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Was the Fourth Eclogue Written to Celebrate the Marriage of Octavia to Mark Antony?—A Literary Parallel

D. A. Slater

The Classical Review / Volume 26 / Issue 04 / June 1912, pp 114 - 119 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00199871, Published online: 27 October 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00199871

How to cite this article: D. A. Slater (1912). Was the Fourth Eclogue Written to Celebrate the Marriage of Octavia to Mark Antony?—A Literary Parallel. The Classical Review, 26, pp 114-119 doi:10.1017/ S0009840X00199871

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Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 138.251.14.35 on 26 Apr 2015 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW every thing that he sendeth wth the gathered and what he hath sent and of name of the master of the Shipp; he all other occurrants belonging to this must as often as he can send ltfes business.' (Endorsed in another hand— [letters] of what things he hath Statua's and antiquityes.)

WAS THE FOURTH ECLOGUE WRITTEN TO CELEBRATE THE MARRIAGE OF OCTAVIA TO MARK ANTONY ?— A LITERARY PARALLEL. What is this marriage of Octavia sealed the compact That rises like the issue of a king of Brundisium; and it was Pollio who, And wears upon his baby-brow the round And top of sovereignty ? in conjunction with Maecenas, negoti- ated that treaty,—a treaty which was THE following notes are submitted in regarded at the time as a permanent support of a theory which seems to have settlement, and on which the highest been unduly neglected. The ' occasion ' hopes were accordingly founded. of the poem is, after all, a mere detail; But Pollio was also a friend of Mark but it is a detail of some importance; Antony, the bridegroom, and he was for if an agreement could be reached one of the consuls for the year. In this upon this point, the mind of the reader triple character of consul, plenipoten- would be set free to appreciate more tiary, and friend, he may therefore be fully the larger questions so admirably said to have stood in a somewhat special dealt with in Virgil's Messianic Eclogue and intimate relation to the child, or —a book for which, in common with the parents of the child; and, viewed many other lovers of Virgil, the present in this light, the dedication is seen to writer feels profoundly grateful. be both natural and appropriate. And yet the authors hardly give II. On this hypothesis the date of Catullus his due. There can, of course, the poem will be the date of the festivi- be no doubt that Virgil in his early ties at Rome with which the peace of period was strongly influenced by Brundisium was celebrated. Catullus; and nowhere more so than The feeling uppermost in men's minds here. If, however, this Eclogue can at the time—the feeling which the poet fairly be regarded as akin to an Epitha- was called upon to interpret—was one lamion, a ' sequela' to the Song of the of joy at the union by which the two Fates in Catullus, we must, it would great factions had been brought to- seem, go on to draw the inferences gether, and hope that a child would be which are drawn below. And it is born of that union, to be at once an strange how well the key fits the wards embodiment of the alliance and a of the lock, and how old familiar diffi- pledge of lasting concord. The Eclogue culties yield, one after another, to its is a poet's rhapsody, not a historical gentle pressure. At the very least, document. Take a modern parallel, the poem gains considerably by being —the knitting up of Yorkists and Lan- studied in connexion with its prototype. castrians in the marriage of Richmond In an Anthology the two should be set and Elizabeth, at the beginning,of a side by side. new era, after a similar period of civil I. The hypothesis has this initial war in England. Shakespeare touches advantage. It answers, once for all, the theme rather lightly, but he, too, the urgent question—why Pollio should expresses in effect much the same hopes have been singled out for the striking as Virgil: compliment of the strongly - worded dedication (lines 11-14), in which line We will unite the white rose and the red :— 11 is, from my point of view, less Smile, heaven, upon this fair conjunction, . That long hath frown'd upon their enmity!