straight goes on casts heaps of barren sand And streams to 's corne in flowing rivers turns And when scorch'd fields with dying herbage burns From rising ground conducts a crystall lake Which mongst smoth rocks doth gentle murmurs make And bubling forth refresh the parched field Or those lest too large ears the stalk should yield The ranck corne and soft stemme eat down again When first it hides the earth and those who draine With thirstie sand the plashes in their ground Most when in doubtfull moneths the floods abound Whence slimie mud hath cover'd all the vale Making the ditches a hot steam exhale But yet for all mens toyle and oxens paines Skilfull in tillage the Strymonian Cranes Geese and shade harme or bitter Succorie Nor was Jove pleas'd tillage should easie be And first commands with art to plough the soyle On mortall hearts imposing care and toyle Nor lets dull sloth benumb men where he reigns Before Jove's time no plowman tild the plaines None mark'd out limits or a meer set forth But all in common then the liberall earth Without compulsion brought each kinde of grain He first black Serpents arm'd with deadly bane Commands stern Wolves to prey the Sea to swell From leaves shakes honey and did fire conceal To wine then rivers gave a stricter bound That severall arts by labour might be found And men in furrows seek the grain that fell And hidden fire from veins of flint compell Then Alder-boats first swomme then Mariners Gave names and told the number of the stars The Kids the Pleiades and the Northern Bear Then birds they catch with Lime and beasts in snare And with their dogs the mighty woods beset This strikes broad rivers with his casting net At sea his humid lines another drawes Then force of ir'n and blades of grating sawes For first they wedges to soft wood did use Then came strange arts fierce labor all subdues Inforc'd by bold Necessity and Want First Ceres mortals taught the earth to plant When mast and acorns sacred groves suppli d And Dodon's forrest nourishment denide Then was more sweat for corne lest mildews spoile The grain and thistles over-run the soyle The crop then failes destructive weeds appear Briers and burs suppress the golden ear Then hapless Darnell and wilde-oats command Unless with rakes thou daily break thy land Fright birds with noyse and cut the shadie bowes Of thy dark ground and call for rain with vowes Thou shalt in vaine see others store increase VVhen shaken okes thy hunger must appease The hardy Plowmans tooles we next must know Which wanting we can neither reap nor sow A heavie plow of crooked oke a share And with flow wheeles th' Elusine mothers carre Sledges and flailes rakes ponderous enough Fine osier baskets countrey housholdstuffe Hurdles and last Jaccus mystick Van All which if th' art a carefull husband-man Remember to provide if the divne Glorie of tillage thou intendest thine Soone in the woods with mighty labour bow An Elme and forme it to a crooked Plow To this a Tceme beneath of eight foot cut To th'double back two ears and Dentals put Of lofty Beech your Plowtaile but the yoak Let that be from the gentle Tyle tree tooke Which from behinde should the deep turnings guide And oke with hanging in the chimney tride Here many ancient rules I could declare Unlesse thou shun'st and scorn'st so mean a care With a great rowler first thy Barne flore lay Smooth'd with the hand confirm'd with binding clay Lest grass spring up or it should dustie grow Then many mischiefs chance for oft below The little Mouse her store hath and abode And the blinde Mole her bed in holes the toade Is found much vermine from the earth are borne The Weezel plunders the great heap of corne And the Ant fearing age and want to come Observe when first the nut begins to bloome Gracing the woods bending the fragrant tree If they exceed such thy increase shall be And with great heat a mighty harvest found But if with swelling leaves the shades abound Then thou shalt thrash a chassie stalk in vaine I have seene many to anoynt their grain VVith Nyter first then lees of oyse to spread That husks deceitfull should have larger seed Then with soft fire they swell the hasten'd graine Seed long pick'd I have seen and culd with pain And yet degenerate unless yearly we The largest choose All things by destiny So hasten to grow worse and backward goes As one against the stream his Vessel rowes VVho if by chance his arme a little slack The Bote in the swift channell hurries back They observations from the stars should make Mark rising Kids and note the glittering Snake As those who homewards through rough Pontus trade And straights of narrow Hellespont assaid VVhen Libra in just ballances shall weigh Darkness with Light and shadowes with the day Then exercise your steers and barely sow Till too extream the cruell winter grow Flax Poppie then cover with earth and plough VVhil'st the Clouds hang and thirsty grounds allow Beans sow in spring then clave grass rich earth takes And Millet then your annuall care awakes VVhen Taurus golden horns open the year And Syrius leaves