FRAGMENT. 249 



is not fufficiently dignified in our language, in 

 which it conveys the fame meaning, in a trivial 

 manner. The commonalty addrefs it, in familiar 

 difcourfe, to old men, and to good-natured per- 

 fons. 



Some commentators have obferved, that in thefe 

 words : 



Fiducia ceffit quo tibi Diva mei, 



There is an inverfion of grammatical conftruflion; 

 and they have thought proper to afcribe this to a 

 poetical licenfe. They have not perceived, that 

 the irregularity of Fulcatis didion proceeds from 

 the diforder of his head; and that Virgil reprefents 

 him, not only as tranfgreffing againft the rules of 

 grammar, but trefpafling againft the laws even of 

 common-fenfe, in making him fay, that had Fenus 

 exprefled a fimilar anxiety before, it would have 

 been in his power to fabricate armour for the 

 Trojans ; that Jupiter, and the Fates, did not for- 

 bid Troy to ftand, nor Priam to reign ten years 

 longer : 



Similis fi cura fuifTet ; 

 Turn quoque fas nobis Teucros armare fuifTet ; 

 Nee Pater omnipotens Trojam, nee Fata vetabant 

 Stare, decemque alios Priamum fuperefle per annos. 



It was decidedly clear, that Fate had deftined 

 Troy to fall in the eleventh year of the fiege, and 



that 



