Four Lines to Immortality: Dido's Renaissance Through Josquin des Prez

Plank, Dana M

From Discussions VOL. 5 NO. 2

Four Lines to Immortality: Dido's Renaissance Through Josquin des Prez

By Dana M. Plank
Discussions
2009, Vol. 5 No. 2 | pg. 5/6 | « »

One reason for the Church's adoption of Virgil appears in the Fourth Eclogue¹⁵, written in 40 B.C.¹⁶ The beginnings of this allegorical intervention seem to stem from Emperor Constantine in 324 A.D. His quotation of the Eclogue gave the work prominence in the newly Christian empire. The language of the Fourth Eclogue¹⁷ is lofty and somewhat vague, yet its message is well suited for Christian interpretation. Virgil states early in the work that the birth of one child will change the course of humanity, that a great race shall arise from the arrival of this sacred child. A translation of the Latin states:

Justice returns, returns old Saturn's reign,
With a new breed of men sent down from heaven.
Only do thou, at the boy's birth in whom
The iron shall cease, the golden race arise
(Trans. MacKail, lines 8-11).

Men of the Catholic Church saw themselves as this new race whose golden age was ushered in by the birth of Jesus.

The Eclogue elaborates on the blessings brought forth by child's birth. The poem speaks of gods and men living harmoniously, a fertile and abundant earth, and an age of great joy and wisdom under the rule of the child and his father. It even suggests Christ's ability to forgive sin.

Under thy guidance, whatso tracks remain
Of our old wickedness, once done away,
Shall free the earth from never-ceasing fear.

The holy nature of the child and his relationship with divinity, particularly his father, is also clearly stated.

He shall receive the life of gods, and see
Heroes with gods commingling, and himself
Be seen of them, and with his father's worth
Reign o'er a world at peace
(trans. MacKail, lines 19-22).

Parallels to Biblical imagery can be easily drawn from the text; even the serpent from the Garden of Eden seems to make an appearance: "The serpent too shall die." (Ibid, line 31). Because the serpent's death is mentioned among the many results of the boy's birth, it also indicates a significant parallel to the triumph of Christ over evil. Because the poem is written in flowery prose, pastoral references and suggestions of divinity cause the Church to see Virgil's Eclogue as a reverent prophecy of Christ.

Modern Classical scholars have attributed the Eclogue to more plausible subjects than the future Messiah. An heir of Octavian, Marc Anthony, or Virgil's patron, Pollio, could have been the original subject of the poem (Townend, 70). Yet the similarity of Virgil's predictive language to Biblical accounts was particularly striking to medieval readers, and thus the Church elevated him from poet to prophet (Thompson, 648).

Beyond the poetry itself, association with some of the most highly revered figures in the Church gave Virgil a place of prominence. St. Augustine recounts in his Confessions his experience reading the Aeneid and how he was moved by the fourth book (Schmalfeldt, 615)18. St. Augustine speaks extensively of his education in Carthage, and the impact of his encounters with the great Greek and Roman poets. He chastises himself for his secular pity for Dido for several paragraphs.

Who is more pitiful than a pitiable man without pity for himself-one who weeps for Dido, dead because she loved Aeneas, but not for himself, dead because he failed to love you, God, my heart's enlightener, the feeder of my soul's inner hunger, the vital principle breeding depth of thought out of my intelligence? I was the abandoner, the faithless lover, and my faithlessness earned the world's Bravo! Bravo!-since love of the world is abandonment of you, and the world cries Bravo! Bravo! to keep its own in line. For all this I had no tears, only tears for Dido, exploring with the sword her utmost doom (Augustine, Confessions, trans. Wills, 16).

Virgil also appears extensively in the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri's fourteenth century epic poem about a Christian soul's journey towards salvation. Virgil appears as a spiritual guide through hell and purgatory. Dante so respected Virgil that he is presented as a guiding force in a work centered on Christian themes. Despite the writer's obvious admiration for his pagan predecessor, Dante was well aware of the boundaries; the polytheistic poet cannot pass into Paradise. Even viewed as a prophet of Christ, Virgil still had the impurities of his former religion to contend with (Hollander, 2)

So why is Dido such a lasting figure? After all, as Schmalfeldt writes, "...it was for Dido, not Aeneas, that Augustine wept."(Schmalfeldt, 593). If The Aeneid were reinterpreted to allegorically represent the journey of the soul towards Christian salvation, then what part does Dido play? Much of book four undermines a Christian interpretation of The Aeneid, because she breaks a long standing vow of chastity. Should Dido not be resigned to the role of Aeneas' temptress, loathed for her manipulation of the pure hero? Christian teachings forbid illicit sex out of wedlock, and both of Virgil's characters are guilty of lust.

