Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/40

 and polish'd, which he inserted in the Pastorals, according to his fashion: and from thence they were called Eclogues, or Select Bucolics: We thought fit to use a Title more intelligible, the reason of the other being ceas'd; and we are supported by Virgil's own authority, who expresly calls them Carmina Pastorum. The French Editor is again mistaken, in asserting, that the Ceiris is borrow'd from the Ninth of Ovid's Metamorphosis; he might have more reasonably conjectur'd it, to be taken from Parthenius, the Greek Poet, from whom Ovid borrow'd a great part of his Work. But it is indeed taken from neither, but from that Learn'd, unfortunate Poet Apollonius Rhodius, to whom Virgil is more indebted, than to any other Greek Writer, excepting Homer. The Reader will be satisfied of this, if he consult that Author in his own Language, for the Translation is a great deal more obscure than the Original.

Whilst Virgil thus enjoy'd the sweets of a Learn'd Privacy, the Troubles of Italy Rh