in his longing for the return of his father to redress his wrongs, in his kindly hospitality, and sense of the outraged honour of his house νεμεσσήθη δ ̓ ἐνὶ θυμῷ ξεῖνον δηθὰ θύρῃσιν ἐφεστάμεν. That Iulus fails to awaken a similar interest, that we do not share his ardour in the chase or the glow of pride with which he lays his first enemy low, is due to the fact that the poet's imagination fails in the vital realisation of his conception. Most of the minor characters who appear in the Aeneid require no analysis. Creusa, Anna, and Andromache are vague impersonations of womanly tenderness and fidelity of affection. Lavinia, the shadowy Helen of the story, appears only for a moment, and though she is described by images suggestive of beauty and of a delicate nurture Alba rosa 2, mixta rubent ubi lilia multa we are left without the knowledge by which to measure the extent of the wrong done to her and Turnus by the enforced severance of their affections. Amata exhibits the blind animal rage of a mother whose affections have been outraged, but her figure wants the firm outlines and substance of the Hecuba of the Iliad. The prophetic office of Helenus enables him to advance the action of the story by preparing the mind of Aeneas for his immediate future: the jealous interference of Jarbas accelerates the doom of Dido: Acestes performs the part of a kindly host to the Trojans in Sicily. But of any individual traits of character they exhibit no trace whatever. Drances serves as a vehicle of impassioned oratory, and as a kind of foil to the generous impulsiveness of Turnus,-just as the timid craft of Arruns is a foil to the splendid rashness of Camilla;-and perhaps he is not much less real to our imaginations than Polydamus, who is the only personage of the Iliad that we think of rather as the embodiment of an abstract 1 And his spirit was wroth that the stranger tarried long at the door.' 2 Where the white lilies blush with the mingling of many roses.' 84] SECONDARY PERSONAGES 401 quality,―moderation,—than as a living man. But in the delineation of Drances there is no sign of that power which, by a few graphic strokes of description and the force of dramatic insight, has made Thersites stand forth for all times as the type of an envious and ignoble demagogue. Though there is more effort of thought in the delineation of Latinus as swayed to and fro by his religious sense of duty and the influence of others, and though there is true pathos in the words with which he allows the declaration of war to be made Nam mihi parta quies, omnisque in limine portus: yet he does not live before us as Priam lives in the scene with Helen on the walls of the town, and he has no power to move our hearts with the awful compassion which the grief of Priam awakens in the last books of the Iliad. Perhaps the most impressive of the secondary personages in the Aeneid is Evander, as he appears in the dignity of his simple state in the eighth Book, and in the dignity of his great sorrow in the eleventh. Pallas and Lausus, Nisus and Euryalus, afford occasions for pathetic situations, rather than perform any part affording scope for the display of character. The romantic career of Camilla interests us; and she has the further attraction to modern readers of reminding them of a martial heroine of actual history: but we scarcely recognise in the vivid delineation of her deeds those complex elements which in their union form a whole character for our imaginations, whether in the representations of literature or in our experience of life. The chief personal interest of the story is centred in those whose fortunes and action bring them into antagonism with the decrees of Fate, and who perish in consequence,-in Turnus, Mezentius, and Dido. Patriotism, courage, and passion are exhibited in a fatal but not ignoble struggle with the purposes and chosen instruments of Omnipotence. The tragic interest of this antagonism stimulates the imagination of the poet to a For my rest is assured, my haven is close at hand-it is of happy funeral rites that I am bereft.' more energetic delineation of character. And in the representation of this struggle it is quite true, as has been well shown by Mr. Nettleship, that Virgil's own sympathies go with the 'victrix causa' which 'pleased the gods,' not with the 'victa' which pleases our modern sensibilities. He professes not to question but 'To justify the ways of God to men.' The death of Mezentius satisfies poetical as well as political justice. Turnus brings his doom upon himself by the intemperate vehemence and self-confidence with which he asserts his personal claims. Though Aeneas and Dido are both represented as 'forgetful of their better name,' yet, as happens in real life more generally than in fiction, it is the woman only who suffers the penalty of this forgetfulness. Yet though in all these cases the doom of the sufferers is brought about in part through their own fault, Virgil does not, as an inferior