[Page 28] (^b) Staphylus the son of Sithneus, and chiefe Shepheard to Oeneus king of Aetolia, had obserued that one of his goates did often in feeding separat it selfe from the rest of the flocke, and by that feeding was growne fatter and better in liking than all the rest. He upon a day resolved to watch this goate, and found it feeding on a cluster of grapes: he gathered some of the grapes, & wondring at the novel­tie and rarenesse of the fruit, presented it to the King his Master. The King tasted it, and wondrously pleased, and cheared with the juice of it, began to esteeme it of great value; insomuch as not long after it so happened, that the great Bacchus returning from his Indian conquests, was entertained at the court of this Oeneus; who presented to Bacchus his new-found fruit. Bacchus, who before had learned the use of it, instructed the king [Page 29] how to continue the race, and the maner how to dresse, and perfect his vines; and ordained withall that the wine in the Greeke language should be called [...], in honour of Oeneus, and the grape [...], after the name of Sta­phylus the kings shepheard.

(^c) These Faunt are accounted the coun­try Gods, and are thought alwaies to inhabite in the woods. The first of them was Faunus king of the Aborigines, the son of Picus, & grandchilde of Saturne, who first reduced the inhabitants of Italy to a ciuill life: hee built houses, and consecrated woods; in ho­nour of so great a merit as this, he was by his thankefull posterity (as the custome was of those times) consecrated a god, and his ora­cle with great devotion kept in Abbunea an Italian wood. Of his name all Temples were afterwards called Fanes; hee married his [Page 30] sister Fauna, whom the Romans in after times honoured with great deuotion, and cal­led her Bona; Shee gaue Oracles to the wo­men, as her husband Faunus did unto the men.

(^d) The Fable is thus; When the famous City of Athens was founded, and Neptune and Minerva were in great contention who should have the honour of naming the place, it pleased the gods to appoint it thus, that the honour should accrew to that deity, who could bestow the greatest benefit upon mankinde. Vpon which sentence Neptune with his tri­dent striking the shore, immediately a furious horse provided, and armed for the war, was created by that stroke: Minerva casting her javelin from her, of that javelin produced an Olive tree; which being a fruitfull and good plant, and the embleme of peace, was iudged [Page 31] more usefull and profiable to mankinde. The cause why our Author invoketh Neptune in this place, is, because hee intendeth to speake of horses in the third Booke of this Worke. Which had beene else unfit in a discourse con­cerning affaires of Land to have invoked a god of the Sea.

(^c) Aristaeus, who is here invoked was re­ported the son of Apollo, and the Nymph Cyrene: This Aristaeus the father of Actae­on, who transformed into a stag (as Ovid's fable delivers it) was devoured by his doggs, grieved for his sons death, departed from Thebes to the Iland Caea, which was then de­stitute of inhabitants by reason of a pestilence which had there happened: This Caea is an I­land in the Aegaean sea; from whence hee sailed into Arcadia, & there ended the residue of his life. In Arcadia hee was honoured [Page 32] as a god after his death for teaching the people that strange mysterie of making Bees.

(^f) This youth here named the invent [...]r of the Plow, is by most thought to be Osiris the King, and afterwards god of the Aegyp­tians. He was the first that ever taught the Aegyptians his country-men the use of Oxen for p [...]owing of their ground. He was honou­red by them as a god after his death for this great benefit; and worshipped in the forme of an Ox [...], which was called Apis, in the City of Memphis. And in memory of this also Isis the wife of that Osiris was honoured as a goddesse, and had solemne sacrifices, in which an care of corne was carryed before the pompe, and all plowmen in harvest time sacri­fied to her with the straw of wheat.

