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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95995	Æneas his descent into Hell as it is inimitably described by the prince of poets in the sixth of his Æneis. / Made English by John Boys of Hode-Court, Esq; together with an ample and learned comment upon the same, wherein all passages criticall, mythological, philosophical and historical, are fully and clearly explained. To which are added some certain pieces relating to the publick, written by the author.; Aeneis. Liber 6. English	Virgil.; Boys, John, 1614?-1661.	1660 (1660)	Wing V619; Thomason E1054_3; ESTC R200370	157,893	251

therefore called by him animae carcer the prison of the soul reflecting haply upon that of Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the body is the souls grave or sepulchre For as those who are shut up in a dark prison have all objects intercepted from their eyes so the soul incarcerated in the body is utterly blinded nor can auras respicere have the free prospect of the air whereof it is compounded The Poet here occurres to a tacite objection the soul it is true loseth of its original purity by conjunction with the body but when freed from thence it may recover its pristine state of purity and perfection no it retains still after its separation much of that pollution which it contracted whilst it was immers'd in the body And hence he layes the foundation of his imaginary Purgatory which as necessarily previous to that Transmigration we have already discoursed of he makes of three sorts either by ventilation by air purgation by fire or rinsing by water all according to the doctrine of Plato purging as Physicians doe by contraries for fire which is hot and dry air which is hot and moist water which is cold and moist are the most proper purgatives for earthy contagions i. e. for those stains the soul hath contracted from the commerce with the body which is earthy Earth being both the coldest of the 4. elements and in that most contrary to Fire which is the hottest and the driest and in that most opposite to Water which is the moistest in both to Air which is both hot and moist this is St. Austins conceit l. 21. de Civit. Dei c. 13. we will not say that the Roman Cath●lick hath no better authority for his Purgatory then that of a Roman Poet. This we may safely affirm that it was an opinion received amongst the Heathens many centuries before it was introduced into the Church of Rome with this only difference they held that after death the souls went into Purgatory and from thence ascended not into eternall bliss but into this world where they were reinvested with new bodies these that after their purgatory they ascended into hea●●n they both allow of a Purgatory and a subsequent resurrection and differ only in the terminus adquem the place to which that resurrection tends § 75 There is no one passage in this book more obscure then this in the literal construction you shall find more sound of words then soundness of sense for what can you understand by leaving the etherial sense pure and a fire of simple breath or air for so it runs if verbally translated We have therefore paraphrased upon this place as we have done elsewhere where the sense required it therefore by sensus aethereus we are to understand the Soul a heavenly or aethereal Being and therefore said by Virgil a little above to be coelestis originis as here to be aethereus sensus and to be ignis aër simplex for he sayes here auraï i. e. aurae simplicis ignem for auram simplicem ignem according to the opinion of those who held the soul to be compounded of air and fire therefore the sense of Igneus est ollis vigor coelestis orgio Seminibus is here expressed in other words whilst he sayes purumque reliquit Aetherum sensum atque auraï simplicis ignem which I think according to the sense both of the Author and the Context may not unaptly be paraphrased in these words Leaving of spots that heavenly Being clear Of Fire a compound and unmixed Air. But to summe up our precedent discourse and to shew the connexion thereof you must know that there is a certain soul or spirit which actuateth and presideth over this Universe and from whence all things derive their birth and original amongst the rest men whose souls we have and doe still speak according to the principles of Virgil and the Gentiles are compounded of fire and air as their bodies are of water and earth whence they resembling their principles are active and pure these drossie and dull they from the long commerce with the body contract stains from thence which adhere to them even after their separation Hence they are to be purged in the other world after which when purified they are brought by Mercury to the River Lethe the River of Forgetfulness and having drunk thereof they then return into this world and are received into other bodies We have insisted much upon the exposition of the Author in these precedent Paragraphs Interpreters have laboured much herein as upon a place knotty and obscure though full of much learning and abstruse speculations if we have either in our Translation or notes conferred any thing to the explication of the Author and the Readers satisfaction we shall think our pains in the one and our collections in the other not altogether misemployed § 76 We come now to the primarie scope and design of the Poet and which indeed as the end is was primus in intentione though