The works of Virgil

Front matter

Qass-Iilfe ?? 7 Book All ) 3

/?73

Jtrvc

Book I

Vbh admirable Poem was undertaken at the particular request of that great patron of poetry, Maecenas, to whom it is dedicated, and has justly been esteemed the most perfect and finished of Virgil's works. Of the Four Books of which it consists, the First treats of ploughing and preparing the ground ; the Second, of sowing and planting ; the Third, of the manage* ment of cattle, &c. ; and the Fourth gives an account of bees, and of the manner of keeping them among the Romans.

What makes the harvests joyous ; under what sign, Maecenas, it is proper to turn the earth and join the vines to elms ; what is the care for kine, the nurture for breeding sheep ; l and how much experience for managing the frugal bees ; hence will I begin to sing. Ye brightest lights 2 of the world, that lead the year gliding along the sky ; Bacchus and fostering Ceres, if by your gift mortals exchanged the Chaonian acorn for fattening ears of corn, and mingled draughts of Achelous 3 with the invented juice of the grape ; and ye Fauns propitious to swains, ye Fauns and Virgin Dryads, advance your foot in tune : your bounteous gifts I sing. And thou, O Neptune, to whom the earth, struck with thy mighty trident, first poured forth the neighing steed ; and thou, tenant of the groves, for whom three hundred snow-white bullocks crop Csea's 4 fertile

1 Pecori. Pecus here, as opposed to boves, signifies the lesser cattle, as sheep and goats, but especially sheep ; as the word, I think, always signifies in Virgil when it stands by itself. See Eel. i. 75; iii. 1, 20, 34; y. 87. Georg. ii. 371.

2 Vos, 6. clarissima mundi, &c. Varro, in his seventh book of Agriculture, invocates the sun and moon, then Bacchus and Ceres, as Virgil does here : which sufficiently confutes those who take the words, vos, 6 clarissima lumina, to be meant of Bacchus and Ceres.

3 Achelous, (Aspro Potamo,) a river of Epirus in Greece, r said by some to have been the first river that sprung from the earth after the deluge ; hence it was frequently put by the ancients, as it is here, for water. Davidson. Servius observes, " Acheloum generaliter, propter antiquitatetn fluminis, omnem aquam veteres vocabant." B.

4 Caea, (Zea,) an island in the Archipelago, one of the Cyclades.

b. l 1S-4S, GEORGICS. 33

thickets : thou too, Pan, guardian of the sheep, Tegeaean 5 god, if thy own Maenalus be thy care, draw nigh propitious, leaving thy native grove, and the dells of Lycaeus : and thou Minerva, inventress of the olive ; and thou, O boy, teacher of the crooked plough ; and thou, Sylvanus, bearing a tender cypress plucked up by the root : both gods and goddesses all, whose province it is to guard the fields ; both ye who nourish the infant fruits from no seed, and ye who on the sown fruits send down the abundant shower from heaven.

And thou too, Caesar, whom it is yet uncertain what councils of the gods are soon to have ; whether thou wilt vouchsafe to visit cities, and [undertake] the care of countries, and the widely extended globe receive thee, giver of the fruits, and ruler of the seasons, binding thy temples with thy mother's myrtle : or whether thou comest, god of the unmeasured ocean, and mariners worship thy divinity alone ; whether remotest Thule 6 is to be subject to thee, and Tethys 7 to purchase thee for her son-in-law with all her waves ; or whether thou wilt join thyself to the slow months, a new constellation, where space lies open between Erigone and the [Scorpion's] pursuing claws: the fiery Scorpion himself already contracts his arms and leaves for thee more than an equal proportion of the sky. Whatever thou wilt be, (for let not Tartarus 8 expect thee for its king, nor let such dire lust of sway once be thine ; though Greece admires her Elysian fields, and Proserpine, 9 redemanded, is not inclined to follow her mother,) grant me an easy course, and favour my adventurous enterprise ; and pitying with me the swains who are strangers to their way, commence [the god], and accustom thyself even now to be invoked by prayers. «

In early spring, when melted snows glide down from the

5 Tegesean god. Pan is so called, from Tegea, a town of Arcadia, in Greece, which was sacred to him.

6 Thule, an island in the most northern parts of the German Ocean, to which the ancients gave the epithet of Ultima. Some suppose that it is the island of Iceland, or part of Greenland, while others imagine it to be the Shetland Isles.

