Virgil pays[1] a superior tribute to Musæus, whose name he celebrates in his Sixth Book of the Æneid without any intimation of Homer. In a writer of Virgil's candor this omission must be concluded to have arisen from the Antiquity of Musæus's Compositions; many whereof may be suppos'd to have existed in Virgil's days.[2] Their Excellence may be collected from the frequent mention of the Author's name with that of the ancient Orpheus, whose Muse has been recorded to have perform'd even magical operations. The design'd omission of Homer could not have proceeded from Virgil's consciousness of his large debt to his original. The idea of Plagiarism would have at once given place in the mind of his reader to the more pleasing one of Gratitude. This great Roman may not be accus'd of so worthless a passion as Envy.
Amongst the various Authors, who have florish'd from the days of the former to those of the latter Musæus, it is remarkable,
- ↑ 'It would have been improper,' says a judicious critic, 'for Virgil to have plac'd Homer in the shades during the existence of Æneas, and so many years before Homer himself was born.' See Mr. Jos. Warton's Remarks on the words 'Musæum antè omnes,' Vol. III. p. 240, of his Virgil. Octavo Edition.
- ↑ Musæus florish'd towards the close of the fifteenth century before Christ; Orpheus in the dawn of the thirteenth; and Homer near the conclufion of the tenth; about the days of Hesiod: so that Musæus claim'd the title of Father of Poesy in general, as Homer of the Epic in particular.
