[484] The difficulty of the words ‘nec cedit honori’ is well known. Serv. and Donatus suppose the meaning to be that Andromache does not yield to the honour of Ascanius, does not give him less than his due. Heyne, that Andromache does not yield to the liberality of her husband. Wagn. thinks that ‘chlamys’ is the subject of ‘cedit,’ the mantle does not yield to the beauty of the other embroidered robes. Others have adopted ‘honore,’ the reading of Pal., Gud. a m. pr., and another MS., which Serv. mentions as approved by Scaurus. Sil. 12. 412 has “nec cedet honore Ascraco famave seni,” but the general sense is not very parallel. Retaining ‘honori,’ I would suggest that the words may possibly mean, “nor does she flag in the work of honouring him,” give way to honour, as if she were contending with it,—a poetical equivalent to the prosaic “nec cessat honorare,” as in Hom. we might have οὐδὲ κάμεν τίουσα. I do not remember any precisely parallel expression in Virg. or elsewhere: but the language, so interpreted, seems admissible in itself and suited to the context (comp. ‘onerat’ immediately following).
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John Conington. P. Vergili Maronis opera. P. Vergili Maronis Opera. The works of Virgil, with a Commentary by John Conington, M.A. Late Corpus Professor of Latin in the University of Oxford. London. Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane. 1876.
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