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pray thee!) come, veiling thy radiant shoulders with a cloud: or thou, if it be more agreeable to thee, smiling Venus, about whom hover the gods of mirth and love: or thou, if thou regard 13 thy neglected race and descendants, our founder Mars, whom clamour and polished helmets, and the terrible aspect of the Moorish infantry against their bloody enemy, delight, satiated at length with thy sport, alas! of too long continuance or if thou, the winged son of gentle Maia, by changing thy figure, personate a youth 14 upon earth, submitting to be called the avenger of Cæsar; late mayest thou return to the skies, and long mayest thou joyously be present to the Roman people; nor may an untimely blast transport thee from us, offended at our crimes. Here mayest thou rather delight in magnificent triumphs,15 and to be called father and prince: nor suffer the Parthians with impunity to make incursions, you, O Cæsar, being our general.

ODE III.

TO THE SHIP, IN WHICH VIRGIL WAS ABOUT TO SAIL TO

ATHENS.

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So may the goddess who rules over Cyprus; so may the bright stars, the brothers of Helen; 17 and so may the father

13 Respicis, "Thou again beholdest with a favouring eye." When the gods were supposed to turn their eyes towards their worshippers, it was a sign of favour; when they averted them, of displeasure. The Greeks use ἐπιβλέπειν with the same meaning. ANTHON.

14 Sallust calls Julius Cæsar Adolescentulus, when he was thirty-six years old; the same age in which Horace here calls Augustus Juvenem. Varro tells us this last word is derived from Juvare, as if this age were capable of rendering the most considerable services to the republic. SAN. 15 Augustus, in the month of August, 725, had triumphed three days. The first, for the defeat of the Pannonians and Dalmatii; the second, for the battle of Actium; the last, for the reduction of Egypt. DAC.

16 Venus was invoked by mariners, not only because she sprung from the ocean, but because her star was useful to navigation. CRUQ.

17 Brothers of Helen, Castor and Pollux. Leda, wife of Tyndarus, king of Laconia, as fame goes, brought forth two eggs; out of one of them came Pollux and Helena, born immortal, begotten by Jupiter; of the other, Castor and Clytemnestra, begotten by Tyndarus: because those brothers, as

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of the winds, confining all except Iapyx, 18 direct thee, O ship, who art intrusted with Virgil; my prayer is, that thou mayest land 19 him safe on the Athenian shore, and preserve the half of my soul. Surely oak 20 and threefold brass surrounded his heart, who first trusted a frail vessel to the merciless ocean, nor was afraid of the impetuous Africus contending with the northern storms, nor of the mournful Hyades,21 nor of the rage of Notus, than whom there is not a more absolute controller of the Adriatic, either to raise or assuage its waves at pleasure. What path of death 22 did he fear, who beheld unmoved the rolling monsters of the deep; who beheld unmoved the tempestuous swelling of the sea, and the Acroceraunians 23 -ill-famed rocks!

In vain has God in his wisdom divided the countries of the earth by the separating 24 ocean, if nevertheless profane ships bound over waters not to be violated. The race of man, presumptuous enough to endure every thing, rushes on through forbidden wickedness.

The presumptuous son of Iäpetus, by an impious fraud,

long as they lived, freed the seas from pirates and robbers, they are said to have received power from Neptune, the god of the sea, of helping those who were in danger of being shipwrecked, by being turned into stars, which makes our poet invoke them under this epithet, "Lucida sidera, fratres Helena." WATSON.

18 The W. N. W.

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19 With reddas and serves understand ut, which stands in opposition to sic. "Usus hic particulæ sic in votis, precibus, obtestationibusque ita proprie explicandus: Uti nos a te hoc vel illud optamus, sic, ubi nostras preces exaudieris, hoc vel illud, quod tu optas, tibi contingat.' ORELL. 20 In robur there is first the idea of sturdy oak, of which the Roman clypeus was made, and then, metaphorically, of strength of mind; so also in as triplex there is allusion to the Lorica, hence the use of circa pectus. M'CAUL.

21 The Hyades are a constellation in the head of the bull, whose rising and setting are frequently attended by rain, from whence the poet calls them Tristes. FRANCIS.

22 What kind of death could affright him. The ancients dreaded shipwreck as the worst sort of death, as being thereby liable to be devoured by fish, dashed against rocks, or cast upon an uninhabited island. WATSON.

23 The poet, with a very delicate flattery, calls these rocks infamous, because Augustus very narrowly escaped shipwreck on them, when he returned from the battle of Actium. FRANCIS.

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24 Active, as 'genitabilis aura Favonî," Lucret. i. 11; "penetrabile fulmen," Ovid, Met. xiii. 857.

brought down fire into the world. After fire was stolen from the celestial mansions, consumption and a new train of fevers settled upon the earth, and the slow approaching necessity of death, which, till now, was remote, accelerated its pace. Dædalus essayed the empty air with wings not permitted to man. The labour of Hercules broke through Acheron. There is nothing too arduous for mortals to attempt. We aim at heaven 25 itself in our folly; neither do we suffer, by our wickedness, Jupiter to lay aside his revengeful thunderbolts.

ODE IV.

TO SEXTIUS.

