ostendent terris hunc tantum fata neque ultra in tantum spe tollet avos, nec Romula quondam So here and there, through the whole realm of mist, Guided his son, and fired his soul with love What wars must next be waged, and teaches him Sunt geminae Somni portae, quarum altera fertur Tum se ad Caietae recto fert litore portum. ancora de prora iacitur; stant litore puppes. 870 880 890 900 NOTES 2. Alliteration is a device characteristic of Virgil's elaborate style: in particular, one v almost always suggests another to him. caeco lit. blind' so 'unseen'. Browning speaks of the moon as 'Blind to Galileo on his turret'. 3. multa... multus are used adverbially and should be so translated. II. armis: from arma not armus. mien, how brave his warlike heart!' Translate: 'How noble is his 14. exhausta: haurio is a favourite word of Virgil's to signify the completeness of an action or an emotion. Aeneas (like Ulysses) had 'drunk delight of battle with his peers Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.' 15. sederet: sedeo is similarly used to signify what cannot be altered, whether in action or emotion. 17. Sychaeus, her first husband, had been killed by her brother Pygmalion at the family altar (cf i. 21). 18. taedae: specially used of the marriage torch. Cf. Spenser, Epithalamion, 'Hymen... with his bright Tead that flames with many a flake." 19. potui. The indicative is used with possum in unfulfilled conditional sentences because the possibility is a real fact, whether it be fulfilled or not. 24. dehiscat: depends on optem. 25-6. The effect gained by the repetition of umbras is one common in all poetry: the immediate repetition of a word ('a red, red rose') is commoner in lyric than in other poetry, and in English than in Latin. 31-53. Dryden's translation, from which the passages in heroic verse are taken, was first published in 1697: you are expected to form your own opinion of its merits, and in particular of its likeness or unlikeness to Virgil. Iarbas was a rejected suitor of Dido. 58. Ceres the Lawgiver' is a Greek title: so is Lyaeus-a title given to Bacchus as the releaser from care. 69. Virgil's use of similes is mainly based on that of Homer: he does not go very far afield for his illustrations. The similes employed by Matthew Arnold in Sohrab and Rustum are worth comparing and contrasting with those of Virgil. 70. Crete was a great hunting country. Compare: 'A cry more tuneable Was never holla'd to, nor cheered with horn, In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly.' 2176-14 (Midsummer Night's Dream.) G 83. A line charged with the yearning of all loves unappeased' (Myers). 84. Some commentators are exercised at the late hours which the boy Ascanius is allowed to keep: it is more to the point to wonder at his allowing himself to be nursed if he was old enough to go out lion hunting: but Virgil's chronology of the events after the fall of Troy is vague and perhaps inconsistent. Cf. Introd., p. 13. 87-8. tuta bello: safeguards in war. It is perhaps worth while, as an illustration of the difference between a translation and an interpretation, to compare Dryden's rendering of lines 80-3 with that of F. W. H. Myers: (Dryden.) 'Then, when they part, when Phoebe's paler light His voice imagined in her amorous ears.' (Myers.) 90-114. This passage illustrates the divine guidance of the whole Aeneid, the unedifying dissension in heaven, and the Roman hatred of Carthage which underlies and explains the episode of Dido. 105. Eliza is Dryden's variant of the name Elissa used as a synonym for Dido. The doubt is all . . . ', i. e. Iuppiter and the fates may have decided otherwise. 119. Titan: the sun. Compare Keats's Hyperion. 121. alae: probably the beaters. motion. trepidant implies any rapid 131-9. The blank verse translation is taken from that of James Rhoades, first published in 1893. 132 f. The Massylians are a Numidian tribe.' The dogs' keen-scented might' is a literal translation of the curious phrase odora canum vis. 142. iungit: unites his troop to hers. 143-6. The places and people mentioned are all identified with the worship of Apollo, who is represented as leaving his haunt at Patara (in Lycia) to visit Delos. Aeneas seldom arouses much personal interest: it is therefore worth while to make the most of the compliment here paid to him. 148. premit fingens: the idea is simple-he fashioned a garland and laid it on his head-but the expression is strained. 160. misceri: a favourite word of Virgil's when confused sound, movement, or thought is indicated. The heavy line introduces the tragedy, and the whole passage is full of the 'pathetic fallacy' of nature's sympathy with man. 166. pronuba: the matron who escorted the bride to her new home. 173. The personification of Rumour and Scandal is a commonplace magnificently worked out: cf. 