12 THE IDYL IX CLASSIC LITEHATCBK. 



ture,^ aud his idyls have ever been the model to which all later- 

 authors are obliged to return, like the works of Homer and Phi- 

 dias, unsurpassed, perhaps unattainable. Three qualities espe- 

 cially mark the work of Theocritus: power of depicting genuine 

 emotion and passion, love for nature, and the ability to give to 

 his characters the backgromid that most harmoniously blends 

 with their disposition and state of feeling. 



In the next century Bion and Moschus^ followed in the foot- 

 steps of Theocritus. But we appreciate keenly the greatness of 

 Theocritus as soon as we compare his work with that of his suc- 

 cessors. For with all their grace and skill, there appears already 

 in them, especially in their treatment of love, a tendency towai'ds 

 sentimentality and trifling, towards rhetorical ornamentation, 

 which became so prominent characteristics of later pastoral 

 poetry. The idyl was on its way to Yergil. 



The eminently practical Romans had a less keen sense for 

 poetry per se than the Greeks, and with all their love for outdoor 

 life,* they saw nothing in pastoral life to arouse 

 The Idyl in their admiration or to celebrate in song. Only 



Latin Litera- when the shepherds became the mask for promi- 

 tuTe. Vergil. nent personages did this added spice make the idyl 

 acceptable to the palate of literary Rome. This 

 allegory and personal allusion, which in Theocritus had been mere 

 episode,' became rule and aim in Yergil"s eclogTies.^ The shep- 



1 Fritzsche-Hiller"s Theuciitus. p. 1, 11. 



2 So in Idyl II. Simaetha endeavoring to reconquer her lover by magic, does it 

 under the moonlit sky, some distance from toivu and within the sound of the sea. 

 Cf. also Idyls m., VIIL, etc, 



3 See Fritzsche-Hiller's Theocritus, p. 2.3. 



4 This, as well as their practical tendency, is witnessed by their rich literature 

 on agriculture. 



3 In Idyl VII. Theocritus refers to himself; in XIV. to Ptolemy. 



6 Cf. Les Oeuvres de Virgile par E. Benoist (Paris 1867). p. LIII; also 

 Fritzsche-Hiller's Theocritus, p. 2-3. Also History of Rom. Lit. by Teuft'el and 

 Schwabe, A'ol. I., p. 130. In the very first eclogue Vergil, under the mask of 

 Tityrus, praises Augustus for restoring his land to him; in III., VI., X. he praises 

 and flatters his patrons, and so on. 



