[437] Talibus orabat 10. 96, where the meaning of the verb is slightly different. ‘Fletus’ of a tearful appeal, like ‘lacrimae’ 2. 145.
[438] “‘Fertque refertque’ non ab Aenea, qui nihil dicit, sed a Didone fert et refert, id est, iterum portat. Nam subiunxit ‘Sed nullis ille movetur Fletibus.’” Serv. Wund. comp. 12. 866, where the same words occur.
[440] Wagn. rightly says that ‘deus’ is general, not specially indicating Jupiter or Mercury. After this line one MS. subjoins a foolish addition, “Ne sint ammotae neque sistant gaudia mente.”
[441] Macrob. Sat. 6. 2 taxes Virg. with imitating Il. 16. 765 foll.: but the resemblance is as general as possible. ‘Annoso validam’ was restored by Heins. for the old reading ‘annosam valido,’ which is less artificial, and consequently less Virgilian. Ov. M. 8. 744 has “ingens annoso robore quercus.” ‘Robur’ seems to be used in its general sense of strength, or perhaps strong wood, though doubtless we are intended to think of its special meaning.
[442] Alpini does not merely mean blowing from the Alps, but intimates that the tree is standing and the scene laid there. ‘Hinc’ and ‘illinc’ come in strangely after ‘Boreae,’ as if the north wind blew from different quarters: so we must either suppose that Virg. means N.E. and N.W., or set it down as one of his many voluntary or involuntary inaccuracies, Boreas being to him the poetical expression for any violent or cold wind. In 1. 85 (note) we have had a similar, though less glaring inaccuracy. Mr. Long however is of opinion that Virg. means any wind which blows from the Alps towards the plains, and therefore any wind from the north side of the circle.
[443] “It clamor” 8. 595. ‘Altae’ is the reading of Med., Pal., fragm. Vat., and other good MSS., and as such is restored by Jahn and Wagn. for ‘alte.’ It is apparently to be taken with ‘consternunt,’ the leaves falling thickly so as to lie in heaps on the ground. It may however merely mean ‘the towering foliage,’ ‘the leaves at the summit,’ as in G. 2. 55, 305, the point of the epithet here being to give a picture of the height from which the leaves fall, and the appearance of the tree with its head stripped.
[445] Quantum—tendit repeated from G. 2. 292. In both places there is a variety of reading between ‘radicem’ and ‘radice,’ the former in each case being supported by Med., the latter by fragm. Vat. Pal. has ‘radicem’ in both places, but altered here into ‘radice.’ ‘Radice’ has been generally preferred by the editors, being rendered almost necessary by ‘vertice,’ for which there seems to be no alternative ‘verticem.’ With the abl. comp. “ulterius ne tende odiis” 12. 938. ‘Auras aetherias:’ see on 1. 546.
[447] Hinc atque hinc merely means that Anna left no mode of appeal untried.
[448] ‘He feels the thrill of grief through all his mighty breast.’
[449] Lacrimae can only be the tears of Dido, as represented and shared by Anna. To refer them with Henry to those of Aeneas, who weeps but is resolute, is a less obvious thought, and not supported by the parallel which, following Serv., he fancifully imagines between the falling leaves and the falling tears, as instances of a superficial effect produced in each of the two cases. As Wagn. remarks, the opposition, if any, is between ‘pectore’ and ‘mens,’ not between ‘mens’ and ‘lacrimae.’
[450-473] ‘Dido becomes desperate and weary of life. She sees dire portents: the wine at the sacrifice turns to blood: her husband's voice is heard calling her: old prophecies recur to her mind: her dreams are bad. She raves like Pentheus or Orestes.’
