File:Great men and famous women - a series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in history Volume 7 (1894) (14596490588).jpg

Identifier: greatfamous07hornuoft (find matches)
Title: Great men and famous women : a series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in history Volume 7
Year: 1894 (1890s)
Authors: Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis), 1870-1942
Subjects: Biography
Publisher: New York : Selmar Hess
Contributing Library: Kelly - University of Toronto

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is the undertaking that I almost appear to myself to havecommenced it from some defect in understanding; especially since, as you know,other and far more important studies are needed for such a work. In the yearB.C. 24, we learn from the poet Propertius, that Virgil was then busy at the task,and in all probability the former may have heard it read by its author. The oldLatin commentators preserve several striking notices of Virgils habit of readingor reciting his poems, both while he was composing them and after they werecompleted, and especially of the remarkable beauty and charm of the poets ren-dering of his own words and its powerful effect upon his hearers. He read,says Suetonius, at once with sweetness and with a wonderful fascination ; andSeneca had a story of the poet Julius Montanus saying that he himself would at-tempt to steal something from Virgil if he could first borrow his voice, his elocu-tion, and his dramatic power in reading; for the very same lines, said he, which
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INURES PINXIT. OCTAVIA OVERCOME BY VIRGILS VERSES. VIRGIL 15 when the author himself read them sounded well, without him were empty anddumb. He read to Augustus the whole of his Georgics, and on another oc-casion three books of the Mneid, the second, the fourth, and the sixth, the lastwith an effect upon Octavia not to be forgotten, for she was present at the read-ing, and at those great lines about her own son and his premature death, whichbegin Tit Marcellus eris it is said that she fainted away and was with diffi-culty recovered. She rewarded the poet munificently for this tribute to hersons memory. For three years longer he worked steadily on the poem, and inB.C. 19 he resolved to go to Greece and devote three entire years to polishing andfinishing the work. He got as far as Athens, where he met Augustus returningfrom the East, and determined to go back to Italy in his company. He fell ill,however, during a visit to Megara, the voyage between Greece and Italy did notimprove his he

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