Chapter 101

... “For what concerns tillage, Who better can deliver it than Virgil In his Georgicks? and to cure your herds, His Bucolicks is a master-piece.”

Fletcher was too good a scholar to fall into so gross a blunder, as Messrs. Sympson and Colman suppose. I read the passage thus:—

... “For what concerns tillage, Who better can deliver it than Virgil, In his Georgicks, _or_ to cure your herds (His Bucolicks are a master-piece); but when,” &c.

Jealous of Virgil’s honour, he is afraid lest, by referring to the _Georgics_ alone, he might be understood as undervaluing the preceding work. “Not that I do not admire the _Bucolics_ too, in their way.—But when,” &c.