use of the gerundive sufficiently co in official designations, e. g. dividendis.' See Madv. § 2 obss. 4.] 'Pecori: apibus' v Heins. from Med. and Rom. apibus.' 'Experientia,' of th of the bees, whose habits an incidentally. So 4. 315, 3 hanc, Musae, quis nobis Unde nova ingressus homi cepit?" 'Habendis' then supplied from 'habendo.' ornamental epithet, indicat is in itself, not as an obje care. Perhaps we may say appropriateness here, as s nature of the bees themsel nate part of the subject of I 140, 141. Wagn. and For to the difficulty of keeping u the stock of bees; but the agree well with 'habendo,' cus' would be extremely supported by 3. 403 (wher poetically transferred from t thing spared), not to menti itself is disputed by Keightl 5.] Hinc incipiam' see will take up the song fro fert,' E. 6. 41, 'next he sings.' Voss's interpretation of hinc' as 'horum partem,' 'ex his,' like rv άuółɛv, Hom. Od. 1. 10, as if to show the modesty of the poet, is far less simple and obvious. Incipiam' is rather 'I will undertake' than I will begin,' as is rightly remarked by Henry on A. 2. 13. Keightley comp. Lucr. 1. 55, "Disserere incipiam.' The whole exordium may be translated, 'What makes a corn-field smile, what star suits best for turning up the soil and marrying the vine to the elm, what care oxen need, what is the method of breeding cattle, and what weight of man's experience preserves the frugal commonwealth of bees -such is the song I now essay." 5-42.] I invoke the sun and moon, the powers that give corn and wine, the woodgods and nymphs, the gods of horses, herds, and flocks, the patrons of the olive, the plough, and the forest-trees-in short, every rural power, and especially Caesar, our future deity, who has yet his province to choose. May he, in pity to the husbandmen, begin his reign at once, and accept their homage and mine.' 6.] It is a question whether the sun and moon are meant to be identified with or distinguished from Bacchus and Ceres. The asyndeton looks rather in favour of the former view, which has the authority of Macrobius (Sat. 1. 18). It is no argument against it that Varro, in invoking the gods at the beginning of his treatise De Re Rustica, discriminates the two pairs of deities from each other, as his enumeration in other respects is sufficiently unlike Virgil's: nor will the objection that Virgil is not likely to have introduced a mystical doctrine into a poem on a practical subject weigh much with those who appreciate the character of the poet. A more serious difficulty is started by Keightley, who observes that though the sun may have been identified with Bacchus, as Macr. shows from other instances, it is not established that the moon and Ceres were ever considered the But if the first part of the identification is made out, the coincidence with Virgil's language seems too striking to be same. serpine, as Keightley admits, was oc sionally classed in this manner with B chus, and was in fact worshipped under name of Libera (Cic. Verr. 2. 4. 48): a we know that the functions of Ceres a those of her daughter were not always se rated. On 'Lumina' there is a curi note of Serv.: "Numina fuit, sed em davit ipse, quia postea ait, Et vos agrest praesentia numina Fauni." Wakefi adopts numina,' while Wagn. suppo Serv.'s remark to refer to v. 7, wh 'numine' is the second reading of M for 'munere.' 'Caelo,' along the sk The general sense of the line is parallel Lucr. 5. 1436 foll., cited by Heyne, vigiles mundi magnum [et] versatile te plum Sol et luna suo lustrantes lum circum Perdocuere homines annorum te pora verti, Et certa ratione geri rem atq ordine certo." 66 7.] 'Liber' and 'Ceres' were worshipp together at Rome. Keightley, Myth. 460. 'Si' used as frequently in adju tions. The worshipper affects to make t existence of the attributes of the gods pendent on the granting of his prayer. 8.] Chaoniam,' a literary epithet: on E. 1. 55. So' Dodona' of the oak, v. 1. 9.] 'Pocula,' perhaps of the draug rather than of the cup, as in E. 8. though it might well bear its usual sen 'Acheloia' agrees with 'Chaoniam,' as the poet had meant to represent Epirus a Aetolia as the cradle of the human ra Achelous was said to be the oldest of rivers, whence the name was frequently I for water in general (Eur. And. 166, Bac 625: see Macr. Sat. 5. 18). Hyginus (f 274) and Serv. have stories connecting discovery of wine with the neighbourho of the Achelous. Hermann has a disser tion "De Musis fluvialibus Epicharmi Eumeli " (reprinted in vol. 2 of his Op cula), where he rejects this explanation, a contends that river-water got the na Achelous from the muse Achelois, the pat of rivers. 10.] Fauni,' E. 6. 27. L |