230 SYLVA BOOK iv 



Virgil, Gratius, Ovid, Horace, Claudian, Statius, 

 Silius, and others of later times, especially the divine 

 Petrarch : (for Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus] 

 were I minded to swell this charming subject, beyond 

 the limits of a chapter : I think only to take notice, 

 that theatrical representations, such as were those of 

 the Ionian call'd Andria ; the scenes of Pastorals, 

 and the like innocent rural entertainments, were of 

 old adorned and trimm'd up e ramis & frondibus, cum 

 racemis & corymbis, and frequently represented in 

 groves, as the learned Scaliger shews : And here the 

 most beloved and coy mistress of 1 Apollo rooted; and 

 the noblest raptures have been conceiv'd in the walks 

 and 2 shades of trees, and poets have composed verses 

 which have animated men to heroic and glorious 

 actions ; here orators (as we shewed) have made their 

 panegyrics, historians grave relations, and the profound 

 philosophers loved here to pass their lives in repose 



and contemplation ; and the frugal repasts 



mollesque sub arbore somni, were the natural and chast 

 delights of our fore-fathers, so sweetly describ'd by 

 Papinius, 



Subter opaca quies vacuusque silentia servat 

 Horror, (5? exclusae pallet mala lucis imago 



Nee caret umbra Deo 



Arboribus suus horror inest, quin ipse sacerdos 

 Accessus Dominumque timet deprehendere luci. 



12. Nor were groves thus only frequented by the 

 great scholars, and the great wits, but by the greatest 

 statesmen and politicians also : Thence that of Cicero 

 speaking of Plato, with Clinias and Megillus, who 



1 Poetice, lib. i. cap. 21. 



8 See Wower. de Umbra, cap. 26. Bisciola Horae subcis. cap. 9. 



