NOTES TO BOOK I Line 1. In old editions of Virgil, the Æneid was prefaced by four lines, which alluded to the former works of the poet, the Bucolics and the Georgics, and led up to the present opening line. Dryden, in his preface, tells us that he considered these lines 'inferior to any four others in the whole poem,' and rejected them as unauthentic. He gives the following translation: 'I, who before, with shepherds in the groves, And issuing thence, compelled the neighbouring field Manured the glebe, and stocked the fruitful plain (A poem grateful to the greedy swain), etc.' 'If there be not a tolerable line in all these six,' he adds, 'the prefacer gave me no occasion to write better.' 'Our author,' says Dryden, เ seems to sound a charge, and begins like the clangour of a trumpet.' 6. the destined town] Lavinium, founded by Æneas on dividing the kingdom of Latium with Latinus, and called after his wife, Lavinia, daughter of Latinus. 9. Alban fathers] Ascanius, son of Æneas, was said to have made Alba Longa the capital of the Latian kingdom. Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were of the Alban royal line. See 1. 368 below. 19-20. away...sea] The rhyme used here was common in the time of Dryden, and is much used by an older contemporary, Cowley. At the time when this translation was made, the pronunciation 'say' was going out of fashion. Other rhymes arising from contemporary pronunciation will be found below, 60-1, 64-5, 116—7. 23. There were famous temples of Hera at Argos and Samos. The mention of Argos here is introduced by Dryden. Caius Verres, the notorious proconsul, had plundered the Heræum at Samos a little more than fifty years before the composition of the Æneid. 38-9. the doom...of partial Paris] The judgment of Paris, who gave the golden apple inscribed To the Fairest' to Aphrodite, and so incurred the enmity of Hera and Athene for himself and Troy. 39. form] beauty: cf. Isaiah liii. 2. is forma. The word used by Virgil 40. Ganymed] Son of Tros, and brother of the founder of Troy, Ilus. Zeus snatched him to upper air, and made him the gods' cupbearer, according to Homer: the later form of the story, told by Ovid, makes Zeus assume the form of an eagle. Cf. Croxall's lines in the translation of Ovid by Dryden and others: 'He serves the nectar at th' Almighty's feast, To slighted Juno an unwelcome guest.' 41. Electra's glories] Virgil implies, without mentioning, the name of Electra. She was daughter of Atlas, and mother, by Zeus (Jupiter), of Dardanus, the ancestor of the Trojan race. 51. Sicilian shores] The course of Æneas' voyage is recorded in Eneid iii. His father Anchises died at Drepanum (Trapani), at the north-west corner of Sicily, from which they afterwards set sail. 52. reign] kingdom: cf. 1. 178 below. 60-9. The story of the fate of the Locrian Ajax, son of Oïleus, is told by Homer, Odyssey IV. He is there punished by Poseidon (Neptune) for boasting that he had escaped the waves in spite of the gods. Virgil makes Pallas punish him with the bolts of Jupiter for offering violence to Cassandra in her temple, when Troy was taken (see Book 11. ll. 543 ff.). Milton probably remembered Virgil's story in writing Paradise Lost, 11. 11. 181, 182. 66. The simile is Dryden's own. 79. Eolus] In Homer, Eolus is apparently a mortal, 'beloved of the immortal gods,' king of the Eolian island in the Tyrrhenian sea. In Virgil, he is an immortal, without a definitely localised habitation. 89. soul] No equivalent in Virgil. Dryden probably was thinking of the literal meaning of the Latin anima a breeze or wind). 92. The line is a so-called 'Alexandrine,' which, Dryden says, 'adds a certain majesty to the verse, when it is used with judgment, and stops the sense from overflowing into another line.' Cf. 1. 104. 106. fatal] appointed by fate. Cf. Dryden's compliment to the Duchess of Ormond, in the lines prefixed to his Fables: 'O true Plantagenet, O race divine (For beauty still is fatal to the line).' 109. Succeed] yield to: a Latinism. 121. all the God] All his divine strength. Cf. a similar phrase in Book II. 1. 672, and Book VI. 1. 79. 122-5. Cowley laid down, in the notes to his Davideis, that 'the disposition of words and numbers should be such, as that out of the order and sound of them, the things themselves may be represented.' He specially instanced the observance of this rule by Virgil, whom Dryden here follows. Notice the effect of alliteration in l. 124. 139. Tydides] Diomedes, son of Tydeus of Calydon, whose chief exploits are told by Homer, Iliad v and x. 142. Sarpedon] Son of Zeus and the Lycian Laodamia. Jupiter (Eneid, Book x [Dryden], 11. 661—2) complains that he was unable to protect Sarpedon from death, when he was slain by Patroclus (see Iliad XVI). 147. Boreas] Virgil uses the more usual Latin name Aquilo. 155. shelves] reefs, frequently used, e.g. by Falconer, The Shipwreck, 1762, canto iii: A shore, where shelves and hidden rocks abound.' 156. Ausonian] Italian. The early inhabitants of the southern half of Italy were known as AusŎnes. 172. 157. Altars] a general term : no special shelves' are intended. Ilioneus] Must be read as a three-syllabled word, with a strong accent on the first syllable, and the two middle syllables slurred into one short one. Even so the scansion is very rough. 176. Neptune] Poseidon was one of the gods opposed to the Trojans, as he had joined with Apollo in building the walls of Troy for Laomedon, son of Ilus and father of Priam, and had been cheated of his reward. In Iliad xx he had, however, saved Æneas from the wrath of Achilles. Here he interferes, not for the sake of Æneas, but to vindicate his own sovereignty of the sea. 185. what her aims] i.e. what were her aims. 