DISCOVERY 



209 



" does not suit the description of scenery in Vergil's 

 Eclogues." Now taken by itself this criticism is like 

 saying that the description of scenery in Shakespeare's 

 plays does not " suit " the neighbourhood of Stratford- 

 on-Avon. The Eclogues are essentially dramatic ; 

 and to criticise their author because the scenery which 

 they mention appears to you different from the 

 scenery of a particular part of a particular country, 

 is just about as helpful as it would be to criticise 

 Macbeth because he did not meet the 

 witches on the banks of the Avon, or 

 Hamlet because his father's ghost did not 

 appear (say) on the battlements of Kenil- 

 worth Castle ! It is obvious that we must 

 inquire what is the background implied 

 in each separate Eclogue before we can 

 judge whether it is or is not consistent. 

 In the Second Eclogue, for example, the 

 speaker expressly declares that he has " a 

 thousand sheep wandering on Sicilian 

 mountains " ; therefore they must be in 

 Sicily ; therefore it seems hardly worth 

 while to complain that they are not in 

 Mantua ! The scene of the Eighth Eclogue 

 is wholly Greek ; the Sixth and the Tenth 

 follow Vergil's friend Gallus over the whole 

 poetical world, taking, so to speak, snap- 

 shots of Gallus 's poetry, now in Arcadia, 

 now in Thrace, now in Crete, and now in 

 the unknown region where Pyrrha [and 

 Deucalion threw the stones from which, 

 according to the fable, mankind was re- 

 created after all but they had perished in 

 the Deluge. And finally we have the 

 Fourth Eclogue, which sets out to prophesy 

 a new world and ascribes to it aU the riches 

 of every known land. It is clear, therefore, 

 that in these five Eclogues the question of 

 local scenery simply does not arise.' 



But what the critics, no doubt, do mean 

 is this : that in the Eclogues where refer- 

 ence is definitely made to North Italian 

 conditions, for instance in the First, they have been 

 unable to discover any points of scenery which they 

 can identify with what they have seen in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Mantua. How far they have explored 

 the region of Mantua they do not say. 



The Local Eclogues 



Of the other five the First and the Ninth tell us, in 

 poetical fashion, how Vergil came to lose his farm. 



' The reader will perhaps notice that the numbers of these 

 non-local Eclogues are all even (2, 4, 6, 8, 10), This cannot 

 be an accident ; Vergil, in his silent way. has chosen from his 

 early poems five with a local setting and five in other scenes, 

 and arranged them alternately. 



These two we shall have to examine carefully. The 

 local references in the other three (Third, Fifth, and 

 Seventh) are obvious, for example, in the Seventh, 

 the mention of the River Mincius (which flows round 

 Mantua), and in the Third, of the statesman Pollio, 

 governor of Cisalpine Gaul at the time. The Fifth has 

 been shown to be an allegorical lament for the death 

 of Julius Caesar ; and one of the persons in it, by name 

 Menalcas. claims to be the author of the Second and 



800-1000 metres 

 Above \000 „ 

 Fig. I.— BATHYGRAPHIC MAP OF MANTUAN DISTRICT. 



Third. The question, then, which concerns us is whether 

 it is true that the scenery described in these five 

 Eclogues is unlike anything to be found in the region 

 of Mantua. If this is true, Vergil has made a sad 

 mess ; and this is what some of his critics seem to 

 take particular pleasure in supposing. Let us see 

 whether they are right. 



Why did Vergil lose h's Farm ? 



Save for the mention in the Third of streams 

 closed by sluices, and the frequent mention in all the 

 five of hiUs, and of nooks in the hills for shelter from 

 the heat, we need not here consider anything but the 



