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SELECTIONS FROM THE Georgics OF VERGIL c:rranslated by Robert Fitzgerald and Smith Palmer BOVle INTRODUCTION VERGIL, THE most widely read of all Latin poets, was born in the little town of Andes, near Mantua, in 70 B.C., the son of a small farmer. His father saw to it that the boy had a good education, in several towns of northern Italy and in Rome, and probably also at the Epicurean school near Naples. In 42 B.C., while Vergil was working on the Eclogues (pastoral poems similar to those of Theocritus), his farm was confiscated for distribution to the disbanded soldiers of Antony and Octavian (Augustus). Vergil went to Rome to try to recover the property; aided by his friends, Pollio, Gallus, and Maecenas, he succeeded; though he presently lost it again, he received another farm in recompense. From 43 to 37 he worked on the Eclogues. Probably at the suggestion of Maecenas, Vergil then undertook the four Georgies, with which he was busy for the next seven years. One of the ambitions of Octavian was to arouse a national feeling in Italy and an affection for her land and old ways. The Georgies are ostensibly a farmer's manual in verse, but they are far more important as a hymn to Italy. The first book is devoted to farming in general and especially to climate and weather; the others are concerned with trees and vines, cattle, and bees. When the Georgies were finished, Vergil, now living al Naples, embarked on his last work, the Aeneid. On it he spent the rest of his life, and it was not quite finished when the poet died in 19 B.C., on his way back from a trip to Greece. The story is told that he begged his literary executors to bum the poem if anything happened to him; but Augustus ordered them to publish it, with a few very minor corrections. It became popular at once, and its popularity remained; during the Middle Ages Vergil was probably regarded more highly than any other noneccle· siastical author. When Dante wrote his Divine Comedy, he introduced Vergil as his guide through the world be· low; and all the works of Vergil have been imitated many times. The First Georgie is translated by Mr. Fitzgerald; The Second by Mr. Bovie. The Oxford Classical Text of Sir Arthur Hirtze! (1900) is the one used. FROM THE FIRST GEORGIC I Until Jove let it be, no colonist Mastered the earth; no land was marked, None parcelled out or shared; but everyone Looked for his living in the common wold. And Jove gave poison to the black snakes, and Made the wolves ravage, made the ocean roll, Knocked honey from the leaves, took fire awaySo man might beat out various inventions By reasoning and art. First he chipped fire Out of the veins of flint where it was hidden; Then rivers felt his skiffs of the light alder; Then sailors counted up the stars and named them; Pleiades, Hyades, and the Pole Star; Then were discovered ways to take wild things In snares, or hunt them with the circling pack; 214 C LAS SIC SIN T RAN S L A T ION And how to whip a stream with casting nets, Or draw the deep-sea fisherman's cordage up; And then the use of steel and the shrieking saw; Then various crafts_ All things were overcome By labor and by force of bitter need_ [125-146] II Even when your threshing Hoor is leveled By the big rolloc, smoothed and packed by hand With fuller's earth, so that it will not crack, There are still nuisances_ The tiny mouse Locates his house and granary underground, Or the blind mole tunnels his dark chamber; The toad, too, and the monsters of the earth, Besides those plunderers of the grain, the weevil And frantic ant, scared of a poor old age_ [178-186] Let me speak then, too, of the farmer's weapons: The heavy oaken plow and the plowshare, The slowly rolling carts of Demeter, The threshing machine, the sledge, the weighted mattock, The withe baskets, the cheap furniture, The harrow and the magic winnowing fanAll that your foresight makes provision of, If you still favor the divine countryside_ [160-168] III Moreover, like men tempted by the straits In ships borne homeward through the blowing sea, We too must reckon on Arcturus' star, The days of luminous Draco and the Kids_ When Libra...

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