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Article: Vergil's 'Eclogue 4.' (Roman poet Virgil)
- Article from:
- The Explicator
- Article date:
- September 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem, math longa decem tulerunt fastidia menses. incipe, parve puer. cui non risere parentes, nec deus hunc mensa, dea nec dignata cubili est. (lines 60-63)
Begin, baby boy, to know thy mother with a smile - to thy mother ten months have brought the weariness of travail. Begin, baby boy! Him on whom his parents have not smiled, no god honours with his table, no goddess with her bed!
"What in blazes is this supposed to be?" the knowledgeable Vergilian scholar may be saying. "It's just Fairclough's old Loeb translation, cited first with its (the Loeb's) Latin, so as to give a veneer of respectability. based as it is on an ...