With me you shall imitate Mecum una in sylvis imitabere Pana canendo. Pan himself in playing on a pipe in the woods. Pan primus calamos cera conjungere plures Ruæus also agrees with Servius, being induced by the authority of Scaliger, who in a note on a passage of Varro affirms, that the ancient shepherds used to purge their cattle with marsh-mallow. Dryden seems to understand it in the same sense; and from their cotes With me to drive a-field the browsing goats. But La Cerda thinks viridi hibisco is the ablative case, being the instrument with which the kids are to be driven. In this he is followed by Dr. Trapp; 66 66 66 To drive the kids a-field With a green wand. 66 66 66 Pan first taught to join several reeds together with wax: plain; compellere, drive them "with a wand of hibiscus. It is only a metonymia materiæ, continually used not only in poetry, "but in common discourse. Besides, Virgil no where mentions "this hibiscus, whatever it be, as "food for cattle: that baskets are "made of it, he informs us in the last Eclogue; the only place, except this, in which he mentions "it. Or if it does here mean such food, I should take it thus, com 66 The hibiscus or ibiscus is generally allowed to be the same with the althæa, on the authority of Dioscorides, who says, "The al"thea, which some call ibiscus, is 66 a sort of wild mallow, with "round leaves, like those of cy"clamen, and woolly. The flower "is like a rose, the stalk two cubits high, and the root is white on the "inside. It is called althea on 66 This learned gentleman has so well vindicated the latter interpretation, that I shall take leave to insert his whole note: That is, say some "commentators, compellere ad vi"ridem hibiscum. Drive them to "it, that they may feed upon it. "To justify this, they allege that "of Virgil in the Eneis, It cla66 mor cælo for ad cælum, to which "they might have added that above, "in this very Eclogue, Montibus account of its many virtues :" jactabat. But those expressions ̓Αλθαία, ἔνιοι δὲ ἰβίσκον καλοῦσι μαλάχης may be softened. In the former, ἐστὶν ἀγρίας εἴδος· φύλλα περιφερῆ ὥσπερ " Calo quasi in calo; which is κυκλάμινος, ἔγχνοα· ἔχει δὲ ἄνθος ῥοδο “ much the same with per calum: ειδές· καυλὸν δίπηκεν ῥίζαν δὲ γλίσχρον "and that again, with regard to λευκὴν ἔνδοθεν· Ωνόμασται δὲ ἀλθαία διὰ "the different parts of the air, or τὸ πολυαλθὲς καὶ πολύχρηστον αὐτῆς. sky, supposes ad. In the latter, Palladius also has althææ, hoc "est, ibisci folia et radices.' jactabat includes dixit, which really governs a dative case. But it is not certain, either that hibiscus "this we are now upon is utterly is the same with althæa, or that the unnatural, and ungrammatical. althea of the ancients is the very "I am therefore clearly of opinion same plant that we now call marsh"with those who take hibiscus (and mallow. Pliny expressly says, the "that it may be so taken De La ibiscus is a sort of parsnip, being "Cerda shews) for a large plant or more slender; Hibiscum a pasti"little tree, out of which wands 46 દે But naca gracilitate distat, damnatum "in cibis, sed medicinæ utile:" H Pan takes care of the sheep, Instituit: Pan curat oves, oviumque magistros. and of the masters of the sheep. 66 66 and again, "Pastinacæ simile hi"biscum, quod molochen agrian "vocant." The same author speaks of the althea in another place, and makes it a sort of mallow, with a large leaf, and a white root: "In magnis laudibus Malva est utraque, et sativa et sylvestris. Duo genera earum, amplitudine folii "discernuntur. Majorem Græci Malopem vocant in sativis. Alteram ab emolliendo ventre, dictam putant Malachan. E sylvestribus, cui grande folium et radices "albæ, Althea vocatur, ab excel"lentia effectus a quibusdam Aris"talthea." Theophrastus is often quoted, as speaking of the hibiscus, which I believe must have been taken from the Latin translation, in which aλtaía is rendered ibiscus by Gaza, for I cannot find it any where in the original. He says the althea has a leaf like mallow, but larger, and more woolly, a yellow flower, and a fruit like mallow : Ἔχει δὲ ἡ ἀλθαία Φύλλον μὲν ὅμοιον τῇ μαλάχη πλὴν μείζον καὶ δασύτερον· τοὺς δὲ καυλοὺς μαλακούς· ἄνθος δὲ μήλινον, καρπὸν δὲ olov μaráxy. But neither this description, nor that which was quoted from Discorides, agrees with our marsh-mallow. For the leaves are not round, as Dioscorides describes it, nor is the flower yellow, as we find in Theophrastus. Some indeed pretend to read λavov instead of μήλινον: but though μέλας and niger are used for several red flowers, yet I believe pale flowers, such as those of the marsh-mallow, are never so called. Others think the abutilon is the andaia; but the flower of the abutilon has not the appearance of a rose, which it ought to have, according to Dioscorides, nor has it the fruit of the mallow, according to Theophrastus. Therefore I will not affirm any thing positively concerning either the althæa or the hibiscus; nor will I venture to differ from those learned men, who take them to be one plant, and the same with our marsh-mallow. But this I may dare say, that Scaliger had no authority to affirm, that the ancient husbandmen purged their cattle with marsh-mallows; of which I do not find the least hint in any of the writers on agriculture. Therefore I agree with those, who think it means here only a little switch, to drive the kids. 31. Mecum una, &c.] Burman observes, that this line is wanting in one copy; and that in another it is Meque una, which makes the sense to be, You shall drive the flock, and at the same time imitate Pan in singing me, or rather, you shall imitate me in singing Pan. But he thinks the common reading is as good. "You Imitabere Pana canendo.] "shall play on the pipe with me, "after the example of a deity. "For Pan is the God of the coun 66 try, formed after the similitude "of nature. Hence he is called 66 Pan, that is, Universal: for he "has horns in likeness of the rays "of the sun, and of the horns of "the moon: his face is red, in "imitation of the ather: he has "on his breast a starry nebris, or "spotted skin, to represent the "stars: his lower part is rough, for "the trees, shrubs, and wild beasts: "he has goats' feet, to shew the solidity of the earth: he has a 66 pipe of seven reeds, because of "the celestial harmony, in which "there are seven sounds, as we "have observed on ver. 646. of the "sixth Eneid, Septem discrimina vocum: he has a crook, because |