(^g) The history of the birth, life, and deity of this god Sylvanus is thus reported; A shep­heard, [Page 33] whose name was Cratis, abused to his lust ash [...]e-Goat of his flocke: and when up­on a time Cratis was sleeping by a river [...] side; that hee-Goat, which used the compa­ny of the shee-Goat, in a jealous fury, assaul­ted Cratis with his hornes, and tumbled him into the river; from whose name the flood was afterwards called Cratis. This monstrous issue of he Shepheard and the Goat, when it was brought to light, resembled them both, and was a Goat in the nether parts, but in the upper it carryed the shape of a man. Being afterward brought up and growing in the woods, the Shepheards asto­nished at so strange a shape, began to honour and adore him for a god, calling him Sylva­nus, from the woods wherein he lived. This god Sylvanus was extreamely enamoured on a beauteous youth named Cyparissus, [Page 34] who with great care had brought up a tame Deere; and when on a time the youth un­happily trying his Bow, had mist the marke, and slaine unawares his beloved Deere, out of extremity and impatience of griefe he dy­ed. Sylvanus lamenting the death of his minion Cyparissus, fell downe weeping upon the dead body, and vowed never to part from those imbraces: which he continued so long [...]ntill the gods in pitie to Sylvanus, trans­formed the body of Cyparissus into a tree, called, from him, the Cypresse tree, which ever after was a tree of mourning, and garnished great mens houses at funerals, as all the Po­ets mention; and Sylvanus is accounted the god protector of that tree.

(^h) Erigone the virgin was the daughter of Icarus an Athenian shepheard, whose pie­ [...]ie to her father was much renowned: inso­much [Page 35] as that when her father was slaine (as shall bee afterwards declared) shee never parted from the dead body, but dyed with him; and by the pitie of the gods, as Poets say, was taken up into heaven, and made a signe in the Zodiacke, called Virgo.

(ⁱ) The Husbandmen in ancient time sa­crificed to Ceres the goddesse of Corne. They killed a fat Hog as the sacrifice it selfe, a creature whose rooting endamages the corne. About this sacrifice the whole Chorus of the husbandmen danced in a rude inartificiall maner (for such dances in Reli­gion were accepted) and sang songs in ho­nour of the goddesse Ceres, who first inven­ted Corne. They wore upon their heads branches of Oaken trees, in a thankefull re­membrance of their old food: for before her bounti [...] to mankinde had taught them the [Page 36] wayes of tilling and harvest, the people lived upon Mast and Acorns.

(^k) For twice in that countrey the Ro­mans fought in civill warre: first Iulius Caesar against Pompey the Great, after­ward Octavius Caesar and Marcus Anto­nius against Marcus Brutus and Caius Cassius.

CAius (^a) Mecaenas, that famous che­risher of good learning, to whom our Poet in this place acknowledges so much, was a Gentleman of Etruria, in high favour with Augustas Caesar, and in great imployment of State under him. Hee was in his friend­ship with learned men, not onely bountifull, but judicious in the placing of his bountie, [Page 64] and above all others fortunate in the choise of the men. Among all the Poets, in that wise age wherein he lived, Virgil and Ho­race were the onely two, which I can finde, whose meane fortunes needed his liberalitie, as well as their vertues deserved his ac­quaintance: how liberall he was, their often acknowledgements in their Works, have te­stified to the world: how judicious or fortu­nate he was in those mens acquaintance, no age of the world hath since beene ignorant; his name having beene generally used for the love of learning, no lesse than Caesar's for Imperiall dignity (though there were, both in that and the following ages, as Iuve­nal witnesseth in his seventh Satyr, other men of honourable name and esteeme in Rome, who were lovers of such things, as Fabius, Cotta, Proculeius, Lentulus, &c.) Those [Page 65] Lords eyther fayled in judgement in the choyse of their friends, or the injury of their times affoorded them not wits able enough to raise their fames; since wee finde not any such manifest honour done to their memories as to this Mecaenas. whose fortune it was, that Virgil and Horace should live in his time; and in such estates, as to need his bounty for his owne honour: which is not a thing incident to every age, though wittie Martial in an Epigram of his could speake thus,

Sint Mecaenates, non deerunt, Flacce, Marones. yet the contrary by experience hath oft been found. Maroes have beene borne when no Mecaenases have lived to cherish them (as Homer the wonder of posteritie, in his owne time little esteemed) and Mecaenases have lived and wanted Maroes. What Monarch [Page 66] in the world was ever more desirous of fame in that kinde, and more able to requite than Alexander the Great? Hee that so much honoured the memory of Homer, and at the sacking of Thebes spared all the posteritie of the Poet Pindarus, found in his owne time no able Poet to celebrate his fame. There were in his time (as Arianus witnesseth in the life of Alexander) many Poets, who would have written of him, and stirred up by the greatnesse of his actions, or moved with hopes form his known bounty, had writ­ten in the praise of him; but such and so poore were their inspirations, they neyther de­serued the acceptation of Alexander, nor the sight of posterity.

