Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/231

Rh We may I think read the Poet's Clime in his Description, for he seems to have been in a sweat at the Writing of it.

O Quis me gelidis sub Montibus Hæmi Sistat, & ingenti ramorum protegat umbrâ!

And is every where mentioning among his chief Pleasures, the coolness of his Shades and Rivers, Vales and Grottos, which a more Northern Poet wou'd have omitted for the description of a Sunny Hill, and Fire-side.

The Third Georgic seems to be the most labour'd of 'em all; there is a wonderful Vigour and Spirit in the description of the Horse and Chariot-Race. The force of Love is represented in Noble Instances, and very Sublime Expressions. The Scythian Winter-piece appears so very cold and bleak to the Eye, that a Man can scarce look on it without shivering. The Murrain at the end has all the expressiveness that words can give. It was here that the Poet strain'd hard to out-do Lucretius in the description of his Plague; and if the Reader wou'd see what success he had, he may find it at large in Scaliger.

But Virgil seems no where so well pleas'd, as when he is got among his Bees in the Fourth