NPPF: Notes Line 286

[Paul Mackin]

> > Mary:
> > > Why does there never seem to be any doubt that the "ego" of the phrase is
> > > Death? Even if there is no doubt that it was carved on a tombstone, that
> > > seems to me to be no reason to conclude definitely that Death is
> > > the speaker.




Terrance pointed out this paper concerned with death tropes and Randall
Jarrell and which discusses Erwin Panofsky's ideas on the meaning of Et
in Arcadia ego

http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/english/bgoldens/RANDALL.htm  

Put very sketchily, Panofsky says the phrase does not come from
antiquity but is supposed to have been suggested by Pope Clement IX (a
poet himself) when he commissioned a painting by Guercino in which the
words appear on a scroll issuing from a death's head on a tomb in
Arcadia. According to Panofsky, correct Latin requires that ego be the
subject of the sentence. Therefore Death is the speaker.

The Guercino painting pre-dated that of Poussin.

The essay gives a lot more of interest on this subject including
Virgil's place in the story. Good reading.



P.