tive; and yet by glancing our eye over the several periods of Virgil's life, we may perhaps attain a sort of probability which ought to have some weight, since nothing can be thrown into the opposite scale. Although Virgil's father was hardly of a lower rank than Horace's, yet the peculiar character of the latter afforded his son a much superior education: Virgil did not enjoy the same opportunities of observing mankind on the great theatre of Rome, or of pursuing philosophy, in her favourite shades of the academy. Adjecêre binæ paulò plus artis Athenæ: The sphere of Virgil's education did not extend beyond Mantua, After the accidents of civil war had introduced Virgil to the knowledge of the great, he passed a few years at Rome, in a state of dependence, the juvenum nobilium cliens.§ It was during that time that he composed his Eclogues, the hasty productions of a muse capable of far greater things.|| By the liberality of Augustus and his courtiers, Virgil soon became possessed of an affluent fortune.¶ He composed the Georgics and the Eneid in his elegant villas of Campania and Sicily; and seldom quitted those pleasing retreats even to come to Rome.** After he had finished the Eneid, he resolved on a journey inte Greece and Asia, to employ three years in revising and perfecting that poem, and to devote the remainder of his life to the study of philosophy. He was at Athens, with Augustus, in the summer of A.U.C. 735; and whilst Augustus was at Athens, the Eleusinian mysteries were celebrated.‡‡ It is not impossible, that Virgil might then be initated, as well as the Indian philosopher;§§ but the Eneid could receive no improvement from this newly acquired knowledge. He was taken ill at Megara. The journey increased his disorder, and he expired at Brundusium, the twenty-second of September of the same year 735.||| * The life of Virgil, attributed to Donatus, contains many characteristic particulars; but which are lost in confusion, and disgraced with a mixture of absurd stories, such as none but a monk of the darker ages could either invent or believe. I always considered them as the interpolations of some more recent writer; and am confirmed in that opinion by the life of Virgil, pure from those additions, which Mr. Spence lately published, from a Florence MS., at the begining of Mr. Holdsworth's valuable Observations on Virgil. + Horat. lib. ii. ep. ii. ver. 43. § Horat. lib. iv. od. xii. ¶ Propè centies sestertium, about £80,000. ** Donat. in Virgil. Donat. in Virgil. ++ Id. ibid. They always began the 15th of the Attic month Boedromion and lasted nine days. Those that take the trouble of calculating the Athenian calendar, on the prin ciples laid down by Mr. Dodwell (de Cyclis Antiquis) and by Dr. Halley, will find, that A.U.C. Var. 735, the 15th of Boedromion coincided with the 24th of August of the Julian year. But if we may believe Dion Cassius, the celebration was this year anticipated, on account of Augustus and the Indian philosopher. Lib. liv. p. 739, edit. Reimar. §§ Strabo, lib. xv. p. 720. Donat. in Virgil. Should it then appear probable, that Virgil had no opportunity of learning the secret of the mysteries, it will be something more than probable that he has not revealed what he never knew. His lordship will perhaps tell me, that Virgil might be initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries without making a journey to Athens; since those mysteries had been brought to Rome long before.* Here indeed I should be apt to suspect some mistake, or, at least, a want of precision in his lordship's ideas; as Salmasius † and Casaubon, men tolerably versed in antiquity, assure me, that indeed some Grecian ceremonies of Ceres had been practised at Rome from the earliest ages; but that the mysteries of Eleusis were never introduced into that capital, either by the Emperor Adrian, or by any other and I am the more induced to believe, that these rites were not imported in Virgil's time, as the accurate Suetonius speaks of an unsuccessful attempt for that purpose, made by the emperor Claudius, above threescore years after Virgil's death.§ : II. None but the initiated could reveal the secret of the mysteries; and the initiated could not reveal it, without violating the laws, as well of honour as of religion. I sincerely acquit the Bishop of Gloucester of any design; yet so unfortunate is his system, that it represents a most virtuous and elegant poet as equally devoid of taste, and of common honesty. His lordship acknowledges that the initiated were bound to secrecy by the most solemn obligations; || that Virgil was conscious of the imputed impiety of his design; that at Athens he never durst have ventured on it; that even at Rome such a discovery was esteemed not only impious but infamous: and yet his lordship mantains, that after the compliment of a formal apology, Sit mihi fas, audita loqui.