398 
y i r 
y i r 
parted, equal, flat; segments ovate, entire. Stamina: fila¬ 
ments five, inserted in the middle of the tube, very short; 
anthers linear, subulate, converging. Pistil: germ inferior, 
globular, within the calyx terminated by a raised permanent 
circle. Style filiform, smooth. Stigma two-parted; seg¬ 
ments setaceous. Pericarp: capsule globular, angular, his¬ 
pid, crowned with the calyx, one-celled. Receptacle fleshy, 
filling the capsule, covered with one row of seeds. Seeds 
numerous, small, angular, hollow-dotted.— Essential Cha¬ 
racter. Calyx five-toothed, with teeth interposed. Co¬ 
rolla funnel-form. Stigma two-parted. Capsule one-celled, 
many-seeded, inferior. 
1. Virecta biflora, or two-flowered virecta.—Leaves ovate; 
peduncles two-flowered. Root annual; herb tender, like 
that of mercurialis annua; stem round, a span high or more, 
simple, sometimes rooting, pubescent.—Native of Surinam, 
in moist places. 
2. Virecta pratensis, or many-flowered virecta.—Leaves 
lanceolate; peduncles many-flowered. Branches roundish, 
opposite, with close-pressed hairs scattered over them. Flow¬ 
ers four to six, at the top of the peduncles, scarcely pedi- 
celled.—Native of Guiana. 
VI'RELAY, s. [yirelay, virelai, French.] A sort of 
little ancient French poem, that consisted only of two 
rhymes, and short verses, with stops. Diet. L'Acad. 
The mournful muse in mirth now list ne mask. 
As she was wont in youngth and summer days; 
But if thou algate lust light virelays, 
And looser songs of love to undersong. Spenser. 
VI'RENT, aelj. [ virens , Lat.] Green; not faded.—In 
these, yet fresh and vivent, they carve out the figures of 
men and women. Brown. 
VFRGATE, 5. [virgata, low Latin.] A yard-land.—With 
regard to smaller and detached parcels of land occupied in 
this parish, I have discovered that lady Elizabeth Montacute, 
wife of sir William de Montacute, afterwards married to 
Thomas lord Furnivall, possessed one virgate, about the 
year 1330. Warton. 
VIRGE, s. [from verge, Fr.] A wand.—See Verge. 
He hath his whistle,'— 
And virge to interpret, tipt with silver. B. Jonson. 
VI'RGER. See Verger. 
VIRGIL (Publius Virgilius Maro), a celebrated Roman 
poet, whose name is familiar to every body, was born in the 
year B.C. 70, at Andes, a village near Mantua, and liberally 
educated at Cremona, Milan, and Naples. His teacher in 
philosophy was named Syro, and the philosophy in which 
he was instructed was the Epicurean. From his first eclogues, 
in which he is supposed to have related his own adventure, 
under the appellation of Tityrus, it appears that he first 
visited Rome in his 30th year, for the purpose of recovering 
lands that were in the possession of the military belonging to 
Octavius and Antony, after the war against the republicans; 
and having been introduced to Octavius by Pollio, or some 
other person, and to his subsequent patron Mecaenas, he 
succeeded in the object of his visit by their influence. His 
life, however, was endangered by the violence of the veteran 
who occupied his farm, and who resisted the surrender of it, 
so that he was obliged to seek redress by another visit to 
Rome, and to obtain an order for his reinstatement. His 
eclogues, which were completed in his 33d or 34th year, 
were very favourably received; and in his 34th year he was 
induced by Mecaenas to commence his Georgies; and during 
a period of seven years, which he employed in the pro¬ 
secution of them, he resided chiefly at Naples. The latter 
years of his life were devoted to the iEneid. At this time 
he was ranked among those friends, who were particularly 
distinguished by the attention and confidence of Augustus. 