7 Tethys, the chief of the sea-deities, was the wife of Oceanus. The v ord is often used by the poets to express the sea.

8 Tartarus, the infernal regions, where, according to the ancients, the most impious and guilty among mankind were punished.

9 Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, and wife of Pluto, who stole hei away as she was gathering flowers in the plains of Enna in Sicil v.

D hoary bills, and the crumbling glebe unbinds itself by the zephyr ; then let my steer begin to groan under the deep-pressed plough, and the share worn by the furrow [begin] to glitter. That field at last answers the wishes of the covetous farmer, which twice hath felt the sun, twice the cold, 10 harvests immense are wont to burst his barns. * But, before we cleave an unknown plain with the ploughshare, let it be our care previously to learn the winds, and various character of the climate, the ways of culture practised by our forefathers, and the tillage and habits of the soil ; what each country is apt to produce, and what to refuse. Here grain, there grapes, more happily grow ; nurseries of trees elsewhere, and herbs spontaneous bloom. Do not you see, how Tmolus u sends saffron odours, India ivory, the soft Sabseans their frankincense ? But the naked 12 Chalybes [send] steel, Pontus strong-scented castor, Epirus 13 the prime of the Olympic mares. These laws and eternal conditions nature from the beginning imposed on certain places : what time Deucalion first cast stones into the unpeopled world, whence men, a hardy race, sprang up. Come then, let your sturdy steers forthwith turn up a soil that is rich for the first month of the year ; and let the dusty summer bake the scattered clods with mature suns. But, if the land be not fertile, it will be

10 Anthon observes, " The usual custom of the Roman farmers was to plough the land three times, when it fell under the denomination of hard land. The first ploughing was in the spring, the second in the summer, the third in autumn (tertiabatur, Colum. ii. 4). In this way the ground was exposed twice to the heat of the sun, and once to the frost. If, however, the soil was unusually hard and stubborn, a fourth ploughing took place at the end of autumn or beginning of winter; and it is to such a process that the poet here alludes, the land having thus, in the course of its four upturnings with the plough, twice felt the sun and twice the cold."

11 Tmolus, a mountain of Lydia, in Asia Minor, abounding in vines, saffron, &c. Sabaeans, the inhabitants of Saba, a town of Arabia, famous for frankincense, myrrh, and aromatic plants. Chalybes, a people of Pontus, in Asia Minor ; their country abounded in iron mines.

12 If "nudi" be correct, Virgil must speak of the Chalys only as lightly clad, (leviter vestiti,) as in his direction to husbandmen " to plough and sow naked." But although this would be a very proper way of speaking among people acquainted with this limitation of meaning, yet it seems scarcely an apt epithet for a barbarian tribe, dwelling in a cold region. Some years since, I proposed to read " duri." See the supplement to my notes on Apul. de Deo Socr. B.

11 Epirus, (Albania,) a country of Greece, famous for its fine breed of horses.

b. i. 68-06. GEORGICS. oO

enough to raise it up^vith a light furrow, even towards the rising of Arcturus : M in the former case, lest weeds obstruct the joyous corn ; in the latter, lest the scanty moisture forsake the barren sandy soil.

You will likewise suffer your lands after reaping to lie fallow every other year, and the exhausted field to harden by repose. Or, changing the season, you will sow there yellow wheat, whence before you have taken up the joyful pulse, with rustling pods, or the vetch's slender offspring and the bitter lupine's brittle stalks, and rustling grove. For a crop of flax burns 15 the land: as burn the oats and poppies impregnated with Lethean sleep. 16 But yet your labour will be easy [even though you should sow these kinds of grain] every other year, provided only you be not backward to saturate the parched soil with rich dung, or to scatter sordid ashes upon the exhausted lands : thus, too, your land will rest by changing the grain. Nor, in the mean time, will there be ungratefulness.

Often, too, it has been of use to set fire to barren lands, and burn the light stubble in crackling flames : whether the land thence receives secret strength and rich nourishment from a field left fallow ; or whether every vicious quality is exhaled by the fire and the superfluous moisture sweats off; or whether the heat opens more passages, and secret pores, through which the sap may come to the tender blades ; or whether it hardens more, and binds the gaping veins ; that the small showers, or keen influence of the violent sun, or penetrating cold of Boreas, may not parch it up.

