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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95995	Æneas his descent into Hell as it is inimitably described by the prince of poets in the sixth of his Æneis. / Made English by John Boys of Hode-Court, Esq; together with an ample and learned comment upon the same, wherein all passages criticall, mythological, philosophical and historical, are fully and clearly explained. To which are added some certain pieces relating to the publick, written by the author.; Aeneis. Liber 6. English	Virgil.; Boys, John, 1614?-1661.	1660 (1660)	Wing V619; Thomason E1054_3; ESTC R200370	157,893	251

therefore called by him animae carcer the prison of the soul reflecting haply upon that of Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the body is the souls grave or sepulchre For as those who are shut up in a dark prison have all objects intercepted from their eyes so the soul incarcerated in the body is utterly blinded nor can auras respicere have the free prospect of the air whereof it is compounded The Poet here occurres to a tacite objection the soul it is true loseth of its original purity by conjunction with the body but when freed from thence it may recover its pristine state of purity and perfection no it retains still after its separation much of that pollution which it contracted whilst it was immers'd in the body And hence he layes the foundation of his imaginary Purgatory which as necessarily previous to that Transmigration we have already discoursed of he makes of three sorts either by ventilation by air purgation by fire or rinsing by water all according to the doctrine of Plato purging as Physicians doe by contraries for fire which is hot and dry air which is hot and moist water which is cold and moist are the most proper purgatives for earthy contagions i. e. for those stains the soul hath contracted from the commerce with the body which is earthy Earth being both the coldest of the 4. elements and in that most contrary to Fire which is the hottest and the driest and in that most opposite to Water which is the moistest in both to Air which is both hot and moist this is St. Austins conceit l. 21. de Civit. Dei c. 13. we will not say that the Roman Cath●lick hath no better authority for his Purgatory then that of a Roman Poet. This we may safely affirm that it was an opinion received amongst the Heathens many centuries before it was introduced into the Church of Rome with this only difference they held that after death the souls went into Purgatory and from thence ascended not into eternall bliss but into this world where they were reinvested with new bodies these that after their purgatory they ascended into hea●●n they both allow of a Purgatory and a subsequent resurrection and differ only in the terminus adquem the place to which that resurrection tends § 75 There is no one passage in this book more obscure then this in the literal construction you shall find more sound of words then soundness of sense for what can you understand by leaving the etherial sense pure and a fire of simple breath or air for so it runs if verbally translated We have therefore paraphrased upon this place as we have done elsewhere where the sense required it therefore by sensus aethereus we are to understand the Soul a heavenly or aethereal Being and therefore said by Virgil a little above to be coelestis originis as here to be aethereus sensus and to be ignis aër simplex for he sayes here auraï i. e. aurae simplicis ignem for auram simplicem ignem according to the opinion of those who held the soul to be compounded of air and fire therefore the sense of Igneus est ollis vigor coelestis orgio Seminibus is here expressed in other words whilst he sayes purumque reliquit Aetherum sensum atque auraï simplicis ignem which I think according to the sense both of the Author and the Context may not unaptly be paraphrased in these words Leaving of spots that heavenly Being clear Of Fire a compound and unmixed Air. But to summe up our precedent discourse and to shew the connexion thereof you must know that there is a certain soul or spirit which actuateth and presideth over this Universe and from whence all things derive their birth and original amongst the rest men whose souls we have and doe still speak according to the principles of Virgil and the Gentiles are compounded of fire and air as their bodies are of water and earth whence they resembling their principles are active and pure these drossie and dull they from the long commerce with the body contract stains from thence which adhere to them even after their separation Hence they are to be purged in the other world after which when purified they are brought by Mercury to the River Lethe the River of Forgetfulness and having drunk thereof they then return into this world and are received into other bodies We have insisted much upon the exposition of the Author in these precedent Paragraphs Interpreters have laboured much herein as upon a place knotty and obscure though full of much learning and abstruse speculations if we have either in our Translation or notes conferred any thing to the explication of the Author and the Readers satisfaction we shall think our pains in the one and our collections in the other not altogether misemployed § 76 We come now to the primarie scope and design of the Poet and which indeed as the end is was primus in intentione though ultimus in executione Virgil composed this Poem on purpose to