(^b) The Poplar is called the tree of Hercules for this reason, as the Poets faine: When Hercules had entred into Hell, redee­med [Page 67] Theseus from prison there, and retur­ned victorious, leading out Cerberus in tri­umph after him; the first tree that he espy­ed was a Poplar tree, of which he made him­selfe a Garland, and crowned himselfe after his new conquest.

(^c) Our Poet, after the description of those severall trees of strange natures, which enrich the severall climates of the earth, takes an occasion, by way of comparison, to extoll in all kinds the fruitfulnesse, and with­all the happinesse of his native Italy, the magnificence of the Italian Cities, the mul­titude and bravery of her people: Of the po­pulousnesse of Italy thus Plinius at one place speaketh. This is that Italy, which, when Lucius Aemilius Paulus and Caius Atti­lius were Consuls upon the fame of the tu­mult of Gallia, armed presently of her owne [Page 68] forces, without the aide of any forreyners, and without mustering of any Italians beyond the river of Po, thirty thousand horsemen, and seventy thousand foot: and Diodorus Siculus speaking of Rome before the second Carthaginian warre, sayes that the Senate as it were foreseeing the comming of Anni­bal with a warre so bloudy, tooke a generall survey of themselves and their tributaries, and found the number of men fit to beare armes, to be ten hundred thousand. And speaking also of the populousnesse of the Iland of Sicily, esteemed then as a part of Italy (for it was all called magna Graecia) bids us not wonder at those mighty armies of Ninus, Se­miramis, Darius, or Xerxes, since Diony­sius the tyrant, out of Syracusae onely, armed an hundred and twenty thousand footmen, with twelve thousand horsemen, and a navy [Page 69] of foure hundred ships out of one haven.

(^d) The sacrifices, which in ancient times were offered to the gods, were alwayes chosen eyther for likenesse or contrariety: for like­nesse some were offered, as to Pluto the King of the darke world a blacke sheepe or steere were offered in sacrifice. Others for contra­rietie and hatred; as a Sow, because she roo­teth up land and spoyleth corne, was offered unto Ceres: the Goat, because he browzeth the Vines, was offered to Bacchus: the Goat was likewise offered to Aesculapius the god of health, because the Goat is never without a fever.

(^e) In those old playes which the Atheni­ans instituted in the honour of Bacchus, the people danced with wine bottles made of Goat-skinnes, to insult as it were over the Goats after they were dead. Of these Goat-skinnes [Page 70] [...] in Greeke signifieth a [...] up first the name of Tragaedies.

(^•) These playes were instituted to Bac­chus by the Athenians for this reason; Bacchus bestowed a bottle of sweet wine up­on Icarus an Athenian Shepheard. This Icarus coming to the company of some other labouring people of the country, set his bottle of wine before them. The plaine labourers not knowing the quality of the liquor, but de­lighted with the sweetnesse of it, drunke in­temperately, and feeling themselves much altered in their braines, and their whole bo­dies, they killed Icarus, supposing that he had given them poyson. The dog of Icarus re­turning home to Erigone his daughter, con­ducted her, who followed the dogge, unto her fathers dead body. Erigone impatient of griefe, hanged her selfe upon a pine tree, and [Page 71] the dogge parting not from the two bodies, starved himselfe: for which piety both Eri­gone and the dogge were taken and made signes in heaven. But not long after, for these murders unrevenged, the Athenians were visited with a great pestilence, and the virgins of Athens were possessed with a strange frenzie, and in their fits hanged themselves. The Oracle, being asked the cause of this pestilence, returned them an­swer, that it should cease when they in devo­tion had interred the bodies of Icarus and Erigone, and revenged their murders: this being done, the plague ceased, and the people in honour of Bacchus celebrated yearely playes, and in remembrance of their former frenzy, upon pines or other trees were hanged up the images of virgins.