He, too, greatly benefits the land, who breaks the sluggish clods with harrows, and drags osier hurdles over them, (nor does yellow Ceres view him from high Olympus, 17 to no

14 Arcturus, a star near the tail of Ursa Major, whose rising and setting was supposed to portend great tempests. In the time of Virgil, it rose about the middle of September.

15 i. e. exhausts. Virgil does not forbid the sowing of flax and poppies, but explains that, from their exhausting nature, they are bad crops in rotation after wheat. So Anthon. B .

16 Lethsean sleep. Lethe was one of the rivers of hell, whose waters had the power of causing forgetfulness.

17 Olympus, a lofty mountain on the confines of Thessaly and Macedonia, separated from Ossa by the vale of Tempe. The ancients supposed that it touched the heavens with its top, and on that account the poets made it the residence of the gods.

purpose,) and he also who, after the plain has been torn, again breaks through the land ; that raises up its ridges, turning the plough across, 18 and gives it, frequent exercise and rules his lands imperiously.

Pray, ye swains, for moist summers and serene winters. In winter's dust most joyful is the corn, joyful is the field. On no culture does Mysia 19 so much pride herself, and [hence] even G-argarus admires his own harvest.

What shall I say of him, who, immediately after sowing the seed, presses on the lands, and levels the heaps of barren sand ; then on the sown corn drives the stream and ductile rills ? and when the field is scorched with raging heat, the herbs all dying, lo ! from the brow of a hilly tract he decoys the torrent; which falling down the smooth rocks, awakes the hoarse murmur, and with gurgling streams allays the thirsty lands.

What of him who, lest the stalk with over-loaded ears bend to the ground, feeds down the luxuriance of the crop in the tender blade, when first the springing corn equals the furrows ; and who drains from soaking sand the collected moisture of the marsh, chiefly when, in the changeable months, the swelling river overflows, and overspreads all around with slimy mud, whence the hollow dykes sweat with tepid vapour ?

After all, (when the labours of men and oxen have tried these expedients in cultivating the ground,) the voracious goose, the Strymonian 20 cranes, and succory with its bitter roots, and even the shades are in some degree injurious. The Sire himself willed the ways of tillage not to be easy, and first aroused the fields by art, whetting the skill of mortals with care ; nor suffered he his reign to lie inactive in heavy sloth. Before Jove, no husbandmen subdued the fields ; nor was it even lawful to mark out, or by limits divide the ground. They made all things common gain, and earth of herself produced every thing freely without any one asking. He infused the noxious poison into the horrid serpent, commanded the wolves to prowl, and the sea to be stirred ; and he shook the

18 A description of " cross-ploughing." B.

19 Mysia, a country of Asia Minor, bordering on Troas. Gargarus. a mountain, or rather a part of Mount Ida, in Troas.

20 Strymonian cranes. Strymon, a river of Macedonia, the ancient boundary between that eoantry and Thrace.

honey from the leaves, removed fire, and restrained the wine that ran commonly in rivulets ; that experience, by dint of thought, might gradually hammer out the various arts, in furrows seek the blade of corn, and from the veins of flint strike out the hidden fire. Then first the rivers felt the excavated alders ; then the seamen gave the stars their numbers and their names, the Pleiades, 21 Hyades, and the bright bear of Lycaon. Then were invented [the arts of] catching wild beasts in toils, deceiving with birdlime, and encompassing the spacious lawns with hounds. And now one seeking the depths, lashes the broad river with his casting-net ; and on the sea another drags his humid lines along. Then [arose] the rigid force of steel, and the flat blade of the grating saw (for the first mortals cleft the splitting wood with wedges) ; then various arts ensued. Incessant labour and want, in hardships pressing, surmounted every obstacle. Ceres first taught mortals with steel to turn the ground : when now the acorns and arbutes of the sacred wood failed, and Dodona 22 refused sustenance. Soon too was distress inflicted on the corn ; when noxious mildew eat the stalks, and the lazy thistle shot up its horrid spikes in the field. The crops of corn die ; a prickly wood succeeds, burs and caltrops, and, amidst the shining fields, unhappy darnel and barren wild oats bear sway. But unless you both vex the ground by continual harrowings, fright away the birds with a noise, and with the pruning-knife restrain the shades of the shaded field, and by prayers call down the showers ; alas, [while thy labour proves] in vain, thou wilt view another's ample store, and in the woods solace thy hunger by shaking [acorns] from the oak.

