The Works of Alexander Pope Part 55

[Footnote 15: Congreve's Mourning Muse of Alexis:

Fade all ye flow'rs, and wither all ye woods.]

[Footnote 16: Virg. Ecl. viii. 52:

aurea durae Mala ferant quercus, narcisso floreat alnus; Pinguia corticibus sudent electra myricae.--POPE.

His obligations are also due to Dryden's version of Ecl. iv. 21:

Unlaboured harvests shall the fields adorn, And cl.u.s.tered grapes shall blush on ev'ry thorn: And knotted oaks shall show'rs of honey weep, And through the matted gra.s.s the liquid gold shall creep.

Bowles, in his translation of Theocritus, Idyll. v., a.s.sisted our bard:

On brambles now let violets be born, And op'ning roses blush on ev'ry thorn.

He seems to have had in view also the third Eclogue of Walsh:

Upon hard oaks let blus.h.i.+ng peaches grow, And from the brambles liquid amber flow.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 17: These four lines followed in the MS.:

With him through Libyia's burning plains I'll go, On Alpine mountains tread th' eternal snow; Yet feel no heat but what our loves impart, And dread no coldness but in Thyrsis' heart.--WARBURTON.

Wakefield remarks that the second line in this pa.s.sage is taken from Dryden's Virg. Ecl. x. 71:

And climb the frozen Alps, and tread th' eternal snow.]

[Footnote 18: Virg. Ecl. v. 46:

Quale sopor fessis in gramine, quale per aestum Dulcis aquae saliente sitim restinguere rivo.--POPE.]

[Footnote 19: "Faint with pain" is both flat and improper. It is fatigue, and not pain that makes them faint.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 20: The turn of the last four lines is evidently borrowed from Drummond of Hawthornden, a charming but neglected poet.

To virgins flow'rs, to sun-burnt earth the rain, To mariners fair winds amid the main, Cool shades to pilgrims, whom hot glances burn, Are not so pleasing as thy blest return.--WARTON.]

[Footnote 21: Virg. Ecl. viii. 108:

an, qui amant, ipsi sibi somnia fingunt?--POPE.

In the first edition, conformably to the original plan of the Pastoral, the pa.s.sage stood thus:

Do lovers dream, or is my shepherd kind?

He comes, my shepherd comes.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 22: From Virg. Ecl. viii. 110:

Parcite, ab urbe venit, jam parcite carmina, Daphnis.

Stafford's translation in Dryden's Miscellany:

Cease, cease, my charms, My Daphnis comes, he comes, he flies into my arms.]

[Footnote 23: Dryden's Virg. Ecl. viii. 26, 29:

While I my Nisa's perjured faith deplore.

Yet shall my dying breath to heav'n complain.]

[Footnote 24: This imagery is borrowed from Milton's Comus, ver. 290:

Two such I saw, what time the laboured ox In his loose traces from the furrow came.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 25: Variation:

And the fleet shades fly gliding o'er the green.--POPE.

These two verses are obviously adumbrated from the conclusion of Virgil's first eclogue, and Dryden's version of it:

For see yon sunny hill the shade extends And curling smoke from cottages ascends.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 26: This fancy he derived from Virgil, Ecl. x. 53:

tenerisque meos incidere amores Arboribus.

The rind of ev'ry plant her name shall know. Dryden.--WAKEFIELD.

Garth's Dispensary, Canto vi:

Their wounded bark records some broken vow, And willow garlands hang on ev'ry bough.]

[Footnote 27: According to the ancients, the weather was stormy for a few days when Arcturus rose with the sun, which took place in September, and Pope apparently means that rain at this crisis was beneficial to the standing corn. The harvest at the beginning of the last century was not so early as it is now.]

[Footnote 28: The scene is in Windsor Forest; so this image is not so exact.--WARBURTON.]

[Footnote 29: This is taken from Virg. Ecl. x. 26, 21:

Pan deus Arcadiae venit . . . .

Omnes, unde amor iste, rogant tibi.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 30: Virg. Ecl. iii. 103:

Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos.--POPE.

Dryden's version of the original:

What magic has bewitched the woolly dams, And what ill eyes beheld the tender lambs.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 31: It should be "darted;" the present tense is used for the sake of the rhyme.--WARTON.]