107 



VIRGILIUS POLYDORUS. 



VIRGILIUS, PUBLIUS MARO. 



108 



republican armies stationed in the north of France, and having been 

 received as one of the assistant dressers in the military hospital of 

 Strasburg, he was noticed by Parmeutier for his skill and haudiness, 

 and afterwards sent to the hospital, Val de Grace, at Paris, whore he 

 laid the foundation of his many writings. 



In the early part of the century Virey became editor of the 'Journal 

 dc Pharmacie,' without relinquishing his functions at the hospital ; he 

 was already considered so fully master of medical subjects as to be 

 consulted by the imperial government whenever any new medicament 

 was to be introduced into Franco from other countries. Before he 

 obtained his diploma as a physician and apothecary, he contributed 

 without assistance more than half the fundamental articles to the two 

 celebrated works, Le Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles,' and ' Le 

 Dictionnairo des Sciences Me*dicales.' Among the vast number of 

 useful works which issued from his pen the following deserve to be 

 cited: 'Le TraitiS Th<$orique et pratique de pharmacie,' 2 vols. 8vo, 

 the fourth edition was published in 1837; ' Ephe*merides de la vie 

 humaine,' a most original work, published in 1814 ; ' Histoire naturelle 

 du genre humain,' 3 vols. 8vo; 'Histoire des mocurs des Animaux et 

 de leurs instincts,' 2 vols. 8vo ; ' Histoire naturelle de la Femme,' 

 1 vol. 8vo ; ' Histoire des medicaments, des aliments et des poisons,' 

 1 vol. Svo ; ' De la Puissance vitale,' 1 vol. 8vo ; ' Hygiene philoso- 

 phique,' 2 vols. Svo ; ' Examen impartial de la me'decine mag- 

 nctique,' &c. 



Besides his merit as a diligent inquirer after medical truth, the 

 highest praise has been bestowed on Dr. Virey for the elegance, force, 

 and animation of his style. His life was one of unbroken though 

 nioderate success. Devoted to labour, he always found ample without 

 any very anxious employment ; but this life, unruffled by a single 

 care, was attended with one evil consequence Dr. Virey became 

 enormously fat ; and at length he died very suddenly in his chair, 

 whilst playing at whist with some friends, on the 29th of March 1840. 

 He was an officer of the Legion of Honour, and a member of several 

 learned academies. 



VIRGILIUS POLYDORUS. [VERGILIUS POLYDORUS.] 



VlllGl'LIUS, or VERGILIUS, PUBLIUS MARO, was born at 

 Andes, a small place near Mantua, on the 15th of October, B.C. 70, in 

 the first consulship of Cn. Pompeius Magnus and M. Licinius Crassus. 

 He was five years older than Horace, who was born B.C. 65, and seven 

 years older than the emperor Augustus. His father, who probably 

 possessed a landed estate, had his sou instructed at the neighbouring 

 towns of Cremona and Mediolanum (Milan). According to Donatus, 

 he stayed at Cremona till he assumed the toga virilis on the day on 

 which he entered on his sixteenth year, in the second consulship of 

 Cn. Pompeius Magnus and M. Licinius Crassus : this day, according to 

 the same authority, was the day on which the poet Lucretius died. 

 Virgil was taught Greek by the grammarian Parthenius, and philosophy 

 by tho Epicurean, Syron. It is apparent from the writings of Virgil 

 that he had a learned education, and traces of Epicurean opinions are 

 obvious in his poetry. When a division of lands in Italy was made 

 among the veteran soldiers of Octavianus, Virgil lost his patrimony at 

 Mantua (B.C. 41), but it was afterwards restored to him by Octavianus, 

 through the. intercession of some powerful friends, among whom are 

 mentioned Alfenus Varus, Asinius Pollio, and Maecenas. His first 

 Eclogue is supposed to allude to the loss of his lands and his recovery 

 of them. Virgil probably afterwards resided at Rome, and he was in 

 favour with Maecenas, who wished to pass for a patron of letters, 

 and with the emperor Augustus. He preceded Horace in acquiring 

 the patronage of Maecenas ; for Horace attributes his own introduction 

 to Maecenas to Virgil and Virgil's friend, Varius. Virgil also spent 

 part of his time at Naples and Tarentum. In B.C. 19 he visited Greece, 

 where he intended to spend several years, for the purpose of perfecting 

 his epic poem, the ' ^Eneid.' It was on the occasion of this voyage 

 that Horace addressed to him one of his lyric poems (' Carm.,' i. 3). 

 At Athens Virgil met with Augustus, who was returning from the 

 East, and he determined to accompany Augustus back to Home ; but 

 he fell sick" at Megara, which city he visited probably on his road to 

 Home, and his illness was increased by the voyage to Italy. He lived 

 however to reach Brundisium, where he died in the autumn of the 

 year B.C. 19. According to his wish his body was taken to Naples, 

 and interred on the Via Puteolana, at the second milestone from 

 Naples. He is said to have written his own epitaph a short time 

 before his death in the two following lines, which were placed on his 

 tomb ; 



" Mantua me gcnuit ; Calabri rapucre ; tenet nunc 



Pavthenopc : cccini pascua, rura, duces." 



" My birthplace Mantua ; in Calabria death 



O'ertook me ; and in Naples now I lie. 



I've sung of shepherds, fields, and heroes' deeds." 



The place of his burial is still pointed out by tradition, though the 



so-called tomb of Virgil at Posilipo has no pretensions to be considered 



as the monument of the Roman poet. He left as heredes the emperor 



Augustus and his friend Maecenas, the poet Lucius Varius and Plotius 



Tucca. In person Virgil is said to have had a clownish appearance, 



and to have been very f>hy and diffident, and of feeble health. He was 



intimately acquainted with all the distinguished persons of his age, 



and his friend Horace has commemorated his virtues and gentle 



disposition. 



