to their indelicacy and infenfibility. Larger fouls are not fo easily self-satisfied. Raphaël frequently declared, that in none of his performances he had ever expreffed his notion of a perfect beauty. And Virgil's behaviour rather puts one in mind of what the fame Tully fays elsewhere, that in none of his works or orations, he was able to come up to that high idea of eloquence he had conceived in his mind. Auguftus interpofed, and would not suffer a poem that was to confecrate his name to immortality, to be destroyed; it was then bequeathed to Varius and Tucca, with a strict charge that they should make no additions; which they fo exactly obferved, as not to fill up even the hemiftichs which were left imperfect. He died with fuch fteadiness and tranquillity, as to be able to dictate his own epitaph in the following words, Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc His bones were carried to Naples, according to his earnest request, and a monument was erected at a small distance from the city. He was of a fwarthy complexion, tall of ftature like his own Mufæus; of a fickly and delicate conftitution, afflicted with frequent head-achs, coughs, and spittings of blood; very temperate and abftemious in his diet, very regular, fober, and chafte in his morals. 'Tis a false opinion, that he was flovenly and ungraceful in his habit and perfon He was fo bafhful, that he frequently * See the following paffage in Polymetis, Dial. 21. pag. 325. It feems to have been a vulgar opinion among the moderns, (at least, among the modern commentators) that Virgil was a rough-looking, flovenly man. To overturn this opinion, I fhould not alledge Urfini's gem, which has so often been called a head of Virgil: both because there is a great deal of reason to think, quently ran into the fhops to prevent being gazed at in the streets of Rome; yet fo honoured by the Romans, think, that it is falfely attributed to him; and because we have pictures of Virgil drawn at full length, and much lefs to be difputed. What I mean are two pictures, placed before two of his Eclogues, in one of thofe old manuscripts of his works, in the Vatican library. You fee him there reprefented with a sweet, modeft countenance, and dreffed particularly neat. These pictures, if you will allow of their authority, (and I know of no other that can pretend to near fo good an one) may serve perhaps to give us the true fenfe of an expreffion in Statius, and to fave a paffage in Horace from the mifreprefentations of his commentators. Statius, in fpeaking of Virgil, applies the epithet of torvus to him; whence fome have been apt to imagine, that Virgil had a stern or four look. But if one ought to truft more to this picture than to the commentators, we should perhaps understand that expreffion of his writings rather than of his perfonage, with which it will by no means agree: whereas if ît be applied to his works, it may fignify the dignity and majefty of them, which will agree with the context, and the occafion on which Statius uses that expreffion, as much as in the other fenfe it would be foreign to both. The paffage I had in my eye from Horace, is where that poet is speaking of a man who had fome little faults, mixed with more material excellencies, which might well enough conceal them, at least to every good-natured obferver. The faults or defects he mentions are, that he was a little too paffionate, fomewhat ungenteel in his conversation, and ill-dreffed. Here, fay the commentators, one fees an instance of the fly way that Horace had of touching on the faults of his best friends, even whilft he is commending them; and the friend here touched upon they will have to be Virgil. The lines are as follows: Iracundior eft paulo; minùs aptus acutis Naribus horum hominum: rideri poffit, eò quod Rufticius tonfo toga defluit, & male laxus In pede calceus hæret Hor. Lib. i. Sat. iii. 32. that that coming once into the theatre, the whole audience rose out of respect to him. His voice was musical, and his elocution marvellously proper, and pathetic. He was of a thoughtful and melancholy temper, spoke little, and loved retirement and contemplation, and was an enemy to those talkative impertinents, from which no court (not even that of Auguftus) could be free. He had a heart full of tenderness and fenfibility, and formed for all the delicate feelings of love and friendship. His fortune was not only eafy, but affluent he had a delightful villa in Sicily, and a fine houfe and well-furnifhed library near Mæcenas's gardens on the Efquiline hill at Rome. But ah! Mæcenas is yclad in clay, fays an exquifite poet, who wanted fuch encouragement as Virgil met with; and who adds, in a noble ftrain, that, if he had been encouraged, Thou kenst not, Percie, how the rime should rage! Spenfer's October. Juvenal fays finely, that we should have wanted the ftrongest paintings, the nobleft ftrokes of imagination in all the Æneid, if Virgil had not been blefs'd with the comforts and conveniencies of life. Magna mentis opus, nec de lodice parandâ Afpicere Afpicere, & qualis Rutulum confundat Erinnys. Sat. vii. ver. 71. He used to revife his verfes with a judicious severity, to dictate a great number of lines in the morning, and to spend the rest of the day in correcting them, and reducing them to a lefs number. He compared himself to a fhe-bear which licks her cubs into fhape. This was alfo the practice of our great Milton. His behaviour was fo benevolent, gentle, and inoffenfive, that moft of his cotemporary poets (even the genus irritabile vatum) tho' they envied and maligned each other, agreed in loving and esteeming him. Yet that age, polite as it was, could have furnished some heroes for a Dunciad, a Bavius, a Mævius, and a Corvilius Pictor, who joined in traducing our Poet. But as an equivalent, Horace addreffed two odes to him, and frequently mentions him with particular tenderness and esteem. In his entertaining journey to Brundufium, whither he went to meet Mæcenas, Cocceius, Capito Fonteius, and other accomplished wits, he tells us, Plotius & Varius Sinueffe Virgiliufque Lib. i. Sat. 5. I have often thought what a delightful evening this clufter of poetical friends must have spent at Sinueffa! With regard to the characteristical difference between Virgil and Homer (on which so many fruitlefs and furious difputes have been raised) it may with truth be affirmed, that the former former excelled all mankind in JUDGMENT, and the latter in INVENTION. Methinks the two Poets (fays Mr. Pope) resemble the heroes they celebrate; Homer, boundless and irrefiftible as Achilles, bears all before him, and shines more and more, as the tumult increases: Virgil, calmly daring like Æneas, appears undisturbed in the midft of the action, difpofes all about him, and conquers with tranquillity. Or when we look on their machines, Homer feems like his own Jupiter in his terrors, shaking Olympus, fcattering the lightnings, and firing the heavens: Virgil like the fame Power in his benevolence, counselling with the gods, laying plans for empires, and regularly ordering his whole creation. By way of conclufion to this life, I will add fome beautiful verses, which I wonder to find omitted in all our late editions; as their purity and fimple elegance may juftly induce one to fuppofe they came from the hand of Virgil. DEDICATIO NEIDOS. AD VENEREM. Si mihi fufceptum fuerit decurrere munus, Jam tandem ut tecum carmine veƐtus eat ; P. VIRGILII |