: Phænissa et pariter puero donisque movetur. NOTES the act. explere. Or expleri quoad mentem, a Grecism: to be satisfied as to her mind -to satisfy her mind. Ardescitque: and she is inflamed with love, while she gazes upon him. 715. Falsi genitoris: his pretended, or fictitious father. 717. Hæc hæret: she sticks upon him with her eyes-she sticks upon him with her whole heart. This very strongly marks the steadfast attention, with which Dido observed, and gazed upon him. 718. Fovet: she hugs him to her bosom. 719. Insideat: lies in wait for her, unhappy (ill-fated) woman. This word very forcibly expresses the insidious designs of Cupid. 720. Acidaliæ. Venus, so called from a fountain of that name in Beotia, dedicated to the Graces, the daughters of Venus and Bacchus. Abolere Sichæum: to obliterate or efface from her mind the memory of Siche us. He had been the husband of Dido; to whom she had sworn inviolable constancy. 721. Prævertere: he endeavors to preoccupy her languid affections, with an ardent love for Æneas, and her heart long since unaccustomed to love: lest Juno should inspire her with hatred toward him, and his friends. Vivo amore. Some commentators understood by these words: a love for a living object, in opposition to one that is dead, as was Sichæus. Rumus takes vivo in the sense of vehementi; and prævertere, in the sense of præoccupare. Heyne has this remark: Quod occupamus, in eo simul prævertimus alios (we prevent others) ne occupent. 723. Mensa: the tables, by melon. the food upon them. Postquàm prima: when the first rest was to the feast-when the first course or service was ended. It was customary among the Romans to divide the feast into two courses, and sometimes into three. Hence we find prima mensa, and secunda mensa. 724. Coronant vina. By this we are to understand that they filled the bowls or goblets to the brim. Some understand by it their dressing or adorning of the bowls with garlands; which was a custom among the Romans on certain occasions. Volutant: in the sense of mittunt. 726. Incensi lychni: lighted lamps hung from the golden ceilings. 727. Noctem: the darkness. Funalia: torches lighted. Flammis: in the sense of luce. 728. Gemmis auroque: in the sense of aureis gemmis, by Hend. 729. Belus. This cannot be the father of Dido, but some one of her ancestors; perhaps the founder of her family. For otherwise there can be no propriety in the words: omnes à Belo: all after Belus. Mero: properly new wine. Here wine in general. 733. Minores: descendents. Bona: propitious-kind. 736. Libavit. This libation or offering consisted in pouring some drops of wine upon the table at feasts, or upon the altar at sacrifices, as an acknowledgment of the bounty of the gods. Laticum: gen. plu. of later, in the sense of vini. Et vos, ô cœtum, Tyrii, celebrate faventes. 737. Eoque libato, illa Primaque libato, summo tenùs attigit ore. prima attigit reliquum Tum Bitiæ dedit increpitans: ille impiger hausit Spumantem pateram, et pleno se proluit auro: Citharâ crinitus Iopas vini 740. Pòst alii proceres Pòst alii proceres. hauserunt 743. Unde genus ho minum ortum est, et Personat auratâ, docuit quæ maximus Atlas. 735 740 744. Canit Arcturum Unde hominum genus, et pecudes: unde imber, et ignes: 748. Vario sermone Ingeminant plausum Tyrii, Troësque sequuntur. cum Ænea 751. Quibus armis filius Aurora venisset ad Trojam : nunc quales Necnon et vario noctem sermone trahebat 745 Multa super Priamo rogitans, super Hectore multa 751 essent equi Diomedis Nunc, quibus Aurora venisset filius armis: 753. Age, O hospes, Nunc, quales Diomedis equi: nunc, quantus Achilles. et die nobis à prima ori- Immò age, et à primâ, dic, hospes, origine nobis gine, insidias 755. Nam jam septiInsidias, inquit, Danaûm, casusque tuorum, ma estas portat te erErroresque tuos: nam te jam septima portat rantem omnibus terris. Omnibus errantem terris et fluctibus æstas. 755 NOTES. 737. Alligit: she just touched it with her lips. Tenus: in the sense of tantummodò. The Roman ladies were not permitted to drink wine except at religious ceremonies. Dido, therefore, takes it, but she does not drink deep. She touches it with her lips: she just tastes it, and no more. Summo ore: the extremity of her mouth-her lips. Hausit in the sense of potavit. Betias drank off the bowl with so much haste and eagerness, that he wet himself (proluit se,) by spilling some of the wine, which ran down his chin and clothes. Auro: properly gold. Hence by meton. any thing made of gold. Here the golden bowl out of which he drank. 741. Allas. See En. 4. 247. 742. Labores solis: eclipses of the sun. Personal: he sings-plays upon his lyre. Ignes: lightning. 744. Arcturum: a star in the constellation Bootes, near the tail of the Great Bear. Hyadas: these were seven stars in the front of the Bull. See Geor. 1. 138. Geminos Triones. These were two Northern signs; formerly called, sometimes, the greater and less Plough, because the stars were thought to be in the form of a team of oxen, before a plough. Pluvias: in the sense of imbriferas. 