The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age: Virgil Part 44

400 'Such was the life that the old Sabines lived long ago, such the life of Remus and his brother; thus in truth brave Etruria grew strong and Rome became the glory of the world, and though a single city enclosed seven hills within her wall. Nay, even before the Sovereign-lord, born on Dicte, wielded the sceptre, and an unholy generation feasted on slaughtered steers, this was the life of Saturn on earth in the golden age. Not yet had men heard the blare of the war-trumpet, not yet had they heard the clang of the sword on the hard anvil.'

401 'Come then, ye tillers of the soil, learn the special modes of husbandry, each according to its kind.'

402 E.g. Col. iv. 9: 'Nam illam veterem opinionem d.a.m.navit usus non esse ferro tangendos anniculos malleolos, quod aciem reformidant, quod frustra Vergilius, et Saserna, Stolonesque et Catones timuerunt.'

Virgil is there quoted along with the recognised authorities on agriculture. This is often done in matters on which Columella agrees with him, e.g. i. chap. 4: 'Si verissimo vati velut oraculo crediderimus dicenti.'

403 Cp. Gisborne's 'Essays on Ancient Agriculture,' and 'Forest Trees and Woodland Scenery,' by W. Menzies, Deputy Surveyor of Windsor Forest and Parks. The following extracts from the last-named work-a work which combines thorough practical knowledge with true poetical feeling-support the statement in the text: 'All the methods, both natural and artificial, of propagating trees are described in graphic language. Virgil also fully describes the self-sowing of trees, artificial sowing, propagating by transplanting of suckers, propagating by pegging down the branches till they strike root at the point of contact with the earth, and propagating by simply cutting off a small branch from the top and placing it in the moist warm earth. All these are correct. Indeed, the art is little advanced since the time of Virgil,' p. 46. Mr. Menzies suggests an ingenious explanation of Virgil's mistake as to what trees could be grafted on one another. In speaking of the Aeneid he bears further testimony to the accuracy of Virgil's observation: 'The poet was equally great and observant of the details of woodcraft, and must have watched keenly the details of the foresters around him,' p. 50.

This remark reminds us of the fact that one of his father's means of livelihood was 'silvis coemendis.' At p. 53 Mr. Menzies draws special attention to the description of the mistletoe in Book vi, and of the aged elm under which the Shades are described as resting.

404 Cp. Holdsworth's Remarks and Dissertations on the Georgics.

405 Compare the distinction drawn out by De Quincey, and originally suggested by Wordsworth, between the literature of knowledge and the literature of power.

406 'A Venetian born of peasant parents, reared in a rough woodland country.' Macrobius, v. 2.

407 'To listen to their elders, to point out to younger men the ways by which their substance might be increased, the pa.s.sions that lead to ruin be weakened.' Ep. ii. 1. 106107.

408 Georg. i. 5659.

409 E.g. iii. 408:-

Aut impacatos a tergo horrebis Hiberos.

410 ???. ?. ?. 310.

411 'This retreat-charming to me, nay, if you believe me, even beautiful in itself.'

412 'Sweet interchange Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains.'

Paradise Lost, Book ix. II. 115116.

413 'Such as we often look down on in some mountain dale.'

414 'In early spring when chill waters are streaming down from the h.o.a.ry sides of the hills, and the clod breaks up and crumbles beneath the west wind.'

415 'Whirling whole forests in its mad eddies, Erida.n.u.s, monarch of rivers, swept them before it, and bore over all the plains herds of cattle with their stalls.'

416 The lines,

'And now we pa.s.sed From Como, when the light was gray, And in my head for half the day, The rich Virgilian rustic measure Of Lari Maxume, all the way, Like ballad-burthen music, kept,' etc.,

are so familiarly known that they hardly need to be quoted in support of this statement. But among other testimonies to the power of Virgilian a.s.sociations, one may be quoted from another great poet, whose mind was less attuned to Latin than to Greek and English poetry. Goethe, in his 'Letters from Italy,' mentions, on coming to the Lago di Garda, that he was reminded of the line,

Fluctibus et fremitu adsurgens, Benace, marino.

He adds this remark: 'This is the first Latin verse, the subject of which ever stood visibly before me, and now, in the present moment, when the wind is blowing stronger and stronger, and the lake casts loftier billows against the little harbour, it is just as true as it was hundreds of years ago. Much, indeed, has changed, but the wind still roars about the lake, _the aspect of which gains even greater glory from a line of Virgil_.'

417 'All G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses whose task it is to watch over the fields.'

418 Cp. Mommsen, book i. chap. 2: 'As the Greek when he sacrificed raised his eyes to Heaven, so the Roman veiled his head; for the prayer of the former was vision, that of the latter reflection.' Cf.

also Lucret. v. 1198:-

Nec pietas ullast velatum saepe videri Vertier ad lapidem atque omnis accedere ad aras;

and Virg. Aen. iii. 405409:-

Purpureo velare comas adopertus amictu.

Hunc socii morem sacrorum, hunc ipse teneto; Hac casti maneant in religione nepotes.

419 'Meanwhile cheering her long task with song his wife runs over her web with shrill-sounding shuttle.'

420 Compare the double meaning of 'moenia' and 'munia,' as ill.u.s.trated by Mommsen.

421 Cp. Mommsen, book i. chap. 2.

422 'The characters and tasks and hosts and battles.'

423 'They themselves supply the sovereign and tiny citizens of the community.'

424 'So great is their pa.s.sion for flowers, so great is their pride in producing honey.'

425 'But the stock remains eternal, and through long years the fortune of the house stands steadfast, and the grandsires of grandsires are counted up.'

426 Compare with this the character of the Italian race given in the speech of Remulus, Aen. ix. 603, etc.:-

Venatu invigilant pueri, etc.

427 'There are forests and the lairs of wild beasts, a youth inured to hards.h.i.+p and accustomed to scanty fare, wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.ds and reverence yielded to parents.'

428 This abstinence is indirectly inculcated and ill.u.s.trated in such pa.s.sages as iii. 209, 524, iv. 197, etc.

429 It is among the blessings of the countryman's lot enumerated in the pa.s.sage 'O fortunatos,' etc., that he is removed from the painful sight of the contrasts between poverty and riches which the life of a great city presents-

neque ille Aut doluit miserans inopem aut invidit habenti.

430 Il. xxi. 257262.

431 'Out of the tranquil deep current of ocean.' Professor Lus.h.i.+ngton's Inaugural Lecture delivered to the Students of the Greek Cla.s.ses in the University of Glasgow, November, 1838.

432 'Which rolling over rocks in stream purer than amber makes for the plain.'

433 'Forthwith as the winds are rising, either the channels of the sea begin to boil and swell, and a dry cras.h.i.+ng sound to be heard on the lofty mountains, or the sh.o.r.es to echo far with a confused noise, and the uproar of the woods to wax louder.' G. i. 3569.

434 E.g. those of Lucretia, Virginia, Coriola.n.u.s, Brutus, T. Manlius, etc.

435 Cf. Annals, iii. 5, 'Veterum inst.i.tuta ... meditata ad virtutis memoriam carmina,'-quoted by Teuffel.

436 Cf. Horace's Ode, 'Scriberis Vario,' etc., which shows at least that Agrippa desired to have a poem written in honour of his exploits.