206 
Bic noétem ludo ducunt, &c. If. 379. 
By xodtem, fays Heyne, Virgil means 
the whole year ; in fupport of which he- 
xefers to fome lines in the beginning of the 
defcription, in which winter ts faid to 
reign perpetually in thele climates. But 
though this poetical exaggeration, and 
fome other circumitances, fhew that the 
writer had but aconfuled notion of the 
remote northern climates, and only meant 
to form a firiking picture from a few re- 
markable circumfances that he~ had 
heard, vet I think he could not have 
yeally confounded their winter-life with 
their whole year; fince it was manifeitly 
impofiible that they fhould poffels flocks 
and herds, and provide for their futte- 
nance, if they paffed all their time in {ports 
and jollity under ground. Nox muf 
mean the great night occafioned by the 
abfence of the fun, it Virgil was acquaint- 
ed with that circumftance ; or elfe, the 
jong nights of winter. 
Szpe etiam curfu timidos agitabis onagros. 
Ill. 409. 
If Virgil named the onager, meaning 
by it the wild afs of the fouthern cli- 
mates, an animal unknown in Italy, 
mereiy that his language might be ** doc- 
tior,”’ I will not fcruple to call it very ab- 
furd: it is fomuch fo, that Ican fcarcely 
help fufpefting that he had fome other 
meaning inthe word. 
“Yeu dorfo nemoris. I. 436. 
Dorfum, Heyne fays, belongs properly 
to mountains, and is only transferred to 
evoods as being planted onthem. But the 
image under which it is applied to a 
mountain, that of a ridge or fpine, has no 
relation to the grove. It muit be another 
ufe of the word, like that by which we 
fay the back tor the biad-part of any 
thing. 
os. aut praeceps Neptunoimmerferit Eurus. 
IV. 29. 
This is the way, cries Heyne, of mak- 
ing {mall things great! I think, how- 
ever, if Lucan or Statius had put Neptu- 
mus for a puddle, it would have been 
called ridiculous bombafi. So huge a 
diiproportion between the thizg and the 
name, only makes littlenefs more confpi- 
cuous by the contratt. Sterne’s French 
JSrifeur talks of immerging a periwig in 
the ocean ! 
Spiramiesta linunt. EV. 39. 
Spiramenta are certainly wot the fame 
ewith the anguffes adifas of L 35, as 
Objervations on the Notes to Heyne’s Virgil. 
(April ty 
Heyne thinks, but the chizks left in the 
wicker or cork of the beehive. 
Spiculaque exatuunt roitris, 
IV. 740 
I cannot conceive the propriety of firk 
fuppofing fpicula rofiris to mean fpicula 
rofirorum, aod then dropping the proper 
meaning of rofrum, and interpreting 
the whole to fignify merely, ** they whet 
their ftings.” Why may not the plain 
fenfe be admitted, ‘* they whet. their 
ftings with their beaks”’ ? 
fEftatem increpitans feram zephyrofque mo- 
rantes. IV. 138. 
Heyne takes increpitans to Gignify, that 
the old gardener having reared his early 
flowers in {pite of the rigour of the fea- 
fon, feemed, as it were, to chide the delay 
of ipring, by his diligence. I thould ra- 
ther fuppofe that it meant fimply, ‘*chid- 
ing the delay of fine weather,” through 
his impatience to begin other work ; 
without any reference <o his plucking the 
flowers, as connected with that chiding.— 
It is to be obferved, that the common edi- 
tions read in the preceding line acantht, 
not syacinthi, and as this is an evergreen, 
it does not at all imply that he was able to 
anticipate the warm weather. 
Ille etiam feras in verfum diftulit ulmos, 
Eduramque piram, & fpinos jam pruna fe- 
rentes, = 
Jamque miniftrantem platanum potantibus 
umbras. 1V. 144. 
Heyne, upon mature confideration, re- 
jets Martin’s idea of this paffage, viz. 
that Virgil meant to deferibe the {kill of 
the Corycian in tranfplanting full grocux 
trees ; but, I think, without good reafon. 
For though the epithets feras and eduram 
be allowed to be equivocal, I fee not how 
the meaning of jam twice repeated (zow 
bearing and mow fupplving, Sc.) can be 
fet afide. ; 
Bis gravidos cogunt fetus, duoc tempora mefits. 
IV. 231. 
Nothing, I think, can be more forced 
than Heyne’s explanation of .“ cogunf 
gravidos fétus’—** they compel or drive 
the bees from their cells full of honey, 
that they may take it away." Cogo could 
never be ufed in this fenfe without another 
word to dire&t its meaning. It muft 
therefore, I think, be employed in its 
fenfe of gathering or colleGing ; or elfe of 
thickening or comprefing ; and relates to 
the /oney, either as acted upon by the bees 
keeper ox the bees themfelves. 
(Fo be continued.) bis 
Far’ 
ze 
