The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born at Andes, near Mantua, in Cisalpine Gaul, B.C. 70. Died at Brundusium, in Italy, B.C. 19. Aged 51.] The district in which Virgil was born not being then included in Italy, he did not enjoy the native rights of a Roman citizen; and when Augustus divided the lands in Cisalpine Gaul amongst his victorious veteran soldiers, Virgil was ejected from his small patrimonial farm. Upon his petitioning the emperor, however, the farm was restored to him. He was the friend of Horace, whom he introduced to Mæcenas. Besides poetry, he cultivated medicine and agriculture. He was tall, dark, rustic in appearance, and feeble in body. He was drawn by the power of genius from the obscure shade of a peasant’s life, to be the favoured poet and friend of an emperor. In his verse the native majesty of the language appears more perfectly tempered, than in any other, with grace and sweetness. Virgil is the most pathetic of the Roman poets: the heart speaks in his verse. He has the soul of the beautiful, like an earlier Raffaelle in song. His poem on Husbandry--the most finished work of his muse--is written with a cleaving of soul to the native theme. The purport of the poem was to recall the luxurious Romans to the simple and vigorous way of life of their ancestors, who lived cultivating the earth. If the rural earth and free nature could have been endeared to the voluptuous masters of the world by the charm of musical words, the Georgics might have done this. We ourselves feel the pouring of a purer atmosphere into the corrupted city. The epic poem of Virgil, “The Æneid,” relating the transplantation of a Trojan colony from the flames of falling Troy, to found (in Italy) future Rome, derives a high poetical cast from the prophetic spirit that overshadows it. Both “The Georgics” and the “Æneid” express love in the soul of the poet--love for the scenes and vocation, in which he was born--love of Rome, which he will purify or will glorify. [From the marble in the Stanza dei Filosofi of the Capitol, at Rome. The portraits of Virgil have been verified by Bellori. The tomb of Virgil is a well-known object of interest near Naples. It is now an ivy-grown, but venerated ruin, although so late as 1326 it was nearly perfect.]