Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

us at first respecting the obscurity of the matter. But on a nearer inspection of each particular, on a thorough

child with which Scribonia was at that time pregnant. Here the difficulty with his lordship begins. For, how, considering the situation of Octavius at this period, could his child be the subject of such a prediction ?-Why, in predicting the future greatness of a son of Octavius, should Virgil address his prediction to Pollio?—And, supposing these difficulties solved, how can the imagery of the prediction itself be reconciled to the subject of it?

Let us take each question in its order. 1. In stating the situation of Octavius, his lordship has unwarily admitted a succession of facts, which, be ing posterior to the time when the Eclogue was written, could not have been foreknown by Virgil, and therefore ought not to be brought into question. In the year 714, when all the horrors of a civil war were impending Over Italy, a reconciliation was suddenly effected between Antony and Octavius, at the intervention of Pollio, Mecenas and Cocceius Nerva. The result of this treaty was a partition of the Roman world between Octavius and Antony (for Lepidus they regarded as a cypher.) When the ratification of this agreement was confirmed, and Antony departed to his province, nothing was left in the west to thwart the aims of Octavius, but what might arise from Pompey, who still commanded a fleet. To guard against any obstacle from this quarter, Octavius, instead of attempting, as had been projected with his colleague, to crush Pompey by violence, chose rather to conciliate his friendship. With this view therefore (as the marriage of Octavia with Antony had appeased her husband and brother) Octavius married Scribonia, the sister of Pompey's wife; and the expedient, for a short time, was not without effect. When this Eclogue then was written, Octavius was master of Italy and that part of the empire which, under its own name, comprehended the world. At peace with his colleagues abroad, having nothing to apprehend at home, and invested with absolute power to compose those commotions by which the empire had been so lately convulsed, what might not Octavius hope-or what might not the flattery of a poet, who in circumstances less favourable had styled him a con, now prompt his aspiring mind, and, on the ground of a divine prediction, to expect would be the future greatness of his son?

But, 2, it is asked: Why Virgil on such an occasion should address this prediction to Pollio, who had been not the friend of Octavius, but of Antony?

In answer to this inquiry, it may be observed, that the private misunderstanding, which his lordship has alleged to have arisen between Pollio and Octavius, a year or more after Pollio had been consul, is totally beside the question; except as it serves to shew that, from the peace of Brundusium till the rise of this disagreement, Octavius and Pollio were friends. But whatever political enmity might have existed between them prior to that treaty, they were both unanimous in the patronage of genius. It was whilst

examination of the nature and the force of the imagery and diction, so many things occur totally different from

Pollio held the territory of Venice for Antony, that his acquaintance with Virgil commenced; and as the splendour of the poet's talents, which broke through the obscurity and depression of his condition, had attracted the notice of Pollio; so, by his means, they obtained the favour of Octavius : for it is agreed on all hands, that Pollio, either in person, or by the intervention of some friend (perhaps Varus, see Ecl. IX.) brought Virgil to the knowledge of Octavius; who restored to him his patrimony which the soldiers had usurped. Yet, widely as Octavius and Pollio might have differed before the treaty of pacification, there is no reason to suppose them, after its confirmation, upon any other than an intimate footing; at least, till that private misunderstanding to which his lordship has adverted. Now, what could be more natural, what more consistent with the nicest address, than that Virgil, whose poetic talents had first procured him the protection of Pollio, and by his means the munificence of Octavius, should offer through his first patron, who was not only at this time consul, but had been chiefly instrumental, by negociating the peace, to the establishment of Octavius' in power, a poetic compliment to his greater benefactor, on a prediction believed to point out his son?

