Eclogues

Virgil

Vergil. The Poems of Vergil. Rhoades, James, translator. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.

  1. Who owns the flock, Damoetas? Meliboeus?
DAMOETAS
  1. Nay, they are Aegon's sheep, of late by him
  2. committed to my care.
MENALCAS
  1. O every way
  2. unhappy sheep, unhappy flock! while he
  3. still courts Neaera, fearing lest her choice
  4. should fall on me, this hireling shepherd here
  5. wrings hourly twice their udders, from the flock
  6. filching the life-juice, from the lambs their milk.
DAMOETAS
  1. Hold! not so ready with your jeers at men!
  2. We know who once, and in what shrine with you—
  3. the he-goats looked aside—the light nymphs laughed—
MENALCAS
  1. Ay, then, I warrant, when they saw me slash
  2. micon's young vines and trees with spiteful hook.
DAMOETAS
  1. Or here by these old beeches, when you broke
  2. the bow and arrows of Damon; for you chafed
  3. when first you saw them given to the boy,
  4. cross-grained Menalcas, ay, and had you not
  5. done him some mischief, would have chafed to death.
MENALCAS
  1. With thieves so daring, what can masters do?