ABSTRACT
Maleness does not automatically confer manliness. According to the Dictionary o f the English Language (1755) by Samuel Johnson (1709-84), any creature of ‘the sex that begets, not bears young’ is male, but reproductive function is only one among many character istics differentiating manly men from lesser beings. Furthermore, a certain level of education, wealth, or social status is required for a man to participate fully in the political life of his community. Johnson’s first definition and illustration of manly demonstrate awareness of these points. He is concerned with distinguishing one man favourably from another: ‘Manlike; becoming a man; firm; brave; stout [elsewhere defined as “Strong; lusty; valiant”]; undaunted; undismayed’. True to his original ambition that ‘every quotation should be useful to some other end than the illustration of a word’ (Johnson 1828: v), he selects from William Shakespeare (1564-1616) a passage that sets impeccable moral as well as lexical standards:
(Henry VI, Part 2, V, ii, 62-3)
This leads us straight to the heart of a classical epic, the episode in the Aeneid by the Roman poet Virgil (70-19 b c ) when the hero Aeneas rescues his family from the sack of Troy. Upon his back he carries his crippled old father, who in turn carries the household gods; beside them walks Aeneas’ son, destined founder of the Julian dynasty that will give Rome its first Caesars; Creusa, Aeneas’ wife, follows at a distance; his slaves are instructed to assemble at an appointed rendezvous. All arrive safely but Creusa, whose ghost urges Aeneas on to Italy, where the Trojan refugees will found a new nation under his leadership (II, 707-89). Aeneas fulfils his religious, political, and domestic obligations with an exemplary sense of patriarchal priorities.