ultimus in executione Virgil composed this Poem on purpose to celebrate the Family of Augustus and to consecrate the names of some of the most deserving and illustrious Houses of Rome to following Ages And to this only tends Aeneas his descent into Hell with all the precedent descriptions We shall here exhibit a Summary of the Roman History from the Alban Kings to Augustus his time following the series and method of our Author who presents them not according to the order of time wherein they were born or lived but as he fancies them to stand before Anchises the person here speaking § 77 The first therefore who appeared and was to ascend was Sylvius Aeneas his Sonne by Lavinia Latinus his Daughter and half-Brother to Ascanius sirnamed Iülus Aeneas his Sonne by Creüsa he is here called an Alban name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of excellence because from him all the Alban Kings were denominated Sylvii Aeneas his posthume sonne because born after his Fathers death and Sylvius because born in the Woods The Story is briefly this Lavinia being left with child by Aeneas fled for fear of her sonne in law Ascanius to Tyrrhus the Master of her Father Latinus his flocks but was delivered by the way of a son in the woods whom from thence she called Sylvius i. e. Du Bois or Wood and from him the succeeding Alban Kings were styled Sylvii but being freed from her ill-grounded jealousie she was at last brought back to Ascanius who looking upon her as the dear Relict of his honored Father did not only receive her with all demonstrations of love but leaving Lavinium built by Aeneas and so called from Lavinia his beloved Consort to her he founded Alba or the white City so called from the white Sow the Trojans found at their first landing and Longa from its figure it being extended in length See Aur. Victor de orig gent. Rom. And this became the royal residence of the Alban Kings

pro●essors of Christianism but exploded as absurd by the sounder sort of Ethnick Philosophers themselves as you may read in Aristot l. 1. de Anima c. 3. who terms the transmigration of souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Pythagorean Fable Pythagoras flying the tyranny of Polycrates the invader of his Countryes liberty came to Crotôna in Italy Tarquinius Superbus lording it then at Rome A. Gell. l. 17. c. 21. where setting open his School he published and by this device as Meyênus takes it from Hermippus got credit to his new doctrine Pythagoras sayes he at his first arrival in Italy made himself an habitation under ground where hiding himself he charged his Mother to record carefully all memorable passages during his absence she observant of her sonnes injunction compiled a perfect diurnal of all things in the mean time he having lived thus a whole year at last came forth out of his subterranean mansion lean pale squalid and gastly as if he had risen from the dead then assembling the multitude he told them that he returned from Hell and that he might the better perswade what he intended to instill he repeated to them all what had hapened in that part of Italy during his absence so punctually that the people thinking that there was more than an ordinary spirit in the man without further dispute or examination embraced his doctrine which in Pythagoras his own person is thus delivered by Ovid. Met. l. 15. f. 3. O genus attonitum gelidae formidine mortis Quid Styga quid tenebras nomina vana timetis Materiem Vatum falsique pericula Mundi Corpora sive rogus flammâ seu tabe vetustas Abstulerit mala posse pati non ulla putetis Morte carent animae semperque priore relictâ Sede novis domibus vivunt habitantque receptae Ipse ego nam nemini Trojani tempore belli Panthoides Euphorbus eram cui pectore quondam Haesit in adverso gravis hasta minoris Atridae Cognovi clypeum laevae gestamina nostrae Nuper Abantëis templo Junonis in Argis Omnia mutantur nihil interit errat illinc Huc venit hinc illuc quoslibet occupat artus Spiritus eque feris humana in corpora transit Inque feras noster nec tempore deperit ullo Vtque novis facilis signatur cera figuris Nec manet ut fuerat nec formam servat eandem Sed tamen ipsa eadem est animam sic semper eandem Esse sed in varias doceo migrare figuras We will not so farre injure the Poet as to express him otherwise then what his ingenuous Translatour hath done who renders him thus O you whom horrours of cold death affright Why fear you Styx vain names and endless night The dreams of Poets and feign'd miseries Of forged hell whether last flames surprize Or age devour your bodyes they nor grieve Or suffer pains Our souls for ever live Yet evermore their ancient houses leave To live in new which them as Guests receive In Trojan warres I I remember well Euphorbus was Panthous sonne and fell By Menalaüs lance my shield again At Argos late I saw in Juno's Fane All alter nothing finally decayes Hither and thither still the spirit strayes Guest to all bodies out of beasts it flies To men from men to beasts and never dies As pliant wax each new impression takes Fixt to no form but still the old forsakes Yet it the same so souls the same abide Though various figures their reception hide This doctrine being easily imbibed by his Auditors so farre dispersed it self that even the Gauls a people farre sequestred from those parts of Italy were taught the same by their Druides as you may read in Lucan vobis Authoribus umbrae Non tacitas