DIDO AENEAE PRAEFATIO Sic tua semper ames, quisquis pia vota requiris, Dido Aeneae om. A 2. abe A carmininis ocia A 3. incole A, indue Baehrens, indole Higt 4 et 6 in C fol. 1 u. et Vaticano 639 s. XI extant 4. gratia A, grata C a uoluntas C 5. amore α. 1. Sic: i. e. on condition that you grant your favor to my work. Sic is frequently used to introduce a wish which is made conditional upon something else; e. g. Verg. Ecl. 9. 30-32 Hor. Carm. 1. 3. 1-8 Sic tua Cyrneas fugiant examina taxos, Sic te diva potens Cypri, Sic fratres Helenae, lucida sidera, Reddas incolumem precor, Et serves animae dimidium meae. Ov. Epist. 3. 135-7 Nunc quoque, sic omnes Peleus pater inpleat annos, Sic eat auspiciis Pyrrhus ad arma tuis, Respice sollicitam Briseida, fortis Achille. pia vota: This expression is used several times by Ovid, e. g. Am. 2. 6. 43 Quid referam timidae pro te pia vota puellae? Met. 1. 221 Irridet primo pia vota Lycaon. See also Met. 8. 499, Fast. 1. 722, Rem. 813. Cf. Auson. 390. 27-8 Nesciat hos natus, numeret properantior heres, Testamenta magis quam pia vota fovens and 391.8 Solus eram, profugaeque dabam pia vota carinae. Vota is accusative of inner object. DIDO TO AENEAS PREFACE As you wish to be ever pleased with your lot, whoever you may be who seek what piety may ask, grant your favor to my, work; with kindness look upon the verses that leisure composes for a pastime, and, as an upright judge, cultivate an impartial. spirit. Sweet is the sound of what love sings; let anyone who can find delight in pleasure deign to love even a humble poet. 2. libenter habe: this expression is used twice in Sanctae Silviae Peregrit natio, Bechtel p. 24. 26 itaque ergo, si libenter habes, quaecumque loca sunhic grata ad videndum christianis, ostendimus tibi, and p. 32.9 quia libenter haberetis haec cognoscere. It does not seem to occur elsewhere, though habeo is found with other similar adverbs, e. g. Sall. Catil. 51. 11 multi eas (sc. iniurias) gravius aequo habuere. Liv. 7. 5.7 Ita aegre habuit filium id pro parentę ausum. Tac. Ann. 4. 21.2 quae in praesens Tiberius civiliter habuit. The use of this expression, which occurs apparently only in one Latin work, is of some importance for dating the poem. The Peregrinatio of S. Silvia belongs probably to the last quarter of the fourth century, though some scholars attribute the work to a certain Aetheria, and place it about the middle of the sixth century. ludant: of the composition of light or playful verses. Catull. 50. 2-5 Verg. Ecl. 1. 9-10 Multum lusimus in meis tabellis, Cf. Ludebat numero modo hoc modo illoc. Ille meas errare boves, ut cernis, et ipsum Hor. Carm. 4. 9. 9-10 Nec, si quid olim lusit Anacreon, Delevit aetas. 3. incole, the ms. reading, is kept by Wernsdorf, and explained as the use of a compound for simple verb, characteristic of late Latin. All the other editors change to indue or indole. The dictionaries give one instance of incolo for colo, Codex Theodos. 13. 1. 3. (361 A. D.) si ea homines vestri ac rusticani etiam in vestris possessionibus commorantes distrahant, quae in his terris quas incolunt adque in eodem rure gignuntur. There is a peculiar use of the word in Tert. Spect. 10 Videmus igitur etiam artes eorum honoribus dicatas esse qui nomina incolunt auctorum earum. (Cf. Hoppe p. 189, who translates "welche die Namen der Urheber tragen.") On the whole it seems best to retain the ms. reading, although no exact parallel can be quoted. CARMEN Debuit ingrato nullam dictare salutem Laesus amor. Sed nulla iuvant convitia flentem- Plus habet ipse dolor; nec conplent verba dolorem 6. ingrado nulla A mandare C 7. Lęsos A iubant A 8. inprobe Riese 10. graues conponant carmina Higt 11. Plus ualet iste Higt dolores Higt 12. pangentis Baehrens uel regna A, nec regna Higt, uel recta Wernsdorf, uel penna recusat Baehrens, vertenda Riese, vel egena Traube. 6. salutem refers to the usual beginning of a letter, salutem dicit. Cf. Ov Epist. 13. 1 Mittit, et optat amans quo mittitur ire salutem. dictare salutem means merely "write a letter." Owing to the fact that dictation was the usual custom, dictare came to mean nothing more than write. Cf. Juv. 6. 218 Non unus tibi rivalis dictabitur heres. Suet. Tit. 6. 1 Cum patris nomine et epistulas ipse dictaret et edicta conscriberet. Sidon. Epist. 