The principal poetical works of Virgil are his 'Bucolics,' 'Georgics,' 

 and his '^Eueid,' an epic poem. Tho 'Bucolica' are probably his earliest 

 works : they consist of ten short poems, which have also received the 

 name of Eclogse, or Selections, a title which probably belongs to a 

 later period than the age of the poet. The composition of these 

 poems is assigned to the period between B.C. 41 and 37. The several 

 poems were probably not written in the order in which they generally 

 appear in the manuscripts and the editions ; but critics are not agreed 

 on the exact chronological order, nor indeed can it be ascertained. 

 These poems are not strictly Bucolic in the sense in which the poems 

 of Theocritus are called Bucolic. It has been justly observed that they 

 are rather allegorical poems with a Bucolic colouring. So far as regards 

 the versification these poems have some merit, and Virgil has the 

 credit of attempting to introduce among the Romans a species of poetry 

 with which they were unacquainted. But this is all his merit : hi 

 Bucolics are defective in construction, ill connected in the parts, they 

 have no distinct object, and are consequently obscure. The obscurity 

 is owing both to the subject and the manner of treating it. The 

 circumstances of Italy and of Virgil's time did not present the same 

 materials for Bucolic poetry which Theocritus had treated with so 

 much graphic power. Virgil, having undertaken to imitate his Greek 

 model, was obliged to keep to the form, though he could not imiiress 

 his copy with the same character. Accordingly we have shepherds who 

 sing in alternate verses, like those of Theocritus, and a Corydou, who 

 complains of unrequited love ; but we do not find the truth which 

 pervades the pure Bucolics of Theocritus. Virgil must have felt the 

 insipidity and unmeaningness of poems which affected to be descriptive, 

 and yet had no realities to correspond to them. To introduce somo 

 variety he treats of subjects of present interest ; and his own fortunes 

 and the sufferings of his countrymen are supposed to be depicted in 

 his first and ninth eclogues. But Virgil had a delicate subject to 

 handle : it was necessary to be cautious in speaking of recent events, 

 and he has consequently BO constructed these poems, especially the 

 first eclogue, as to throw over it a mist of obscurity which the com- 

 mentators have never been able fully to disperse. The first eclogue is 

 full of incongruities which render the interpretation most perplexing. 

 All the other eclogues also abound in allusions to the circumstances 

 and persons of his own time; but many of the allusions are as obscure 

 as the oracular responses of the Pythia. His Pollio, the fourth eclogue 

 has not a single line which appropriately belongs to a Bucolic poem, 

 nor indeed does the poet, as appears from the introductory verges, 

 consider it as Bucolic in anything except the name. It is a perpetual 

 enigma for the critics, and its solution still requires an CEdipus. 



Virgil has borrowed numerous lines from the Greek poets, especially 

 from Theocritus, but we can hardly allow him the merit of judicious 

 adaptation. His Bucolics, even when he attempts to approach nearest 

 to the true character of Bucolic poetry, give no real picture of rustic 

 manners. The reader never imagines that his shepherds are really 

 singing, like those of Theocritus ; and all poetic illusion is completely 

 destroyed by the want of due attention to the proprieties of place and 

 person, both of which, as already hinted at, were impracticable in the 

 circumstances under which he wrote. Julius Caesar Scaliger, after a 

 comparison between Virgil and Theocritus, prefers the Roman poet ; 

 and a few scholars, who are inferior to Scaliger in learning, have put 

 themselves on the same level with him in critical judgment. 



The ' Georgica ' of Virgil are a didactic poem, in four books, 

 addressed to his patron Maecenas. In the first book he treats of tho 

 cultivation of the soil, in the second of the management of fruit-trees, 

 in the third of cattle, and in the fourth of bees. His judgment and 

 poetic taste were riper when he wrote the 'Georgics' than when he 

 was employed on his Bucolics ; and if he began the ' Georgics ' as 

 early as his Eclogues, it is clear that he must have revised and 

 improved them at a later date. An argument from which we might 

 conclude that the first book was written before B.C. 35, is mentioned 

 by Clinton (' Fasti ') ; but the two facts on which this conclusion 

 depends can hardly be relied on. If the concluding lines of the fourth 

 book of the ' Georgics ' are genuine, Virgil was finishing his poem at 

 Naples about the year B.C. 30. Originality is no part of Virgil's merit, 

 and the materials of this poem are all borrowed ; but in the handling 

 of them he has shown skill and taste. He has turned an unpromising 

 subject into a pleasing and even an instructive poem, for the truth of 

 many of his rules and precepts is confirmed by other writers, both 

 Roman and modern. He has relieved tho weariness inherent in 

 didactic poetry by judicious ornament and occasional digression with- 

 out ever wandering far from his subject. It has been said that the poem 

 would have ended better with the third book, which properly closes 

 the poem ; and that the fourth, which treats of the management of 

 bees, hardly belongs to the subject There is some truth in this 

 remark ; and the fourth book has the appearance of being an after- 

 thought, and not a part of the original design, though in the opening 

 of the first book, as we now have it, the management of bees is 

 announced as one of the subjects. The treatment of bees indeed 

 seems hardly important enough for one book in four, and the poet has 

 given it a proportional length by closing it with the story of Aristrcus. 

 If Virgil has erred in the choice of a poetic subject, he has at least 

 redeemed his fault by the mode in which he has treated it, and his 

 reputation must mainly rest on the 'Georgics.' He improved the 

 structure of the hexameter verse as we find it ia Lucretius; and 



