DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61893#0238
210
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. V.
its streams and surrounding hills, and indeed the
whole circumjacent country, has been rendered
truly classical by having been made the scene
or the subject of many beautiful compositions
in the second Augustan age of Italy. Fra-
cas torius, Naugerius, Castilio, have invoked the
Nympluz Benacides; and Bembo has given the
appellation of Benacus to one of his most cor-
rect and most pleasing Latin poems. The moun-
tains and hills on its borders have been converted
into the Arcadia of Italy, and peopled with a
race of shepherds, who almost rival in song the
Grecian swains once soli cantar e per iti, and who
far surpass them in innocence and in piety. But
of all the strains in which these scenes are cele-
brated, the most affecting are those addressed by
Fracastorius to his departed friend Flaminius,
who was himself one of the most tuneful natives
of this happy region.
Te miserum! ante diem, crudeli funere, Maree
Antoni 1 aetatis primo sub flore cadentem
Vidimus extreme! positum Benacide ripa
Quam media biter saxa sonans Sarca abluit undii
Te ripae flevere Athesis, te voce vocare
Auditae per noctem umbrae manesque Catulli,
Et patrios mulcere nova dulcedine lucos. Syph. lib. i.
Next morning we sent our carriages towards
Mantua, and determined to proceed on foot,
5
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. V.
its streams and surrounding hills, and indeed the
whole circumjacent country, has been rendered
truly classical by having been made the scene
or the subject of many beautiful compositions
in the second Augustan age of Italy. Fra-
cas torius, Naugerius, Castilio, have invoked the
Nympluz Benacides; and Bembo has given the
appellation of Benacus to one of his most cor-
rect and most pleasing Latin poems. The moun-
tains and hills on its borders have been converted
into the Arcadia of Italy, and peopled with a
race of shepherds, who almost rival in song the
Grecian swains once soli cantar e per iti, and who
far surpass them in innocence and in piety. But
of all the strains in which these scenes are cele-
brated, the most affecting are those addressed by
Fracastorius to his departed friend Flaminius,
who was himself one of the most tuneful natives
of this happy region.
Te miserum! ante diem, crudeli funere, Maree
Antoni 1 aetatis primo sub flore cadentem
Vidimus extreme! positum Benacide ripa
Quam media biter saxa sonans Sarca abluit undii
Te ripae flevere Athesis, te voce vocare
Auditae per noctem umbrae manesque Catulli,
Et patrios mulcere nova dulcedine lucos. Syph. lib. i.
Next morning we sent our carriages towards
Mantua, and determined to proceed on foot,
5