E. D.
Libenter hic, et omnis exantlabitur
Labor, in tuæ spem gratiæ.
[Horace, Epodes i. 23-24.]
SIX IDILLIA
chosen out of the famous Sicilian Poet
THEOCRITUS,
and translated into English verse.
THE EIGHTH IDILLION.
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."