Opening the text

The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 15Dryden, John

General

The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 15

Name: The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 15
Author: Dryden, John

Dryden, John

English literature

Amata, ever partial to the cause of Turnus, had just before desired
him, with all manner of earnestness, not to engage his rival in single
fight; which was his present resolution. Virgil, though (in favour of
his hero) he never tells us directly that Lavinia preferred Turnus to
Æneas, yet has insinuated this preference twice before. For mark, in
the seventh Æneïd, she left her father, (who had promised her to Æneas
without asking her consent,) and followed her mother into the woods,
with a troop of Bacchanals, where Amata sung the marriage-song, in the
name of Turnus; which, if she had disliked, she might have opposed.
Then, in the eleventh Æneïd, when her mother went to the temple of
Pallas, to invoke her aid against Æneas, whom she calls by no better
name than _Phrygius prædo_, Lavinia sits by her in the same chair or
litter, _juxtaque comes Lavinia virgo,--oculos dejecta decoros_. What
greater sign of love, than fear and concernment for the lover? In
the lines which I have quoted, she not only sheds tears, but changes
colour. She had been bred up with Turnus; and Æneas was wholly a
stranger to her. Turnus, in probability, was her first love, and
favoured by her mother, who had the ascendant over her father. But I
am much deceived, if (besides what I have said) there be not a secret
satire against the sex, which is lurking under this description of
Virgil, who seldom speaks well of women--better indeed of Camilla, than
any other--for he commends her beauty and valour--because he would
concern the reader for her death. But valour is no very proper praise
for woman-kind; and beauty is common to the sex. He says also somewhat
of Andromache, but transiently: and his Venus is a better mother than a
wife; for she owns to Vulcan she had a son by another man. The rest are
Junos, Dianas, Didos, Amatas, two mad prophetesses, three Harpies on
earth, and as many Furies under ground. This fable of Lavinia includes
a secret moral; that women, in their choice of husbands, prefer the
younger of their suitors to the elder; are insensible of merit, fond
of handsomeness, and, generally speaking, rather hurried away by their
appetite, than governed by their reason.


Note II.

    _Sea-born Messapus, with Atinas, heads
    The Latin squadrons, and to battle leads._--P. 166.

The poet had said, in the preceding lines, that Mnestheus, Serestus,
and Asylas, led on the Trojans, the Tuscans, and the Arcadians: but
none of the printed copies, which I have seen, mention any leader of
the Rutulians and Latins, but Messapus the son of Neptune. Ruæus takes
notice of this passage, and seems to wonder at it; but gives no reason,
why Messapus is alone without a coadjutor.

The four verses of Virgil run thus:

    _Totæ adeo conversæ acies, omnesque Latini,
    Omnes Dardanidæ; Mnestheus, ucerque Serestus,
    Et Messapus equûm domitor, et fortis Asylas,
    Tuscorumque phalanx, Evandrique Arcades alæ._

I doubt not but the third line was originally thus:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 15Dryden, John

General

The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 15

Dryden, John

English literature

Amata, ever partial to the cause of Turnus, had just before desired
him, with all manner of earnestness, not to engage his rival in single
fight; which was his present resolution. Virgil, though (in favour of
his hero) he never tells us directly that Lavinia preferred Turnus to
Æneas, yet has insinuated this preference twice before. For mark, in
the seventh Æneïd, she left her father, (who had promised her to Æneas
without asking her consent,) and followed her mother into the woods,
with a troop of Bacchanals, where Amata sung the marriage-song, in the
name of Turnus; which, if she had disliked, she might have opposed.
Then, in the eleventh Æneïd, when her mother went to the temple of
Pallas, to invoke her aid against Æneas, whom she calls by no better
name than _Phrygius prædo_, Lavinia sits by her in the same chair or
litter, _juxtaque comes Lavinia virgo,--oculos dejecta decoros_. What
greater sign of love, than fear and concernment for the lover? In
the lines which I have quoted, she not only sheds tears, but changes
colour. She had been bred up with Turnus; and Æneas was wholly a
stranger to her. Turnus, in probability, was her first love, and
favoured by her mother, who had the ascendant over her father. But I
am much deceived, if (besides what I have said) there be not a secret
satire against the sex, which is lurking under this description of
Virgil, who seldom speaks well of women--better indeed of Camilla, than
any other--for he commends her beauty and valour--because he would
concern the reader for her death. But valour is no very proper praise
for woman-kind; and beauty is common to the sex. He says also somewhat
of Andromache, but transiently: and his Venus is a better mother than a
wife; for she owns to Vulcan she had a son by another man. The rest are
Junos, Dianas, Didos, Amatas, two mad prophetesses, three Harpies on
earth, and as many Furies under ground. This fable of Lavinia includes
a secret moral; that women, in their choice of husbands, prefer the
younger of their suitors to the elder; are insensible of merit, fond
of handsomeness, and, generally speaking, rather hurried away by their
appetite, than governed by their reason.


Note II.

    _Sea-born Messapus, with Atinas, heads
    The Latin squadrons, and to battle leads._--P. 166.

The poet had said, in the preceding lines, that Mnestheus, Serestus,
and Asylas, led on the Trojans, the Tuscans, and the Arcadians: but
none of the printed copies, which I have seen, mention any leader of
the Rutulians and Latins, but Messapus the son of Neptune. Ruæus takes
notice of this passage, and seems to wonder at it; but gives no reason,
why Messapus is alone without a coadjutor.

The four verses of Virgil run thus:

    _Totæ adeo conversæ acies, omnesque Latini,
    Omnes Dardanidæ; Mnestheus, ucerque Serestus,
    Et Messapus equûm domitor, et fortis Asylas,
    Tuscorumque phalanx, Evandrique Arcades alæ._

I doubt not but the third line was originally thus:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 15

The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 15

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