Having thus answered two of the questions proposed, it remains to consider the third. Virgil, in the first Eclogue, which was written on regaining his estate, confines himself chiefly to his own concerns and those of his Mantuan neighbours, but in the present his voice is raised to a loftier strain. The arbusta humilesque myricæ are the concerns of private life contrasted with Sylva, such as belong to the empire at large: thus, Rome is said in the first Eclogue," to rear her head as high above other cities, as the tall cypress "above the lowly shrubs."-Si canimus sylvas, &c. "if woods be my theme, "let the woods be worthy of a consul." This imagery is by no means casual; for we learn from Suetonius (Jul. Cæs. c. xix.) that the woods had been lately made a consular care.-Ultima Cumæi venit jam carminis ætas : "The last age of the Cumaan prophecy is now come." It is highly deserving of notice, that Cicero, in his treatise on Divination, has not only referred to the Sybilline verses as containing a divine prediction of some future king, but also mentioned an expectation that the interpreter of them would apply that prediction, in the senate, to Cæsar. This prophecy had possibly its origin in the Jewish Scriptures, and it is not unlikely that the partiality of Julius towards the Jews, might have concurred with other circumstances to point the application. But however this were, an expectation had been long prevalent in the East of an extraordinary personage, who was to establish universal empire; and the prediction whence this expectation arose, was probably brought to Rome, by the persons whom the senate had deputed, to search in different countries for prophetic verses, to supply the loss of those which had perished in the capitol. Such however is the affinity between the prediction spoken of by Cicero, and that which

the general fashion of the Roman authors, so altogether foreign to the conceptions of the people of that age and

Tacitus (Hist. V. 13.) has referred to the Jewish Scriptures, as to leave no room for surprise if we see Virgil, from the notion of both having a common aim, adopt the one to adorn the other; for, as the former was thought applicable to Julius, and the latter to Vespasian or his son, why might not Virgil consolidate both, and apply them to the son of Octavius? And if Tacitus were acquainted with the Jewish Scriptures, why might not Virgil be also? His writings show that his researches were universal, and upon every principle of just construction, if the MUSES and the AONIAN mount be emblematical of the GRECIAN poesy, his IDUMEAN palms must equally signify the poetic scriptures of the Jews. [See Georg. iii. 12.]—Ultima ætas, &c. "the last age of the Cumaan prediction is now come." Whatever were the particulars of this prediction, the time set for its completion coincides with that in the Scriptures. [The Sybilline oracles in their present condition, by the way, are so sophisticated, that no stress can be rested on their testi. mony without the support of collateral proof. It will, however, deserve to be considered; If the heathens were ever in possession of a genuine prophecy, which came not from the Jews or the Christians?] Magnus, &c. "The "great order of ages again begins: the Virgin is already returning: the "Saturnian rule returns." This commencement of the ages perfectly agrees with Isaiah, who styles the child he foretels, "the Father of ages." By the return of Astræa, Virgil alludes to the justice he had himself experi enced at the hands of Octavius. The renewal of the Saturnian rule will be best explained by referring to the poet's account of its former state.

"He [Saturn] by just laws embodied all the train,
"Who roam'd the hills, and drew them to the plain :
"There fix'd; and Latium call'd the new abode,

"Whose friendly shores conceal'd the latent God.
"These realms in peace the monarch long controll❜d,
"And bless'd the nations with an age of gold."

Jam nova progenies calo demittitur alto: A new progeny is now sent down "from high heaven." Sent down in opposition to the manner of Saturn's descent :

"-Saturn fled before victorious Jove,

"Driven down, and banish'd from the realms above."

The aid of Lucina is invoked in favour, nascenti puero," of the boy when "he comes to the birth." It is not improbable that Virgil was induced to transfer the Sibylline prediction from Julius, in whom it had palpably failed, to this expected son of Octavius, from Isaiah's having dwelt so minutely on the infancy of the person foretold.—Quo ferrea primum, &c. "with "whom the iron age (or age of war) shall cease, and the golden age shall "rise over the world." Though Virgil, when Scribonia, instead of a son, was delivered of a daughter, discovered his mistake as to the PERSON pre

nation, that it is not easy to believe it was perfectly understood even on its first publication. But when a for

dicted, he still continued confident in respect to the events, and therefore when he resumed the prophecy, from a persuasion that he could not a second time err, he makes the Sibyl herself point out Augustus as the person so often promised:

"Hic Cæsar, & omnis Iuli

"Progenies, magnum cœli ventura sub axem.
"Hic vir, hic est, tibi quem promitti sæpius audis,
"Augustus Cæsar, Divi genus aurea condet
"Secula qui rursus Latio, regnata per arva
"Saturno quondam, super & Garamantas & Indos
"Proferet imperium, &c." Ex. vi. line 179.

