140 



DISCOVERY 



After this picture of the fairyland which is to sur- 

 round the infant's cradle, the poem traces the growth 

 of the child to manhood, and the gradual improvement 

 in the world's condition which will keep pace with it ; 

 and the prophecy concludes with a kind of magic 

 incantation drawn from more than one philosopher's 

 dream : 



" Run, run, yc spindles ! On to this fulfilment 

 Speed the world's fortune, draw the living thread." 

 So heaven's unshaken ordinance declaring 

 The Sister Fates enthroned together sang. 



Come then, dear child of gods, Jove's mighty heir. 

 Begin thy high career ; the hour is sounding. 

 See how it shakes the vaulted firmament. 

 Earth and the spreading seas and depth of sky ! 

 See, in the dawning of a new creation 

 The heart of all things living throbs with joy ! 



Then, after claiming the privilege of celebrating the 

 Prince's later achievements, the poet turns back to 

 the cradle, still waiting for the infant, and prays for 

 a happy birth. The prayer is worded in old-time 

 fashion, bidding the child smile at once upon its 

 mother — accounted the best of good omens — and com- 

 paring him to Hercules, most favoured of mortals, 

 who lived to wed Hebe, the Goddess of Perpetual 

 Youth, and to receive the gift of immortality from 

 Jove himself. 



Come, child, and greet thy mother with a smile ! 

 Ten weary waiting months her love has known. 

 Come, little child I Whoso is bom in sorrow 

 Jove ne'er hath bidden join the immortal banquet. 

 Nor deathless Hebo deigned to be his bride. 



But now, who was the child whose birth was thus 

 confidently anticipated ? That is the puzzle. 



In the first place I assume without discussion, as 

 something obvious to every reasonable reader of the 

 lines which have just been rendered, that it was a real 

 child of flesh and blood whose adv^ent the poem was 

 to herald. There have been scholars who have read 

 even the line about the waiting mother in such a way 

 as to interpret the child as a mere allegorical figure, 

 meaning a new world. But after all, as Dr. Warde 

 Fowler observes, one requisite for understanding poetry 

 is a sense of humour ; and this seems a little wanting 

 in such interpretations." 



Now, it will be easy for the reader himself to observe 

 in the passages that have just been rendered some of 

 the likenesses to Old Testament prophecy, especially 

 that of Isaiah.' Nor will he be altogether surprised, 



* The objection that it was unseemly for a poet to prophesy 

 such an event is a natural one from the point of view of modern 

 English taste ; but that the ancient feeling was quite different 

 can be easily shown. See The Messianic Idea i>i I'crgil, pp. 30 

 and 84. There is a poem of Martial in honour of an expected 

 child (of the Emperor Domitian) which was never bom at all. 



• Chapters ix, xi, and xliv. 



though he may well be amused, to find that Constantine 

 and Euscbius interpreted the " Maid " {Virgo) of the 

 opening Unes as a prediction Uke that of the birth of 

 Emmanuel.' And it is even likely that he will be 

 persuaded if, with recent writers, he studies the matter 

 more fully, that Vergil himself had some direct or 

 indirect acquaintance with the thought and imagery 

 of Isaiah. These are literary questions of interest ; 

 but they leave the central point of our curiosity still 

 to be satisfied. Grant that the young poet's vision of 

 a world-wide peace to succeed a century of mis- 

 government and oppression was dressed in coloiu^ like 

 those in which Jewish poets and prophets had depicted 

 theirs. Grant that this great hope kindled within him 

 an enthusiasm so deep and wide that it seemed to 

 wrap the whole world in its light. Grant even that 

 a poet naturally associates a great vision of deUverance 

 with the person of some deUverer. Even if all this be 

 assumed, we still ask, \\hy was the deliverer to be 

 identified with an infant not yet bom, and who was 

 the infant ? 



On these questions the ancient commentators, who 

 generally tell us most about Vergil, give us some 

 evidence, valuable indeed, but negative. It amounts 

 to no more than that a certain person told somebody 

 else that he, the speaker, was tlie infant whom Vergil 

 expected to be the world's deUverer. The person in 

 question lived and died and did nothing in particular ; 

 but the story shows that the authority that quotes it 

 was himself in the dark, though con\-inced that the 

 claim of this particular person was absurd. 



A further question then arises: What was Vergil's 

 motive in setting his readers such a riddle ? Surely 

 even the extracts that have roughly been translated 

 will show that the poet was very much in earnest, 

 not writing a playful sketch of some wholly baseless 

 vision ? 



Three or four different modem scholars in England, 

 Germany, and America have independently arrived at 

 the same conclusion, guided by the obvious reflection 

 that the child who was to do so much for the world 

 must have been the offspring of someone in whose 

 hands the destiny of the world then rested. As we 

 have seen, Octavian and Antony had just agreed to 

 divide the Roman Empire between them. As between 

 these two names, even in 40 B.C., when Octavian was 

 only at the beginning of his great work, there can be 

 no real hesitation. Could any peace or salvation for 

 humanity be expected from the mffian * Mark Antony, 

 the lover of Cleopatra, even if he had been persuaded 

 to abandon her (for a time) for Octavia's hand ? No, 



' Isaiah vii. 14. 



* This view has indeed been maintained, apparently in com- 

 plete forgetfulness of the facts depicted, e.g., in Cicero's 

 Philippics (44-3 B.C.). 



