"
This is the first similitude which Virgil makes in this poem, and
one of the longest in the whole, for which reason I the rather cite
it. While the storm was in its fury, any allusion had been
improper; for the poet could have compared it to nothing more
impetuous than itself; consequently he could have made no
illustration. If he could have illustrated, it had been an
ambitious ornament out of season, and would have diverted our
concernment (nunc non erat his locus), and therefore he deferred it
to its proper place.
These are the criticisms of most moment which have been made against
the "AEneis" by the ancients or moderns. As for the particular
exceptions against this or that passage, Macrobius and Pontanus have
answered them already. If I desired to appear more learned than I
am, it had been as easy for me to have taken their objections and
solutions as it is for a country parson to take the expositions of
the Fathers out of Junius and Tremellius, or not to have named the
authors from whence I had them; for so Ruaeus (otherwise a most
judicious commentator on Virgil's works) has used Pontanus, his
greatest benefactor, of whom he is very silent, and I do not
remember that he once cites him.
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