54–89: ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ (Queen)

Steve Jenkin

November 29, 2012

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 57.       Manuscripts and commentators disagree which text to read in line 54. Possible options are: (a) his dictis incensum animum flammauit amore; (b) his dictis impenso animum flammauit amore; (c) his dictis incensum animum inflammauit amore. Which one do you prefer and why?

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 58.       Discuss the rhetorical design of lines 54–55, with special attention to the key nouns that Virgil brings into play (animus, amor, spes, mens, pudor).

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 59.       Anna and Dido sacrifice to Ceres, Apollo, Bacchus, and Juno (58–59). Why are these divinities singled out? Are any members of the Olympic pantheon conspicuous by their absence?

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 60.       Explain the datives cui and curae (59). What is the verb of the relative clause cui uincla iugalia curae?

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 61.       ‘Dido does not learn from the sacrifices that her love for Aeneas is going to lead to a bad end.’^[1] Do you agree or disagree? Justify your position.

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0 62.       Identify lexical and thematic parallels between the description of the sacrifices in lines 60–64 and the description of love-sick Dido in lines 66–67. What is their significance?

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0 63.       Discuss Dido’s religious efforts against your knowledge of Rome’s civic religion: what is the overall atmosphere generated by Virgil’s description?

¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 0 64.       Ponder the aut at the beginning of 62: what is its thematic effect?

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0 65.       Scholarly opinion is divided on what type of genitive uatum is, in the phrase uatum ignarae mentes (65): is it (a) a possessive genitive depending on mentes (‘the ignorant minds of seers’) or (b) an objective genitive depending on ignarae (‘minds ignorant of the seers’)? Give reasons for your preference.

¶ 10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 0 66.       quid uota furentem,/ quid delubra iuuant? (65–6): Why do vows and temples fail to benefit Dido? What does Virgil convey by portraying Dido as furens? Where else does he use this word or words that are etymologically related?

¶ 11 Leave a comment on paragraph 11 0 67.       Parse est in line 66.

¶ 12 Leave a comment on paragraph 12 0 68.       Identify the lexical and thematic reminiscences of 4.1–5 in lines 66–67: est mollis flamma medullas/ interea et tacitum uiuit sub pectore uulnus. What is the dramatic effect of the repetitions?

¶ 13 Leave a comment on paragraph 13 0 69.       Discuss the correspondences (both in terms of similarities and differences) between the ‘stricken-hind’ simile and the surrounding narrative. Does the implicit commentary on Dido’s tragic love for Aeneas that is built into the simile reflect well or badly on Dido and Aeneas? Who comes off better?

¶ 14 Leave a comment on paragraph 14 0 70.       Austin claims that the pastor did not mean to shoot the hind: ‘coniecta implies simply the act of shooting; the creature has not been aimed at’.^[2] Agree or disagree, with reasons.

¶ 15 Leave a comment on paragraph 15 0 71.       Why has Virgil situated the incident of the wounded hind on Mt. Dicte on Crete?

¶ 16 Leave a comment on paragraph 16 0 72.       Of what is the shepherd nescius (72)?

¶ 17 Leave a comment on paragraph 17 0 73.       Discuss the design of the clause haeret lateri letalis harundo (73).

¶ 18 Leave a comment on paragraph 18 0 74.       Compare and contrast the advice Anna gives to her sister to detain Aeneas in lines 50–53 with Dido’s actions in lines 74–85.

¶ 19 Leave a comment on paragraph 19 0 75.       Analyse the overall syntax and rhetorical design of lines 74–79, with particular attention to the anaphora of nunc (74, 77).

¶ 20 Leave a comment on paragraph 20 0 76.       Consider how Virgil places the underlined words in verse 76: incipit effari, mediaque in uoce resistit.

¶ 21 Leave a comment on paragraph 21 0 77.       Parse narrantis (79).

¶ 22 Leave a comment on paragraph 22 0 78.       What formal features in the phrase suadentque cadentia sidera somnos (81) reinforce its contents, i.e. the inducement of sleep?

¶ 23 Leave a comment on paragraph 23 0 79.       Analyse the rhetorical design of illum absens absentem auditque uidetque (83).

¶ 24 Leave a comment on paragraph 24 0 80.       What does the clause infandum si fallere possit amorem (85) mean, precisely?

¶ 25 Leave a comment on paragraph 25 0 81.       Discuss the images Virgil uses to capture the effects of ‘Dido in love’ on her city-building project in lines 86–89. (You may wish to draw the abandoned construction site, in an attempt to visualize what Virgil conveys in words.)

This entry is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.