Virgil's Dido is not a reformed temptress. She does not succeed in seducing Aeneas into staying in Carthage and becoming her king, so, she takes her own life so as to escape her broken vow and her shame. Dido chooses not to atone for her sins in a Christian manner; she commits suicide, one of the most abhorrent sins in Christianity. If anything, Dido's role is to undermine Aeneas' purity; he sleeps with the formerly chaste queen, yet has no intention of remaining in Carthage to care for her as a second husband.

It appears that the continued fascination with the Carthaginian queen was due to the unresolved tensions in Virgil's treatment of Dido with respect to Aeneas' quest. There is an aspect of cruelty in Aeneas' treatment of Dido; yet all is forgiven in the name of destiny. Aeneas' shortcomings are accepted as divine intervention and gods' attempts to interfere with destiny. The queen is simply a pawn of meddling deities; however, the supposedly pious Aeneas could have refused her love the night of the storm. While Aeneas continues his quest with no consequences for his actions, Dido is left dead at the end of the fourth book. Dido is a victim of Aeneas and gods, and yet she is the one who loses her life. Her love was not true; it was induced. Perhaps she would never have fallen for Aeneas if Amor had not intervened.Continued on Next Page »

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Crane, Gregory R. (ed.) The Perseus Project, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, February, 2008.

Dryden, John, translated. The Aeneid. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, February, 2008.

Edgeworth, R.J. "The Death of Dido," The Classical Journal, 72.² (Dec. 1976-Jan 1970): 129-133.

Guentner, Francis J. "Dulces exuviae in Sixteenth Century Music," The Classical Journal, 68.¹ (Oct.-Nov., 1972): 62-67.

Holford-Strevens, Leofranc. "'Her Eyes Became Two Spouts': Classical Antecedents of Renaissance Laments," Early Music 27.³ , Laments (August 1999): 379-393.

Hollander, Robert. Expanded version of the article "Virgil." Dante Encyclopedia. Ed. Richard Lansing. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc, 2000.

Huelgas Ensemble dir. Paul van Nevel. Josquin des Prez. "Dulces Exuviae." Le Chant de Virgile. Harmonia Mundi Fr., 2001.

Hunter, James m. "Ovid Heroides VII" An Ongoing Translation of Ovid's Heroides. 31 October 2008.

MacKail, J.W. (translated) The Eclogues of Vergil. http://www.sacredtexts.com/cla/virgil/ecl/index.htm, March, 2008. "Motet." The Harvard Dictionary of Music. Ed. Don Michael Randel. 4th ed. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London,

England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003.

MOTET online database. Dr. Jennifer Thomas. Revised May 10th, 2008. Univeristy of Florida. May 18th, 2008. http:// www.arts.ufl.edu/motet/default.asp

"Motet." The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. rev. Ed. Michael Kennedy. Oxford Music Online. 16 Mar. 2009 .

Ovid. "Epistulae Heroidum: VII Dido Aeneae." The Latin Library. Posted by David J. Califf from an original edition. 31 October 2008.

Schmalfeldt, Janet. "In Search of Dido," The Journal of Musicology, 18.4 (Autumn 2001): 584-615. Seay, Albert. "Classical Metrics and Medieval Music," The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, 23.² (June 1969): 59-67.

Strunk, W. Oliver. "Virgil in Music," The Musical Quarterly, 16.4 (October 1930): 482-497.

Thomas, Jennifer. "Motet Online Database." Dulces Exuviae. 10 May 2008. University of Florida. 2 November 2008.

Thompson, James Westfall. "Vergil in Mediaeval Culture," The American Journal of Theology, 10.4 (October 1906): 648662.

Townend, G.B. "Changing Views of Virgil's Greatness," The Classical Journal, 56.² (November 1960): 67-77. Williams, Theodore C, translated. The Aeneid. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, February 2008. Wills, Garry, trans. The Confessions of St. Augustine. New York: Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, 2006.