'Malice is of low stature but it hath very long arms' (Halifax). 178-9. Coeus was a Titan, Enceladus a giant, both offspring of Earth both Titans and giants had been overthrown by the gods, which explains ira. 182. Compare the 'living creatures' in Revelation, 'full of eyes before and behind'. 196 ff. Iarbas was the son of Jupiter Ammon, his mother being of the race of the Garamantes, the southernmost people of Africa. 218. 'Spenser has given me the boldness to make use sometimes of his Alexandrine line-It adds a certain majesty to the verse.' (Dryden). 219 ff. Jupiter's direct intervention may be held to explain if not to justify Aeneas's conduct, but it clearly robs him of personal interest (see Introd., p. 8). 228. bis: Venus had rescued Aeneas from Diomede, and also from the Greeks after the fall of Troy. 233. super ipse sua laude: an inversion of order borrowed from the Greek. molitur: a favourite word for any laborious effort. 235. Observe the hiatus spe inimica. 236. Lavinia: Lavinium was a Latin town. 239 ff. The winged sandals and the magic wand are Mercury's special attributes. 244. 'Unseals dead eyes' (Mackail) alluding either to the custom of opening the eyes of a dead man on the pyre, or to the bringing back to life of the dead. 246 ff. Atlas, the fabled giant who supported the heavens, is here identified with the mountain bearing his name. Cyllenius is a name for Mercury, derived from his birthplace in Arcadia. 269. torquet: sways. 274. There seems to be no sufficient excuse for calling the same boy by two different names in one line. The names themselves are explained by Jupiter in Aen. i. 267-8: 'At puer Ascanius, cui nunc cognomen Iulo Additur (Ilus erat, dum res stetit Ilia regno).' The poet thus succeeds in linking Troy or Ilium with the Iulian gens, and shelters under the highest authority a rather questionable play upon words. 279. The spectacle of Aeneas 'this way and that dividing the swift mind' is far from attractive: the excuses which he makes here should be compared with those given in Aen. vi. 456 ff. 288-94. This passage is in Oratio Obliqua, and the earlier subjunctives are those of Indirect Command. quis rebus dexter modus,' the fit plan for his purpose'. 298. fearing where no fear was' (Mackail), a brilliant adaptation, and perhaps no greater an overstatement than Virgil's. 300. animi may be locative, 'in heart', or gen. after inops. 301-3. A great festival to Bacchus was held every three years at Thebes: Cithaeron is the Theban mountain. 311-13. If he were merely going home he would not attempt it at such a season as he is taking the risk for an unknown land his real motive must be to escape from her. 314. The per is misplaced as often in prayers. 322. 'my one claim to heaven' meaning probably immortal fame. 327. suscepta, ‘taken in my arms'. The literature of all nations is full of similar appeals, but there are few more pathetic: it is not surprising to learn from Servius that Virgil recited this passage ingenti affectu when he read the third and fourth Books to Augustus. 329. tamen is a good example of what Tennyson meant by the 'single word' in which all the charm of all the Muses' is to be felt. 335. Elissae: another name for Dido. Cf. 1. 105. 339. praetendi. The word passes easily from its literal sense 'hold out' into our meaning of pretence. Neither excuse offered by Aeneas carries conviction: it is a relief to turn to the next lines which show a genuine feeling-perhaps his most genuine feeling : 'Me had the fates allowed my woes to still,- Ay, Priam's palace had re-risen then, A ghost of Ilium for heart-broken men.' (Myers.) 345. Apollo had shrines both at Grynium on the coast of Asia Minor and at Patara in Lycia. 350. This argument is particularly contemptible as an answer to Dido. 361. It is generally believed that the broken lines in the Aeneid are a sign of its unfinished condition: modern taste, in this case at any rate, finds it hard to believe that even Virgil could have found a more effective ending. See introduction, p. 13. The three strongest argu ments against the half lines being intentional are: (1) that the device is imitated by no later poet; (2) that we are told by Servius that one such half line was completed by Virgil as a result of sudden inspiration while he was reciting the poem. See note on vi. 165; (3) that some half lines have clearly no special value, and that others which are technically complete would have been left unfinished if the method had been permissible. But this is not to deny the great effect the broken line often produces, nor that Virgil himself was conscious of it. 367. Hyrcania was a wild land near the Caucasus. admorunt: admoverunt. 368. quae ad maiora: 'for what worse outrage?' 372. haec perhaps the land of Carthage; or the conduct of Aeneas (but Juno had never looked on him with favour). |