VIRGIL AND OVID. 
23 
S'oluciTim raucariim/ — 'raiicus' meaning 'lioarse/ 'harsh/ 
' jarring/ ' unpleasant ? ' 
Again, Sir, in the following passage : — 
Haud secus atque alto in luco ciim forte catervse 
Consedere avium ; piscosove amne Padusae 
Dant sonitura 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 Pliaethontis amati, 
Populeas inter frondes umbramque sororum 
Dum canit, et moestum musa solatur araorem. 
Here Cycnus certainly sings, but ' 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 junctus, 
Mente tamen, Phaethon, proprior fuit. Ille, relicto 
(Nam Ligurum populos, et raagnas rexerat urbes) 
Imperio, ripas virides, amnemque querelis 
Eridanum implerat, silvamque sororibus auctam : 
Cum vox est tenuata viro : canaeque capillos 
Dissimulant plumse : collumque a pectore longum 
Porrigitur, digitosque ligat junctura rubentes : 
Penna latus vestit; tenet os sine acumine rostrum : 
Fit nova Cycnus avis. Nec se coeloque, Jovique 
Credit, ut injuste missi memor ignis ab illo. 
Stagna petit, patulosque lacus : ignemque perosus, 
Quod colat, elegit contraria flumina flammos. 
