... “For what concerns tillage,
Who better can deliver it than Virgil
In his Georgicks? and to cure your herds,
His Bucolicks is a master-piece.”
Fletcher was too good a scholar to fall into so gross a blunder, as
Messrs. Sympson and Colman suppose. I read the passage thus:—
... “For what concerns tillage,
Who better can deliver it than Virgil,
In his Georgicks, _or_ to cure your herds
(His Bucolicks are a master-piece); but when,” &c.
Jealous of Virgil’s honour, he is afraid lest, by referring to the
_Georgics_ alone, he might be understood as undervaluing the preceding
work. “Not that I do not admire the _Bucolics_ too, in their way.—But
when,” &c.