The father at the altar. Was it then For this, O bounteous mother! that through weapons And flames thou snatchest me, that I may see In midmost penetrail the foe, may see Ascanius, and my sire, and by their side Creusa, butchered, each in the other's blood? Visit; never shall all of us to-day Die unrevenged." Here, am I with the sword Was in the shield inserting, and the house forth To whom thy sire; and I, erst called thy wife ?" As, with such groan, Creusa, the whole house, Miraculous to tell; for, mid the hands, (v) V. 683.—Fundere lumen apex..... Lambere flamma comas. Not two distinct phenomena, one, a stalk, or tige, of light, and the other, a flame licking the hair; but, flamma being placed in apposition with apex,) one single phe 800 805 810 nomenon, luminous at the centre, and flammeous at the circumference. See note, En. ii, 522. (x) V. 683.—Apex.......innoxia....... Lambere flamma. Iλwoσas wosì rugós. Acts of the Apostles, ii, 3. Of light around, and, with innoxious flame, Lick his soft hair, and feed about his temples. 815 Locks haste to shake, and, with the fount, to extinguish Sire hath his eyes in joy lift, and palms stretched 820 Then, father, give thine aid, and ratify These omens." Scarce had spoke these words the senior, When, on the left, with sudden crash it thundered, (z) And, from the sky elapsed, a star, torch-trailing, With much light through the shade ran; we behold it, (a) Gliding above the highest roof-top, plunge Bright in the Idaean wood, marking our way; Its furrow then, long-limited, gives light, (y) V. 689.-Jupiter omnipotens, &c. Observe the words, Jupiter omnipotens, (expressive of the power to relieve, even in so desperate an extremity,) joined to all the verbs in the sentence; the word pater, (moving to exert that power,) joined only to the immediate prayer of the petition, Da deinde auxilium, atque haec omina firma. (z) V. 694.-Stella......Signantemque υίας. Καὶ ἰδὲ, ὁ ἀστὴρ, ὃν εἶδον ἐν τῇ ἀναβολῇ, προῆγεν αὐτὲς, ἕως ἐλθὼν ἔστη ἐπάνω οὗ ἦν τὸ παιδίον. ην Matth. ii, 9 In Saunders's News-Letter, of July 25, 1844, there is, in an extract from a letter, the following account of a meteor, seen almost on the same spot, and presenting precisely the same appearances as that seen by Eneas: "CONSTANTINOPLE, JULY 3.-On Sunday last, five minutes before sunset, we had a splendid sight here. The atmosphere was hazy, but without 830 cloud. Thermometer about 90°. An immense meteor, like a gigantic Congreve rocket, darted, with a rushing noise, from east to west. Its lightning course was marked by a streak of fire, and, after a passage of some forty or fifty degrees, it burst like a bombshell, but without detonation; lighting up the hemisphere with the brilliancy of the noon-day sun. On its disappearance, a white vapour remained in its track, and was visible for nearly half an hour. Everybody thought it was just before his eyes, but it was seen by persons twelve and fifteen miles to the northward, in the same apparent position, and positively the self-same phenomenon. Many of the vulgar look upon it as a very bad omen, whilst others attribute it to the warm weather, which continues. The thermometer stands, at this moment, at 91° in the shade, and in the coolest spot could be selected." (a) V. 696.—Condere. vers. 401. See note, air And wide the places round fume sulphurous. The holy star:-" Now, now there is no hindrance; 835 My grandson save; yours is this augury, 840 845 Toil irk tide what tide may, one common risk Shall be my comrade, and afar my wife Keeps in my footsteps: menials, hear, and mark; 850 Not distant far, the tumulus, and old An ancient cypress, by our ancestors' Piety preserved through many a bygone year; That trysting-place by different routes we reach. 855 Thou, father, in thy hand, the holy gear (b) V. 702.-Servate domum. Domum is here, not dwelling-house, because Anchises is leaving his dwelling-house in the certainty of its being destroyed by the Greeks, but, either family, as omnis domus, vers. 652; or race, lineage, as domus Assaraci, En. i, 284. The thought is carried on, and completed in the succeeding nepotem, sciz. the hope of the family, or lineage. Before ablution in the living stream." This said, with vest and tawny lion's pell 860 My shoulders broad and bended nape are spread, And I take on my burden; little Iulus Links in my right hand, and with shorter steps. Follows his sire; my wife comes on behind : Through parts opaque we bear; and me, whom late 865 Frights, every sound alarms; suspense, and fearful (c) And now the gates I neared, and the whole way 870 Seemed to have made good, when a frequent foot-tramp The blazing bucklers, and the glancing brass.” 875 Reft the dazed wit; for, as beyond the road's (d) Known line, my course, through tracklessness I follow, (e) Ah! by a wretched fate snatched, whether stopped (c) V. 731.-Evasisse. See note, vel circumscribimus, ut terminis et vers. 458. finibus." Virgil's commentators seem to have been equally ignorant of the primitive sense of regio, and of its being always used in the primitive sense when joined with via. (d) V. 737.—Regione viarum. Regio, here, (as well as in the numerous other instances in which it is joined with via by Latin authors,) is taken, not in its derived sense of region, or district, but in its primitive sense, of line, or direction. This primitive sense of regio, wholly omitted by the other Latin lexicographers, is thus defined by Gesner, in his excellent Thesaurus. Regio, dicta a regendo; linea, mente concepta, quâ vel indicamus loca, ut plagas, ventos, orientem, aquilonem; (e) V. 738.-Heu! misero conjux, &c. I join misero, not, (with Heyne and the other commentators,) to mihi understood, but to fato; 1st. Because it were unnecessary, and, therefore, egotistical, in Eneas so soon to repeat the expression of his grief, already sufficiently expressed in Creusa spouse, or devious strayed, or down (ƒ) Sate tired, is doubt; nor was she to our eyes Restored thereafter; nor upon our loss Cast I look backward, or reflective thought, Ere to the tumulus and sacred seat Arrived of ancient Ceres: to us, here At last collected all, wants only her, Deceptive of companions, son, and husband. Ascanius, sire Anchises, and the Teucrian (9) Penates, to my sociates I commend, 880 885 890 the word, Heu! in itself equivalent to Eneas, that he deserted, or at least Heu me miserum! 2ndly. If misero belong to mihi understood, Virgil represents Eneas as lamenting the loss of Creusa altogether on his own account, without a single expression of sympathy for Creusa's own suffering and misfortune; quod incredibile. 3rdly. In the accurate language of Virgil, (see note, vers. 552,) erepta mihi misero would mean snatched from me, thereby rendered wretched at the very instant; which does not agree with the fact, that Creusa was not missed until some time afterwards. The words Misero fato erepta belong equally to the three verbs, substitit, erravit, and lassa resedit, expressive of the three most probable causes of Creusa's having been misero fato erepta; either, sciz. that she had stopped, (not wishing, for some reason or other, to proceed further); or that she had strayed; or that, wearied, and not able to proceed further, she had sat down. This, perhaps, is the proper place to observe, that there seems to be no ground whatever for the charge which has so frequently been brought against neglected, his wife. It was necessary to divide the party, in order the better to escape observation by the Greeks, and not only the greater imbecility of, but stronger natural tie to, the father and the child, rendered it imperative to bestow the first and chief care on them. If Eneas's direction that Creusa should keep, not merely behind, but far behind (longe servet vestigia conjux,) excite animadversion, I beg to suggest, that it was indispensable that the separation should be to some considerable distance, not merely in order to ensure its being effectual for the purpose above mentioned, but in order to afford Creusa herself the chance of escape, in case of the miscarriage of those who led the way. |