— important than line 13. The phrase O, now, let Richmond and Elizabeth, ' Te consule' fixes the date; the phrase The true succeeders of each royal house, ' Te duce' assigns the credit. For the By God's fair ordinance conjoin together ! THE CLASSICAL REVIEW And let their heirs (God, if Thy will be so) Only fourteen years intervened be- Enrich the time to come with smooth-fac'd tween the appearance of the two poems. peace, The Peleus and Thetis was finished in With smiling plenty, and fair prosperous 1 daysl 54 B.C. The Eclogue belongs to the year 40. We shall hardly be going too It would surely be a mistake to dis- far if we say that the later poem was sent from the theory on the ground that expressly meant to be read as a sequel Octavia was already a (mother and a) to the earlier one—a reply as explicit, widow. So was Violentilla, for whose if we may borrow an illustration from second marriage Statius wrote the English literature, as Raleigh's reply beautiful Epithalamion referred to to Marlowe's Passionate Shepherd. The below. Virgil's theme was not a love optimism of the Eclogue is intended to story, but a political alliance. The correct or to supersede the pessimism romance was to be sought, not in the of Catullus.2 Catullus closes with parents, but in the child, and the unity regrets for the lost age of gold and the and the hope which the child was to departure of Astraea, the Virgo Iustitia, symbolise. from the world; III. The Eclogue bears so strong a resemblance to the Song of the Iustitiamque omnes tota de mente fugarunt. Fates at the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, in Catullus LXIV., that we are Virgil opens with the announcement driven to assume a close and even vital of Astraea's return, and preaches a connexion between the two poems. So Saturnian Revival: far as I am aware the full significance of this connexion has never been pro- lam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna. perly appreciated. There is certainly There may also be special point in the no hint of what appears to be the truth suggestion which immediately follows, of the matter either in Page or in that Apollo and Diana- Lucina, who Conington. alone of the Immortals did not come to IV. The Eclogue is prophetic. Ca- the wedding-feast of Peleus and Thetis, tullus had put his Epithalamion on will both be present to bless the Roman the lips of the Fates, and had intro- child at its birth. duced it with a special solemnity— V. Virgil, by adopting, or rather ' veridicum oraclum (326); veridicos adapting, the refrain of Catullus, Parcae coeperunt edere cantus (306).' acknowledges his debt, and draws atten- In tone and versification (and it might tion to the resemblance. be added also in length) the resemblance VI. This acknowledgment invites, is very marked. And at the conclusion and is meant to invite, a closer com- of the Epithalamion there follows an parison. It is tantamount to calling Epilogue in the same strain as the song, Antony, the bridegroom, a second bewailing the iniquity of the present, and Peleus; and it invests Octavia, the regretting the ' auspicious time' (22), bride, with the divine attributes of in which the gods mixed freely with Thetis. This closer comparison also men. Compare, for instance, lines 15-18 explains and enriches the meaning of of the Eclogue, with lines 384-6 of the the vexed phrase in line 49,' magnum Peleus and Thetis ; Virgil's Iovis incrementum,' by recalling the I He deum vitam accipiet divisque videbit legend of Jupiter's passion for Thetis, Permixtos heroas et ipse videbitur illis and the omnipotence which had been is his answer to Catullus' 1 See Munro, Lucretius, iii. 57. Praesentes namque ante domps invisere castas 2 Virgil, I take it, wishes the reader to picture Heroum et sese mortali ostendere coetu to himself at least the Epilogue of Catullus Caelicolae nondum spreta pietate solebant. LXIV. as the background of his song. Thus we have a suggestion that the worst has been The child of the future is to revive the reached—and passed : golden age of the past: ' The night is darkest before the morn ; Old writers push'd the happy season back,— When the pain is fiercest the child is born ; The more fools they,—we forward. And the day of the Lord is at hand.' n6 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW foretold for the offspring of their union.1 virtutibus' undoubtedly presents some The lustre of this prophecy must neces- difficulty. But authority is not wholly sarily be reflected on any son born of lacking to justify us in understanding such a mother, and on the child of the the adjective to mean ' inherited' in the second Thetis (Octavia) no less than most general sense. This rendering on the child of the first. would claim for the child the endow- VII. Incidentally the (otherwise) ments not only of his father, but also of rather perplexing and conventional his mother,4 and of his mother's house. allusion to the Argo2 gains immediate In the earlier poem, however, it is point, for Peleus was an Argonaut; Peleus who is introduced by the Parcae while the last line of the poem—the with the words, diction of which recalls the close of the O decus eximium magnis