I think from memory that Jackson Knight found at this seance that Virgil
could no longer speak Latin in the afterlife and had to converse in
English. Although poor old Jackson Knight was probably deceived by the
medium, he was not the only Virgilian interested in these things:
F.W.H. Myers (1843-1901) was active in the Society For Psychical
Research. Among classicists Gilbert Murray & E.R.Dodds were also
members.
As for post-mortem meetings with Virgil, I have collected a few examples
of which the following is probably the most entertaining.
The novel" Penguin Island"("L'ile des pingouins" (1908)) by Anatole
France (1844-1924) contains an humorous and ironic episode called "The
Descent of Marbodius into Hell". Marbodius, a Benedictine monk is
discovered poring over the "�neid"by two other monks. A discussion
ensues in which Brother Jacinth,the monastery's porter,affirms that
Virgil was a necromancer and performed marvels through the agency of
demons, while on the other hand Brother Hilary "brought up in the
barbarous ages before the resurrection of the Muses" states that Virgil
was in the Fourth Eclogue a heathen prophet of Christ, and that it was
likely that Virgil had been admitted to Paradise "because even in error
he had a presentiment of the truth."
After the two monks have left him,Marbodius is mystically transported
to a very Virgilian underworld, and beholds in his journey what �neas
beheld in Book vi of the �neid :namely the Sibyl; the Golden Bough, the
bark of Charon and the Styx;Cerberus;Minos judging the dead; the Myrtle
Woods; and the way which leads to Tartarus on the left and Elysium on
the right. In Elysium Marbodius meets the shade of Virgil, who disdains
his praise and reveals that he had an opportunity of entering Paradise
but chose to remain in the Elysian fields because he preferred the
company of his friends, ancestors, masters and gods. As well Virgil
explains that the Fourth Eclogue, for which he had been offered a place
in Paradise, has been ignorantly misinterpreted:"I said to the messenger
of the god that I did not deserve the honour he brought me, and that a
meaning had been given to my verses which they did not bear. In truth I
have not in my fourth Eclogue betrayed the faith of my ancestors. Some
ignorant Jews alone have interpreted in favour of a barbabian god a
verse which celebrates the return of the golden age predicted by the
Sibylline oracles."
("Penguin Island"(1909)p.124,translated by A.W. Evans.)
Virgil mentions that he had received another visitor about a century
and a half before, who had come from an ancient Etruscan colony founded
by Sulla near Fiesole on the banks of the Arno. Virgil had not been
impressed and considered him to be a barbarian.
"But I do not reproach this colonist of Sulla, born in an unhappy time,
for making inharmonious verses or for being, if it be possible, as bad a
poet as Bavius and M�vius. I have grievances against him which touch me
more closely. The thing is monstrous and scarcely credible, but when
this man returned to earth he disseminated the most odious lies about
me. He affirmed in several passages of his barbarous poems that I had
served him as a guide in the modern Tartarus, a place I know nothing of.
He insolently proclaimed that I had spoken of the gods of Rome as false
and lying gods, and that I held as the true God the present successor of
Jupiter."("Penguin Island"(1909)p.128)
Virgil departs,"his shade gliding over the asphodels without bending
their stalks", and Marbodius walks slowly towards the gate of horn,
remarking " I affirm that all in this writing is true".
This whole episode is full of Virgilian reminiscences and well worth
looking up.
Peter JVD Bryant
Perth
Western Australia
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