IDYL IX. THE SHEPHERD. SHEPHERD. DAPHNIS! begin the pastoral song for me; Meanwhile the calves the mother-cows put under, DAPHNIS. "Sweet low the cow and calf-the tones are sweet, The pipe, the cowherd and myself repeat. My couch is by cool water, and is strown With skins of milk-white heifers; them threw down, While they cropt arbutus, the south-west wind From the bluff crag. There stretched, no more I mind The scorching summer than a loving pair Their parents sage, who bid them each beware!'" Thus Daphnis sweetly sung at my request; Menalcas next his dulcet tones exprest. MENALCAS. "Etna! my mother! in the hollow rock Of many yearlings and of many sheep, Fagots of beech. I have no more concern For walnuts, whose old dame his pap prepares." SHEPHERD. Both I applauded, and made gifts to both, A crook to Daphnis-the spontaneous growth Of my own father's field, yet turned so well, Fed on its flesh-I snared it from a shelf Hail, pastoral Muses! and the song declare, Which then I chaunted for that friendly pair. "On your tongue's tip may pustules never grow, For speaking falsely what for false you know! Cicale the cicale loves; and ant loves ant; Hawk, hawk; and me the muse and song enchant. Of this my house be full! nor sudden spring, Nor sleep is sweeter; nor to bees on wing The bloom of flowers more dear delight diffuses, IDYL X. THE REAPERS. ARGUMENT. Two reapers are the speakers in this Idyl. Battus is reproved by Milon for his sluggishness in his work; whereupon he confesses that he is enamoured of a certain singing-girl. Milon jeers him, and invites him to sing that he may forget his love. Battus complies, and praises his beloved; at the conclusion of his song, the other rustic repeats some matter-of-fact proverbial sentences; and concludes with a taunt on the romantic folly of the love-sick Battus. |