Erebi sedes noctisque profundae Pallida regna petunt regit idem spiritus artus Orbe alio longae canitis si cognita vitae Mors media est Certè populi quos despicet Arctos Faelices errore suo quos ille timorum Maximus haud urget lethi metus inde ruendi In ferrum mens prona viris animaeque capaces Mortis ignavum est periturae parcere vitae Dislodged souls if you conceive aright To hell descend not and those realms of night The body in another world is by The same spir't ruld in your Philosophy Death to another life the way doth show In your mistake O happiest of those who Are to the North-starre subject whom the fear Of death of fears the greatest doth not skare Hence on drawn steel you rush your great souls hence Disdain to stick at your vile blood's expence Herod it seems was a Pythagorean in this also whilst he said that the soul of St. John the Baptist by him wickedly murdered was entred into the body of our blessed Saviour Josephus l. 2. c. 7. de bell Judaic affirms that the Pharisees were tainted with the same erroneous belief who held that the souls of good men did pass into other bodies but that those of the wicked were for ever tormented in hell But haply we wade too farre in these speculations we shall therefore proceed to the next head which is concerning the creation of things The Poets sense and meaning here is briefly this that there is a certain spirit or soul which doth inform actuate complete cherish and sustain all Beings whether elementary viz. the Fire Air comprehended in the word Coelum or the heaven Earth and Water periphrastically expressed in the words Campos liquentes the liquid or watrie plains or celestial exemplified in the Sun and Moon as the two most glorious operative and powerfull Planets in generation Astra Titania put here by an Enallage for Astrum Titanium signifies the Sun from Titan who was so skilfull an Astrologue that he was feigned to be Brother to the Sun as Cael. Rhodig observes out of Pausan in Corinthiacis lect antiq l. 24. c. 17. and Titan is often taken for the Sun it self hence Astrum Titanium is only a circumlocution of Titan or the Sun But to proceed from the operation of this soul or spirit not only simple bodies as the Elements and Heavens took their being and are by the propitious influx thereof preserved therein but mixt bodies also as he instances in men beasts birds and fishes The sum of all is this viz. that there is a certain spirit or soul to whose operations and powerfull insinuations the world and all therein contained owes both its existence and subsistence If we by the spirit or soul here mentioned understand God himself or his omnipotent Spirit and the powerfull emanations thereof nothing is more consonant not only to reason but also to the analogie of the holy Scriptures then the assertion of our Poet For God is truly that Spirit which being present every where is without extension of it self diffused through all things and doth intus alere cherish and sustain all things This is that soul which actuates the vast Machine of this world which

on the Sea and Land After what hazards Sonne by thee sustaind Doe I embrace thee Oh! how did I feare Lest thee the Court of Carthage should ensnare But he thy Ghost Father thy woefull Ghost Often appearing forc'd mee to this coast Our Fleete rides in the Tyrrhene sea give me Thine hand dear Sire nor my embraces flie Hee spoke and wept thrice his embraces sought In vain thrice at the fleeting shadow caught Like winde which vanish'd or a winged dream Mean while Aeneas the Lethaean stream Which by those pleasant seats did softly glide And fair inclosures in the vale espyde About whose banks a multitude did stray As buzie Bees doe on a Sunn●e day Upon the flowërs brood and spo●t about The painted Meadowes with the murm'ring rout The Plains resound This unexpected sight To wonder and enquiry did invite The stranger Prince who ask'd what streams those were What those who in such numbers did repair Unto the same The Father doth reply Those unhous'd 78 Soules for whom by fates Decree New Mansions are reserv'd on Lethes brink Oblivion and thought-quelling draughts doe drink Long since I these before thee to present Have wish'd and to recount who their descent From mee derive that thou maist thence the more Rejoyce when thou shalt touch the wished shore Of Italie Father can it descend Into our thoughts that Souls from hence ascend That they shall their dull bodies reinvest Are th' wretches with such love of life possest Anchises then Sonne I le not thee delay But all things in due order here display The 72 heav'ns the earth the watry plains the bright And round-fac'd Moon the Suns unborrow'd light A Soul within Sustains whose virtues passe Through ev'ry part and mixe with the whole masse Hence Men beasts birds take their Original Those Monsters hence which in the Sea do dwell 73 But those Souls there of firie vigour share The Principles of them coelestiall are Unlesse they from the body clogged bee And ill-contrived Organs doe deny To them their operations hence Grief Joy Fear Hope and all wild passions us annoy Nor doe they their Original regard Whil●st shut up in the bodies darksome ward Nor 74 though they disembodied bee are they Freed from those stains which whilst inhous'd in clay They did collect having so long convers'd They with much filth from thence must be aspers'd Hence to their crimes their pains proportion'd are Some are expos'd to the