1807.] 
by. experience. The two characters 
which, m the ancient and modern Epic, 
appear to have been the best cenceived 
and most naturally drawn, are the Aciul- 
les of Homer, and the Rin taldo of ‘Tasso. 
They are both highly impassioned and 
dramatic. ‘The latter, indeed, may be 
considered as modelied on the other; but 
he is equally herce, impetuous, and ‘inte- 
resting, -These are the characters best 
adapted to poetry, and which excite the 
most general interest; while that of 
#Eneas has beenas unsuccessful on the the- 
atre as it is ill-suited to the Epic. 
true, that no fault can be found with the 
pious Atuneas; he is, from one end of the 
poem to the other, absolutely irre proach- 
able: but as he is never impassioned 
himself, he communicates no interest to 
the reader. The tameness of disposi- 
tion by which he is uniformly characte- 
yized, throws a coldness over the book, 
which nothing but the 
cellence of style, and the beauty of the 
episodes, could have relieved. He i is al- 
ways represented as in tears, or in 
prayer, and reminds us of an observa- 
gion of St. Evremont, that he was bet- 
ter suited to be the head of an order of 
monks, than the founder of an empire. 
He receives with indifterence the violent 
passion of Dido, and abandons. her with- 
outa struggle, at the command of the 
gods. Throughout all his behaviour to 
her in the fourth book, and especially in 
the speech which he makes after she sus- 
Peele his intevtion of leaving her, the 
appears a certain hardness and want of 
feelin, which are far from rendering 
him oe Well may the unfortunate 
Queen of Carthage exciaim, 
Wom fletu ingemuit nostro? num lumina 
flexit ? 
Num lachrymas victus dedit ? aut miseratus 
amantem est ? 
He betrays no penas ton for her suf- 
ferimgs; he scarcely breathes a sigh for 
her ill-pl aced love: but calmly ascends 
his vessel, to pursue his destiny, regard- 
Jess of her dying if he leaves her: 
Sequar atris ignibus absens 3 
Et cum frigida mors anima subduxerit artus, 
Oxonibus umbra locis adero—dabis, improbe, 
penas ! 
Audiain, et hee manes veniet mihi fama sub 
imos ! 
Dido’s own character is by much the 
best supportedin the whole Aineid. The 
warmth of her passion, the keenness of 
her invectives, and che violent indigna- 
tion she displays, exinbit a figure ereatly 
more eect tna an any oiger which 
Lyceum of Ancient Liierature.—The Aneid. 
It is” 
uncommon e€x-_ 
39 
Virgil has drawn. Though he took the 
subject of the loves of Aineas and Dido 
from Apollonius Rhedius, yet he has 
worked up the character of Dido in 
a@ manner entirely bis own. There 
was no model from which he could 
prod uce a portrait the most impassioned 
and interesting, ever displayed in the 
writings of the ancients. The colInpa= 
nions of Aineas are so many insipid per 
sonages, whose names appear to be intro- 
duced merely to fil up the lines. 
Achates, Cloanthes, and Gyas, and the 
rest of the Trojan heroes, are not re= 
markable either for the sentiments which 
they utter, or the exploits which the 
perform. "As characters of valour, they 
are toomuch alike; even that of iden 
has nothing to distinguish it, but as be- 
Ing in a superior degree. We have al- 
ready observed that the characters in the 
latter books are perfectly uninteresting, 
from the little pleasure excited by the 
tabulous annals of ancient Italy, whence 
they are drawn, compared with the an- 
tiquities of Greece, 
As the Mneid is in a great measure 
founded on the Tliad, the machinery em= 
ployed by Virgil is the same as that used 
by Homer: but it may be observed that 
the gods are introduced with greater 
dignity, and never but on occasions where | 
their interference is evidently necessary, 
as in the first book where Aineas has suf 
fered so many hardships in his voyage to 
Italy, and is at leng th cast on a foreign 
coast, his fleet dispersed, his men dis- 
heartened, and their provisions spent. He 
1s then very, properly assisted by Venus, 
his mother, who having previously con- 
sulted Jupiter on his fate, reveals herself 
to him, ail informs bin apon what land 
he is thrown. Another instance of the 
poet’s art in managing his machines, is in 
the fourth book, where Mercury, in Hobe 
dience to the will of ere peremptorily 
commands /Eneas to fly from love and 
Dido, Without this express command, 
there could be no sufhcient motive foe 
his deserting a princess by whom he had 
been so generously received: and yet if 
he remained, he must have. ‘abandoned 
the high destiny that awaited him. The 
defect | bere ig in Virell pot having repre 
sented Atncas as striugeling between the 
necessity of ob peyiny the gods, and griefi 
at parting with his mistress. This might 
easily have been effected, and he would 
then have shared some portion of the 
reader’s sympatny, ees is DOW entirely 
confined to Dido. | A third instance is in 
the appearance of Venus to her son, to 
save 
