Ecloga 2: Formosum pastor Corydon ardebat Alexin Add a review

Formosum pastor Corydon ardebat Alexin incipit ecloga secunda libri Bucolicorum P. Vergilii Maronis. Haec ecloga, secunda fortasse omnium a Vergilio scriptarum, ante annum fere 42 a.C.n. confecta est si recte ad hunc annum attribuitur ecloga nona eiusdem libri, in quo pastore Moeris asseverat carmina titulis "Formosum Corydon ardebat Alexin" et "Cuium pecus? an Meliboei?" iam ab amico Menalca composita fuisse. Menalcas Vergilium ipsum figurare proponitur.

Huic carmini adnuit Georgius dominus de Byron in epico satyrico suo Don Juan inter litteras Latinas moribus iuvenum periculosiores:

Ovid's a rake, as half his verses show him,

Anacreon's morals are a still worse sample,

Catullus scarcely has a decent poem,

I don't think Sappho's Ode a good example ...

But Virgil's songs are pure, except that horrid one

Beginning with "Formosum pastor Corydon"

("Ovidius illecebrosus e dimidia versuum parte videtur; mores Anacreontis etiam peiores esse monstrantur; Catulli haud unum carmen decet; ode Sapphus bonum exemplum haud credo ... poëmata autem Vergilii pura sunt, excepto isto horrido quod incipit "Formosum pastor Corydon").