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 commentaries. See H. Nettleship, Essays in Latin Literature, xi., and Comparetti, Vergil in the Middle Ages, ch. 5.

Editions.—The editions of Virgil are innumerable; Heyne (1767–1800), Forbiger (1872–75) and Ribbeck (1859–66) in Germany, Benoist (1876) in France, and Conington (completed by Nettleship, and edited by Haverfield) in England, are perhaps the most important. Good school editions in English have been produced by Page, Sidgwick and Papillon. Conington’s work, however, is without question the best in English.

Translations.—Famous English translations have been made by Dryden and by a host of others since his day. Since the middle of the 19th century the most important are Conington {Aeneid in verse, whole works in prose); J. W. Mackail (Aeneid and Georgics in prose); William Morris (Aeneid in verse); Lord Justice Bowen {Eclogues and Aeneid, i.–vi. in verse); Canon Thornhill (verse); C. J. Billson (verse, 1906); J. Rhoades (verse, new ed., 1907). For essays on translating Virgil, see Conington, Miscellaneous Works, vol. i .; R. Y. Tyrrell, Latin Poetry (appendix).

—For full bibliographies of Virgil consult Schanz, ''Gesch. der Römischen Litteratur (1899) (in Iwan von Müller’s series, Handbuch der Klassischen Altertums-Wissenschaft), and Teuffel, History of Roman Literature'', edited by L. Schwabe and tr. by G. C. W. Warr (1900). On the life of Virgil: Nettleship’s Ancient Lives of Vergil (1879) discusses the authorities, printing one of the lives, which he shows to be by Suetonius. On the Eclogues: Glaser, V. als Naturdichler n. Theist (1880); Cattault, Étude sur les Bucoliques de V. (1897). On the Georgics: Morsch, De Graecis in Georgicis a V. expressis (1878); Norden, “V.- studien” (in Hermes, vol. 28, 1893) (Norden has little patience with “aesthetic criticism”). On the Aeneid: Schwegler, ''Röm. Gesch''. vol. i. (1853); Cauer, De fabulis Graecis ad Romam conditam pertinentibus; Hild, La Légende d’Enée avant V. (1883); Forstemann, ''Zur Gesch. des Aeneasmythus; H. de la Ville de Mirmont, Apollonios de Rhodes et Virgile (1894) (rather too long), Plüss, V. u. die epische Kunst (1884); Georgii, Die politische Tendenz der Aen (1880); Boissier, Nouvelles promenades archéologiques (1886) (trans. under title The Country of Horace and Virgil, by D. Havelock Fisher, 1895), Gibbon, Critical Observations on the Sixth Book of the Aeneid (1770); Boissier, La Religion romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins (1884) (with section on sixth Aeneid); Ettig, Acheruntica (Leipziger Studien, 1891), Norden, “V.-studien” (in Hermes, vol. 28, 1893), on sixth Aeneid, and papers in Neue Jahrbücher für kl. Altertum (1901); Dieterich, Nekyia (1893) (on Apocalypse of Peter and ancient teaching on the other life—a valuable book), Henry, Aeneidea'' (1873–79) (a book of very great learning, wit, sense and literary judgment; the author, an Irish physician, gave twenty years to it, examining MSS., exploring Virgil’s country, and reading every author whom Virgil could have used and nearly every ancient writer who used Virgil).

Virgil literature: Sainte-Beuve, Étude sur Virgile (one of the great books on Virgil); Comparetti, Virgilio nel medio Evo (1872)—Eng. tr., Vergil in the Middle Ages, E. F. M. Benecke (1895) (a book of very great and varied interest); Heinze, Virgil’s epische Technik (1902); W. Y. Sellar, Roman Poets of the Augustan Age: Virgil (2nd ed. 1883); Glover, Studies in Virgil (1904). Essays in the following: F. W. H. Myers, Essays [Classical] (1883), the most famous English essay on Virgil; J. R. Green, Stray Studies (1876) (an excellent study of Aeneas); W. Warde Fowler, A Year with the Birds (on Virgil’s bird-lore); Nettleship, Essays in Latin Literature (1884); Tyrrell, Latin Poetry (1898); Patin, Essais sur la poésie Latine (4th ed. 1900) (one of the finest critics of Latin literature); Goumy, Les Latins (1892) (a volume of very bright essays); J. W. Mackail, Latin Literature (3rd ed. 1899).

Virgil’s great popularity In the middle ages is to be partly explained by the fact that he was to a certain extent recognized by the Church. He was supposed to have prophesied the coming of Christ in the fourth Eclogue, and by some divines the Aeneid was held to be an allegory of sacred things. This position was sufficiently emphasized by Dante when he chose him from among all the sages of antiquity to be his guide in the Divina Commedia. Ancient poets and philosophers were commonly transformed by medieval writers into necromancers; and Virgil and Aristotle became popularly famous, not for poetry and science, but for their supposed knowledge of the black art. Naples appears to have been the home of the popular legend of Virgil, which represented him as the special protector of the city, but was probably never quite independent of learned tradition.

 VIRGIL, POLYDORE (c. 1470–1355), English historian, of Italian extraction, otherwise known as, was a kinsman of Cardinal Hadrian Castellensis, a native of Castro in Etruria. His father’s name is said to have been George Virgil; his great-grandfather, Anthony Virgil, “a man well skilled in medicine and astrology,” had professed philosophy at Paris, as did Polydore’s own brother and protégé John Matthew Virgil, at Pavia, in 1517. A third brother was a London merchant in 1511. Polydore was born at Urbino, is said to have been educated at Bologna, and was probably in the service of Guido Ubaldo, duke of Urbino, before 1498, as in the dedication of his first work, Liber Proverbiorum (April 1498), he styles himself this prince’s client. Polydore’s second book, De Inventoribus Rerum, is dedicated to Guido’s tutor,