terment of his Father, puts to Sea for Italy: He is surpriz'd by the Tempest describ'd in the beginning of the first Book; and there it is that the Scene of the Poem opens; and where the Action must Commence. He is driven by this Storm on the Coasts of Affrick: He stays at Carthage all that Summer, and almost all the Winter following: Sets Sail again for Italy just before the beginning of the Spring; meets with contrary Winds, and makes Sicily the second time: This part of the Action compleats the Year. Then he celebrates the Anniversary of his Father's Funerals, and shortly after arrives at Cumes, and from thence his Time is taken up in his first Treaty with Latinus; the Overture of the War; the Siege of his Camp by Turnus; his going for Succours to relieve it: His return: The raising of the Siege by the first Battel: The twelve days Truce: The second Battel: The Assault of Laurentum, and the single Fight with Turnus; all which, they say, cannot take up less than four or five Months more; by which Account we cannot suppose the entire Action to be contain'd in a much less compass than a Year and half.
Segrais reckons another way; and his Computation is not condemn'd by the learned Ruæus, who compil'd and Publish'd the Commentaries on our Poet, which we call the Dauphin's Virgil.
He allows the time of Year when Anchises dyed; to be in the latter end of Winter, or the beginning of the Spring; he acknowledges that when Æneas is first seen at Sea afterwards, and is driven by the Tempest on the Coast of Affrick, is the time when the Action is naturally to begin: He confesses farther, that Æneas left Carthage in the latter end of Winter; for Dido tells him in express terms, as an Argument for his longer stay,
Quinetiam Hyberno moliris sydere Classem.
