GORGO. Look here, Praxinoe! Mark that fine embroidery ! Of more than mortal fingers. PRAXINOE. What weaver could have made this stuff? Mark'd out so gloriously those forms? Great Minerva ! What limner What nature Well! well! Oh how beautiful And truth they stand and move withal! I swear There's life there and no needle work. The youthful God lies on his silver bed! Dearest Adonis! Look kindly on. Thee the very shades SECOND MAN. Nay, hold your clacking, gossips! A pair of chattering pies! I can't abide GORGO. Heyday, man! Who made thee our task-master? Magpies are we? Catch us, then, if you'd cage us! PRAXINOE. Well answer'd, sweet-heart! we'll not be brow-beaten. I wish the rogue may not prove mischievous. GORGO. Hush! hush! Praxinoe! for the Grecian girl The dirge of Sperchis. She'll do wonders, - hark! A sweet, ingenious ditty! Let me tell thee, With a rare wit, and what she doth invent 493 THE EXILE'S LAMENT. IMITATED FROM THE FIRST ECLOGUE OF VIRGIL. [Boston Miscellany, September, 1842.] AFTER the close of the civil wars, which ended in the acknowledgment of Augustus as Emperor of Rome, the territory of several of the Italian cities was confiscated, and distributed in lots among his disbanded soldiers. Among these cities was Cremona, and the territory not having held out as well as was expected, a portion of that of the neighboring city of Mantua was taken sans cérémonie to make up the deficiency. Hence, the well known verse in another Eclogue, Mantua, væ miseræ nimium vicina Cremona! Among the occupants of the Mantuan territory thus invaded was the poet Virgil; but on his personal application to Augustus for redress, his property was restored to him and secured in his possession. These incidents form the subject of the poet's first and best eclogue, in which he introduces himself in the character of a shepherd under the name of Tityrus; describes his journey to Rome for the purpose of laying his case before the emperor; expresses his gratitude for the protection afforded him, and condoles with his neighbor Melibæus, who laments very bitterly the necessity of quitting his paternal property. The personage of Melibœus is rather more prominent than the other, and suggested the title, which has been prefixed to the imitation. CHARACTERS. FIRST SHEPHERD, called in the original, MELIBEUS. SECOND SHEPHERD, TITY RUs. The former having quitted his cottage on his way into exile, accompanied by his flock, passes the house of his neighbor representing the Poet, whom he finds reclining under a beech-tree, and holds the following dialogue with him. First Shepherd. While you, my friend! beneath your beech-tree laid, And make the woods resound with your Aminta's praise; We, hapless exiles, forc'd afar to roam, Leave our lov'd fields and all the joys of home. Second Shepherd. Oh Melibœus! sure a god bestow'd The blessing on me; he shall be a god Shall often bleed some tender lamb of mine, First Shepherd. Oh, blest with all a shepherd need desire! Your happy fortune, thus to hold your ground For this the lightning struck so many an oak; On yon old holm-tree: signs, that might have taught. A child, had I, dull fool, but mark'd them as I ought. No more of this, nor let my selfishness By such complaints your faithful heart distress |