all-searching Ayre Some are in Waters plung'd in fire some tryde Our Purgatory thus we all abide Then through the vast Elysium we are sent But few these joyfull Champaigns doe frequent Untill the fate-praefixed time have tane And purg'd away what e're contracted stain 75 Leaving of spots that heavenly Being cleer Of fire a compound and uninixed Ayr. A thousand yeers the destin'd period Fulfill'd the God calls them to Lethes flood That all things past forgot they may review The upper world and bodies reindue 76 This said his Sonne together with the Maid Into the thickest of the throng heled And mounts a hillock whence he might discern Them march in order and their faces learn Loe now thy future fates to thee I le shew What glory shall to Dardan's race accrue What Nephews shall from Latian stem be born Illustrious Souls who shall our name adorn That youth do'st see supported on his Lance Shall next to light by fates Decree advance Sylvius an Alban name thy posthume Sonne In whose veins Latium's royall blood shall run Shall next above appear the same thy dear Consort a king and Sire of kings shall bear Amidst the woods from whence our princely line Derived shall over long Alba reign That next is Prccas who the Trojan name Shall aeternize then those of no lesse fame Capys and Numitor That fourth like thee Sylvius Aeneas shall sirnamed be Alike for piety and arms extold If ever hee the Alban Scepter hold The goodly limbs of these brave youths survey But who with Civiek 77 wreaths are shadow'd they Nomentum Gabii and Fidenae shall Found and erect Collatia's toured wall Pometii Castrum Bola Cora too Shall then be names though they be namelesse now But with his 78 Grandsire martiall Romulus Shall reigne whom Ilia from Assaracus Sprung shall bring forth behold his double crest Him Jove himself doth even now invest With Deity Sonne under his command Renowned Rome shall to the utmost land Her Empire stretch her prowesse to the skies And blest with a stout race of men comprize Sev'n hills within her walls With towrs thus crownd Cybel ' doth Phrygias towns in triumph round Proud of her divine ofspring num'rous race Which in Olympus all as Gods take place But 79 both thine eyes here bend thy Romans see This Caesar is this the whole progenie Of thy Iülus ready now t' ascend This this is hee whom fates to thee commend God-sprung Augustus the golden age again He shall restore as in old Saturns reign Beyond the Garamants and Indians hee Shall rule beyond the Stars a land doth lye Beyond the walk both of the Sun and yeer Where Atlas doth the spangled axel bear Now from all quarters of the Sea-girt earth The Oracles foretell his dreaded birth Both from the Caspian and Maeotick coast And from whence Nile into the sea doth post Nor did Alcîdes so much ground run o're Tbe brasse-hoof'd hinde and Erymanthian Boar Although he slew and Lerna terrifide Nor the victorious Bacchus who doth guide With vine-bound reigns his Chairet hurrying down His Tigers Nysa from thy ayrie crown And doubt wee of our valour proofe to give From Italy shall dastard fear us drive But 80 who is he who with the Olive bough And off'rings comes His hoarie locks him show To be that Roman King who to a great Empire From a small Dorp advanc'd the State On wholsom Law 's did build Then 81 Tullus shall Succeed and the unpractiz'd people call To warfare hee an enemy to peace Disused Triumphs shall revive Next these The haughty 82 Ancus struts already hee With pop'lar breath inflated seems to bee Would'st 83 thou the Tarquins and stout 84 The fasces from the kings recover'd He The Cons'lar pow'r and cruel Rods the first Brutus see Shall exercise his rebel Sons who durst New wars excite th' unhappy father shall To punishment for rescu'd freedom call What e're Posterity'othe fact shall say Him love of fame and 's Country shall o'resway But see the 85 Decii and the 86 Drusi there With 87 Torquate who a blood-staind axe doth bear With ensignes laden brave 88 Camillus see But those 89 two Souls who alike armed bee And friendly now whilest shrouded in death's night What warr 's when rais'd to lives more cheerfull light What slaughter shall they cause the Father from The Alps shall with his northern forces come The Sonne to him oppose the armed East Brave Souls proceed not in this dire contest

upholds preserves and governs the great fabrick of the Universe which otherwise would fall into disorder confusion and into that primitive Chaos out of which it was at first educed for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In him we live move and have our being If we give tbis interpretation to the Poet these few verses seem to be an epitome or brief comprehension of the first chapter of Genesis touching the Creation for as Moses sayes there In principio Deus creavit coelum terram so Virgil here Principio coelum terras c. Spiritus intus alit and whereas Moses sayes that Spiritus Dei movebat vel incubabat supra faciem aquarum that the Spirit of God did move or brood upon the face of the waters so Virgil here tels us of a Spiritus or Mens which magno se corpore miscet as mention is made there of the Creation of those two great Luminaries the Sun and the Moon the like is here also Lastly as the Creation of Beasts Birds Fish and then of Man is there specified so Virgil sayes here Inde i. e. à Deo operante hominum pecudumque genus vitaeque volantum Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus But others and with them I am apt to concurre are of opinion that Virgil here speaks according to the mind and sense of his Master Plato who followed Trismegistus and Pythagoras herein the first founders and fautors of the Academick Philosophy as he did in his opinion concerning the transmigration of souls Plato in his Timaeus and elsewhere as Wendilinus cites him Phys contempl sect 2. c. 6. endeavours to prove that this World or Universe is informed by a soul distinct from the World it self which doing the office which other souls doe in the particular beings they inform doth preserve move and govern this All and all its parts making the world hereby an Animal rul'd and govern'd by its own peculiar soul nor is God meant hereby but some other entity different from that ens entium and by them styled Anima vel Spiritus Mundi But this is throughly winnowed and refuted by the learned Wendilinus in the place above mentioned and the arguments of its assertors fully answered to whom for more ample satisfaction herein as also to the subtile Scaliger Exerc. 6. sect 2. we shall referre the Reader and proceed § 73 Anchises pointing to those souls before him which stood upon the brink of the river Lethe for the Antecedent to illis which the Ancients used for illis is Animae sayes that they are of a fierie nature and that their principles which he here calls semina are of heavenly extraction or composition which is not to be understood onely of those souls there but of the humane soul in general for according to the Theologie of some Gentils the soul was not judged as it really is a simple and spiritual essence but an elementary compound of Fire and Air the two more pure desecated and active elements as the body was thought to be of Water and Earth the two more gross material and inactive principles We shall easily elucidate this dark place if we reduce the Authors sense into this single Theoreme viz. the humane soul is a most excellent being as consisting of the two more excellent principles viz. Fire and Air From the first there is in it igneus vigor from the second it is coelestis originis for coelum is taken here as often it is pro aëre or the air Hence it is plain what the Poet means by Igneus est ollis vigor coelestis origo Seminibus Thus paraphrased But those souls there of fiery vigour share The principles of them celestiall are That the soul consists of fire was the opinion of Hipparchus that of air of Anaximenes that of both of Boethos and our Virgil here Epicurus added to these two a third ingredient whilst he held that it was a speceies igne aëre spiritu mixta as you may read in Macrob. l. 1. c. 14. in Somn. Scip. who there delivers the various opinions of the Ancients concerning the nature of the Soul Hence according to Homers doctrine who held with Hipparchus that the soul was originated from fire the Heroes abhorred nothing more then drowning as most contrary to the fierie nature of the Soul which they thought would thereby be extinguished See how apprehensive Virgil makes Aeneas of drowning l. 1. Aen. Extempló Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra Ingemit duplices tendens ad sidera palmas Talia voce refert c. A cold sweat doth Aeneas limbs surprize He sighs and his hands stretching to the skies He thus begins c. Whereas otherwise he makes him a person of a most undaunted and unshaken constancy 〈◊〉 l. 6. Non ulla laborum O virgo nova mî facies inopináve surgit no dangers unto me Are strange or Virgin shake my constancie Doubtless Virgil herein concurred with Homer in his opinion And from hence the Stoicks opin'd that the soul as soon as freed from the body presently took its flight to the Concave of the Moon the place or region of the element of fire But of these dreams more then enough let us now return to our Author Virgil from these premisses inferres that the Soul is of an active piercing and subtile nature as are the principles whereof it consists that it is of it self free from all passions and perturbations quantum non noxia corpora tardant Unless by the commixtion and conjunction with the body it abate of its naturall vigour and become as that is heavy and drossie All souls are equally intelligent and alike impassionate But according to the variety of complexions the abundance of humors the pureness of the spirits the disposition of the organs especially of the brain they are more intense or remiss § 74 Hence the Poet sayes that as to the intellectual part thereof it becomes heavy dull and inapprehensive so to the appetitive or will it becomes subject to sundry irregularities and passions which he specifies here in four whereof two have for their object an Evil and two a Good The first is Fear which is a passion of the soul touching a future evil as Grief The second is touching an evil present and now upon us The third is Desire or Concupiscence which is a passion of the soul about a good absent as Joy The fourth is about a good present and in fruition or the acquiescence of the Soul in the possession of its desired object Three of these viz. Desire Joy and Grief are placed in the Concupiscible Appetite and one viz. Fear in the irascible He inferres further that the soul is not only subject to error and passion whilst united to the body but that it doth absolutely for●● it s own nature nor is at all sensible of its originall which is of fire and air which he means here whilst he saies nec auras respiciunt the body is