We must also describe what are the instruments used by the hardy swains ; without which the crops could neither be sown nor spring. First, the share, and the heavy timber of the curved plough, and the slow-rolling wains of the Eleusinian mother, Ceres, and sledges and drags, and harrows of unwieldy weight ;

21 Pleiades, a name given to the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, made a constellation in the heavens. Hyades, the five daughters of Atlas, who were also changed into stars, and placed in the constellation Taurus. Bear of Lycaon. Calisto, the daughter of Lycaon, was changed by Juno into a bear, but Jupiter made her the constellation Ursa Major.

22 Dodona, an ancient city of Epirus, in Greece, where was a sacred grove, with a celebrated oracle and temple of Jupiter.

besides the mean osier furniture of Celeus, 23 arbute hurdles, and the mystic fan of Bacchus ; all which, with mindful care, you will provide long before-hand, if glory of a blissful country duly awaits thee. In the first place, 24 in the woods an elm bent with vast force is subdued into the plough tail, and receives the form of the crooked plough. To this, at the lower end, are fitted a beam extended to eight feet, two earth-boards, and share-beams with a double back. The light linden also is felled before-hand for the yoke, and the tall beech, and the plough-staff, to turn the bottom of the carriage behind ; and the smoke seasons 25 the timber hung up in the chimneys.

I can recite to you many precepts of the ancients, unless you decline them, and think it not worth while to learn these trifling cares. The threshing-floor chiefly must be levelled with the huge roller, and wrought with the hand, and consolidated with binding chalk, that weeds may not spring up, and that overpowered with drought it may not chap. Then various pests baffle us ; often the diminutive mouse has built its cell, and made its granaries ; or the moles, deprived of sight, have dug their lodges under ground ; and in the cavities has the toad been found, and vermin which the earth produces in abundance ; the weevil plunders vast heaps of corn, and the ant, fearful of helpless old age.

Observe also, when the almond 26 shall clothe itself abundantly with blossom in the woods, and bend its fragrant boughs : if the rising fruit abound, in like quantity the corn will follow, and a great threshing with great heat will ensue. But, if the shady boughs abound with luxuriance of leaves, in vain the floor shall bruise the stalks, fertile only in chaff.

I have indeed seen many sowers artificially prepare their seeds, and steep them first in saltpetre and black lees of oil,

23 Celeus, a king of Eleusis, was the father of Triptolemus, whom Ceres instructed in husbandry.

24 The order is, u ulmus flexa in silvis magna vi domatur in burim, et accipit formam curvi aratri." Anthon.

25 Literally, " explores," " searches," i. e. to see if there be any chinks. B.

26 The term mix is employed by the Roman writers in an extended sense, to denote the almond, the walnut, the hazel-nut tree, &c. Most commonly, however, an epithet is added, to make the meaning more de- 5nite ; thus, mixjuglans, " the walnut; " nux amygdala, " the almond ;" xux avellana, " the hazel-nut or filbert," &c. Anthon.

that the produce might be larger in the fallacious pods. And though, being hastened, they were soaked over a slow fire, selected long, and proved with much labour, yet have I seen them degenerate, unless human industry with the hand culled out the largest every year. Thus all things, by destiny, hasten to decay, 27 and gliding away, insensibly are driven backward ; not otherwise than he who rows his skiff with much ado against the stream, if by chance he slackens his arms, and the tide hurries him headlong down the river.

Further, the stars of Arcturus, and the days of the Kids, and the shining Dragon, must be as much observed by us, as by those who, homeward borne across the main, attempt the [Euxine] Sea, 2S and the straits of oyster-breeding Abydos.

When Libra makes the hours of day and night equal, and now divides the globe in the middle between light and shades, work your steers, ye swains, sow barley in the fields, till toward the last shower of the inclement winter solstice. Then too is the time to hide in the ground a crop of flax, and the poppy of Ceres, and high time to ply your harrows ; while the ground yet dry, you may, while the clouds are yet suspendsd.

In the spring is the sowing of beans : then thee too, O Medic plant ! 30 the rotten furrows receive, and millet comes, an annual care, when the bright Bull with gilded horns opens the year, and the Dog sets, giving way to the backward star. But if you labour the ground for a wheat-harvest and sturdy grain, and are bent on bearded ears alone ; let the Pleiades in the morning be set, and let the Gnosian star 31 of [Ariadne's] blazing Crown depart, before you commit to the furrows the

27 The infinitive is used absolutely to signify what is wont to happen. B.

28 The Euxine (or Black) Sea is situated between Europe and Asia, and communicates with the Mediterranean by the Sea of Marmora and the Dardanelles.

