Book IV.

In the episode of Dido, contained in this book, Virgil has not only come nearer, perhaps, than any other ancient writer to the tone of modern romantic feeling, but he has succeeded in giving, with remarkable skill, the picture at once of a fond woman and an oriental queen. It will be remembered that at the time this part of the Æneid was composed, the incidents of Actium were still fresh, and that the defeat of Antony and the death of Cleopatra had produced a most powerful effect on the Roman imagination. Many traits of the royal and imperious Dido, and particularly the passion of barbaric wrath, pride, and despair, in her last moments, seem to be suggested by the story of the Egyptian queen, and find their best parallel in Shakespeare's Cleopatra.

I. at, contrasted with quievit, end of Book iii. — gravi . . cura : notice the interlocked order and the place of the adjective before the cæsura and the noun at end. — cura, a sore distress, a regular word for the pangs of love. — saucia (always of heavy wounds), stricken.

2. venis, i. e. it feeds upon her blood. — carpitur, is consumed: the image being of a flame, which catches successively upon the objects within its reach.

3. multa multus (adj. for adv.)= one after another. — recursat, comes back to her thought. The four causes are moral character (virtus); nobility (gentis honos); personal beauty (voltus); eloquence (verba).

5. nec dat, and allows not.

6. postera Aurora, the following dawn.

7. unanimam, sympathizing.

8. male sana, distracted.

9. insomnia, dreams (¿výπvia), caused by her suddenly awakened love. suspensam, anxious, as in cura, above.

II. quam forti pectore et armis (sc. est), how brave his heart and [deeds of] arms! It is far better to take the words as referring to moral qualities, as timor (v. 13) is obviously opposed to them. The whole thus becomes much more striking. "What a noble mien, what hercic mind and doughty deeds! in fact he must be of divine descent, for common souls are recognized by fear." Here quibus, etc., is dictated by compassion, as the first is by admiration, and v. 15 gives the natural conclusion. The rendering imitated by Tennyson is less satisfactory:

"O noble breast and all-puissant arms.

." — Idyls of the King.

13. degeneres, etc., but ah! tossed by what fates, what wars, proved to the utmost, did he recite ! — exhausta: the image is of drawing out all the contents of a well or cistern.

16. ne... vellem, not to think of, &c.

17. deceptam fefellit, cheated me, betrayed by death.

...

18. pertæsum (impers.), utterly weary.-tædæ, torches had a conspicuous place in marriage rites, cf. v. 167.

19. potui, I might have perhaps (§ 59, 3, e; G. 246, r3).

21. sparsos Penates, my household gods stained. — fraterna, by a brother's murder.

22. inflexit sensus, has changed my feelings. — animum impulit, has moved my heart to waver.

24. ima tellus, the depths of earth.

27. resolvo, make void (ii. 157).

29. abstulit, has borne away with him.

31. magis dilecta, dearer to thy sister than light=sister, dearer to me than life.

32. sola

...

juventa, wilt thou wither, sorrowing alone, all through thy youth (compare Tennyson, "To her, perpetual maidenhood").

33. nec... . . noris, nor know dear offspring, or the joys of love? 34. Manis, referring back to abstulit, etc., v. 29: think you that ashes or the buried shades can care for this? i. e. those are all that is left of your former husband, and what interest can they have in your action?

35. esto, true, referring to the following.-mariti ægram, in thy grief.

36. Tyro, abl. of place from whence, cf. § 54, 2, b.

=

suitors;

37. Africa terra, the Afric land; triumphis dives, i. e. warlike and victorious.

38. placito, pleasing to you. — amori, dative, partly an imitation of Greek, and partly an extension of such uses as resistere, obstare (§ 51, 2, g; G. 344, R3).

39. quorum arvis, see i. 339, 563.

41. infreni, riding without bridles, from the habit of the Numidians. — inhospita, on account of the marauding tribes on the shore. 42. deserta siti: the wild tribes of the desert here hinted at like the modern Bedouins — alarm the imagination still more than a regular force.

44. Germani, see i. 361.

45. Junone secunda: Juno both as tutelar divinity of Carthage, and as goddess of marriage.

48. conjugio tali, under such an alliance.

49. quantis rebus (dat.) = to what a height.

50. sacris litatis, i.e. having propitiated the Manes by fit offerings. —litare means properly to sacrifice with favorable omens. The poets add a cognate accusative, which, as here, becomes subject of the passive.

52. desævit, has spent its rage.

53. quassatæ, sc. sunt.—tractabile, sc. est.

55. solvit pudorem, did away her scruple: pudor is that feeling of shame which rises from self-respect.

57. bidentes, the name given to the sheep during the second year; when two of the eight "milk-teeth" (in the lower jaw only) drop out, and are replaced by two large conspicuous permanent teeth, so that, till the beginning of the third year, when two more are replaced in a similar way, the creature looks as if it had only two teeth in all. This sacrifice was a kind of sin-offering.

