Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/75

 Notwithstanding all this raillery of Virgil's, he was certainly of a very Amorous disposition, and has describ'd all that is most delicate in the Passion of Love; but he Conquer'd his natural Inclinations by the help of Philosophy; and refin'd it into Friendship, to which he was extreamly sensible. The Reader will admit of or reject the following Conjecture, with the free leave of the Writer, who will be equally pleas'd either way. Virgil had too great an Opinion of the Influence of the Heavenly Bodies: And, as an Ancient Writer says, that he was born under the Sign of Virgo, with which Nativity perhaps he pleas'd himself, and would exemplifie her Virtues in his Life. Perhaps it was thence that he took his Name of Virgil and Parthenias, which does not necessarily signifie ''Base-born. Donatus, and Servius'', very good Grammarians, give a quite contrary sense of it. He seems to make allusion to this Original of his Name in that Passage,

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