Part 39 (2/2)
Ver. 23, 24.
”Inventor Pallas, of the fatt'ning oil, Thou founder of the plough, and ploughman's toil!
”Written as if _these_ had been _Pallas's invention_. The _ploughman's toil's_ impertinent.
Ver. 25.
”The shroud-like cypress----
”Why _shroud-like_? Is a _cypress_ pulled up by the _roots_, which the _sculpture_ in the _last Eclogue_ fills _Silva.n.u.s's_ hand with, so very like a _shroud_? Or did not Mr. D. think of that kind of _cypress_ used often for _scarves and hatbands_, at funerals formerly, or for _widows'
veils_, &c. ? If so, 'twas a _deep, good thought_.
Ver. 26.
”That wear The royal honours, and increase the year.
”What's meant by _increasing the year_? Did the _G.o.ds_ or _G.o.ddesses_ add more _months_, or _days_, or _hours_, to it? Or how can _arva tueri_ signify to _wear rural honours_? Is this to _translate_, or _abuse_ an _author_? The next _couplet_ is borrowed from Ogylby, I suppose, because _less to the purpose_ than ordinary.
Ver. 33.
”The patron of the world, and Rome's peculiar guard.
”_Idle_, and none of Virgil's, no more than the sense of the _precedent couplet_; so again, _he interpolates Virgil_ with that and _the round circle of the year to guide powerful of blessings, which thou strew'st around_; a ridiculous _Latinism_, and an _impertinent addition_; indeed the whole _period_ is but one piece of _absurdity_ and _nonsense_, as those who lay it with the _original_ must find.
Ver. 42, 43.
”And Neptune shall resign the fasces of the sea.
”Was he _consul_ or _dictator_ there?
”And wat'ry virgins for thy bed shall strive.
”Both absurd _interpolations_.”
Ver. 47, 48.
”Where in the void of heaven a place is free.
”_Ah, happy_ D----n, _were_ that place for _thee_!
”But where is _that void_? Or, what does our _translator_ mean by it? He knows what Ovid says G.o.d did to prevent such a void in heaven; perhaps this was then forgotten: but Virgil talks more sensibly.
Ver. 49.
”The scorpion ready to receive thy laws.
”No, he would not then have _gotten out of his way_ so fast.
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