Note 30 — SPRING:
Reading edition
The subject of these Pastorals engraven on the bowl is not without its propriety. The Shepherd's hesitation at the name of the zodiac imitates that in Virgil, Ecl. iii. 40:
et quis fuit alter, Descripsit radio totum qui gentibus orbem?—Pope.
Creech's translation of Eclogue iii.:
And showed the various seasons of the year.
Pope also drew upon Dryden's version of the passage:
Two figures on the sides embossed appear, Conon, and what's his name who made the sphere, And showed the seasons of the sliding year?
Virgil's commentators cannot agree upon the name which the shepherd had forgotten, but they unite in commending the stroke of nature which represents a rustic poet as unable to recall the name of a man of science.