HIppodamia (^a) was daughter to Oe­noma [...]s King of the cities of Elis and Pisa. This Oenomaus had horses of won­drous speed (as being begotten by the winds) and admitted suiters to his daughter Hip­podamia, upon this condition, that they should run a race in chariots with him: upon him that conquered, hee would bestow his daughter; but whom hee vanquished, hee would kill. When by this cruell meanes hee had killed many that came as suiters to her, and she at last was falne in love with Pelops, she corrupted Myrtilus her fathers chario­ter to let Pelops win, promising him for that favour hee should first enjoy her and have her maydenhead. Myrtilus upon this pro­mise [Page 102] put on false wheels upon the chariot of Oenomaus; and when Pelops was conque­ror, and obtained the Lady, Myrtilus de­ [...]ding her promise from her, was by Pe­lops her husband tumbled downe headlong into the sea, which sea from his name hath beene since called mare Myrtaeum.

( [...]) Augustus Caesar, after Brittany was vanquished, employed many of the cap­tiv [...] Brittains in servile offices about the Theater: he bestowed also upon those Thea­ters diverse flags of rich price, in which were woven his victories and triumphs. These flags were carried by the captive Brittaines, bearing the history of their owne conquest: but sure it is, the Poet in this place names Brittaine for any other barbarous nation; for Augustus, though he had many triumphs over severall barbarous nations, yet never [Page 103] conquer'd nor triumphed over Brittaine.

(^c) By the name of Quirinus in this place the Poet meaneth Augustus Caesar, and that not farre fetch'd, nor farre from reason, but more for the Emperours true ho­nour; for Suetonius Tranquillus in the life of Augustus, speaketh thus: Three parties of the people by the Senats consent offered on a time three names to Octavius; the names of Quirinus, Augustus and Caesar: hee fearing lest if he should choose one, he should displease the other two parties, accepted them all: He was first called Quirinus, af­terward Caesar, and last of all Augustus; in which name he ever remamed; and Virgil gives him all those names.

(^d) This great flow of warre from Nil [...] [...] Poet meanes when Marcus Antonius, and Cleopatra came downe from thence to [Page 104] encounter Augustus Caesar at Actium; [...] which warre they brought wonderfull power: for Marcus Antonius besides the ayde of ten Kings, which served him at that time, and all the strength of Cleopatra, had nine­teene whole Roman legions, and twelve thousand horsemen: his strength at sea was five hundred sayle of fighting ships. In this battell they were vanquished by Augustus Caesar.

(^e) After the victory of Actium, Augustus Caesar marcht with a great strength towards divers nations; who easily yeelded unto him. The Indians & Scythians (saith Suetonius Tranquillus) hearing of his name onely begged his favour. The Parthians them­selves yeelded without resistance, and their king Phraartes did homage to Augustus, gave him hostages, and delivered backe all [Page 105] those Romane ensignes which they before had taken in warre from Marcus Crassus, and Marcus Antonius the Triumvir.

(^f) The horses here mentioned, and so fa­med in Poetry, were these: the horses of Ca­stor and Pollux called Xanthus and Cyl­larus: the horses of Mars called Dimos and Phobos: and the horses of Achilles, called Xanthus and Aethon.

(^g) The fable is thus: Saturne was in love with Philyra the daughter of Oceanus and Thetis: shee, to avoide the rape, was transformed by her parents into a Mare; upon which Saturne turned himselfe into a stately Courser, and so enjoyed the Nymph: in which shape also hee deceived his wife Ops, who came thither of purpose to finde him out, and discover the fact▪ of which con­ [...]ction of Saturne and Phylira, the Poets [Page 106] reported that Chiron the Centaure was borne.

(^h) As the Thessalians were the first of all that ever invented the use of riding on horse-backe; so Ericthonius was the first that taught posteritie the way of joyning horses together in Chariots. This Erictho­nius was the sonne of Vulcan, a man of a goodly personage, but deformed onely in his feete, which were like the feet of a Serpent. Hee to hide this deformity, invented Chari­ots, wherein hee might ride, and nothing of him but his upper parts exposed to the view.