After the death of Marcellus, in the year B. C. 23, he paid 
that admirable tribute to his memory, which occurs in the 
sixth book of the iEneid, and concerning which Donatus 
says, that when it was recited before Augustus, in the pre¬ 
sence of Oclavia, the mother of the deceased, as soon as the 
words “ Tu Marcellus eris” were pronounced, she fainted 
away; and afterwards rewarded the poet with ten sesterces 
(above 80/.) for each line of the passage. After the com¬ 
pletion of his iEneid, Virgil went to Greece, with the view 
of further polishing it; and on this occasion Horace is 
supposed to have addressed him with the third ode of his 
first book, beginning “ Sic, te Diva potens Cypri,” in which 
he expresses the warmest affection for his brother poet. At 
Athens he met with Augustus, and proposed returning in 
his company ; but at Megara he was seized with a disorder, 
which detained him, as some say, atBrundusium, or, accord¬ 
ing to others, at Tarentum, and which soon terminated his 
life in the year B.C. 19, in the 52d year of his age. His 
remains were conveyed, in pursuance of his request, to 
Naples, and interred on the Puteolan way. On his death¬ 
bed he is said to have expressed a wish that his iEneid, 
which he regarded as an imperfect work, might be com¬ 
mitted to the flames; but it was saved either by the inter¬ 
position of his friends Tucca and Varus, who prevailed upon 
him to bequeath it to them, on the condition that they 
should make no alteration in it, or by the injunctions of 
Augustus to his executors. His modesty, indicated by this 
wish, was combined with other similar qualities. “ He was 
mild and gentle in his manners, unassuming in conversa¬ 
tion, sincere and faithful in friendship, so that he was singu¬ 
larly beloved by Augustus, Mecaenas, and all the most 
distinguished persons of that period.” His poetical talents, 
as well as general character, were highly appreciated by his 
contemporaries, insomuch that whensoever his verses were 
recited in the theatre whilst he was present, the audience rose 
up and paid him the respect which was usually manifested 
to the emperor. His eminent merit has been also acknow¬ 
ledged by ancient and modern critics, and though they have 
differed in opinion as to his peculiar and distinguishing 
excellencies, they have generally agreed, as one of his most 
judicious biographers has said, “ in placing him upon one 
of the highest seats in Parnassus.” Of the faculty of inven¬ 
tion he seems to have possessed a very moderate share, inso¬ 
much that his Bucolics, Georgies, and iEneid, abound with 
traces of imitation, and even of translation; but it is “ in 
the diction and phraseology of poetry, in all that consti¬ 
tutes the artist, that his chief excellence consists; and his 
admirers will not allow that the Virgilian splendour and 
majesty of style have ever been equalled.”—“ In two species 
of composition Virgil has afforded models to almost all 
succeeding poets, the didactic and the epic.” His fame has 
been testified by the numerous editions of his works, as well 
as the commentaries and translations which they have pro¬ 
duced. The learned professor Heyne has given an account 
of the various MSS. and editions of Virgil in his edition of 
-Leipsic, 1788, which has been considered by competent 
judges as the most complete aud valuable. For a descrip¬ 
tion and character of the iEneid, see Poetry. Vita Virgilii 
Rusei et Heynii. Gen. Biog. 
VIRGIL, a post township of the United States, in Court- 
land county. New York ; 155 miles west of Albany. 
VI'RGIN, s. [vierge , Fr.; virgo, Lat.] A maid; a 
woman unacquainted with men. 
This aspect of mine hath fear’d the valiant; 
The best regarded virgins of our clime 
Have lov’d it too. Shakspeare. 
A woman not a mother. Unusual. 
Likest to Ceres in her prime. 
Yet virgin of Proserpina from Jove. Milton. 
Any thing untouched or unmingled ; any thing pure : as, 
virgin-honey. — Tapers of white wax, commonly called 
virgin- wax, burn with less smoke than common yellow 
wax. Boyle. —The sign of the zodiac in which the sun is 
in August.—Thence down amain by Leo and the Virgin. 
Milton. 
VI'RGIN, adj. Befitting a virgin ; suitable to a virgin; 
maidenly.—What says the silver with her virgin hue? 
Shakspeare. 
