[Footnote 30: The subject of these Pastorals engraven on the bowl is not
without its propriety. The Shepherd's hesitation at the name of the
zodiac imitates that in Virgil, Ecl. iii. 40:
et quis fuit alter,
Descripsit radio totum qui gentibus orbem?--POPE.
Creech's translation of Eclogue iii.:
And showed the various seasons of the year.
Pope also drew upon Dryden's version of the passage:
Two figures on the sides embossed appear,
Conon, and what's his name who made the sphere,
And showed the seasons of the sliding year?
Virgil's commentators cannot agree upon the name which the shepherd had
forgotten, but they unite in commending the stroke of nature which
represents a rustic poet as unable to recall the name of a man of
science.]
[Footnote 31: Dryden, Georg. i. 328.
And cross their limits cut a sloping way,
Which the twelve signs in beauteous order sway.--WAKEFIELD.]
[Footnote 32: Literally from Virgil, Ecl. iii. 59:
Alternis dicetis: amant alterna Camoenae,
Et nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbos,
Nunc frondent sylvae, nunc formosissimus annus.--POPE.
Creech's translation:
play
By turns, for verse the muses love by turns.
The usage was for the second speaker to imitate the idea started by the
first, and endeavour to outdo him in his vaunt. All the speeches
throughout the contest consisted of the same number of lines. In the
third eclogue of Virgil we have two rivals and an umpire. One of the
antagonists stakes a carved bowl, the other a cow; and the final effort
of each poet is to propound a riddle, upon which the umpire interposes,
and declares that the candidates are equal in merit. Pope keeps close to
his original.]
[Footnote 33: Dryden, Ecl. x. 11.