virtutibus augens ; Peleus and Thetis, and honour was due to Mark Antony Quare nee talis dignantur visere coetus, and his following as well as to Octavia. Nee se contingi patiuntur lumine claro— It would have argued an amazing want is also a distinct reference to Peleus of tact in Virgil not to express or imply (Simpson, ad loc). on such an occasion some appreciation All that Virgil means to say is, ' If of a man whom even Cicero in the you do not smile on your mother, you Second Philippic admits to have will never be the man your father was."1 possessed magnificent fighting qualities, He says this allusively, more suo; but which, if a poet's well-timed compli- that this is his meaning there can be no ments could help, Virgil might reason- doubt, when once it is recognised that ably seek to press into the service of the parents are—' Peleus and Thetis.' the new regime. Cf. Agrippa's tribute to Antony in the play :— ainapp ^tWeu? ecrn Oeas 701/09, r)v eym avrrj A rarer spirit never Did steer humanity: but you, gods, will give iffra re ical drlrrjXa /cal dvBpl us iropov Trap a icon iv Some faults to make us men. Ht}\ei, <>? Trepl Krjpi <£i\o? yiver' IX. On the subject and occasion of adavdrouri, a wedding the ancients were remark- iravreHorace, Carm. ii. 7. 4, ' Dis patriis that the only 'capital' MS. which contains this Italoque caelo.' In Virgil, Aen. iii. 332 {g.v.\ section of the Eclogue, the Codex Romanus the critics disagree — e.g., Mackail renders (assigned tentatively by Nettleship, C.P.L., ' ancestral,' Conington ' his fathers altars.' Praefatio, to the fourth century A.D.), reads Possibly Virgil intentionally chose an am- parental (not parents) at line 26. THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 117 Acceleret partu decimum bona Cynthia the bride at the marriage-feast with mensem Sed par cat Lucina precor. Tuque ipse parenti outspoken promise of a son— Parce, puer, etc. ? fiiya 5' ave/cXayev, *X2 Nt/pr/l tcopa, where lines 269-270 are a distinct echo Tralia ®eoty3aSa Movaav their bearing on the problem of the elSws, Tevvdcrets, last four lines. . Xeipcov i$-ovofid£t0V. In his character of prophet — the (Iph. Aid. 1062 sqq., Paley.) character of the 'weird sisters' in the X. Whether the marriage in question Peleus and Thetis—Virgil projects him- ever yielded a child of a character to self into the future, and sees in his bear out the prophecy is, after all, quite mind's eye the hoped-for child already immaterial. A Laureate must take born and lying in his mother's lap;1 risks. And if the poem was published the lines form the climax and conclusion on the occasion of the wedding and of his 6p0ofiavTeia<; TTOVO<;. They are not later, we have, at any rate, the meant to leave impressed on the mind best of good reasons why it could not of the reader the thought of the ' pueritia afterwards be suppressed. Virgil's own saeculi,' command did not suffice to effect the suppression of the Aeneid. The world Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo. had been put in possession of the work The world, too, is 'making a fresh start.' at once, and was not likely willingly to The time is to be a time of freshness, of let die so fair a prophecy of a golden promise and of hope. Catullus opens age, even though the golden lad may with a reference to the child, never have seen the light at all. 0 decus eximium magnis virtutibus augens, XI. It has been noticed above that Emathiae tutamen opis, clarissime nato, etc.;the two Songs are of exactly the same length—i.e., sixty lines each; for {a) the while Euripides, in a chorus of the first three lines of the Eclogue are not Iphigenia Aulidensis, with which the an integral part of the piece; and (b) Peleus and Thetis shows some acquaint- there can be no doubt that a line has ance, makes Chiron — the prophetic been lost in the Catullus after verse character corresponding to the ' sacer 354.2 Further — and this is more re- vates ' of the Eclogue — apostrophise markable—each is symmetrically con- 1 structed, in the Alexandrian manner, Similarly Cassandra in the Agamemnon, on a somewhat elaborate but perfectly and similarly the witches in Macbeth (IV. 1 init.), express the future in terms of the present: clear and definite scheme. The two Macbeth sees the children who are to be born schemes differ, it is true. The plan of hereafter pass before him. Virgil elaborated the Catullian song is given by Prof. this device more fully in the vision of Aeneas in Ellis in his Catulli Veronensis' Liber Elysium (Aeneid, VI.) Gray employs it in The (p. 260). Briefly summarised his view Bard. N.B.