you remember, perhaps, in some papers published awhile ago, an odd poem written by an old latin tutor? he brought up at the verb amo, i love, as all of us do, and by and by nature opened her great living dictionary for him at the word filia, a daughter. the poor man was greatly perplexed in choosing a name for her. lucretia and virginia were the first that he thought of; but then came up those pictured stories of titus livius, which he could never read without crying, though he had read them a hundred times.
lucretia sending for her husband and her father, each to bring one friend with him, and awaiting them in her chamber. to them her wrongs briefly. let them see to the wretch,——she will take care of herself. then the hidden knife flashes out and sinks into her heart. she slides from her seat, and falls dying. “her husband and her father cry aloud.”——no,——not lucretia.
——virginius,——a brown old soldier, father of a nice girl. she engaged to a very promising young man. decemvir appius takes a violent fancy to her,——must have her at any rate. hires a lawyer to present the arguments in favor of the view that she was another man’s daughter. there used to be lawyers in rome that would do such things.——all right. there are two sides to everything. audi alteram partem. the legal gentleman[10] has no opinion,——he only states the evidence.——a doubtful case. let the young lady be under the protection of the honorable decemvir until it can be looked up thoroughly.——father thinks it best, on the whole, to give in. will explain the matter, if the young lady and her maid will step this way. that is the explanation,——a stab with a butcher’s knife, snatched from a stall, meant for other lambs than this poor bleeding virginia!
the old man thought over the story. then he must have one look at the original. so he took down the first volume and read it over. when he came to that part where it tells how the young gentleman she was engaged to and a friend of his took up the poor girl’s bloodless shape and carried it through the street, and how all the women followed, wailing, and asking if that was what their daughters were coming to,——if that was what they were to get for being good girls,——he melted down into his accustomed tears of pity and grief, and, through them all, of delight at the charming latin of the narrative. but it was impossible to call his child virginia. he could never look at her without thinking she had a knife sticking in her bosom.
dido would be a good name, and a fresh one. she was a queen, and the founder of a great city. her story had been immortalized by the greatest of poets,——for the old latin tutor clove to “virgilius maro,” as he called him, as closely as ever dante did in his memorable journey. so he took down his virgil,——it was the smooth-leafed, open-lettered quarto of baskerville,——and began reading the loves and mishaps of dido. it wouldn’t do. a lady who had not learned discretion by experience,[11] and came to an evil end. he shook his head, as he sadly repeated,
“—— misera ante diem, subitoque accensa furore”;
but when he came to the lines,
“ergo iris croceis per cœlum roscida pennis
mille trahens varios adverso sole colores,”
he jumped up with a great exclamation, which the particular recording angel who heard it pretended not to understand, or it might have gone hard with the latin tutor some time or other.
“iris shall be her name!”——he said. so her name was iris.
