VIRGIL AND OVID. 23 



'volucnimraucarum/ 'raucus' meaning 'hoarse/ 'harsh/ 

 1 jailing/ ' unpleasant ? ' 



Again, Sir, in tlie following passage : - 



Haud secus atque alto in luco cum forte catervae 

 CoDsedere avium ; piscosove amne Padusae 

 Dant sonitum rauci per stagna loquacia cycni. 



The word * rauci ' appears again, and now actually as the 

 descriptive adjective to the substantive 'cycni/ I recollect, 

 however, one passage, which perhaps will he lugged in 

 head and shoulders against me, if I do not first point out 

 that it is nothing to the purpose. It is this : - 



Namque ferunt luctu Cycnum Phaethontis amati, 

 Populeas inter frondes umbramque sororuin 

 Dum cauit, et moestum musa solatur amorem. 



Here Cycnus certainly sings, hut ' Cycnus ' is not a swan ; 

 he is a youth who was turned into a swan, because he 

 mourned when Jupiter capsized Phaethon, and soused him 

 in the Po, and turned his sisters into poplar trees, as the 

 sequel of the above quotation shows, and as is most ably 

 set forth in the following beautiful lines of Ovid : - 



Adfuit huic monstro proles Stheneleia Cycnus, 

 Qui tibi materno quamvis a sanguine juuctus, 

 Mente tamen, Phaethon, proprior fuit. Ille, relicto 

 (Nam Ligurum populos, et magnas rexerat urbes) 

 Imperio, ripas virides, amnemque querelis 

 Eridanum implerat, silvamque sororibus auctam : 

 Cum vox est tenuata viro : canaeque capillos 

 Dissimulant plumae : collumque a pectore longum 

 Porrigitur, digitosque ligat junctura rubentes: 

 Penna latus vestit: tenet os sine acumine rostrum : 

 Fit nova Cycnus avis. Nee se coeloque, Jovique 

 Credit, ut injuste inissi memor ignis ab illo. 

 Stagna petit, patulosque lacus : ignemque perosus, 

 Qua3 colat, elegit contraria flumina flammos. 