29 Abydos, a city of Asia Minor, on the Hellespont, (Dardanelles,) opposite to Sestos, in Thrace ; famous for the bridge of beats which Xerxes made there across the Hellespont, when he invaded Greece ; and for the loves of Hero and Leander.

30 Medic plant, a species of trefoil, so called, because introduced from Media into Greece.

31 Gnosian star, &c, Ariadne's crown, consisting of seven stars, so called from Gnosus, a city of Crete, where Minos, the father of Ariadne, reigned. Maia, one of the Pleiades. Boutes, a constellation near the Ursa Major, or Great Bearseed designed, and before you hasten to trust to the unwilling earth the hopes of the year. Many have begun before the setting of Maia ; but the expected crop hath mocked them with empty ears. But if you are to sow vetches, and cheap kidney beans, nor despise the care of the Egyptian lentil ; setting Bootes will afford thee signs not obscure. Begin, and extend thy sowing to the middle of the frosts.

For this purpose, the golden sun, through the twelve constellations of the world, rules the globe measured out into certain portions. Five zones embrace the heavens ; whereof one is ever glowing with the bright sun, and scorched for ever by his fire ; round which two furthest ones to the right and left are extended, stiff with cerulean ice and horrid showers. Between these and the middle zones, two by the bounty of the gods are given to weak mortals ; and a path is cut through both, where the series of the signs might revolve obliquely. As the world rises high towards Scythia and Riphasan 32 hills ; so sloping downward it is depressed towards the south winds of Libya. 33 The one pole to us is always elevated ; but the other, under our feet, is seen by gloomy Styx 34 and the ghosts below. 35 Here, after the manner of a river, the huge Dragon glides away with tortuous windings, around and through between the Bears ; the Bears that fear to be dipped in the ocean. There, as they report, either dead night for ever reigns in silence, and, outspread, wraps all things up in darkness ; or else Aurora 36 returns thither from us, and brings them back the day : and when the rising sun first breathes on us with panting steeds, there ruddy Vesper lights up his late illuminations.

Hence we are able to foreknow the seasons, in the dubious sky, hence the days of harvest, and the time of sowing ; and when it is proper to sweep the faithless sea with oars, when to launch the armed fleets, or to fell the pine in the woods in

32 Ripheean hills, in the north of Scythia, near the rivers Tanais and Rha.

33 Libya, an extensive country of Africa, lying between Egypt and the Syrtis Major ; by the ancients it was often applied to Africa in generaL.

34 Styx, one of the rivers of hell, round which it was said to flow nine times. The gods held the waters of the Styx in such veneration, that they always swore by them ; an oath which was inviolable.

35 So "profunda Juno," for Proserpine, in Claudian, de Vap. i. 2. B. 3 * Aurora, the goddess of the morning. Vesper, the evening star ; often

used for the evening, as Aurora is for the morning.

season. Nor in vain do we study the setting? and the risings of the signs, and the year equally divided into four different seasons.

If at any time a bleak shower confines the husbandman, then is his time to do many things in season, which, as soon as the sky is serene, would have to be done with expedition. 37 The ploughman sharpens the hard edge of the blunted share, scoops little boats from trees, or stamps the mark on the sheep, or the number on his sacks. Others sharpen stakes and two-horned forks, and prepare Amerine [osier] bands 38 for the limber vine. Now let the pliant basket of bramble f twigs be woven ; now parch your grain over the fire, now '• grind it with the stone : for even on holy-days, divine and human laws permit to perform some works. No religion iiath forbidden to clear the channels, to raise a fence before the corn, to lay snares for birds, to fire the thorns, and plunge in the wholesome river a flock of bleating sheep. Often the driver of the sluggish ass loads his ribs with oil, or common apples ; and, in his return from the town, brings back an indented mill-stone, or a mass of black pitch.

The moon too hath allotted days auspicious to works, some in one order, some in another. Shun the fifth : [on this] pale Pluto 39 and the Furies were born. Then at an unholy birth the earth brought forth Coeus, 40 Iapetus, and savage Typhosus, and the brothers who conspired to tear down the skies. For thrice did they essay to pile Ossa 41 upon Pelion, and to roll woody Olympus upon Ossa : thrice the Sire, with his thun-

37 So this line appears to be explained by Nonius Marc. i. p. 512, and Macrob. Sat. vi. 3. " Maturare" at times is nearly identical with " properare." B.

