Ille Ego : Virgil and Professor Richmond. By J. S.
Phillimore. (Oxford University Press. Is. 6d. net.)—Every schoolboy knows, as Macaulay would say, that the Aeneid begins with the words " Arma virumque cano." But did it always begin there ? Nisus, an early and almost contemporary critic, reports that the poet prefixed four introductory lines, beginning Ille ego qui quondam graeili modulatus avena," and that these lines were omitted by the " official " editor Varius. Sir Arthur Hirtzel in the recent Oxford text of Virgil restored the four lines. Professor Richmond, of Edinburgh, has publicly chided him for doing so, on the ground that Nisus, and not Virgil, wrote the verses. In this witty pamphlet Professor Phillimore replies in defence of the Oxford text, and shows at least that Nisus's statement has not been disproved. Professor Phillimore is a skilful controversialist, and he has a happy way of quoting parallels from English verse to support his argument.
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