1.7 dominum dictasse profitebatur, se dictasse proclamat, quod ipse dictasset. Numerous other examples are cited in the Thesaurus. This use became very common in the Middle Ages; see W. Wattenbach, Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter, pp. 266 ff. 7. convitia: a late spelling for convicia. 8. Si...... ..vacet: the si clause expresses a wish. Cf. Verg. Aen. 6. 187-8 Si nunc se nobis ille aureus arbore ramus Ostendat nemore in tanto. flere vacet: cf. Ov. Met. 10. 387 Tum denique flere vacavit. Nam: the connection of thought is: (But there is no time to weep,) for the cruel fate, etc. magis: potius, or some expression meaning "on the other hand" might be expected here. POEM Injured love should have written no word of greeting to one who is ungrateful. But reproaches are no remedy for tears if only there were time for tears! Instead the cruel fate of death summons me. Guilty Trojan, is this the gift you send me in return? However often I try to still my weeping by writing bitter verses, my very grief proves stronger; no words can satisfy the grief that my too patient heart endures, inproba: Riese changes the ms. reading to inprobe, apparently because the vocative occurs in 34 and 124. There is no reason for any change; inproba is an appropriate epithet to apply to fata. mortis fata: cf. Cic. Tim. 40 neque vos ulla mortis fata periment; also the Homeric knρes Davátolo, Il. 2. 302, 834; 12. 326, etc. 9. fata vocant: cf. Verg. Aen. 10. 471-2 Voco and Kaλéw are used especially of the summons of death or of the dead; see Peerlkamp's note on Hor. Carm. 2. 20. 6, where examples are cited. nocens is a favorite word of our author, cf. 24, 39, 99, 124, 132. dona refers to Dido's death (mortis fata), as Wernsdorf points out, not to the sword with which she killed herself, as Burman took it. The same idea is repeated in 31 Hanc reddis, Troiane, vicem? remittis: i. e. as a return for the kindness that I have shown you. 10. For the thought cf. Hor. Carm.4.11.35-36 Minuentur atrae carmine curae, and Ov. Trist. 4. 10. 111-2 Hic ego, finitimis quamvis circumsoner armis, Tristia quo possum carmine fata levo. gravi applied to poetry generally means serious, or on a serious theme. Here it refers rather to the bitterness of Dido's feeling toward Aeneas. 12. patientis suggests too patient endurance. Cf. Bell. Afr. 31. 8 patientem se timidumque hostium opinioni praebebat. Nep. Epam. 7 fuisse patientem suorumque iniurias ferentem civium. Quae maledicta dedi, miseris circumdata fatis. A, quotiens revocata manus dubiumque pependit! 13. quę A male victa Higt miseri A 14. Pendit A, Perdita Machly domus A, dolor Hoeufft castus A, vastus Baehrens, clausus Hoeufft, cassum Riese augit A 15. studit iratas A animus Burman collorare A, celerare Higt, celare Burman, cumulare Maehly 16. manu A 17. meritisque A, mentisque Higt, metrisque Wernsdorf 18. quotiens A dubitansque Maehly 20. ira A, ora Riese firmat A, format Schrader, formant scripsi 21. comendat A, condemnat Schrader vocę A 12-13. The ms. reading is clearly corrupt. The emendation adopted in the text, that of Traube, is palaeographically easy, involving only one change, regna to egena. The thought (10–13) is: "I ought to feel only anger, but when I try to reproach you, grief overcomes me; I cannot now, even though I wish, bring myself to utter such bitter reproaches as I used at first, when my wrong was still fresh in my mind." The substitution of regna may be explained on the supposition that the scribe may have looked ahead to domus in 14, or that he was influenced by the re in requiro. 13. maledicta: such as those which Vergil makes her utter, Aen. 4. 365–387; and her dying prayer, 612–629. 14. This line has been generally regarded as corrupt, and has called forth a great variety of emendations. The ms. reading, however, may be explained so as to make good sense, and should therefore be retained. The difficulty is in pendet. Wernsdorf explains it as equivalent to in ruinam pendet, pessum data est. This is not an unnatural extension of the usual meaning of the word, and is paralleled by Lucan. 1. 24 At nunc semirutis pendent quod moenia tectis. It is used with the meaning which labor has in Verg. Aen. 4. 318 miserere domus labentis, which the poet doubtless had in mind. It is also supported by the couplet on Venus, Anth. 56 Uritur igne suo fumantibus Aetna cavernis. Pendet amore Venus: uritur igne suo. In the latter Riese explains pendet as = suspensa est. |