Imatges de pàgina
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the robes of men, and spin many ple, or water-colored) mantles as wish to have the soft fleeces of th year, on account of Theugenis wit trious: she loves the maxims of propose to make a present of thee no use of the distaff" (or where th

Before we quit this subject of t present and the verses give us a ve self, as an agreeable man who ha amiable, attentions of life.

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After a pretty diligent perusal above passages, which some may proof that he imitated the writings to be blamed; for though I have for the oriental poetry, yet I est equalled for softness, delicacy, = merely as a love poem. There critus, where the imitation appears Song of Solomon, ch. 11. v. that spoil the vines; for our vines κυπρίζουσι, bud, as it is in the Sep Theocrit. Idyll. V. v. 108. do not injure my vines, for they ar Again, at v. 112. "I hate the b the evening frequent the vines of M That eminent commentator, Mat cidedly of opinion that Theocritu Solomon.

"Y

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always in apes."

psis, is de ritings of

he charge ais naturas certain, s observe

waketh;

n to me, os of the

But Love says, "Open,
I am an infant, fear not:
I am wet, and in the moonless
Night I wander.""

SECTION V. Of the peculiar genius

In order to form a proper estimate of the gen must remember that he did not confine himse poetry, but composed works of a different kin those remains of him which have descended to ledge that his principal glory is derived from pas he will probably ever remain unrivalled, and we never-fading verdure. Under this description hesitation class all his idylls, except the fifteent going to see the rites of Adonis; the sixteenth, to Hiero; the seventeeth, or the Encomium on second, or Dioscuri; the twenty-fourth, or the twenty-sixth, or Bacchæ; and the twenty-first, piscatory Eclogue. The first six of his epigram toral strain. If any one, however, should not bution of his works, I shall not contend with h

The peculiar and distinguishing excellence с ocritus appears to me to be his enthusiastic, bu minating, taste for the charms of nature. Happ sesses this taste. He sees beauties which escap only the more striking and picturesque objects slight tints and evanescent shades give him s same scene will afford him a different kind of pl at noon, and in the evening. The succession with it for him successive enjoyments in swe just as a man, who passes his eye gradually over the celestial bow, finds a new charm in each mixture. Nature spreads continual entertainm rupted and lively imagination. This is a pure a the soul. It is a peculiar happiness for a man an agreeable country and pleasant climate. T respect fortunate. Sicily was celebrated for it blæan honey, for its rivers, streams, brooks, variety of rocks, fruitful hills, and vallies, an pleasant climate. Here was a happy mixture nature and cultivation. The mind suffers a kir interrupted and uniform scenes of the highest c art can give, and feels a refreshment, and a na bles and thorns. If the mind of T with the corn valley and the vineyar Ætna, venerable with trees and hal blue sea dashing against the rocks fabled prodigies. There was also a animals. Wild animals, when prop poem, produce a very striking effec ear of the poet was entertained with companied with the sound of differ minstrelsy. "The climate of Sicily on the Genius and Writings of Pop agreeable pieces of criticism in our I face of the country various and bea pices, its grottos and cascades we flowers and fruits were lavish and lu he saw and felt; and had no need to assemblages of pleasing objects whi The figs and the honey, which he as shepherd, were in themselves exqu with great propriety; and the beaut so richly and circumstantially delinea Idyllium, where

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Πάντ ̓ ὦσδεν θέρεος μάλα π All things smelt of summer and sme real."

It were easy to adduce instances genuine and exquisite relish for rural care and attention. We find many ru tions, in the first, third, fourth, sixt and eleventh Idylliums, and even in farious ribaldry. That inimitable sin ocritus, was, I doubt not, the result o exact study of nature.

