The various labours of the wandering moon, "Relate at large, my god-like guest,” she said, Your flight, your wanderings, and your woes, declare; Your men have been distressed, your navy tossed, NOTES ON ÆNEÏS, BOOK I. Note I. The realms of ocean, and the fields of air, Poetically speaking, the fields of air are under the command of Juno, and her vicegerent olus. Why then does Neptune call them his? I answer, Because, being god of the seas, Æolus could raise no tempest in the atmosphere above them without his leave. But why does Juno address to her own substitute? I answer, He had an immediate power over the winds, whom Juno desires to employ on her revenge. That power was absolute by land; which Virgil plainly insinuates: for, when Boreas and his brethren were let loose, he says at first, terras turbine perflant---then adds, Incubuere mari. To raise a tempest on the sea, was usurpation on the prerogative of Neptune, who had given him no leave, and therefore was enraged at his attempt. I may also add, that they who are in a passion, as Neptune then was, are apt to assume to themselves more than is properly their due. Note II. -&c. O virgin! If, as you seem, the sister of the day, Or one at least of chaste Diana's train.---P. 244. Thus in the original-- O quam te memorem, virgo An Phœbi soror, an nympharum sanguinis una ? This is a family compliment, which Æneas here bestows on Venus. His father Anchises had used the very same to that goddess when he courted her. This appears by that very ancient Greek poem, in which that amour is so beautifully described, and which is thought Homer's, though it seems to be written before his age. Note III. Her princely guest Was next her side.--P. 259. This, I confess, is improperly translated, and according to the modern fashion of sitting at table. But the ancient custom of lying on beds had not been understood by the unlearned reader. The Hymn on Venus. ENEIS, BOOK II. ARGUMENT. Eneas relates how the city of Troy was taken, after a ten years" siege, by the treachery of Sinon, and the stratagem of a wooden horse. He declares the fixed resolution he had taken not to survive the ruin of his country, and the various adventures he met with in the defence of it. At last, having been before advised by Hector's ghost, and now by the appearance of his mother Venus, he is prevailed upon to leave the town, and settle his household gods in another country. In order to this, he carries off his father on his shoulders, and leads his little son by the hand, his wife following him behind. When he comes to the place appointed for the general rendezvous, he finds a great confluence of people, but misses his wife, whose ghost afterwards appears to him, and tells him the land which was designed for him.* ALL were attentive to the godlike man, The destruction of Veii is here shadowed under that of Troy. Livy, in his description of it, seems to have emulated in his prose, and almost equalled, the beauty of Virgil's verse.---DRYDEN. An empire from its old foundations rent, By destiny compelled, and in despair, Which like a steed of monstrous height appeared The sides were planked with pine: they feigned it made For their return, and this the vow they paid. Their sails were hoisted, and our fears release. |