to other stars the Sphear But if for wheat and stronger corne thy ground Thou exercise and but a crop propound First let the Easterne Pleiades goe down And the bright star of Ariadnes Crowne Commit dew-seed to furrowes then and here Trust earth with hope of the insuing year Would'st thou thy ground should vetch and Fessels bear Nor shalt despise AEgyptian Lentils care Bootes fall no obscure signe will shew Begin and sowing to mid-winter sow Wherefore the golden Sun in equall lines The great orbe governs through the worlds twelve signs Five Zones the heavens infold one still is beat With scorching beams torrid with mighty heat On either hand th' extreams extend their track bound still with cruell ice with tempests black Between the midst and these two more there are Which seats the Gods for mortals did prepare Through both of these a passage doth divide Through which the signs in oblique order glide As to Ryphaean hils the world ascends So to the South of Lybia down it bends To us the Pole is elevated still But Ghosts see them beneath and dismall hell Here in huge bendings glides the winding Snake And like a river doth Meanders make Through both the Bears incireling them about Who to be dipt in th' Oceans billows doubt Here as they say either is lasting night And gloomy shade for ever hindring light Or else from us to them Aurora speeds Ushering the day and when with panting steeds The Orient breathes on us there purple night Ascending adds late Tapers to the light Hence from no doubtful signs we Seasons know What time is best to Reap and when to Sow And when the faithless Sea we may again Row with tuff Oares when venture to the Main An armed Fleet or fell the lofty Pines Nor vain we
some shady wood To her first Lord Sichaeus she repaires Who answers all her love and meets her cares Aeneas no lesse strucken with these woes Follows with tears lamenting as he goes Thence on they passe to fields remote they went And Groves where souls renown'd in war frequent Valiant Parthenopus and Tydeus here With pale Adrastus shade did first appear Those much above lamented in a train He all those Dardans saw in battel slain Glaucus and Medon Thersilocus he moans Polybetes Ceres Priest Antenors sons Idaeus in 's chariot arm'd thick souls frequent Now on each hand nor i' st sufficient To see him once to tary they desire And walk with him his coming they inquire But the Greek Captains Agamemnon's bands Viewing the mans bright arms through shadie strands Shake with huge feare part as in times past fly To seek their ships part raise a feeble cry And the rais'd clamour in the utterance dies Here Priams son Deiphobus he spies Wounded all ore his mangled face appears His face and hands his head dispoil'd of ears With a dishonour'd wound his ravisht nose Him pale and dire wounds hiding scarce he knowes At last with known voice spake O valiant Deiphobus of Teucers high descent Whom could such cruel punishments delight Who had the power that last and woful night I heard that thou with Graecian slaughter tir'd Upon a heap of confus'd corps expir'd An empty tombe I on the Rhetian coast Have rear'd and thrice aloud implor'd thy Ghost There are thy arms and name but thee not found I could not bury friend in native ground Then he Nothing dear friend didst thou neglect All rites are paid my tombe thou didst erect But my own fates curst Helen me bereft Drown'd in these woes and she these monuments left For as thou knowst we past with false delight Never to be forgot that last sad night When through great Troy the fatal horse did come And pregnant with an army in his wombe She fain'd a dance and Phrygian dames in wild Orgies she led amidst a huge torch held And cals the Grecians from a battlement Tird with my cares and drowsie then I went To my unhappy bed where in calme rest I slept as with the charms of death possest Mean while my dear wife took my arms away And from my head did my good sword convay Opens the gates lets Menelaus in Hoping by this great act his love to win And past offences to extinguish thus They rush in to be brief with Ithacus Plotter of mischief heaven such Greeks repay If for revenge with pious lips I pray But tell what chance thee living hither sent Driven by storms or by the gods consent Or by what fortune brought that thou resorts To these dark places sad and dismal courts By this the morn in her bright chariot ran Betwixt the poles to heavens Meridian And th' whole time granted they had thus delaid But Sybil them advis d and briefly said Night hastes O Prince and houres in weeping glide This is the place where the two wayes divide the right which to great Pluto's Pallace bends T' Elizum leads the left to hell descends Where wicked men receive their punishment Deiphabus said great Priestesse be content I shall depart and fill in shades the list But go you on and better fates assist This said he takes his leave On his left side Aeneas then under a Rock espide A mighty fort surrounded with three wals Where Phlegeton with a swift current fals Of flaming waves rowling huge stones along The