Page:Virgil (Collins).djvu/137

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THE SIBYL AND THE SHADES.
127

The biographers add, that Augustus commanded Virgil to read no further on that day, and that the poet replied he had already ended the subject. He has not much more to say in this Sixth Book. Anchises gives his son some prophetic intimations as to his future fortunes in Italy, and then escorts his visitors to the gates of Sleep.

"Sleep gives his name to portals twain:
One all of horn, they say,
Through which authentic spectres gain
Quick exit into day,
And one which bright with ivory gleams,
Whence Pluto sends delusive dreams.
Conversing still, the sire attends
The travellers on their road,
And through the ivory portal sends
From forth the unseen abode."

The lines have been taken to mean that this visit to the shades was, after all, but a dream.

    in our money, to above £2000—"a round sum," remarks Dryden, with something like professional envy, "for twenty-seven verses."

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