since even Professor Mackail
with all his literary skill and insight has failed to make his version
of the _Aeneid_ more than a very valuable aid to the student of the
original. The meaning of the poet is fully expressed, but his music
has been lost. That oft-quoted line--

'Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt'

haunts us like Tennyson's

'When unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square,'

and no prose rendering can hope to convey the poignancy and pathos
of the original. The ideal translation, then, must be in verse, and
perhaps the best way for us to determine which style and metre are
most suited to convey to the modern reader an impression of the charm
of Virgil, will be to take a brief glance at some of the best-known
of the verse translations which have appeared.

The first translation of the _Aeneid_ into English verse was that
of Gawin Douglas, bishop of Dunkeld in Scotland, which was published
in 1553. It is a spirited translation, marked by considerable native
force and verisimilitude, and it was certainly unsurpassed until
that of Dryden appeared. In the best passages it renders the tone
and feeling of the original with extreme felicity--indeed, all but
perfectly. Take for instance this passage from the Sixth Book--

'Thai walking furth fa dyrk, oneth thai wyst
Quhidder thai went, amyd dym schaddowys thar,
Quhar evir is nycht, and nevir lyght dois repar,
Throwout the waist dongion of Pluto Kyng,
Thai voyd boundis, and that gowsty ryng:
Siklyke as quha wold throw thik woddis wend
In obscure licht, quhen moyn may nocht be kenned;
As Jupiter the kyng etheryall,
With erdis skug hydis the hevynnys all
And the myrk nycht, with her vissage gray,
From every thing hes reft the hew away.'

But in spite of its merits, its dialect wearies the modern reader,
and gives it an air of grotesqueness which is very alien to the spirit
of the Latin. One other sixteenth-century translation deserves
notice, as it was written by one who was himself a distinguished poet;
namely, the version of the second and fourth books of the _Aeneid_
written by Henry, Earl of Surrey. It gained the commendation of that
stern critic Ascham, who praises Surrey for avoiding rhyme, but
considers that he failed to 'fully hit perfect and true versifying';
which is hardly a matter for wonder since English blank verse was
then in its infanc