Thorough, whence wretched Trojans their vain missiles

(2) Flinging. A tower precipitous that stood,

Reared starward on the roof-top, (whence all Troy
Wont to be seen, ships of the Danaï,

And camp Achaian,) round with iron, where

(m) To the top story insecure the joint,

Emprising, from its lofty seat we have uptorn,
And forward pushed; with sudden lapse, it drags

(e-vado,) go the whole way; pass over the entire space, whether upward, downward, or on the level; whether physically, as in the passage before us, or metaphorically as in Terent. Adelph. iii, 4, 63.

Verum nimia illaec licentia Profecto evadet in aliquod magnum malum. Burmann, in his commentary on this passage, and Forcellini, in his dictionary, interpreting evado by ascendo, transfer to this verb a meaning wholly foreign to it, and contained only (incidentally) in the context.

66

() V. 460.. Turrim in praecipiti stantem, &c. In praecipiti stantemh. e. in alto positam; Cf. Juven, i, 149. Omne in praecipiti vitium stetit, i.e. summum gradum assecutum est." Heyne. I entirely dissent from this interpretation, 1st. Because, in praecipiti never means in alto, but always (not only in Virgil, but in all other Latin authors, and even in the very passage of Juvenal which Heyne quotes in support of his gloss,) on the edge of a precipice, or in such a situation that a headlong fall would be easy and probable. 2ndly. Because, if this interpretation be correct, Virgil has committed the double error, (a) of stating twice over that the turret was seated in a high situation, (first, in the words in praecipiti stantem, and then in the immediately succeeding words summisque sub astra Eductam tectis,) and (b) of wholly omitting to state that it was seated, (where it certainly

550

must have been seated, or it could not have fallen headlong on the besiegers,) sciz. on the edge of the roof, perpendicularly over the front wall.

In praecipiti stantem being understood to mean on the edge of the roof, the description of the turret becomes simple, clear, and vivid; it was summis tectis, on the top of the roof; eductam sub astra, raised to a great height above it; in praecipiti stantem, standing perpendicularly on the roof edge, above the wall of the palace.

not

(m) V. 463. Qua summa labantes Juncturas tabulata dabant. Where the turret was connected with, and easily separable from, the highest story of the palace below. Heyne and Wagner understand summa tabulata to mean the highest story of the turret; but, admitting that the turret had a number of stories, the Trojans could have attacked round about with iron the highest story of a turret, eductam sub astra, without ascending the turret ; and having ascended, it seems impossible to comprehend how they could precipitate it on the Greeks, without precipitating themselves along with it; or indeed, how being in, or on, it, they could precipitate it at all. The words convellimus and impulimus are, of themselves, sufficient to show that the Trojans stood on the roof of the palace, while they tore up the turret, sedibus altis, (from its high seat, sciz. on the roof,) and pushed it forward, so as to cause it to fall on the besiegers.

Loud ruin, and upon the Danaï bands

Falls wide; but others take their place; nor stones Have ceased the while, nor missiles any kind.

(n) 'Before the vestibule, and sill immediate,
Pyrrhus exults, coruscating in weapons
(0) And brazen light: the coluber to light, so,

On noxious grass fed, (whom cold brume had covered, Swollen, under ground,) now from his cast slough new And youthful-brilliant, with uplifted breast,

High to the sun his slippery back convolves, (P) And muzzle-twinkles with his tongues tri-furrow.

With him huge Periphas, and he that drove
Whilom Achilles' steeds, armigerous

Automedon; with him all Scyros' isle

Come storming, and the flames fling to the summits :
Himself, among the first, bipennate axe

Seizing, the hard door forces, and the plated

(9) Posts brazen from the hinge tears; and hath now,

(r)

The plank excising, hollowed the firm oak

Into a huge-yawned window; appears within

570

The house; stand patent the long halls; appears 575
The penetrail of Priam and the old kings;

And they see armed men standing in the threshold.

'But the interior dwelling is confounded

With groan and miserable hubbub; shrieks

Thorough with woman's wailing the house-concave; 580
Strikes the gold stars the shout: then pavid mothers,

tongues,) forky sting; and micat ore (twinkles in the mouth,) darts. The following considerations, however, amongst numerous others, prevented me from even so much as inclining to give ear to the dictates of indolence, and translate after such fashion; 1st. That there is no lack of fluent translations of Virgil. 2ndly. That the essence of good writing consists in the clear, manly, correct, instructive sense, (Scribendi rectè, sapere est et principium et fons,) of which the fluent sound is at most but an ornament; a beautiful ornament, indeed, but still no more than an ornament, and for that reason always to be sacrificed, when its sacrifice becomes necessary for the preservation of that which it ornaments. 3rdly, and perhaps not least, that it is not morally correct to palter with an author's meaning, (and conse

quently with his dearest of all treasures, his reputation,) for the sake of attracting to self, by means of a meretricious fluency, the but too easily won admiration of the ignorant. See second note, vers. 272.

(q) V. 480.-Postesque a cardine vellit. It is sufficiently clear from this description, that the postes of the door of Priam's palace formed part, not of the wall, but of the door itself, and turned, with it, upon the hinges. See

also verse 493.

(r) V. 486.—At domus interior...... Tum pavidae, &c. Two distinct, successive pictures: one of the confusion in the domus interior, the gynaeceum ; the other, of the wandering of the women (after they have left the gynaeceum,) over the palace at large, tectis ingentibus.

The huge house roaming, hold the posts embraced, And print with kisses. Pyrrhus' strength paternal (s) On urges; which nor closures, nor the guards

585

Themselves, endure may: to the frequent ram
Totters the door, and, from the hinge emoved,
Prostrate the posts lie: force makes path; the immitted
Danaï burst entrance, massacre the foremost,

And wide the places fill with soldiery.

590

(t) Not foamy river, when, with conquering gurge,
It bursts the dyke's opposing mass, so furious
Borne on the fields a-heap, and all the plains through
Drags herd and stall: myself have seen with slaughter
Raging Neoptolemus, and on the threshold

The twain Atridae; Hecuba have seen

And daughters hundred; and, amid the altars,

Priam defiling with his blood the fires

Himself had sanctified; prostrate those fifty

Bedchambers, hope so great of children's children,
Posts, with barbaric gold and spoils, superb:

Where the fire spares, the Danaï obtain.

595

600

And what was Priam's fate? perhaps thou askest.
When the misfortune of the captured city,

And wrecked his dwelling's entrance, he beheld,

And midst the penetrail the foe, in arms

Unwonted long, age-palsied shoulders casing

In vain, and girt with useless sword, the old man

605

(s) V. 491.-Claustra. See note En. Then David said, God hath broken

ii, 259.

(t) V. 496. Non sic, aggeribus ruptis, quum spumeus amnis Exiit, &c.

in upon mine enemies by mine hand,
like the breaking forth of waters.
1 Chronicles, xiv, 11.

Into the thick of the foe rushes, to die.
Amid the buildings, and beneath the ether's

Bare axis, a huge altar stood, and, close by,
Incumbing o'er the altar, and, with shadow
Embracing the Penates, a most ancient
Laurel. Here Hecuba and daughters vainly
About the altars, (like precipitous doves

In black storm,) close sat crowded, and the Gods'

Images clasping; but, when youthful-armed
Priam himself she saw, "What so dire meaning
Most wretched spouse," she said, "hath with these weapons

(u) Girt thee? or whither rushest? Not such aid
The time needs, nor defences such; not though