PASTORAL I. OR, TITYRUS AND MELIBUS. ARGUMENT. The occasion of the first pastoral was this. When Augustus had settled himself in the Roman empire, that he might reward his veteran troops for their past service, he distributed among them all the lands that lay about Cremona and Mantua; turning out the right owners for having sided with his enemies. Virgil was a sufferer among the rest; who afterwards recovered his estate by Mecenas's intercession, and, as an instance of his gratitude, composed the following pastoral, where he sets out his own good fortune in the person of Tityrus, and the calamities of his Mantuan neighbours in the character of Melibus. MELIBEUS. BENEATH the shade which beechen boughs diffuse, You, Tityrus, entertain your silvan muse. Round the wide world in banishment we roam, Forc'd from our pleasing fields and native home; TITYRUS. These blessings, friend, a deity bestow'd; He gave me kine to graze the flow'ry plain, 10 MELIBUS. I envy not your fortune but admire, 15 20 My loss, by dire portents the gods foretold; For, had I not been blind, I might have seen:-- Yon riven oak, the fairest of the green, And the hoarse raven, on the blasted bough, By croaking from the left, presaged the coming blow, TITYRUS. Fool that I was, I thought imperial Rome 30 25 But country towns, compar'd with her, appear MELIBUS. What great occasion call'd you hence to Rome! TITYRUS. Freedom, which came at length, tho' slow to come. Till my black hairs were chang'd upon my chin; Nor Amaryllis would vouchsafe a look, Till Galatea's meaner bonds I broke. 35 40 Till then a helpless, hopeless, homely swain, I sought not freedom, nor aspired to gain: Though many a victim from my folds was bought, 45 Yet all the little that I got, I spent, And still returned as empty as I went. MELIBUS. We stood amaz'd to see your mistress mourn, TITYRUS. What should I do?-While here I was enchain'd 50 55 There first the youth of heavenly birth I view'd, 60 My grounds to be restor❜d, my former flocks to feed. MELIBUS. O fortunate old man! whose farm remains→→→ For you sufficient-and requites your pains; Your teeming ewes shall no strange meadows try, 70 Is fraught with flow'rs, the flow'rs are fraught with bees While, from the neighb'ring rock, with rural songs, 75 |