in the present instance peculiarly proper, because it was incumbent on the poet, well to distinguish between the arma, the subject of his present poem, and the arma, of which he had treated in that former poem to which, in the passage before us, he makes direct reference. Having formerly defined the arma of which he was then treating, as those quæ sint duris agrestibus-Queis sine nec potuere seri nec surgere messes, (Georg. I. 160,) he now defines the arma which form his present theme, to be arma Martis: hence, as from every observation which tends to shew the correctness of their diction, an additional argument in favour of the authenticity of the four introductory lines of the Eneis. For a further argument, derived from the same source, see comment, En. II. 247. V. 4. Sava.-The Latin savus has never been correctly defined by any lexicographer. It means, I think, possessed of, or exercising a strong power to injure; and corresponding more nearly to the Greek devoç than to either of its usually assigned German and English equivalents "streng" and "fierce," has an invariable reference to the infliction or forcible causing of something evil, some pain, punishment, harm, wrong, or damage. V. 11. Tantæne animis, &c.-Oft imitated line :- In heavenly spirits could such perverseness dwell? And in soft bosoms dwells such mighty rage? Rape of the Lock, 1. 12. Tant de fiel entre t'il dans l'ame des devots? Boileau, Lutrin. 1. 32. Acti fatis.-Ever since the time of Servius, these words have been understood to be equivalent to jactati fatis: "Si odio Junonis fatigabantur quomodo dixit acti fatis? sed hoc ipsum Junonis odium fatale est," Servius. On the contrary, actus is never jactatus, but always impulsus; and the impulsion by the Fates not only does not coincide with the impulsion by Juno, but it is directly contrary to it. The Eneadæ are driven onward, or toward Latium, by the Fates, (acti Fatis,) while, at the same time, they are driven backward, or from Latium, by Juno (arcebat longe Latio.) The result is, "multos per annos errabant maria omnia circum:" words could not more clearly express the opposition of the forces between which the Eneadæ are placed; an opposition on which hangs the whole action of the poem. V. 45. Turbine corripuit, &c. Caught in a fiery tempest shall be hurled, Each on his rock transfixed.-Par. Lost, II. 180. V. 56. Celsa sedet Eolus arce.-Heyne, whose interpretation of this passage is silently acquiesced in by Wagner, understands Eolus to be represented as seated on an arx or eminence or peak of the mountain outside the cave in which the winds are confined." Celsa in arce, extra antrum, alto in montis cacumine, infra (vers. 140) aula dicta, seu regia;" but, 1st, the picture thus presented of sceptred Eolus seated outside on a peak of the mountain, within which the winds are confined, is not very far removed from the ridiculous; 2dly, the words vasto antro are placed so much more immediately in contact with the words rex Eolus than with the words ventos tempestatesque, that it is hardly possible to doubt that they are connected with the former and not with the latter, and that their meaning is, King Eolus, in a vast cave, keeps down the winds with his empire, and not King Eolus keeps down with his empire, the winds in a vast cave. 3dly, the aula in which (as admitted by all commentators,) the arx was situated, is plainly declared by the epexegetic et in Neptune's message to Eolus, (vers. 140,) to be one and the same with the carcer ventorum. 4thly, it is not easy to conceive how Eolus could, from his seat on the arx, exercise his office of mollifying the spirits and tempering the anger of the winds, (celsa sedet Æolus arce, mollitque animos et temperat iras,) if the arx were outside the mountain, and the winds within. 5thly, the opening made in the side of the mountain by Eolus seated on the summit, must have been so near to, and so much in the direction of the summit, that the course of the winds rushing through it, would have been, not, as described by our author (vv. 83, 84.) towards the ground and the sea, but directly upwards, towards the sky. 6thly, Valerius Flaccus, in his manifest imitation of this passage, (Argon. 1. 610,) distinctly describes Eolus as opening the cave from the inside. For all these reasons, I understand the words "celsâ sedet Eolus arce" to be descriptive of Eolus seated on an eminence inside the cave; an interpretation remarkably confirmed by the following passage of Albricus Philosophus, (De Deorum imaginibus libellus,) "Eolus autem in Deorum numero computatus et qui ventorum Deus dictus est, cujus talis erat imago depicta; stabat enim IN antro linea veste indutus, tenens sub pedibus flabra, instrumenta fabrilia; in manu autem utrâque tenebat cornua, quæ ori admovens, ea subflare, et ab unoquoque cornuum sex ventos emittere videbatur." V. 60. Abdidit.—Not hid, as commonly rendered, but stowed away, or put away in a place by themselves; Jupiter's intention not being to put the winds in a place where they could not be found, but in a place where they might be under control. So abde is to be understood in Georg. III. 96, and numerous other places, where it is commonly rendered hide. Abdo, to put or stow away; this is not only the literal, but the more usual meaning of the term, its secondary or derived meaning, to hide, being comparatively rare. 66 V. 81. Cavum conversâ cuspide montem Impulit in latus.Egregie dei et potentia et impetuosum obsequium declaratur, uno sub ictu monte non (ut olim accipiebam) in latus dimoto, verum latere montis percusso hasta dei, perrupto et sic patefacto"...." hastam intorquet, immittit, ruptaque rupe viam ventis facit qua erumpant."