—In 'nascenti puero' the par- ticiple is a Praesens Futurascens. The phrase is this. We have first a Prologue of = 'to the child who is to be born.' Cf. Aen. five lines addressed to Peleus alone; x. 27 (and 74), Muris iterum imminet hostis then two strophes of Introduction (of six (Nascentis Troiae=this embryo Troy). The lines and four); then the body of the perfect 'tulerunt' in line 61 is, it must be ad- mitted, extremely bold, but scarcely bolder song (five stanzas of five lines each); than the reliquit of G. i. 35, and assuredly not then two anti^strophes (of four lines bolder than the metrical license, which can only and six); and, finally, an Epilogue (of be justified as a homely touch meant to be in ten lines) addressed to Peleus and keeping with the homely scene described. The material for a generalisation on this latter point Thetis together: ' Nee deest causa is collected and reviewed by Munro on Lucre- geminationis. Nam in principio de tius (i. 406). ' It mus't always' (he says) ' have Peleo uno sermo est; in fine de Peleo been a familiar pronunciation.' To his list of et Thetide. Ex uno duo.' instances add Horace's ' dederunt' (Epistles, I. iv. 7) and' vertgrunt' (Efiode IX. 17). ' Fuerunt' The scheme of the Eclogue, which is in Lucretius (e.g. v. 474 and 667) may fairly be not dissimilar, may be set out thus: regarded as a disyllabic All the other examples belong apparently to the sermo cottidianus. 2 See Ellis, ad loc. n8 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW A1, Prologue (four lines, 4-7), announc- The scheme of the poem may be seen ing the new era. at a glance, thus : B1, Introduction (ten lines, 8-17), in four stanzas (3.2. 2.3); stanza 1, Invo- I 1 1 ! cation of Diana-Lucina to add her help A B C1 D C2 B2 A to that of Apollo; stanzas 2 and 3, 4 10 13 6 13 10 4 Dedication to Pollio, first as consul (' te consule'), second as inaugurator of the event (' te duce'); stanza 4, Declara- Obs. The key to the inner meaning tion of a second golden age under the —the allusion to the Argo—lies at the rule of the expected child. very heart of the poem in the ' Me- C1, D, C2, the body of the poem ; the sode ' (D), which begins and ends with prophecy in detail. This portion falls lines emphatically suggestive of Catul- into three sections, viz.: lus. Cf. Virgil's ' Pauca tamen suberunt 1 priscae vestigia fraudis' with Catullus' C (thirteen lines, 18-30), the boyhood ' Extenuata gerens veteris vestigia of the child, ' At tibi prima, puer,' etc. 2 poenae'; and Virgil's 'Atque iterum C (thirteen lines, 37-49), the man- ad Troiam magnus mittetur Achilles' hood of the child, ' Hinc ubi iam fir- with Catullus' ' Nascetur vobis expers mata virum,' etc. terroris Achilles.' These resemblances D—Between these two sections are are too close to be accidental. interposed two stanzas, each of three lines, D\ 31-33, D2, 34-36, forming a Now all, or much, of this may seem ' mesode.' to be obvious: but the scheme is cer- D1 indicates a need, D2 promises pro- tainly not observed as it should be in the vision for the need. The last word in paragraphing of the standard editions. 2 And it helps so much to a proper D —Achilles—may be said to ' name appreciation of the whole, that it seems the child'; it is repeated and enforced well worth setting down in detail here. in a stately periphrasis at the end of E We cannot be wrong in recognising in —' Magnum Iovis incrementum.' After s this line there is an appreciable pause. so elaborate a device the influence of Then with the word ' Aspice ' the poet Catullus in his Alexandrian mood. And turns to address the ' ideal spectator.' if the recognition tends to confirm the 2 hypothesis that the Eclogue is a pen- B , Conclusion (ten lines, 50-59), cast dant to the Song of the Fates, it may in four stanzas (3. 2.3.2), answering to 1 tend also to advance the belief that the B ; stanza 1 expresses the joy of the new Peleus and Thetis were Antony and Universe at the new King's advent; Octavia. It would have been no com- stanzas 2 and 3 the prayer of the poet pliment to Octavian to make him play that he may live to see the promised Peleus to Scribonia's Thetis. age: ' If he does, neither Minstrel of the Argo nor child of the gods shall XII. One other point. In assuming outdo his raptures of song.' Stanza 4, was there or who has heard the scene described ' Even the god of pastoral poetry will will ever forget the effect with which the little be declared by his own subjects to be child was introduced as a finale. outsung, if he courts a contest.' 3 The above is only an outline. The cor- 2 A , Epilogue (four lines, 59-63), answer- respondences migh1 t easil2y be worked out ing to the Prologue; A1 ushers in the further. Thus C and C fall also into four 2 stanzas each, but not, apparently, into stanzas new Age, A the boy-prince of the new of an equal length : Cx=3.2.3. 5., Ca=3. 2.4. 4., Age. The splendour of the prophecy i.e. 3. 2. 8. and 3. 