Hieronymus Prechtl
Thu, 17 Oct 2002 18:15:57 GMT
Halifax, Nova Scotia
October 17, 2:00 pm
Good day, everyone.
I am doing a small project for a course on Augustan poetry titled "Others on
Virgil." I have collected some evidence but I am sure there is more, much
more, out there. If anyone can think of some without investing time in a
search, would (s)he let me in on it.
Here is, summarily what I have:
PROPERTIUS: "Move over Romans, move over Greeks: something bigger than the
Iliad is being borne."..
DONATUS: a few things here and there, like that Cicero, having familiarized
himself with every nuance of the Bucolics, was so impressed that he
declared Virgil "the second great hope of Rome," as if he himself were the
first hope of the Latin language and Virgil the second. These words actually
appear in the Aeneid, but there is no telling whether they are an echo of
Cicero or spontaneous:
et iuxta Ascanius, magnae SPES
ALTERA Romae [12.168].
AUGUSTINE: "confessing" how he hated reciting 'one and one are two' and
'two and two are four' but loved the Aeneid; how at the same time he felt
guilty for weeping over the death of Dido dying for love of Aeneas, but not
weeping over himself dying for his lack of love of his God.
DANTE: Dante himself telling Virgil in the underwold:
O de li altri poeti onore e lume You, of the other poets
honor and light,
vagliami 'l lungo studio e 'l grande amore valeat mihi the long devotion
and love
che m'ha fatto cercar lo tuo volume. which made search out your
work.
Tu se' lo mio maestro e 'l mio autore; You are my teacher and my
creator
tu se' solo colui da cu' io tolsi you alone are he from
whom I lifted / got
lo bello stilo che m'ha fatto onore. the beautiful stile that
brought me honor / fame.
(Inferno I, 82 ff., Dante speaking)
Has ever one of the greats been so praised by another great?
PETRARCH: a few things here and there, like his METRICA, which he addresses
"Ad Vergilium Maronem ... heroycum poetam" and some of the things he says
about Virgil there.
SORTES VERGILIANAE: showing how highly some of the greats in the Middle
Ages valued the Aeneid.
TS ELIOT: "Our classic, the classic of all Europe, is Virgil."
I haven't, so far, found anything much (Dryden) between Petrarch and Eliot;
or, for that matter, between Eliot and now. Oh, there are lots of academics
that praise Virgil, but I am searching for praise from people in the front
row, not the second or third.
Thanks for listening.
Ambros Hieronymus
PS: In an earlier incarnation, I was myself an Augustinian... spent four
years with Augustinians in Weiden, Oberpfalz, Germany.
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