¶ Virgil lays open the whole secret of the mysteries under the thin veil of an allegory, which could deceive none but the most careless readers.** An apology! an allegory! Such artifices might perphaps have saved him from the sentence of the Areopagus, had some zealous or interested priest denounced him to that court, as guilty of publishing a blasphemous poem. But the laws of honour are more rigid, and yet more liberal than those of civil tribunals. Sense, not words, is considered; and guilt is aggravated, not protected, by artful evasions. Virgil would still have incurred the severe censure of a contemporary, who was himself a man of very little religion. Vetabo, qui Cereris sacrum Sit trabibus, fragilemque mecum Nor can I easily persuade myself, that the ingenuous mind of Virgil could have deserved this excommunication. These lines belong to an ode of Horace, which has every merit, except that of order. That death in our country's cause is pleasant and honourable; that virtue does not depend on the caprice of a popular election; and that the mysteries of Ceres ought not to be disclose, are ideas which have no apparent connexion. The beautiful disorder of lyric poetry, is the usual apology made by professed critics on these occasions: Son style impetueux, souvent marche au hazard; An insufficient apology for the few, who dare judge from their own feelings. I shall not deny that the irregular notes of an untutored muse have sometimes delighted me. We can very seldom be displeased with the unconstrained workings of nature. But the liberty of an outlaw is very different from that of a savage. It is a mighty disagreeable sight, to observe a lyric writer of taste and reflection striving to forget the laws of composition, disjointing the order of his ideas, and working himself up into artificial madness, Ut cum ratione insaniat. I had once succeeded (as I thought) in removing this defect, by the help of an hypothesis which connected the several parts of Horace's ode with each other. My ideas appeared (I mean to myself) most ingeniously conceived. I read the ode once more, and burnt my hypothesis. But to return to our principal subject. The date of this ode may be of use to us; and the date may be fixed with tolerable certainty, from the mention of the Parthians, who are described as the enemies against whom a brave youth should signalise his valour. Parthos feroces Vexet eques metuendus hastâ, &c. Those who are used to the laboured happiness of all Horace's expressions will readily allow, that if the Parthians are mentioned rather than the Britons or Cantabrians, the Gauls or the Dalmatians, it could be only at a time when the Parthian war engaged the public attention. This reflection confines us between the years of Rome 729 and 735. Of these six years, that of 734 has a superior claim to the composition of the ode. Julius Cæsar was prevented by death from revenging the defeat of Crassus. This glorious task, unsuccessfully attempted by Mark Antony, seemed to be reserved for the prudence and felicity of Augustus; who became sole master of the Roman world in the year 724; but it was not till the year 729, that, having changed the civil administration and pacified the western provinces, he had leisure *His style impetuous oft at random flows, Boileau, Art Poetique, lib. ii. v. 72. + Curiosa felicitas. The ingenious Dr. Warton has a very strong dislike to this celebrated character of Horace. I suspect that I am in the wrong, since, in a point of criticism, I differ from Dr. Warton. I cannot, however, forbear thinking, that the expression is itself what Petronius-wished to describe; the happy union of such ease as seems the gift of fortune, with such justness as can only be the result of care and labour. Sueton. in Cæsar. c. 44. Plut. in Vit. Anton.; Julian in Cæsar. p. 324, edit. Spanheim. to turn his views towards the East. From that time, Horace, in compliance with the public wish, began to animate both prince and people to revenge the manes of Crassus.* The cautious policy of Augustus, still averse to war, was at length roused in the year 734, by some disturbances in Armenia. He passed over into Ásia, and sent the young Tiberius with an army beyond the Euphrates. Every appearance promised a glorious war. But the Parthian monarch, Phrahates, alarmed at the approach of the Roman legions, and diffident of the fidelity of his subjects, diverted the storm, by a timely and humble submission: Jus, imperiumque Phrahates Cæsaris accepit genibus minor.