Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 2.djvu/46

 Curam sub corde premebat, Multa gemens, magnoque animum labefactus amore.

Upon the whole Matter, and humanely speaking, I doubt there was a Fault somewhere; and Jupiter is better able t o bear the blame, than either Virgil or Æneas. The Poet it seems had found it out, and therefore brings the deserting Heroe and the forsaken Lady, to meet together in the lower Regions; where he excuses him self when tis too late, and accordingly she will take no satisfaction, nor so much as hear him. Now Segrais is forc'd to abandon his defence, and excuses his Author, by saying that the Æneis is an imperfect Work, and that Death prevented the Divine Poet from reviewing it; and for that Reason he had condemned it to the Fire: though at the same time, his two Translators must acknowledge, that the Sixth Book is the most Correct of the whole Æneis. Oh, how convenient is a Machine sometimes in a Heroick Poem! This of Mercury is plainly one, and Virgil was constrain'd to use it here, or the Honesty of his Heroe wou'd be ill-defended. And the Fair Sex however, if they had the Deserter in their power, wou'd certainly have shewn him no more mercy, than the Bacchanals did Orpheus. For if too much Constancy may be a Fault sometimes, then want of Constancy, and Ingratitude after the last Favour, is a Crime that never will be forgiven. But of Machines, more in their proper place; where I shall show, with how much Judgment they have been us'd by Virgil: and in the mean time, pass to another Article of his Defence, on the present Subject; where, if I cannot clear the Heroe, I hope at least to bring off the Poet; for here I must divide their Causes. Let Æneas trust to his Machine, which will only help to break his Fall, but the Address is incomparable. Plato, who