The Works of Virgil (John Dryden)

The Works of Virgil (1697), began in 1694 and published by subscription, was John Dryden's most ambitious and defining work as a translator. The publication of the translation of Virgil was a national event and brought Dryden the sum of £1,400.

Pastoral I
Forced from our pleasing fields and native home.
 * Round the wide world in banishment we roam,
 * Line 3


 * I envy not your fortune, but admire.
 * Line 13

Like Mantua.
 * Fool that I was, I thought imperial Rome
 * Line 29


 * Freedom, which came at length, though slow to come.
 * Line 37

A race of men from all the world disjoined.
 * The rest among the Britons he confined;
 * Line 89

Pastoral II
Beauty's a charm, but soon the charm will pass.
 * Trust not too much to that enchanting face;
 * Line 19

Pastoral III


The blossoms blow; the birds on bushes sing; And Nature has accomplished all the spring.
 * The trees are clothed with leaves, the fields with grass;
 * Line 82

My Muse begins: for all is full of Jove.
 * From the great Father of the Gods above
 * Line 89

That both have won, or both deserved the prize.
 * So nice a difference in your singing lies,
 * Line 167

Their moisture has already drenched the plain.
 * Now dam the ditches, and the floods restrain:
 * Line 171

Pastoral IV
Infusing spirits worthy such a song.
 * To sing thy praise, would heaven my breath prolong,
 * Line 64

Pastoral V
So sweet, so charming to my ravished ears, As to the weary swain with cares oppressed, Beneath the sylvan shade, refreshing rest.
 * O heavenly poet, such thy verse appears,
 * Line 69

Views in the milky way the starry skies, And far beneath him, from the shining sphere, Beholds the moving clouds, and rolling year.
 * Daphnis, the guest of heaven, with wondering eyes,
 * Line 86

The lowly shrubs partake of human voice.
 * The mountain-tops unshorn, the rocks rejoice;
 * Line 97

Pastoral VI
A sleeping god, 'tis sacrilege to bind."
 * "Loose me," he cried, "'twas impudence to find
 * Line 38

How seas, and earth, and air, and active flame, Fell through the mighty void, and, in their fall, Were blindly gathered in this goodly ball. The tender soil then, stiffening by degrees, Shut from the bounded earth the bounding seas. Then earth and ocean various forms disclose, And a new sun to the new world arose.
 * He sung the secret seeds of Nature's frame;
 * Line 49

Pastoral VII
To sing, and answer as the song required.
 * Both young Arcadians, both alike inspired
 * Line 3


 * And I preferred my pleasure to my gains.
 * Line 24

Pastoral VIII
And at the dugs of savage tigers fed; Alien of birth, usurper of the plains.
 * I know thee, Love! in deserts thou wert bred,
 * Line 60

Pastoral IX

 * But I discern their flattery from their praise.
 * Line 46

Pastoral X


The woods, the fountains, and the flowery ground: As you are beauteous, were you half so true, Here could I live, and love, and die with only you.
 * Come, see what pleasures in our plains abound:
 * Line 63

Love conquers all, and we must yield to Love.
 * In hell, and earth, and seas, and heaven above,
 * Line 98

Book I
Who rule the seasons, and the year direct; Bacchus, and fostering Ceres, powers divine, Who gave us corn for mast, for water wine; Ye Fauns, propitious to the rural swains, Ye Nymphs, that haunt the mountains and the plains, Join in my work, and to my numbers bring Your needful succour; for your gifts I sing. And thou, whose trident struck the teeming earth, And made a passage for the courser's birth; And thou, for whom the Cean shore sustains The milky herds that graze the flowery plains; And thou, the shepherd's tutelary god, Leave for a while, O Pan! thy loved abode: And, if Arcadian fleeces be thy care, From fields and mountains to my song repair. Inventor, Pallas, of the fattening oil, Thou founder of the plough, and ploughman's toil; And thou, whose hands the shroud-like cypress rear, Come, all ye gods and goddesses, that wear The rural honours, and increase the year; You who supply the ground with seeds of grain; And you, who swell those seeds with kindly rain!
 * Ye deities! who fields and plains protect,
 * Line 7