celebrate the Family of Augustus and to consecrate the names of some of the most deserving and illustrious Houses of Rome to following Ages And to this only tends Aeneas his descent into Hell with all the precedent descriptions We shall here exhibit a Summary of the Roman History from the Alban Kings to Augustus his time following the series and method of our Author who presents them not according to the order of time wherein they were born or lived but as he fancies them to stand before Anchises the person here speaking § 77 The first therefore who appeared and was to ascend was Sylvius Aeneas his Sonne by Lavinia Latinus his Daughter and half-Brother to Ascanius sirnamed Iülus Aeneas his Sonne by Creüsa he is here called an Alban name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of excellence because from him all the Alban Kings were denominated Sylvii Aeneas his posthume sonne because born after his Fathers death and Sylvius because born in the Woods The Story is briefly this Lavinia being left with child by Aeneas fled for fear of her sonne in law Ascanius to Tyrrhus the Master of her Father Latinus his flocks but was delivered by the way of a son in the woods whom from thence she called Sylvius i. e. Du Bois or Wood and from him the succeeding Alban Kings were styled Sylvii but being freed from her ill-grounded jealousie she was at last brought back to Ascanius who looking upon her as the dear Relict of his honored Father did not only receive her with all demonstrations of love but leaving Lavinium built by Aeneas and so called from Lavinia his beloved Consort to her he founded Alba or the white City so called from the white Sow the Trojans found at their first landing and Longa from its figure it being extended in length See Aur. Victor de orig gent. Rom. And this became the royal residence of the Alban Kings

Servius observes makes their souls to be grievously punished in Hell whose late possessors had before the expiration of Natures Lease over-hastily turned them out of doores But why Styx is said here novies interfusa nine times incompassed Interpreters vary some say that the Poet alludes here to those sacra novendialia the Ceremonies and Rites observed about the dead whose body was kept eight dayes and interred the ninth others to the nine Regions of Hell above mentioned but De la Cerda and Meyenus conclude with Cael. Rhodigin l. 22. c. 8. that the number of 9. as being a most perfect and absolute number is taken here indefinitely for any number or multitude so that novies here is eqvivalent with multoties § 55 The fourth station is assigned to such as have died or made themselves away for love and here we may observe these following circumstances First that this place hath the name of the fields of Mourning from that grief and melancholy which is the individuall companion of impatient Lovers Secondly that they spend their time in secret close and retired walks as such who being ashamed of their forepassed commissions shun the light and all conversation as Ovid speaks of Nyctimene quae conscia culpae Conspectum lucemque fugit tenebrisque pudorem Celat Ovid Met. l. 2. f. 9. she full of guilt the sight And day did shun and mask'd her shame in night Or because Lovers for the Poet speaks principally of the unchaste out of the nature of this vice commit that sin in secret Thirdly that they converse in myrtle Groves as the Slaves and Satellites of Venus to whom that tree is sacred Fourthly that though dead they retain their former love and affection for this vice we still speak of unlawfull love that is lust sticks most pertinaciously is never or with much difficulty eradicated naturall inclination seconded with evil habits rendring the unchast an irredeemable vassall to his own filthy desires The examples the Poet presents us with here are all of women as the sex the most impatient of love and the most unbridled in their appetite Of these the first is Phaedra Daughter to King Minos and Wife of Theseus King of Athens who by Antiopa the Amazon a former Wife had a Sonne called Hippolitus He as well in his vow and love of Chastity as in that of hunting shewed himself to be a true Votary of Diana the Goddesse of both Phaedra falling in love with her Son in Law courted him to her bed but the more virtuous Youth refusing to stain his Fathers sheets disappointed his lustfull Mother who impatient of the affront as also fearing to be her self betrayed and accused by Hippolytus took the advantage of anticipation and told Theseus that his Sonne would have forced her The over-credulous Father vowing revenge pursues him with curses whom because fled he could no otherwise pursue The Gods who oftentimes yield to unjust Petitions for a punishment to the Petitioner heard his rash vowes and provided a sad and sudden destruction for the Sonne whom the Father had so undeservedly cursed for as Hippolytus took his flight by the sea-side certain sea-monsters called Phocae which lay basking themselves on the shore affrighted at the noise of his chariot and the trampling of his horses thre● themselves with great violence into the sea the horses in like manner affrighted thereat ran away and overturning the Chariot tore the intangled Youth limb from limb which when the conscious Phaedra knew after confession of her own wickedness and false accusation she expiated her crime by becoming her own executioner See Sen in Hipp●l and Ovid. in epist § 56 The second is Procris whose story related at large by Ovid Met. l. 