main action. The attractions and importance of Dido would not excite a greater interest, than the amour of Jason with Hypsipile, or that of Ulysses and Calypso-or produce any thing more than a temporary delay of the voyage; but, the poet artfully resorts to the deadly hostilities, which, in after times, prevailed between Rome and Carthage, to give an adventitious consequence and dignity to Dido, as the foundress of the latter city.— This, perhaps, is the only stroke of originality, in this part of Virgil. His Queen of Carthage is decked in the spoils of all the enamoured females, who preceded her. Calypso, Circe, Hypsipile, Medea, in Euripides, and in Apollonius, have all conspired to adorn her.-It is probable, too, that even in his own language, he found some assistance; since it is known, that Ennius translated the Medea of Euripides, into Latin verse.—— The art and address employed by Dido, to bend Æneas from his purpose, are evidently copied, from the finesse and dissimulation, with which, in Euripides, Medea endeavours to work on the mind of Jason. Creon dooms the Colchian princess to banishment. All she can obtain, after having descended to supplications and tears, is one day, to prepare for exile.-These scenes of Euripides, where she endeavours to melt Jason, and soften Creon, and the moving expostulations of Medea, with Jason and the Argonauts, in Apollonius, are incorporated, to produce the pathetic addresses of Dido to Eneas.

Tempus inane peto spatium requiemque furoris.”.

The pathetic sentiments of Dido-" Si quis mihi par"vulus Eneas luderet in aulâ," seems to have been suggested, by that part of the farewel address of Jason to Hypsipile, in which he directs her how to act, in the event of a son being the consequence of their loves.

With

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With respect to the delineation of characters, their variety, justness, and dramatic effect, the various and appropriate features, by which they are distinguished, the grouping and contrast of the several figures, the Grecian poet stands preeminent, and far surpasses his Roman competitor. I have shown, in the paragraphs immediately preceding, how much the delineation of Medea excels that of Dido.-The character of Æneas appears to be modelled, in a great measure, on that of Jason-prudential, cautious, plausible, and selfish, with a thorough command of his passions and feelings, which are all held in due subjection, to his ambition and sense of self-interest. He affects a strain of moral sentiment, and a sanctimonious profession of piety, to conceal or justify his want of tenderness and humanity, and veil his readiness, to sacrifice every other regard and consideration, to the attainment of his main object. But Jason is a much more interesting object than Æneas—— there is more boldness and gallantry in his characterthe adventure on which he is bound is more hardy and romantic, than that of merely leading out a colony-he is embellished with all the graces and attractions of youth, and then he is described as little more than a stripling —we are more interested for such a gallant youth, and the attributes of personal beauty are ascribed to him, with rather more propriety, than to Æneas, now a widower, and father of a youth already starting up to manhood—at the same time, there is more gallantry, more tenderness, and delicacy of sentiment, in Jason.Anchises is a good sort of old man, near his dotage, and equally infirm in body and mind, full of omens, traditions, and prophecies-Iulus is a giddy foolish boy, showing little worthy of the destined founder of a most illustrious race-there seems, too, to be some sort of inconsistency, in the descriptions given of him,

in different parts of the Æneid. In the first book, Cupid assumes the form of Iulus, who is borne away, in the arms of Venus-fotum gremio dea tollit in altas Idalia lucos.-The god, in the dissembled form of the Trojan boy, is so small and childish in appearance, that the Queen takes him in her arms, and caresses him in her bosom, like an infant-Reginam petit, hac, oculis, hæc pectore toto haret, et interdum gremio fovet.—In subsequent books, he is represented as a grown lad-he rides out with the hunters to the chace, and manages a spirited courser mediis in vallibus acri gaudet equo, and wishes to encounter the foaming wild boar—jamque hos cursu jam preterit illos, spumantemque dari pecora inter inertia votis optat aprum.—In the fifth book, he appears on horseback, at the head of a band of youths, in the pageant, from which the Lusus Trojanus is supposed to have been deduced.-Fidus Achates, the chief confidant of Eneas, and faithful friend, is like the confidants in most modern plays, but a trifling and insipid personage. Other friends of the hero have still less character and consequence assigned to them-fortemque Gyan, fortemque Cloanthum.-Lavinia is perfectly without manners, character, and importance, or even voice, in the action -her mother Amata is more interesting and animated, but the interest excited by her feelings and exertions, flows from compassion for an afflicted mother, who sees her beloved daughter torn from a native prince, young, amiable, and illustrious, the beloved object of her vows and affections, and consigned by fanaticism to a needy wanderer, a foreign adventurer.—This interest is in opposition to the interest of Æneas, and the wishes of the poet, and has an unfavourable effect on the pathos of the story. A similar observation may be made, with respect to the character of Turnus. The portrait of Turnus is, in some measure, imitated from that of Achilles,

Achilles, impiger iracundus, but we are disposed to make great allowances for his youth, and disappointments of a tender passion-wounded as he is at once, in two of the tenderest points, to a gallant and generous mind, his love and his ambition, by a foreign interloper, we are disposed to pardon his violence, and sympathize in his resentments.-We find him the most amiable and unfortunate personage in the whole-we participate in his agitation, and weep over his fall.-Camilla is a beautiful and graceful figure, but she is manifestly sketched out, from that of Atalanta, in ancient story.-The characters and ardent friendship of Nisus and Euryalus, are eminently beautiful-their friendship is exclusively the thought of Virgil-the episode of their nocturnal sortie from the camp, seems to be imitated from the adventure of Ulysses and Diomede, in Homer.-The characters of Pallas and Evander are well conceived, and happily opposed to those of Lausus and Mexentius, who join Turnus. But, Mezentius is evidently copied from the portraits, in the Grecian drama, of the fiery, the overbearing, and impious Capaneus, heightened by some sentiments, taken from the speeches of the boastive and profane Idas, in Apollonius Rhodius.

The Greek poet has, in a narrow compass, exhibited a great variety of characters, strongly marked, and judiciously discriminated. Some are happily contrasted, as the aged Polyxo, with the young and tender Hyp sipilèand the pious and gallant Mopsus and Idmon, with the arrogant and irreligious Idas.In others the poet shows resemblance, accompanied by a perfect and clear distinctness.Eetes and Amycus, for instance, resemble each other, in many particularsstrength, power, pride, personal prowess, savage ferocity, and inhospitality, towards strangers. Yet, the Colchian prince is distinguished, by the superior taste

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and splendour in which he lives, by the domestic circumstances of his court, by a superior degree of refinement, a deliberation in his cruelty, an artifice and dissimulation in his expressions, and the superior motives of policy, that prompt, and, in some measure, justify his antipathy to strangers.--The character of Orpheus is beautifully conceived, and finely delineated. The circumstance of an inspired bard, accompanied by a band of heroic adventurers, supporting their sinking courage by animated addresses-and celebrating their successful efforts, by songs of victory, is highly susceptible of poetical ornament, as may be seen, both in Apollonius, and the poems of Ossian.I have already. adverted to the character of Medea, at some length; in addition to what I have said, I shall point the attention of the reader, to that admirable passage, where the deep dissimulation and artifice of Medea are contrasted, with the shallow credulity, and simple contrivance, of Absyrtus.-The portrait of Hercules is nobly designedhis superiority to the rest of the adventurers, is fully imprest, and decidedly felt, though his stay among them is so short, which shows great art of writing in the poet.The generous friendship, and blunt in-. dignation of Telamon, ready to suspect, strong in the expressions of his feeling, and easy to be reconciled, are well opposed to the calm forbearance, and pruden. tial reserve, of Jason.--The concurrence of the two daughters of Eetes, from different motives, in one endthe one, promoting the views of the Argonauts, through maternal tenderness-the other, through the influence of love; and their mutual distrust, at the commencement of their machinations-with the artful manner, in which they endeavour to sound each other, are admirably represented, and show the author's knowledge of the human heart, and power of pourtraying characters.-The representations