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Article MR. TASKER'S LETTERS Page 1 of 3 →
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Mr. Tasker's Letters
MR . TASKER'S LETTERS
CONTINUED . LETTER THE FOURTH .
THE DEATH-WOUNDS OF DIDO , CAMILLA , ANDRHJLTUS .
LET me return to the death-wound of Dido ; she , we are told , stabbed herself with the iEnean sword , and " While in the wound the cruel weapon stands , " The spouting blood came streaming on her hands . " Dryden , when he takes no unwarrantable liberties , and does not entirely omit a passage , translates the JEtieid so much better than Pope
does the Iliad , that I find it sometimes unnecessary to quote the original . But the precise situation of the wound is best specified in Virgil ' s own words " — * ' ;¦• < infixum stridet sub pcctore vulnus . A wound of such magnitude under the breast proves itself mortal , and that too from , the most obvious causeviz . the effusion of blood
, , to which the poet attributes almost all deaths , excepting those very few in which the skull is fractured , and the brain originally injured : but the verses which describe the mode of Queen Dido ' s expiring , must so much strike you who have so often officially attended to the last efforts of departing life , that I forbear any comment ; read and judge for yourself .
Ter scse altollcns , cubitpque innixa levavit , fer revolula toro est , oculisque errantibus , alto Qucesivit c ( clo lucem ingemuitque reperta . " Thrice Dido try'd to raise her drooping head , " And fainting thrice , fell grovelling on the bed > " Then op'd her heavy eyes , and sought the light , !< And having found it , sicken'd at the sight . "
Virgil is certainl y inferior to Homer in what some of the faculty call a renuntiation of wounds ; for the latter describes the individual part in which the injury is received with anatomical accuracy ; ' but I think in the last instance , and in the death of my favourite heroine Camilla * ( which by the bye is an orig inal character ) , that the Roman poet describes the act of death , and the mode of dying , with more beautify ! circumstances than the Grecian . Indeed every" thing is
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Mr. Tasker's Letters
MR . TASKER'S LETTERS
CONTINUED . LETTER THE FOURTH .
THE DEATH-WOUNDS OF DIDO , CAMILLA , ANDRHJLTUS .
LET me return to the death-wound of Dido ; she , we are told , stabbed herself with the iEnean sword , and " While in the wound the cruel weapon stands , " The spouting blood came streaming on her hands . " Dryden , when he takes no unwarrantable liberties , and does not entirely omit a passage , translates the JEtieid so much better than Pope
does the Iliad , that I find it sometimes unnecessary to quote the original . But the precise situation of the wound is best specified in Virgil ' s own words " — * ' ;¦• < infixum stridet sub pcctore vulnus . A wound of such magnitude under the breast proves itself mortal , and that too from , the most obvious causeviz . the effusion of blood
, , to which the poet attributes almost all deaths , excepting those very few in which the skull is fractured , and the brain originally injured : but the verses which describe the mode of Queen Dido ' s expiring , must so much strike you who have so often officially attended to the last efforts of departing life , that I forbear any comment ; read and judge for yourself .
Ter scse altollcns , cubitpque innixa levavit , fer revolula toro est , oculisque errantibus , alto Qucesivit c ( clo lucem ingemuitque reperta . " Thrice Dido try'd to raise her drooping head , " And fainting thrice , fell grovelling on the bed > " Then op'd her heavy eyes , and sought the light , !< And having found it , sicken'd at the sight . "
Virgil is certainl y inferior to Homer in what some of the faculty call a renuntiation of wounds ; for the latter describes the individual part in which the injury is received with anatomical accuracy ; ' but I think in the last instance , and in the death of my favourite heroine Camilla * ( which by the bye is an orig inal character ) , that the Roman poet describes the act of death , and the mode of dying , with more beautify ! circumstances than the Grecian . Indeed every" thing is