ECLOGUE  , a

short pastoral dialogue in verse . The word is conjectured to be derived from the Greek verb EKMyELY, to choose . An eclogue, perhaps, in its primary signification was a selected piece . Another more fantastic derivation traces it to aid, goat, and Pryor, speech, and makes it a conversation of shepherds . The idea of dialogue, however, is not necessary for an eclogue, which is often not to be distinguished from the idyll . The grammarians, in giving this title to Virgil's pastoral conversations (Bucolica), tended to make the term " eclogue " apply exclusively to dialogue, and this has in fact been the result of the success of Virgil's work . Latin eclogues were also written by Calpurnius Siculus and by Nemesianus . In modern literature the term has lost any distinctive character which it may have possessed among the Romans; it is merged in the general notion of pastoral poetry . The French " Eglogues " of J . R. de Segrais (1624–1701) were long famous, and those of the Spanish poet Garcilasso de La Vega (1503–1536) are still admired . See also BucoLIcs; PASTORAL .