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The Singular Nos in Vergil.1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Extract

There can be few other uses in the Latin language which afford us so great an insight into the mental attitude of a writer at the moment of his writing, or which endow writing with so much of that personal colour which the voice alone gives in perfection, as does the singular use of the pronoun nos. All forms of this word (with the corresponding adjective and verb forms) which occur in the speeches of individuals, who are at the moment speaking independently, are either wholly singular uses, or partly plural uses with more or less justification for the plural form according to the extent to which the speaker is identifying himself with his surroundings. Thus we find all degrees of plurality in such forms, and it is those instances in which the plural form can be least definitely justified which we call ‘singular’ or ‘unreal plural’ uses, and which prove to be the most fascinating from a psychological point of view. The object of the present essay is to inquire how far the varieties of meaning in the singular use of nos, which Professor R. S. Conway has pointed out in Cicero, appear also in Vergil.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1921

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References

page 177 note 2 Cambridge Philological Society Transactions, Vol. V. Part I. 1899Google Scholar.

page 182 note 1 Equivalent to the plural of Authorship in prose.

page 182 note 2 Or, very frequently in Vergil, Royalty.

page 182 note 3 Or Reproof.

page 182 note 4 In Book VII. alone.

page 182 note 5 Omitting Tenth Eclogue owing to uncertainty of authorship.