Rais'd verdant altars to the mighty shade,
And paid all funeral honours to the dead :
And now the fatal day is just return'd,
By me (fo Heav'n ordains) with rites adorn'd,
For ever honour'd, and for ever mourn'd;
Tho' banish'd to the burning Libyan fand,
Tho' led a captive to the Argive land,
Tho' loft and fhipwreck'd on the Grecian fea,
Still would I folemnize this facred day.

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her at least. 5. I farther fuppofe, that Æneas could hardly arrive at Drepanum before January: The veffels took up not more than two months in failing into the Adriatic gulf; and, after that, in coafting all the Italian fhore, and in fearching for Drepanum in the Tyrrhene fea. 6. I laftly fuppofe, that Aneas was in Sicily the eleven months remaining, till the month of November, with which the neid opens.

According to the foregoing computation, January was the month in which neas arrived at the port of Sicily, where he loft his father. It very evidently appears, from the poet's own narration, that Anchifes died in February; and that his anniversary was kept in the fame month; which I thus prove. Eneas parted from Carthage in the depth of winter, Hyberno moliris fidere classem: This is what Dido reproaches him with : This certainly could mean no other time than the end of January. According to this fuppofition Æneas stayed but three months at Carthage; that is, from November to the end of January. As to what remains, we cannot poffibly prove, that his ftay was longer; and nothing can induce us to believe that it was. So that when he arrives in Sicily, that is to say, at the beginning of February, he declares that very day to be the anniversary of his father: It therefore follows, that his father died in February. Æneas afterwards spends one month in the celebration of the games, after leaving Sicily a fecond time to fail for Italy, whither he arrives at the beginning of the fpring. This laft point is plain, from the finging of the birds, and the ferenity of the fky, which began to look clear, cum venti pofuere. For the reft, the wars of Æneas in Italy till the death of Turnus, lafted from the beginning of the April, when he came into Italy, to the November following. According to this plan, we may determine the Æneid to be comprised within the course of one folar year.

Sure all the friendly pow'rs our course inspire,

To the dear relics of my reverend fire.

Haste then, the new-adopted god adore,
And from his grace a profp'rous gale implore;
Implore a city, where we still may pay,

In his own fane, the honours of the day.

On every ship two oxen are bestow'd
By great Aceftes of our Dardan blood;

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Call to the feaft your native Phrygian pow'rs,
With those the hospitable king adores.

Soon as the ninth fair morning's opening light

Shall glad the world, and chace the fhades of night, 85 Then to my Trojans I propofe, to grace

Thefe facred rites, the rapid naval race;

Then all, who glory in their matchlefs force,
Or vaunt their fiery swiftness in the course,
Or dart the fpear, or bend the twanging bow,
Or to the dreadful gauntlet dare the foe,
Attend; and each by merit bear away
The noble palms, and glories of the day.

Now grace your heads with verdant wreaths, he said ;
Then with his mother's myrtle binds his head.

Like him, Aceftes, and the royal boy

Adorn their brows, with all the youth of Troy.
Now to the tomb furrounded with a throng,
A mighty train, the hero past along.

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98. Now to the tomb.] The critics and commentators feem not to have perceived the defign which the poet undoubtedly had, in this epifode of the apotheofis of Anchifes, and in the defcription of the games which are celebrated at his tomb. It is Auguftus that Virgil reprefents here under the character

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Two bowls of milk, and facred blood he pours;
Two of pure wine; and scatters purple flow'rs.
Then thus-Hail facred fire, all hail again,
Once more restor'd, but ah! reftor'd in vain !
"Twas more than envious fate would give, to fee
The deftin'd realms of Italy with thee;
Or mighty Tyber's rolling ftreams explore,
The facred flood, that bathes th' Aufonian fhore.
Scarce had he said, when, beauteous to behold !
From the deep tomb, with many a fhining fold,
An azure ferpent rofe, in fcales that flam'd with
gold:

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of Æneas. The pious Auguftus, by the apotheofis (or deification) with which he honoured Julius Cæfar his father, and by the games which he caused to be performed to celebrate this new god; gave Virgil an occafion of inventing this episode, and of making these games and honours the subject of one entire book. This appears very charming, even to us at prefent; although the commentators have taken no notice of the relation it bore to Auguftus. But how much more interesting and delightful must it have been to Auguftus himself, and the Romans of that age, who remembered that they themselves performed the fame things for Julius Cæfar, which the poet makes Æneas perform in honour of Anchifes? CATROU.

