In Thomas Hardy's novel A Pair of Blue Eyes there is this passage "She looked so intensely LIVING and full of movement as she came into the old silent place, that young Smith's world began to be lit by 'the purple light' in all its definiteness."
Apparently this is a translation of the Virgilian phrase 'lumen purpureum' signifying 'the light of love'. Can anyone tell where in Virgil this comes from and whether it was a general Roman expression, or one coined by V? And why was the 'light of love' thought to be purple? Patrick Roper ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