 * Whence men, a hard laborious kind, were born.
 * Line 95

Or Fate's decree, degenerate still to worse: So the boat's brawny crew the current stem, And, slow advancing, struggle with the stream: But if they slack their hands, or cease to strive, Then down the flood with headlong haste they drive.
 * Thus all below, whether by Nature's curse,
 * Line 288

Book II
Their wildness lose, and, quitting nature's part, Obey the rules and discipline of art.
 * [They] change their savage mind,
 * Line 72

With happy fruit advancing to the skies. The mother plant admires the leaves unknown Of alien trees, and apples not her own.
 * And in short space the laden boughs arise,
 * Line 114


 * No room is left for death.
 * Line 331

With ease distinguished from the meagre kind: Poor soil will crumble into dust; the rich Will to the fingers cleave like clammy pitch.
 * The fatter earth by handling we may find,
 * Line 335

In tender souls of pliant plants produce.
 * So strong is custom, such effects can use
 * Line 366

The swain, who, free from business and debate, Receives his easy food from Nature's hand, And just returns of cultivated land!
 * Oh happy, if he knew his happy state!
 * Line 639

A harmless life that knows not how to cheat, With home-bred plenty the owner bless, And rural pleasures crown his happiness; Unvexed with quarrels, undisturbed with noise, The country king his peaceful realm enjoys: Cool grots, and living lakes, the flowery pride Of meads and streams that through the valley glide; And shady groves that easy sleep invite, And after toilsome days a soft repose at night.
 * [Here] easy quiet, a secure retreat,
 * Line 655

My soul is ravished, and my brain inspired: Whose priest I am, whose holy fillets wear; Would you your poet's first petition hear; Give me the ways of wandering stars to know, The depths of heaven above, and earth below. Teach me the various labours of the moon, And whence proceed the eclipses of the sun; Why flowing tides prevail upon the main, And in what dark recess they shrink again; What shakes the solid earth; what cause delays The summer nights, and shortens winter days.
 * Ye sacred Muses, with whose beauty fired,
 * Line 673



To lead a soft, secure, inglorious life: A country cottage near a crystal flood, A winding valley, and a lofty wood.
 * My next desire is, void of care and strife,
 * Line 688

Through known effects can trace the secret cause. His mind possessing, in a quiet state, Fearless of fortune, and resigned to fate.
 * Happy the man, who, studying nature's laws,
 * Book II, line 698

And some with impudence invade the court.
 * Some to the seas, and some to camps, resort,
 * Line 720

His little children, climbing for a kiss, Welcome their father's late return at night; His faithful bed is crowned with chaste delight.
 * His cares are eased with intervals of bliss;
 * Line 759

Book III
To raise aloft, and wing my flight to fame.
 * New ways I must attempt, my groveling name
 * Line 13


 * Without thee, nothing lofty can I sing.
 * Line 70

But, ah! the mighty bliss is fugitive: Discoloured sickness, anxious labour, come, And age, and death's inexorable doom.
 * In youth alone, unhappy mortals live;
 * Line 108

He turns the turf, and shakes the solid ground: Fire from his eyes, clouds from his nostrils flow.
 * Starting with a bound,
 * Line 137


 * In vain he burns, like hasty stubble fires.
 * Line 159

The secret joys of sweet coition find. Not only man's imperial race, but they That wing the liquid air, or swim the sea, Or haunt the desert, rush into the flame: For love is lord of all, and is in all the same.
 * Thus every creature, and of every kind,
 * Line 375

Which o'er the dubious cliff securely rides; And pleased I am, no beaten road to take, But first the way to new discoveries make.
 * But the commanding Muse my chariot guides,
 * Line 457

