[47]
For in this passage, with the exception of the
proper name, the words bear no more than their
literal meaning. But the name does not simply denote the shepherd Menalcas, but is a pseudonym for
Virgil himself. Oratory makes frequent use of such
allegory, but generally with this modification, that
there is an admixture of plain speaking. We get
allegory pure and unadulterated in the following
passage of Cicero:1 “What I marvel at and complain
of is this, that there should exist any man so set on
destroying his enemy as to scuttle the ship on which
he himself is sailing.”
1 From an unknown speech.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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