The Dido Episode in the Aeneid of Virgil - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ...by the sudden resolution of Aeneas to depart for Italy. This turn of fortune may be regarded as an example of Aristotle's ne pin er not, but Virgil has not chosen to treat it in the usual way. The true nepmkreia is accompanied by a surprise, as in the case of Oedipus, who thought to find comfort by investigating the secret of his birth, and found ruin instead. A good example in English is the Merchant of Venice, where Shy lock laid a, scheme to get revenge which nearly proved his own undoing. In Virgil, however, there is not only no effort to secure a surprise, but this is carefully guarded against, both for Dido and the reader. From the moment of the arrival of Ascanius she is the " infpliy Vfiftn&c(T(tf( t.n piiti in Hays to ppmp'" She drank too deep of love evertobe happy. The course ftf hftf pgggn was"TorvMeiilr and, as Wtt expect in tragedy, t.Wo wa tp munh of madness in it ever to let us foresee a happy issue. Her brief felicitv was Tor herself rmt nnmWnA with dreTprrrff-pven bflfnr,pi foffK"is rnmor brought, to her the cruel news nf the arminjwvf the fleet, "she was a victim to every dread, even where there were no grounds for fear" (omnia tuta timens).' It does not belong to an erotic plot of this kind to plan a surprise. The interest of the story lies in the heart of the heroine, in the struggle against love, but still more in the anguish of desertion as is seen in both the Ariadne and in the Dido episodes. The proper effect is that which St. Augustine felt in reading the fourth book; he tells us that he wept over " poor Dido, who killed herself for love,"2 and this is an effect that is best attained by a gradual approach. It is, of course, possible to elicit pity and tears without...