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
_Et Messapus equûm domitor, et fortis Atinas:_
for the two names of Asylas and Atinas are so like, that one might
easily be mistaken for the other by the transcribers. And to fortify
this opinion, we find afterward, in the relation of Saces to Turnus,
that Atinas is joined with Messapus:
_Soli, pro portis, Messapus et acer Atinas
Sustentant aciem_----
In general I observe, not only in this Æneïd, but in all the six last
Books, that Æneas is never seen on horseback, and but once before,
as I remember, in the fourth, where he hunts with Dido. The reason of
this, if I guess aright, was a secret compliment which the poet made to
his countrymen the Romans, the strength of whose armies consisted most
in foot, which, I think, were all Romans and Italians. But their wings
or squadrons were made up of their allies, who were foreigners.
Note III.
_This let me beg (and this no fates withstand)
Both for myself and for your father's land, &c._--P. 176.
The words in the original are these:
_Pro Latio obtestor, pro majestate tuorum_.
Virgil very artfully uses here the word _majestas_, which the Romans
loved so well, that they appropriated it to themselves--_Majestas
populi Romani_. This title, applied to kings, is very modern; and that
is all I will say of it at present, though the word requires a larger
note. In the word _tuorum_, is included the sense of my translation,
_Your father's land_, because Saturn, the father of Jove, had governed
that part of Italy, after his expulsion from Crete. But that on which I
most insist, is the address of the poet, in this speech of Juno. Virgil
was sufficiently sensible, as I have said in the preface, that whatever
the common opinion was, concerning the descent of the Romans from the
Trojans, yet the ancient customs, rites, laws, and habits of those
Trojans were wholly lost, and perhaps also that they had never been:
and, for this reason, he introduces Juno in this place, requesting of
Jupiter that no memory might remain of Troy (the town she hated), that
the people hereafter should not be called Trojans, nor retain any thing
which belonged to their predecessors. And why might not this also be
concerted betwixt our author and his friend Horace, to hinder Augustus
from re-building Troy, and removing thither the seat of empire, a
design so unpleasing to the Romans? But of this I am not positive,
because I have not consulted Dacier, and the rest of the critics,
to ascertain the time in which Horace writ the ode relating to that
subject.
Note IV.
_Deep in the dismal regions void of light,
Three daughters, at a birth, were born to Night._--P. 177.
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