Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 2.djvu/53

 though he brought Dido and Æneas into a Cave, and left them there not over-honestly together: may I be so bold to ask your Majesty, is it a greater fault to teach the Art of unlawful Love, than to shew it in the Action? But was Ovid the Court-Poet so bad a Courtier, as to find no other Plea to excuse himself, than by a plain Accusation of his Master? Virgil confessed it was a Lawful Marriage betwixt the Lovers, that Juno the Goddess of Matrimony had ratify'd it by her presence; for it was her business to bring Matters to that issue: that the Ceremonies were short we may believe, for Dido was not only amorous, but a Widow. Mercury himself, though employ'd on a quite contrary Errand, yet owns it a Marriage by an Innuendo,Pulchramque uxorius urbem Extruis, He calls Æneas not only a Husband, but upbraids him for being a fond Husband, as the word Uvorius implies. Now mark a little, if your Lordship pleases, why Virgil is so much concern'd to make this Marriage, (for he seems to be the Father of the Bride himself, and to give her to the Bridegroom) it was to make way for the Divorce which he intended afterwards; for he was a finer Flatterer than Ovid: and I more than conjecture, that he had in his Eye the Divorce, which not long before had passed betwixt the Emperor and Scribonia. He drew this Dimple in the Cheek of Æneas, to prove Augustus of the same Family, by so remarkable a Feature in the same place. Thus, as we say in our homespun English Proverb, He kill'd two Birds with one Stone; pleas'd the Emperor, by giving him the resemblance of his Ancestor, and gave him such a resemblance as was not scandalous in that Age. For to leave one Wife and take another, was but a matter of Gallantry at that time of day among the Romans. Neque hæc in fædera veni, is the very Excuse which Æneas makes, when he leaves his Lady. I made no such Bargain with you