taken away the cloud which dimmed Eneas's mortal vision, and told him to behold with his eyes (Aspice, vers.604,) understand respice in its secondary or derived sense only. Respicere ist nicht aspicere, das schon Gegenwärtige ansehen," Thiel; who, having thus told us what the meaning of the word is not, proceeds to say what its meaning is, sciz. "gib wohl Acht;" and, wholly unmindful of the context, adds, " Respice konnte Venus sagen, ohne schon die Sache selbst zu zeigen." But Virgil knew better than to clog the action of his piece, at the most excited moment, with a weak admonition to pay attention, and makes Venus say, not "merke wohl auf” (Forgiber), but, (as respexeris, Bucol. viii, 102; respexit, Georg. iv, 491, &c.) Respice, look behind thee, where jam (already) Tritonian Pallas, &c. Thus understood, respice has a true picturesque and dramatic effect, and corresponds exactly to Aspice, vers. 604; the meaning being, Aspice, see here before thee, Neptune overturning the walls and foundations of the city, and Juno calling on the enemy to the gates; and, respice, see there behind thee, Pallas already in possession of the citadel. It is singular, and almost incredible, yet, I think, true, that this is the meaning of respicere, in the very passage (En. iii, 593,) quoted by Thiel and Forbiger, to prove that its meaning in the passage before us is "merke wohl auf." For an instance, in which the commentators have made the precisely opposite mistake with respect to aspicere, see note, vers. 283.

(1) V. 615.-Respice. Observe the effective position of this word; sciz. immediately before the object to which it points, Pallas, and immediately after the words exciting expectation, Jam summas arces, Tritonia. See vers. 204, and note.

(m) V. 616.-Insedit. Dryden here, as at vers. 613, (where see note,) a more literal interpreter than wont, presents us with this Virgilian picture:

See Pallas, of her snaky buckler proud, Bestrides the tower, refulgent through the cloud.

(n) V. 616.-Nimbo. Here again, (our language possessing no terms distinctive of the different species of clouds,) I have been obliged, rather than misrepresent, or leave unexpressed, Virgil's meaning, to form a word from his own word. The nimbus is a circumscribed cloud, generally charged with hail, (En. v, 458); or thunder (En. ii, 113); or both (En. iv, 120); and, less frequent and formidable in the misty skies of these northern regions, well known and much dreaded under a clearer heaven, and in a warmer climate.

Sometimes the nimbus is small; "ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand" (I Kings, xviii, 44), and, like a racer, courier, or messenger, rapidly traverses the clear sky, from one side to the other. To such a nimbus, (sciz. on account of its direct and rapid motion,) racers leaving the goal are compared, En. v, 317; with such a nimbus Juno girds herself, when she descends from heaven to the Trojan camp (agens hiemem, nimbo succincta. En. x, 634): by such a nimbus Romulus is covered, and hid from the eyes of the bystanders, when he disappears from among men, (subitò, coorta tempestas, cum magno fragore tonitribusque, tam denso regem operuit nimbo, ut conspectum ejus concioni abstulerit; nec deinde in terris Romulus fuit. Livy, i, 16); and in the midst of such a nimbus is Pallas, in the passage before us, manifested to Eneas, by the miraculous agency of Venus. The encounter of two such nimbi was, perhaps, the only natural object with

Sometimes the nimbus, whether it be of separate formation, or produced by the coalition of several smaller nimbi into one, is so large as to cover the whole visible hemisphere. The darkness, produced by a nimbus of such magnitude, is equal to the darkness of night, and the hailstones or torrents of rain, which it discharges, destroy crops and roads, and carry away walls and bridges, and houses.

Qualis ubi ad terras abrupto sidere nimbus, It mare per medium; miseris heu praescia longè

Horrescunt corda agricolis; dabit ille ruinas Arboribus, stragemque satis; ruet omnia latè. En. xii, 451.

