That land my father's facred duft contains, And there my Trojan friend, Aceftes reigns. This faid, they steer their course; the western gales And reach'd with joy the well-known shore at last. 45 50 This monarch sprung from great Crinifus' flood; Arriv'd from Carthage at his realms again; 55 Ye far-fam'd fons of Troy, a race divine, 65 } this laft place Virgil tells us, that the sea gave marks of the approaching winter, Et glacialis hyems aquilonibus afperat undas. This cannot be faid of any other month than October or November at least. 5. I farther fuppofe, that Æneas could hardly arrive at Drepanum before January: The veffels took up not more than two months in failing into the Adriatic gulf; and, after that, in coafting all the Italian fhore, and in searching for Drepanum in the Tyrrhene fea. 6. I laftly fuppofe, that Æneas was in Sicily the eleven months remaining, till the month of November, with which the Æneid opens. According Hunc ego, Gaetulis agerem fi Syrtibus exful, 55 60 65 Cuncti adfint, meritaeque exspectent praemia palmae. 79 According to the foregoing computation, January was the month in which Æneas arrived at the port of Sicily, where he loft his father. It very evidently appears from the poet's own narration, that Anchifes died in February; and that his anniverfary was kept in the fame month; which I thus prove. Aneas parted from Carthage in the depth of winter, Hyberno moliris fidere claffem: This is what Dido reproaches him with: This certainly could mean no other time than the end of January. According to this fuppofition Æneas ftayed but three months at Carthage; that is, from November to the end of January. As to what remains, we cannot poffibly prove, that his ftay was longer; and nothing can induce us to believe that it was. So that when he arrives in Sicily, that is to fay, at the beginning of February, he declares that very day to be the anniversary of his father: It therefore follows, that his father died in February. Æneas afterwards fpends one month in the celebration of the games, after leaving Sicily a fecond time to Tho' banish'd to the burning Libyan fand, 70 Sure all the friendly pow'rs our course inspire, To the dear relics of my reverend fire. 75 And from his grace a profp'rous gale implore; In his own fane, the honours of the day. On every ship two oxen are bestow'd 80 By great Aceftes of our Dardan blood; Call to the feaft your native Phrygian pow'rs, Soon as the ninth fair morning's opening light Shall glad the world, and chase the shades of night, 85 These facred rites, the rapid naval race; Or dart the fpear, or bend the twanging bow, The noble palms, and glories of the day. Now grace your heads with verdant wreaths, he faid; Adorn their brows, with all the youth of Troy. 90 95 fail for Italy, whither he arrives at the beginning of the fpring. This last point is plain, from the finging of the birds, and the ferenity of the fky, which began to look clear, cum venti pofuere. For the reft, the wars of Æneas in Italy till the death of Turnus, lafted from the beginning of the April, when he came into Italy, to the November following. According to this plan, we may determine the Eneid to be comprised within the course of one folar year. Ille e concilio multis cum milibus ibat 75 Ad tumulum, magna medius comitante caterva. Hic duo rite mero libans carchefia Baccho, Fundit humi, duo lacte novo, duo fanguine facro, Salve, fancte parens: iterum falvete recepti 80 Nequidquam cineres, animaeque umbraeque paternae. Non licuit finis Italos fataliaque arva, Nec tecum Aufonium, quicumque eft, quaerere Thybrim. Dixerat haec adytís cum lubricus anguis ab imis Septem ingens gyros, feptena volumina traxit, Amplexus placide tumulum, labfufque per aras: Tandem inter pateras, et levia pocula ferpens, 85 90 98. Now to the tomb.] The critics and commentators seem not to have perceived the defign which the poet undoubtedly had, in this epifode of the apotheofis of Anchifes, and in the defcription of the games which are celebrated at his tomb. It is Auguftus that Virgil reprefents here under the character of Æneas. The pious Auguftus, by the apotheofis (or deification) with which he honoured Julius Cæfar his father, and by the games which he caused to be performed to celebrate this new god; gave Virgil an occafion of inventing this episode, and of making these games and honours the subject of one entire book. This appears very charming, even to us at prefent; although the commentators have taken no notice of the relation it bore to Auguftus. But how much more interefting and delightful muft it have been to Auguftus himself, and the Romans of that age, who remembered that they themselves performed the fame things for Julius Cæfar, which the poet makes Æneas perform in honour of Anchifes ? CATROU. 110. An azure ferpent rofe, in fcales.] There are many beautiful defcriptions of this animal in the Eneid of Virgil, and in the Georgics likewife. M. Segrais is of opinion, that there are indeed Now to the tomb furrounded with a throng, Two bowls of milk, and facred blood he pours; 100 105 Or mighty Tyber's rolling streams explore, Pleas'd round the altars and the tomb to wind, 115 120 indeed too many of the fame creature. There are few paffages in Ovid, finer than his picture of the ferpents, into which Cadmus and Æfculapius were transformed. Under this head it would be unpardonable to omit Milton's exquifite defcription of the tempting ferpent, which far exceeds that of any poet whatever. not with indented wave Prone on the ground, as fince; but on his rear, Book 9. v. 496. It was judicious in Milton to dwell fo long on the defcription of the ferpent, on which the catastrophe of his poem depended. |