98 NOTES AND 



erasly, much more hard and toilsome than that of shepherds, and presents to the 

 fancy much less agreeable images. Flocks, and trees, and flowers, are objects of 

 greater beauty, and more generally relished by men, than fishes and marine pro- 

 ductions." This may be true to a certain extent ; but it does not follow that a 

 description of the simplicity, activity, and variety of piscatory life, has not its 

 charms and attractions, as well ae a delineation of the tranqurlity and composure 

 of the pastoral state. It is well known that those who devote themselves to the 

 sports of the waters, and the active pursuits of the fisherman and seaman, cannot 

 be induced to change their destination ; and surely poetical representations, cal- 

 culated to recall to the memory scenes of such delight, and to awaken the mind 

 to their contemplation, are worthy of the best efforts of genius, and deserving of 

 the highest encomiums of taste and just criticism. Sannazarius wrote five eclogue?. 

 The third now published is called Mopsus, and has a considerable resemblance 

 to Virgil's Palaemon. It is a conversation in which four speakers take their part. 

 Their names are Celadon, Mopsus, Chromis, and lolas. The contending fisher- 

 men extol the charms of their mistresses, Chloris and Nisa, as the most lovely 

 and excellent of their sex. At last Mopsus decides that both have acquitted 

 themselves well, and rewards one with a speckled shell, and the other with a 

 branch of coral. 



The, third Piscatory Eclogue of Sannazarius. 

 ARGUMENT. 



Tlie sctne of this eclogue is in the island of Inarime, called also Pithecusa 

 and JEnaria, lying westward of Misenum and southwest from the city of Na 

 pies. Prochytes or Prochyta is a smaller island, situated between the former 

 and the beforementioned head-land. 



The speakers in the poem are inhabitants of these islands. At least Chro- 

 mis, one of the contending lovers, seems to be a native of ^Enaria ; and lolas 

 his competitor, appears to reside upon Prochytes. 



The Lucrine lake or pond was not far from Bauli. This was the place to 

 which the fishing party was driven by the southern storm. Bauli stands west 

 of Naples, upon the continent, near Bain:, on the shore of the Tyrrhene bay, 

 or Sinus Tyrrhenus. 



Parthenope is a village a little beyond the river Sebethos, east of Naples. 



Mopsus after his return to luarime, informs Celadon wliat occurrences hat 3 , 

 befallen tbe party at Bauli 



