1805.] 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
@BSSERVATIONS to the NOTES on 
HEYNE’S VIRGIL. (Continued from 
p- 353 of the laft Number.) 
THE #ENEID. 
sedis veniens Amyci de gente ferebat. 
Vv. 372. 
EREBAT fe,” fays Heyne, is the 
fame with zucedebat, veniebat. 
Rather, I think, gave bimjelf out for, re- 
ported himself. 
meliorem animam pro morte Daretis. 
v.43. 
'€ Meliorem "—prefantiorem, a better, 
farcaflicaily. Not merely aptiorem, as 
Servius fays. 
Ingentique manu malum ——. Erigit, v. 487. 
I think the proper ufe of ixgens will 
not admit this to be underftood as wagna 
wultitudine, but rather, with mighty band 
or firengih, referring to Eneas himlelf, 
..-- ingenti fonuerunt omnia plaufu. v. 506. 
I am amazed that Show could fuppoefe 
plaufus to mean the clapping of the wings 
of the poor pigeon tied on the top of a 
high maft. It would be hyperbole indeed 
to reprefent this as making every thing 
re-echo with its noife. 
Grated: Webel Wie pars denfa ferarum 
Tecta rapit, fylvas. Ay HO Me 
If ‘*rapit” fays Heyne, means colleed, 
feized, ov tore down, what can be more 
jejune, after the {welling words ‘*denfa 
ferarum teéta,’’ by which the wood is de- 
noted? The poet, therefore, mu? have 
meant rapit curfu fylvas, ran through the 
woods to explore them for water or game. 
But I fear the exprefiions campum rapere, 
applied to a horfe, or equora rapere, toa 
fhip, will not juftify this explanation ; 
and whatever becomes of the eee 
ment, we muft admit the obvious fenle of 
gathering wood to feed the fire that was 
juft kindled venis filicis. 
»---.. horrende fecreta Sibyllz. vii ro. 
The epithet horrendz is not, I think, 
transferred by hypallage from /ecreta, 
but is properly applied to the Sibyl in the 
fenfe of in/piring awe ox dread. 
neque enim ante dehifcent 
Attonitz magna ora domus. Vis aop 
I cannot fuppofe, with Heyne, that the 
epithet attomite here counecied with do- 
mus, is really meant to apply to the per- 
| fons who open the doors of the fhrine; 
Bauch an explanation 1s ineanliftent with 
2 
“ 
Obfervations on the Notes to Beyne’s Virgil. 
Seafiing. 
. Defcendens. 
43} 
the figure of perfonification, evidently in- 
tended by the poet. The mantion, which 
waits to throw open its doors fponta- 
neoufly on hearing the vows and prayers 
of Encas, is, with the fume idea of per- 
fonification, made affonita, awe-firuck 
with the prefence of the deity, and the 
confcioufnefs, as it were, of the great 
things tranfaéted within it. 
Tum confanguineus Leti Sopor, et mala 
meatis 
Gaudia. 27m. 
*Sopor’’ is more than ho it is 
the profound fleep approaching to apo- 
plexy, and therefore well faid to be akin 
to Death. 
The ‘‘ mala mentis gaudia” is. ex- 
plained by Heyne as if it were ‘* joys of 
a bad mind,” or ‘‘ guilty joys.” I ra- 
ther think, from. the company they are 
placed in, that they are noxious, excefive, 
extravagant, joys, fuch as frequently 
prove deftruétive to the frame. 
‘¢ Rimaturque epulis ” Vi. 59Qs 
Surely not the fame with ad edulas, 
but much more ftrongly, he fearches by 
Thus rimari terram raftris.’” 
Aggeribus focer Alpinis atque arce Moneeci 
vi. 33%. 
Though it is certain that Vireil fre- 
quently makes ufe of a particular term 
inftead of a general or abfraét one, yet 
I think no man in his fenfes would have 
fpecified the arx Moneci in this cafe, if 
he had not intended ‘to veprefent Czfar’s 
troops as in faét marching from this place, 
however irreconcileabie to hiltory this may 
appear to us. To fuppofe that laying 
‘s he came down from the Alpine heignts 
and the fummit of Monaco,’ means no 
more than from ibe Alps generally, is 
making a jeft of language, and paffine 
nonfenfe and abfurdity under the notion 
of poetic licenfe. I fee not why it may 
not apply to Czefar’s return fiom Spain 
by Marfeilles, which was inunediately 
preceding the campaign againit Pompey 
himftlf in Greece. Vid. Caf. Bel. Cro. 
li. § 20. 
The Prophetic View of the Pofterity of 
Eneas. 
Heyne, ina learned and ingenious view 
of the different modes of introducing pre- 
dictions of future events in epic poetry, 
prefers this adopted by Virgil to all others, 
asthe happieft and bef adapted. But 
furely it is attended with a palpable in- 
confiftency. For, admitting the tranfmi- 
gration 