(ⁱ) Peletronium is a towne in Thessaly, where the use of taming and riding horses was first found: for on a time when Thessa­lus the king of that countrey was much dis­pleased that his Bullocks ran [...] [Page 107] (for it should seeme the horse-fly had stung them) he commanded his men, which way­ted on him, to run after them, and stop their flight: they being not able to overtake the swiftnesse of the Bullocks, took up on the sud­den a new invention; they mounted them­selves upon horses backs, and so with ease o­vertooke and turned them. These men espi­ed by some of the neighbouring people, eyther as they rode swiftly by, or else as their horses bowed downe their heads to drinke of the ri­ver Peneus, gave way to that old fable of the Centaures: for the people neere had an opi­nion that they were halfe men and halfe horses. But the name of Centaure was therefore given them, [...], because those men, when first they rods [...] horses were driving of Bullocks.

(^k) Potnia is the Citie, of which Glaucus [Page 108] was, who (as the Poets fained) despised the sacrifices and service of Venus. The god­desse angry with his contempt, sent a mad­nesse to possesse the Mares which drew his Chariot; who turning upon their Master, tore him to pieces. The cause of this fiction that Venus should send a madnesse into them, is this: Glaucus to make his Mares the swifter and fuller of mettall, kept them from venery, which made his Mares so fu­rious, that their ungovern'd spirit turned to the destruction of their Master.

(^l) Virgil speaking in this place of the plague among cattell, ingeniously supposeth that this was the same time, wherein that fa­mous history of Herodotus was verified. It was the custome for the Votaresse or Priest of Argos to ride to the Temple of Iuno, drawne by two Oxen upon fest [...]all [...] [Page 109] But when it so befell upon a solemne day that no Oxen could be found to draw her (the plague having consumed the cattell in that countrey) her two sonnes Cleobis and Bi­ton put the yoakes upon their neckes, and drew their mother to the temple. The god­desse Iuno, moved with so great a piety in these two young men, offered their mother that whatsoever shee would pray for in her sonnes behalfe, it should be granted. The mo­ther with a pious answer entreated the god­d [...]sse that whatsoever she knew the most hap­py for mortall men, shee would be pleased to graunt unto her sonnes: the next morning the two young men were both found dead; from whence it was generally concluded that nothing was so happy for a man as to dye.

(¹) VIrgil in this fourth Booke, lest any businesse of a countrey life should be wanting in his Georgicks, beginnes here the discourse of Bees; a subiect (though small) [...]et, as one observes, written of by many the ablest Authours, and in different manner. Aristotle first in his booke intituled, De hi­storia animalium, had written with much subtletie, and depth concerning the Bees na­ture. Amongst the Latines, Varro in a discourse wondrous for the brevity, hath writ­ten fully of them. Iunius Higinius with diligence, and walking, as it were, in a spaci­ous field hath at large discoursed of the na­ture of Bees: he omitteth nothing which the ancient Poets have pleasantly fabled of that [Page 140] subject. Cornelius Celsus in an elegant and facetious stile hath made illustration of it, Columella, moderately, and onely (as him­selfe confesses) because it is a part of that sub­ject, which he had before began; with no great ardour hath expressed it. And lest it should only be written in prose, our Poet in this place in most elegant Verse, inferior to none that e­ver was, entreateth of this small subiect.

(^b) The King of the Bees (saith one) it usually spotted more than the rest, and of a forme more faire and beautifull. He is twice as bigge as the common Bees; his wings are shorter than theirs, but his legs are straighter and longer; so that his walking up and down she h [...]e is more lofty and full of majesty. Vp­on his forehead is a bright spot glittering in manner of a d [...]ad [...] me. He wants a sting, ar­med with nothing but majesty, and a won­drous [Page 141] obedi [...]nce of the other Bees to him. When ever hee goes forth, the whole swarme [...]aite about him, guard him, and suffer him not to be seene. When the common Bees are [...] their worke, hee walkes to take survey of [...]hem, he himselfe only being free from labor. About him still are his guards and officers, those strength hee uses in punishing the idle and sloathfull Bees. But others are of opini­ [...]n (who deny the generation of bees without [...]span) that this great Bee, called the King, [...] the onely male in the hive, without whose company there can bee no generation at all: and therefore that all the other bees doe per­ [...]etually slocke, and throng about him, not [...]ith respect as to a Prince, but desire as to a Male.

