[533] Quae Fortuna is rightly explained by Wagn. as ‘quae alia fortuna.’ Forb. comp. Aesch. Prom. 118, “πόνων ἐμῶν θεωρός, ἢ τί δὴ θέλων;” So Milton, Comus, “By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why?” For ‘quae’ after ‘an’ comp. Ter. Adelph. 3. 4. 22, “an quid est etiam amplius?” Plaut. Asin. 3. 3. 127, “an quid olim hominist Salute melius?” instances which seem to show that it is indefinite here (comp. “num quae” &c.), not, as Wagn. thinks, pleonastically interrogative. One or two MSS. have ‘aut’ (comp. 3. 311, 338), which is sometimes confused with ‘an.’ Burm. and Heyne had made ‘quae’ the relative, supplying ‘fortuna (abl.) venis’ from ‘fortuna,’ which would be intolerably harsh. The question is like 3. 609, “quae deinde agitet fortuna, fateri.”
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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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