His etiam struxi manibus, patriosque vocavi
Voce deos, sic te ut posita crudelis abessem?
Exstinxti te meque, soror, populumque patresque
Sidonios urbemque tuam. Date vulnera lymphis
Abluam, et, extremus si quis super halitus errat,
Ore legam. Sic fata gradus evaserat altos,
Semianimemque sinu germanam amplexa fovebat
Cum gemitu, atque atros siccabat veste cruores.
Illa, graves oculos conata attollere, rursus
Deficit; infixum stridit sub pectore vulnus.
Ter sese attollens cubitoque adnixa levavit;
Ter revoluta toro est, oculisque errantibus alto
Quaesivit caelo lucem, ingemuitque reperta.

Tum Iuno omnipotens, longum miserata dolorem
Difficilesque obitus, Irim demisit Olympo,
Quae luctantem animam nexosque resolveret artus.
Nam quia nec fato, merita nec morte peribat,
Sed misera ante diem, subitoque accensa furore,
Nondum illi flavum Proserpina vertice crinem
Abstulerat, Stygioque caput damnaverat Orco.

ad ora

680

685

690

695

Admovet atque animae fugienti obsistere

685. Ore legam. Either referring Impositaque manu vulnus fovet, oraque to the Roman custom of having the nearest relative catch the dying breath in his own mouth, or expressing a desire to keep the last breath from leaving the body. For the first view, cf. Ariosto (Orl. Fur. XXIV. 82):

And while yet aught remains, with mourn-
ful lips,

The last faint breath of life devoutly sips.
For the second view, cf. Ovid (Met.
VII. 424):

tentat.

694. Irim. Juno's messenger.

698. Crinem abstulerat. It was a popular belief that no one could die until he had thus been consigned to Pluto. And just as in later years the suicide could not be buried in consecrated soil (cf. Shakspeare, Hamlet), so here the death struggles are prolonged until ended by the special intervention of Juno.

684. Abluam, 169. — 698. Illi, 101.

Ergo Iris croceis per caelum roscida pennis,
Mille trahens varios adverso sole colores,
Devolat, et supra caput astitit: Hunc ego Diti
Sacrum iussa fero, teque isto corpore solvo.
Sic ait, et dextra crinem secat: omnis et una
Dilapsus calor, atque in ventos vita recessit.

701. The poet, with exquisite art, lightens up the terrible and gloomy scene with which the book closes by

700

705

this beautiful touch, and amid the leaden hues of death he throws the bright colors of the rainbow.

Now, strike your sailes, yee jolly mariners,
For we be come unto a quiet rode,

Where we must land some of our passengers,
And light this weary vessell of her lode.
Here she a while may make her safe abode,
Till she repaired have her tackles spent,
And wants supplide; and then againe abroad
On the long voiage whereto she is bent:

Well may she speede, and fairely finish her intent!

SPENSER, F. Q. I. XII. 42

INTEREA medium Aeneas iam classe tenebat
Certus iter, fluctusque atros Aquilone secabat,
Moenia respiciens, quae iam infelicis Elissae
Collucent flammis. Quae tantum accenderit ignem,
Causa latet; duri magno sed amore dolores
Polluto, notumque, furens quid femina possit,
Triste per augurium Teucrorum pectora ducunt.

2. Certus. Cf. IV. 554. All conflict between inclination and duty is at length over, and now Aeneas is holding on his course unwaveringly.

Aquilone. Notwithstanding the objection to a literal rendering of this word "the north wind," that by such a wind it would be impossible to sail from Carthage toward Italy, still the literal seems preferable: (1) because this was the stormy

5

season and the north wind was the prevailing one at that time (IV. 310); (2) because Aeneas actually encounters a heavy storm at sea on the first day of his voyage (lines 8 seq.). Construe then Aquilone as an ablative of cause with

atros.

5. Dolores. Sc. noti.

6. Notum as an adj. limits the clause quid femina possit, which in co-ordination

Ut pelagus tenuere rates, nec iam amplius ulla
Occurrit tellus, maria undique et undique caelum,
Olli caeruleus supra caput astitit imber,

Noctem hiememque ferens, et inhorruit unda tenebris.
Ipse gubernator puppi Palinurus ab alta:
Heu! quianam tanti cinxerunt aethera nimbi?
Quidve, pater Neptune, paras? Sic deinde locutus
Colligere arma iubet validisque incumbere remis,
Obliquatque sinus in ventum, ac talia fatur:
Magnanime Aenea, non, si mihi Iuppiter auctor
Spondeat, hoc sperem Italiam contingere caelo.
Mutati transversa fremunt et vespere ab atro
Consurgunt venti, atque in nubem cogitur aër.
Nec nos obniti contra, nec tendere tantum
Sufficimus. Superat quoniam Fortuna, sequamur,
Quoque vocat, vertamus iter. Nec litora longe
Fida reor fraterna Erycis portusque Sicanos,
Si modo rite memor servata remetior astra.

with dolores forms the subject of ducunt. Translate notumque "and the knowledge of."

8-11. Compare with III. 192-5.

20. Cogitur aër. According to the ancient natural philosophy, the clouds were formed of condensed air. Seneca (Nat. Quaes. I. III. 1) says also that some parts of the clouds are more projecting, others more receding, and especially Quaedam [partes] crassiores [sunt] quam ut solem transmittant, aliae imbecilliores [i. e. too thin] quam ut excludant."

22. Superat Fortuna. The domination of Fortune over the affairs of men was a prevalent Roman idea. Sallust as

serts the principle positively: Sed profecto fortuna in omni re dominatur: ea res cunctas ex lubidine magis quam ex vero celebrat obscuratque. - Catiline, § 8.

Cf. also Cicero, Pro Marcello, II.: Maximam vero partem quasi suo iure fortuna sibi vindicat, et quidquid prospere gestum est, id paene omne ducit suum. Juvenal protests against this notion (Sat. X. 365-6):

Nullum numen abest, si sit prudentia;

nos te

Nos facimus, Fortuna, deam caeloque locamus.

For a good description of the goddess Fortuna cf. Horace (Odes, I. 35), where her power is magnified.

9. 232.-18. Si spondeat, sperem, 196.