Endnotes

Virgil, Aeneid, 4:651-654, trans. John Dryden. For translations of the passages immediately surrounding the dulces exuviae text, see Appendix One.
A form of short unaccompanied choral composition...in use from 13th to early 16th cents. In 13th, 14th, and 15th cents. the motet was exclusively sacred and was based on a pre-existing melody and set of words to which other melodies and words were added in counterpoint. Oxford.
See appendix two for a listing of motet settings of the Dulces exuviae
Edgeworth quotes directly from Horace White's eloquent translation of Appian.: Appian VIII.xix. 13 1 , trans. Horace White, I (London 1912 [Loeb Classical Library]) 635-637
Edgeworth draws a symbolic connection between the fiery deaths of the two queens: "The detail of the blazing pyre, which seemed to serve no purpose in the poem, has been added in order to suggest the blazing fall of Carthage."
See Appendix Four for a full translation of Heroides VII by James m. Hunter.
Phrygia was a kingdom in ancient Anatolia, and is used as a descriptive epithet for Aeneas.
Dactylic hexameter is a metrical scheme utilized in Greek and Roman epic poetry. It consists of lines with six metrical feet broken up into dactyls (a long syllable followed by either another long syllable or two short ones).
See appendix two for a listing of all the occurrences of the Dulces Exuviae text.
Any melodic or harmonic progression which has come to possess a conventional association with the ending of a comp., a section, or a phrase. Oxford.
Included as Appendix Three. All references to measure numbers are to this edition.
Specifically in Mabriano de Orto and an Anonymous setting from the Bernard Thomas edition
A group of more than five or six notes sung to a single syllable. Oxford.
Simultaneously sounding musical lines according to a system of rules. Oxford.
An Eclogue is a lyrical poetic form which typically contains pastoral imagery.
When Constantine the Great in 324 A.D. publicly declared the establishment of Christianity as the religion of the Empire, he quoted the Fourth Eclogue as an important testimony to the recognition of the new faith by Rome's greatest poet. This gave Virgil a posthumous reputation as a sort of potential Christian before his time, to be classed in a way with the great Hebrew prophets, though somehow possessing a fuller understanding of the Christian spirit than any of them. Townend, 71,
See Appendix Three for a full translation of the Eclogue by J.W. MacHail
Schmalfeldt led the way to the original quotation: Perhaps the most notable example is to be found in the Confessions of St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.), where the early Church father looks back on his school days in Carthage and reproaches himself for having wept then over the death of Virgil's Dido when he should have been weeping over his own youthful alienation from God.
Or, in Schmalfeldt's opinion on page 588, Dido is not a mirror but a foil for Aeneas. She gives a chart that highlights the pair's opposition. For example, whereas Aeneas is "driven by duty and honor-as public, supra-personal virtues," Dido is "driven by love-a private, individual emotion, thus, potentially subversive and socially disruptive." Or, Aeneas is "rational and strives for order" while Dido "becomes irrational and creates chaos."

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[1] Virgil, Aeneid, 4:651-654, trans. John Dryden. For translations of the passages immediately surrounding the dulces exuviae text, see Appendix One.

[2] A form of short unaccompanied choral composition...in use from 13th to early 16th cents. In 13th, 14th, and 15th cents. the motet was exclusively sacred and was based on a pre-existing melody and set of words to which other melodies and words were added in counterpoint. Oxford.

[3] See appendix two for a listing of motet settings of the Dulces exuviae

[4] Edgeworth quotes directly from Horace White's eloquent translation of Appian.: Appian VIII.xix. 13 1 , trans. Horace White, I (London 1912 [Loeb Classical Library]) 635-637

[5] Edgeworth draws a symbolic connection between the fiery deaths of the two queens: "The detail of the blazing pyre, which seemed to serve no purpose in the poem, has been added in order to suggest the blazing fall of Carthage."

[6] See Appendix Four for a full translation of Heroides VII by James m. Hunter.

[7] Phrygia was a kingdom in ancient Anatolia, and is used as a descriptive epithet for Aeneas.

[8] Dactylic hexameter is a metrical scheme utilized in Greek and Roman epic poetry. It consists of lines with six metrical feet broken up into dactyls (a long syllable followed by either another long syllable or two short ones).

[9] See appendix two for a listing of all the occurrences of the Dulces Exuviae text.

[10] Any melodic or harmonic progression which has come to possess a conventional association with the ending of a comp., a section, or a phrase. Oxford.

[11] Included as Appendix Three. All references to measure numbers are to this edition.

[12] Specifically in Mabriano de Orto and an Anonymous setting from the Bernard Thomas edition

[13] A group of more than five or six notes sung to a single syllable. Oxford.

[14] Simultaneously sounding musical lines according to a system of rules. Oxford.

[15] An Eclogue is a lyrical poetic form which typically contains pastoral imagery.

[16] When Constantine the Great in 324 A.D. publicly declared the establishment of Christianity as the religion of the Empire, he quoted the Fourth Eclogue as an important testimony to the recognition of the new faith by Rome's greatest poet. This gave Virgil a posthumous reputation as a sort of potential Christian before his time, to be classed in a way with the great Hebrew prophets, though somehow possessing a fuller understanding of the Christian spirit than any of them. Townend, 71,

[17] See Appendix Three for a full translation of the Eclogue by J.W. MacHail

[18] Schmalfeldt led the way to the original quotation: Perhaps the most notable example is to be found in the Confessions of St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.), where the early Church father looks back on his school days in Carthage and reproaches himself for having wept then over the death of Virgil's Dido when he should have been weeping over his own youthful alienation from God.

[19] Or, in Schmalfeldt's opinion on page 588, Dido is not a mirror but a foil for Aeneas. She gives a chart that highlights the pair's opposition. For example, whereas Aeneas is "driven by duty and honor-as public, supra-personal virtues," Dido is "driven by love-a private, individual emotion, thus, potentially subversive and socially disruptive." Or, Aeneas is "rational and strives for order" while Dido "becomes irrational and creates chaos."

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