† Cæsar returned in triumph to Rome, with the Parthian hostages, and the Roman ensigns which had been taken from Crassus. These busy scenes, which engage the attention of contemporaries, are far less interesting to posterity than the silent labours, or even amusements, of a man of genius. Cæsar dum magnus ad altum Fulminat Euphraten bello, victorque volentes Whilst Cæsar humbled the Parthians, Virgil was composing the Æneid. It is well known, that this noble poem occupied the author, without being able to satisfy, him, during the twelve last years of his life, from the year 723 to the year 735. The public expectation was soon raised, and the modest Virgil was sometimes obliged to gratify the impatient curiosity of his friends. Soon after the death of young Marcellus,§ he recited the second, fourth, and sixth books of the Eneid, in the presence of Augustus and Octavia. He even sometimes read parts of his work to more numerous companies; with a desire of obtaining their judgment, rather than their applause. In this manner, Propertius seems to have heard the shield of Æneas, and from that specimen he ventures to foretell the approaching birth of a poem, which will surpass the Illiad. Actia Virgilium custodis litora Phœbi, Cæsaris et fortes dicere posse rates. As a friend and as a critic, Horace was entitled to all Virgil's confidence, and was probably acquainted with the whole progress of the Eneid, from the first rude sketch, which Virgil drew up in prose, *Horat. lib. i. od. ii. lib. iii. od. v. lib. ii. serm. i. v. 15, &c. + Horat. lib. i. epist. xii. ; Vell. Pater. lib. ii. c. xciv. ; Tacit. Annal. lib. ii. c. i.; Sueton. in Octav. c. xxi. and in Tiber. c. xiv. ; Justin, lib. xlii. c. v. ; Dion Cassius, lib. liv. p. 736, edit. Reimar ; Joseph. Ant. lib. xv. c. v. ; Ovid. Fast. v. ver. 551, &c. Donat. in Virgil. § Marcellus died in the latter end of the year 731. Usserii Annales, p. 555. to that harmonious poetry, which the author alone thought unworthy of posterity. To resume my idea, which depended on this long deduction of circumstances; when Horace composed the second ode of his third book, the Eneid, and particularly the sixth book, were already known to the public. The detestation of the wretch who reveals the mysteries of Ceres, though expressed in general terms, must be applied by all Rome to the author of the sixth book of the Æneid. Can we seriously suppose, that Horace would have branded with such wanton infamy, one of the men in the world whom he loved and honoured the most? * Nothing remains to say, except that Horace was himself ignorant of his friend's allegorical meaning, which the Bishop of Gloucester has since revealed to the world. It may be so; yet, for my own part, I should be very well satisfied with understanding Virgil no better than Horace did. It is perhaps some such foolish fondness of antiquity, which inclines me to doubt, whether the Bishop of Gloucester has really united the severe sense of Aristotle with the sublime imagination of Longinus. Yet a judicious critic (who is now, I believe, Archdeacon of Gloucester) assures the public, that his patron's mere amusements have done much more than the joint labours of the two Grecians. I shall conclude these observations with a remarkable passage from the Archdeacon's Dedication: "It was not enough, in your enlarged view of things, to restore either of these models (Aristotle or Longinus) to their original splendour. They were to be revived, or rather a new original plan of criticism to be struck out, which should unite the virtues of each of them. This experiment was made on the two greatest of our own poets, (Shakspeare and Pope), and by reflecting all the lights of the imagination on the severest reason, every thing was effected which the warmest admirer of ancient art could promise himself from such a union. But you went farther, by joining to these powers a perfect insight into the human nature; and so ennobling the exercise of literary, by the justest moral censure, you have now at length advanced criticism to its full glory." POSTSCRIPT. I was not ignorant, that several years since, the Rev. Dr. Jortin had favoured the public with a Dissertation on the State of the Dead, as described by Homer and Virgil: but the book is now grown so scarce, that I was not able to procure a sight of it till after these papers had been already sent to the press. I found Dr. Jortin's performance, as I expected, moderate, learned, and critical. Among a variety of ingenious observations, there are two or three which are very closely connected with my present subject. *Horat. lib. 1. od. iii. lib. 1. serm. v. ver. 39, &c. See the Dedication of Horace's Epistle to Augustus, with an English commentary and notes. Six Dissertations on Different Subjects, published in a volume in octavo, in the year 1755. It is the Sixth Dissertation, p. 207-324. |