gates on adamatine pillars hung No strength of men of steel nor gods has power This to destroy high stands the brazen towre Girt in a bloody robe Tisiphone keeps The entrance night and day and never sleeps Hence cruel lashes sound and groaning pains Clashing of steel and ratling of huge chains Amaz'd Aeneas stands and frighted said What dreadful sights are these declare O maid What are these tortures whence these hideous cries Renowned Trojan Sybill then replies In this dire place none but the guilty are When Hecate left these dark groves to my care She shew'd me all their pains and lead each way Stern Gnossian Radamanth these realms doth sway Hears and corrects their crimes forcing to tell What they ' mongst mortals vainly did conceal Sins which at late death unrepented were Then fierce Tisiphone makes the guilty fear Shaking her whip from her left hand extends Her twisted snakes and cals the cruel friends On groning hinges then th' inchanted gates Are open'd straight seest thou what porter waits In th'entrance there what monster keeps the dore Hydra with fifty ugly jawes one more Cruell then this by far within doth dwell Whence two steepe wayes lead headlong down to hell So far it doth beneath earths surface lye As tall Olympus thrusts into the sky Here young Titanians are earths ancien race Struck down with thunder to the lowest place There saw I both th' â—â—lodies those vast Gyants who strove heavens fabricks to have raz'd And Jove t' have thrust from heavens high Monarchie And saw Salmonius in great tortures lie Whil'st he heavens fire and thunder imitates Brandishing flames and through the Grecian states Borne on fowre steeds proudly through Elis drives With fond pretence to heavens prerogatives Who did in imitable fire and raine With brasse and speed of horne hoof'd horses feign Then through the clouds from Jove almighty came A dart he sends no brands nor earthy flame And headlong him with inrag'd whitlwinds queld Th'all bearing earths son Tityus I beheld There whose vast corps did nine whole acres fill And a huge vulture with a hooked bill His bowels and immortall liver search'd Fresh food for pains and on 's breast tiering peach'd To his renewing veins allows no ease What need I mention both the Lapithes A black stone seems now falling on their heads Golden frames shine with high and geniall beds Before them cates with kingly luxuries But not far off the greatest furie lies Forbids to eat and rising from the ground Swings her black torch and makes a thundring sound Here those who living did their brothers hate Murther'd their sires to clients us'd deceit Or who alone brooding on riches lie Lending to none the greatest companie Who slain for lust who impious arms persu'd Nor fear'd the trust of Princes to delude Here meet their dooms Seek not these woes to sound Nor by what way fate did their souls confound These roll huge stones and stretch'd on wheels do lye There Theseus sits and shall eternally Aloud through shades sad Phlegyas warning cries Admonish'd justice learn nor Gods despise This to a potent Prince his country sold And laws enacted and repeal'd for gold This beds his daughter and no incest spar'd All dar'd strange crimes and thriv'd in what they dar'd Had I a hundred mouths as many tongues A voice of iron to these had brazen lungs Their crimes and tortures ne're could be displaid When Phoebus aged Priestesse thus had said Go on
the swelling vine Then Phyllis or Amyntas were mine own Or some love though I grant Amyntas brown Dark are the violets so the bilberrie Would mongst soft vines and sallowes rest with me Phyllis should wreath me flowres Amynâ—as sing Lycoris here are meads here the cool spring Thou far from home I wish it were not so Seest without me cold Rhine and Alpine snow May thee no bleak winds nor rough tempests meet Ah may no sharp ice wound thy tender feet I le goe and play in a Chalcidick straine My notes on reeds of a Sicilian Swaine Rather in Desarts I resolve to live And in the dens of savage beasts to grieve There on the tender barks to carve my love And as they grow so shall my hopes improve Meane while commixed with the Nymphs I le view Menalus or the cruel boar pursue Nor shall I be with hardest frosts withstood To set with dogs round the Parthenian wood Through murmuring Groves and rocks me thinks I goe Pleas'd to shoot arrowes from a Parthian bow As if this were a medicine for our love Or by mans sufferings Cupid milder prove Verses displease now Muses in disgrace And now again you shadie Groves give place Nor can our troubles work him to a change Should we drink Hebrus in midwinter range Amongst huge frosts and Scythian snow should we When on high elms the parch'd vines dying be The southern flocks under hot Cancer move Love conquers all let us give place to love Let this suffice your Poet to have said Whil'st he a basket of fine bulrush made Muses you shall great things for Gallus do Whose love to me as much doth hourely grow As the green Alder shooteth in the spring Let us arise shades oft hurt those who sing Juniper shades are to