artist might do, endeavour to augment the sympathy with his chief personage, by an unworthy detraction from his antagonist. No scorn of treachery or cowardice, no indignation against cruelty, mingles with the feeling of admiration which the general bearing of Turnus excites. The basis of his character seems to be a generous vehemence and proud independence of spirit. If Aeneas typifies the civilising mission of Rome and is to be regarded as an embodiment of the qualities which enabled her to give law to the world, Turnus typifies the brave but not internecine resistance offered to her by the other races of Italy, and is an embodiment of their high and martial spirit of that 'Itala virtus' which, when tempered by Roman discipline, gave Rome the strength to fulfil her mission. The cause which moves Turnus to resist the Trojans is no unworthy one, either on patriotic grounds or on grounds personal to himself. If the Greeks were justified in making war against the Trojans on account of Helen, the Italians may be justified in making war against the same people on account of Lavinia. His appeals to his countrymen are addressed to the most elemental of patriotic impulses § 4] CHARACTER OF TURNUS nunc coniugis esto 403 Quisque suae tectique memor: nunc magna referto He slays his enemy in fair battle, and though he shows exultation in his victory, yet he does not sully it by any ferocity of act or demeanour— qualem meruit Pallanta remitto, Quisquis honos tumuli, quidquid solamen humandi est After his hopes of success are shaken by the first defeat of the Latins, and by the failure of the mission to Diomede, and when the timidity of Latinus and the envy of Drances urge the abandonment of the struggle, he still retains a proud confidence in his Italian allies Non erit auxilio nobis Aetolus et Arpi, At Messapus erit, felixque Tolumnius etc. He is ready, like an earlier Decius, to devote his life in single combat against the new Achilles, armed with the armour of Vulcan vobis animam hanc soceroque Latino He sees the inspiring hopes of triumph disappear, but the austerer glory of suffering remains, and with a firm heart he accepts that gift of a severe fate 5 ’. 1 'Now be each mindful of wife and home: recall now the mighty deeds, your fathers' renown.' 2 'I give back Pallas even as was due to him; whatever respect there is to a tomb, whatever comfort in burial, I freely bestow.' Cp. the contrast :ἦ ῥα καὶ Εκτορα δίον ἀεικέα μήδετο ἔργα. 3The Aetolian and Arpi will not aid us, but Messapus will and fortunate Tolumnius.' For you and my father-in-law Latinus, I, Turnus, second to none of the men of old in valour, have devoted this my life: "me only Aeneas challenges "ay, let him challenge me; nor let Drances rather, if this is the anger of Heaven, pay the penalty by his death, or if it is a call to valour and glory, let the valour and glory be his.' Aen. xi. 440, etc. 5 Napier's Peninsular War, Death of Sir John Moore. Usque adeone mori miserum est? Vos o mihi Manes Descendam, magnorum haut unquam indignus avorum1, In the final encounter he yields, not to the terror inspired by his earthly antagonist, but to his consciousness of the hostility of Heaven di me terrent et Iuppiter hostis 2. His last wish is that the old age of his father, Daunus, should not be deprived of the consolation of his funeral honours. Although the headlong vehemence of his own nature, no less than his opposition to the beneficent purposes of Omnipotence, seems to justify his fate, yet, as in the Ajax of Sophocles, the av@adía in Turnus is rather the flaw in an essentially heroic temper, than his dominant characteristic. The poet's sympathy with the high spirit of youth, as manifested in love and war, and his pride in the strong metal out of which the Italian race was made, have led him, perhaps involuntarily, to an embodiment of those chivalrous qualities, which affect the modern imagination with more powerful sympathy than the qualities of a temperate will and obedience to duty which he has striven to embody in the representation of Aeneas. The vigorous sketch of Mezentius, as he appears in Book x., has received from some critics more admiration than the sustained delineation of Turnus through all the vicissitudes of feeling and fortune through which he passes. Chateaubriand says, that this figure is the only one in the Aeneid that is 'fièrement dessinée.' Landor describes him as 'the hero transcendently above all others in the Aeneid.' And there is certainly a vague grandeur of outline in this conception of the 'contemptor divom' and oppressor of his people, who is 'not only the most passionate in his grief for Lausus, but likewise 1 'Is death then so sad a doom? Be ye merciful to me, spirits of the dead, since the favour of the Powers above is turned from me; a spirit, pure and untainted by that shame, I shall pass to you, never dishonouring my mighty ancestors.' Aen. xii. 644-8. 2It is the Gods that terrify me, and the enmity of Jove.' |