2. 8. The transposition of dies away in the music of a diminu- (e.g.) line 30 to follow line 25 would give us endo :1 ' And a little child shall lead 3. 2. 4. 4. in each. But such absolute precision 2 is by no means essential. See Ellis, loc. cit. them.' Most of the Eclogues are built up about similar though simpler schemes. Cf. especially numbers 1 As often in Greek and Latin poetry, cf., VI I.-X. The Second would gain appreciably if e.g., the close of the Antigone, and of Horace, the first five lines and the last were regarded as Carm. III. 5. See Virgil's Messianic Eclogue, Prologue and Epilogue respectively. The 'song' p. 69. proper stops at line 68, ' Quis enim modus adsit 2 ' Les arts sont fibres.' The Sherborne amori ?* In 69-73 Virgil points the moral. Cf. Pageant ended on this note. And no one who Theocritus X. 56-58 rather than XI. 72 sag. THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 119 that the poem has an inner meaning, acters have their prototypes in history.2 we are doing no violence to literary But a great deal is left to the imagina- probability. It was Virgil's custom to tion of the reader. Nor do we find, or ' imply things.' The assumption merely expect to find, a precise and detailed cor- gives us an early instance of his later respondence with fact. Sometimes, too, manner. It is agreed that the Aeneid as Prof. Mackail has pointed out,3 Virgil's is in a sense an ' allegory.' poetical feeling gets the better of his The ' pius Aeneas '—the embodiment political purpose. Thus in the original of the national ' pietas ' or patriotism— plan of the poem Dido stood no doubt is, of course, Augustus.1 Troy stands for Cleopatra. But the human element for the old Republic. The ' appointed in the theme took possession of the city'—which it is the mission of Aeneas poet's imagination, and led him whither to found, and the foundation of which he would not, so that sympathy with only comes within the sphere of prac- Aeneas and his mission is swallowed up tical politics at the very end of the poem in pity for Dido's fate. A like impulse on the overthrow and death of Turnus- was at work here in the composition of Antonius—must, I take it, be the new the Eclogue, and compelled Virgil to rdgime inaugurated by Augustus. Thus dwell on the future to the exclusion of much is certain; and though we can the present. His sense of proportion never hope to gather up all the threads was dulled or lost. The parents of the of allusion and suggestion which were child are not in the picture. The child dropped beyond recovery when Virgil himself—the new Achilles whose birth died at Brundisium leaving the poem would mean so much for the Roman unfinished, we can nevertheless see world—dominates the scene. clearly enough that many of the char- D. A. SLATER. Cardiff. 1 In the Sixth Aeneid Augustus is hailed in so many words as ' the promised deliverer of 2 See Virgil's Messianic Eclogue, p. 48 note. Rome': ' Hie vir hie est, tibi quern promitti 3 In an address to the Classical Society of saepius audis,' etc. Perhaps some such title as the University College, Cardiff, published in his ' 6 (pxojxevos' occurred in the Sibylline Books. Lectures on Poetry.

O MATRE PULCHRA FILIA PULCHRIOR.

JUST how much reality lies behind insults cannot be traced to the poet's Horace's heroines we shall probably unaided fancy. never know. Those readers who want One of the poems which has seemed the poet of love to be a real lover will to many critics to have a basis in fact always prefer to think of his sweet- is the sixteenth Ode of the First Book, hearts as real women; whereas they the famous palinode beginning : who have formed an ideal of Horace O matre pulchra filia pulchrior, as a perfect Victorian gentleman will quern criminosis cumque voles modum perforce think of Glycera, Leuconoe, pones iambis, sive flamtna Myrtale, and the rest as merely so many sive mari libet Hadriano. musical names. In a few cases, how- The very fact that Horace suppresses ever, the pseudonyms cannot hide the the name of the woman he had lam- very real women behind them. We pooned is suggestive of reality (Kiess- scarcely needed the scholiast's assur- ling), and the word iambis reads like a ance that the Licymnia of the twelfth cross reference to the Epodes. There Ode of the Second Book is Maecenas' are besides two ancient traditions as new wife, Terentia. For a very different to the identity of the woman or women reason it is impossible to doubt the concerned. reality of the notorious Canidia of the The so-called Commentator Cruqui- Epodes and Satirs. Such persistent anus says : Cantat palinodiam—i.e., abuse, such detailed charges, combined cantando revocat scripserat iratus in with such trivial, not to say prosaic, amicam Gratidiam. Now Gratidia,