Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 3.djvu/355

Rh ; the Swarm arises under his Conduct: If the An­swer be, le Roy s'avisera, that is, if the Old Monarch think it not con­venient for the Publick Good, to part with so many of his Subjects; the next Morning the Prince is found dead, before the Threshold of the Palace.

Line 477. The Poet here records the Names of Fifty River Nymphs. And for once I have Translated them all. But in the Æneis I thought not my self oblig'd to be so exact; for in naming many Men who were kill'd by Heroes, I have omitted some, which would not sound in English Verse.

Line 660. The Episode of Orpheus and Eurydice begins here. And contains the only Machine which Virgil uses in the Georgics. I have observ'd in the Epistle before the Æneis, that our Author seldom em­ploys Machines but to adorn his Poem: And that the Action which they seemingly perform, is really produc'd without them. Of this Na­ture is the Legend of the Bees restor'd by Miracle; when the Receipt which the Poet gives, would do the Work without one. The only Beautiful Machine which I remember in the Modern Poets, is in Ari­osto. Where God commands St. Michael to take care, that Paris then Besieg'd by the Saracens, should be succour'd by Rinaldo. In order to this, he enjoins the Arch-Angel to find Silence and Discord. The first to Conduct the Christian Army to relieve the Town, with so much secrecy, that their March should not be discover'd; the latter to enter the Camp of the Infidels, and there to sow Dissention among the