The damage occasioned by a vast nimbus, which, in 1788, traversed and ravaged a great part of France, has been estimated by M. Arago at 24,962,000 francs. See article Meteorology, in Encycl. Metropol., vol. v, p. 129. See also ibid. p. 150, et seq., for a philosophical account of nimbi, chiefly extracted from the essay, read by Mr. Howard before the Askesian society, 1802-3.

Servius and some other commentators have thought, that the nimbus, in the passage before us, is the halo, glory, or luminous circle, with which, in ancient no less than modern times, the heads of deities and eminent personages were represented surrounded. From this opinion, however, I must wholly dissent; 1st. Because I am not aware of any classical authority for the use of nimbus in this sense. 2ndly.

735

Because, however suitable á luminous halo might have been to Pallas under other circumstances, it would have been wholly unsuitable here, where it is plainly the intention of the poet to represent the Goddess clad in her terrors. It was not the mild, graceful, and benignant halo, but the storm-cloud, terrific in its appearance, and devastating in its effects, which would harmonise with the Gorgon. Even if otherwise suitable, the halo would have been but a poor, unmeaning, scarcely noticeable additament, in the midst of the burning city, and other grand objects surrounding. 3rdly. Because where, as already quoted, Juno descends from heaven, nimbo succincta, the nimbus is not the halo, but the storm-cloud, as is placed beyond doubt by the immediately adjoining agens hiemem, and the subsequent (vv.664,5,) nubi atrae and turbo.

If it be objected, that the nimbus of Pallas was not, like that of Juno, stormy and black, but effulgent; I reply, 1st. That a nimbus, consisting (like any other cloud,) only of perfectly transparent, colorless, particles, has no color except that which it derives from other objects, either by transmission or reflection; that its usual blackness depends altogether on its usual position between the beholder and the sun; and that, when placed in such a position as to reflect the rays of the sun to the beholder, it may appear not only luminous, but even colored. 2ndly. That the nimbus of Juno, in the passage above quoted, is correctly represented as black, because being immediately above the heads of the Trojans, it intercepted the light of the sun, or at least that of the sky and 3rdly. That Virgil (a) could not represent the nimbus of Pallas as black, because there was no light, either of the sun, or sky, whose interception

might cause it to appear so; and (b) was under the necessity (even if it had not been, otherwise, what was precisely most suitable to the action of his drama,) to represent it, as luminous essentially, or per se, for the very same reason as he had previously represented Venus herself as refulgent purâ in luce, sciz. in order to afford some explanation how Eneas was enabled (even after his eyes had been miraculously opened,) to discern the object at all. Or, to make my meaning clearer; it being night when Eneas's eyes were opened, the objects, which Venus wished him to see, could not be discerned, unless they were either luminous in themselves, or illuminated by a supernatural day; but the production of a supernatural day, for the purpose of exhibiting a few objects, not only was unnecessary, but would have been ineffectual and even absurd, because Eneas's attention would have been distracted by the multitude of indifferent objects, presented to his view at once. The poet, therefore, renders the objects visible by the simplest, shortest, and most effectual contrivance, sciz. by making them luminous per se. He does not, indeed, specify the luminous

740

745

ness of all the objects, thus presented miraculously to Eneas's view, the ratio poetica not requiring so great particularity; but, having specified and explained with respect to one, leaves the reader to apply that explanation to the rest.

Wagner's rationale of the effulgence of Pallas's nimbus, sciz. that it was produced by the reflection of the flames of the city, however it might have been accepted, if the nimbus had been real, is not only absurd, as applied to an unreal and visionary nimbus, visible to Eneas alone, but altogether unworthy of the grandeur of the scene and epopee.

The nature of the nimbus being such as described above, the reader will perceive the propriety with which Virgil (En. i, 51. et seq.,) assigns to the nimbi and the tempestates a common country, and a common king.

For a similar instance of a cloud luminous per se, see En. vii, 142. (0) V. 621. · Condidit. See note, vers. 401.

(p) V. 626.—Summis....in montibus. Somewhere on, or among, the high mountains, the precise situation being fixed by the subsequent jugis. See third note, vers. 631.