7. we shall contract in this manner Precris was the Daughter of Erectheus King of Athens and Wife of Cephalus who though a true lover of his Wife and a great admirer of her virtues upon I know not what suspicion incident to lovers coming to her in a disguise attempted her chastity she having made a resistance sufficient to testifie her loyalty at last by his over-acted importunity all-conquering presents yields when he discovering himself upbra●ds her with her infidelity Whereupon Procris convinced and ashamed forsakes her Husband and hides her self in woods and desert places but at last peace being made betwixt them she gave him who delighted much in hunting an inevitable dart and a dog exceedingly swift called Lelaps Thus provided Cephalus was much abroad in the woods and rising before day from his Wife went often a hunting wherefore Pr●cris searing that under pretence of going a hunting he quitted her embraces for those of some beloved Nymph followed him privately into the woods and there as a spye hid her self amongst the bushes Cephalus being tired with heat and toyl hapned to retire himself into the shade near the place where Procris lay and there according to his custome called upon Aura i. e. the Air to refresh him she thinking that by that name he called upon his expected Mistress that she might make the better discovery raised her self and by stirring the bushes gave him a suspicion that some wild beast lay there obscured wherefore casting his never-missing dart his unhappy Consorts fatal present he unwittingly slew his dearest Wife A story invented to deterre from jealouse the bane of all conjugall content and from imaginary and groundless suspicions which are oftentimes the cause of real and fatall tragedies Eriphyle was according to Eustathius Daughter of Talaüs wife of Amphiaraüs and Adrastus his Sister who corrupted by Polynîces with a chain of gold betrayed her Husband who absented himself that he might not accompany Adrastus in the Theban expedi●ion where he knew he should certainly perish But Amphiaraüs resenting very highly the perfidiousness of his Wife left it as his last legacies with his Son Alcmaeon that as soon as he should receive the certain news of his death he should slay his Mother which he facto pius sceleratus ●odem in revenge of his Father performed therefore the Poet sayes of her here moestamque Eriphylen Crudelis nati monstrantem vulnera cer●it The nex was Evadne the Daughter of Mars by Thebe the Wife of Asôpus she was Wife to Capaneus one of those Captains who accompanied Adrastus in the Theban Warres who loved her Husband so passionately that when his exequies were solem●ized she cast her self into the same flames which consumed her beloved Consort As for the story of Pasiphaë we have already enlarged upon it § 4. we shall therefore proceed to Laodamîa the most affectionate Consort of the undaunted Protesilaüs who notwithstanding that it was foretold him by the Oracle that whosoever of the Greeks should land first upon Phrygian ground should for his forwardness pay the price of his life first lept on the shore where encountring Hector he was by him slain His Wife receiving the sad news of her Husbands death conceived such

would hold another Court he answered three dayes hence I will keep Court in the Castle of Badia which he having taken the Town within the time beyond all expectation performed The like confidence of himself he shewed when having taken some Spies or Scouts of Annibals a little before the fatal battel of Nadagara he did not truss them up as they both deserved and expected but commanded an Officer to carry them through the whole Camp and to shew them whatsoever could be seen which done he sent them away with rewards and bid them tell their General in what posture the Romans lay incamped This his bravery and confidence did so abate the spirits of Annibal that he endeavoured by a personal conference to procure peace but in vain See Liv. l. 30. Val. Max. l. 3. c. 7. This great Captain left two wholesome cautions to military men the one was that no General ought to say Non putaram I thought not of it because in warre where an error once committed can no way be rectified all things ought to be well weighed and considered of before hand The second was that the enemy ought not to be ingaged unless a visible advantage invite or an invincible necessity compel us thereunto for to let slip a fair opportunity is madnesse and not to fight when there is no other way to escape is a dangerous piece of cowardize Val. Max. l. 7. c. 2. yet notwithstanding the unquestionable merit of this worthy Patriot his own Country of which he had deserved so highly proved ingratefull to him the usuall practise of sordid Common-wealths and through the uncessant vexations of the Tribunes forced him to goe into voluntary exile and to retire to a Country-house of his near Linternum a poor sea-Town in Campania betwixt Baiae and Cumae called now according to Leander Torre de la Patria where free from all publick employment he spent his time in harmless Country-sports and Husbandry himself according to the custome of the Ancients often tilling the ground The words he used when he left Rome are recorded by Seneca epist 86. Nihil inquit volo derogare legibus nihil institutis aequum inter omnes cives jus sit c. I will derogate nothing from the Laws and Customes of my Country Let there be amongst fellow-Citizens equal priviledges Thou mayst my native soil make use without me of what I have done