'Aims' does not govern 'pursue.' 196-7. Dryden has a long note on Neptune's assumption of the kingdom of the air. He concludes: To raise a tempest on the sea was usurpation on the prerogative of Neptune, who had given him (i.e. Æolus) no leave, and therefore was enraged at his attempt. I may also add, that they who are in a passion, as Neptune then was, are apt to assume to themselves more than is properly their due.' In Virgil, however, Neptune does no more than assume the power which actually was his. 205. Cymothoe] One of the Nereides, or nymphs of the Mediterranean: the list of their names is in Iliad XVIII. Lightfoote Cymothoë' occurs in Spenser, F. Q. IV. xi. st. 48. The name means 'Wave-swift.' T. V. 7 His Triton] The son of Neptune and Salacia, who roused or stilled the sea by blowing through a hollow shell. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. IV. xi. st. 11: Triton his trompet shrill before them blew,' etc. name became a general term for the inferior sea-gods attendant on Neptune, as Mrs Todgers' boarders remembered in Martin Chuzzlewit, chap. XI. sea-green train] 'Sea-green Sirens' lamented young Lawson from the rocks in Annus Mirabilis, st. 21. 208-10. Dryden remembered this passage in Virgil when writing Annus Mirabilis, st. 184. 6 214. motions] impulses. Cf. Shakespeare, Hamlet, 111. iv. 72; Middleton, A Mad World, my Masters, Act II, 'Tis no new motion, sir, she has took it from an infant.' Sixteenth and seventeenth century examples are common. 217. pious] i.e. impelled by pious concern for the state and its citizens. The famous Roman riot, which was stilled by Menenius Agrippa, is suggested by Virgil, and was certainly remembered by Dryden, who had read Coriolanus. 229 ff. Virgil borrowed his description of the harbour from Homer, Odyssey XIII, where the landing-place of Odysseus in Ithaca is described. Virgil's scenery is far less definite than that of Homer; but Dryden conventionalises Virgil, e.g. in l. 233, 234, where his sylvan scene fails to reproduce the picture of the wooded amphitheatre (silvis scaena coruscis) which Virgil gives us. 240. bearded] barbed at the extremities. 247. Short] shortly, soon. 254. marbles] hard stones from the beach. 258. streamers] What Æneas actually hoped to see was the gleam of his lost companions' armour hung on the sides of their vessels. Dryden introduces a modern touch; but in Æneid VIII. 11. 125, 126, he writes: The woods and waters wonder at the gleam Of shields, and painted ships that stem the stream.' 260. beamy] with large antlers. Cf. Denham, Cooper's Hill, 1. 284: His dreadful challenge, and his clashing beam.' The beams of a stag's horn are, strictly speaking, its third and fourth branches. 266. along] at full length. So Æneid X. 441: 'Not far from him was Gyas laid along.' 271. Acestes] Eneid v tells us that Anchises had died in the territory of the Sicilian king Acestes, and that the city of Acesta (better known as Segesta or Egesta) was founded there as a refuge for those who, owing to the burning of the ships, were unable to proceed with Eneas to Italy. 272. Trinacrian] Sicily was called Trinacria insula from the three promontories_forming its corners- -Lilybæum (Boeo) N. W., Pelorus (Faro) N.E., and Pachynus (Passaro) S.E. Segesta was N.E. of Lilybæum. 279. Scylla] Cf. Milton, Par. Lost, 11. 660, 661: 'Vex'd Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts As a matter of fact, the Trojans had not passed actually through the Straits of Messina on their visit to Sicily; and, although they had been in danger from the Cyclops, they had avoided his den. 294. quarry] game, strictly of game driven into an enclosure: cf. the metaphor in Hamlet, III. ii. 375, 'This quarry cries on havoc.' The word originally meant the enclosure (carrée) into which the game was driven. For the general use of the word (=spoil, prey) cf. Annus Mirabilis, st. 281, 'The flames that to their quarry strove'; Hind and Panther, I. 104, 'Let Reason then at her own quarry fly.' 297. reeking] smoking. Cf. the familiar name of Edinburgh, 'Auld Reekie,' from the smoke of her chimney-pots. 312. The influence of Venus on behalf of the Trojans was exercised (1) as the goddess favoured by Paris in the contest for the apple of beauty, (2) as the mother of Æneas. 316. Disposing] The later editions read 'Disposes.' 322. The promise of Jove to the Romans finds, of course, no place in the original tale of Troy. Zeus, however (Iliad IV. 44—9), had declared his special affection for Troy. Poseidon (Iliad xx. 307-8) had prophesied the continuance of the Trojan race under Æneas and his children. 328. fates to fates] i.e. she could set the happy destiny of her son against the disastrous fate of Troy, and so console herself. 332. Antenor] The Trojan prince who (Iliad VII) advised the Trojans to restore Helen to the Greeks. Later legends made him the traitor who arranged with Agamemnon for the surrender of Troy and the Palladium: see Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, Iv. stt. 29, 30. 334. Timavus] This river, now the Isonzo, falls into the Adriatic in Istria, east of Aquileja. Virgil tells us that Antenor came to the fount of Timavus' through the realm of the Liburni, i.e. the coast-region of N. Dalmatia and Croatia. Lucan (Pharsalia, VII. 194) speaks of Antenoreus Timavus, referring to this legend. 338. renewed their name] Virgil says 'gave a name to the race.' The Veneti, who occupied the territory between the Adige and Adriatic, were said to derive their name from the Asian Eneti, who accompanied Antenor. |