well consider'd the Simplicity of former times; when the Heroines almost courted the Marriage of illustrious Men. Yet Virgil here observes the rule of Decency; Lavinia offers not her self: Tis Latinus, who propounds the Match: And he had been foretold, both by an Augur, and an Oracle, that he should have a foreign Son-in-Law; who was also a Heroe. Fathers, in those ancient Ages, considering Birth and Vertue, more than Fortune, in the placing of their Daughters. Which I cou'd prove by various Examples: The contrary of which being now practis'd, I dare not say in our Nation, but in France, has not a little darken'd the Lustre of their Nobility. That Lavinia was averse to this Marriage, and for what reason, I shall prove in its proper place.
L. 1020.And where Abella sees,
From her high Tow'rs, the Harvest of her Trees.
I observe that Virgil names not Nola, which was not far distant from Abella: perhaps, because that City, (the same in which Augustus dyed afterwards;) had once refus'd to give him entertainment; if if we may believe the Author of his Life. Homer heartily curses another City which had us'd him on the same manner: But our Author thought his Silence of the Nolans a sufficient correction. When a Poet passes by a Place or Person, though a fair Occasion offers of rememb'ring them, tis a sign he is, or thinks himself, much disoblig'd.
