-Solus Hyperboreas glacies, Tanaïmque nivalem, Arvaque Riphæis nunquam viduata pruinis 518 Lustrabat: raptam Eurydicen, atque irrita Ditis Dona querens: spreto Ciconum quo munere ma tres, 520 Inter sacra Deûm, nocturnique orgia Bacchi, Discerptum latos juvenem sparsêre per agros. Tum quoque marmoreâ caput à cervice revulsum, Gurgite cum medio portans Eagrius Hebrus (517) With the Hyperboreæ glacies which are carried into the beds of the rivers from the Andes, the limbs of Orpheus or, in other words, the ferruginous sands from the volcanoes are scattered over the face of the country, discerptum per agros; and his head (the sands from the tops of the mountains) torn from his icy (marmorea) neck, is still calling upon the name of Eurydice, inasmuch as the descent of those sands from the tops of the mountains is accompanied by the bellowings from the mouths of their volcanoes. (524) This line alludes to the egg-like shape Volveret, Eurydicen vox ipsa et frigida lingua, 525 Ah miseram Eurydicen, anima fugiente, vocabat: Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripæ. Hæc Proteus: et se jactu dedit æquor in altum; Quâque dedit, spumantem undam sub vertice torsit. 531 At non Cyrene: namque ultro affata timentem; "Nate, licet tristes animo deponere curas. Hæc omnis morbi causa: hinc miserabile Nymphæ, Cum quibus illa choros lucis agitabat in altis, Exitium misère apibus. Tu munera supplex 534 of the country encircled by the river Oronooko, particularly pointed at in a former note. (528) Proteus accompanying his instructions with the action of throwing himself into the water is one more indication of the utility of bathing in the streams on which the bark tree grows. (534) Though there can be little doubt that in the former part of this episode, the poet, under the image of bees, has treated of the human race, yet there seems to be as little reason to doubt that henceforth he is to be considered as having Tende petens pacem, at faciles venerare Napœas. Namque dabunt veniam votis, irasque remittent. in view those little bees or flies which produce the gum-lac, and which were particularly mentioned in the note on Melibæus, in the mask of Comus. Under a supposition of this last sort of bees becoming extinct, he in a poetical or enigmatical manner, describes the country where they are found, and thus points to the means by which a new race of them, as it were, may be produced. Thus the words supplex, veniam, votis, and orandi, point to the term supplication or pity, and thereby to the town of Pteï, one of the bestknown towns on the river Ava, and petens in the same sentence approaches stil! more nearly to the With respect to the choosing four bulls and four heifers (541), I apprehend that by the former is meaned an intimation that the space within which the little bees that produce the gum lac are found, occupies about four degrees square of a branch of Mount Taurus, and that by the latter there is an allusion to the heads same name. Sed, modus orandi qui sit, prius ordine dicam. (the smaller rivers forming the horns of the heifers) of the four rivers of Ava, Pegu, Siam, and Laos, all which have their sources within those four degrees, as may be seen by the map; that by nona Aurora, (544), an allusion is intended to the town of Shunnin, in the center of the district in question; by jugulis (542) to the little creeses or daggers, one of the distinctive marks of its inhabitants, as before observed, and which gave name to Sabrina, or Sabre-ina, in Comus; by Lethæa papavera (515), to the opium in so much request there; and finally by the words Lycæa (539) by luco and by desere (544) placatam (546) lucum (547), and liquefacta (555), there are oblique allusions to the gum lac nominatim; as by arbore and uvam (558), there are to the tree-like form of the river Ava, on the banks of which, it seems to be mainly found. 545 Quatuor his aras alta ad delubra Deorum 550 |