Here is a summary of the "�neid", which the Mantovani may find amusing:
The Classics in a Nutshell: Vergil's �neid
1 �neas,with his little boy,
2 Slid down the fire escape from Troy.
3 His wife Creusa he forgot,
4 Although he loved her quite a lot;
5 She perished in the fire, poor dame !
6 (He often thought of his old flame).
7 From Troy he sailed the raging tide, O !
8 To Carthage, where he fell for Dido;
9 Then left her cold and went to Hades,
10 Came through,and married well, dear ladies.
11 No one had ever thought him bad,
12 So nice was he to his old dad.
The poem
originally appeared in the column "Hit or Miss" in the
"Daily News",Chicago, August 19, 1919; then was printed in book-form in
the Modern Reader's Library as" The Classics in a Nutshell", whence the
poem was reprinted by Elizabeth Nitchie in her" Master Vergil: An
Anthology of Poems in English on Vergil and Vergilian Themes" D.C.Heath
and Company, Boston 1930.
This anonymous poem is a
delightfully irreverent plot summary of
the �neid with its anachronisms, double meanings and colloquial language
in the tradition of the seventeenth century burlesque �neids of Paul
Scarron in French and Charles Cotton in English.
There is a reminiscence of
Virgil's "agnosco veteris vestigia
flamm� " ( �n. IV.23 ) in the clich� "He often thought of his old
flame"(line 6). ( One may wonder if �neas really did think much of
Creusa after her death:there doesn't seem to be much evidence in Virgil
for this, but the poem is a "jeu d'esprit" not meant to be taken
seriously.
Peter JVD Bryant
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
7 Cobea Court
Mount Claremont
Perth
Western Australia 6010
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