880 885 heu pietas, heu prisca fides, invictaque bello dextera! non illi se quisquam impune tulisset obvius armato, seu cum pedes iret in hostem, seu spumantis equi foderet calcaribus armos. heu, miserande puer! si qua fata aspera rumpas, tu Marcellus eris. Manibus date lilia plenis, purpureos spargam flores, animamque nepotis his saltem adcumulem donis, et fungar inani munere.' Sic tota passim regione vagantur aëris in campis latis, atque omnią lustrant. quae postquam Anchises natum per singula duxit, incenditque animum famae venientis amore, exin bella viro memorat quae deinde gerenda, Laurentisque docet populos urbemque Latini, et quo quemque modo fugiatque feratque laborem. Sunt geminae Somni portae, quarum altera fertur cornea, qua veris facilis datur exitus umbris; altera candenti perfecta nitens elephanto, sed falsa ad caelum mittunt insomnia Manes. his ubi tum natum Anchises unaque Sibyllam prosequitur dictis, portaque emittit eburna, ille viam secat ad naves sociosque revisit: tum se ad Cajetae recto fert litore portum. [ancora de prora jacitur; stant litore puppes.] 890 exim. H. 900 limite. H. 890 895 900 NOTES. As Virgil is the first Latin poet with whom most students become acquainted, some general suggestions to the learner may not be out of place. The poetry of the ancients depends for its rhythm not upon accent, but upon quantity. That is, it was in a manner sung, and not read.* A long vowel was to the ancients really such, and occupied-in speech as well as in verse - twice the time of a short one. Much may be gained by constantly bearing this in mind, and never reading a line without preserving its metrical form. Once acquire the movement of the "strain," and this may be done without thinking of the quantity of particular syllables; for the rhythm will then become perfectly natural, and the prosody will cause no trouble, especially if at first the time is beaten as in music. Thus the first five lines of the First Eclogue may be represented as follows: 1. Tityrě | tū pătă | lãe rěcũ | bāns sūb| tēgmĭně | fāgi 2. Silvės | trēm těnů i Mūsām mědi tāris ǎ | vēnā 4. Nōs pătri am fugi mūs tū | Tityrě lēntus In P ūmbrā 5. Förmō| sām rěsŎ nårě do cēs Amă ryllidă silvās The effect is to us, and must have been to the ancients, somewhat monotonous. But it is relieved by the variety of dactyls and spondees, and also by the interruption of feet at the end of words, * Something of this rhythmical recitation, accompanied by measured dance, may be heard in the streets of Eastern cities at this day. one of which interruptions at the end of some principal word or at some pause in the sense (in the third foot, less commonly, fourth) is more marked than the rest, and is called the Casura (see Grammar, § 82, 1, a). It may be remarked that the verses most agreeable to the ear are those in which dactyls are more numerous, or alternate with spondees; while in the opposite case especially if the last foot but one is a spondee ("Spondaic verse”) — a slow and labored movement is given to the verse, which is often very expressive (see Ecl. iv. 49; Æn. ii. 463–466). This metre is not native to the Latin language, but is borrowed from the Greek. Hence all poetry written in it has more or less an artificial character, and requires a conventional poetic diction. The rules of quantity exclude very many words: all words, for example, in which a single short syllable comes between two long ones (as in all the cases of æquitas, longitudo, and similar words; all except the nom. sing. of insula, unless the last syllable can be removed by elision; and many forms of verb-inflection, as fecerant), or where more than two short syllables come together (as in fùěrĭmus, itřněris). The necessities of the metre often give rise to elisions which hurt the flow of the verse (as in Ecl. ii. 25), or to artificial arrangements (as in Ecl. i. 14, 70). The rules of quantity, again, are often an easy guide to the construction: as in Ecl. i. 38, the long a in suā at once connects it with arbore; the long i in sătīs (Ecl. iii. 82) shows it to be the participle of sero; the long i in omnīs (id. 97) shows it to be the accusative plural; the long o in pōpulus (vii. 61) shows its meaning to be poplar. These examples might be multiplied to almost any extent. In general the Syntax of Virgil is much easier and simpler than that of most prose writers, and there are few difficulties of construction except where the ellipsis of words produces obscurity. There are, however, many peculiarities of form and construction. The most frequent of these - besides Greek forms of inflection are, I. the omission of Prepositions, especially with the locative ablative; 2. the free use of the Dative in preference to other constructions; 3. the Genitive (of specification) with adjectives; 4. the constant use of the Infinitive (instead of the Gerund) to express purpose and result. In general, we may say that more is demanded of the cases than the more highly developed construction |