110. An azure ferpent rofe in fcales.] There a e many beau tiful de riptions of this animal in the Æneid of Virgil, and in the Georgics likewife. M. Segrais is of opinion, that there are indeed too many of the fame creature. There are few paffages in Ovid, finer than his picture of the ferpents, into which Cadmus and Afculapius were transformed. Under this head it would be unpardonable to omit Milton's exquifite defcription of the tempting ferpent, which far exceeds that of any poet whatever.

not with indented wave
Prone on the ground, as fince; but in his rear,
Circular bafe of rifing folds, that towr'd
Fold above fold, a rifing maze; his head

Crefted

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Like heaven's bright bow his varying beauties fhone,
That draws a thousand colours from the fun :
Pleas'd round the altars and the tomb to wind,
His glittering length of volumes trails behind.
The chief in deep amaze fufpended hung,
While through the bowls the ferpent glides along ;
Taftes all the food, then foftly flides away,
Seeks the dark tomb, and quits the facred prey;
Aftonish'd at the fight, the hero paid.

New rites, new honours to his father's shade,
Doubts if the dæmon of his fire rever'd,
Or the kind genius of the place appear'd.
Five fable fteers he flew with rites divine,
As many fnowy sheep, and briftly swine;
And pouring wine, invok'd his father's fhade
Sent from the darksome regions of the dead.
Then all the train, who gather'd round the grave,
Each for his rank, proportion'd treasures gave.
The altars blaze; the victims round expire;
Some hang the maffy cauldrons o'er the fire:
Some o'er the grafs the glowing embers fpread;
Some broil the entrails on the burning bed.

Now bright the ninth expected morning fhone;
Now rose the fiery courfers of the fun.

Crefted aloft, and carbuncle his eyes:
With burnish'd neck of verdant gold, erect
Amid his circling fpires, that on the grafs
Floted redundant:

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Book 9. v. 4.96.

It was judicious in Milton to dwell fo long on the defcrip tion of the serpent, on which the catastrophe of his poem depended.

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}

When endless crowds the vaft affembly crown'd
From all the wide difpeopled country round.
Some rous'd by great Aceftes' mighty name,
Some to behold the Trojan ftrangers came,
Some to contend, and try the noble game.
In view, amid the spacious circle, lay
The coftly gifts, the prizes of the day.
Arms on the ground, and facred tripods glow,
With wreaths and palms to bind the victor's brow.
Silver and purple vefts in heaps are roll'd,
Rich robes, and talents of the purest gold;
And from a mount the fprightly trump proclaims
To all the gather'd crowd the glorious games.

Four well-match'd gallies firft, by oars impell'd
Drawn from the navy, took the watry field.

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148. Four well-match'd gallies.] The chariot-race is that which Homer has moft laboured in his games, of which Virgil being fenfible, he moft judiciously avoided the imitation of what he could not improve, and fubftituted in its place the naval courfe or fhip-race. It is in this, the Roman poet has employed all his force, as if on fet purpose to rival his great mafter; but it is extremely obfervable, how conftantly he keeps Homer in his eye, and is afraid to depart from his very track, even when he had vary'd the subject itself. Accordingly the accidents of the naval course have a strange resemblance with thofe of Homer's chariot-race. He could not forbear at the very beginning, to draw a part of that defcription into a fimile. Do not we see he has Homer's chariots in

his head, by thefe lines?

Non tam præcipites, &c.-Ver. 144.

What is the encounter of Cloanthus and Gyas in the strait between the rocks, but the fame with that of Menelaus and Antilochus in the hollow way? Had the galley of Sergeftus been broken, if the chariot of Eumelus had not been demolifhed? Or, had Mneftheus been caft from the helm, had not

the