Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 3.djvu/354

828 make the Garden at Denham-Court, of Sir William's own Plantation, one of the most delicious Spots of Ground in England: It contains not above Five Acres, (just the compass of Alcinous his Garden, describ'd in the Odysses:) But Virgil says in this very Georgic, Laudato ingentia Rura; Exiguum colito.

Georgic 3d. Line the 45th. Next him, Niphates with inverted Urn, &c. It has been objected to me, that I understood not this Passage of Virgil, because I call Niphates a River, which is a Mountain in Arme­nia. But the River arising from the same Mountain is also called Ni­phates. And having spoken of Nile before, I might reasonably think, that Virgil rather meant to couple two Rivers, than a River and a Mountain.

Line 224. The Male has done, &c. The transition is obscure in Vir­gil. He began with Cows, then proceeds to treat of Horses: Now returns to Cows.

Line 476. Till the new Ram receives th' Exalted Sun. Astrologers tell us, that the Sun receives his Exaltation in the Sign Aries: Virgil per­fectly understood both Astronomy and Astrology.

Georgic 4. Line 27. That when the Youthful Prince. My most Inge­nious Friend Sir Henry Shere, has observ'd through a Glass-Hive, that the Young Prince of the Bees, or Heir presumptive of the Crown, ap­proaches the King's Apartment with great Reverence; and for three successive Mornings demands Permission, to lead forth a Colony of that Year's Bees. If his Petition be granted, which he seems to make by humble