for thee As I was cause of thy liberty so I will be an argument I retire if I am grown greater then is consistent with thine interest At Linternum he died the 54. of his age according to Plutarch where also a monument was raised for him on which he by his last will had commanded this Inscription to be ingraven Ingrata patria ne ossa mea quidem habebis Thou shalt not my ungratefull Country have so much as my bones Neer Cajêta there was found a marble Sepulcher and in it a brasse Urn around which was written these verses which are supposed by Plutarch to be Scipio's Epitaph and this the place of his sepulture Devicto Annibale captâ Carthagine aucto Imperio hoc cineres marmore lector habes Cui non Europa non obstitit Africa quondam Respiceres hominem quam brevis urna premit By Annibals and Carthage conquest he Who Rome inlarg'd under this stone doth lie Whom Africa nor Europe could oppose A little urn loe doth the man inclose He took to wife Aemilia Daughter to L. Paulus Aemilius who was Consul with C. Terentius Varro and was slain valiantly fighting at the battel of Cannae She was Sister to that Aemilius who overthrew K. Perseus and in him subverted the Macedonian Monarchy He had two Daughters the one married to Scipio Nasîca his Brothers Sonne the other to Tib. Gracchus He had also two Sonnes but one of them only survived him viz. P. Scipio heir to nothing of his Fathers but his estate and name Val. Max. l. 3. c. 5. The only thing commendable he ever did was when he was childless himself the adopting of a worthy person to his sonne viz. L. Aemilius Paulus his Mothers Nephew who quitting the Name and Family of his Father was after his adoption according to the custome of those times and the laws of adoption called after the name of his adoptive Father P. Cornelius Scipio and Aemilianus to shew the Family of his natural Father from whence he came And this is the other thunderbolt of warre here celebrated by Virgil. He was the natural Sonne of L. Aemilius Paulus a person of very great eminency in his time and of an ancient Patrician Family He gave first proof of his valour when he served under his Father at the battel wherein K. Perseus was defeated where he with some other young Noble-men followed the chace so long that he returned not till mid-night into the Camp to his sorrowing Father who gave him for lost but receiv'd with great joy when he saw him honorably defiled with dust and blood After this he served in Spain as a Colonel under Lucullus the Grandfather of him who subdued Mithridates where in a single combat he slew a Barbarian of a vast and Gigantick proportion who defied the Roman Army There is a mistake in Florus l. 2. c. 17. who sayes that Scipio wonne then the Spolia opima but this could not be because they and no other are called Spolia opima which the General of one Army takes from the slain General of the other At the siege of Intercatia he was the first who scaled the walls for which he was rewarded with a mural Crown To be short he behaved himself upon all occasions so valiantly that no person gained so much honour as himself in these warres which being pretty well over he passed into Africa with M. Manilius under whom he served as a Colonel where his deportment was also so gallant that Cato the Censor a man by nature a detractor said in open Senate reliques qui in Africâ militarent umbras militare Scipionem vigêre that the other Commanders who served in Africa went to work like shadows but that Scipio was the only vigorous man amongst them insomuch that when he sued to be made Aedile the first step to publick employment he was created Consul and that before he could legally be admitted to that charge by reason of his minority for he was then but 36 years old whereas none by law could be chosen Consul before the age of 43. His Collegue was C. Livius Drusus Africa was by the general consent of the people conferred upon Scipio a fatal name to Carthage which he took and raz'd according to Cornelius Nepos in six moneths and from thence was sirnamed Africanus Minor or Inferior to difference him from his Grand●re Africanus Major or Superior Dr. Simpson in his Chronologie layes the first foundation of Carthage an Mund. 2772. fifty years before the destruction of Troy Zorus and Carchêd●n two Tyrians being the first builders and planters of this

write the name of the Dead with some brief Epitaph upon the stone and there to carve his armes as a monument of his profession all which are expressed here by Virgil Tunc egomet tumulum Rhaetaeo in littore inanem Constitui magnâ manes ter voce vocavi Nomen arma locum servant The next thing we note is the interpreting of these verses of Virgil Hac vice sermonum roseis Aurôra quadrigis Jam medium aethereo cursu trajecerat axem Whilst thus they talk morn with her rosie wain Had more then measur'd the Meridian This place hath much perplexed Interpreters we shall pass by others and adhere herein to the exposition of our Country-man the learned Mr. Farnaby you must therefore know that these magicall Rites were necessarily to be finished within the space of 24 hours the sacrifices were begun in the night-time about sun-rising they begun their journey the forenoon was spent in passing the River Styx in surveying the Regions of Hell and in discoursing with Dido and Deiphobus and now it was supposed to be past noon How then Virgil should make mention of Aurôra or the morning which determines at the appearing of the sun or say that the morning had passed the