When Virgil appeared, the
audience
paid the same compliment to a man
whose poetry adorned the Roman story.
whose poetry adorned the Roman story.
Tacitus
O quis me gelidis sub montibus Hæmi
Sistat, et ingenti ramorum protegat umbrâ?
GEORGICA, lib. ii. ver. 485.
Me may the lowly vales and woodland please,
And winding rivers, and inglorious ease;
O that I wander'd by Sperchius' flood,
Or on Taygetus' sacred top I stood!
Who in cool Hæmus' vales my limbs will lay,
And in the darkest thicket hide from day?
WHARTON'S VIRG.
Besides this poetical retreat, which his imagination could command at
any time, Virgil had a real and delightful villa near Naples, where
he composed his Georgics, and wrote great part of the Æneid.
[b] When Augustus, or any eminent citizen, distinguished by his public
merit, appeared in the theatre, the people testified their joy by
acclamations, and unbounded applause. It is recorded by Horace, that
Mæcenas received that public honour.
----Datus in theatro
Cum tibi plausus,
Care Mæcenas eques, ut paterni
Fluminis ripæ, simul et jocosa
Redderet laudes tibi Vaticani
Montis imago.
Lib. i. ode 20.
When Virgil appeared, the audience paid the same compliment to a man
whose poetry adorned the Roman story. The letters from Augustus, which
are mentioned in this passage, have perished in the ruins of ancient
literature.
[c] Pomponius Secundus was of consular rank, and an eminent writer of
tragedy. See _Annals_, b. ii. s. 13. His life was written by Pliny
the elder, whose nephew mentions the fact (book iii. epist. 5), and
says it was a tribute to friendship. Quintilian pronounces him the
best of all the dramatic poets whom he had seen; though the critics
whose judgement was matured by years, did not think him sufficiently
tragical. They admitted, however, that his erudition was considerable,
and the beauty of his composition surpassed all his contemporaries.
_Eorum, quos viderim, longe princeps Pomponius Secundus, quem senes
parum tragicum putabant, eruditione ac nitore præstare confitebantur. _
Lib. x. cap.
Sistat, et ingenti ramorum protegat umbrâ?
GEORGICA, lib. ii. ver. 485.
Me may the lowly vales and woodland please,
And winding rivers, and inglorious ease;
O that I wander'd by Sperchius' flood,
Or on Taygetus' sacred top I stood!
Who in cool Hæmus' vales my limbs will lay,
And in the darkest thicket hide from day?
WHARTON'S VIRG.
Besides this poetical retreat, which his imagination could command at
any time, Virgil had a real and delightful villa near Naples, where
he composed his Georgics, and wrote great part of the Æneid.
[b] When Augustus, or any eminent citizen, distinguished by his public
merit, appeared in the theatre, the people testified their joy by
acclamations, and unbounded applause. It is recorded by Horace, that
Mæcenas received that public honour.
----Datus in theatro
Cum tibi plausus,
Care Mæcenas eques, ut paterni
Fluminis ripæ, simul et jocosa
Redderet laudes tibi Vaticani
Montis imago.
Lib. i. ode 20.
When Virgil appeared, the audience paid the same compliment to a man
whose poetry adorned the Roman story. The letters from Augustus, which
are mentioned in this passage, have perished in the ruins of ancient
literature.
[c] Pomponius Secundus was of consular rank, and an eminent writer of
tragedy. See _Annals_, b. ii. s. 13. His life was written by Pliny
the elder, whose nephew mentions the fact (book iii. epist. 5), and
says it was a tribute to friendship. Quintilian pronounces him the
best of all the dramatic poets whom he had seen; though the critics
whose judgement was matured by years, did not think him sufficiently
tragical. They admitted, however, that his erudition was considerable,
and the beauty of his composition surpassed all his contemporaries.
_Eorum, quos viderim, longe princeps Pomponius Secundus, quem senes
parum tragicum putabant, eruditione ac nitore præstare confitebantur. _
Lib. x. cap.
