Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 3.djvu/380

with a Troop of Bacchanals, where Amata sung the Marriage Song, in the Name of Turnus; which if she had dislik'd, she might have oppos'd. Then in the 11th. Æneid, when her Mother went to the Temple of Pallas, to invoke her Aid against Æneas; whom she calls by no better Name than Phrygius Praedo, Lavinia sits by her in the same Chair or Litter, juxtaque Comes Lavinia Virgo,—O­culos dejecta decoros. What greater sign of Love, than Fear and Concernment for the Lover? In the lines which I have quoted she not only sheds Tears but changes Colour. She had been bred up with Turnus, and Æneas was wholly a Stranger to her. Turnus in proba­bility was her first Love; and favour'd by her Mother, who had the Ascendant over her Father. But I am much deceiv'd, if (besides what I have said) there be not a secret Satire against the Sex, which is lurking under this Description of Virgil, who seldom speaks well of Women: Better indeed of Camilla, than any other; for he com­mends her Beauty and Valour: Because he wou'd concern the Rea­der for her Death. But Valour is no very proper Praise for Woman­kind; and Beauty is common to the Sex. He says also somewhat of Andromache, but transiently: And his Venus is a better Mother than a Wife, for she owns to Vulcan she had a Son by another Man. The rest are Juno's, Diana's, Dido's, Amata's, two mad Prophetesses, three Harpies on Earth, and as many Furies under ground. This Fable of Lavinia includes a secret Moral; that Women in their choice of Husbands, prefer the younger of their Suitors to the elder; are in-