Vergil Appendix

APPENDIX.

Note I.--_Imitations of Virgil in Propertius, Ovid, and Manilius._

The prestige of Virgil made him a subject for imitation even during his lifetime. Just as Carlyle, Tennyson, and other vigorous writers soon create a school, so Virgil stamped the poetical dialect for centuries. But he offered two elements for imitation, the declamatory or rhetorical, which is most prominent in his speeches, and in the second and sixth books; and detached passages showing descriptive imagery, touches of pathos, similes, &c. These last might he imitated without at all unduly influencing the individuality of the imitator's style. In this way Ovid is a great imitator of Virgil; so to a less extent are Propertius, Manilius, and Lucan. Statius and Silius base their whole poetical art on him, and therefore particular instances of imitation throw no additional light on their style. We shall here notice a few of the points in which the Augustan poets copied him:--

(1) _In Facts._--Beside the great number of early historical points on which he was followed implicitly, we find even his errors imitated, _e.g._ the confusion which perhaps in Virgil is only apparent between Pharsalia and Philippi, has, as Merivale remarks, been adopted by Propertius (iv. 10,40), Ovid (M. xv, 824), Manilius (i. 906), Lucan (vii. 854), and Juvenal (viii. 242 not so much from ignorance of the locality as out of deference to Virgilian precedent. The lines may be quoted--Virgil (G. i. 489), _Ergo inter se paribus concurrere telis Romanas acies iterum videre Philippi;_ Propertius, _Una Philippeo sanguine inusta nota;_ Ovid, _Emathiaque iterum madefient caede Philippi;_ Manilius, _Arma Philippeos implerunt sanguine campos. Vixque etiam sicca miles Romanus arena Ossa virum lacerosque prius superastitit artus;_ Lucan, _Scelerique secundo Praestatis nondum siccos hoc sanguine campos;_ Juvenal, _Thessaliae campis Octavius abstulit ... famam...._ This is analogous to the way in which the satirists use the names consecrated by Lucilius or Horace as types of a vice, and repeat the same symptoms _ad nauseam, e.g._ the miser who anoints his body with train oil, who locks up his leavings, who picks up a farthing from the road, &c. The veiled allusion to the poet Anser (Ecl. ix. 36) is perhaps recalled by Prop. iii. 32, 83, _sqq._ So the portents described by Virgil as following on the death of Caesar are told again by Manilius at the end of Bk. I. and referred to by Lucan (_Phars._ i.) and Ovid. Again, the confusion between _Inarime_ and _ein Arimois_, into which Virgil falls, is borrowed by Lucan (_Phars._ v. 101). [br][br] (2) _In Metre._--As regards metre, Ovid in the _Metamorphoses_ is nearest to him, but differs in several points, He imitates him--(_a_) in not admitting words of four or more syllables, except very rarely, at the end of the line; (_b_) in rhythms like _vulnificus sus_ (viii. 358), and the not unfrequent _spondetazontes_, (_c_) in keeping to the two caesuras as finally established by him, and avoiding beginnings like _scilicet omnibus | est_, &c. In all these points Manilius is a little less strict than Ovid, _e.g._ (i. 35) _et veneranda_, (iii. 130) _sic breviantur_, (ii. 716) _altribuuntur_. He also follows Virgil in alliteration, which Ovid does not. They differ from Virgil in--(_a_) a much more sparing employment of elision. The reason of this is that elision marks the period of living growth; as soon as the language had become crystallised, each letter had its fixed force, the caprices of common pronunciation no longer influencing it; and although no correct writer places the unelided _m_ before a vowel, yet the great rarity of elision not only of _m_ but of long and even short vowels (except _que_) shows that the main object was to avoid it, if possible. The great frequency of elision in Virgil must be regarded as an archaism. (_b_) In a much lesser variety of rhythm. This is, perhaps, rather an artistic defect, but it is designed. Manilius, however, has verses which Virgil avoids, _e.g. Delcetique sacerdotes_ (i. 47), probably as a reminiscence of Lucretius._z_ancienthistory_z_);

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