"Turn, turn thine eyes! see here thy race divine,
"Behold thy own imperial Roman line:
"Cæsars with all the Julian name survey;

"See where the glorious ranks ascend to day!—
"This-this is he! the chief so long foretold,
"To bless the land where Saturn rul'd of old,
"And give the Latian realms a second age of gold!
"The promis'd prince, Augustus the divine,

"Of Cæsar's race, and Jove's immortal line!
"This mighty chief, this empire shall extend,

"O'er Indian realms, to earth's remotest end."

Till, however, a daughter was born, Virgil remained undeceived. The mention of the golden age rising again over the world, is sufficient proof that the Virgin before described as returning was Astræa, and as in the Georgics he asserts, that her latest footsteps on earth, were discernible in rural retreats:

"last with you

"Justitia linger'd, ere she quite withdrew."

So by adding, " Apollo now reigns," he seems to intimate, that the powers of poetry had triumphed over oppression, and procured him the interposition of justice, in the restoration of his pasture and flocks. But though this interpretation may agree with the context, the tenth verse will admit of a fuller sense. After invoking aid from Lucina, it is added, "thy own "Apollo now reigns," that is, the Sibylline prediction is begun to be fulfilled. As Apollo was the God of prophecy, it was in reference to his reigning under this character that Lucina is invoked to assist in the fulfilment of the prediction himself had inspired, by granting to the child a propitious birth. -[It is well known, that Augustus afterward affected to be patronized by Apollo, to resemble him, to assume his dress, to be thought his son, and to pay him divine honours as his tutelary deity; now what better account of so extraordinary a conduct can be given, than that all was done with the

[ocr errors]

eign interpretation, suggested by the writings of the Hebrews (the full force and importance of which it is im

66

view of arrogating to himself the Sibyl's prediction, which Virgil in the Eneid has appropriated to him?]—Teque adeo, &c. "And in thy consul“ship, O Pollio, in thine, shall the glory of this age begin to commence, “ and the great months thence to proceed." "The glory of this age (the age predicted) shall begin to commence." It was in the consulship of Pollo that the marriage of Octavius to Scribonia took place, the great months therefore are the months of her pregnancy, which immediately followed her marriage.-Te duce, &c "Under your management, if any vestiges " of our wickedness remain, they shall be effaced, and the world delivered.” This plainly refers to the influence of Pollio in negociating the treaty at Brundusium, and also to the further exertion of his consular power.-Ille Deum vitam accipiat, &c. "He shall receive the life of gods," &c. Similar, though still bolder, expressions are applied to Augustus, in the first Georgic, verse the 24th.-Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem. "And "shall govern the world at peace, with his FATHER's virtues." To whom could this apply, but a son of Octavius, and the son whom, it was believed, the prediction had foretold? Hence follows the description of the golden age corresponding with the imagery of Isaiah, to verse 26. At simul, &c. "But as soon as thou shalt be able to read the praises of heroes, and the "atchievements of thy father, and to understand what the energy of virtue can effect, the spacious field shall by degrees become yellow with the "soft ear." That is, before you be old enough to view those plains which have so lately been the theatre of heroism and horror, the devastations of civil discord shall gradually disappear, and the tranquil occupations of husbandry imperceptibly change their face. Pauca tamen suberunt priscæ vestigia fraudis, &c. "But there shall remain beneath the surface some tra"ces of ancient fraud," &c. This obviously alludes to Pompey, who still retained the command of his fleet; whilst "the other wars" seem to imply the contests to be looked for in the East, whither Antony was gone, and who therefore, in compliment to Pollio, is stiled "another Achilles." The poet after this resumes the images expressive of the golden age as before.-Care Deum soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum, &c. "O beloved "offspring of the Gods, great increase of Jove!" &c. is not only consonant to the language of scriptural prediction, but in the sense of Virgil suitable to none but a Cæsar. See the 6th Æneid and 2d Georgic before referred to. There are reveral other passages of the Eclogue which, in this attempt at illustration, have been omitted, for the sake of brevity, although they would have reflected additional light on the interpretation which is here offered. Such images of the poet as approach the nearest to those of the prophet are also purposely passed over; because, both in Virgil and Isaiah, they have no specific destination, but are used as generally symbolical of innocence and happiness; and that this was the more obvious mode of explaining the prophetic scriptures is certain, for the Jews, from those very

[ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinua »