P. VERGILI MARONIS

AENEIDOS

LIBER QUARTUS.

ON the fourth Book of the Aeneid little remains to be added to what has been already said in the general Introduction. Its subject has made it the most attractive, perhaps the most celebrated, part of the poem: it has provoked much controversy, and that of a kind which has an interest, not only for the scholar, but for the general reader; much of it has been supposed to be borrowed from a particular Greek writer, whose work happens to be preserved: it is the most dramatic portion of the Aeneid, and as such may be viewed in relation to the masterpieces of Greek dramatic art. These are all points which appear to belong to the sphere of Virgilian criticism in general, whether aesthetic or antiquarian; and it seemed natural to discuss them in that connexion. For the questions then of Aeneas' treatment of Dido, of Virgil's obligations to Apollonius Rhodius, and of his relations, general and special, to the Greek drama, I must refer my readers to what I have said already.

Naevius, as has been remarked in the general Introduction, is supposed to have preceded Virgil in the anachronism of bringing Aeneas and Dido together. As this fact is itself a matter of inference, we cannot of course tell whether he made their parting tragical or otherwise. All that we know connecting Naevius with the story of this book is that he mentioned Anna, Dido's sister, who appears now in Virgil for the first time. How this personage came to be complicated with the legendary history of Rome is not clear; her name however, which is Carthaginian, like Hanno, Hannibal, &c., led to her identification with Anna Perenna, the Roman goddess of the year, and Ovid (Fasti, 3. 523 foll.) recounts or invents a story of her following Aeneas to Italy. In Virgil she is merely the confidante of the heroine, a character which has become a stock one at certain periods of the history of the drama, especially since the chorus came to be excluded from the action. In other respects Virgil would seem simply to have taken the traditional story of Dido, and modified it as was required by the necessity of blending her destiny with that of Aeneas. According to the most detailed accounts, as epitomized in the Dictionary of Biography, Dido's early history up to the time of her landing in Africa coincides substantially with that narrated by Venus to Aeneas in Book 1; afterwards she is persecuted by her neighbour, King Iarbas, who demands her hand; she resolves to avoid him by death, erects a funeral pile under the pretence of a sacrifice to propitiate her former husband, and kills herself there. Virgil turns the loveless queen into a passionate lover, keeping however the groundwork of the character, devotion to the memory of her murdered lord, which is [p. 259] only overcome by Venus' express agency, and even then from time to time struggles and resists. Iarbas is naturally made to recede into the distance; his anger contributes to darken the prospect of Dido's desolation, but is in no sense the motive cause of her death. The mode of her death is borrowed from the traditional story, and the fact of her resorting to a pretext to conceal her purpose; but as the reason for her death is different, the pretext is different also. In filling up the picture which he has sketched Virgil is indebted partly to Apollonius, though, as I have remarked elsewhere, not to such an extent as to deprive him of the praise of originality, partly perhaps to the Ajax of Sophocles.

Virgil's power is nowhere more conspicuously shown than in the lines describing the horrors which drive Dido to her fatal purpose (vv. 450473). Some remarks on the details of the description will be found in the Commentary.

The queen could not rest for thinking of her illustrious guest. After an unquiet night, she addresses her sister.