Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/61

 

And the sheep nibble, and the kine devour:
Not half so harmful is the piercing pow'r
Of hoary frosts, or summer's scorching heat,
When on dry rocks the solar fervours beat,
As the sharp venom of the browsing kind, 425
And the deep scar imprinted on the rind.
For this to Bacchus bleeds the goat, and Plays
Assume the buskin'd pomp of ancient days:
The sons of Theseus to contending Bards,
Decreed in towns and public ways rewards, 430
And in mad mood with many a sportive bound
Leap'd on oil'd bags along the grassy ground.
Th' Ausonians too, a colony of Troy,
In uncouth metre give a loose to joy:
In hideous masks of hollow'd bark the throng 435
Invoke thee, Bacchus, in the festal song,
And hang for thee with images the pine:
Hence with full produce swells the bloomy vine;
With purple harvests vallies, lawns abound,
Where'er the God has turn'd his visage round. 440
To Bacchus' praise then hymns of honour sing
In custom'd verse, and cakes and chargers bring;
Before the altar lead the goat, and there
On hazel spits the hallow'd feast prepare.

Yet