Book IV

 * A mighty pomp, though made of little things.
 * Line 5


 * Slight is the subject, but the praise not small.
 * Line 8

Their young succession all their cares employ.
 * With secret joy,
 * Line 78




 * With mighty souls in narrow bodies prest.
 * Line 124

A cast of scattered dust will soon allay.
 * Yet all these dreadful deeds, this deadly fray,
 * Line 130


 * If little things with great we may compare.
 * Line 256

And such a zeal they have for flowery sweets.
 * Such rage of honey in their bosom beats,
 * Line 299

The fortune of the family remains; And grandsires' grandsires the long list contains.
 * The immortal line in sure succession reigns;
 * Line 303

Through heaven and earth and ocean's depth he throws His influence round, and kindles as he goes.
 * For God the whole created mass inspires:
 * Line 324

The slippery god will try to loose his hold: And various forms assume to cheat thy sight; And with vain images of beasts affright; With foamy tusks, he seems a bristly boar, Or imitates the lion's angry roar; Breaks out in crackling flames to shun thy snares, Hisses a dragon, or a tiger stares; Or with a wile thy caution to betray, In fleeting streams attempts to slide away. But thou, the more he varies forms, beware To strain his fetters with a stricter care. Till, tiring all his arts, he turns again To his true shape, in which he first was seen.
 * Thus surely bound, yet be not over bold,
 * Line 585

Unhappy man! to lose thyself and me? Dragged back again by cruel destinies, An iron slumber shuts my swimming eyes. And now farewell! Involved in shades of night, For ever I am ravished from thy sight. In vain I reach my feeble hands to join In sweet embraces—ah! no longer thine!
 * Then thus the bride: What fury seized on thee,
 * Line 714


 * Affecting studies of less noisy praise.
 * Line 816

Dedication

 * We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure.

Book I
And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate, Expelled and exiled, left the Trojan shore. Long labours both by sea and land he bore, And in the doubtful war, before he won The Latian realm, and built the destined town; His banished gods restored to rites divine, And settled sure succession in his line, From whence the race of Alban fathers come, And the long glories of majestic Rome.
 * Arms, and the man I sing, who, forced by Fate,
 * Line 1

What goddess was provoked, and whence her hate: For what offense the Queen of Heaven began To persecute so brave, so just a man! Involved his anxious life in endless cares, Exposed to wants, and hurried into wars! Can heavenly minds such high resentment show, Or exercise their spite in human woe?
 * O Muse! the causes and the crimes relate,
 * Line 11

They hush their noise, and lend a listening ear.
 * If then some grave and pious man appear,
 * Line 217



To future good our past and present woes.
 * Endure, and conquer! Jove will soon dispose
 * Line 277

An hour will come, with pleasure to relate Your sorrows past, as benefits of Fate.
 * Resume your courage and dismiss your care.
 * Line 282


 * Through various hazards and events we move.
 * Line 285

Live, and reserve yourselves for better fate.
 * Endure the hardships of your present state,
 * Line 289

His outward smiles concealed his inward smart.
 * These words he spoke, but spoke not from his heart;
 * Line 291


 * A woman leads the way.
 * Line 502

While Fortune favored, not unknown to fame. My household gods, companions of my woes, With pious care I rescued from our foes. To fruitful Italy my course was bent; And from the King of Heaven is my descent.
 * The good Aeneas am I called, a name,
 * Line 521

Her neck refulgent, and dishevelled hair, Which, flowing from her shoulders, reached the ground, And widely spread ambrosial scents around. In length of train descends her sweeping gown; And by her graceful walk the Queen of Love is known.
 * Thus having said, she turned, and made appear
 * Line 556

What laws, what barbarous customs of the place!
 * What men, what monsters, what inhuman race,
 * Line 760

Nor hospitable rights, nor human laws, The gods are just, and will revenge our cause.
 * If our hard fortune no compassion draws,
 * Line 764

If acts of mercy touch their heavenly mind), And, more than all the gods, your generous heart, Conscious of worth, requite its own desert!
 * The gods (if gods to goodness are inclined—
 * Line 848