SECT. VI. The peculiar taste of Th into rural descriptions in those p

That this was the peculiar bias of lect from his sliding imperceptibly subject does not absolutely require it. when he mentions that the Phœnician ening Sicily with war and invasion, wish for a speedy peace, the happine amiable manner:

me satiated e to Mount or to the with all its ell as tame duced in a

Duntry the
birds, ac-
and rural

his essay
and most

s, and the its preci , and its bed what artificial

In nature. victorious assigned ndscape, - seventh

sent and

s had a are with descriptenth, its nein Theon and

sliding

al.

ly colen his 1. xvi.) breat

ess his n this

Ποιμένας ἐνδίους πεφυλαγμένος, ένδοθι δενά
̓Αχεῖ ἐν ἀκρεμονέσσιν· ἀράχνια δ ̓ εἰς ὅπλ ̓
Λεπτὰ διαστήσαιντο

And may they cultivate their blooming fields, and
Thousands of sheep, fattened with the herbs,
Bleat along the plain, and may the cows in herds
Coming to the stable urge the slow evening-trave
And may the fallow-fields be tilled for seed, wher
Guarding against the shepherds who are out at noo
Sounds on the branches; and may the spiders ex
Their thin webs over martial arms.

When he tells us (Idyll. xiii. v. 12.) that Herc from morning to night, instead of saying "night by this circumstance;

Οὐδ ̓ ὑπότ ̓ ὀρτάλιχοι μινυροὶ ποτὶ κοῖτον ὑρω Σεισαμένας πτερὰ ματρὸς ἐπ ̓ αἰθαλόεντι πετ Nor when the querulous young birds look'd to th When their dam claps her wings over the sooty b

In the Hymn to Castor and Pollux (Idyll. x proceeds to the ferocious boxing-match, he ent scription of the beautiful scenery round the four Amycus, the king of the Bebrycians :

Παντοίην δ ̓ ἐν ὄρει θηεύμενοι ἄγριον ὕλην,
Εὗρον ἀένναον κράναν ὑπὸ λισσάδι πέτρῃ
Ύδατι πεπληθυῖαν ἀκηράτῳ· αἱ δ' ὑπένερθες
*Ἄλλαι κρυστάλλῳ ἠδ ̓ ἀργύρῳ ἰνδάλλοντο
Ἐκ βυθοῦ· ὑψηλαὶ δὲ πεφύκεσαν ἀγχόθι πεῖ
Λεῦκαί τε, πλάτανοί τε, καὶ ἀκρόκομοι κυπά
"Ανθεά τ ̓ εὐώδη, λασίαις φίλα ἔργα μελίσσο

Ὅσσ ̓ ἔαρος λήγοντος ἐπιβρύει ἂν λειμῶνας.
Hard by, a hill, with waving forests crown'd
Their eyes attracted; in the dale they found
A spring perennial in a rocky cave,
Full to the margin flow'd their lucid wave:
Below, small fountains gush'd, and murmuri
Sparkled like silver, and as crystal clear :
Above, tall pines and poplars quivering play
And planes and cypress in dark green array'
Around, balm-breathing flowers of every hue

The bee's ambrosia, in the meadows grew.

In the Bacchæ (Idyll. xxvi.) where Pentheus is own mother; his two aunts, and the other wor orgies of Bacchus, Theocritus seems, as it w natural benevolence of his heart to superstition. (Idyll. xxv.) did I not consider t genuine Bucolic, and indeed one o poetry in the world. It reminds o

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ancient patriarchs, and of their nur

SECT. VII. - The same taste in his p

Though Theocritus sometimes tion of a landscape, especially whe dialogue, yet we may in general co from the conversation of the speak presented with a succession of agr meet, not indeed with a mere lands calculated to gratify not the sight We are delighted with the music, n the reed, but also of trees whisper tains, murmuring brooks, and me the fanciful description in Spenser = For all that pleasing is Was there consorted in one Birds, voices, instruments,

The joyous birds shroude Their notes unto the voice a Th' angelical soft-trembling To th' instruments divine re:

The silver sounding instru With the base murmur of th The water's fall with differen Now soft, now loud, unto th The gentle warbling wind loSpenser

Even in the first Idyllium we have making, as it were, a kind of melody sweet music of the goat-herd on his singing is sweeter than the casca from a high rock:

“Αδιον, ὦ ποίμαν, τὸ τεὸν μ Τῆν ̓ ἀπὸ τᾶς πέτρας καταλε Near at hand, we have a sloping hill the goats feed close by. In an adjo for a shade, with a pastoral seat, and of Priapus, and of the nymphs of th Amenity of prospects, objects, an tus. In the Comastas, (Idyll. iii.)

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