58. Cereri, Ceres, "the lawgiver," Apollo, and Bacchus, as well as Juno, have to do with marriage rites.

59. Junoni: Juno was the special guardian of women, each woman having her own Juno, as every man his genius. She presided over marriage, and (as Lucina) over child-birth.

61. vaccæ, the cow, apparently, to Juno alone.

62. spatiatur: before a sacrifice, the Roman performed a slow measured movement before the altar, holding a lighted torch. pinguis the portion laid upon the altar consisted principally of bones and fat.

63. instaurat diem donis, renews the offerings the next day. This repetition seems to be caused by the anxiety of Dido to secure the favor of the gods. It is possible, also, as suggested by Ladewig, that the omens may have continued unfavorable. — reclusis, opened.

64. spirantia exta, the palpitating organs. (with open mouth).

inhians, gazing

65. ignaræ, in supposing these sacrifices and omens can avail. 66. est ... medullas, the subtile flame consumes her vitals: many take mollis with medullas.

69. conjecta sagitta, when the arrow has reached its mark. 71. pastor agens: the figure is of an accidental shot by a shepherd, which has taken effect without his knowledge. — volatile, Aying.

75. paratam, emphatic: already prepared, so that he need seek no further for a city yet to be built.

78. demens, heedless, since it would only inflame her unhappy passion.

79. pendet ab ore, hangs on the lips.

...

80. lumen premit, the moon in her turn hides her light. 82. stratis relictis, the couch in the banquet-hall which he has left. 84. Ascanium, who has now returned to his father in his proper shape.

85. infandum amorem, the love that might not be told. si possit, to try if she can.

89. machina, enginery, probably the crane or windlass that remains useless at the top of the unfinished wall.

92. adgreditur, accosts, used of the one who begins the dialogue. 93. vero, truly (ironical). — refertis, you win: used of carrying away the prize won in battle.

96. nec... fallit, and it does not escape me, either, that in fear of our walls you have had in suspicion, &c.

98. quo, etc., to what end with all this strife? Many editions have certamina tanta.

100. exercemus, maintain.

IOI. traxit... furorem= has caught the madness (and feels it) throughout her frame.

102. communem (pred.), in common, i. e. with joint authority. 104. dotales Tyrios, the Tyrians as her dower: i. e. the portion brought by the wife to her husband (dos), not the marriage-portion settled upon the wife, as among the Germans (Tac. Germ. 18). The gift is here supposed to be given to Venus, as if she too were to be made a tutelar diety of Carthage.

105. simulata mente, with assumed feeling. — enim, i. e. she matches craft with craft.

107. quis... abnuat, who so foolish to refuse?

109. quod memoras, as you say.

110. sed... feror, but I am borne by the fates, uncertain whether. — si, § 67 2, ƒ; G. 4622.

III. Tyriis, etc., i. 732.

114. excepit, lit. took her up, i. e. answered.

116. confieri (conficio), be established, § 37, 7, end.

119. Titan: the name of the old nature-divinities displaced by the gods of Olympus, applied afterwards, very appropriately, by eminence to the sun-god. — retexerit, shall reveal.

120. his, dat. after infundam, I will pour on them.

121. dum trepidant alæ, while the bands [of huntsmen] hurry hither and thither: the alæ are properly the outriders or "beaters who drive the game towards the grand battue, as cavalry serve as skirmishers in battle. - indagine, closing-up, the process by which the game are hemmed in at the skirts of the wood. 123. tegentur, will be wrapped or hidden.

125. si mihi certa, i. e. if I can rely on it.

127. hic hymenæus erit, this shall be their marriage-rite. Conington gives Hymenæus, the god of wedlock; the presence of Juno, Venus, and Hymen being supposed needful to make the marriage perfect. · non adversata, not objecting.

128. dolis repertis (abl. abs.), smiled at the transparent craft of Juno.

130. jubare exorto, when the beam shot forth.

132. odora canum vis =

=

the keen-scented pack of hounds. 133. thalamo cunctantem, delaying in her chamber. —limina, the palace door.

137. chlamydem: the chlamys was a round cape, fastened by a clasp over the shoulder.

138. nodantur in aurum = are gathered into a knot with gold. 142. agmina jungit, brings the bands together, i. e. his own with the other.

143. qualis... Apollo, like Apollo, when he quits the wintry Lycia, &c. Many tales spoke of the journeyings of Apollo, which may have reference to the abode of the summer and winter sun, though the description is purely fanciful and pictorial. One of his abiding-places was among the Hyperboreans of the distant north.

145. instaurat, repeats after interruption.

146. fremunt, make a confused noise. — picti, stained with paint, like the ancient Britons. The Agathyrsi are an Hyperborean people.

147. molli ... fingens, shaping his loose locks, he confines them with the soft garland.

149. segnior, less briskly.

150. tantum decus, an equal glory (with Apollo).

152. dejectæ, driven down.

154. transmittunt campos, deer course the open fields.

158. pecora, domestic flocks (as he calls them).

159. fulvum, a descriptive epithet, as we should say a real lion.