My Hector's self now present; hither do
Come then; this altar will protect us all,

Or thou shalt with us die." She said, and to her
The long-aged took, and placed in the sacred seat.

'But see! elapsed from Pyrrhus' quell, Polites, One of the sons of Priam, by the long Porticoes flies, through midst of foes and weapons, And thrids the empty halls, hurt: burning Pyrrhus Him with infest wound pursues; now, and now, With the hand holds, and presses with the spear. (v) He, when whole way at last come fore the eyes (x)(y)And face parental, falls, and in much blood

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Effuses life; nor Priam, though death's prisoner,
Withal abstained then, nor voice spared, nor ire;
But, "Ha!" shouts, " for this wickedness, this dare 635
Outrageous, may the Gods, (if pious aught,

In heaven, such acts heeds,) worthy thank, and due
Guerdon repay thee, who hast made mine eyes
Behold mine offspring perish, and the father's
Presence contaminated with the son's death.

640

I crave the pardon of our parliament- every moment, on the point of transary orators for an explanation, which shows, in what total ignorance of their true meaning, these words are used vituperatively.

fixing [rather oppressing]. If Virgil had meant to say that Pyrrhus did actually transfix Polites, he would not have subjoined the words, Ut tandem ante oculos evasit, &c., descriptive of the continuation of the flight, without interruption, to the spot where the parents were sitting.

(y) V. 532.-Concidit, (con-cado,) fell down, as we say, all of a heap; as a man falls, when fainting from the loss of blood. Its opposite is Procumbit (pro-cumbo), lies stretched at full length, as a strong man, who has been felled to the ground by a single blow. See vers. 426.

Far other foe to Priam that Achilles

Thy leasing calls thy sire; who blushed the rights
And faith of suppliant, and the exsanguious
Body Hectorean to the tomb restored,

And me sent to my realms again." So said, (2) The old man his unwarrior weapon flung

Strokeless; which by the hoarse brass instantly
Repelled, in vain hung from the shield's boss top.
"Then to the sire Pelides thou shalt post,'
Pyrrhus replied, "the bearer of this news;

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To him my naughty deeds forget not tell,
And how degenerate Neoptolemus:

Now die." To the very altar, with the word,
He dragged him trembling, and in the much blood
Of his son slipping; in his locks entwined
(a) The left hand; forth with right the sparkling drew,
And blade plunged in his side up to the hilt.
So ended Priam's fates; this exit him

(z) V.545.-Conjecit. See note, En.ii,50. (a) V. 552.- · Coruscum Extulit...... abdidit ensem. Ensem belongs to both verbs, coruscum only to extulit. Extulit (ensem) coruscum, because the very act of drawing the sword made it sparkle; abdidit ensem (no longer coruscum), because the very act of plunging it (or stowing it away, see note, En. i, 60,) into the side, caused it to cease to sparkle.

In order, if possible, to preserve in the translation the accuracy of the original, I have here ventured even to deviate a little from the English idiom; if, however, the reader is too much attached to the English (inaccurate) form of expression, to endure the least deviation from it, even for the sake of accuracy, my temerity is of easy correction by the least skilful hand;

Drew with right the sparkling blade, And plunged it in his side, &c.

655

If it be not mere supererogation to refer to instances of a similar beautiful accuracy of language in a writer, whose language is always super-eminently accurate, I would here refer the reader to the special apposition of bellatrix to aurea cingula, and of virgo to viris, En. i, 493; to the junction of Fortuna with the two verbs finxit and finget, and of improba with the latter only, En. ii, 80; to the similar junction of interclusit and terruit with illos, and of interclusit alone with euntes, En. ii, 110; to the precise intorserit hastam, laeserit cuspide, En. ii, 230; and to the, if possible, still more precise, fundere lumen apex.... lambere flamma, En. ii, 682, where also to the observations see note in note, En. ii, 273, on raptaverat Hectora Exanimum..... corpus vendebat, En. i, 483; and to En. ii, 758, and note.

....

Removed by lot, when he had seen Troy's flames,
And Pergamus laid prostrate; Asia's ruler,

Once with so many lands, superb, and peoples: (6) A huge trunk on the shore he lies; a head

Torn from the shoulders; without name, a body.

'But me stern horror, then first time, environed;
Aghast I stood; rose, imaged to my mind,
My own dear sire, when I beheld the king,
Co-aged, at cruel wound his life exhaling ;
Rose, too, forlorn Creusa, my house sacked,
And the unhappy chance of little Iulus.