745. Quid hyberni soles: why the winter suns hasten so much to touch themselves in the ocean, or what delay retards the slow nights. Simply: why the winter days are so short, and those of summer so long. The summer nights may be said to be slow in their coming on, because of the length of the day. They seem to be tardy and reluctant, as if unwilling to arrive. This song of Iopas is imitated from the Odyssey of Homer. Virgil, however, has surpassed his master. The subject of Homer's song is the actions of Ulysses. But this of Virgil is of the sublimest kind, comprehending the most profound subjects of philosophy. 749. Infelix Dido: unhappy Dido drew out the night in various conversation, and drank large draughts of love. Virgil, says Davidson, is always very happy in setting objects in contrast to one another. Here the anxious situation of Dido's lovesick mind is seen in a fine light in opposition to the general mirth. While Tyrians and Trojans give loose to joy, and are making the roofs resound with their repeated acclamations, Eneas alone engages Dido's thoughts and attention. She relishes neither the pleasures of the feast, nor of the song; and can listen to no music, but the charms of his voice. Bibebat quasi longo haustu, says Heyne. 750. Filius Aurora. Memnon. See 489. supra. Super: about or concerning. 753. Dic: by Apocope for dice, in the sense of narra. 755. Septima astas: the seventh summer. The meaning seems to be: the seventh summer now brings you hither, after you have wandered on every land, and on every sea. Fluctibus: in the sense of maribus. What is the character of this book? When does it open? Where was Eneas at that time? QUESTIONS. What prevented him from proceeding to Italy? Who caused the storm? At whose instigation was it raised? What damage did the fleet of Æneas sustain? Who assuaged the storm? Did he render the Trojans any other assistance? Where did Æneas then direct his course? After his arrival, how was he received? Who conducted him to Carthage, and gave him an account of the country? Having entered the city, to what place does he go first? Whom does he see there? What effect had the appearance of Dido upon him? Are there any episodes in this book? How many can you mention? What did he do? What city did he build? Who succeeded Eneas in the government? What city did Ascanius build? How long was this city the seat of government? Who was the mother of Romulus? Whose daughter was she? How were Romulus and his brother Re mus brought up? What is the fabulous account? What is the more probable account? What was their mode of life? What did Romulus do as soon as he came to years of maturity? Where did Romulus found his city? What was the end of Remus? What gave rise to the quarrel between the brothers? What other name had Romulus? From what is it derived? Who were the Amazons? From what is the name derived? Are they supposed to have been altogether a fabulous people? Who was their queen in the time of the Trojan war? What were the several names of Italy? For what was the word used by synec.? What are the subjects of Homer's song? LIBER SECUNDUS. DIDO having desired Æneas to relate to her the sufferings of his countrymen, he proceeds to the mournful subject. He informs her that the city was taken after a siege of ten years, through the treachery of Sinon, and the stratagem of a wooden horse: that it was his determination not to survive the ruins of his country, till otherwise advised by Hector's ghost, and the appearance of his mother Venus: that he then conceived the plan of leaving his country, and seeking a settlement in another land. He then informs her of his carrying his aged father upon his shoulders, while his little son followed by his side, and his wife Creusa at some distance behind: that when he came to the place of general rendezvous, he found a great concourse of people ready to engage in any enterprise: that here he misses his wife, and, frantic with despair, he resolved to rescue her, at the peril of his life. For this purpose he returned to the city; but, in the adventure, her ghost appeared to him, quieted his mind, and informed him of the land destined to him by fate. He also relates the particulars of his own adventures in that fatal night, when the powerful kingdom of Priam fell to the ground. This book may justly be considered the most interesting one of the whole Eneid; and was one of the six which the poet himself read in the presence of Augustus and Octavia. CONTICUERE omnes, intentique ora tenebant. 4. Narrando ut Danai Trojanas ut opes, et lamentabile regnum midonum NOTES. 2. Toro the couch on which he sat at supper. Orsus: began. From the verb ordior. Est is to be supplied. 3. Ut in the sense of quomodo. Opes: in the sense of potentiam. Lamentabile: in the sense of plorandum. 