Vergil A Biography

Excerpt

Modern literary criticism has accustomed us to interpret our masterpieces
in the light of the author’s daily experiences and the conditions of the
society in which he lived.  The personalities of very few ancient poets,
however, can be realized, and this is perhaps the chief reason why their
works seem to the average man so cold and remote.  Vergil’s age, with its
terribly intense struggles, lies hidden behind the opaque mists of twenty
centuries:  by his very theory of art the poet has conscientiously drawn a
veil between himself and his reader, and the scraps of information about
him given us by the fourth century grammarian, Donatus, are inconsistent,
at best unauthenticated, and generally irrelevant.