On Two Eclogues of Virgil

FOR A LONG TIME opinion persisted that Virgil's First Eclogue is an expression of thanks for preservation of his estate, though surely anyone who would be gratified by such thanks was easily gratified. In last twenty years this opinion has undergone grave qualifications,' and perhaps time has come to dispense with it altogether. The identification of Virgil with Tityrus staggered, though it did not quite collapse, under Leo's criticism (Hermes 38 [1903] 2); it has been unable to withstand subsequent battering, such as H. J. Rose gave it in his study of Eclogues. Indeed, short of making Tityrus a woman, it is hard to see how Virgil could have more completely dissociated from his own personality this vieil esclave grisonnant et un peu vulgaire (Perret, 41). As Perret reminds us, Virgil's sensitivity to evils of his time does not necessitate personal involvement in them. Yet it is hard to cut free from such a deep-rooted and anciently authorized habit of thought. Rose, however, goes pretty far: the new god is a force for good, but powers of evil are terribly strong .... It was good policy to put in a conspicuous place a word in praise of Octavian, though modified with implied condemnation of measures Octavian had found himself obliged to use and character of his subordinates and helpers (op. cit. 67-68). Perret concludes that poem is not so much an expression of personal gratitude for exceptional favours, as disinterested homage to clemency of god whose kindness allays husbandman's inevitable sufferings. Paratore stresses pleasant aspects, Epicurean quality, of Tityrus' life, but also poet's painful disappointment at Octavian's failure to continue special favour of Julius Caesar towards Cisalpine Gaul. But if we are really to be affranchis de ce reseau d'hypotheses oi la vulgarit6 des sentiments le dispute aux extravagances de l'imagination (Perret 43), should we concede even as much as these scholars do? The traditional interpretations involve reading into poem implications, sometimes dubious and inconsistent implications, from outside; if we develop implications latent in poem itself, we get a different, forceful, and thoroughly consistent picture

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