IDYL IX. THE SHEPHERD. ARGUMENT. The herdsman Daphnis and the shepherd Menalcas are invited by a shepherd to sing for his gratification. After they have complied with his request, he rewards Daphnis with a crook, and Menalcas with a conch. He then favours them with a stave of his own, in honour of the Muses. 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, 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. Nor sleep is sweeter; nor to bees on wing I |