Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/196

56

Gallus a great Patron of Virgil, and an excellent Poet, was very deeply in Love with one Citheris, whom he calls Lycoris''; and who had forsaken him for the Company of a Soldier. The Poet therefore supposes his Friend Gallus retir'd in his heighth of Melancholy into the Solitudes of Arcadia (the celebrated Scene of Pastorals;) where he represents him in a very languishing Condition, with all the Rural Deities about him, pitying his hard Usage, and condoling his Misfortune.''

HY sacred Succour, Arethusa, bring, To crown my Labour: 'tis the last I sing. Which proud Lycoris may with Pity view; The Muse is mournful, tho' the Numbers few. Refuse me not a Verse, to Grief and Gallus due. So may thy Silver Streams beneath the Tide, Unmix'd with briny Seas, securely glide.