"Arida tantum "Ne saturare fimo pingui pudeat sola, neve "Effoetos cinerem immundum jactare per agros." The following verse shews, I think, plainly, that the Poet substitutes this change of seed instead of lying fallow, saying it serves in some measure to the same purpose as the rest: "Sic quoque mutatis requiescunt foetibus arva." And then, for the encouragement of those who can let their land lie fallow, he concludes, that the farmer ought to consider that some benefit accrues to him, even whilst his land is untilled: "Nec nulla interea est inaratae gratia terrae." This, I think, makes the whole connexion clear. ** 66 Transpadanis cineris usus adeo placet, ut anteponant "fimo jumentorum." Plin. lib. XVII. c. ix. 66 VER. 84-93. "Saepe etiam steriles 1 incendere profuit agros, Atque levem stipulam crepitantibus urere flammis. "Sive inde occultas vires et pabula terrae "Pinguia concipiunt: sive illis omne per ignem * Virgil is so concise in his rules, that he seldom uses two different phrases to express the same thing: and, therefore, probably, two sorts of burnings are meant here; but it does not follow that Bakeburning (as Dr. Martyn imagines) is one of them. I rather think that he means, by "steriles agros," burning bushes, weeds, and brambles on ground which had long lain unmanured, and then stubble, as in the second verse. *The burning the stubble, etc. upon the land, is still practised in Italy, and begins in the month of August, the day after St. Laurence: and various reasons are still given for doing it. Fontanini, in his Antiquities of Orta, speaking of the life of Cardinal Ferdinand Nuptio, gives us a remarkable instance of the regard still paid to the foregoing verses, and what an influence they had in continuing the custom of burning the Campagna of Rome." Jo. Maria Lancisius, qui apud Clementem Unde 66 "cimum Pont. Max. non parum gratiae et auctoritatis sibi comparaverat, ad avertendum ardentissimum aestum ex in"cendio stipularum urbi imminentem, Pontifici suasit, imò "etiam persuasit, ut publico edicto stipulas agri Romani amplius incendi vetaret. Interim accidit fortè fortuna (Card.) "Nuptium de rebus suum munus spectantibus ad Pontificem "adire, ex cujus ore, quum decreti mox vulgandi consilium accepisset, illud pro candore animi sui probare non potuit. "Morem comburendi agri Romani stipulas longè antiquissi"mum; optimosque effectus, qui inde consequerentur, ostendit; recitatis extemplo (decem hisce) Virgilii carminibus; quibus Pontificem à sententiâ facilè revocavit." Antiquitat. Hortae, lib. III. c. ii. + It might be from this custom that the Poets take their frequent similes from corn-burning. Virg. Aen. II. ver. 304.Ov. Ep. XV. ver. 9. and in several other places. They never do this, but when there is a brisk wind; they stand to the windward and set fire to the stubble; and it is surprising to see, in how little a time it runs over a whole field of corn. You plainly see the fire gain and run on continually, though at a considerable distance. We saw it in August, 1741, in the south of France, to perfection: as it was the hottest season of the year, and as they had no rains there for three or four months, every thing was so dry that the fire ran with its greatest rapidity. 3 VER. 94-99. "Multum adeo, 1 rastris glebas qui frangit inertes, "Vimineasque trahit crates, juvat arva; neque illum "Flava Ceres alto nequicquam spectat Olympo: "Et qui, proscisso quae suscitat aequore terga, "Rursus in obliquum verso ** perrumpit aratro : "Exercetque * frequens tellurem, atque imperat arvis." 4 *1 Quaer. If rastra is any where joined with trahere? I believe not. It was, as I imagine, a hand instrument, as a rake. **Our countrymen would scarce understand what is meant by Vimineae Crates; but such are still used in Italy, more than harrows, for smoothing land. They first break the clods with bats, and then lay it smooth by drawing hurdles over it, which Columella expresses thus:-"Glebas sarculis resolvere, et inductâ crate coaequare." Lib. II. c. xviii. The breaking clods with bats is practised in some parts of England in stiff ground, and is termed Balling. **This thought, perhaps, is taken from some celebrated painting or bas-relief. Much in the manner, I suppose, that she is represented in the picture, answering this place, in the famous Vatican Virgil. See Pol. VIII. 111. Φιλέῃ δὲ ἑϋστέφανος Δημήτηρ. Hesiod. Op. et Dies, ver. 300. ** I observed before, verse 50, on the word Scindimus, that Virgil used the proper term of art. Perrumpit, if not the proper term, is at least of the same importance, as we learn from Varro: " "Quod primâ aratione glebae grandes solent excitari; cum iteratur, offringere vocant.' Lib. I. c. xxix.