 * Your honour, name, and praise shall never die.
 * Line 857

I learn to pity woes so like my own.
 * Like you, an alien in a land unknown,
 * Line 889

Book II
Renews the sad remembrance of our fate.
 * Great queen, what you command me to relate
 * Line 3

Trust not their presents, nor admit the horse.
 * Somewhat is sure designed, by fraud or force;
 * Line 62


 * Or had not men been fated to be blind.
 * Line 71

On one alone, whose fury threatened all.
 * All praised the sentence, pleased the storm should fall
 * Line 179

And on the shaded ocean rushed the night.
 * Meantime the rapid heavens rolled down the light,
 * Line 328

Crackling it rolls, and mows the standing corn; Deluges, descending on the plains, Sweep o'er the yellow year, destroy the pains Of labouring oxen, and the peasant's gains; Unroot the forest oaks, and bear away Flocks, folds, and trees, an undistinguished prey: The shepherd climbs the cliff, and sees from far The wasteful ravage of the watery war.
 * Thus, when a flood of fire by wind is borne,
 * Line 406


 * The fatal day, the appointed hour, is come.
 * Line 437

And grisly Death in sundry shapes appears.
 * All parts resound with tumults, plaints, and fears;
 * Line 498


 * Thus Fortune on our first endeavour smiled.
 * Line 518


 * Let fraud supply the want of force in war.
 * Line 527

When Heaven's propitious powers refuse their aid?
 * But ah! what use of valour can be made,
 * Line 541


 * As for my sepulchre, let Heaven take care.
 * Line 875

And dreadful even the silence of the night.
 * All things were full of horror and affright,
 * Line 1024

I stood; like bristles rose my stiffened hair.
 * Aghast, astonished, and struck dumb with fear,
 * Line 1050

And, loaded, up the hill convey my sire.
 * I yield to Fate, unwillingly retire,
 * Line 1093

Book III
What bands of faith can impious lucre hold?
 * O sacred hunger of pernicious gold!
 * Line 80

Dark in a cave, and on a rock reclined. She sings the fates, and, in her frantic fits, The notes and names inscribed, to leafs commits. What she commits to leafs, in order laid, Before the cavern's entrance are displayed: Unmoved they lie; but, if a blast of wind Without, or vapors issue from behind, The leafs are borne aloft in liquid air, And she resumes no more her museful care, Nor gathers from the rocks her scattered verse, Nor sets in order what the winds disperse. Thus, many not succeeding, most upbraid The madness of the visionary maid, And with loud curses leave the mystic shade.
 * The mad prophetic Sibyl you shall find,
 * Line 563

Though thy companions chide thy long delay; Though summoned to the seas, though pleasing gales Invite thy course, and stretch thy swelling sails: But beg the sacred priestess to relate With willing words, and not to write thy fate. The fierce Italian people she will show, And all thy wars, and all thy future woe, And what thou may'st avoid, and what must undergo. She shall direct thy course, instruct thy mind, And teach thee how the happy shores to find. This is what Heaven allows me to relate: Now part in peace; pursue thy better fate, And raise, by strength of arms, the Trojan state.
 * Think it not loss of time a while to stay,
 * Line 578


 * This only solace his hard fortune sends.
 * Line 869

Book IV

 * She fed within her veins a flame unseen.
 * Line 2


 * Fear ever argues a degenerate kind.
 * Line 17

Of hapless marriage, never to be curst With second love, so fatal was my first, To this one error I might yield again.
 * Were I not resolved against the yoke
 * Line 22

And let me through the dark abyss descend; First let avenging Jove, with flames from high, Drive down this body to the nether sky, Condemned with ghosts in endless night to lie, Before I break the plighted faith I gave! No! he who had my vows shall ever have; For, whom I loved on earth, I worship in the grave.
 * But first let yawning earth a passage rend,
 * Line 32

Are known or valued by the ghosts below?
 * Think you these tears, this pompous train of woe,
 * Line 46