-Heyne. This interpretation, also tacitly accepted by Wagner, is no less erroneous than that of Celsa sedet Eolus arce, (see note v. 56,) because, 1st, the act described by Heyne, viz. that of making with a cast of a spear such an opening in the side of the mountain as would allow the winds to rush out in a body, is impossible; the spear, cast with such force as we may suppose a god to have exerted, might indeed penetrate the side of the mountain, but could not by any possibility break it down, or make the considerable opening in it which is indicated by the words qua data porta, and agmine facto; 2dly, if Eolus had thus flung his spear against the side of the mountain, it was incumbent on Heyne at least, if not on Virgil, to have explained what became of the spear; whether it "stetit tremens," like Laocoon's in the side of the wooden horse, in which case, the spear filling up the opening made by itself, there would have been no passage for the winds; or whether, having penetrated the eavity, it fell on the inside, or passed clear through the mountain; in either of which cases, the further explanation would have been required, how it happened that none of the winds were wounded; 3dly, it is little likely that Virgil would either have represented the winds, (who should necessarily be let loose every time a storm was required, and be brought back to their confinement as soon as their business was done,) as confined in a place without vent or outlet; or if the place had outlets, that he would have described Eolus as making no use of them, but unnecessarily breaking down the walls, and destroying the security of the enclosure for the future; 4thly, if the cave had no outlets, the claustra mentioned at vers. 56, must mean the solid resisting sides of the mountain itself; in which case it is but a sorry, un-Virgilian picture which the winds afford, frementes not about outlets, through which they had before frequently obtained their liberty, and hoped soon to pass free again, but every where round the solid hopeless parietes of their enclosure; 5thly, That the cave had outlets closed by claustra, which Eolus struck or pushed open, not merely on this occasion, but whenever he wished to give egress to the winds, clearly appears from Statius, Theb. 1. 346: Subtexit nox atra polos; jam claustra rigentis Æoliæ percussa sonant, venturaque rauco 6thly, Impello never means intorqueo, immitto, but always simply to push, (see Comment. En, II. 50,) and (see Burmann on Valer. Flacc. 1. 610,) is especially used to express the forcibly pushing open of doors, gates, barriers, &c. As prima est virtus vitium fugere, so these objections to the received, lead directly to the correct, interpretation. Impulit, he (viz., being inside the cave, see note vers. 56,) pushed, cuspide, with the point of his spear, cavum montem in latus, the hollow mountain on the side, or the side of the hollow mountain, viz. that part of the side of the mountain which, (being moveable and serving like a door or shutter to close, claudere, the vent or outlet,) is at vers. 56, called claustra; see B. II. vers. 259. Conversâ cuspide, with the point of his spear turned (viz. from the position in which he had previously held it,) towards the side of the mountain; so, (En. IX. 427,) in me convertite ferrum. The poet, no doubt, imagined Eolus holding his spear in an upright position with the reverse end resting on the ground, while Juno addressed him, and by the words conversâ cuspide, describes his changing its position from upright to horizontal, so as with the point to push open the claustra. Conversâ cuspide is to be carefully distinguished from versâ hastâ, (vers. 478,) versa meaning simply turned; conversa, turned towards. Nor is cuspide to be taken figuratively, for the whole of the spear, but literally, for the point, which part alone came into contact with the claustra. The calm words and composed demeanour of Eolus, who uses only such moderate force (expressed by the word impulit) as was necessary to throw open the claustra, are not only in good keeping with the dignity of the god, and prison-governor, but in fine contrast with the furious rush and uproar made by the winds the next moment.-If it be asked why I have thought it necessary to adduce a long series of arguments to establish an interpretation, which a single argument (No. 6. above) is sufficient to set beyond the possibility of doubt, I beg to reply that my object was less to establish my own interpretation, than to show the numerous absurdities involved in that proposed by Heyne, and sanctioned by Wagner, and by thus taking some little, here in the very outset, from the prestige attaching to those justly esteemed authorities, to render the reader less unwilling to accompany me, when on some future occasions I shall invite him to enter upon paths widely divaricating from those which they have marked out, and rendered almost classical. I V. 85. Und Eurusque Notusque ruunt, &c.—There can, think, be little doubt that the whole of this fine picture of the winds indignantly roaring about the claustra of the carcer in which they are confined, and upon the opening of those claustra rushing out and furiously sweeping over land and sea, was suggested to Virgil by the chariot races of the Ludi Circenses, in which the horses, ready yoked, were kept confined until the moment of starting, within a carcer separated only from the spatia of the circus by claustra, for the opening of which the horses used to be seen testifying their impatience by neighing and snorting, and pawing against them with their feet, and on the opening of which they rushed forth (agmine facto) two, |