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665

Mine eye reverted asks what strength I muster :
All, weary, have deserted me, and, leaping,

670

Their bodies to the ground flung, or resigned them,
Sicked, to the flames. And now I was survivor

Sole, when in Vesta's precinct I behold
Tyndaris housed, and in the secret seat
(c) Silently lurking, (the bright conflagration
Me roaming lights, and on all things mine eyes
Everywhere casting): she, the Teucrian wreak
For Pergamus o'erthrown, and of the Danaï
The penalties, and her deserted lord's wrath,
Fearing with all fear, Troy's and fatherland's
(d) Common Erinys, had herself away put,
And out of sight was sitting by the altar.

(b) V. 557.-Jacet ingens littore truncus, &c. See note, En. ii, 453. Sir J. Denham's fine line, borrowed by Dryden,

A headless carcase, and a nameless thing, unfortunately falls short of Virgil's meaning, which is, that not only the

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680

My soul takes fire; rises my wrath, to avenge
My falling country, and the wicked punish :-
"Unscathed forsooth this wretch shall Sparta see,
And fatherland Mycenae; house behold,

And sons and sires and wedlock, and a queen

In triumph go, by Ilian dames in crowds,

685

Lackeyed, and Phrygian serfs; and by the sword 690
Priam have fallen! and Troy been burnt with fire!
And sweat with blood so oft Dardania's shore!
Never; for though, by woman's chastisement,
No name, of memory, won; nor counted glorious
Such victory; I shall be praised this sin

To have extinguished, and inflicted just pains:
'Twill gratify, to have given my soul its fill

:

Of vengeance-flame, and glutted my kin's cinders."
With such ejaculation I was rushing

Infuriate, when, (not to mine ears so clear

Erst,) offered herself visible, and shone

In pure light mid the night, my bounteous parent,
Confest a Goddess, and such and so great

As to heaven's wonners she is used appear;

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700

And with right hand me caught held, and thus, further,

Added with rosy mouth :-"My son, what so
Great smart this ire ungoverned rouses? Why

(e) Ragest? or whither fled of us thy care?

Wilt not first cast a look where thou hast left
Thine age-tired sire, Anchises? if survives
Thy spouse Creusa, or thy boy Ascanius?

(e) V. 595.-Nostri. Throughout the rest of her speech, Venus speaks of herself in the singular number; by the plural nostri therefore she means,

710

not, herself alone, but herself and Anchises, and, perhaps, the other members of Eneas's family. See vers. 740.

Whom round on all sides scour the Graian squadrons,
And, but my care resisted, who had perished

In the flames ere now, or by the foeman's sword.
Not Spartan Tyndaris' hated loveliness,

Nor inculpated Paris, but the Gods',

715

(f) The Gods' inclemency this opulent greatness O'erturns, and, from its summit, prostrates Troy. (g)(h) Behold! (for all, which, fore thee, as thou look'st, Drawn, dulls thy mortal vision, and, damp, spreads 720 Darkness around, that cloud I will away snatch; Thou any bidding fear not, of thy parent,

Nor to her precepts, to obey refuse :)

Here, where thou see'st these flung-asunder masses,
These rocks from rocks away torn, and, with dust 725
Mixed, the smoke waving, Neptune shakes the walls,
And ground-works with his mighty trident emoved,
And from its seat o'ertumbles the whole city :
Here Juno's fiercest leading holds the Scaean,
(i) And furent, her bands sociate from the ships

Calls, sword-girt: on the highest citadel already (k)(Tritonian (back thy look cast,) Pallas sits (m)

(f)V.603.-Opes. See note, En.i,364. (9) V. 604.—Aspice, &c. Independently of the defence, of which Virgil's account of the taking of Troy is otherwise capable (see note, vers. 5), the poet, calling in the hostile Gods, and even Jupiter himself, to aid in the taking and destruction of the city, already (vers. 351,) deserted by its own Gods, seems to be invulnerably armed against the assaults of those critics, who, with Napoleon at their head (see note, vers. 5,) insist that his whole narrative is unstrategical, incredible, impossible.

730

(h) V. 604. Omnem, quae nunc...... nubem eripiam. Here, as in several other places, (see vers. 471 and note; also vers. 552 and note,) I have endeavored to transfer to the English, not merely the meaning, but the very involution, of Virgil's words.

(i) V. 613.—A navibus; from the ships; i. e. from the encampment beside the ships, which, sciz. were drawn up on the strand. See note, vers. 30. Dryden, with his usual incorrectness : Urging on shore the tardy Grecian bands.

(k)V. 615.-Respice. The commentators, forgetting that Venus has just

(1) (m) For these references see next page.