Note 32 — SPRING:
Reading edition
Literally from Virgil, Ecl. iii. 59:
Alternis dicetis: amant alterna Camœnæ, Et nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbos, Nunc frondent sylvæ, nunc formosissimus annus.—Pope.
Creech's translation:
play By turns, for verse the muses love by turns.
The usage was for the second speaker to imitate the idea started by the first, and endeavour to outdo him in his vaunt. All the speeches throughout the contest consisted of the same number of lines. In the third eclogue of Virgil we have two rivals and an umpire. One of the antagonists stakes a carved bowl, the other a cow; and the final effort of each poet is to propound a riddle, upon which the umpire interposes, and declares that the candidates are equal in merit. Pope keeps close to his original.