In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, matthewspencer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
writes
>book one of spenser's faerie queene begins with four lines supposed to
>be imitative of verses found at the beginning of some medieval and
>renaissance editions of _the aeneid_:
>
> Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske,
> As time her taught, in lowly Shepheards weeds,
> Am now enforst a far unfitter taske.
> For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds...
>
>does anybody know anything about this? based on my superior
>understanding of _the aeneid_ (grin), i cannot believe that anything
>like these lines belong to V.
>
These are the notorious verses alleged by Donatus and Servius to have
been removed from the beginning of the Aeneid by its first editors:
Ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus auena
carmen, et egressus siluis uicina coegi
ut quamuis auido parerent arua colonis
gratum opus agricolis, at nunc horrentia Martis
It must be ages since any half-decent critic has believed in them; the
likeliest explanation is that they were written above an author-portrait
in an early manuscript.
Yours sincerely
Leofranc Holford-Strevens
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Leofranc Holford-Strevens
67 St Bernard's Road usque adeone
Oxford scire MEVM nihil est, nisi ME scire hoc sciat alter?
OX2 6EJ
tel. +44 (0)1865 552808(home)/267865(work) fax +44 (0)1865 512237
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (home) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (work)
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