[3] "As decade followed decade,"
writes Mr. H. O. Taylor, "and century followed century,
there was no falling off in the study of the Aeneid. Virgil's
fame towered, his authority became absolute. But how?
In what respect? As a supreme master of grammatical
correctness and rhetorical excellence and of all learning.
With increasing emptiness of soul, the grammarians--the
Virgils'--of the succeeding centuries put the great poet to
ever baser uses."[4]
[1] Sandys, i. 638; and see Jerome, Ep. xxii., ed. 1734, i. 114.
[2] Sandys i. 618.
[3] Comparetti, Vergil in the M. A., 77.
[4] Taylor, Classical Heritage, 37.
From time to time the use of the classics even for
grammatical purposes was condemned, though unavailingly.
They were necessary in the schools; evils, doubtless, but
unavoidable. Then, again, some of the classics were looked
upon as allegorical: from the sixth century to the Renascence
the Aeneid was often interpreted in this way; and Virgil's
Fourth Eclogue was thought to be a prophecy of Christ's
coming. Ovid allegorised contained profound truths; his
Art of Love, so treated, was not unfit for nuns.
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