(^c) It was, as most know, an ancient fa­ble, that Saturne the husband of Ops, and [Page 142] father of Iupiter was accustomed to devour his owne children when they were brought forth (the reason of it, was, because Saturne was named the god of time, and all times passing and returning revolve againe into themselves) which gave occasion to this hi­storie; when Iupiter was borne, his mother Ops fearing the cruelty of her husband to him, concealed his birth, and the Cretans for feare that Saturne should heare the childery, rung their brazen pans and kettles; which noise the bees following came to the place where the [...]nfant was, and sed him there with honey: Iupiter for so great a benefit, bestow­ed on his nurses for a reward this admirable g [...]ft, that they should have young ones, and continue their kinde without wasting them­selves in Venery. Others report, that Iupi­ter being much in love with a faire Nymph [Page 143] called Melissa, turned her into a bee, and for her sake bestowed priviledges upon the bees.

(^d) The place where bees first were, is doubted of; some report it was Crete, where those were which nourished Iupiter; others say they were first seen in Thessaly in the time of the reigne of Aristaeus there; others make Hymetta, a sweet hill neer Athens, the place; others Hybla an hill in Sicily: all which pla­ces are by Poets famed for nourishing of bees.

Mane ruunt (^e) A most admirable di­scipline, if it may bee credited: as soone as morning appeares, one bee, whose office it is, goes about the hive, and with three or foure loud buzzes, in stead of a bell or trumpet, a­wakens them from sleep; upon whose warning, they all arise, and fly abroad unto their labor of gathering honey, or other employments; when evening returnes again, and they come [Page 144] home laden with honey; after some short re­spite, the same bee, or some other in his turn, with the like buzze commandeth them all to rest (after the manner of Cities) except such as are appointed to watch and ward.

(^f) This history of Aristaeus the son of Apollo, and the Nymph Cyrene (before mentioned) the first finder of the use of bees, was not entended by the Poet to be here in­serted; this part of the booke was all compi­led in honour of Cornelius Gallus a Roman Gentleman, the first Governour of Egypt un­der Augustus Caesar (when Caesar after the death of Cleopatra had turned the king­dome of Egypt into a Province). This Gal­lus was himselfe a famous Poet (though on­ly fragments remaine of him) much beloved of the rest of the Poets, and honoured by Virgil in his Bucolickes. But when after­ward [Page 145] he fell into a conspiracie against Augu­stus, or, as some report it, accused for abusing the Province, which he governed, he was condemned, and put to death; and Virgil by the command of Caesar, altered the halfe of his fourth booke, and from the praise of Cor­nelius Gallus turned it to the history of A­ristaeus. The story is plaine, as the Poet has here related it; Aristaeus in lust desiring to ravish Eurydice the wife of Orpheus, and she in her flight from him, being stung with a serpent, and so killed; Aristaeus for his offence was punished with the losse of all his stock, in which he was richer than any of thosetimes, &c.

(^g) In this fable of Proteus, Virgil imi­tateth Homer altogether; or rather bor­roweth, where in his Odysses Proteus giveth Menelaus instruction: but the historie of [Page 146] Proteus is thus reported by Herodotus in his Euterpe; Proteus was King of Egypt at that time when Paris having raped Helena, was driven with her by a tempest into Egypt. (for when Troy was sacked Helena could not be found there) But Menelaus after the wars of Troy sayled into Egypt, and there being with great courtesie entertained by Pro­teus, hee received his wife Helena againe. Some report, that Proteus being borne in Egypt fled from the tyranny of cruell Busiris, and came into Thessalia: but others (of whose opinion it should seeme our Poet is) say, that he was borne at Pal [...]ene a City of Thessalia; and sailing into Egypt lived for a time there; but afterwards returned againe into Thessa­lia his native countrey.

(^h) Of this fable that Proteus before he was bound, and barred from all his deluding [Page 147] shapes, could never prophesie, some have made a physicall construction; for every man has in himselfe lust, folly, cruelty and deceit; which, as long as they raigne uncontrolled in him, his nobler part, which is nearer to the divinitie, that is his wisedome, doth not appeare, nor cannot exercise her function, untill all those are bound; that is, till a man be freed from those vices. From whence he concludeth, that this Priest could not prophesie, nor receive the divinitie into him, untill all these, that is, his fiery lust, his brutish cruelty, his wavering lightnesse of minde, (like fleeting water) were all bound, and had ceased in him.