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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ...prominence. Now Vergil, though mentioning 'the smiling lawns of happy groves' and 'the fragrant bay-trees, ' and saying that the ghosts 'dwell in the shady woods, and haunt the couches that the river-banks afford, and the meadows that the fountains freshen, ' does not mention any flowers; but in the Homeric Hades the spirits pass 'along the mead of asphodel, ' Od. 11. 539, and the asphodel is a species of lily. (In Mn. 6. 883 Anchises says 'give me handfuls of lilies, ' which implies that they grew in Vergil's Elysian Fields also.) Acheron.--Mids. 3. 2. 357; Mcb. 3. 5. 15; Tit. 4. 3. 44. Vergil's description of Acheron is not minute, and Shakespeare does not seem very sure what it is. Thus in Mcb. we have 'the pit of Acheron, ' and in Tit. it is apparently a 'burning lake.' In Mids. the heaven is covered With drooping fog as black as Acheron. 2En. 6. 107 is perhaps responsible for the last: 'Tenebrosa palus Acheronte refuso.' The phrase 'pit of Acheron' in Hades 67 Mcb. is apparently applied by the witches to some tarn near the scene of the action. Cocytus.--Mentioned only in Tit. 2. 3. 236: As hateful as Cocytus' misty mouth. Cocytus is mentioned by Vergil in 2En. 6. 323 et alibi. Lethe.--R3. 4. 4. 250; H4B 5. 2. 72; Tw. 4. 1. 66; Hml. 1. 5. 33; Ant. 2. 1. 27; 2. 7. 114. The river of forgetfulness is described in Mn. 6. 703-723, but of course the idea is a familiar one. Twice Shakespeare uses the word as a synonym of forgetfulness: Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep. Tw. 4. 1. 66, also Ant. 2. 7. 114. Similar to this is the adjectival use in Ant. 2. 1. 27: 'a Lethe'd dulness.' The allusions in R3 and H4B would indicate that Shakespeare thinks of Lethe as 'washing' away or 'drowning' memory. In Vergil it is by drinking of the water that the sou

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