SEVERE winter is melted away beneath the agreeable change of spring 26 and the western breeze; and engines 27 haul down the dry ships. And neither does the cattle any longer delight in the stalls, nor the ploughman in the fire-side; nor are the meadows whitened by hoary frosts. Now Cytherean Venus leads off the dance by moon-light; and the comely Graces, in conjunction with the Nymphs, shake the ground with alternate feet; while glowing Vulcan kindles the laborious forges of the Cyclops. Now it is fitting to encircle the shining head either with verdant myrtle, or with such flowers as the relaxed earth produces. Now likewise it is fitting to sacrifice to Faunus 28 in the shady groves, whether he demand a lamb, or be more pleased with a kid. 29 Pale death knocks at the cottages of the poor, and the palaces of kings, with an

25 Cœlum ipsum petimus. In allusion to the fable of the giants.

FRANCIS.

26 According to Vegetius, the seas were unfit for navigation iii. Id. Novembr. usque in diem vi. Id. Mart." ORELLI.

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27 The ancients used to draw their ships on shore during winter. SAN. 28 Faunus, he was son to Picus, father to Latinus, and the third king of the aborigines in Latium; who, because he taught the people somewhat of religion and tillage, was accounted a country god. And that rude people might be kept in awe of him, they pictured him with feet of horn, and two horns on his head. Afterwards all the gods of the woods went by this name. WATSON.

29 This use of the ablative is common with ritual words; so," facere," "immolare," are used. ORELli.

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impartial foot. O happy Sextius! 30 the short sum total of life forbids us to form remote expectations. Presently shall darkness, and the unreal ghosts, 31 and the shadowy mansion of Pluto oppress you; where, when you shall have once arrived, you shall neither decide the dominion of the bottle by dice,32 nor shall you admire the tender Lycidas, with whom now all the youth is inflamed, and for whom ere long the maidens will grow warm.

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ODE V.

TO PYRRHA.

WHAT dainty youth, bedewed with liquid perfumes, caresses you, Pyrrha, beneath the pleasant grot, amidst a profusion of roses? For whom do you bind your golden hair, plain in your neatness ?33 Alas! how often shall he deplore your perfidy, and the altered gods; and through inexperience be amazed at the seas, rough with blackening storms, who now credulous enjoys you all precious, and, ignorant of the faithless gale, hopes you will be always disengaged, always amiable! Wretched are those, tọ whom thou untried seemest fair! The sacred

80 Lucius Sextius, or Sestius, kept up a constant friendship with Brutus, after he was routed, yet was commended by Augustus, and made consul with Cneius Calpurnius Piso, in the year after the building of the city 730. WATSON.

8 By "the unreal manes" are meant, the shades of the departed, often made the theme of the wildest fictions of poetry. Some commentators, however, and amongst them Orellius, understand the expression in its literal sense, "the manes of whom all is fable," and suppose it to imply the disbelief of a future state. Comp. rí dé Iλоúтwv; Mũ¤os; Call. Epig. xiv. 3. Fabula is the nom. plural, i. e. Manes fabulosi, inanes.

M'CAUL.

32 A king of wine: it was a custom among the ancients, at feasts, to choose a king, or master, to order how much each guest should drink, whom all the company were obliged to obey; he was chosen by throwing of the dice, upon whose sides were engraven or painted the images of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, Venus, and Diana. He who threw up Venus was made king; as Horace, Book II. Ode vii. insinuates: Quem Venus dicet arbitrum bibendi," WATSON.

13 I have borrowed Milton's happy version.

wall [of Neptune's temple] demonstrates, 34 by a votive tablet, that I have consecrated my dropping garments to the powerful god of the sea.

ODE VI.

TO AGRIPPA.

You shall be described by Varius, a bird 35 of Mæonian verse, as brave, and a subduer of your enemies, whatever achievements your fierce soldiery shall have accomplished, under your command; either on ship-board 36 or on horseback. We, humble writers, O Agrippa, neither undertake these high subjects, nor the destructive wrath of inexorable Achilles, nor the voyages of the crafty 37 Ulysses, nor the cruel house of Pelops while diffidence, and the Muse who presides over the peaceful lyre, forbid me to diminish the praises of illustrious Cæsar, and yours, through defect of genius. Who with sufficient dignity will describe Mars covered with adamantine coat of mail, or Meriones swarthy with Trojan dust, or the son of Tydeus by the favour of Pallas a match for the gods? We, whether free, or ourselves enamoured of aught, light as our wont, sing of banquets; we, of the battles of maids desperate against young fellows-with pared nails. 38

34 He alludes to a custom among the Romans, of offering some votive tablet or picture to the god by whose power they thought themselves preserved from shipwreck. In these pictures the storm and circumstances of their escape were represented. DAC.

35 The term alite refers to a custom, in which the ancient poets often indulged, of likening themselves to the eagle and the swan: Movσav opvixes. Theocr. Id. vii. ANTHON.

36 Agrippa gained the victory in two sea-fights. The first against Pompey's lieutenants; the second, against Pompey himself, besides the share which he had in the battle of Actium.

CRUQ.

37 Perhaps the poet intended to express Ulysses' appearing through the whole Odyssey in two characters, or, if the expression may be allowed, in a double character, such as a prince and a beggar, &c. FRANCIS. 3 See Orelli; who regards this conclusion as merely jocular.

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