38 Amerine bands, from Ameria, a city of Umbria, in Italy, which abounded in osiers.

39 Pluto, in ancient mythology, was the son of Saturn and Ops, and brother to Jupiter and Neptune ; in the division of his father's empire, the kingdom of Hell was allotted to him.

40 Coeus, Iapetus, &c, famous giants, sons of Ccelus and Terra, who, according to the poets, made war against the gods ; but Jupiter at last put them to flight with his thunderbolts, and crushed them under Mount ^Etna, in Sicily.

41 Ossa, Pelion, &c, celebrated mountains of Thessaly, in Greece, which the giants, in their war against the gods, were feigned to have heaped on each other, that they might with more facility scale the walls of heaven.

tier, overthrew the piled-up mountains. The seventh, next to the tenth, is lucky both to plant the vine, and break the oxen caught, and to add the woof to the warp : the ninth is better for flight, adverse to thefts. 42 Many works too have succeeded better in the cool night ; or when morning sprinkles the earth with the rising sun. By night the light stubble, by night the parched meadows, are better 43 shorn: the clammy dews fail not by night. And some by the late fires of the winter light, watch all night, and with the sharp steel point torches. Meanwhile, his spouse, cheering by song her tedious labour, runs over the webs with the shrill shuttle ; or over the fire boils down the liquor of the luscious must, and skims with leaves the tide of the trembling caldron.

But reddening Ceres is cut down in noontide heat ; and in noontide heat the floor thrashes out the parched grain. Plough naked, 44 sow naked : winter is an inactive time for the hind. In the cold weather the farmers mostly enjoy the fruit of their labour, and, rejoicing with one another, provide mutual entertainments : the genial winter invites them, and relaxes their cares ; as when weather-beaten ships have reached the port, and the joyous mariners have planted garlands on the sterns. But it then is the time both to strip the mast of oak, and the bay-berries, the olive, and the bloody myrtle-berries ; then to set springes for cranes, and nets for stags, and to pursue the long-eared hares ; and whirling the hempen thongs of the Balearian 45 sling, to pierce the does, when the snow lies deep, when the rivers hurtle down the ice.

Why should I speak of the storms 46 and constellations of autumn ? and what must be guarded against by swains when the day is now shorter, and the summer milder ? or when the

42 Anthon remarks, " The ninth day would be favourable for the runaway, since the moon would then be of sufficient age to give a good light, and help him on his way. For this very reason, on the other hand, it would be unfavourable for the thief, who prefers darkness/' Voss. ad loc.

43 I think the harmony of this verse will be increased by transposing, thus, " Nocte leves stipulae melius," as it is quoted by Jul. Rufin. Schem. Lex. 6. p. 31, ed. Ruhnk. B.

44 i. e. in thin attire. B.

45 Balearian sling, from the Baleares ; a name given to the islands of Majorca and Minorca, in the Mediterranean, because the inhabitants were expert slingers.

46 Nonius, i. s. v. tempestas, limits the sense of this word to " turbc ventorum," I think, scarcely with reason. B.

showery spring pours down, the spiky harvest bristles in the fields, and the milky corn swells in the green stalk ? Oft have I seen, when the farmer had just brought the reaper into the yellow fields, and was binding up the barley with the brittle straw, all the battles of the winds engage, which far and wide tore up the full-loaded corn from the lowest roots, and tossed it up: just so, with blackening whirlwind, a wintry storm would drive light straw and flying stubble. Often also an immense march of waters gathers in the sky, and clouds, collected from on high, brew thick an ugly storm of black showers : the lofty sky pours down, and with storms of rain sweeps away the joyful corn, and toils of steers : the ditches are filled, and the hollow rivers 47 swell with roaring, and in the steaming friths the sea boils. The Sire himself, amidst a night of clouds, launches the thunders with his flaming right hand : with the violence of which mighty earth trembles ; the beasts are fled, and through the nations lowly fear hath sunk the hearts of men. He with his flaming bolts strikes down or Athos, 48 or Rhodope, or high Ceraunia: 49 the south winds redouble, and «the shower is more and more condensed ; now woods, now shores, moan 'neath the mighty blast.