Tate wrote concerning "The Classics in a Nutshell: Vergil's �neid
"�neas,with his little boy etc":
> Cute and sorta humorous as long as one remembers "Ars gratia artis"
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "Ars gratia artis" here.Did you feel
that my posting was not relevant or "infra dignitatem Mantuanorum"? It
is only light verse but it is still testimony to the influence of
Virgil. As for how humourous one finds it:"de gustibus non est
disputandum."
>but its really great to lighten-up sometimes and not be so serious.
Certainly I agree: "dulce est desipere in loco". Even the great Porson
condescended to pun in Virgilian manner on the endings of the Latin
gerund as Leofranc has reminded us.
However there was also a serious side to my posting on which you haven't
commented: namely that this poem is perhaps the last example of a
burlesque of Virgil. I alluded to this tradition when I mentioned the
burlesque �neids of Scarron & Cotton. These were in French & English and
apparently there was a German one too by A.Blumauer (1755-98) called
"A�neis travestirt"(1783). I haven't been able to find an Italian
example of a burlesque �neid, although there are mock epics (an allied
genre ) e.g Alessandro Tassoni "La Secchia Rapita"(1622) or "The Rape of
the Bucket" which inspired Alexander Pope's mock epyllion "The Rape of
the Lock".
The mock epic tradition can be traced back to the "Margites" (lost) &
"Batrachomyomachia"("Battle of The Mice&Frogs") ascribed to Homer and
the "Culex"("The Gnat") ascribed to Virgil,the Byzantine author
Simmocatta's "Galeomyomachia"("The Battle of the Cats & Mice") and
Addison's neo-Latin work "Pygmaiogeranomachia"("The Battle of the
Pygmies & Cranes"). So it seems that as long as epic was revered,say up
to the eighteenth century, there have been those who have made fun of
the genre.
Peter JVD Bryant
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
7 Cobea Court
Mount Claremont
Perth
Western Australia 6010
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