IV—The Text
The text of this edition is based upon Ahrens and Ziegler. It owes much also to von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff. To the last scholar’s excellent edition, as also to his various books and articles, particularly the brilliant Textgeschichte der griechischen Bukoliker, I am deeply indebted throughout the volume. In many passages, as is well known, the text of the Bucolic poets is by no means settled. In most of these I have adopted the emendations of other scholars, giving my acknowledgments, where the change is important, at the foot of the page. In some cases—those marked E in the notes—I have preferred my own. Most editors of the classics will be human enough, I hope, to sympathise with my lack of modesty in this respect. There has not always been room for more than the merest indication of my reasons. These will shortly be given, by the kindness of the editors, in the Classical Review.[1] There is much to be said for Professor von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff’s re-arrangement of the order of the poems. The usual position of the Spell is particularly unfortunate; for it leads the student to reckon it as a pastoral, which it is not. But the post-Renaissance order has been too long established, I think, to be upset now without great inconvenience; and so I have ventured to retain it.
- ↑ In a few important cases the full references to the C.R. are now (1916) given in the notes.
