Note 46 — SPRING:
Reading edition
This couplet is a palpable imitation of Virgil, Ecl. vii. 67:
Sæpius at si me, Lycida formose, revisas, Fraxinus in silvis cedet tibi, pinus in hortis.—Wakefield.
The entire speech is a parody of the lines quoted by Wakefield, and of the lines which immediately precede them in Virgil's Eclogue. The passage omitted by Wakefield is thus translated in vol. i. of Tonson's Miscellany:
Bacchus the vine, the laurel Phœbus loves; Fair Venus cherishes the myrtle groves; Phyllis the hazel loves, while Phyllis loves that tree, Myrtles and laurels of less fame shall be.