-Columella expresses this ploughing by, "Transversis adversisque sulcis." Lib. III. c. xiii. *Compluribus iterationibus sic resolvatur vervactum in "pulverem, ut vel nullam vel exiguam desideret occationem "cum seminaverimus." Col. Lib. II. c. iv. Exercet and Imperat are metaphors taken from military discipline. VER. 100-103. "Humida solstitia atque hiemes orate serenas, *Ovid makes Solstitium to signify expressly the summer solstice only, and Bruma the winter: for, complaining that all time during his banishment seemed long, "et lentis passibus "ire;" he thus expresses himself, "Nec mihi solstitium quicquam de noctibus aufert, De Trist. Lib. V. El. xi. Fluvius Novanus omnibus solstitiis torrens, Bruma siccatur. Plin. Lib. II. c. ciii. Columella mentions Mysia and Libya, "uti largis abun"dantes frumentis." Lib. III. c. viii. * As there was little good husbandry in Mysia, and their good crops were owing to their climate, the Poet very prettily adds, "Quid dicam, jacto qui semine cominus' arva *'It appears by this that balling was repeated after sowing. They turned the earth over the seed with the plough, and then broke the clods which remained.-Varro observes that this breaking of clods after sowing was practised only upon little farms, not upon such extensive lands as were in Apulia. "Se"getes non tam latas habent ut in Apuliâ, id genus praedii per "sarritores occare solent, si quae in porcis grandiores relictae "sunt glebae." Lib. I. c. xxx. ** I cannot think, with Ruaeus, that Virgil ever uses Arena for any sort of land indifferently.The instances produced by Ruaeus himself shew the contrary. The lands of Aegypt and Arabia, though fat and rich, were loose; and Columella compares the land of Aegypt to "Cinis soluta." Lib. II. c. ii. ver. 25. Virgil is here speaking of dry land, which wanted water, and therefore might properly be called Arena: and, "male pinguis,' as not being loose like the land in Aegypt, but having some parts so clotted together, as required to be broken to pieces. * See observations on Iliad XXI. ver. 289, Mr. Pope's translation. This is particularly well practised in Italy at present; at least in gardens. I have seen of them there, which (from a great channel, cut directly from the place, where the water wells, and veined into a vast number of little ones) are supplied with water round every the minutest bed in it, from only taking up the hatch at the reservoir. This was used in their gardens too of old: "Est mihi foecundus dotalibus hortus in agris: Ov. Fast. V. "Et dare quas sitiens jam bibat hortus aquas." Irriguae dabitur non mihi sulcus aquae. Íd. de Pont. I. Id. Fragm. ver. 166. "Puteusque brevis, nec reste movendus, "In tenues plantas facili diffunditur haustu. Juv. Sat. III. "Jam resonant frondes; jam cantibus obstrepat arbos; Calphurnius, Ecl. II. ver. 97. VER. 113, 114. "Quique paludis "Collectum humorem bibulâ deducit arenâ ?" Who drains the collected moisture of the marsh from the soaking sand. Dr. Martyn. Quaer. If "bibulâ arenâ" may not rather mean, sand thrown on moist ground and mixed with it; in order to correct it, and suck up the superfluous moisture? VER. 118-124. "Nec tamen (haec cum sint hominumque boumque labores "Versando terram experti) nihil improbus* anser, "Strymoniaeque *' grues, et amaris ** intuba fibris "Officiunt, aut umbra nocet. Pater ipse colendi "Haud facilem esse viam voluit, primusque per artem "Movit agros, curis acuens mortalia corda: "Nec torpere gravi passus sua regna veterno." * Virgil speaks of the geese, as a troublesome bird; and very pernicious to the corn. They are still so, in flocks, in the Campania Felice; the country which Virgil had chiefly in his eye, when he was writing his Georgics: *1"Strymona sic gelidum, brumâ pellente, relinquunt "Poturae te, Nile, grues." Lucan V. 711. See other places of the same Author. 2 *"Est et erraticum intubum, quod in Aegypto Cichorium vocant. Plin. lib. XIX. c. viii. This is still called Cichorio at Rome, and is very much eaten by the common people, and is esteemed a very wholesome salad. But the outside being remarkably bitter, they are obliged to strip off the skin and therewith the fibres (which are the bitterest part) in order to make it eatable. In the season of the year one sees people stripping this cichory at every herbstall in Rome: and, it is probable, that this is hinted at by Virgil in his "amaris fibris."-Pliny celebrates it as a wholesome herb, lib. XX. c. viii. * See Hesiod Op. et Dies, from verse 42 to 52. "Surely there was some tradition even among the Heathens "of God's curse, that man should eat his bread in the sweat of "his face." Sharrock's Hist. of Vegetables, c. i. VER. 127, 128. "Ipsaque tellus "Omnia liberius, nullo poscente, ferebat." * Καρπὸν δ ̓ ἔφερε ζείδωρος άρερα Αυτομάτη πολλόν τε καὶ ἄφθονον. Hesiod. Op. et D. ver. 118. VER. 133. 134. Ut varias usus meditando extunderet artes "Paulatim." |