Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/196

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The Tenth Pastoral.

OR,

GALLUS.

The ARGUMENT.

Gallus a great Patron of Virgil, and an excellent Poet, was very deeply in Love with one Citheris, whom he calls Lycoris; and who had forsaken him for the Company of a Soldier. The Poet therefore supposes his Friend Gallus retir'd in his heighth of Melancholy into the Solitudes of Arcadia (the celebrated Scene of Pastorals;) where he represents him in a very languishing Condition, with all the Rural Deities about him, pitying his hard Usage, and condoling his Misfortune.

HY sacred Succour, Arethusa, bring,
To crown my Labour: 'tis the last I sing.
Which proud Lycoris may with Pity view;$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$
The Muse is mournful, tho' the Numbers few.
Refuse me not a Verse, to Grief and Gallus due.5
So may thy Silver Streams beneath the Tide,
Unmix'd with briny Seas, securely glide.