ECLOGUE I
MELIBOEUS TITYRUS
MELIBOEUS You, Tityrus, \'neath a broad beech-canopy Reclining,
on the slender oat rehearse Your silvan ditties: I from my sweet fields, And
home\'s familiar bounds, even now depart. Exiled from home am I; while,
Tityrus, you Sit careless in the shade, and, at your call, "Fair Amaryllis"
bid the woods resound.
TITYRUS O Meliboeus, \'twas a god vouchsafed This ease to us, for
him a god will I Deem ever, and from my folds a tender lamb Oft with its
life-blood shall his altar stain. His gift it is that, as your eyes may see, My
kine may roam at large, and I myself Play on my shepherd\'s pipe what
songs I will.
MELIBOEUS I grudge you not the boon, but marvel more, Such wide
confusion fills the country-side. See, sick at heart I drive my she-goats on,
And this one, O my Tityrus, scarce can lead: For \'mid the hazel-thicket
here but now She dropped her new-yeaned twins on the bare flint, Hope of
the flock- an ill, I mind me well, Which many a time, but for my blinded
sense, The thunder-stricken oak foretold, oft too From hollow trunk the
raven\'s ominous cry. But who this god of yours? Come, Tityrus, tell.
TITYRUS The city, Meliboeus, they call Rome, I, simpleton, deemed
like this town of ours, Whereto we shepherds oft are wont to drive The
younglings of the flock: so too I knew Whelps to resemble dogs, and kids
their dams, Comparing small with great; but this as far Above all other
cities rears her head As cypress above pliant osier towers.
MELIBOEUS And what so potent cause took you to Rome?