THE CLASSICAL POETS AND THE SEA. 291 



Horace's opinion of that man's boldness who first trusted himself in a frail vessel on the 

 merciless ocean ; and, as Dry den shows us, there was good reason for a general dread of the 

 sea, at least on the part of landsmen 



" Rude as their ships was navigation then, 

 No useful compass or meridian known ; 

 Coasting, they kept the land within their ken, 

 And knew no north but when the pole-star shone." 



Virgil's "JEneid" is essentially a sea-poem, yet a writer of critical acumen considers 

 that " in literature the sea is all the worse for Virgil having dealt with it. ... 

 The poem, as nobody needs telling, begins its events with a tremendous sea-piece. In the 

 very first sight we get of the hero and his companions they are dividing the foaming 

 brine with their keels, and the initial incident is a shipwreck. The description assuredly 

 has overwhelming vigour in it . . . . ; an impression of unusual turmoil is given, and 

 that is what Virgil sought, but it is got by a jumble of violence of every kind. Winds, 

 billows, lightning, thunder, reefs, shallows, eddies, are mixed together. The only detail 

 of disaster left out is collision among the ships, which with a fleet so crowded is the one 

 thing that would have occurred had this been a natural storm. Such a tempest now 

 rages in a transpontine theatre, and in no other part of the world ; it takes Neptune himself 

 to still it in the ' ^Eneid.' " * And yet Virgil lived long by the glorious Bay of Naples ; 

 and the famous ode of Horace, praying that he might have fair weather, shows that he 

 had made at least one voyage. 



If a poet has a genuine feeling for his subject, the lightest epithets he applies may 

 tell a story. What terms does Virgil, employ ? They are somewhat commonplace. Boundless, 

 mighty, swelling, windy, faithless, deep, dark, blue, azure, vast, foaming, salt, and so forth, 

 are well enough, but they do not compare with many of Shakespeare's, and later poets. 

 Take three of Shakespeare's: the " yeasty " waves, the "multitudinous" sea, and the "wasteful" 

 ocean. These epithets are in themselves admirable descriptions. 



The works of our immortal bard are full of allusions to the sea, and show an intimate 

 acquaintance therewith. Perhaps Shakespeare's knowledge is in this instance less surprising 

 than in some other directions, for although we have no proof that he ever left the shores 

 of old England, and are quite certain that he never ventured far, his was a golden day in 

 the history of maritime enterprise. The reign of the Virgin Queen, during the larger part 

 of which he flourished, saw the defeat of the Armada, and many another repulse in the 

 Spanish colonies. It was the day of such naval heroes as Howard of Effingham, Drake and 

 Hawkins, Raleigh and Frobisher. It witnessed the first English voyage round the world, 

 the discovery of Virginia to say nothing of Virginia's tobacco and potatoes the establish- 

 ment of the profitable whale fishery and the disgraceful slave-trade, the inauguration of 

 that long-time monopoly the East India Company, and numerous lesser developments in 

 commercial prosperity. 



Appropriately, then, the play of Shakespeare which more particularly than any other deals 

 with the sea is that which is generally placed at the commencement of the series in the 



* " Virgil's Sea Descriptions," Corn kill Magazine, October, 1874. 



