Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/39

 reason to question its being genuine, as the late French Editor does; its meanness, in comparison of Virgil's other Works, (which is that Writers only Objection) confutes himself: For Martial, who certainly saw the true Copy, speaks of it with contempt; and yet that Pastoral equals, at least, the address to the Dauphin which is prefix'd to the late Edition. Octavius, to unbend his mind from application to publick business, took frequent turns to Baiæ, and Sicily; where he compos'd his Poem call'd Sicelides, which Virgil seems to allude to, in the Pastoral beginning Sicelides Musæ; this gave him opportunity of refreshing that Prince's Memory of him, and about that time he wrote his Ætna. Soon after he seems to have made a Voyage to Athens, and at his return presented his Ceiris, a more elaborate Piece, to the Noble and Eloquent Messala. The forementioned Author groundlesly taxes this as supposititious: For besides other Critical marks, there are no less than Fifty, or Sixty Verses, alter'd