pinifer illum etiam sola sub rupe jacentem Maenalus, et gelidi fleverunt saxa Lycaei. stant et oves circum; - nostri nec poenitet illas, nec te poeniteat pecoris, divine poëta; et formosus ovis ad flumina pavit Adonis ; venit et upilio; tardi venere subulci; uvidus hiberna venit de glande Menalcas. 15 20 Omnes Unde amor iste rogant tibi? Venit Apollo: • Galle, quid insanis?' inquit; 'tua cura Lycoris perque nives alium perque horrida castra secuta est.' venit et agresti capitis Silvanus honore, florentis ferulas et grandia lilia quassans. Pan deus Arcadiae venit, quem vidimus ipsi sanguineis ebuli bacis minioque rubentem. 25 Ecquis erit modus?' inquit; Amor non talia curat; nec lacrimis crudelis Amor, nec gramina rivis, nec cytiso saturantur apes, nec fronde capellae.' Tristis at ille: Tamen cantabitis, Arcades' inquit 'montibus haec vostris: soli cantare periti Arcades. O mihi tum quam molliter ossa quiescant, vestra meos olim si fistula dicat amores! atque utinam ex vobis unus, vestrique fuissem aut custos gregis, aut maturae vinitor uvae! certe, sive mihi Phyllis, sive esset Amyntas, 30 35 seu quicumque furor - quid tum, si fuscus Amyntas? et nigrae violae sunt et vaccinia nigra – mecum inter salices lenta sub vite jaceret ; serta mihi Phyllis legeret, cantaret Amyntas. 'Hic gelidi fontes, hic mollia prata, Lycori, hic nemus; hic ipso tecum consumerer aevo. nunc insanus amor duri me Martis in armis tela inter media atque adversos detinet hostes: tu procul a patria (nec sit mihi credere tantum !) Alpinas, ah dura! nives et frigora Rheni 19 bubulci. H. 40 45 me sine sola vides: ah, te ne frigora laedant! ah, tibi ne teneras glacies secet aspera plantas ! Ibo, et, Chalcidico quae sunt mihi condita versu 50 carmina, pastoris Siculi modulabor avena. certum est in silvis, inter spelaea ferarum malle pati, tenerisque meos incidere amores arboribus; crescent illae, crescetis, amores. Interea mixtis lustrabo Maenala nymphis, aut acris venabor apros: non me ulla vetabunt frigora Parthenios canibus circumdare saltus. jam mihi per rupes videor lucosque sonantis ire; libet Partho torquere Cydonia cornu 55 spicula: tamquam haec sit nostri medicina furoris, 60 aut deus ille malis hominum mitescere discat! 65 'Jam neque hamadryades rursus nec carmina nobis ipsa placent; ipsae rursus concedite silvae. non illum nostri possunt mutare labores, nec si frigoribus mediis Hebrumque bibamus, Sithoniasque nives hiemis subeamus aquosae, nec si, cum moriens alta liber aret in ulmo, Aethiopum versemus ovis sub sidere Cancri. omnia vincit Amor; et nos cedamus Amori.' Haec sat erit, divae, vestrum cecinisse poëtam, dum sedet et gracili fiscellam texit hibisco, Pierides; vos haec facietis maxima GalloGallo, cujus amor tantum mihi crescit in horas, quantum vere novo viridis se subicit alnus. surgamus: solet esse gravis cantantibus umbra; juniperi gravis umbra; nocent et frugibus umbrae. ite domum saturae, venit Hesperus, ite capellae ! 52 spelea. R. 62 63 56 acres. H. rusum. R., rursum. H. 62 amadryades. R. 70 75 Ille ego, qui quondam gracili modulatus avena Carmen, et egressus silvis vicina coëgi Ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono, Gratum opus agricolis: at nunc horrentia Martis. THE EPIC OF ENEAS. THE ÆNEID has stood, for many centuries, as a model of Epic Poetry. That is, it is a narrative poem, noble in its subject, elevated and picturesque in style, having heroic or legendary persons as its actors, while its plot is carried forward by divine or supernatural agencies, technically called its "machinery." In a more limited and scientific sense, an Epic consists of a body of immemorial tradition, which has taken form in the mind and language of a people; and which, while the traditions were yet living and believed in, has been worked up in a single poem, or group of poems, whose antiquity and national character have made them, in some sense, sacred books. This is what the poems of Homer were to the Greeks. The Æneid is an Epic in a very different sense, in what, for the sake of distinction, may be called the literary sense. Though it has the foundation of traditions, and all the divine machinery of the true epic, yet the traditions are no longer living; the divine machinery is no longer a matter of belief. The traditions are dug out by antiquarian research. The machinery is manufactured to order, as it were, in a modern workshop. Many of the incidents are labored invention, while the whole is written with a definite purpose, as a work of art. These things put it in a widely different class from the Iliad and Odyssey, which serve in some sense as its models, and with which it has been oftenest compared. The subject of the Æneid is the destruction of Troy, the seven years' wandering of Eneas, and his settlement in Italy, with the wars raised against him by the native princes; while, through the name Iulus, given to his son Ascanius, the mythic ILUS, founder of Ilium (Troy), is prophetically connected with the glories of the house of Julius, founder of Imperial Rome. It is said that this poem was written at the request of Augustus. This is probably true. But it does not merely flatter the reigning house by connecting it with the age of gods and heroes. It has the more patriotic idea of representing the Empire - victorious and at peace as the true culmination of the Roman State; as the con |