5. Danai: the Greeks, so called from Danaus, one of their kings. Quæque miserrima ipse: both what things (scenes) the most pitiable I myself saw, and those of which I was a principal part. 7. Myrmidonum. The Myrmidons were the troops of Achilles. Dolopum. The Dolopians were the troops of Phenix; or, as some say, of Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles. Ulyssei. Ulysses was the son of Laërtes, and Anticlea, king of the islands of Ithaca and Dulachium. He married Penelope, the daughter of Icarus, a virtuous and amiable woman, with whom he lived for a time in great happiness and domestic enjoyment. After the rape of Helen by Paris, he was summoned by the other princes of Greece, to the war that had been resolved upon against Troy. Unwilling to leave his kingdom and beloved wife, he pretended to be insane: and yoking an ox and an horse together, he went ploughing the shore, which 5 he sowed with salt. But he was detected by Pelamides, a wise and eminent statesman, in this manner. He took his son Telemachus, then a child, and laid him before the plough of his father, who turned it aside to save his son. He was obliged to go to Troy, where he distinguished himself both by his valor, his prudence, and his sagacity. By his means, Achilles was discovered among the daughters of Lycomedes, king of the island of Scytos, under whose guardianship his mother had placed him; and Philoctetes was obliged to leave Lemnos, and take with him the arrows of Hercules; without which it was said Troy could not be taken. He performed many daring achievements, and executed many hazardous enterprises. After the death of Achilles, he was rewarded with the arms of that hero. On his return home, he was exposed to many dangers, hardships, and misfortunes, during the space of ten years. After an absence of twenty years, he arrived in his kingdom, to the great joy of his constant wife. He is said to have been slain by Telegonus, a son of his by the sorceress Circe. During his absence, his wife had many suitors, whom she put off by telling them Temperet à lachrymis? et jam nox humida cœlo Est in conspectu Tenedos, notissima famâ NOTES. that the could not comply with their wishes, at she had finished a piece of work which then in her loom; but which she was careful not to do: for she undid in the night what she did in the day. By this device she continued faithful to her husband. The return of Ulysses to his native land, and the adventures of Telemachus in search of his father, form the basis of the Odyssey. 9. Cadentia sidera. In the language of poetry, the stars may be said to set, when they disappear at the approach of day; and they are said to rise, when they become visible, at the approach of night. From this, we are to understand that it was near morning, when Eneas entered upon the mournful subject. Suadent: invite to sleep. 11. Laborem: struggle. Heyne says, cladem, ipsum excidium urbis. 12. Horret: shudders at, or dreads, the recollection. Refugit luctu. The verb here is in the perfect tense. As soon as his mind was turned to the mournful subject, it shrunk back, and revolted from it. This change of tense is an elegance: it marks the quickness of the impression upon his mind. The verb refugio forms the third person of the present and perfect of the indicative, refugit. The penult of the former is short, of the latter long, as in the prescnt case. Some read Luctumque refugit: declines the mournful task; which is the same sentiment. 13. Repulsi. The Greeks are here said to be repulsed by the fates, because it was decreed that Troy could not be taken till the expiration of ten years, from the cominencement of the siege. Fracti: disheartened. 15. Instar montis. It hath been objected that this story of the horse has not probability enough to support it; that, besides the hardiness of the enterprise, it is not to be supposed that the Trojans would receive 10 10. Si tantus amor sit tibi 15 20 17. Simulant equum esse votum pro reditu domum 18. Illi sortiti dolecta within their walls so enormous and suspicious an engine with so implicit credulity. But the poet, as Mons. Segrais observes, has finely contrived the matter, so as to render it not only plausible, but in a manner necessary and unavoidable. The Trojans, having heard the story of Sinon, and seeing so strong a confirmation of the truth of it in the terrible disasters that befel Laocoon and his sons, had every reason to believe the machine was an offering sacred to Minerva, and that all who offered violence to it should feel the vengeance of heaven, as Laocoon and his sons had done; and therefore they could not act otherwise than the poet supposes them to have done, consistently with their religion, and system of belief. As to the hardiness of the undertaking on the part of the Greeks, M. Segrais observes, that modern history furnishes examples of equally hardy enterprises, undertaken and exccuted with success. He instances the Hollanders, forty of whom ventured to conceal themselves in a vessel, seemingly laden with turf, and underwent those examinations which are usually made for contraband goods, and having landed, retook the town of Breda from the Spaniards. 16. Interunt: they line or cover the ribs. Costas. These were the timbers that gave form and figure to the horse-the frame. Sectâ abiete with sawn fir-with planks or boards of fir. 17 Fama: in the sense of rumor. 18. Sortili delecta corpora: having chosen a select body of men, they privately shut them up, &c. Sortiti: properly, having chosen by lot. |