Meridian there is that nodus crux interpretum which is thus untied by Aurôra here we are to understand the Sun because Virgil puts four horses in her Chariot whereas both Aurôra and Luna the Morning and the Noon are by the Poets allowed no more then two which indeed is Donat's interpretation Aurôra cum quadrigis solem significat so that the meaning of Sibylla's speech is this The Sun hath passed the Meridîan and is now declining towards the West the night draws on let us therefore hasten that we may employ our remaining hours with Anchises the chief end of our present undertaking Thus Mr. Farnaby See Servius De la Cerda Meyênus upon this place who every one expound it variously § 58 The last place we shall touch upon is this Discedam explebo numerum reddarque tenebris I 'le goe in darkness my set time to spend Some goe along with Macrob. l. 1. in Somn. Scip. c. 13. who in my judgement seems to expound this place more subtilely then soundly we shall follow Mr. Farnaby in this also who sayes that Virgil means by number that set time which is allotted for the purgation of souls of which anon before they can return into this world and reassume new bodies The Purgatory torments according to Plato's doctrine were compleated after the expiration of 10 an 100 or a 1000 years according as the soul to be purged was more or lesse stained so that the sense of Deiphobus his words is this Be not angry I will depart to finish in darkness or those places of darkness that number of years which is set or appointed for my purgatory or expiation Aeneas having passed that Region where the Warriours resided came to a certain Bivium or place which divided it self into two paths that on the right led to the Elysium and Pluto's Palace that on the left to Hell the place of torments and this is that which the Ancients call Tartarus with which our English word Tortu●e although not really from thence derived for it comes from Torqueo bears some proportion in the sound This is depainted by Virgil so much to the life that the very reading strikes a terrour and aprrehension in any one who does diligently and in all circumstances consider the same all things here are so plain and obvious that we need not vex the Reader with glosses and interpretations where there is no knot That description which Claudian l. 2. in Rufin gives of Pluto's Palace may serve to illustrate this place Est locus infaustis quo conciliantur in unum Cocytus Phlegetonque vadis inamaenus uterque Alveus hic volvit lacrymas hic igne redundat Turris per geminos flammis vicinior amnes Porrigitur solidoque rigens adamante sinistrum Proluit igne latus dextra Cocytia fundit Aequora triste gemens fletu concita plangit Huc post emeritam mortalia secula v●tam Deveniunt ubi nulla manent discrimina fati Nullus honor vanoque exûtum nomine Regem Proturbat Plebeius egens With direfull Phlegeton Cocytus here Its waters joyns both streams unpleasant are With tears this swells that doth o'reflow with fire A towr inviron'd with both these more neer The flames doth stand the left side Phleg'ton laves Made strong with Adamant Cocytus waves Doe dash against the right this wailing glides And drives laments down its tear-swollen tydes Here Mortals when life's glass is run descend Where no distinctions doe the great attend No honour here the poorest Commoner The unking'd King doth justle § 59 Sibylla here makes a relation of a punishments which the Damned sustain in Hell where following the Poets method we shall observe this order first who were the infernall Judges secondly who the Executioners thirdly what persons and crimes were here punished fourthly what the infernall punishments were There were therefore three Judges of Hell viz. Minos Rhadamanthus and Aeacus Of Minos we have already spoken § 53 Rhadamanthus was a Cretan born therefore intituled here Gnossius from Gnossus the capital City of Crete he was a person of a very austere life very rigid in distributing justice wherefore he was by Minos who was also a very severe and just Prince constituted supreme Judge of the Nation and for this reason after their deaths they were both said to have been ordained Judges of Hell This Rhadamanthus was Author of the Law which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines lex talionis conceived as Aristotle witnesseth Eth. l. 5. c. 5. in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is just that one should suffer as h' has done Which therefor● the Philosopher styles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and haply from him it was translated into the Laws of the 12. Tables as you may read in A. Gellius lib. 20. c. 1. where he introduceth Favorinus the Philosopher and Sex Caecilius the great Lawyer discoursing concerning the reason and equity of this Law Aeacus was the Son of Jupiter and Aegina King of Oenopia an Island of the Aegaean sea which he afterward called from his Mother Aegina Met. l. 7. f. 25. he also for his justice was feigned to be one of this infernal Triumvirate Of these thus Sen●in Herc. furent Non unus altâ sede Quaesitor sedens Judicia trepidis sera sortitur reis Auditur illo Gnossius Minos foro Rhadamanthus illo Thetidis hoc audit socer Quod quisque fecit patitur authorem scelus Repetit suoque premitur exemplo noncens Not one Judge from his lofty throne doth pass Upon the trembling Nocent death alas In that Court Gnossian Minos doth preside Here Rhadamanthus in a third th' are tri'd By Aeacus all suffer as th' have done Their pains bear with their