Behind, [to bid men] Thetis tempt in ships, Choice heroes; there shall eke be other wars, The great Achilles. Then, when now established age All things shall every country yield. No soil 60 Line 56. Or perhaps mentiri might be rendered "to forge," as Spenser says of Duessa: "So could she forge all colours save the trew." 63. Spenser finely describes the offices of the Parcæ: F. Q. iv. 2, 48: "There she them found all sitting round about The direfull Distaffe standing in the mid, And with unwearied fingers drawing out The lines of life, from living knowledge hid. Sad Clotho held the rocke, the whiles the thrid That cruel Atropos eftsoones undid, With cursed knife cutting the twist in twaine : Most wretched men, whose dayes depend on thrids so vaine !" O enter thou on thy grand dignities, Orpheus, the fair Apollo Linus. If e'en Pan, 70 To recognise thy mother with a smile; 80 Ten months have brought thy mother longsome qualms. Begin, O infant boy: [that babe] on whom His parents have not smiled, nor god of board, Line 69. So Eve dreams that Adam says to her : Whom to behold but thee, Nature's desire? Milton, P. L. v. ECLOGUE V. DAPHNIS. MENALCAS. MOPSUS. MENALCAS. WHEREFORE, O Mopsus, not, since we have met, MOPSUS. Thou art the elder; it is fair that I Give way to thee, Menalcas, whether 'neath Line 3. It is evident from this whole Eclogue, and especially from comparing vv. 51, 55 of Ecl. III., that dicere versus means to sing songs, not to rehearse or indite them. See also Ecl. IX., and compare v. 35 with v. 36. 7. 9. "My lovely Aaron, wherefore look'st thou sad, Shakspeare, Tit. And. ii. 3. "So fashioned a porch with rare device, Amyntas only vies. MENALCAS. In our mounts with thee MOPSUS. What should the same Endeavour Phoebus to surpass in song? MENALCAS. 'Gin, Mopsus, first, if either any flames MOPSUS. Nay, I those strains which late 10 Whose bounches hanging downe seemd to entice Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12, 54. "Another side, umbrageous grots and caves Milton, P. L. 4. "Deep in the gloomy glade a grotto bends, Line 11. Certat seems to have better authority than certet, and is certainly a more graphic reading. 12. Or: What if the same Should strive in singing Phoebus to surpass? 15, 16. So Spenser, Sh. Cal. May, 172: "Now, Piers, of fellowship, tell us that saying; For the lad can keep both our flockes from straying." A. Philips varies the idea: Past. 4: "And since our ewes have grazed, what harm if they Upon a beech-tree's verdant bark I scored, And sang and marked them down by turns, will try: MENALCAS. As much as doth the supple willow yield MOPSUS. 20 But cease thou more, O swain; we have reached the grot. Quenched by fell death, the nymphs did Daphnis weep. Ye [were] the witnesses, O hazel-shrubs And rivers, for the nymphs, when clasping round The pitiable body of her son, Both gods and stars the mother felon calls. Line 25. See Milton's Lycidas: "But oh! the heavy change, now thou art gone, The willows and the hazel-copses green Shall now no more be seen Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays." The same miseries Spenser makes the consequence of Colin Clout's absence. Hobbinol tells him: Colin Clout, xxii. : "Whilest thou wast hence, all dead in dole did lie: 26-29. A. Philips happily imitates this passage: D |