Book III: Wanderings
After the tragic intensity of Troy’s last night, a relaxation of narrative intensity; the wanderings of Aeneas, Odyssean years of Mediterranean sailing and adventure; years of frustration trying to reach Italy [brings us chronologically to start of book I where Italy is almost reached]; end of III death of Anchises.
Book IV: Heartbreak Hotel
Shortest, most famous & read of books; dramatic intensity; ‘perfect synthesis of epic and tragic’: tragic pathos & irony, epic grandeur and Odyssean echoes; personal integrity of Aen.?; degenerated integrity of Dido?; fatal flaw (hamartia) in Dido= furor; pius Aeneas recalled to his task- is this a man or a puppet of divinely ordained fate?; is he just in his behaviour towards Dido?; Aen. Fails Dido but not himself or Rome- Dido fails herself & her people;
Bk. I- IV Synopsis- as often, a marked tripartite structure of episodes, here the climactic momentum is that of tragedy. Note the use of natural similes for human feeling that becomes grotesquely proportioned; the control of narrative pace, the relief of interludes from the main action; the use of direct speech, tragic utterance at moments of high emotion; the evocation of personal feeling, the ‘psychological’ in these episodes.
A Beginning of the affair 1- 295
i. Dido in Love 1- 89
“But the queen had long since been suffering from love’s wound…” 1
“O Anna…the only man who has stirred my feelings…waver: I sense the return of the old fires…” to – 29 curses herself, tragic irony of.
Anna’s reply, was Dido’s declaration a leading speech to Anna? 50- 60 “ With these words Anna lit a fire of wild love… where there had been doubt she gave hope and Dido’s conscience was overcome”
“What use are are prayers and shrines to a passionate woman?”
“Wounded deer”
Private infatuation- drops guard, “all stood idle”
ii. Juno- Venus 90- 128
“where is this rivalry going to lead us?”
“But I am at the mercy of the fate…she saw through the deception and laughed”
FATUM- FUROR- PIETAS
iii. The hunt- cave consummation 129- 172
“…Dido & the leader of the Trojans took refuge together in the same cave…fires flashed, nymphs wailed…this day was the beginning of her death, the first cause of all her sufferings…”
Interlude
iv. Rumour 173- 194
v. Iarbas the Garamantian, an ‘African’ King 195- 218
vi. Jove- Mercury- Aeneas 219- 278
265-278 Merc. speech
vii. Aeneas decides to leave 279- 295
Resolve- In secret- “They were delighted to receive their orders”
B Alienation 296- 503
i. Quarrel 296- 396
“Who can deceive a lover?”
ii. Supplicating Aeneas 397- 449
iii. The plan 450- 503
Furor- Signs- Love mad (mythic exempla)- Dido resolves to die- does not even tell Anna: alienation is comprehensive ie. From herself and her past, from family, from her people, from Aeneas-
C End of the affair: Death & Parting 504- 705
i. Dido faces death 504- 552
Stiil night…but not Dido; read 530-552 images of Dido and her soliloquy
ii. Aeneas leaves 553- 629
Man of resolve- sleeping is visted by Merc. again and roused in terror from his sleep to move on- 585 Dido sees the empty bay- 590- 640 read Di. Soliloquy and on to moment of suicide 662
iii. Death 630- 692
Dido in frenzy like a bacchant- 670 Anna’s realization & speech- melodrama of Dido’s passing
iv. Epilogue 693- 705
SOURCES:Quinn, K. Virgil's Aeneid: a critical description (London, 1968)Williams, R.D. The Aeneid of Virgil: Books I- VI (London, 1972)West, D. (trans. & ed.) Virgil: The Aeneid (London, 1990)
Plessis, F. & Lejay, P. (edd.) Oeuvres de Virgile (Paris, 1913)
Otis, B. Virgil- a study in civilized poetry (Oxford, 1964)
Camps, W.A. An Introduction to Virgil’s Aeneid (Oxford, 1969)
Hardie, P.R. Virgil’s Aeneid: Cosmos & Imperium (Oxford, 1986)
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