As the first of the ‘Sylvæ’ was intended as an introduction to Virgil’s ‘Bucolics,’ so the second, ‘Rusticus,’ was to serve the same purpose for the ‘Georgics,’ and for the works and times of Hesiod. The third, ‘Ambra,’ took its name from the Medicean Poggio a Cajano, but the name has little connection with the poem, which refers to localities only at its close, and is devoted to an analysis of Homeric plays regarded from a pseudo-Herodotean and pseudo-Plutarchian point of view. The last and longest of the ‘Sylvæ,’ bearing the strange title of ‘Nutricia: the Reward of the Nursing-mother,’ describes the origin, progress, and influence of the poetry and the poetics of classical times, passes on to the author of the ‘Divine Comedy,’ and ends by singing the praises of Cosimo de’ Medici and his successors. The abundance and versatility of Lorenzo’s talents were perhaps never more truly and happily expressed than in the closing verses of this poem; and when the praises of living and powerful men appear in such a setting as this, we may accept them without complaining. After describing his labours in the field of sentimental poetry, to which belong the greater part of Lorenzo’s earlier poems, his other poetical productions and his whole intellectual character are thus spoken of:— Non vacat argutosque sales, Satyraque bibaces Descriptos memorare senes, non carmina festis Excipienda choris, querulasve animantia chordas. Idem etiam tacitæ referens pastoria vitæ Otia, et urbanos thyrso extimulante labores, Mox fugis in cœlum, non seu per lubrica nisus Extremamque boni gaudes contingere metam. Quodque alii studiumque vocant, durumque laborem, Hic tibi ludus erit, fessus civilibus actis, Huc is emeritas acuens ad carmina vires. Felix ingenio, felix cui pectore tantas Instaurare vices, cui fas tam magna capaci Alternare animo, et varias ita nectere curas. Poliziano wrote the ‘Nutricia’ in October 1486, at the villa of Fiesole. In the following verses he prophesied of the times to come and the future greatness of his pupil, Piero, if the latter, fulfilling the bright promise of his youth, should walk in the footsteps of his father:— It jam pene prior, sic, ô sic pergat, et ipsum Me superet majore gradu, longeque relinquat Protinus, et dulci potius plaudatur alumno, Bisque mei victor illo celebrentur honores.