Argument.
MENALCAS a Shepherd and DAPHNIS a Neatherd, two
Sicilian Lads, contending who should sing best, pawn their Whistles;
and choose a Goatherd to be their Judge: who giveth sentence on
DAPHNIS his side. The thing is imagined to be done in the
Isle of Sicily, by the sea-shore. Of whose singing, this Idillion is
called _Bucoliastæ_, that is, "Singers of a Neatherd's Song."
_BUCOLIASTÆ._
DAPHNIS, MENALCAS, Goatherd.
WITH lovely Neatherd DAPHNIS on the hills, they say,
Shepherd MENALCAS met upon a summer's day:
Both youthful striplings, both had yellow heads of hair;
In whistling both, and both in singing skilful were.
MENALCAS first, beholding DAPHNIS, thus bespake: