Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 2.djvu/61

 derns. As for the particular Exceptions against this or that passage, Macrobius and Pontanus have answer'd them already. If I desir'd to appear more Learned than I am, it had been as easy for me to have taken their Objections and Solutions, as it is for a Country Parson to take the Expositions of the Fathers out of Junius and Tremellius: Or not to have nam'd the Authors from whence I had them: For so Ruæus, otherwise a most Judicious Commentator on Virgil's Works, has us'd Pontanus, his greatest Benefactor; of whom he is very silent, and I do not remember that he once cites him.

What follows next, is no Objection; for that implies a Fault: and it had been none in Virgil, if he had extended the time of his Action beyond a Year. At least Aristotle has set no precise Limits to it. Homer's, we know, was within two Months; Tasso I am sure exceeds not a Summer: and if I examin'd him, perhaps he might be reduc'd into a much less compass. Bossu leaves it doubtful whether Virgil's Actions were within the Year, or took up some Months beyond it. Indeed the whole Dispute is of no more concernment to the common Reader, than it is to a Plough-man, whether February this Year had 28 or 29 Days in it. But for the satisfaction of the more Curious, of which number, I am sure your Lordship is one; I will Translate what I think convenient out of Segrais, whom perhaps you have not read: For he has made it highly probable, that the Action of the Æneis began in the Spring, and was not extended beyond the Autumn. And we have known Campaigns that have begun sooner, and have ended later.

Ronsard and the rest whom Segrais names, who are of Opinion that the Action of this Poem takes up almost a Year and a half; ground their Calculation thus. Anchises dyed in Sicily at the end of Winter, or beginning of the Spring. Æneas, immediately after the In- Rh