. Discovery. Science. DISCOVERY 209 " does not suit the description of scenery in Vergil's ; Now taken by itself this criticism is like saying that the description of scenery in Shakespeare's plays does not " suit " the neighbourhood of Stratford- on-Avon. The Eclogues are essentially dramatic ; and to criticise their author because the scenery which they mention appears to you different from the scenery of a particular part of a particular country, is just about as helpful as it would be to criticise Macbeth because he did not meet the witches on the banks of the
. Discovery. Science. DISCOVERY 209 " does not suit the description of scenery in Vergil's ; Now taken by itself this criticism is like saying that the description of scenery in Shakespeare's plays does not " suit " the neighbourhood of Stratford- on-Avon. The Eclogues are essentially dramatic ; and to criticise their author because the scenery which they mention appears to you different from the scenery of a particular part of a particular country, is just about as helpful as it would be to criticise Macbeth because he did not meet the witches on the banks of the Avon, or Hamlet because his father's ghost did not appear (say) on the battlements of Kenil- worth Castle ! It is obvious that we must inquire what is the background implied in each separate Eclogue before we can judge whether it is or is not consistent. In the Second Eclogue, for example, the speaker expressly declares that he has " a thousand sheep wandering on Sicilian mountains " ; therefore they must be in Sicily ; therefore it seems hardly worth while to complain that they are not in Mantua ! The scene of the Eighth Eclogue is wholly Greek ; the Sixth and the Tenth follow Vergil's friend Gallus over the whole poetical world, taking, so to speak, snap- shots of Gallus's poetry, now in Arcadia, now in Thrace, now in Crete, and now in the unknown region where Pyrrha [and Deucalion threw the stones from which, according to the fable, mankind was re- created after all but they had perished in the Deluge. And finally we have the Fourth Eclogue, which sets out to prophesy a new world and ascribes to it aU the riches of every known land. It is clear, therefore, that in these five Eclogues the question of local scenery simply does not arise.' But what the critics, no doubt, do mean is this : that in the Eclogues where refer- ence is definitely made to North Italian conditions, for instance in the First, they have been unable to discover any points of scenery which they c
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