Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/98

VERGII,. cussed by such writers as Gellius, Nonius ^larcel- lus, and jMacrobius, and numerous commentaries ■were written on them. Ttiat of Servius, which embodies nuieh of the worlc of liis predecessors, has come down to us. In the estimation of the Christians Vergil lield a position unique among the pagan writers of Rome. Saint Augustine, for example, vividly describes the charm which the JEneid had for him. He was even thought to have received some measure of divine inspiration, and a meaning was read into his worlds which was entirely foreign to them. The writers of the decline, not content with imitating Vergil, busied themselves with the composition of centos, com- posed of lines and half-lines fallen from his works and arranged in such a way as to give in many instances a sense very difierent from that which they had in their context. With diabolical ingenuity some grossly obscene poems were con- structed in this way from lines which had no sug- gestion of impropriety., such as parts of the Eiiithuhnnium of Auso'nius. The writing of Ver- gilian centos became a regvihir form of literary production, and there were even those who im- provised them. With the revival of learning Vergil's influence became very great in most of the countries of Europe, and from that time until the present day the greatest poets liave nearly all shown traces of his insjiiration. Dante, Ariosto, and Tasso, Chaucer, [Spenser, Milton, Dryden. and Tennyson may be mentioned as striliing examples. His works have been translated into most of the lan- guages of Europe. It was not until early in the nineteenth centurj' that Vergil's claims to great- ness began to be questioned, especially in Ger- many. Since then he has been criticised and de- fended with equal lack of discrimination by many of bis opponents and champions. The most com- mon charges brought against him are lack of originality and the inferiority of the JUiicid to the Homeric poems. The latter point has al- ready been discussed. The former criticism is in a sense justified, but there can l}e no doubt that Vergil had in common with many other great poets the power of making wliat he borrowed his own, as is shown by the fact that he was able to inspire imitation as well as to imitate. A fair estimate must rank him among the greatest poets of ancient times, and among the great poets of the world's history. At an early jieriod a series of mythological le- gends began to be associated with the name of Vergil. The ancient biograpliies assert that his birth was attended with prodigies ]n'ophetic of his future greatness, and the reputation for vast learning, which he gradually acquired, and the belief in bis prophetic powers, increased tlic ven- eration in which he was ludd and the mystic at- mosphere whidi surrounded him. As early as the second century the custom of consulting the sortes Venjilianw l)eeame current, that is. the .^neid was opened at random, and an omen was drawn from the words of the first passage on which the eye fell. This custom, wbich the .lUneid shares only with the Bible and the Homeric poems, lasted for many centuries. Cliarlcs the First of England is said to have consulted the sortex VerfpUnnxe and to have opened the .ISneid at iv. 015-021. Still earlier Silius Italicus. as the younger Pliny tells us, used to make an an- r2 VERGIL. nual pilgrimage to Vergil's tomb, which he ap- proaclied with as mucli reverence as if it were a temple, and this practice also became a current one. By the iliddle Ages we find in legend and literature a mytliical Vergil, a seer and a man profoundly acquainted with the secrets of nature. Among the common people of Naples he came to be regarded as a necromancer or wizard, and the most grotesque legends were associated with liis name, in which chronology was entirely disre- garded. He was said to have made a bronze fly which kept all other flies away from the city, a butcher's block on which meat kept fresh for six weeks, as well as other marvelous and curious things, and his name was associated with numer- ous adventures of a more or less disreputable character. These tales were carried by travelers to other countries and found their way into the romantic literature of the day and even into Latin works of a learned character. Besides the works which are known to be Ver- gil's a number of minor poems have come down to us under liis name, which are included in many editions. Three of these, the Ciilex, Ciris, and Jloretum, belong to the class of the epylUon, or 'little epic' In the first, which is a poem of about 400 hexameter lines, a gnat (culex) stings a sleeping sliepherd and tlius saves his life from a serpent. The shepherd as he awakens kills liis preserver. The ghost of the gnat comes from the lower world, of which a full description is given, and reproaches his murderer Avitb liis untimely fate. The .second, of about 500 hexameters, tells the story of Scylla and Nisus. and takes its name from the bird into which the former is changed. The third, a charming little poem of 124 hexameters, describes a farmer preparing his breakfast, which consists of bread, which he prepares and bakes, and a rustic salad (more- liim). Besides these there is a poem of 38 lines in the elegiac distich, the Copo, 'Mine Hostess,' which represents a Syrian Avoman dancing in the doorway of her wayside inn and inviting the way- farer to enter: and a collection of fourteen sliort- er pieces in various metres called Catalepton {noi^fiara Kara Afjrrti!', 'minor poems'). The evidence for the Vergilian autliorsliip of these works is not very strong. Donatus and Servius at- tribute a number of minor poems to Vergil. Both enumerate the Culcx. Dirw, .-Etna, Ciris, Catalep- ton, I'riapcia, and Epifframmata, to which Ser- vius adds the Copu. An .Etna and Dirw have also been preserved, but it is the general con- sensus of scholars that they cannot have been written by Vergil. The rest of the list corre- sponds exactly with the poems which have come down to us as youthful works of Vergil, for the Priapi'ia and I'.iiiiirninmata are botli represented among the Ciilnlvpton : but we have only (o as- sume that the |ioems were collected an<l ascribed to Vergil in the time of Nero, a belief which is held by some scholars, to make the testimony of Donatus and Servius, and even that of Statins and Martial, who refer to a Culex by Vergil, of little weight. The testimony of Lucan to a Vergilian Culcx is, however, more difficult to dispose of. On the other hand, the contrary evi- dence is not very convincing. Much has been made of certain metrical features of the poems, but these, which were really the only strong argument against a Vergilian authorship, have