Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1278

1266 ing, which indeed is the characteristic of all Virgil's Eclogues, whatever they may be in substance. The third, the fifth, the seventh, and the ninth are more clearly modelled on the form of the poems of his Sicilian prototype : and the eighth, the Phar- maceutria, is a direct imitation of the original Greek. The tenth, entitled Gallus, perhaps written the last of all, is a love poem, which, if written in elegiac verse, would be more appropriately called an elegy than a Bucolic. All the Eclogues of Virgil abound in allusions to the circumstances and per- sons of the time ; but these allusions are often ob- scure. Though the Eclogues contain many pleasing lines, they present very great difficulties arising both from the construction of the poems, and the language. Those who find them easy are not per- sons who are much alive to the perception of diffi- culties ; and those who bestow upon them very liberal praise, have the merit at least of being easily satisfied. Virgil borrowed many lines from Theocritus ; but the adaptation of a few lines does not give to his poems the genuine rustic cast of some of the best pieces of Theocritus. We do not feel that the Eclogues of Virgil represent rural life or rural manners in Italy ; and such a represent- ation, even if Virgil could have given it, is incom- patible with the leading idea that pervades some of the Eclogues. Julius Caesar Scaliger preferred Virgil's Eclogues to those of Theocritus, a curious instance of perverted judgment.

The " Georgica " or " Agricultual Poem " in four books is a didactic poem, which Virgil dedi- cated to his patron Maecenas. He treats of the cultivation of the soil in the first book, of fruit trees ill the second, of horses and other cattle in the third, and of bees in the fourth. In this poem Virgil shows a great improvement both in his taste and in his versification. If he began this poem be- fore he had finished the Eclogues, he went on working at it and correcting it after he had laid his Eclogues aside. It has been attempted to show that the first book Avas written before B. c. 35, but there is no conclusive evidence on this point. It has been stated when it was finished. Neither in the Georgics nor elsewhere has Virgil the merit of striking originality ; his chief merit consists in the skilful handling of borrowed materials. His subject, which was by no means promising, he treated in a manner both instructive and pleasing ; for he has given many useful remarks on agriculture and diversified the dryness of didactic poetry by numerous allusions and apt embellishments, and some occasional digressions without wandering too far from his main matter. In the first book (v. 1, &c.) he enumerates the subjects of his poem, among which is the treatment of bees ; yet the management of bees seems but meagre material for one fourth of the whole poem, and the author accordingly had to complete the fourth book with matter somewhat extraneous — the long story of Aristaeus. The Georgica is the most finished spe- cimen of the Latin hexameter which we have ; and the rude vigor of Lucretius, and the antiquated rudeness of Ennius are here replaced by a versi- fication, which in its kind cannot be surpassed. The Georgica are also the most original poem of Virgil, for he found little in the Works and Days of Hesiod that could furnish him with hints for the treatment of his subject, and we are not aware that there was any work which he could exactly follow as a whole. For numerous single lines he was indebted to his extensive reading of the Oieek poets.

The Aeneid, or adventures of Aeneas after the fall of Troy, is an epic poem on the model of the Homeric poems. It was founded upon an old Roman tradition that Aeneas and his Trojans settled in Italy, and were the founders of the Roman name. In the first books we have the story of Aeneas being driven by a storm on the coast of Africa, and being hospitably received by Dido queen of Carthage, to whom he relates in the episode of the second and third books the fall of Troy and his wanderings. In the fourth book the poet has elaborated the story of the attach- ment of Dido and Aeneas, the departure of Aeneas in obedience to the will of the gods and the suicide of the Carthaginian queen. The fifth book con- tains the visit to Sicily, and the sixth the landing of Aeneas at Cumae in Italy, and his descent to the infernal regions, where he sees his father An- cliises, and has a prophetic vision of the glorious destinies of his race and of the future heroes ot Rome. In the first six books the adventures of Ulysses in the Odyssey are the model, and these books contain more variety of incident and situa- tion than those which follow. The critics have discovered an anachronism in the visit of Aeneas to Carthage, which is supposed not to have, been founded until two centuries after the fall of Troy, but this is a matter which we may leave without discussion, or admit without allowing it to be a poetical defect. The last six books, the history of the struggles of Aeneas in Italy, are founded on the model of the battles of the Iliad. Latinua, the king of the Latini, offers the Trojan hero his daughter Lavinia in marriage, who had been be- trothed to Turnus, the warlike king of the Rutuli. The contest is ended by the death of Turnus, who falls by the hand of Aeneas. The fortunes of Aeneas and his final settlement in Italy are the subject of the Aeneid, but the glories of Rome and of the Julian house, to which Augustus be- longed, are indirectly the poet's theme. In the , first book the foundation of Alba Longa is pr mised by Jupiter to Venus {Aeneid, i. 254), the transfer of empire from Alba to Rome ; frot the line of Aeneas will descend the " Troja Caesar," whose empire will only be limited bj the ocean, and whose glory by the heavens. Th« future rivalry between Rome and Carthage, the ultimate triumphs of Rome are predicted. Th<l poem abounds in allusions to the history of Rome j and the aim of the poet to confirm and embellisl the popular tradition of the Trojan origin of the Roman state, and the descent of the Julii fron' Venus, is apparent all through the poem. It is ol jected to the Aeneid that it has not the unity oi construction either of the Iliad or of the Odyssej and that it is deficient in that antique simplicitj which characterises these two poems. Aeneas, th^ hero, is an insipid kind of personage, and a mucll superior interest is excited by the savage Mezei tius, and also by Turnus, the unfortunate ri of Aeneas. Virgil imitated other poets besidt Homer, and he has occasionally borrowed fron them, especially from Apollonius of Rhodes. Virgil's subject was difficult to invest with ii terest, that is his apology ; but it cannot be denie that many parts of his poem are successfully ela _ berated, and that particular scenes and incidents" are treated with true poetic spirit. The historical