lines 1-30: Sleepless in Carthage & Dido's speech Flashcards
At
startles; sets up contrast to what happened before: Aeneas’ conclusion of his story
regina gravi… saucia cura
chiasmus: conveys how Dido’s whole body and mind have been taken over by the ‘cura’
caeco carpitur igni
alliterative; foreshadows Dido’s body burning on her funeral pyre
viri virtus
alliterative figura etymologica - stresses A’s masculinity
iamdudum
reminds us of what happened before A started speaking - Cupid attacked Dido in the form of Ascanius
gentis honos
enjambement: conveys the importance she places on this quality, and the flow of her outpouring of emotion
haerent infixi pectore vultus verbaque
inverted word order - reflects how overwhelmed she is
placidam… quietem
hyperbaton - unsettled word order reflects the state of her mind
Phoebea lustrabat lampade
phrase acquires formal coherence through its alliteration and assonance
Aurora polo dimoverat
phrase textually enacts its meaning by acting as a buffer between ‘polo’ and ‘umentem umbram’
unanimam adloquitur
‘unanimam’ enacts its meaning by bonding ‘un’ and ‘animam’ into one word; ellision between unanimam and adloquitur also enacts the bonding
male sana
oxymoron - emphasises her lack of sanity
insomnia
can mean ‘sleeplessness’ or an ‘apparition’ seen in a dream: she cannot sleep, so hallucinates and hovers between wakefulness and sleep
terrent!
love, usually a joyous thing, triggers fear in Dido - she is afraid of what her love will make her do, which is foreboding of later events
quis… quem… quam
polyptotonic tricolon - reflects the agitated state of Dido’s mind
credo… fides
she attempts to convince herself, as well as Anna
degeneres animos timor arguit
all dactylic - racing thoughts
si non… si non
anaphora - conveys her longing for A
fixum immotum
homoiteleuton - emphasises the strength of this immovability
vinclo vellem… iugali
textually, her ‘will’ (vellem - I am willing) is bonded by the ‘vinclo iugali’ she made with Sychaeus, emphasising how it cannot be freed
postquam primus
plosive alliteration emphasises her resentment towards Sychaeus for ‘deceiving’ her
sederet………… fuisset
tense change: imperfect to pluperfect - leaving room for Aeneas in the present (?)
culpae
she admits that the pull of desire is a guilty pleasure, and giving in is an act of ‘culpa’, yet she contradicts herself following the cave scene by calling herself Aeneas’ ‘coniunx’
fatebor… fata
figura etymologica
Anna… Sychaei
antithetical - Anna pulls D towards Aeneas, Sychaeus pulls her away
sparsos… caede
much more dramatic and bloodier than Venus’ account to Aeneas
coniugis
enjambement - reluctance to accept her status as a widow sworn to chastity
inflexit sensus animumque… impulit
chiastic
veteris vestigia flammae
looks back to Dido’s internal flames of desire that were introduced at the beginning of book 4; looks forward to her burning funeral pyre
optem… dehiscat… adigat
subjunctives stress D’s lack of control over the situation
pallentis umbras… noctemque profundam
chiasmus - frames ‘Erebo’
p-alliteration conveys Dido gathering strength to call herself to order
meos… amores
hyperbaton conveys the lack of control she now has over her ‘amores’
impulit………….. abstulit
both antithetically enjambed - intimates that her assertion here is belied by her earlier confession that she has fallen for A
ille
derogatory; Aeneas has a higher ranking in her mind, as ‘hic’ (this man)
secum servetque sepulcro
the sibilance accentuates this dramatic phrase, as does its emphatic position
lacrimis obortis
cause of tears is ambiguous - the loving memory of S or the misery of her determination to remain loyal?
