AT ONCE THOU HAST DESTROY 'D THYSELF AND ME, THY TOWN, THY SENATE, AND THY COLONY! ENEÏS, 4, V. 980. PUBLISHED BY GEO COWIE A C? POULTRY, JANUARY, 1819. THE WORKS OF VIRGIL, TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE, BY JOHN DRYDEN. Sequiturque patrem non passibus æquis. AN IMPROVED EDITION, CONTAINING Many new and important Corrections of the Errors of former Editions- JOHN CAREY, LL.D. Author of "Latin Prosody made easy"-" Practical English Prosody and VOL. I. LONDON.-1819. PRINTED FOR J. CUTHELL; J. NUNN; LACKINGTON AND Co.; ADVERTISEMENT. In the year 1803, I sent forth my first edition of Dryden's Virgil, which was favorably received by the public, and (notwithstanding some imperfections) was, with good reason, preferred to all the preceding editions, because I had not only eradicated a numerous crop of errors which had gradually sprung up in them during the course of a century, but also a considerable number which disfigured even the two folio editions printed in Dryden's life-time; and because I had restored to sense and meaning many a passage, which, in those very folioes, had been perverted into un-intelligible nonsense by absurd and preposterous punctuation. -Yet I do not deny that several inveterate errors escaped my observation in the first instance, because I had not at that time undertaken the laborious task of collating the current text, line for line, with the two folioes, as I have done on the present occasion. In 1806, a second edition was printed, though without my knowledge or concurrence; of which edition I shall only say, that, if it was correctly copied from my original publication, it was (with all its faults) still entitled to the same preference, as no better edition had yet been publishednone yet so good. I now offer to the public a new edition, which I need not hesitate to pronounce far superior to either of the preceding, and to every other that has yet made its appearance; of which confident, but well-founded assertion, the reader will find sufficient justification, in the subjoined Preface VOL. I. a and Notes, to which, therefore, I refer him; contenting myself, for the present, with this single remark, that I now have, from the attentive examination of both the folioes, discovered and corrected several serious errors, which, to this hour, disfigure the pages of other editions, e. gr. "shelter for sheep," instead of "shelter for sleep,” i. e. for sleeping shepherds, Georgic 2, 609-"The woolly rack," for "rock," Geo. 4, 493-"Conquering arts," for "arms,' Geo. 4, 811—“Men of the same taste," for "paste*,” Dedication of Æneïs, page 309" Mighty," for "weighty," Æn. 6, 838-"There stood Sabinus," for "good Sabinus," Æn. 7, 247" Faith," for "fute," En. 7, 605 — “Father," for "founder," Æn. 8, 178" Struck," for "stuck," En. 11, 947" Reduced," for "seduced," Æn. 12, 897,0 &c. &c. for I could easily swell the catalogue to above a hundred; though I have not, except in one or two instances, thought worth while to point out, in my Notes, any of those bare restorations of the original text, which required neither critical sagacity nor judgement for their detection, but merely a little exertion of industry and eyesight. West Square, April 20, 1819. JOHN CAREY. * See the note on this passage, in page xxxiii. |