Sticks in her side, and rankles in her heart.
 * The fatal dart
 * Line 99

And mighty trophies, with your worthy son! Two gods a silly woman have undone!
 * High praises, endless honours, you have won,
 * Line 134

Swift from the first; and every moment brings New vigor to her flights, new pinions to her wings. Soon grows the pigmy to gigantic size; Her feet on earth, her forehead in the skies.
 * Fame, the great ill, from small beginnings grows:
 * Line 252


 * This way and that he turns his anxious mind.
 * Line 411

Now, by those holy vows, so late begun, By this right hand, (since I have nothing more To challenge, but the faith you gave before) I beg you by these tears too truly shed, By the new pleasures of our nuptial bed; If ever Dido, when you most were kind, Were pleasing in your eyes, or touched your mind; By these my prayers, if prayers may yet have place, Pity the fortunes of a falling race.
 * See whom you fly! am I the foe you shun?
 * Line 453

While vital breath inspires this mortal frame.
 * Nor can my mind forget Eliza's name,
 * Line 485

Justice is fled, and Truth is now no more!
 * Faithless is earth, and faithless are the skies!
 * Line 535

In human hearts, subjected to thy laws!
 * All-powerful Love! what changes canst thou cause
 * Line 595

But the firm purpose of his heart remains.
 * Sighs, groans, and tears, proclaim his inward pains,
 * Line 651

Despair and rage had some, but love the greater part.
 * Despair, and rage, and love divide her heart;
 * Line 771


 * Woman's a various and a changeful thing.
 * Line 819

A glorious name, among the ghosts below.
 * My fatal course is finished; and I go,
 * Line 938

"And unrevenged? 'tis doubly to be dead! Yet even this death with pleasure I receive: On any terms, 'tis better than to live."
 * "Must I die," she said,
 * Line 943

Book V

 * 'Tis fate diverts our course, and fate we must obey.
 * Line 31

A day for ever sad, for ever dear.
 * And now the rising day renews the year—
 * Line 63

And aid, with eager shouts, the favoured side. Cries, murmurs, clamours, with a mixing sound, From woods to woods, from hills to hills rebound.
 * The partial crowd their hopes and fears divide,
 * Line 195

Than Iris when her bow imbibes the sun.
 * More various colours through his body run,
 * Line 117


 * For they can conquer who believe they can.
 * Line 300

Had bribed the judges for the promised prize.
 * His blooming beauty, with his tender tears,
 * Line 449

But sprawls in pangs of death, and spurns the ground.
 * Down drops the beast, nor needs a second wound,
 * Line 640

With patience bear, with prudence push your fate. By suffering well, our Fortune we subdue; Fly when she frowns, and, when she calls, pursue.
 * O goddess-born, resigned in every state,
 * Line 928

Book VI



 * The sport of every wind.
 * Line 117

And Tiber rolling with a purple flood.
 * Wars, horrid wars, I view—a field of blood,
 * Line 133


 * Some truths revealed, in terms involved the rest.
 * Line 152

No frightful face of danger can be new: Inured to suffer, and resolved to dare; The Fates, without my power, shall be without my care.
 * No terror to my view,
 * Line 155

Smooth the descent, and easy is the way: But to return, and view the cheerful skies, In this the task and mighty labor lies.
 * The gates of hell are open night and day;
 * Line 192


 * The first thus rent, a second will arise.
 * Line 215

Following with ease, if, favored by thy fate, Thou art foredoomed to view the Stygian state: If not, no labor can the tree constrain; And strength of stubborn arms, and steel, are vain.
 * The willing metal will obey thy hand,
 * Line 220


 * Far hence be souls profane!
 * Line 368

Ye gods who rule the regions of the night, Ye gliding ghosts, permit me to relate The mystic wonders of your silent state!
 * Ye realms, yet unrevealed to human sight,
 * Line 374

Along the waste dominions of the dead: Thus wander travellers in woods by night, By the moon's doubtful and malignant light.
 * Obscure they went through dreary shades, that led
 * Line 378

