ECLOGUE II. ALEXIS.

THE shepherd Corydon with fervour loved
The fair Alexis, darling of his lord;
Nor had he aught to hope: only among

The clustering beeches, shade-abounding crests,
He used continually to resort:

There these unstudied [verses] he

To mounts and forests flung with bootless pains:
O barbarous Alexis, of my lays

Naught reck'st thou? Naught of pity hast for me?
Thou in the end wilt goad me on to die.

Now e'en the cattle shade and cool enjoy ;

Now e'en the thorny brakes green lizards shroud;
And Thestylis doth for the reapers, faint

With raging heat, bray garlic and wild thyme,
Herbs fragrant: but [in symphony] with me,
While I thy footsteps track, re-echo groves
With hoarse cicadas 'neath a blazing sun.

Was it not better, the ill-humoured spleen

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Line 13. Milton makes his Thestylis to help the reapers in a dfferent way, assigning the culinary department to Phillis:

"Hard by, a cottage-chimney smokes,

From betwixt two aged oaks,

Where Corydon and Thyrsis met,
Are at their savoury dinner set

Of herbs and other country messes,
Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses;
And then in haste her bower she leaves,
With Thestylis to bind the sheaves."

Ľ Allegro.

Of Amaryllis, and her haughty scorn,

That I should brook? Not [brook] Menalcas? Though 20 He [might be] swarthy, though thou mightst be fair.

O lovely boy, trust not too much thy hue:

White privets drop, dark martagons are culled.

I am disdained by thee; nor who I am
Do you, Alexis, ask ;-how rich in flock,
How overflowing in my snowy milk.
Ewe-lambs of mine a thousand roam about
Upon Sicilian mountains; new milk me
Neither in summer nor in winter fails.

I chant [the lays] which used, if e'er his herds
He called, Amphion of Dircean [blood],
Upon Actæan Aracynthus ['hill].
Nor am I so uncomely: I of late
Beheld myself upon the shore, what time
Unruffled by the breezes stood the sea;
I should not Daphnis, thou the umpire, dread,
Since never doth reflection's form beguile.
Oh! could it only be thy will with me
The country mean and lowly cots to haunt,
And to empierce the harts, and drive in group

Line 34. This may call to mind the language of Eve:
"And laid me down.... to look into the clear
Smooth lake, that to me seemed another sky.
As I bent down to look, just opposite

A shape within the watery gleam appeared,
Bending to look on me: I started back,

It started back; but pleased, I soon returned."

Milton's P. L. iv.

A. Philips, in his 1st Pastoral, gives a graceful turn to the idea:
"And fair my flock, nor yet uncomely I,

If liquid fountains flatter not ;—and why
Should liquid fountains flatter us, yet show

The bordering flowers less beauteous than they grow?"

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40

The flock of kidlings to the mallow green!
With me together in the forests thou
Shalt copy Pan in singing. Pan first taught
To brace together divers reeds with wax;
Pan guards the sheep and keepers of the sheep.
Nor let it irk thee with a reed to have chafed
Thy tiny lip: that he these very [strains]
Might master, what did not Amyntas do?
I have, with seven unequal hemlock-reeds
Close set, a pipe, which as a gift to me
Damotas whilom gave, and dying, said,
"Thee now doth this its second master own."
Damætas spoke; the fool Amyntas grudged.
Moreo'er, two roebucks, nor in a safe glen
Discovered by myself, their skins e'en still
Besprent with white, twain udders of a ewe
Drain daily; which for thee I have in store.
Now long ago doth Thestylis entreat

To get them from me; and will gain her point,
Seeing my gifts are paltry in thine eyes.
Come hither, O thou beauteous boy! for thee
Lilies in baskets full, lo! bring the nymphs;
For thee a Naiad fair, wan gillyflowers
And heads of poppies gathering, unites
Narcissus and the bloom of scented dill;
Then, interlacing them with widow-waile
And other fragrant plants, soft martagons
Betrims with yellowing caltha. I myself

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60

Line 45. So Colin says of Pan: Shepheard's Calender, December,

11, 12:

"Als of their maisters hast no lesse regard

Then of the flocks which thou doest watch and ward."

62. See note on Ec. iv. 26.

Will gather quinces hoar with velvet down;
The chestnuts, too, which Amaryllis mine
Was wont to love. I waxen plums will add;
To this fruit, also, honour shall accrue;
And you, O bays, I'll cull; and, myrtle, thee
The next so placed, since musky scents ye blend.
A boor thou art, O Corydon, nor recks

Thy gifts Alexis; neither if in gifts

Shouldst thou vie with him, would Iollas yield.
Ah! ah! what have I willed for my poor self?
Upon my flowers the Sirocco I

Have madly loosed, and on my crystal springs
Wild boars. Whom fliest thou, ah! witless wight?

The gods have even tenanted the woods,
The Dardan Paris too. The fortresses

Which she hath built, Pallas herself let haunt;
Us, before all things, may the forests charm!
The grisly lioness pursues the wolf,

The wolf himself the goat; the cytisus

In blossom doth the wanton goat pursue;

Thee, O Alexis, Corydon: each one

His proper fancy draws. Behold, the ploughs,

Upraised, by the yoke the steers are drawing home;
And Sol, departing, doubles lengthening shades:

Line 75. Spenser imitates Virgil here: Shepheard's Calender, January, 55:

90.

"It is not Hobbinol wherefore I plaine,

Albee my love hee seeke with dayly suit ;
His clownish gifts and curtsies I disdaine,
His kids, his cracknelles, and his early fruit."
"And every humour hath its adjunct pleasure,
Wherein it finds a joy above the rest."

Shakspeare, Sonnet 91.

The force of ipse, in verse 63 of the original, would be best brought out

by "in turn."

Yet me is love consuming; for what bound
Can be to love? Ah! Corydon, [ah!] Corydon,

What frenzy thee hath seized! Half-pruned for thee
Thy vine is [lying] on the leafy elm.

Why dost thou not the rather aught at least

Of what thy service needs, of withes and pliant rush
Prepare thee to weave off? If thee doth this

Disdain, another Alexis thou shalt find.

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Line 97. How clearly the poet saw that useful employment was a cure for irregular desires!