In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes > I am currently doing a study of Virgil's half lines or "unfinished > lines." �I > have merely touched the surface of these lines, but my initial > reactions are > such: most of the "unfinished lines" are unfinished by choice on > Virgil's > part to draw greater attention to these lines; however, some lines > are > obviously not unfinished by choice for they make little or no > sense. �Any > insight about the unfinished lines?
No-one in antiquity ever imitated them, though almost everything else in Vergil was imitated; the notion that they were intended has long since been exploded, by Sparrow if not before. We may find some of them striking, but so did the nineteenth century find the damaged limbs of the Melian Aphrodite (called the V�nus de Milo by those who make an icon of the ruin); at most we can say that because they make so fine an ending for their sentence, the poet could not at once see how to continue. By Seneca's time people were filling in the gaps. Leofranc Holford-Strevens *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* Leofranc Holford-Strevens 67 St Bernard's Road usque adeone Oxford scire MEVM nihil est, nisi ME scire hoc sciat alter? OX2 6EJ tel. +44 (0)1865 552808(home)/267865(work) fax +44 (0)1865 512237 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (home) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (work) *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