Revengeful Cares and sullen Sorrows dwell, And pale Diseases, and repining Age, Want, Fear, and Famine's unresisted rage; Here Toils, and Death, and Death's half-brother, Sleep.
 * Just in the gate and in the jaws of hell,
 * Line 384

An elm displays her dusky arms abroad; The God of Sleep there hides his heavy head And empty dreams on every leaf are spread.
 * Full in the midst of this infernal road,
 * Line 394

A youthful vigor and autumnal green.
 * He looked in years; yet in his years were seen
 * Line 420


 * Fate, and the dooming gods, are deaf to tears.
 * Line 512

And awful Rhadamanthus rules the state: He hears and judges each committed crime, Inquires into the manner, place, and time. The conscious wretch must all his acts reveal, Loth to confess, unable to conceal, From the first moment of his vital breath, To his last hour of unrepenting death.
 * These are the realms of unrelenting fate,
 * Line 763


 * Learn righteousness, and dread the avenging deities.
 * Line 844

And throats of brass, inspired with iron lungs, I could not half those horrid crimes repeat, Nor half the punishments those crimes have met.
 * Had I a hundred mouths, a hundred tongues,
 * Line 851

Where long extended plains of pleasure lay: The verdant fields with those of heaven may vie, With ether vested, and a purple sky; The blissful seats of happy souls below.
 * They took their way
 * Line 867

In fighting fields, were prodigal of blood: Priests of unblemished lives here make abode, And poets worthy their inspiring god; And searching wits, of more mechanic parts, Who graced their age with new-invented arts: Those who to worth their bounty did extend, And those who knew that bounty to commend. The heads of these with holy fillets bound, And all their temples were with garlands crowned.
 * Here patriots live, who, for their country's good,
 * Line 895

Are those to whom, by Fate, are other bodies owed, In Lethe's lake they long oblivion taste, Of future life secure, forgetful of the past.
 * The souls that throng the flood
 * Line 966

And flowing waters, and the starry flame, And both the radiant lights, one common soul Inspires and feeds, and animates the whole. This active mind, infused through all the space, Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.
 * Know, first, that heaven, and earth's compacted frame,
 * Line 980

The scurf is worn away of each committed crime; No speck is left of their habitual stains, But the pure ether of the soul remains.
 * By length of time
 * Line 1009

To rule mankind, and make the world obey, Disposing peace and war by thy own majestic way; To tame the proud, the fettered slave to free: These are imperial arts, and worthy thee.
 * But, Rome, 'tis thine alone, with awful sway,
 * Line 1173

"The sorrows of thy sons in future years. This youth (the blissful vision of a day) Shall just be shown on earth, and snatched away. The gods too high had raised the Roman state, Were but their gifts as permanent as great. What groans of men shall fill the Martian field! How fierce a blaze his flaming pile shall yield! What funeral pomp shall floating Tiber see, When, rising from his bed, he views the sad solemnity! No youth shall equal hopes of glory give, No youth afford so great a cause to grieve; The Trojan honor, and the Roman boast, Admired when living, and adored when lost! Mirror of ancient faith in early youth! Undaunted worth, inviolable truth! No foe, unpunished, in the fighting field Shall dare thee, foot to foot, with sword and shield; Much less in arms oppose thy matchless force, When thy sharp spurs shall urge thy foaming horse. Ah! couldst thou break through fate's severe decree, A new Marcellus shall arise in thee!"
 * "Seek not to know," the ghost replied with tears,
 * Line 1200

This unavailing gift, at least, I may bestow!
 * This gift which parents to their children owe,
 * Line 1225

Of polished ivory this, that of transparent horn: True visions through transparent horn arise; Through polished ivory pass deluding lies.
 * Two gates the silent house of Sleep adorn;
 * Line 1235

Book VII
Hell shall the power of heaven and Jove supply.
 * If Jove and heaven my just desires deny,
 * Line 432


 * Hunting their sport, and plundering was their trade.
 * Line 1029

Book VIII
Relief, and hear a father and a king! If fate and you reserve these eyes, to see My son return with peace and victory; If the loved boy shall bless his father's sight; If we shall meet again with more delight; Then draw my life in length; let me sustain, In hopes of his embrace, the worst of pain. But if your hard decrees—which, O! I dread— Have doomed to death his undeserving head; This, O this very moment, let me die! While hopes and fears in equal balance lie; While, yet possessed of all his youthful charms, I strain him close within these aged arms; Before that fatal news my soul shall wound!
 * Ye gods, and mighty Jove, in pity bring
 * Line 759

Book IX


This warmth, or make we gods of our desire?"
 * Then Nisus thus: "Or do the gods inspire
 * Line 235

On me—the fact confessed, the fault my own. He neither could nor durst, the guiltless youth— Ye moon and stars, bear witness to the truth! His only crime (if friendship can offend) Is too much love to his unhappy friend."
 * "Me! me!" he cried—"turn all your swords alone
 * Line 571

Like a fair flower by the keen share oppressed: Like a white poppy sinking on the plain, Whose heavy head is overcharged with rain.
 * His snowy neck reclines upon his breast,
 * Line 581

With swimming eyes he sought his lover slain; Then quiet on his bleeding bosom fell, Content, in death, to be revenged so well.
 * Dying, he slew; and, staggering on the plain,
 * Line 593

Immortal life, your fame shall ever live, Fixed as the Capitol's foundation lies, And spread, where'er the Roman eagle flies!
 * O happy friends! for, if my verse can give
 * Line 597

With rattling clangor, rouse the sleepy war. The soldiers' shouts succeed the brazen sounds; And heaven, from pole to pole, the noise rebounds.
 * And now the trumpets terribly, from far,
 * Line 667


 * [O] less than women, in the shapes of men!
 * Line 846

Book X

 * Such hopes I had indeed, while Heaven was kind.
 * Line 63


 * Fortune befriends the bold.
 * Line 398

To bear high fortune, or endure the low!
 * O mortals! blind in fate, who never know
 * Line 698

Book XI
But cautious in the field, he shunned the sword.
 * Bold at the council board,
 * Line 512

And, ere the trumpet sounds, resign the field?
 * Why thus, unforced, should we so tamely yield,
 * Line 655


 * Caught in the train, which thou thyself hast laid.
 * Line 1056

Book XII

 * The proffered medicine but provoked the pain.
 * Line 73


 * Who knows what changeful fortune may produce?
 * Line 240

And sorrow, mixed with shame, his soul oppressed; And conscious worth lay labouring in his thought; And love by jealousy to madness wrought.
 * Rage boiling from the bottom of his breast,
 * Line 969

Postscript to the Reader

 * What Virgil wrote in the vigour of his age, in plenty and at ease, I have undertaken to translate in my declining years; struggling with wants, oppressed with sickness, curbed in my genius, liable to be misconstrued in all I write.


 * What I have done, imperfect as it is for want of health and leisure to correct it, will be judged in after-ages, and possibly in the present, to be no dishonour to my native country...

About Dryden's The Works of Virgil

 * It certainly excelled whatever had appeared in English, and appears to have satisfied [Dryden's] friends, and, for the most part, to have silenced his enemies.
 * Samuel Johnson, Lives of the English Poets (1781), 'The Life of Dryden'


 * The most noble and spirited translation I know in any language.
 * Alexander Pope, Preface to The Iliad of Homer (1715)


 * It is in this art of communicating the ancient poet's ideas with force and energy equal to his own, that Dryden has so completely exceeded all who have gone before, and all who have succeeded him.
 * Walter Scott, Memoirs of John Dryden, Vol. II (1826), p. 203


 * Where you most admire Mr. Dryden, you see the least of Virgil.
 * Joseph Trapp, The Works of Virgil: Translated Into English Blank Verse, Vol. I (1731), Preface to the Aeneis, p. lxxxiii