our fruit a foe The Evening comes goe home my fed Kids goe THE FIRST BOOK OF Virgil's GEORGICKS THE ARGUMENT What times are best to sow what natures are Of differing grounds what industrie and care What hurts the corne the Plowmans severall Rules Who musters up innumerable tooles Who first the world with th' art of tillage blest Summer and winter Swaines must take no rest Plowmen must learn the stars which frost and snow Fair and fowle weather rain and winds foreshew Clashing of Nobles tumults and of late Popular fury and great Caesars fate WHat makes rich grounds Mecaenas in what signs 'T is best to plow and marrie elms with vines What care of sheep with Cattel what agrees And how much skill belongs to frugall bees Now I shall sing You glorious Lights who bear In your swift motion round the sliding year Bacchus blest Ceres if from you we gain For poor Chaonian acorns golden graine And wine t' inrich our watery cups and you Fauns who to Swains your bounty still allow Together Fauns and virgin Dryades come Your gifts I sing and Neptune thou to whom Earth trident-struck brought forth a generous steed And woods protector thou whose snowie breed Three hundred graze on Caeas fertile grounds Pan the flocks guardian leaving native bounds And Lycian groves if Maenalus thou prize With Pallas come who th' Olive did devise And thou Inventor of the crooked Plow Silvanus bearing a soft Cypres bough All Gods our fields protect and those who feed The tender grain still cherishing our seed And who from skies on corne send plentious rain Thou Caesar whom what seat shall entertaine In Heaven's unknown whether thou take the care Of Realms and Cities or the world declare Thee Lord of fruit to whom the seasons bow And with thy mothers myrtle wreath thy brow Or rule vast waves alone thy Deitie Sea-men adore and farthest Thule obey Or Thetys with the Ocean purchas'd thee Or to slow moneths a new signe added be Whom Libra and Erigone may imbrace Whilst burning Scorpio shrinks to give thee place And doth his ampler part in heaven forsake What ere thou 'lt be let not the Stygian Lake Accept thee Lord nor have thou such desire Although the Greeks Elyzium fields admire Nor for her mother car d sought Proserpine Grant a free course and aid my bold design Pity the Ignorance of Swaines with me And to bâ— invok'd with prayers accustom'd be When the warme spring dissolves the mountains snowes And the fat soyle with West-winds softer growes Then let my steers at plow to groan begin And by the furrow my worne Coulter shine The greedie Husbandman likes best that mold Hath felt two summers and two winters cold That mans great harvest doth his Garners burst But ere thou break the unknown fallow first Observe the winds and mark heavens various face Old custome and the nature of the place What every soyle will bear and what refuse This corne that vines more kindly doth produce Here plants best thrive and there rank herbage growes Seest not how Safron Tmolus still bestowes India sends Ivorie sweet Sabea Gummes From the nak'd Chalybs steel from Pontus comes The Bever stone from Epire Mares for race For nature hath impos'd on every place Eternall Laws since first Deucalion hurl'd Stones to repair the populated world Whence men a hard race sprung Therefore goe on And thy rich soyl with the first warming sun Let thy strong Oxen turn when Phoebus makes Long dayes and humid clods with ardor bakes If poor thy soyl before Arcturus rise To break a shallow furrow will suffice Here lest the corn should harme from weeds receive There lest small moysture barren akers leave And let thy furrow lie each year untill'd And to grow hard with rest thy worne-out field Or where in season thou didst barely sow And pleasant pulse with dangling cods didst mow Where brittle stalks of wofull Lupins stood Or slender Veches like a whispering wood The field flax otes and sleepy Poppie burns But easie is the labour made by turns Nor a drie soyle with rich marle spare to feed And uncleans'd ashes on poor grounds to spread So with chang'd seed Swains rest give to the fields And Land left fallow no less profit yields From burning sterile plains oft plentie comes And brittle stubble crackling fire consumes Whether from this new force and nourishment The Earth receives or else all venome spent By fire and forth superfluous moysture sweat Or many dark hid breathings lax'd by heat By which fresh sap the springing corne sustaines Or more condens'd it bindes the gaping veines Lest soaking showrs or Sols more potent beame Or Boreas piercing cold should wither them And much he helps his field who barren mould Breaks harrowes then nor Ceres doth behold That Husband-man from the high heaven in vain And who the gleab athwhart runs ore again Turning his plow and crossing breaks the soyle Making the field obedient with his toyle Swaines pray for winters faire and summers wet Winter dust joyes the earth and glads the wheat Not Maesia then shall harvests boast like these Nor Phrygian hils admire their own increase What shall I say of those have sow'd their land Then