Part 41

He submitted this couplet and the emendation in the text to Walsh, and said, "The epithet captive seems necessary to explain the thought, on account of those kisses in the last line [of the paragraph]. Quære. If these be better than the other?" Walsh. "The second are the best, for it is not enough to permit you to be made, but to make you."]

me quoque dicunt Vatem pastores.--WAKEFIELD.]

Rough satyrs danced.

Dryden's Virgil, Ecl. vi. 42:

He raised his voice, and soon a num'rous throng Of tripping satyrs crowded to the song.

Pan was the god of shepherds, the inventor of the pastoral pipe of reeds, and himself a skilful musician. "The ancient images," says Archbishop Whately, "represent him as partly in the human form, and partly in that of a goat, with horns and cloven hoofs. And hence it is that, by a kind of tradition, we often see, even at this day, representations of Satan in this form. For the early christians seem to have thought that it was he whom the pagans adored under the name of Pan."]

Come forth, ye nymphs, forsake your wat'ry bowers, Forsake your mossy caves.]

And many a nymph both of the wood and brook, Soon as his oaten pipe began to shrill, Both chrystal wells, and shady groves forsook To hear the charms of his enchanting skill; And brought him presents, flow'rs if it were prime, Or mellow fruit if it were harvest time.]

His clownish gifts and courtsies I disdain, His kids, his cracknels, and his early fruit; Ah, foolish Hobbinol, thy gifts been vain, Colin them gives to Hobbinol again.]

habitarunt dii quoque sylvas.

Ecl. x. 18:

Et formosus oves ad flumina pavit Adonis.--POPE.

Dryden's translation of the first line is

The gods to live in woods have left the skies.

The second line he expanded into a couplet:

Along the streams, his flock Adonis led, And yet the queen of beauty blest his bed.

This last verse has nothing answering to it in Virgil, but it suggested ver. 63 of the pastoral to Pope, who copied Dryden, and not the original.]

rapido fessis messoribus æstu. The reapers tired with sultry heats.--Ogilby.--WAKEFIELD.]

Frigidus, O pueri, fugite hinc! latet anguis in herba.--WAKEFIELD.]

Another couplet followed in the manuscript:

Here Tereus mourns, and Itys tells his pain, Of Progne they, and I of you complain.

The horrible mythological story of Progne killing her son Itys, and serving up his flesh to her husband Tereus out of revenge for his violence to her sister Philomela, had no connection with the plaintive sighs of a love-sick swain for an absent mistress. The inappropriateness of the allusion was no doubt the reason why Pope omitted the couplet.]

Muscosi fontes--mossy fountains.--WAKEFIELD.]

Quicquid calcaverit hic, rosa fiat.

Butler finely ridicules this trite fancy of the poets:

Where'er you tread your foot shall set The primrose and the violet.--WAKEFIELD.]

Oh, deign to grace our happy rural seats, Our mossy fountains, and our green retreats; While you your presence to the groves deny, Our flowers are faded, and our brooks are dry; Though with'ring herbs lay dying on the plain, At your return they shall be green again.

The two last couplets were copied from Dryden's Virg. Ecl. vii. 77: