/ THE WOKIS OF CATULLUS AND TIBULLUS, AND THE VIGIL OF VENUS. A LITERAL PROSE TRANSLATION WITH NOTES, WALTER K. KELLAL TO ^Vhich are added THE METHICAL VERSIONS OE LAMB AND GRAINGER, AND A SELECTION OF VERSIONS BY OTHER WRITERS. BOSTON roTJ.FGE LIBRARY CLUi.bUjNUT HILL, MASS. , LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCLIV. ecu TvaF. LIBRAHt . / • 'S' i ’ ■• - ! 1 :ruo2 JOHN CHILDS AND SON, BUNGAY. O'lfffu imAfiv OOSTOS cm I faf CONTENTS Biographical Introduction—Catullus.1 Tibullus . . . . .. 4 THE POEMS OP CATULLUS. PROSE. VERSE. 1. Dedication . . , . . Page 9 Lamb Page 169 2. To Lesbia’s Sparrow .... 9 Elton 170 Lamb 170 3. On the death of Lesbia’s Sparrow 11 Lamb 171 Elton 171 4. The praise of the Pinnace 11 Lamb 172 5. To Lesbia . . . . . 12 Lamb 173 Elton 174 6. To Flavius. 13 Lamb 174 7. To Lesbia. 13 Lamb 175 - Moore 176 8. To himself, on Lesbia’s inconstancy 14 Lamb 176 Moore 177 Elton 178 9. To Verannius . . . . 14 Lamb 179 10. On Varus’ mistress .... 15 Lamb 179 11. To Furius and Aurelius, the message to Lesbia 16 Lamb 180 Moore 181 12. To Asinius, on his practical jokes . 17 Lamb 182 13. Invitation to Fabullus .... 18 Lamb 182 14. To Licinius Calvus, in return for a present of poems. 18 Lamb 183 15. To Aurelius ...... 19 Nott 184 16. To Aurelius and Furius, a defence of his amatory poems. 20 Lamb 185 17. To a town, on a stupid husband To the garden god. 21 Lamb 186 18. 22 Nott 187 19. The garden god. 22 Lamb 187 20. The garden god. 23 Lamb 188 21. To Aurelius. 23 Nott 189 22. To Varus, on Suffenus .... 24 Lamb 189 • Anon. 190 IV CONTENTS. CATULLUS. 23. To Furius, congratulations on po-'’* 24. To Juventius 25. To Thallus 26. To F^riu!:, •'•t: his villa 27. ‘’.;s cv.p‘. :.:rer 28. T'- -''.r.u -r5ii.s and Frd.alms 29. To Ca;, .tr n -dauiurra 30. Tv ‘ 'pncri'iis .... 31. To ac Peninsula of Sirmio . 32. To Hypsitliilla .... 33. On the Vibennii 34. Hymn to Diana .... 35. Invitation to Caecilius 36. On the Annals of Volusius 37. To Cornificius .... 38. To the frequenters of a certain tavern 39. On Egnatius ..... 40. ‘To Ravidus .... 41. On Mamurra’s mistress 42. On a harlot, who detained his tablets 43. To the mistress of Formianus 44. To his farm .... 45. Acme and Septimius , 46. Farewell to Bithynia 47. To Porcius and Socration 48. To his Love . . . 49. To Marcus Tullius Cicero 50. To Licinius .... 51. To Lesbia (Sappho’s Ode translated) 52. To himself, on the times 53. On Calvus. 54. To C" on his companions 55. To Camejius. 56. To Cato .^ . . . . 57. On Mamurra and CaBsar 58. To Caelius, on Lesbia’s infamy . 59. On Rufa ..... 60. Fragment. • )^'K. v’K..SL. ■ • ^ye 191 N. 'i:. 192 Lamb 193 Nott 193 26 Nott 194 26 Lamb 194 26 Lamb 194 27 Lamb 195 28 Lamb 196 29 Lamb 197 29 Lamb 197 Elton 198 Moore 198 5 ) Leigh Hunt 199 Lamb 200 Anon. 200 31 Nott 201 31 Lamb 201 32 Lamb 202 32 Lamb 202 33 Lamb 203 Leigh Hunt 204 33 Nott 204 34 Nott 205 35 Lamb 206 35 Lamb 206 36 Lamb 206 36 Lamb 207 37 Lamb 208 37 Lamb 208 Elton 210 Leigh Hunt 211 38 Lamb - 211 Peter 212 39 Lamb 212 39 Lamb 213 39 Lamb 213 39 Lamb 213 40 Phillips 214 Elton 215 41 Lamb 215 41 Lamb 215 42 Lamb 216 Nott 216 42 Lamb 216 43 Nott 217 44 Nott 218 44 Lamb 218 45 Nott 218 45 Nott 219 CONTENTS. CATULLUS V PROSE. VERSE. 61. Epithalarir’UHi, on the marriage of Manlius and Julia • Page 45 Lamb Page 219 62, Nuptial song ..... • 51 Lamb 226 Elton •230 63. Atys . . . ^ • • 55 Lamb 232 Leigh Hunt 235 64. The marriage of Peleus and Thetis 58 Lamb 238 Episode of Ariadne, from the same . • Elton 251 65. To Hortalus . . - . 73 Lamb 259 66. Berenice’s Hair .... 75 Lamb 260 Tytler 263 67, On a wanton’s door 79 Nott 267 68. Epistle to Manlius .... 81 Lamb 268 69, To Rufus . 87 Nott 274 70. On the inconstancy of woman’s love . 87 Lamb 274 71. To Verro. ,88 Nott 274 72. ToLesbiar^ . . . . 88 Lamb 274 Moore 275 73. On an ingrate .... 88 Lamb 275 74. On Gellius ..... 88 Nott 276 75. To Lesbia. 88 Lamb 276 Anon. 276 76. To himself ..... 89 Lamb 277 77. To Rufus. 90' Lamb 277 78, To Gallus ..... 90 Nott 278 79. On Gellius ..... 90 Lamb 278 80. On Gellius ..... 90 Nott 279 81. To Juventius .... 91 Lamb 279 Nott 279 82. To Quintius . . . . 91 Lamb 280 83. On Leshia’s husband 91 Lamb 280 84. On Arrius ..... 91 Nott 280 85, On his love. 92 Lamb 281 Moore 281 86. On Quintia and Lesbia 92 Lamb 281 Elton 282 87. (Incorporated with 75.) 88, Against Gellius 92 Nott 282 89. On Gellius. 92 Nott 282 90. On Gellius. 93 91. On Gellius ..... 93 Lamb 283 92 On Lesbia’s abuse of him . 93 Lamb 283 93. On Csesar. . 941 ■vr^' ■ 94. On Mentula ..... 94 j IN O..U Zoo 95. On the “ Smyrna/’ of the poet Cinna * 94 Lamb 284 Anon. 284 96. To Calvus, on the death of Quintilia . 95 Lamb 284 Elton 285 97. On jEmilius ..... . 95 Nott 285 98. To Vettius . . 95 Lamb 286 VI CONTENTS. TIBULLUS 99. To Ills love . . • . ' L'^mb 100. On Cselius and Quintius f ‘ . U 101. The rites at his brother’s tomb . 9f\ Lamb 287 Elton 287 Hodgson 287 102. To Comeliu*' 97 Lamb 288 103. To Silo ... • • 97 Lamb 288 104. To soiiic one who ,-pread tumours concem- uig iiimsclf and Leslud. 97 Lamb 288 10<-J. Un M 'utubv . • . . . . 97 Nott 289 106. Oo. a boy jnd .i, public crier . 97 Nott 289 107. To L' sbia, the reconciliation 97 Lamb 289 108. lo' ominius . ..... 98 Lamb 290 109. To Lesbia, on her vow of constancy . 98 Lamb 290 Hodgson 290 110. To Aufilena . 98 Lamb 290 111. To Aufilena . . . . ‘ . 98 Nott 291 112. On Naso ....... 98 Nott 291 113. To Cinna, on the growth of adultery 99 Lamb 291 114. To Mentula, on his estate 99 Lamb 291 115. On Mentula . . . . . 99 Nott 292 116. To Gellius. 99 Lamb 292 The Vigil of Venus 100 Parnell 293 Stanley 297 THE ELEGIES OF TIBULLUS. BOOK I. 1 v The pleasures of a country life . 105 Grainger 303 Otway 306 Elton 310 Part of the same • « • Hodgson 313 2. To Delia. no Grainger 313 Hodgson 315 Hammond 317 3/Written in sickness and absence 112 Grainger 318 Part of the same .... • • • Elton 321 4. Priapus on the art of love 115 Grainger 323 5, The boast recanted . 118 Grainger 326 CONTENTS. TIBULLUS. vii PROSE. VERSE. 6. Love slighted for wealth . , Page 120 Grainger P .327 7. Delia’s infidelity . . . . » . 121 Grainger 329 8. Messala’s birthday • . * 124 Grainger 331 9. Marathns and Pholoe . , . 127 Grainger 334 lO^^enal inconstancy . . 129 Grainger 336 11. The excellence of peace • . 131 Grainger 339 BOOK II. Ir^he Ambarvalia 133 Grainger 341 2*>rhe birth-day of Cerinthus . • . 136 Grainger 344 3. Nemesis gone to the country . • 137 Grainger 345 4-,i«^lavery in love . . . . • . 139 Grainger 346 Elton 348 5. The Sibylline Books . • . 141 Grainger 350 6^-^he cupidity of Nemesis . « 145 Grainger 354 Part of the same , * t Hammond 355 7. Appeal to Nemesis . 147 Grainger 356 Otway V 357 BOOK III. > 1. Dedication. . 148 Grainger 359 2. Forebodings of death • 149 Grainger 360 Elton .362 3. The lover’s contempt of wealth • 150 Grainger 363 Elton 364 4. The dream of Tibullus • 151 Grainger 365 Elton 368 5. Written in sickness • 153 Grainger 370 6. The strife between wine and love • . 155 Grainger 371 Part of the same • • Elton 374 BOOK IV. 1. Panegyric to Messala . . . 157 Dart 375 2. Eulogy of Sulpicia . . . • 162 Grainger 382 Elton 383 3. Sulpicia on her lover’s going to the chase 163 Grainger 384 Otway 385 Elton 386 4. On Sulpicia’s illness • . 164 Grainger 386 5. Sulpicia on her lover’s birth-day • 164 Grainger 387 6. To Sulpicia’s Juno • . 165 Grainger 388 7. Sulpicia to Venus, an avowal . • 165 Grainger 389 8. Sulpicia to Messala • . 166 Grainger 389 9, Sulpicia to Cerinthus • 166 Grainger 390 Vlll CONTENTS. TIBULLUS. 10. Sulpicia to Cerinthus . 11. Sulpicia to Cerinthus 12. Sulpicia to Cerinthus . 13i''Tibullus to his mistrep" 14. On imp''rtuuate Huinoui 15. Epigram i>y Ds-miitiuci ' 'uisus. Tibullus v.;.;3E. Ki*. " ' ictmger 390 ! ; Grainger 391 167 Grainger 391 Moore 392 Hammond 393 . 168 Grainger 394 on the death of . 168 Grainger 5 i y BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CATULLUS. A MEAGRE array of facts more or less controverted, and a few critical remarks, are all we can offer towards a biography of Valerius Catullus. We learn from the testimony of many ancient writers, that he was a na¬ tive of Verona or its immediate neighbourhood; and the Marquis Scipio Maffei, himself a Veronese, asserts that in his day there were still traits of the language of Catullus in the dialect of his countrymen. Whether the poet’s praenomen was Caius or Quintus is uncertain, the former being assigned to him by Apuieius, the latter by Pliny. A more important ques¬ tion is that which concerns the dates of his birth and death. According to Hieronymus, in the Eusebian chronicle, he was born b. c. 87, and died in his thirtieth year, b. c. 57. The second date is undoubtedly erroneous, for we have positive evidence from his own works that he was alive in the consulship of Vatinius, b. c. 47. It is evident too that he must have sur¬ vived at least till b. c. 45, for Cicero, in his Letters, talks of the verses of Catullus against Caesar and Mamurra (xxix.) as newly written, and first seen by Caesar in that year. The chronologer’s mistake as to the time of the poet’s death, throws some doubt also on that which he assigns to his birth. We shall however be exact enough for all literary purposes, if we conclude with Dunlop that Catullus “ was nearly contemporary with Lucretius, having come into the world a few years after him, and having survived him but a short period.” It is not certain that the poet belonged to the patrician family of the Valerii, but his father must have been a person of some consideration, for he was the friend and habitual entertainer of Julius Ctesar. The son took up his abode in Rome in the very spring of youth (Ixviii. 15) and plunged without restraint into all the expensive pleasures of the best—that is to say, the most debauched—society. This is sufficient to account for the jocular complaints of poverty interspersed through his writings. It is easy to conceive that one whose only business was to enjoy life in an age ;and in a city of unbounded luxury, and who was a liberal purchaser of such commodities as were dealt in by the worthy Silo (ciii.), should have been often “ hard up ” for cash; and that he should have had occasion for frequent inttrcourse with lawyers and orators, such as Alphenus Vaiais, B 2 BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Licinius Calvus, and M. Tullius Cicero. Yet his fortune was by no means small, for he possessed a noble villa on the beautiful promontory of Sir- mio, another near Tibur, and he made a voyage from the Pontus in his own yacht. To improve his pecuniary circumstances, he adopted the usual Roman expedient for quickly filling a lank purse, and accompanied Caius Memmius, the celebrated patron of Lucretius, to Bithynia, when he was appointed Praetor of that province. But it is plain from his direct testimony, as well as from the bitterness of his invectives against his chief, that he derived little profit from that expedition. Catullus repeatedly deplores with every mark of heartfelt grief the loss of a brother Avho died in the Troad. This event is generally supposed to have happened whilst the poet was in Bithynia; but, as Professor Ramsay has well remarked, “ any evidence we possess leads to a different conclu¬ sion. When railing against the evil fortune which attended the journey to the East, he makes no allusion to any such misfortune as this; we find no notice of the event in the pieces written immediately before quit¬ ting Asia and immediately after his return to Italy; nor does the language of those passages in which he gives vent to his sorrow, in any way con¬ firm the conjecture.” Gifted with a fine person, a vigorous constitution, and rare genius, Ca¬ tullus was meant by nature for better things: it was the curse of his times that made him an idler and a voluptuary : O blame not the bard if he fly to the bowers Where Pleasure sits carelessly smiling at Fame ; He was born for much more, and in happier hours His soul might have glowed with a holier flame. That he was not indifferent to public Avrongs is proved by the vehe¬ mence with Avhich he assailed Cfesar in the plenitude of his power. A man of fine sensibility and delicate fancy, he was no less remarkable for the strength and depth of his feelings. Regarded as indications of character, his poems to Lesbia are unique in Roman literature for the intensity and self-oblivion of the passion they portray. Some of them breathe the delicious frenzy of desire; or the sweet sadness that ever mingles with the best of joy, and is so like it that we scarce know whether to call it pain or pleasure ; the rest are heavy with the grief for Avhich there is no cure, the anguish of a heart that dotes, yet more than doubts; that cannot cease to love what it loathes and scorns. Clodia, as we learn from Apulems, was the real name of Lesbia, “ but this bare fact”—Ave again quote Ramsay—“ by no means entitles us to jump to the conclusion at which many have arrived, that she AA'as the sister of the celebrated Clodius slain by Milo. Indeed the presumption is strong against such an inference. The tribute of high-floA\Ti praise paid to Cicero Avould have been but a bad recommendation to the favour of one whom the orator makes the subject of scurrilous jests, and Avho is said to have cherished against him all the vindictive ajfimosity of a woman first slighted, and then openly insulted.” Of other Avomen Avith Avhom he may have amused himself, Catullus names only Hypsithilla and Aufi- lina, ladies of Verona ; but the language in Avhich he writes of them de¬ notes an intercourse in AA'hich the senses Avere vividly interested, the affec¬ tions not at all. Some of his poems are hideous from the traces of a / CATULLUS. 3 turpitude to which we cannot without a painful effort make even a passing allusion. But so are portions of almost every Roman poet; and amidst our natural disgust at these abominations, and at the filthy ribaldry of many of the short pieces of Catullus, it is right to remember that these things were the vices of the age rather than of the individual. “ The filth of Catullus seldom springs from a prurient imagination revelling in voluptuous images ; it rather proceeds from habitual impurity of expres¬ sion, and probably gives a fair representation of the manners and con¬ versation of the gay society of Rome at that period.” In the contents of a very small book, Catullus has given proof of ex¬ traordinary versatility, and consummate skill in the most dissimilar moods of his art. His compass is a wide one, and he is master of all w'ithin it. His peculiar characteristics are neatness, racy simplicity, graceful turns of thought, and exquisite happiness of expression. In these qualities he has never been surpassed ; and they are apparent alike in his most playful trifles, and when he ascends to the mountain- heights of passion and imagination. Of him it may be affirmed with ab¬ solute truth, that he adorned all he touched; hence the appropriateness of the epithet docUis which was bestowed upon him by his poetic brethren, not, as many have supposed, because of his proficiency in Greek liter¬ ature, but because of his mastery in the art he professed, Doctiis does not always mean book-learned; it is often used to signify skill in any art —as in that of archery for instance, when Tibullus calls Cupid’s hands doctas, after they had learned the use of the bow. Doctus means “ taught,” and as one who is well taught is accomplished in his speciality, the epithet came naturally to bear that secondary signification. That the English epithet “ learned ” is restricted to one particular kind of proficiency, is merely the result of arbitrary custom. The wider import of the Latin word is better expressed in such obsolete phrases as “ cunning of fence,” “cunning in music, in mathematics,” &c. In this sense Horace applies it to the great actor Roscius; and in this sense it was applied by courtesy to poets in general, and distinctively and emphatically to Catullus. Horace unjustly assumes to himself (Epist. 19, lib. i.) the credit of having been the first to enrich the literature of his country with imi¬ tations of the Greek lyric poets; Catullus had preceded him in that field, and with the more essential advantage which genius possesses over talent, “ Catullus,” says Dunlop, “ translated many of the shorter and more delicate pieces of the Greeks; an attempt which hitherto had been thought impossible, though the broad humour of their comedies, the vehement pathos of their tragedies, and the romantic interest of the Odyssey, had stood the transformation. His stay in Bithynia, though little advantageous to his fortune, rendered him better acquainted than he might otherwise have been with the productions of Greece; and he was therefore in a great degree indebted to this expedition (on which he always appears to have looked back with mortification and disappointment) for those felici¬ tous turns of expression, that grace, siipplicity, and purity, which are the characteristics of his poems, and of which hitherto Greece alone had af¬ forded models. Indeed in all his verses, whether elegiac or heroic, w'e perceive his imitation of the Greeks, and it must be admitted that he has drawn from them his choicest stores. His Hellenisms are frequent; his images, similes, metaphors, and addresses to himself, are all Greek ; and B 2 4 biographical introduction. even in the versification of his odes we see visible traces of their origin. Nevertheless he was the inventor of a new species of Latin poetry ; and as he was the first who used such variety of measures, and perhaps in¬ vented some that were new, he was amply entitled to call the poetical volume which he presented to Cornelius Nepos Lepidum Novum Libellum. The beautiful expressions, too, and idioms of the Greek language, which he has so carefully selected, are woven with such art into the texture of his composition, and so aptly figure the impassioned ideas of his amorous muse, that they have all the fresh and untarnished hues of originality.” It is certain that some, and probable that many, of the poems of Catul¬ lus have perished. Pliny makes mention of verses upon love-charms of which no trace remains, and Terentianns Maurus mentions some Tthy- phallica. The scholiasts Servius and Nonius refer to passages which are not to be found m the existing collection of the works of Catullus. On the other hand, the Ciris and the Pervigilium Veneris have been errone¬ ously ascribed to him. We should have lost him wholly but for the for¬ tuitous discovery of a single manuscript in bad condition, which was found in France in the year 1425. From this source were derived all the MSS. on which the old editions were founded, and hence, as might be expected, the text is very corrupt, and presents a greater number of various and contradictory readings than that of almost any other classic. It is cer¬ tain too that it has been repeatedly interpolated. The present prose translation of Catullus, the first, we believe, that has appeared in English, has been framed upon the principle of adhering as closely to the letter of the original as is consistent with the genius of the respective languages. For a faithful rendering of the letter, prose is the best medium; but there its powers end; for all beyond we must have recourse to verse. The poetical versions that follow have been carefully selected from many writers, and comprise all the best specimens of their kind that have yet been published. \ TIBULLUS. Albius Tibullus (his prienomen is unknown) was a Roman knight, contemporary with Horace and Virgil. The date of his birth is uncertain, but must be placed somewhere about b. c. 59, the year in which Livy came into the world. A spurious distich in the fifth Elegy of book hi. Avas long accepted as proof that Tibullus was bom in the same year as Ovid, who, on the contrary, invariably speaks of him as a more ancient writer and an older man than himself, and particularly in a passage of the Tristia, (IV. x.,) in which he fixes the order of succession of the Elegiac poets:— Virgil I but beheld ; and greedy fate Denied Tibullus’ friendship, wish’d too late : He followed Gallus, next Propertius came; The last Avas I, the fourth successive name. Elton. TIBULLUS. 5 It appears from an epigram of Domitius Marsus, another contemporary of Tibullus, that he died soon after Virgil, that is to say, in or about b. c. 19, while he was yet in the prime of life, or, as the epigram says, while he was still juvenis, for by that term the Romans meant one who had not passed his forty-sixth year. Te quoque, Virgilio comitem, non aequa, Tibulle, Mors juvenem campos misit ad Elysios : Ne foret, aut elegis moUes qui fleret amores, Aut caneret forti regia bella pede. Thee, young Tibullus, to th’ Elysian plain Death bade accompany great Maro’s shade ; Determined that no poet should remain, Or to sing wars, or w'eep the cruel maid. Grainger. Tibullus was descended from an ancient and wealthy equestrian ftimily; but we learn from himself that he possessed only a small portion of the estates of his forefathers. The cause of this decline of fortune has been warmly debated among the learned; some alleging, rightly, as it seems to us, that we need not look further for it than to the confiscations of the tri¬ umviri, in which so many Italian estates were involved; others, that he was ruined by his own extravagance. The father of Tibullus had been en¬ gaged on the side of Pompey in the civil wars, and died soon after Caesar had finally triumphed over the liberties of Rome. It is not to be doubted that the patrimony of the son should have been involved in the subsequent partition of the lands of Italy ; and though he saved something from the wreck, probably through the interest of his patron, Messala, we do not find in his Elegies a single expression of gratitude or compliment from which it might be conjectured that Augustus had atoned to him for the wrongs done by Octavius. It is certainly remarkable, in reference to this question, and it raises our respect for the man, that the name of Augustus, celebrated with such persevering and fulsome adulation by the other great poets of the day, is nowhere to be found in the writings of Tibullus. The notion that he wasted his large fortune in dissipation is little more than a gratuitous assumption, the only evidence offered in support of it being a poetical hyperbole. In the fourth Elegy of the second book he declares himself ready to sacrifice all that was left of his hereditary possessions to gratify the demands of his covetous mistress ; whence some would have us infer, that the man who could deliberately talk thus, in a good hex¬ ameter and pentameter distich, must certainly have made ducks and drakes of his property. We rather think that the general tenour of his writings, as well as the direct testimony of his friend Horace, leads to the opposite conclusion. That discreet Epicurean would not have complimented a reckless spendthrift on his knowledge of the art of enjoyment. Tibullus acquired at an early period the friendship of his great patron, Messala, and retained it to the end of his life. He declined that com¬ mander’s invitation to accompany him in the naval war which was des¬ tined to close with the decisive battle of Actium, doubtless because he remained stedfast in his attachment to the cause for which his father had suffered. Immediately after that victory, Messala was detached by Caesar to suppress a formidable insurrection which had broken out in Aquitaine; and Tibullus accompanied liim in the honourable post of contubernalis. 6 BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. corresponding nearly to that of aid-de-camp. Part of the glory of the Aquitanian campaign, for which Messala, four years later, obtained a tri¬ umph, and which Tibullus celebrates in language of unwonted loftiness, redounds, according to the poet, to his own fame (book I. vii. 9—11). In the following year, (b. c. 30,) Messala was sent to Asia, and again Tibullus went with him, but was taken ill and obliged to remain in Cor- cyra, an incident which forms the theme of another beautiful poem (book I. hi.). After his recovery he seems to have returned home, and to have spent the rest of his days, excepting occasional visits to the capital, at his coun¬ try seat near Pedum, a small town of Latium on the skirts of the Apen¬ nines, between Praeneste and Tibur. That he lived there in the enjoy¬ ment of a liberal competence is clear enough, and also that when he speaks of his poverty, that term is only to be understood by contrast with the overgrown fortunes of many of his noble coimtrymen. This is apparent from many of his own expressions (e. g. book I. i. 5); as a Roman knight he must have been worth upwards of three thousand pounds; and Horace even speaks of him as ■w'ealthy. According to him, Tibullus possessed all the blessings of life : he was beautiful in person (Horace on this point confirms the strong language of the old biographers); he had a competent fortune, favour with the great, fame, health; and knew how to enjoy all those blessings. Epist. iv. book i. Albius ! the candid critic of my strains, • What shall I say thou dost on Pedum’s plains ? Say, dost thou verses write that shall outvie Cassius of Parma’s darling poesy ? Dost thou steal silent through some healthful wood. And muse thoughts worthy of the wise and good ? Thou wert not born a body void of mind ; Yet heaven to thee a graceful form assigned. Heaven gave thee,riches, and it gave thee more. The art to use and to enjoy thy store.' What beyond this could some fond nurse devise To bless her foster-son ? whose thoughts are wise, And graced with fluent speech ; whom favours crown From the high great, and, from his muse, renown ; Abundant health ; a style of life and board Genteel with decency, and purse well stored. Elton. Notwithstanding all his personal and mental graces, and his singularly amiable disposition, Tibullus was not happy in love. The object of that attachment, which we have Ovid’s authority for considering as his first, is celebrated under the poetic name of Delia, a Greek equivalent for her real name, which Apuleius tells us was Plania. It is evident (see book I. vi.) that she was not of gentle blood (not ingemia, but libertince conditionis). She belonged, says Milman, “ to that class of females of the middle order, not of good family, but above poverty, which answered to the Greek hetairai.” Tibullus became attached to her before his expedition to Aquitaine, and thought of retiring to the country with her as his mistress. But Delia was faithless during his absence. On his return from Corcyra he found her ill, and attended her with aftectionate solicitude, again hoping TIBULLUS. to realize his favourite project. But first a richer rival supplanted him ; next there appears a husband in the way; and after the seventh Elegy of the first book we hear no more of Delia. His last love was the mercen¬ ary Nemesis, to whom the second book and the last tAvo years of the poet’s life were devoted, apparently without any return. The third book —if this indeed is the composition of Tibullus—is chiefly occupied with his unfortunate passion for Neaera. Her, it would appear, he wdshed to marry, he had indeed been actually betrothed to her, but she forsook him on the eve of the nuptials. Lastly, there was Glycera, avIio gave him great pain by forsaking him for a younger man, and whom w^e have no reason for confounding with any of the other three, though she is not knoAATi to us from his own w^ritings, but only from the Ode in wdiich Horace attempts to console him for her inconstancy. Tibullus belongs eminently to that class of poets Avhose works reflect the form and colour of their owm history. His lot fell upon the evil days of his country, in Avhich the remnant of its virtues perished with its rights. A long series of civil wars and proscriptions had produced that general dissoluteness of manners which invariably attends uncertainty of life and property; Eastern conquests had filled Rome with the accumulated wealth, and polluted her with the vices, of enslaved nations. Had her freedom survived, the old Roman spirit might yet have rallied ; but the one died out when the other was crushed under the despotism of Augustus. The empire grew in might and majesty ; but its men and women became daily viler; and the refinement gained by imitation of foreign examples, though in itself a good thing, w'as a poor exchange for the honour and honesty of the rough old republican days; for the racy freshness of home-grown habits, thoughts, feelmgs, and affections; for every native grace of life, lost for ever. Imagine a man like Tibullus cast upon such times as those, —a man of instinctive elegance of mind, of extreme sensibility and warm affections, more given to contemplation than to action,—and you may go near to anticipate much of the general tone of those effusions in which his mward nature spontaneously reveals itself. Add to this, that he w'as unhappy in love—how could he have been otherwise ?—less prosperous in fortune than in early youth he had reason to expect, a member of a de¬ feated party, and faithful to the memory of a ruined cause ; and Ave shall more clearly discern the sources of that tender melancholy Avhich is his habitual mood, and of those changeful and often impulsive emotions that break its even floAv, but always subside into it and leave it as before. Ill at ease among the realities of the life that surrounded him, he flew to na¬ ture, the perpetual nurse of Avounded spirits, and animating his solitude Avith the traditions of the past, he lived in an ideal w'orld. A relish for the delights of the country Avas a national characteristic of the Romans; in him it had the force of a passion. Hence all those exquisite pictures of rural scenes and habits, wliich so strongly impress us with the idea of the poet’s kindly nature. The Latin elegy, like the Greek epigram or inscription, had a latitude beyond its title. Practically the name implies nothing more definite than a poem not exceeding a certain length, and Avritten in alternate hexa¬ meter and pentameter lines. Of that species which turns on love, Tibul¬ lus is confessedly the master. He is also the most original Latin poet of the Augustan age, by Avhich w'e do not mean that he is distinguished for 8 BIOGKAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. extraordinary powers of invention, but that he owed nothing to Greek models. His subjects, method, diction, and tone, are all his own. His thoughts are natural; he abounds with delicate strokes of sentiment and expression; his language is pure from conceit, and his style, though higlily finished, has a perfectly easy and flowing simplicity. His range, however, as may be supposed from what we have already said, is not a wide one ; and it must be admitted that he recurs to one set of themes and imagery with something of a monotonous frequency. But this defect belongs only to his elegies taken collectively. Separately considered, each piece is re¬ markable for the copious variety of its thoughts and images, as w^ell as for the subtlety of the links by wMch it is made to cohere in the smoothest and most unconstrained manner. The poems which bear the name of Tibullus are comprised in four books. The authenticity of the first two has never been questioned; but a con¬ troversy was raised by I. H. Voss, towards the close of the last century, respecting the authorship of the third book, which is addressed to Netera, nominally by one_ Lygdamus. Who was he ? According to the common opinion, he was either a fictitious personage, or, much more probably, Ti¬ bullus himself under an assumed name. Voss however contended that Lygdamus, or whoever wrote under that name, was not Tibullus, but an¬ other and very inferior poet. This opinion found some adherents in Ger¬ many ; but Milman, so far as w^e are aware, is the only scholar of note by Avhom it has been adopted in this country.* Bach, who at one time in¬ clined to the Vossian theory, has pronounced what we think a sounder critical opinion in his edition of 1819. He says it appears that Tibullus addressed the book in question to Netera when he was very young, and that this circumstance sufficiently explains the faults here and there ob¬ servable in a work which bears strong marks of resemblance to the manner of Tibullus, and is on the whole not unworthy of his genius. As for the fourth book, we see no reason to dissent from the judgment pronounced upon it by Milman, in common with many of the best critics. “ The hex¬ ameter poem on Messala,” he says, “ which opens the fourth book, is so bad, that although a successful Elegiac poet may have failed when he at¬ tempted Epic verse, it cannot well be ascribed to a writer of the exquisite taste of Tibullus. The smaller Ele^es of the fourth book have all the inimitable grace and simplicity of Tibullus. With the exception of the thirteenth, (of which some lines are hardly surpassed by Tibullus himself,) these poems relate to the love of Sulpicia, a woman of noble birth, for Cerinthus, t^ j^^eal or fictitious name of a beautiful youth. Sulpicia seems to have belonged to the intimate society of Messala (El. iv. 8). Nor is there any improbability in supposing that Tibullus may have writ¬ ten Elegies in the name or by the desire of Sulpicia. If Sulpicia was her¬ self the poetess, she approached nearer to Tibullus than any other writer of Elegies.” 1 Smith’s Diet, of Greek and Rom. Biog. art. Tibullus. THE POEMS OF VALEEITJS CATIJLLTIS. ■V. _ X I. DEDICATION. To whom do I give this sprightly little book, new, and just polished with dry pumice ? ^ To you, Cornelius for you were wont to think my trifles of some account, and that even at the time when you alone among Italian scholars dared to expound the history of every age in three treatises, Jupiter ! how erudite and elaborate ! Accept therefore this little book, such as it is; and, O protecting Virgin,^ may it endure for many a century. II. TO LESBIA’S SPARROW.* Sparrow, delight of my girl^ which she plays with, which ' Dry pumice.~\ The Romans wrote on parchment, and used pumice stone, as the modems do, to smooth the face of the sheet that it might the better receive the ink. When the writing was finished they smoothed the outside of the sheet also; hence any highly finished composition was said figuratively to be pumice expolitum. * Cornelius.'] That this was Cornelius Nepos, the historian, is suffici¬ ently established by a poem of Ausonius. ® Protecting Virgin.] Minerva, the patroness of literature. Several editions read patrima Virgo, an allusion to the birth of the goddess from the brain of Jove without a mother. But probably the whole passage is spurious, as Handius argues; nor is it likely that Catullus would have invoked the austere Minerva’s patronage for his light and sportive effusions, though she might not have disdained a few of his poems, such as the “ Nuptials of Peleus and Thetis.” * To Lesbia’s Sparrow.] The learned Politian, Lampridius, Turnebus, and Vossius will have it, that Lesbia’s sparroAV is an indecent allegory, typifying the same thing as the “ grey duck ” in Pope’s imitation of Chaucer. Politian has been smartly castigated for this by Sannazarius, 10 CATULLUS. she keeps in her bosom, to whose eager beak she offers the tip of her finger, and provokes its sharp peckingsj when my bright¬ ly fair darling has a mind to indulge in some little endearing sport/ as a solace, I believe, for the grief of absence^ that the painful smarting of her bosom may be still : to be able to play with thee, as she does, and allay my grief and anxiety of - mind, were as welcome to me, as they say was to the swift¬ footed girP that golden apple, which loosed her long-bound zone.^ in some witty lines, which end with something to the effect that the critic would like to devour the bird : Mens hie Pulicianus Tam bellum sibi passerem Catulli Intra viscera habere concupiscit. “ I agree with Sannazarius,” says Noel. “Take this piece in its nattiral and obvious sense, and it is a model of grace and good taste : adopt the licentious allegory, and nothing can be more forced and frigid.” Martial, the professed imitator of Catullus, and for that very reason to be dis¬ trusted as his interpreter, set the first example of this perverse refinement on the simple meaning of the poem. “ Kiss me,” he says, “ and then Donabo tibi passerem Catulli, I will give you Catullus’s sparrow,”—by which he does not mean a poem. Again, in the Apophoreta there is the following passage about putting a bird in a cage. Si tibi talis erit, qualem dilecta Catullo Lesbia ploravit, hie habitare potest. “ If you have such a sparrow as Catullus’s Lesbia deplored, it may lodge here.” Chaulieu has an epigram to the same purport: Autant et plus que sa vie Phyllis aime un passereau ; Ainsi la jeune Lesbie Jadis aima son moineau. Mais de celui de Catulle Se laissant aussi charmer, Dans sa cage, sans scrupule, Elle eut soin de 1’ enfermer. ^ The swift-footed girlJ] Atalanta would accept no one as a husband who could not excel her in the race. After baffling many suitors by her extraordinary speed, she was won by Hippomenes by means of a strata¬ gem suggested by Venus. The goddess gave him three golden apples, which he threw down before Atalanta at critical moments in the race; she stopped to pick them up, and was beaten. ^ Loosed her zone.'] Virgins wore a girdle which was unbound by tlie bridegroom’s own hands on the wedding night. The custom was common both to Greece and Italy, and, in the language of both, the phrase to undo the zone, was currently used to signify the loss of virginity. In Greece the same significance was attached to the “ mitra,” the band, or “ snood,” as the Scotch call it, with which maidens bound up their hair; and in CATULLUS. 11 ^111.5 LAMENT FOR THE DEATH OF THE SPARROW.^ Lament, 0 Loves and Desires, and every man of refine¬ ment ! My girl’s sparrow is dead, my girl’s pet sparrow, which she loved more than her own eyes ; for it was a honeyed darling, and knew its mistress as well as my girl herself knew her mother; nor did it ever depart from her breast, but hopping about now hither, now thither, would chirp ever uaaee to its mistress only. Now does it go along the gloomy path to that region whence no one can return. Malediction to you! ’cruel glooms of Orcus, that devour all fair things; such a pretty sparrow you have taken from me. Unhappy event! poor little sparrow ! On your account my girl’s eyes are now red and swollen with weeping. IV. THE PRAISE OF THE PINNACE.^ That pinnace you see, my friends, avers that it was once the swiftest of vessels, and never failed to outstrip the speed of any craft that swam, whether the course was to be run with oars or canvass. And this, it says, the coast ^ of the threatening Adriatic, and the Cyclades deny not, nor noble Rhodes, nor rugged Thrace,^ Propontis,® ncv the angry Pontic Gulf where that pinnace, as it afterwards became, was formerly a leafy wood; for often hath it uttered a rust¬ ling sound with its vocal foliage on the Cytorian range. Scotland formerly, the lassie who had lost her snood without permission of the kirk, was in danger of the cutty stool. ^ The Death of the Sparrow.'] This exquisite little poem was in high repute among the ancients. Juvenal alludes to it in his sixth Satire, and Martial in several places. It has been imitated, but far from equalled, by Ovid, in his elegy on the death of a parrot, and by Stella, Martial’s contemporary, in a lost poem on a dove. Noel, the French translator of Catullus, has enumerated fifteen modern Latin imitations. * The Praise of the Pinnace.] Catullus appears to have written this poem on the occasion of his return from Bithynia. It contains a geo¬ graphical summary of his voyage in inverted order. ® Coast.] There is a peculiar propriety in this w'ord; because the ancient navigators usually coasted along and seldom ventiired on the open sea. ^ Cyclades.] A round cluster of islands in the Archipelago. * 7'hrace.] Now called Romania or Roumelia. ® Propontis.] Sea of Marmora. ^ Pontic Bay.] The Euxine, now the Black Sea. 1 12 CATULLUS. To you also, Pontic Amastris,^ and box-clad Cytorus,^ my pinnace says that these facts were well known,—says that from its earliest origin it stood upon your summit, that it first dipped its oars in your waters,*and bore its master thence through so many raging seas, whetlier^thfi_.jwind piped from larboard or from starboard, or wheth er fav onrinor fell on both shcet ^ togeth er; and that it made no vows under distress to the gods of the coast, when it came from the ex¬ tremity of the sea and reached this limpid lake.^ But these things belong to the past; it is now growing old in secluded repose, and dedicates itself to thee. Castor, and to thy twin brother.® V. TO LESBIA. Let us live and love, my Lesbia, and a farthing for all the talk of morose old sages ! Suns may set and rise again ; but jyre, when once our brief light has set, must sleep through a ']{)erpetual night. Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, then another thousand, then a second hundred, then stilP another thousand, then a hundred. Then when we shall have made up many thousands, we will confuse the reckoning, so that we ourselves may not know their amount, nor any spite- * Amastris.'\ A town near Cytorus, now called Famastro. ^ Cytorus.~\ A mountain in Paphlagonia in Asia Minor. Evelyn calls Box-hill in Surrey, “ The Cytorus of England.” ^ Favouring Jove.'\ The god of the air, put by synecdoche for the wind. ^ Both sheets.'] TJtrumque pedem. The lower corners of the sail, and the ropes by which they were made fast, were called pedes. “ Sheets ” is the corresponding technical term in English. ® This limpid lake.] Lake Benacus, now the Lago di Garda. ® Dedicates itself, &c.] This little poem, which was probably sus¬ pended as an exvoto in the temple of Castor and Pollux, has compara¬ tively slight interest for modern readers, yet it has been the theme of countless imitations and parodies, the earliest of which is extant in the Catalecta Virgilii. It is a squib upon the famous Ventidius, who began life as a muleteer, and afterwards rose to be praetor and consul. The modern parodies are very numerous. A collection of ten, edited with notes by Sextus Octavianus, was published at York in 1579. The most notable of them is one by Julius Ca3sar Scaliger; it is a fine sample of the mutual amenity of the learned of the sixteenth century. The subject of the lampoon is Boletus, who is shown up as a pimp, a thief, an assassin, and a drunkard, &c. ^ Still another, &c.] Usque: without intermission; in a breath. CATULLUS. 13 ful person have it in his power to envy us^ when he knows that our kisses were so many. VI. TO FLAVIUS. Flavius, you would freely tell Catullus of your charmer, nor could you keep silence on that'^subject, were it not that she has neither sprightliness nor grace. Surely you love some hot-blooded jade or another, and you are ashamed^ to confess it. Your couch, scented with garlands and Syrian oil, is by no means silent, but tells a clamorous tale ; so too does the cushion equally indented in this place and in that, and the creaking and stamping of the quivering bed; for unless you can hush up these evidences, silence is of no avail. Who is there to whom your lank, enfeebled flanks do not reveal what follies you commit by night? Tell me therefore what you have got, whether fair or foul; I wish to cry up you and your beloved to the skies in gay verse. ^ VII. TO LESBIA. You ask how many kisses of yours, Lesbia, may be enough for me, and more ? As the numerous sands that lie on the spicy shores^ of Cyrene, between the oracle of sultry Jove^ and the sacred tomb of old Battus or as the many stars that in the silence of night behold men’s furtive amours to kiss you with so many kisses is enough and more for madly fond Catullus; * Envy t 4 s.] Invidere ; i. e. to hurt us by his envy ; for Roman super¬ stition recognised an occult and mischievous potency in the very senti¬ ment of envy. See the last note on Poem vii. 2 Spicy shores.'] Literally, productive of Laserpitium. This Laser- pitium appears to have been a gum-resin, but what was its precise nature is u nkn own to the moderns. In an old translation of three plays of Plautus, a note on the words of Sirpe and Laserpitium says: “ This Sirpe is a species of Benjamin, from whence sprung an odoriferous liquor, called Laserpitium, quasi Lac Serpitium.” 3 The oracle, &c.] The oracle of Jupiter Ammon on the confines of Egypt. The epithet cestuosi, here translated sultry, is literally and applies to the heaps of burning sand, like waves, amidst which stood the oases of Jupiter Ammon. * Old Bathis.] Battus was the royal founder of the city of Cyrene in Libya. His tomb was four hundred miles from Ammon’s temple. ^ As the many stars, &c.] Thus imitated by Ariosto, canto 14, E per quanti occhi il ciel le furtive opre Degli amatori a mezza notte scopre. 14 CATULLUS. such a multitude as prying gossips can neither count, nor be witch ^ with their evil tongues. VIII. TO HIMSELF. ^ Wretched Catullus, cease your folly, and look upon that as lost which you see has perished. Fair days shone once for you, when you bent your constant steps whither that girl drew them, who was loved by us as none ever will be loved. There all these merry things were done which you desired, and to which she was nothing loth. Fair days indeed shone for you then. Now she is not willing, be you too self-possessed^ and follow not one who shuns you, nor lead a miserable life, but bear all with obsth^cy, be obdurate. Farewell, girl; Catullus is now obdurate: he will neither seek you more, nor solicit your unwilling favours. But you will grieve, false one, when you shall not be entreated for a single night. What manner of life now remains for you ? Who will visit you ? Who will think you charming ? Whom will you love now ? Whose will you be called ? Whom will you kiss ? Whose lips will you bite But you, Catullus, be stubbornly obdurate. IX. TO VERANNIUS.s Verannius, foremost in my eyes of all my friends, had I three hundred thousand of them, are you come home to your household gods, to your affectionate brothers, and your aged ^ Beioitch.'] The Romans thought it unlucky to let the exact count of any of their possessions be known. So far did they carry this super-.-- stition, that when they stored their wine, they would never write “ one ” on the first jar, but “ many ” as being an indefinite number. The French have an old adage which seems to arise from the same source. “ Brebis comptee, le loup la mange : ” Count your sheep and the wolf will eat them. 2 Whose lips will you hite?^ Plautus speaks of Teneris labellis molles morsiunculse. Thus too Horace: Sive puer furens Impressit memorem dente labris notam. Or on thy lips the fierce fond boy Marks with his teeth the furious joy. Francis. I^lutarch tells us that Flora, the mistress of Cn. Pompey, used to say in commendation of her lover, that she could never quit his arms without giving him a bite. ® Verannius.'] He had followed Cneius Calpurnius Piso into Spain, whither he Avent as questor with pretorian power. See Poem xxv. CATULLUS. 15 mother ' •, news for me ! I shall see you St . "^^"you tell of the regions, acts, and tribes 4®£6erians, as your custom is ; and, neck to neck, I shall kiss your pleasant mouth and eyes. 0 all ye happy men, what gladness or happiness exceeds mine ? X. ON VARUS’ MISTRESS. Varus ^ took me to see his mistress, as I was returning leisurely from the Forum: a wench, as it struck me at a glance, by no means deficient in sprightliness or beauty. When we came in, various subjects of conversation occurred to us: among them, what sort of a country was Bithynia,^ what was the state of things there, and how much money had I made in it. I answered as was the fact, that neither my¬ self, nor the praetors, nor their followers had made wherewith any one of us should show a better scented head^ on his return, especially as we had a blackguard pra3tor, who did not care h rush for his followers. “ But surely,” said she, “you at least got bearers for your litter, for the custom is said to have originated there.” ^ “ Nay,” said I, that I might pass myself off to the girl as one of the prosperous, “it did not go so hardly with me, bad as I found the province, that I could not procure eight straight-backed fellows.” But not one had I either here or there who could lay the broken leg of my old truckle-bed on his neck. Thereupon, as became a wanton, she said, “ Lend me those fellows for a little, I entreat you, my Catullus, for I want to be carried to the temple of Sera- ' Varus.] Probably Alphenus Varus, for whom see Poem xxvii. ^ Bithynia,] Catullus held some office under C. Memmius Gemellus, the provincial praetor of Bithynia. ^ Show a better scented headi] A common metaphor for becoming rich. < Originated there.] We have followed, but with some misgiving, the common interpretation, which is based upon the questionable asser¬ tion that the litter or palanquin was first introduced at Rome from Bithynia. But Handius maintains the true reading to be : quod illic Natum dicitur, aere comparasti, that is to say, “ But surely—for money (metal) is said to grow there— you bought, &c.” Bithynia was a sort of Australia in old times, as appears from many passages in classical writers, as well as from the names of some of its cities, such as Chrysopolis, Chalcedon, &c. 16 CATULLUS. pis.”^ “ Stop,” said I ttjr cfossips can neither count, ^ —I made a mistake—Cinna lo Cinna— he bought them. But whether his or mine, ..b matters it to me ? I use them as freely as though I had bought them. But you are plaguily absurd and vexatious, who will not allow one to be careless.” XI. TO FURIUS AND AURELIUS.* Furius and Aurelius, comrades of Catullus, whether he shall make his way among the farthest Indians, where the shore is beaten by the far-resounding eastern wave ; or among the Hyrcani, and the soft Arabs, or the Sacae and the Par¬ thian archers, or where the seven-mouthed Nile colours the sea ; or whether he shall march across the lofty Alps, visiting the monuments of the great Caesar, the, Gallic Rhine and the horrible and remotest Britons ; you who are ready to venture with him upon all enterprises whatever, which the will of the gods shall impose, bear these few unwelcome words to my girl: let her live and be happy with her paramours, three hundred of whom she embraces, loving not one of them truly, but wearing them all out alike.^ Let her. not regard my love as before, a love which has fallen like a flower on the verge of the meadow, after it has been touched by the passing ploughshare.^ * Serapis."] The temple of this Eg 3 rptian deity stood in the suburbs in Catullus’s time. It was a favourite resort of loose women. * Furius and Aurelius.^ This Furius is supposed to have been F. Bi- baculus, whom Quintilian ranks high among the lambic poets; and Aure¬ lius may have been L. Aurelius Cotta, the Praetor. Catullus soon quarrelled with these dear friends, as we shall see presently. ^ Wearing them all out alike.^ Ilia rumpens.'' More exactly rendered by Biacca: E sol di tutti Tenta 1’ iniqua ad isnervar i fianchi. Guarini says of a coquette, that she likes to do with lovers as with gowns, have plenty of them, use one aftey another, and change them often. * Regard my love. \ Noel discerns a peculiar grace in the word which seems to portray the coquette looking back to see if she is still follow’ed by the lover she affects to shun. ® Like a flower, &c.] Very like this is a p^sage, in Virgil, which has been imitated by Ariosto : ’ Purpureus veluti cum flos, succisus aratro Languescit raoriens . . . CATULLUS. XII. TO ASINIUS. Marrucinus Asinius,^ you use your left hand^ in n( able manner in hours of mirth and wine. You napkins of those who are at all heedless. Do you thil witty ? You do not perceive, silly fellow, how low an( becoming a thing it is. You do not believe me ? your brother Pollio,^ who would be glad if your thefts couh be got rid of even at the cost of a talent: for he is a youth ac¬ complished in pleasantries.^ Wherefore expect either three hundred lampoons, or send me back my napkin, which I regard not for its intrinsic value, but as a souvenir of my comrade. For Fabullus and Verannius sent me napkins as a present from Iberian Setabis,^ which of course I must prize as I do my Verannius and Fabullus. Come purpureo fior languendo more Clie T vomere al passar tagliato lassa. Noel’s remarks on this poem are ingenious. Catullus, he says, appears by no means cured of his passion, though he talks so boldly. He is jealous and piqued : he vents his resentment in no gentle terms, but dares not address his faithless mistress directly. He imposes that painful task on his friends, and implies that in so doing he puts their friendship to as severe a test as though he asked them to accompany him upon one of those formidable journeys he has enumerated. This explanation justifies the geographical exordium, which would otherwise seem cold and out of place. ^ Marntcinus Asinius.'] Whether Marrucinus is a name or an epithet, and if the latter, what is to be understood by it, are questions much dis¬ puted. The Marrucini were a people of Campania, situate between the Vestini and the Peligini: their chief town was Teate, now Chie'ti. They were distinguished for their fidelity to the Romans; therefore Vulpius and Doering suppose the epithet Marrucinian is meant to reproach Asinius with his degeneracy from the high character of his countrymen. .Scaliger says, the Marrucini stood in equal repute with Boeotians for stupidity, and accuses Avantius of proposing to read “ Inter coeiiam,” in¬ stead of “ Marrucine,” merely because he was himself a Marrucinian by birth, and wished to destroy the record of the hebetude of his countrymen. Many conceive that Asinius is merely styled of the country he belonged to, without any reproach implied. Lastly, Marrucinus may be a proper name. ^ Left hand.'\ Thievish hand is implied. ^ Pollio.f Supposed to be Asinius Pollio, the poet, orator, and states¬ man, the friend of Horace and Virgil, who played so important a part under the reign of Augustus. * Pleasantries.'] Facetiarum : the word has a larger meaning than its English derivative “ facetiousness.” Facetus comes from facere, and signifies, as Noel well says, “ un homme qui a 1’ heureux don de 1’ apropos dans tout ce qu’il dit et tout ce qu’il fait.” ® Setabis.] A city of Spain, on the river Tarracon. c CATULLUS. XIIL TO FABULLUS. Lvill sup well at my house in a few days, my Fabullus, fods favour you, provided you bring with you a good Copious supper, not forgetting a fair girl, and wine, and and all manner of laughter. These things I say if you ring with you, my bonny man, you shall sup well; for the purse of your Catullus is full of cobwebs. But in return you shall have what you may call a very love,^ or if there be any¬ thing else sweeter or more elegant, you may call it by that name. For I will give you an unguent ^ which the Loves and Desires bestowed on my girl; and when you smell it, you will beseech the gods, Fabullus, to make you all nose. XIV. TO LICINIUS CALVUS.3 Did I not love you more than my eyes, most pleasant Calvus, I should hate you with Vatinian hatred'* for that pre¬ sent of yours. For what have I done, or what have I said, that you should cruelly plague me with so many poets? May the gods heap many evils on that client who sent you such a lot of villains. But if, as I suspect, Sulla, the commentator, * A very love.'] Accipies meros amoves. Doering and others take this to mean: You shall have whatever I can offer in token of the love I bear you, in other words, a hearty welcome. Achilles Statius ex¬ plains the phrase as a promise that nothing shall be talked of at the supper but love, either love in general, or “ my love,” i. e. Catullus’s, if the reading be meos amoves; and he quotes several passages in point, e. g. Vineta cvepat mera, Hor., “Ke prates of nothing but vineyards.” Our interpretation is supported by the authority of Muretus. “ An ungimit.] Both Greeks and Romans used perfumes and chaplets of flowers at their entertainments. “ Longepierre, to give an idea of the luxurious estimation in which garlands were held by the ancients, relates an anecdote of a courtesan, who in order to gratify three lovers without leaving cause of jealousy with any of them, gave a kiss to one, let the other drink after her, and put a garland on the brow of the third ; so that each was satisfied with his favour and flattered himself with the pre¬ ference.”— Moove, Anacr. Ixx. * Calvus.] Cornelius Licinius Calvus, a celebrated lawyer, orator, and poet. See Poems 1. liii. * Vatinian hatred.] Calvus had prosecuted Vatinius for bribery, and the man’s general character for malignity made Vatinian hate proverbial. See Poem 1. CATULLUS. 19 has given you this new and choice present, I am not vexed, but delighted that your labours were not spent in vain.^ Great gods, what a horrible and accursed book ! And this forsooth you have sent to your Catullus, that he might be bored to death all day long in the Saturnalia,^ the best of our festivals. No, no, wag, this shall not pass with you so ; for as soon as it dawns I will run to the booksellers’ stalls; I will collect your Cassii, your Aquinii* Sutfenus, and all sorts of poisonous trash, and pay you back withthese torments. Fare you well, meanwhile, hence with you, begone to whence you came in evil hour, pests of the age, you execrable poets. XV. TO AURELIUS. I COMMEND myself and my love to you, Aurelius, with this modest request; if ever your heart was set upon an object and longed to find it chaste and unsullied, watch over the chastity of this ward I commit to your care, and keep it safe ;— not from the general public: I have no fear of men who hurry here and there through the streets, engrossed with business; but I fear you 4ind your everlasting priapism, that spares neither fair nor foul. Expend it abroad, how you please and on whom you please; I except this one object alone, and not unreasonably, as I think. But if in natural depravity and the delirium of concupiscence, you proceed to the unpardonable crime of inveigling one who is dear to me as my own life, oh then merciless will be your fate: feet bound—doors open— radishes and mullets ! ^ ’ Labours not spent in vain.'\ That is, I am glad that you have re¬ ceived so appropriate an honorarium for advocating the cause of that wretched pedant. * Satumalia.'\ At the festival of the Saturnalia held in December, friends exchanged presents; slaves took mirthful liberties with their masters ; all business was suspended; and in short, people endeavoured to revive for the time the famed golden age of the reign of Saturn. ^ Ladishes, mullets.'] He threatens Aurelius with the atrocious punishment, which law or custom allowed the injured person to inflict on the spot upon the adulterer who was caught in the fact. 11 is thus described by Parthenius: Deprehensos quadrupedes constituebant, ac partibus posterioribus violenter expilatis, grandiores raphanos, aut mugiles, summo cum cruciatu immitlebant. c 2 I 20 CATULLUS. XVI. TO AURELIUS AND FURIUS. I WILL trim you and trounce you,^ Aurelius and Furius, you infamous libertines, who judge from my verses that I am myself indecent because they are a little voluptuous; for it becomes the true poet^ to be himself chaste; but it is not at all necessary that his verses should be so.^ On the contrary, * I will trim you and trounce you.'\ Pcedicabo et irrumabo. These detestable words are used here only as coarse forms of threatening, with no very definite meaning. It is certain that they were very commonly employed in this way, with no more distinct reference to their original import than the corresponding phrases of the modern Italians, T ho in culo and becco foUtito, or certain brutal exclamations common in tlie mouths of the English vulgar. ® The true poet.'] Pium poetam; the idea which these words conveyed to the mind of a Roman corresponded very closely with that which is expressed in the words, “ the poet who is true to his vocation.” In Poem xiv. the epithet impiorum is applied to bad poets. ^ To be chaste, &c. ] Ovid has a distich to the same effect: Crede mihi, distant mores a carmine nostri; Vita verecunda est, musa jocosa mihi. “ Believe me there is a wide difference between my morals and my song; my life is decorous, my muse is wanton.” And Martial says: Lasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba est. Which is thus translated by Maynard : Si ma plume est une putain, Ma vie est une sainte. Pliny quotes this poem of Catullus to excuse the wantonness of his own verses, which he is sending to his friend Paternus; and Apuleius cites the passage in his Apology for the same purpose. “ Whoever,” says Lambe, “ would see the subject fully discussed, should turn to the Essay on the Literary Character by Mr. Disraeli.” He enumerates as instances of free Avriters who have led pure lives, La Motte le Vayer, Bayle, La Fontaine, Smollet, and CoA\dey. ‘ The imagination,’ he adds, ‘ may be a volcano, while the heart is an Alp of ice.’ It Avould, hoAvever, be diffi¬ cult to enlarge this list, Avhile on the other hand the catalogue of those who really practised the licentiousness they celebrated, would be very numerous. One period alone, the reign of Charles the Second, would furnish more than enough to outnumber the above small phalanx of pui’ity. Muretus, whose poems clearly gave him every right to know¬ ledge on the subject, but whose known debauchery would certainly*have forbidden any credit to accrue to himself from establishing the general purity of lascivious poets, at once rejects the probability of such a con¬ trast, saying: Quisquis versibus exprimit Catullum Raro moribus exprimit Catonem. “ One who is a Catullus in verse, is rarely a Cato in morals.” CATULLUS. 21 the very thing to give them zest and charm, is that they be a little voluptuous and indecent, and able to excite prurience, I do not say in beardless boys, but in the hardened fibres of veterans in debauchery. You, because you have read of many thousand kisses in my lines, think me effeminate ; but do not presume upon my written follies; hands off! or I will give you awkward proof of my manhood. XVII. TO A TOWN. I 0 TOWN, that wishest to exhibit games on a long bridge,^ and art ready to dance, but fearest the crazy legs of the little bridge standing on piles, lest it fall flat beyond recovery, and I sink in the deep pool; may a good bridge be made for thee ! after thy own heart, one on which even the Salian rites ^ may i be undertaken; but then, O town, grant me this most laughter- i moving boon. I I want a certain townsman of mine to be pitched neck and I heels from the bridge into the water ; and just in that part i where the boggy slime is the bluest and deepest in the whole j lake and fetid marsh. The man is utterly witless; he has I not as much sense as a child of two years old, rocked to sleep : on his father’s arm. Though he has to wife a girl in her I earliest bloom, and though this girl, more delicate than a ; tender kid, should be watched more, carefully than the ripest : grapes, he lets her play as she will, and never cares a rush ; : nor does he bestir himself on his own part, but lies like the I felled alder in a Ligurian ditch,^ as wholly insensible as though 1 he had no wife at all. Just so this dolt of mine sees nothing, i hears nothing ; he does not even know who he is, or whether I he exists or not. Now I want to send him head foremost from the bridge, m order to see if it be possible suddenly to rouse the stolid * Exhibit games on a long hridge.'\ Public spectacles were usually exhibited on the town bridge; and the practice continued in modern Italy in the times of Volpi and Corradini. * The Saliayi rites.'] Salisubsulus was a name of Mars, whose priests, the Salii, used in their rites to dance wildly through the streets, carrying I the sacred ancilia in procession. 1 ® Ligurian ditch.] The Ligurians carried on a considerable traffic in timber, which they felled in the forests of the Apennines. 99 CATULLUS. numskull, and leave his inert soul behind in the heavy mud, as the mule leaves her iron shoe^ in the stiff slough. XVIII. TO THE GARDEN GOD.^ This grove I dedicate and consecrate to thee, Priapus,-^ who hast thy dwelling and thy woodlands at Lampsacus ; for the coast of the Hellespont, abounding above all others in oysters, especially worships thee in its cities. XIX. THE GARDEN GOD. Shaped out of a dry oak by a rustic hatchet, I, lads, have fostered this place, and the marsh-land cot thatched with rushes and bundles of reeds, so that they have thriven more and more every year. For the masters of the place worship me and salute me as a god, both the father of the cottage and his son; the one taking care with diligent husbandry to keep my fane clear from brambles and rough weeds, the other continually bringing me little offerings with liberal hand. I am crowned with a garland of bright flowers, the firstlings of the blossoming spring, and with the soft green blade and ear of the tender corn. Yellow violets are offered to me, and the yellow poppy, pale gourds and fragrant apples, and the red grape reared under its shady vine. Sometimes (but you will keep it secret)^ even the bearded he-goat and the horny-footed she-goat stain my altar with blood; in return for wliich ‘ Iron shoe.'\ The shoes of beasts, among the ancients, were not nailed to the hoof, but tied on with leather; consequently they were veiy liable to slip off. ® To the Garden God.~\ This fragment, and the two following poems, are found in the Catalecta of Virgil, but they are assigned to Catullus by many of the best critics, chiefly on the authority of Terentianus Maurus. ® Priapus.^ This lusty god, born at Lampsacus, a city of Asia Minor, near the Hellespont, was the son of Bacchus and Venus, and his tempera¬ ment was such as became his parentage. Hence the appropriateness of that peculiarly Catullian epithet ostreosior, “ more abounding in oysters,” as applied to the coasts most favoured by the lascivious deity. * A dry oak.] The bust of Priapus was commonly cut out of the standing trunk of a tree, and Avas armed with a sickle, as well as with a phallus of most formidable dimensions. ® Keep it secret.] Some understand by this that Priapus was afraid of i the anger of the Celestials if they heard of his receiving honours due to ' CATULLUS. 23 honours Priapus is bound to do all those things which are expected of him, and to watch the master’s garden and vine¬ yard. Forbear therefore, boys, from pilfering here. Our next neighbour is rich and his Priapus is negligent. Take from him ; this path will lead you to his grounds. XX. THE GARDEN GOD. I, TRAVELLER, I, fashioned by rustic art out of a dry poplar, watch the little field you see on the left, and the cottage and the little garden of the poor owner, and repel the thief’s rapacious hands. I am crowned in spring with a wreath of many colours; in the heat of summer with reddening corn ; in autumn with sweet grapes and green shoots of the vine, and with the pale green olive. The delicate goat carries to the town from my pasture udders distended with milk; and the fat lamb from my folds sends its owner home with a handful of money; and the tender calf, in spite of its mother’s lowings, pours out its blood before the temples of the gods. There¬ fore, traveller, you shall revere this god, who addresses you, and keep your hands off. It will be better for you; for an instrument of punishment, a radiQphallus, is in readiness. “I should like to see it, egad,” say you: then, egad, here comes the farmer, and that same phallus, plucked from its place by his sturdy arm, will become a handy cudgel in his fist. XXI. TO AURELIUS. Aurelius, chief furnisher of famine-spread boards,^ past, present, and to come, you are bent on debauching my young friend ; and you make no secret of it; for you never quit the poor thing’s side, nor lose an opportunity of toying and try¬ ing all the arts of seduction. But all in vain ; for my venge¬ ance will anticipate your insidious purposes. Now if you did all this upon a full stomach, I might have patience; but them alone; for he was one of that lower order of deities, to which Faimus, Hippona, and others belonged, who were not admitted into heaven, or entitled to blood offerings. * Furnisher of famine-spread hoards.'] Pater esuritionum: literally “ father of starvations.” It was usual in the banquets of the Romans to appoint a president, not necessarily the master of the house, "who was called master, lord, or father of the feast. In allusion to this custom, Catullus humorously calls Aurelius a father of fasts. 24 CATULLUS. what vexes me is, that under your tuition the poor child must learn to bear hunger and thirst. Desist, now, I warn you, whilst you can do so with honour, lest- XXII. TO VARUS. That SufFeiius, whom you; Varus, know well, is a nice fellow, a pleasant talker, and a wit moreover he makes no end of verses. I believe he has written ten thousand or more, nor are they scribbled as usual on palimpsest.^ 0 no! royal paper, new covers, new bosses, red bands, the sheets ruled with lead, and the whole smoothed with pumice. When you read these books, then that graceful and witty Sutfenus seems to you again a downright goatherd^ or a ditcher, so ex¬ treme is the change. What are we to think of this ? He who but now seemed a professed jester, or whatever else is more glib and flippant, becomes stupider than a stupid country clown as soon as he puts his hand to poetry ; and this same man is never so happy as when he is writing poetry, he so delights in himself, so admires himself.'^ Doubtless we are all likewise fallible, nor is there any one whom you may not perceive to be a Suffenus in some particular. Each has his own assign- ^ A wit.'\ Urhanus. Muretus, in a note on this word, adduces pass¬ ages from Horace and Plautus, in which it is applied in this sense to “ diners oxit.” ^ Palimpsest.'] Parchment used a second time to write on, after erasing the characters previously inscribed on it, was called a palimpsest. The Romans called their best kinds of paper, royal, hieratic, Augustan, &c. The word liber, which commonly signifies a book, is here under¬ stood to mean the wrapper. The Romans had very few books of the modern form, libri qiiadrati; their volumes {volumen, from volvere, to roll) were generally scrolls consisting of sheets of parchment ce¬ mented together and rolled round a piece of wood. The scroll had an ornamental boss, umbilicus, attached to its lowecwend-; and it was tied up with thongs of stained leather, lora. ^ A downright goatherd.] Unus caprimulgus, h. e. plane et quantus quantus est. Doering. Is never so happy, &c.] So Horace, Epist. ii. 2, 107 : Gaudent scribentes, et se venerantur, et ultro. Si taceas, laudant, quicquid scripsere beati. and Boileau in his second satire : Un sot en ecrivant fait tout avec plaisir; II n’a pas dans ses vers 1’ embarras de choisir ; Et toujours amoureux de ce qu’ il vient d’ ecrire, Ravi d’ 6tonnement, en soi-meme il s’ admire. CATULLUS. 25 ed failing; but we do not see what is in the wallet on our back.^ XXIII. TO Fumus. You, Furius, who possess neither slave nor coffer, nor a bug nor a spider, nor a fire,^ have yet a father and a step-mother whose teeth can chew up even flint. A pretty life you lead with your father and your father’s wooden spouse; ^ and no wonder ; for you are all in good health, you digest well, you fear no-'^ thing, neither fires, nor heavy losses, nor impious deeds, nor treacherous poison, nor any perilous chances. Moreover you have bodies more dried than horn, or if anything else there is more arid, by heat, and by cold, and hunger. Wherefore should you not be comfortable and happy? You are free from sweat, from spittle, from mucus, and unpleasant snivel at the nose. To this cleanliness add the still cleanlier fact that your posteriors are neater than a salt cellar, nor do you void anything from them ten times in a year, and tv/ien you do^ it is harder than a bean or than pebbles, so that if you rub and crumble it in your hands you can never dirty a finger. De¬ spise not these precious advantages, Furius, nor think little of them, and cease to pray, as you are wont, for a hundred thousand sesterces ; for you are blest enough. XXIV. TO JUVENTIUS. 0 FAIREST bud of the Juventian race, past, present, and to come, I had rather you had given my wealth to that fellow who has neither slave nor coffer, than suffer yourself to be loved by him.—What! is he not handsome ? you will say.— He is; but this handsome man has neither slave nor coffer. Disdain my words, and make light of them as you will; still, I say, he has neither slave nor coffer. ^ The xoallet^ &c.] An allusion to ^sop’s fable, tJiat Jove has hung two wallets on every man, one in front, stuffed with his neighbour’s faults, the other behind, containing his own. * Neither slave, &c.] To have neither slave nor coffer, was a pro¬ verbial phrase to express extreme poverty. The house that could not maintain a bug must have been a poor one indeed. ^ Wooden spoxtse.'\ Dry and meagre as wood ; like the woman of whom Scarron says, that she never snuffed the candle with her fingers for fear of setting them on fire. 26 CATULLUS. XXV. TO THALLUS. Lascivious Thallus, softer than rabbit’s fur, or goose down, or the tip of the ear, or spider’s web, yet more rapacious than the driving storm, when the dire wintry sea forces the boding birds ashore: send me back my cloak which you stole, and my Setabian napkin, and my Thynian tablets, which you, fool, exhibit openly as if they were heir-looms. Unglue them now from your nails,^ and send them biick to me, lest the.smarting whip inscribe ugly marks on your deli¬ cate flanks and soft buttocks, and you toss about in a way you are not used to, like a tiny bark caught by the raging wind on the vast sea. XXVI. TO FURIUS. Your villa, Furius, is set^ not against the south wind, nor the west, nor the keen north, nor the east; but against fifteen thousand two hundred sesterces.^ O horrible and pestilent wind ! XXVII. TO HIS YOUNG CUP-BEARER. Young server of old Falernian, pour out for me stronger cups,^ for so orders the law imposed by our president Post- humia, more drunken than a drunken grape-seed. But you, spring water, bane of wine,^ begone hence whither you * Unglue them, Reglutina. The Italians say, “ Appicarsi la roba alle mani,” and the Italian translator of Catullus thus renders this line : Sciogli adunque dalla pece 1’ unghia infame. 2 Is seL] Catullus puns upon the word opposita, which besides its ordinary meaning, opposed to, signifies oX&o pawned for — * 15,200 sesterces.'[ A sum nominally equivalent to about £95, accord¬ ing to the calculation of Vossius, but in reality to more than ten times that amount. '* Stronger cups.'\ Literally more bitter, amariores, that is, draughts of dner wine, the original sweetness of which has been converted into spirit by the slow fermentation of years. 5 Bane of wine.'] This scorn of water implies an uncompromising de¬ termination to get drunk as soon as possible, for it was the general prac¬ tice of the ancients to dilute their wine. Anacreon, like a sage tippler as he was, exclaims. Fill me, boy, as deep a draught. As e’er was fill’d, as e’er was quaffd; CATULLUS. 27 will, and migrate to the sober: here is nothing but pure Thyonian juice.^ XXVIII. TO VERANNIUS AND FABULLUS. Ye followers of Piso, empty-handed train, with knapsacks well-packed and light of burthen, excellent Verannius and you my Fabullus, what are you doing ? Have you endured cold and hunger enough with that scamp How much of your profits figures in your account-books as expended ? As happened to myself, who, when I followed my prastor, was out of pocket instead of gaining. O Memmius, finely you cheated and abused me in all that business.^ But as far as I see, you, my friends, have been in the same case; for you have had to do with just such another scoundrel. Court noble friends after this!* But may gods and goddesses shower many curses on you, disgraces to Romulus and Remus ! But let the water amply flow, To cool the grape’s intemperate glow: Let not the fiery god be single, But with the nymphs in union mingle. For though the bowl’s the grave of sadness. Oh ! be it ne’er the birth of madness ! There is an ingenious epigram on this subject in the Greek Anthology, which has been imitated in Latin by Pierius Valerianus. Bacchus, be it remembered, “ was from his mother’s Avomb untimely snatched,” when she Avas consumed by the effulgence of Jove, her lover, Avhom she had rashly insisted on beholding in his native majesty. Ardentem ex utero Semeles lavere Lyaeum Naiades, extincto fulminis igne sacri; Cum nymphis igitur tractabilis, at sine nymphis Candente rursus fulmine corripitur. While heavenly fire consumed his Theban dame, A Naiad caught young Bacchus from the,|lame. And dipp’d him burning in her purest lymph; Still, still he loves the sea-maid’s crystal urn. And when his native fires infuriate'burn, He bathes him in the fountain of the nymph. Moore. ^ Thyonian juice.'] Thyoneus w;a8 efie of the names of Bacchus. “ That scamp.] Vappa. The^word means primitively Avine that is groAvn flat and good for nothing. Vulpius remarks Avith much probability, that Catullus chose f^'dbmmon term of contempt for the sake of the con¬ trast with Frug^Jfcfrfty), the surname of the Piso family. * O Mefnmitii^c.] The original of this passage Avill not bear to be translated literally. Catullus vents his indignation against Memmius in the most obscene inA'ective. See the last note on Poem xxxviii. 28 CATULLUS. XXIX. TO CiESAR ON MAMURRA.^ Who can behold this, who can endure it, save a lewd reprobate, and an extortioner, and a reckless squanderer, that Mamurra should have all the fulness of long-haired GauP and farthest Britain ? Vicious Cjesar,^ wilt thou behold and tolerate such things ? Thou art a lewd reprobate, and an extortioner, and a reckless squanderer. And shall he now, proud and profuse, perambulate all men’s beds, like the white dove of Venus, or Adonis ? Vicious Caesar, wilt thou behold and tolerate such things ? Thou art a lewd reprobate, and an extortioner, and a reckless squanderer. Is it for this, sole and unrivalled emperor, that thou hast been to the extremest island of the west, that this worn-out lecher of thine should riot in boundless extravagance ? “ What matters it ? ” says thy iU-placed liberality. Has he then made away with little ? Has he devoured little ? First his patrimony was spent; next the spoil of Pontus; then thirdly that of Iberia, which the • auriferous Tagus knows, tie is the terror of Gaul, the terror of Britain. Why dost thou cherish this wretch ? Or what ' Mamtm'a.] Mamurra Formianus was a Roman knight, and com¬ mander of the artillery, pt'cefechtm fabrum, to Ccesar during his wars in Gaul. From the fruits of that and other expeditions he amassed an immense fortune, and is said by Pliny to have been the first in Rome who adorned his house with pillars of solid marble. When Cgesar was on a visit at Cicero’s villa, this poem, or that numbered Ivii., which appears to have been written before it, was read to him by one of his suite as he was bathing. He heard it without even changing countenance, and with a moderation which has been highly extolled, accepted the submission of Catullus, and invited him on the same evening to supper. But the nature of this submission, as implied by the word satisfacientem in the passage in which Suetonius relates this anecdote, was abject enough, for it was a penitent retractation made before witnesses. 2 Long-haired GaulJ\ Gallia comata. All Transalpine Gaul was so called. * Vicious Coisar.'] Cinoede Romule. The epithet is here applied in its grossest sense, which again is implied in the allusion to the spoil of Pon¬ tus; for this, as Vossius proves, can only be understood to mean the wealth obtained by Cassar, when a young man, through his infamous rela¬ tions with Nicomedes, king of Pontus—as witness two lines sung by Caesar’s own soldiers on the occasion of his triumph : Ecce Caesar nunc triumphat, qui subegit Galliam ; Nicomedes non triumphat, qui subegit Csesarem. CATULLUS. 29 can he do but devour fat inheritances ? Was it for this, sole and unrivalled emperor, that both of you, father-in-law and son-in-law,'ruined the world? XXX. TO ALPHENUS. Alphenus,^ unmindful, and false to your affectionate com¬ panions, you have no pity now, hard-hearted man, for your dear friend. You do not hesitate to beguile and betray me, perfidious wretch ! The impious deeds of deceitful men please not the celestials; but this you heed not, and you desert me in misfortune. Alas, what can men do henceforth, or in whom can they have confidence ? Surely you bade me yield my soul to you implicitly, unjust one, luring me to love you as though I had nothing to fear. And now you retract, and let the winds and the airy clouds carry away all your idle words and acts. If you have forgotten, yet the gods remem¬ ber. Faith ^ remembers and will make you by and by repent your conduct. XXXI. TO THE PENINSULA OF SIRMIO.* SiRMio, thou precious little eye of all peninsulas and islands which either Neptune owns in calm lakes and in the ‘ Father-in-law and son-in-law, y married Cmsar’s daughter, Julia, and is commonly supposed to be the “ son-in-law ” here meant; but Vossius argues with some force, that socer and gener apply, not to Caesar and Pompey, but to Caesar and Mamurra. Those words, and the corresponding terms in Greek, were often used in an unnatural sense, as for instance in an epigram on Noctuinus, attributed to Calvus, in which occurs this very line, Gener socerque perdidistis omnia. Alphenus.] The circumstances which provoked this complaint are not known to us. The person to whom it is addressed is presumed to have been tliat Alfenus Varus of Cremona, mentioned by Horace, {Sat. 4, lib. i.,) who was originally a barber, and afterwards turned lawyer. ^ Faith had a temple at Rome and was treated wdth divine honours. * The Peninsula of Sirmio.] Vulpius infers from the expression “ your master,” near the end of the poem, that the whole peninsula belonged to Catullus. It is a beautiful spot, finely wooded, and about two miles in circumference. At its extreme point on the Lago di Garda, the founda¬ tions of a very extensive edifice have been discovered—the villa, as som€ suppose, of Catullus. After the siege of Peschiera by the French, General Lacombe Saint Michel surveyed the site, and drew a ground-plan of the building, which is printed in Noel’s notes. It indicates the existence of 30 CATULLL’S. vast sea; how willingly, how joyfully do I revisit thee, scarcely believing myself, that I have left Thynia and the Bithynian plains, and behom thee in safety! Oh, what is more blessed than cares dismissed ; when the mind lays down all its bur¬ then, and, weary with foreign toil, we come to our own home, and rest in the longed-for bed ! This is what alone repays me for so many toils. Hail, beautiful Sirmio, and rejoice in thy master. Rejoice too, ye waves of the Lydian lake.^ Peal out every laugh that is in my home. U XXXII. TO HYPSITHILLA. My sweet Hypsithilla, my delight, my merry soul; bid me, like a dear girl, come to you to pass the noon.^ And if you bid me, add this, that no one bar the gate, that no fancy take you to go abroad, but that you remain at home, ^and prepare for us no end of amorous delights.^ But if you agree, summon me immediately, for I am lying on my back after dinner, full, and pampered, and am bursting my tunic and my very cloak.^ a noble palace in former days, and if this was the villa of Catullus, he must have possessed no inconsiderable fortune. The same general gave a brilliant fete on the spot in honour of its ancient owner, whose praises were said and .sung on the occasion by the Italian poet Anelli. Appropri¬ ate toasts were drunk, and such was the enthusiasm of the moment, that the inhabitants of Sermione (the modern name of the town of Sirmio) luckily just then arriving with a petition of some troops quartered upon them, obtained their request! Bonaparte himself, when going to ne¬ gotiate the treaty of Campo Formio, turned out of his road between Brescia and Peschiera to visit the poet’s residence. ' Lydian lake.l Why Benacus should be so called is not very clear; Vulpius says it is because the territory of Vei'ona, in which the lake lies, belonged to the Rhoeti; the Rhceti sprang from the Tuscans, and the Tuscans from the Lydians. ^ 3b pass the noon.] That is, to take my siesta with you. See Ovid, Amor. i. Eleg. v. ^^ ^ Prepare for us, &c.] We have substituted a vague phrase for a sin¬ gularly plain and precise one. Noel, the French translator, approaches the original more nearly, but still in a covert manner: “ Prepare neuf couronnes an front de ton vainqueur.” The Abb^ Marolle, he says, “ traduit ce passage scabreux d’une manibre assez plaisante : ‘ Et de neuf facons qu’ il y a de caresser quand on est de bonne humeur, n’en oublie pas une.’ II est gai, le cher abbe !” * Am bursting, &c. ] Pezay, a French translator, strangely mistakes the meaning of the passage, as if it amounted to this, “ I have gorged till I am ready to burst;” and he quotes the remark of “une femme char- mante,” who said that her only reply to such a billet-doux would have CATULLUS. 31 ' XXXIII. ON THE VIBENNII.I ^See Metrical Version.] XXXIV. HYMN TO DIANA.^ We, virgins and unblemished youths, are under the protec¬ tion of Diana. Unblemished youths and virgins, let us sing Diana. 0 great Latonian progeny of mightiest Jove, whom th}?- mother laid down near the Delian olive; That thou mightest be mistress of mountains, and verdant woods, and secluded groves, and sounding rivers ; Thou art called Juno Lucina by women in the pains of childbed ; thou art the mighty Trivia, and art called Luna with the borrowed light.^ Thou, goddess, measuring the annual period with thy monthly round, fillest the rustic roofs of the husbandman with good harvests. Be sacred under whatever name it pleases thee,^ and pre- been to send the writer an emetic. But the lady might have prescribed a different remedy if she had been acquainted Avith Martial’s line : O quoties rigida pulsabis pallifCVena ! or with this quatrain of an old French poet: Ainsi depuis une semaine La longue roideur de ma veine, Pour neant rouge et bien en point, Bat ma chemise et mon pourpoint. On the Vihennii^ Instead of a literal translation of tliis, and of some other pieces, which would be insufferable in English, the reader Avill please to accept Noel’s free version in French prose: Effroi des bains publics, filou consomme dans ton art, Vibennius aux mains armies de glu, et toi digne fils d’ un tel pere, d^goutant Ganymhde, fuyez, 1’ exil est votre seule ressource. Que feriez-vous ici ? Le pere est trop illustre par ses rapines, et les oharmes du fils, quoique mis au rabais, ne trouvent plus de chalands. * Hymn to Diana.] This was probably composed for some festival of Diana, but chronology establishes that it was not a secular ode. Ad¬ dresses to this goddess were sung by youths and girls of noble families. Horace has three odes on the same subject. ® Luna with the borrowed light^ “Bastard light” would be a more literal translation. The ancients kneAv that the moon derived her light from the sun. The fact is mentioned both by Lucian and Pliny; and Luna’s car was fabled to be drawn by mules, as emblematic of her spu¬ rious splendour. ■* Whatever name it pleases thee.] Diana, as well as Isis, was “ Dea 32 CATULLUS. serve by thy good aid, as thou art wont, the race of Romulus and Ancus. XXXV. INVITATION TO CJECILIUS. Say, paper, to the tender poet, my companion Cascilius, that he must come to Verona, forsaking the walls of New Comum and the Larian shore,^ for I wish him to hear certain reflections of his friends and mine. Wherefore, if he be wise, he will devour the way, though a girl a thousand times fair call him back, and throwing both her arms round his neck entreat him to delay; a girl who now, if I am truly informed, yearns for him with uncontrollable love. For ever since he read to her his story of the mistress of Dindymus,'^ fires have been consuming the inward marrow of the poor girl. I can excuse thee, girl, more learned than the Muse of Sappho; for beautifully has the Mighty Mother been sung by Coecilius. \ XXXVI. ON THE ANNALS OF VOLIJSIUS. Annals of Volusius, most execrable book,^ fulfil a vow for my girl; for she pledged herself to sacred Venus and to Cupid that if I were restored to her, and ceased to brandish, my truculent iambics,'^ she would give the choicest productions Myrioiioma,” a goddess of ten thousand names. Callimachus, in a hymn to Diana, represents her as asking Jove for perpetual chastity and many names; attributes which seem rather discordant to us, who are not taught to esteem an alias as connected with any virtue. However, she thought the distinction of value, for she preserved it more care¬ fully than Jove’s other gift. Minerva is, I believe, of all heathen god¬ desses, the only one of quite unimpeached chastity, except the Furies. This passage, begging Diana to choose the name she liked, was to avoid a tedious enumeration ; it was usual in invocations to the deities to call upon them by all their names, lest the most agreeable might be missed. Why was there no chance of offence from some nickname or disrelished title ?— Lambe. , * Larian shore.^ The Larius Lacus is noAv the Lake of Como. 2 The mistress of Lindymus.^ The goddess Cybele. * Annals of Volusius, &c.] These annals were an historical poem by Volusius of Padua, written, as the author hoped, after the manner of Ennius. “Most execrable ” is a strong epithet, but not half so strong as the original: cacata charta ; “rhapsodic digue du cabinet,” says Noel, borrowing a phrase of Moliere’s. '* Truculent iambics.] The lambic verse was held to be peculiarly adapted to invective and sarcasm. CATULLUS. 33 of the worst poet to the limping god,^ to be burnt with un¬ lucky wood. ^ So it is plain to_my girl that by her merry and facetious oath she has devoted these worst of poems to the gods.^ Now, O offspring of the azure deep, who dwellest in the sacred Idalium, and the open plains of Syria, in Ancona, the reedy Cnidus, Amathus and Grolgos, and Dyrrachium,'^ the hostelry of the Adriatic, accept and recognise the fulfil¬ ment of the vow, if it is not devoid of piquancy and pretti- 'ness. Into the fire with you, meanwhile, full as you are of boorishness and stupidity. Annals of Volusius, most execrable book. XXXVII. TO CORXIFICIUS. All goes ill, Cornificius, with your Catullus, ill indeed and distressingly, and more and more so every day and hour. I am angry with you. Is it thus you return my love ? Have you—it would have been the slightest and easiest task for you—^liave you comforted me by any line of yours ? some little line or other would be welcome to me, though sadder than the tearful strains of Simonides.^ XXXVIII. TO THE FREQUENTERS OF A CERTAIN TAVERN. Lewd tavern, the ninth sign-post from the temple of the capped brothers,® and you its frequenters, do you think that ‘ The limping god.^ Vulcan, who was thrown down from heaven to earth by Jupiter, and had his thigh broken by the fall. 2 Unlucky wood.^ Roman superstition classified even firewood as lucky and unlucky. To the former belonged in general the wood of such trees as bore fruit, to the latter the rest; but this rule was not without exceptions. ^ So it is plain, &c.] Other meanings have been given to this passage, but all of them appear forced and insipid in comparison with that which we have adopted. The text itself is variously given; we follow Doering’s reading: Et htec pessima se puella vidit Jocose et lepide vovere Divis. ^ Idalium^ &c.] Catullus here enumerates the places where Venus was chiefly worshipped. Ascalon, in the southern lowlands of Syria, was the first city which had a public building in honour of the goddess. Amathus and Golgos were cities, Idalium a forest and city, of Cyprus. Dyrrachium, formerly Epidamuum, is now Durazzo. * Simonides.'] An exquisite elegiac poet of the island of Ceos. * The capped brothers.] Castor and Pollux, who were represented as D y 34 CATULLUS. you alone have the attributes of manhood ? that you alone are licensed to kiss the girls, all and sundry, [and to scorn other men as if they were rank goats]? ^ Is it because you sit there night and day, a hundred boobies or two, that you do not think I will venture to tackle the whole two hundred of you at once ? Ay, but you may think it; and I will write all over the front of your tavern with burnt sticks.^ For my girl, who has fled from my bosom, my girl whom I. loved with a love that will never be equalled, for whom I have waged great wars, has sat herself down there ; and now you all make love to her, pleasant, comfortable fellows, and—what is really too bad—all of you pitiful knaves, gallants of the by-streets, and you above all, Egnatius, one of the long-haired race from the rabbit-warrens of Celtiberia, you whose merit consists in a bushy beard, and teeth scrubbed with Spanish urine.^ XXXIX. UPON EGNATIUS. Because Egnatius has white teeth he grins incessantly. Whether he be present at a criminal prosecution when the wearing a sort of Phrygian cap, in shape like half an egg-shell,—an allu¬ sion to their birih from Leda’s eggs. ‘ Rank goats?\ The line corresponding to the passage enclosed be¬ tween brackets, appears in all the editions, but is certainly spurious, as Handius has shown. 2 Burnt sticks^ Scipionibus, which is the reading of all the MSS,, is shrewdly suspected by Handius to be a transcriber’s mistake for inscrip- tionihus, a word which is here doubly appropriate, whilst the “ burnt stick ” is a common-place detail, the mention of which is superfluous. Inscriptio is the Latin equivalent for the Greek word epigram. Moreover it was customary to display on the fronts of brothels the names of the inmates, just as shopkeepers’ names were inscribed over places of more reputable trade ; this was called inscriptio or titulus. The passage thus amended would mean, “ I will scribble the front of your tavern all over with epigrams and inscriptions of your names.” ^ Spanish urine.'] This is not a malicious invention of the angry poet’s. Strabo and Diodorus state positively that the Spaniards were in the habit of beautifying their teeth and skin with this singular cosmetic. It has been necessary greatly to mitigate tlie obscene ribaldry of this poem in the translation; but this perhaps has not induced any great sacrifice of fidelity. There is often an immense difference between the conventional and the etymological meaning of words, and a translator who regards only the latter must often grossly misrepresent his original. A perfectly literal version of this poem would not be more repugnant to the taste of the English reader than to the spirit of the original, which is that of coarse, half-angry jocularity, rather than of serious menace. CATULLUS. 35 orator moves tlie audience to tears, lie grins; or whether at the scene of woe round the funeral pile of a dutiful son, when the bereaved mother weeps for her only child, he grins. What¬ ever is in hand, wherever he is, whatever he does, he grins. He has this disease upon him, a thing neither elegant, in my opinion, nor genteel. Wherefore I must admonish you, good Egnatius, if you were a native of Rome, or a Tiburtine, or an Umbrian hog, or a fat Etruscan, or a swarthy and huge¬ toothed Lanuvian, or a Transpadane—that I may touch upon my own countrymen also—or were you a native of any country where they wash their teeth in clean water, still I would not have you grin incessantly; for nothing is sillier than silly laughter. / But every Celtiberian in the Celtiberian land is in the habit of scrubbing his teeth and his red gums in the morning with his last night’s urine, so that the more finely polished your teeth are, the more the fact declares you to have drunk of chamber-lye. XL. TO RAVIDUS. What infatuation, wretched Ravidus, drives you headlong upon my iambics? What god, an evil counsellor for you, urges you to an insane strife ? Is it that you may become the common talk ? What would you have ? Do you wish to be notorious on any terms ? You shall be so, since you have sought to supplant me in my love at the cost of lasting punishment. XLI. ON MAMURRA’S MISTRESS. Is that battered strumpet in her senses, who asks me ten thousand sesterces ? ^ That girl with the nasty nose, the mistress of the desperate spendthrift Formianus ? Ye kins¬ men, to whom the care of the girl belongs, call together friends and physicians: the girl is insane. Do not ask what is her malady: she is labouring under visionary delirium.^ * Ten thousand sesterces.'] Nominally about £60, but equivalent to more than ten times that amount in coin of the present day. 2 She is labouring, &c.] Such is the best explanation given of the dubious text solet hoec imaginosum; solet being construed as a neuter transitive verb. But we strongly incline to Doering’s conjectural emend¬ ation : -nec rogare Qualis sit, solet; en imaginosam ! “ The girl is mad, and never thinks of asking what sort of a looking per¬ son she is; what a fanciful wrench ! ” D 2 36 CATULLUS. XLII. ON A HARLOT. Hither, Phalsecian verses I ^ hither all of you from every quarter; hither one and all! A vile harlot thinks me a fit laughing-stock, and refuses to return me your tablets,^ if you can bear this. Let us pursue her and beset her with our demands. Who is she, do you ask ? That jade whom you see moving with ugly affected gait, and grinning disgustingly with a mouth like a Gallic beagle. Plant yourselves round her and beset her with your demands; “ Filthy harlot, give back the tablets; give back the tablets, filthy harlot. You care not a farthing ? 0 lump of mud, 0 common strumpet, or more infamous still if anything can be so ? ” But you must not think even this enough; if, however, it can do nothing more, at least let us force a blush upon her iron dog’s-face.^ Shout again with louder voice: “ Filthy harlot, give back the tablets; give back the tablets, filthy harlot.” But we can do no good; she is not moved a jot. You must change your plan and method, and try if you can suc¬ ceed any better. “ Chaste and virtuous maid, return the tablets.” XLIII. TO THE MISTRESS OF FORMIANUS. Hail, girl, with not over-much of a nose, with no pretty foot, nor black eyes, nor long fingers, nor dry mouth, nor particularly pleasing tongue, hail, spendthrift Formian’s mis¬ tress ! Does the province'* tell that you are beautiful ? Does it compare you with my Lesbia ? 0 senseless and stupid age! ‘ Phalcscian versesJ] The hendecasyllabic metre, so called from Pha- Itficus, who perfected, if he did not invent it. 2 Tablets.'] Pugillaria. These were tables of ivory or wood, thinly coated with wax, the writing upon which could be erased, or scratched in again at pleasure. Upon these Catullus set down the rough draft of the verses he apostrophises in this poem ; therefore he calls the lost property tablets.” ® Iron dog's-face.] The Latins said os fei'reumy “ iron fitce,” as we now say “ brazen face.” The province .The Transpadanian province. CATULLUS. 37 XLIV. TO HIS FARM. O MY farm, whether Sabine or Tiburtine *—for those who have no wish to vex Catullus, aver that you belong to the territory of Tibur ; but those who do so wish, will lay any bet that you are Sabine—but whether you are Sabine or rather Tiburtine, gladly did I find myself in your suburban villa, and get rid of a bad cough which my stomach bestowed upon me not undeservedly, whilst I indulged in sumptuous feasting. For Sextianus, wliilst I had a mind to be a partaker of his good cheer, read me an oration delivered in opposition to Antius, the prosecutor, full of poisonous and pestilent stuff; thereupon a cold rheum and frequent cough shook me^ until I fled to your bosom, and doctored myself with basil and nettle. Wherefore, now restored to health, I return you my best thanks for that you have not punished my fault. Nor do I now object, if again I listen to Sextian’s infernal writ¬ ings, but that their frigidity may inflict rheum and cough, not on me, but on Sextiu^ himself, who only invites me when he has a bad book of his to read. ^ 7 :' ^ ^ '-I XLV. ON ACME AND SEPTIMIUS. ‘ v Thus said Septimiuff,-as he held his beloved Acme on his bosom : “ If I do not love thee to perdition, my Acme, and am not bent on still loving thee constantly through all coming years, as much and as consumingly as possible,^ may I be ex- ‘ Sabine or Tiburtine.\ The farm was situated on the confines of both territories. Why Catullus preferred Tibur does not appear. 2 A cold rheum, &c.] Modem compositions have had the same influ¬ ence on their readers. Swift tells us, in his verses on burning a dull poem : “ The cold conceits, the dulling thoughts. Went down like stupifying draughts ; I found my head begin to swim ; A numbness crept through every limb.” ^ If I do not love thee, &c.] Granville, Lord Lansdown, has imitated this passage, in an inscription on a drinking glass, written under the name of the Lady Mary Villiers, whom he afterwards married: “If I not love thee, Villiers, more Than ever mortal loved before ; 33 CATULLUS. posed alone to a grim-ej^ed lion^ in Libya or in scorching India.” When he said this, Love, who had looked upon him before from the left, now sneezed approvingly from the right. But Acme gently bending back her head, and kissing the love-drunken eyes of her sweet boy with that rosy mouth of hers, said, “ My own life, Septimillus, let us ever serve this one lord alone, so surely as the fire in my soft marrow burns fuller far and more fiercely than ever^^ When she said this. Love, who had looked upon her before from the left, now sneezed approvingly from the right. Now sped upon their course with a good omen, they love and are loved with mutual affection. Love-lorn Septimius prefers Acme before Syria and Britain:^ faithful Acme centres all her pleasure and delight in Septimius alone. Who ever saw happier mortals ? Who ever saw a more auspicious passion! XLVI. HIS FAREWELL TO BITHYNIA. ‘ Now spring brings back tepid gales, now the fury of the equinoctial sky is hushed before the pleasant breath of zephyr. With such a passion, fix’d and sure, As e’en possession could not cure, Never to cease but with ray breath. May then this bumper be my death ! ” ' A grim^eyed lion.^ Coesio leoni. This epithet, says Dr. Nott, here implies having eyes of a greenish brightness, as cats, tigers, lions, and the generality of beasts of prey: eceskis is much the same with the Greek glaucus; whence Minerva, who had such eyes, is called glattcopis, 2 My own life, &c.] Both Nott and Lambe appear to have mistaken the meaning of this passage, making Acme institute a comparison be¬ tween the force of her own passion and her lover’s, of which we can dis¬ cover no indication in the original here subjoined: Sic, inquit, mea vita, Septimille, Huic uni domino usque serviemus, Ut multo mihi major acriorque Ignis mollibus ardet in medullis. Acme’s meaning is. Let our exclusive devotion to this god increase ever¬ more, as does the fervour of my passion. 2 Syria and Britain.'] The Romans supposed Syria to be the centre of the world, and Britain the extremity. Hence there is a peculiar force in the use of these two words in this place ; they imply that Acme w'as dearer to Septimius than all between the world’s centre and its remotest verge. CATULLUS. 39 Left be the Phrygian fields, Catullus, and the fertile soil of sultry Nic£ea; let us^ fiy to the illustrious cities of Asia.^ Now my mind, in a flutter of anticipation, longs to roam; now^ my feet grow strong in joyful .Aagerness. Farewell, swodt circle of companions, who le^'^your distant home together, and who depart by various ways. XLYII. TO PORCIUS AND SOCRATION. Porcius and Socration, two unlucky, scurvy knaves of Piso, and famished underlings of Memmius, has that circum¬ cised Priapus preferred you to my Yerannulus and Fabullus ? Do you fare sumptuously every day; and are my comrades forced to look for invitations in the street?^ XLVIII. TO HIS LOVE. Were T allowed to kiss your sweet eyes without stint, i would kiss on and on up to three hundred thousand times ; nor even then should I ever have enough, not though our crop of kissing were thicker than the dry ears of the corn-field. XLIX. TO MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. Marcus Tullius, most eloquent of the race of Romulus, of all that are, that have been, and that shall be in future years, Catullus thanks you heartily, Catullus the worst of poets—as much the worst of poets as you are the best of all advocates. L. TO LICINIUS. Yesterday, Licinius, we spent our leisure in writing many sportive things on my tablets, as became men like us. Each of us writing verses of refined wit frolicked now in this mea¬ sure now in that, interchanging sallies amid mirth and wine. I left the "^lace so fired by your wit and fun, that food had no relish for poor me, nor could sleep veil my eyes in quiet, but * Phrygian fields . . . Asea.] Achilles Statius says, As Phrygia is in Asia, how could Catullus leave Phrygia to go into Asia ? The answer is: Phrygia is in Asia Minor, not in Asia Proper. 2 Look for invitations, &c.] This hunting for invitations does not, ac¬ cording to modern notions, place the two friends of Catullus in a respect¬ able light; but it was a common and avowed practice at Rome. 40 CATULLUS. I tossed all about the bed in unconquerable excitement, longing to see the light, that I might talk to you and be with you. But after my wearied limbs lay half dead upon my bed, I wrote these lines to you, pleasant friend, that you might per¬ ceive from them my grief at your absence. Now be not over¬ weening, and despise not my prayers I entreat you, apple of my eye, lest Nemesis exact penalties from you. She is a vehement goddess ; beware of offending her. LI. TO LESBIA.i He seems to me to be equal to a god, he seems to me, if it be meet, to surpass the gods, who, sitting opposite to thee, at * To Lesbia.l The first three stanzas of this poem are translated from Sappho’s celebrated ode, preserved by Longinus. Ambrose Phillips’s well-known version of it will be found in a subsequent page; here fol¬ lows one in meagre prose ; “ That man seems to me to be equal to the gods, who sits opposite thee, and hearkens to thee near him sweetly speaking and laughing. This flutters the heart in my breast; for when I see thee, no voice comes from my throat, but my tongue is silent; a subtle fire immediately suffuses my skin ; I have no sight in my eyes; my ears boom; a cold sweat overspreads me ; trembling seizes me all over ; I am greener than grass, and breathless, I seem all but dead.” The reader will perceive that Catullus has not translated Sappho’s last stanza, but has substituted for it (or some one else has done so) one of a very common-place and inapposite character. It is scarcely credible indeed that Catullus can have written such a piece of bathos at all; it is more probably the patchwork of some stupid and conceited pedant. Three attempts have been made to supply the missing stanza. One is by Achilles Statius : Sudor it late gelidus trementi Artubus totis, ^dolaraque vincit Insidens pallor, moriens nec auras Ducere possum. Another is by Jans Van der Does or Douza : Frigidus sudor fluit; horror artus Pallidos herbs, inagis it per omnes, Et pati mortem videor morans in Limine mortis. The third is by Henry Stephens : Manat et sudor gelidus, tremorque Occupat totam ; velut herba pallent Ora; sperandi neque compos, orco Proxiina credo. It is also to be remarked, that Catullus has injudiciously omitted to CATULLUS. 41 once y beholds thee and hears thy sweet laughter; but this takr^s^away all my senses, wretch that I am; for, as soon as I have looked upon thee, Lesbia, there remains to me [no voice], but my tongue is paralysed ; a subtle flame flows down through my limbs ; my ears ring with their own sound ; both my eyes are .veiled in night. Cw~ Ease is baneful to thee, Catullus; thou revellest and de- lightest to excess in ease ; love of ease has ere now destroyed kings and prosperous cities. LII. TO HIMSELF. Wherefore, Catullus, wherefore dost thou delay to die ? Struma Nonius sits in the curule chair; Vatinius perjures himself in the consulship. Wherefore, Catullus, wherefore dost thou delay to die ? LIII. ON CALVUS. I LAUGHED at some one in the crowd at the Forum, who, when my friend Calvus had marvellously w'ell set forth the crimes of Vatinius, exclaimed in admiration, lifting up his hands: “ Great gods', what an eloquent little hop-on-a- stool! ” 1 translate the phrase signifying “ sweetly speaking.” Horace has caught the spirit of it more faithfully : Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo, Dulce loquentem. * Hop-on-a-stool.'\ The word which contains the point of this epigram has been the subject of much debate among the learned. Some read solopachium, meaning “ a mannikin eighteen inches high;” Saumasius proposes salopygium, a “ wagtail;” several editors have salaputium, an indelicate word nurses used to children when they fondled them, so that the exclamation would mean, “ what a learned little puppet! ” Thus Au¬ gustus called Horace purissimum penem. The reading to which we have adhered is salicippium, implying that little Calvus perched himself upon a stool. This reading is confirmed by a passage in Seneca, which men¬ tions tlie oration against Vatinius, and particularly records the fact that on one occasion at least Calvus imponi se supra cippum jussit, and that his friend Catullus called him salicippium disertum. 42 CATULLUS. LIV. TO C^SAR.i CoARSE-MiNDEU CaBsar, I would tliat, if not everything, at least Otho’s very puny head, Vettius’s half-washed legs, and Libo’s nasty stinking habit, were disliked by you, and by that double-dyed old rogue ^ Fuffitius. You shall again be angered by my honest iambics, unique captain ! LV. TO CAMERIUS. I BEG you will tell me, if it is not an impertinent question, where is your hiding-place. I looked for you in the Lesser Campus, in the Circus, in all the book-shops, in the conse¬ crated temple of supreme Jove, and likewise in Pompey’s pro¬ menade. I stopped all the girls I met, those more especially whom I saw looking serenely,^ and demanded you of them, cry- ' To Ccesar.'] Muretus declared these lines to be utterly unintelligible to any but a sibyl; and so they are in the form in which they appear in most editions ; but the sense of the amended text, as given by Doering, is clear and pointed. He reads, Othonis caput oppido pusillum, Vetti, rustice, semilauta crujQ^,. ' Subtile et leve peditum Liboriis, Si non omnia, displicere vellem Tibi, et Fuffitio seni recocto. Irascere iterum meis iambis! Immerentibus, unice imperator. ^ Doahle-dyed old rogue.'] Seni recocto. Horace applies this epithet to one who had often served the office of quinquevir, or proconsul’s not¬ ary, and who was therefore master of all the arts of chicanery. These are his words, Sat. v. lib. 2 : Plerumque recoctus Scriba ex quinqueviro corvum deludit hiantem. A seasoned scrivener, bred in office low, Full often dupes and mocks the gaping crow. Francis. The modern Italians say of a man of this stamp, Egli ha cotto il culo ne* ceci rossi. The phrase seni recocto may also imply one who enjoys a green and vigorous old age, as if made young again, as the old woman w\as by wine, of whom Petronius speaks, Anus recoctavino; or AEson, who was re-cooked by Medaea. That witch, says Valerius Flaccus, Re¬ coquit fessos estate parentes. ^ Looking serenely “ Meaning,” says Dr. Nott, “ that the lovely tranquillity of every female countenance convinced me you were safe ; for if any accident had happened to you, all the women in the city must have had grief pictured in their faces.” “ Rather,” says Lambe, “supposing CATULLUS. 43 ing, “ Give me up my Camerius, wicked wantons ! ” One of them, baring her bosom, says, “ Lo, here he lies hid in these rosy nipples.” Now it w'ould be a labour of Hercules to seek you, if that he true, for in such a proud lodging as that you are sure to he “ not at home,” my friend. Tell me where you are likely to be; out with it boldly, give it to the light of day. Do the milk-white girls detain you ? If you keep a close tongue, you will throw away all the fruits of love; Venus delights in tattling. Or if you will, you may keep your mouth shut, provided I have a share in your friendship? Not if I were that famed guardian of Crete not if I were borne by the flying Pegasus; not if I were Ladas,^ or the wing-footed Perseus not if Rhesus’'^ swift, snow-white team were mine ,—add to these the feather-footed flying sons of Boreas,^ take too the speed of the winds, and though you should bestow upon me all these put together, still I should be wearied in the marrow of every limb, and eaten up with fatigue upon fatigue in hunting after you, my friend. LVI. TO CATO.® [See Metrical Version.] it probable that any female who looked peculiarly smiling, was rejoicing in the possession of your love, and the knowledge of your place of con¬ cealment.” The choice between these two interpretations turns upon the meaning to be given to tamen in the line Quas vultu vidi tame^x sereno. If the force of the word tamen (however) be thrown on the relative pro¬ noun, it will give us Nott’s view of the passage; but if it be made to bear upon the antecedent, it will give us Lambe’s. Doering adopts the latter construction, and exhibits it in this paraphrase ; illas tamen praeci- pue, quas vultum serenum prse se ferre videbam, vel liis verbis, ut te mlhi redderent, impensius rogabam. ‘ Guardian of Crete.] Talus, a giant -with a brazen body, employed by Jove to guard Crete while Europa resided there as his mistress. He went round the whole island every day. . ^ Ladas.] One of Alexander the Great’s couriers, who ran so swiftly as to leave no foot-marks in the sand. ® Perseus.] Son of Jupiter and Danae. Mercury lent him his winged sandals to enable him to attack the Gorgons. Rhesus.] King of Thrace, possessed of very sAvift horses, on which the fate of Troy depended. ® Sons of Boreas.] Calais and Zethus. * To Cato.] L’ aventure est trop plaisante ! Tu vas rire mon cher Caion ; toi qui aimes les bons contes, tu vas en rire pour T amour de moi. Je viens de surprendre un joli enfant, que ma nymphe initiait complaisamment aux plus doux mysteres. J’ ai perce le petit drole d’ un trait vengeur, et Venus a souri de ma vengeance. Noel. 44 CATULLUS. LVII. ON MAMURRA AND C^SAR. Well matched are the infamous reprobates,^ the pathic Mamurra and Caesar, and no wonder ; for on both foul marks, contracted by the one at Rome, by the other at Formiae, are deeply and indelibly impressed. Both libidinous^ alike, a twin pair, sharing one bed, both dabblers in erudition,^ the one not a more insatiable lecher than the other, rival allies of the girls—well-matched are these infamous reprobates. LVIII. TO C^LIUS* ON LESBIA. O Ca:lius, our Lesbia, Lesbia, that Lesbia whom Catullus loved more than himself and all his kin, now in the public * streets and in alleys makes herself a common trull to the magnanimous descendants of Remus.® ^ Infamous reprobates.'] Improhis cincedis. There is scarcely a phrase in this most atrocious lampoon which we dare reproduce in its loathsome nudity. 2 Libidinous.] Morbosi, say the commentators, has the same meaning as pathici. Herodotus says that angry Venus smote the Scythians tnarim mtiliebri. Perhaps the epithet may be elucidated by tliis line of Juvenal; Caeduntur tumidae, medico ridente, mariscse. ^ Dabblers in erudition.] Erudituli. We are content, with the ma¬ jority of commentators, to understand this in a contemptuous, but at least a decent sense. S(^me, however, will have it that the accomplishments alluded to are not litbcary, but Priapeian. It is in this sense Petronius calls Gito doetissimus puer. GEzema, a grave German jurist, parodied a part of this piece. His epigram can be read without danger of having one’s stomach turned. Belle convenit inter elegantes Dione’s famulas, et eruditos Antiquae Themidis meos sodales. Nos jus justitiamque profitemur : Illae semper amant coluntque rectum. “ There is a charming coincidence of sentiment between the fair votaries of Venus and my learned brethren; we profess law and justice; they dearly love the thing that is upright. ^ Ccelkis.] This is conjectured to have been Cselius Rufus, Catullus’s rival in the affection of Lesbia, supposing—which is again conjectural— that she was the sister of Clodius. * O Coilius, &c.] Nothing can exceed the sad sweetness of the first three of these five verses; but that villanous glubit : n the last line is enough to poison all the waters of Aganippe. i CATULLUS. 45 LIX. ON RUFA. Can U be that Rufa of Bononia, the wife of Menius, cajoles the consequential Rufulus ? That Rufa whom you have seen in the burial-grounds snatching a meal from the funeral pile, and who, when she prowled for the bread that rolled down out of the fire, was beaten by the half-shaved body-burner ? LX. FRAGMENT. Did a lioness on the Libyan mountains, or Scylla barking with the part below her groins, bring thee forth of so hard and savage a mind that thou shouldst hold in contempt the voice of a suppliant in extremity ? O too savage-hearted ! > LXI. EPITHALAMIUM. "A ON THE MARRIAGE OF MANLIUS AND JULIA.i Dweller on the hill of Helicon, offspring of Urania, who snatchest away the tender virgin to the bridegroom. Hymen ! O Hymen! Bind, thy brows with blossoms of the fragrant marjoram ; take thy flame-coloured veil;^ hither, hither come, joyous, wearing the yellow sandal ^ on thy snow-white foot; And roused by this glad day, carolling nuptial songs with silvery voice, beat the ground with thy feet, shake the pine torch in thy hand. For Julia—lovely as Idalian Venus when she came before ^ Ejpithalamium, &c.} . The Epithalamium was a poem sung by youths or virgins, or both, w'hen the bride was brought to the bridegroom and placed in the thalamus or bridal bed; hence the name, from Itti and caXajxoQ. Of Julia no more is known than that her cognomen Aurun- culeia was that of the Cotta family ; but Manlius of the illustrious line of the Torquati, is a well-known character. Catullus commemorates his friendship in another poem. ^ Flame-coloured veil.'] The Flammeum, which the bride put on be¬ fore she proceeded to her husband’s house. It covered her from head to foot, and its bright saffron or flame colour is supposed to have been intended as another means of concealing her blushes. 2 Yellow sandal.] This has always been given to Hymen by the poets. It is more usual to crown him with roses than witli marjoram. 46 CATULLUS. the Phrygian judge— Julia, a virgin good, with good omen weds Manlius,^— Julia, shining forth as the myrtle on Asian ground ^ with its blossomed branches, which the Hamadryads nourish with dewy moisture to be the scene of their sports. Come then; wending hither, forsake the Aonian grottoes of the Thespian rock, over which flows the cool water of Aganippe. And call home the lady yearning for her bridegroom, bind¬ ing her mind with love, as the clinging ivy enfolds the tree,^ spreading its sprays all over it. And you too, joining with us, chaste virgins for whom a like day approaches, come, repeat in measure. Hymen, O Hymen! That so much the more willingly hearing himself summoned to his office, the conductor of chaste Venus, the conjoiner of true love, may wend his way hither. What god, oh what god, is more worthy to be invoked by lovers ? Which of the celestials should men worship more ? Hymen, O Hymen ! Thee the anxious parent invokes for his children; for thee virgins loose the zone from their bosoms J thee the agitated bridegroom listens for with craving ear. Thou givest to the arms of the flery youth the blooming maid, snatched from her mother’s bosom. Hymen, 0 Hymen ! No indulgence can Venus take without thee which fair fame approves; but with thy consent she may. What power may be compared with this god ? No house can have heirs without thee, no parent race be - Julia, a virgin, &c.] Julia will her Manlius wed, Good with good, a blessed bed. Leigh Hunt. - Asian ground.'\ A marshy tract of land, with a town on it of the same name, between the river Cayster and Mount Tmolus. ^ As the clinging ivy, &c.] This natural simile is constantly recurring in the poets ; and their fondness for it is fully justified by its beauty. In Shakspeare, Titania thus addresses her monstrous idol, Bottom : Sleep thou, and I wdll wdnd thee in my arms; Fairies, begone, and be all ways away ! So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle Gently entwist; the female ivy so Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. * Loose the zone, &c.] See the last note to Poem viii. CATULLUS. 47 prolonged in its progeny; but with thy consent it may. What power may be compared Avith this god ? The land that lacks thy rites cannot give itself magistrates ; ^ but with thy consent it may. What power may be compared Avith this god ? Gates, unfold your Avings! The virgin is at hand. See you how the torches shake their gleaming hair ? But thou tarriest; the day is Avaning ; come, bride, come ! Ingenuous shame retards her, and she weeps more and more, hearing that she must needs advance. But thou tarri¬ est ; the day is waning ; come, bride, come ! Cease to weep ; there is no danger for thee, Aurunculeia, that any fairer Avoman shall see the bright day coming up from the ocean. So stands the hyacinth amidst the varied bloom of a rich owner’s garden. But thou tarriest; the day is waning; come, bride, come! Come, bride, come, (noAv she is in sight,) and hear our Avords. See you hoAV the torches shake their golden hair ? Come, bride, come! Not like a profligate sunk in vile adultery, not in pursuit of base pleasures, Avill thy husband wish to rest apart from thj_ tender breast. As the clinging vine entwines its companion tree, Avill he be entwined in thy embrace. But the day is waning ; come, bride, come! O white-footed bed,.^ What joys await thy master, what joys in the ray less night and in the noon-day. But the day is waning; come, bride, come! Lift up your torches, boys, I see thg flame-coloured veil approaching. Come, carol in measure. Hymen, O Hymen ! * =)!: ^ * * 3 * Magistrates.'\ Before the time of the Caesars those of illegitimate birth were excluded from all magisterial offices. ’ Three lines are wanting here. ^ Here we omit some lines which foully disfigure this beautiful poem. They are thus rendered by Noel: Que les airs retentissent de vos chansons fol^tres; la ffite permet uii peu de licence ; et toi, faA'ori d’ hier, d61aiss6 aujourdhui, jette a ces enfans les noix que V usage leur abandonne. 48 CATULLUS. It is said of thee, essenced bridegroom, that thou canst hardly abstain from thy illicit joys; but abstain. Hymen, O Hymen! We know that only those delights have been known to thee which are allowed; but those same delights are not allowable for a married man. Hymen, O Hymen ! And thou too, bride, beware of refusing what thy husband craves, lest he go and seek it elsewhere. Hymen, O Hymen ! Lo, what a potent and prosperous house thou hast in thy husband’s, which shall obey thee for ever; Hymen, O Hymen ! Until white-haired age nods perpetual assent with thy tremulous head. Hymen, O Hymen ! Bear thy golden f^t with a good omen over the threshold,^ and enter the polished gates. Hymen, O Hymen ! Look how thy husband, reclining within on the purple couch, expects thee with his whole soul. Hymen, O Hymen ! A flame glows in his inmost breast, no less than in thine, but with deeper searching fire. Hymen, O Hymen ! Ce jeu de leur age ne con\dent plus au tien. L’ Hymen dent Manlius suit les loix, rend desormais ton ministere inutile. Hier encore, fier de la faveur du maitre, tu dedaignais les avances des jeunes filles. Aujourdhui tes beaux cheveux vont tomber sous le fer ; favori disgracie, donne a ces enfans les noix qu’ ils attendent. “ This coarse imitation of the Fescennine poems,” says Dunlop, (His¬ tory of Roman Literature,) “ leaves on our minds a stronger impression of the prevalence and extent of Roman vices, than any other passage in the Latin classics. Martial, and Catullus himself elsewhere, have branded their enemies; and Juvenal, in bursts of satiric indignation, has re¬ proached his countrymen with the blackest crimes. But here in a com¬ plimentary poem to a patron and intimate friend, these are jocularly alluded to as the venial indulgence of his earliest youth.” * Over the threshold.'] The bride entering her husband’s house was lifted over the threshold, ithat she might not touch it. Various reasons have been assigned for this, among others, that the threshold was sacred to Vesta, the goddess of chastity, who might be offended at the nuptials; or that the bride should avoid touching any spell w'hich some jealous rival might have secretly laid there. Perhaps the true reason is less recondite. Cicero speaks of the offensio pedis, (striking the threshold with the foot,) generally as an ill omen; and Ovid and Tibullus both mention it as to be avoided at the outset of any undertaking. Shakspeare, Henry- VI., part 3, makes Gloucester say, on finding the gates of York closed against him and Edward IV., “ The gates made fast! Brother, I like not this; For many men, that stumble at the threshold, Are well foretold that danger lurks within.” CATULLUS 49 Let go the maiden’s arm, smooth, pui*ple-robed boy,^ and let her now go to her husband’s bed. Hymen, O Hymen ! You, worthy matrons, known for your faithfulness to your aged husbands, place the maiden.^ Hymen, 0 Hymen ! Now, bridegroom, thou mayest come; thy wife is in the bridal chamber, her blooming face shining like the white camomile and the yellow poppy.^ But, so help me the celestials, thou bridegroom art no less handsome, nor does Venus neglect thee. But the day is waning; forward ! make no delay. Thou hast not long delayed ; thou comest now; may kind Venus aid thee, since thou takest openly what thou desirest, nor dost thou make a secret of thy virtuous love. Let him first compute the number of the Red Sea’s sands, or of the glittering stars, who would count your many thou¬ sand sports and joys. Sport to your hearts’ content, and soon produce children: ^ Purple-rohed boy.'\ This was the paranymphus, whose province it was to escort the bride home; he was chosen of noble birth, and there¬ fore wore the proetezta or garb bordered with purple. ^ Place the maiden^ Widows, and matrons who had contracted a second marriage, were disqualified for this office. ® White camomile, &c.] Commentators have expended a world of labour in endeavouring to identify the parthenice, which we have rendered “camomile,” in accordance with what seems to us the most plausible conjecture. The “ yellow poppy,” luteiim papaver, suggests to the English reader an unfortunate image which was certainly not contem¬ plated by Catullus. According to Parthenias, the poet’s meaning is, that the fair complexion of the bride looks as beautiful through her yellow marriage veil, as the white blossom of the parthenice does beside the yellow poppy. Dr. Nott thinks this interpretation ingenious, but un¬ sound, for, he says, “ When the bride is in bed {uxor in thalamo est) we must suppose the flammeum or veil thrown aside: there is then no apt¬ ness in the comparison,- which evidently relates to her blooming counten¬ ance (os fioridulum) : I should rather think licteus was meant to express a colour bordering on red. We are very ignorant of the true meaning of Latin words that have a reference to colours.” Admifted : but luteus is one of the least ambiguous word.s of its class, and is decidedly more sug¬ gestive of jaundice than of the roseate hue of youthful beauty. And why must we suppose that the act of removing the bride’s veil was not a pleasure and a privilege reserved for the bridegroom himself, as is the custom among some oriental nations to this day ? In the celebrated Aldobrandini fresco-painting, found in the baths of Titus, the bride is seated veiled on a bed, with the pronuha or bridesmatron near her, whilst the bridegroom sits at the foot of the bed. 50 CATULLUS. it is not meet that so ancient a name should be without chil¬ dren, but that heirs to it should be engendered evermore.^ 1 long to see a little Torquatus,^ stretching out his tender hands from his mother’s bosom, smile sweetly at his father with little lips half-opened. May he be like his father Manlius, and easily recognised by every stranger, so that he shall attest his mother’s chastity with his face. And may a fair repute approve his birth from his good mother, such a rare fame as devolved from his excellent mother on Telemachus, the son of Penelope. Close the doors, virgins ; ^ we have sported enough. And * Engendered.l Indidem semper ingenerari. The word indidem is not superfluous ; it emphasizes the wish that the heirs should be of the same race, not adopted from other families. 2 A little Torquatus.l Parvulus Torquatiis. Si quis mihi parvulus aula Luderet ^neas, qui te tantum ore referret; says Virgil’s Dido ; but there the parallel necessarily ceased ; the charm¬ ing image which accompanies the same Avish in Catullus, could not be expressed by the forsaken queen. Biacca, the Italian translator, has been happy in his version of this passage : M’ auguro de’ Torquati un figlio erede Veder scherzando della madre in seno, Con la tenera man cercar le poppe ; E con la bocca ridente e mezza aperta. Quasi voglia parlar, volgersi al padre. It has been thus imitated by Sir William Jones: And soon, to be completely blest. Soon may a young Torquatus rise. Who, hanging on his mother’s breast. To his known sire shall turn his eyes, Outstretch his infant arms awhile, Half ope his little lips and smile. ’ Close the doors, virgim.'] The virgins addressed are those who accom¬ panied the bride in the procession. Some suppose, however, that the Muses are meant, find cite in favour of that opinion Ovid’s distich, Conscius ecce duos accepit lectus amantes; Ad thalami clausas, Musa, resiste fores. “ The conscious bed has received the loving pair; halt. Muse, before the closed door of the bridal chamber.” This epithalamium, says Noel, is incontestably the paragon of all, poems of its kind. Those who would compare it with others, may refer to Seneca’s tragedy of Medea for the epithalamium of Jason and Creusa, chanted by the chorus; to Statius, for that of Stella and CATULLUS. 51 now live happily, well-matched pair, and exercise unceasingly the functions of your lusty youth. ^ LXII. NUPTIAL SONG.» * YOUTHS. Hesperus is here, arise, youths, together; Hesperus^ is just now lifting his long-expected light in the heavens. It is now time to rise, and leave the rich tables. Now will the virgin come; now let the hymengeal song be raised. Hymen, Hymen, hither. Hymen ! . VIRGINS. Virgins, do you see the youths ? Rise up against them. Doubtless the evening star shows its CEtsean fires.^ It is so indeed. Do you see how swiftly they have rushed forth? They have not rushed forth for nothing; they will sing what it is for you to surpass. Hymen, Hymen, hither, Hymen ! YOUTHS. No easy triumph awaits us, comrades. Look how the vir¬ gins muse and meditate together; nor do they meditate in vain; they have found something worthy of memory. We have divided our attention, giving our minds to one thing, our ears to another;^ justly therefore shall we be defeated; vic- Violantella; and to Claudian, for that of Honorius and Marca, the daughter of Stilicho. The modern Latin poets have frequently employed themselves upon this subject. A great number of specimens will be found in. the Delicice. I will only mention two : Buchanan’s epithalamium on Francis II. and the unfortunate Mary Stuart, and one by another Scot, Thom. Rhcedus. The former is remarkable for grandeur of thought and pomp of style; the other for the elaborate oddity of its libertine allusions. * Nuptial Song.'] This is an epithalamium as well as the preceding poem, but there is no evidence to support the conjecture of Achilles Statius that it w'as made on the same marriage. * Hesperus.] The evening star. Its rising was the signal for conduct¬ ing the bride in procession to the bridegroom’s house. * (Etcean fires.] Rising from Mount CEta in Thessaly. * We have divided, &.C.] Nos alio mentes, alio divisimus aures. Dr. Nott understands this to mean, We have suffered our attention to be diverted from the matter in hand,' by the beauty and the sweet voices of the virgins. But the words cannot possibly admit of such a construction. The Delphin editor’s interpretation is. We direct our minds to one thing, our ears to another; and this brings us half-way to the clearer explana- 52 CATULLUS. tory favours diligence. Wherefore, now at least apply your minds to your tQ.sk ; the virgins will presently begin their strain; you will presently have to reply. Hymen, Hymen, hither. Hymen! VIRGINS. Hesperus, what more cruel light does heaven bear than thine ? who canst tear the child from her mother’s embrace, tear from her mother’s embrace the child that clings fast to it,^ and bestow the chaste girl on a hot youth. What worse than this could enemies do in a captured city ? Hymen, Hy¬ men, hither. Hymen! YOUTHS. Hesperus, what more cheerful light shines in heaven than thine ? who ratifiest with thy beams the compacts of wed¬ lock which lovers and parents have previously made, but which they never fulfil before thy fires have risen. What is there in the gift of the gods more desirable than that blissful hour ? Hymen, Hymen, hither. Hymen ! VIRGINS. Hesperus has taken from us one of our companions.^ * * * * At thy appearance the wakeful guard is set, spoilers^ always prowl by night, and often, Hesperus, returning with an altered name,^ thou catchest them still in the fact. Hymen, Hymen, hither, Hymen I tion given by Vulpius, namely, that the young men, having to improvise their responses, must attend to what the virgins sing, and think at the same time of what they shall reply. ^ Clings to it.'] This is not merely a metaphorical expression. It was a part of the established etiquette of the marriage procession, that it should begin with forcing away the daughter, whilst she pretended to cling to her mother with all her might. This custom is said to have been instituted in commemoration of the rape of the Sabines. ^ There is here a line lost of the original: its import must have been to charge Hesperus with furtive propensities, proof of which is offered in the lines that follow. Another hiatus at the end of the virgins’ part, pro¬ bably involves no more than the burden. 3 Spoilers.'] Fures, thieves, meaning lovers; for by almost every Latin poet, lovers are called fures, and amours furta. * Altered name.] The same planet that at night is called Hesperus, is in the morning called Phosphorus or Lucifer. It is the first star to rise, and the last to set.. CATULLUS. 53 YOUTHS. The virgins are pleased to attack thee with feigned re¬ proaches. What if they attack whom they in their secret hearts desire ? Hymen, Hymen, hither. Hymen ! VIRGINS. As a flower grows sequestered in a fenced garden, unknown to the cattle, bruised by no ploughshare, whilst the breezes freshen it, the sun gives it strength, and the shower nourishes it; many a youth, many a girl covets it. But when plucked from its tender stem and faded, no youths, no girls covet it. So whilst the virgin remains untouched, she is dear to her kindred; but when she has lost her chaste flower from her polluted body, she remains no longer pleasing to youths, nor dear to maids. ^ Hymen, Hymen, hither, Hymen ! * As a Jlotoer, «S:c.] This exquisite passage has been imitated times without number, but by no poet so closely as by Ariosto, cant. i. 42. La verginella b simile alia rosa, Che ’ll bel giardin su la nativa spina, Mentre sola, e sicura si riposa, Ne gregge, nb pastor se le avvicina; L’ aura soave, e 1’ alba rugiadosa, L’ acqua, la terra al suo favor s’ inchina . Giovini vaghi, e donne innamorate Amano averne e seni, e tempie ornate. Ma non si tosto dal materno stelo Rimossa viene, e dal suo ceppe verde, Che, quanto avea da gli uomini, el dal cielo. Favor, grazia, e bellezza, tutto perde. La vergine, che ’1 fior, di che piu zelo Che de’ begli occhi, e della vita, aver db, Lascia altrui corre, il pregio, ch’ avea innanti, Perde nel cor di tutti gli altri amanti. Tasso has certainly had Catullus in view, while drawing a different moral from the same subject: Deh ! mira (egli canto) spuntar la rosa Dal verde suo modesta, e verginella, Che mezzo aperta ancora, e mezzo ascosa, Quanto si mostra men tanto b piu bella Ecco poi nudo it sen gia baldanzosa Dispiega, ecco poi langue, e non par quella, Quella non par, che desiata avanti - , Fu da mille donzelle, e mille amanti. 54 CATULLUS. YOUTHS. As the unwedded vine which grows in a naked field, never lifts its head, never matures a mellow grape, but bending prone its tender body under its own weight, touches its top¬ most shoot with its root; no hinds, no herdsmen cherish it j but if perchance it be united with a husband elm, many hinds, many herdsmen cherish it: so the virgin, whilst she remains untouched, grows old, uncared for; when she has secured a fit union in due season, she is dearer to her spouse, and less irksome to her parent. YOUTHS AND VIRGINS. Then offer no resistance, virgin, to such a spouse as thine. It is not right to resist one to whom thy father has given thee, thy father himself with thy mother whom thou must obey. Thy virginity is not wholly thine own; it is partly thy pa¬ rents’. One third of it belongs to thy father, another to thy Cosi trapassa al trapassar d’ un giorno Della vita mortale il fiore, e ’1 verde, Ne perche faccia in dietro april ritorno Si rinfiori ella mai, ne si renverde. Cogliam la rosa in sii ’1 mattino adorno Di questo di, che tosto il seren perde, Cogliam d’ amor la rosa: amiamo or, quando Esser si puote riamato amando. Tims exquisitely rendered by Spencer, Faery Queen, b. ii. c. 12; The whiles some one did chaunt this lovely lay: “ Ah! see, whoso fayre thing doest faine to see. In springing flowre the image of thy day ! Ah ! see the virgin rose, how sweetly she Doth first peepe foorth with bashfull modestie. That fairer seemes the lesse ye see her may ! Lo see soone after how more bold and free Her bared bosome she doth broad display; Lo I see soone after how she fades and falls away ! “ So passeth, in the passing of a day, Of mortal life the leafe, the bud, the flowre ; Ne more doth flourish after first decay. That erst was sought to deck both bed and bowre Of many a lady, and many a paramoure! Gather therefore the rose whilest yet is prime, For soone comes age that will her pride deflowre ; Gather the rose of love whilest yet is time, Whilest loving thou mayst loved be with equal crime.’* CATULLUS. 55 mother, the remaining ihird alone is thine : do not strive against two •parents who have bestowed their own rights along with thy dower on their son-in-law. Hymen, Hymen, hither Hymen! LXIII. ON ATYS.« / Borne over the deep seas in a swift bark, Atys eagerly touched the Phrygian forest with hurried foot, and went to the gloomy, wood-covered grounds, of the goddess; where, goaded by raging madness, he emasculated himself with a sharp flint. So when he found his limbs bereft of manhood, and while still spotting the ground with fresh blood, this new-made ico- man^ hurriedly took in her snowy hands the light timbrel, the timbrel and the trumpet ^ proper to thy initiatory rites, mighty mother Cybele, and, shaking the hollow bull’s hide in her tender Angers, she began, quivering with excitement, to sing thus to her followers: “ Come, speed ye together, Galloe,'^ to Cybele’s deep forests; ^ Atys.'] This poem, unique in subject and in metre, is spoken of by Gibbon with enthusiasm. “ Perhaps,” says Ramsay, “ the greatest of all our poet’s works is the Atys, one of the most remarkable poems in the whole range of Latin literature. Rolling impetuously along in a flood of wild passion, bodied forth in the grandest imagery and the noblest diction, it breathes in every line the frantic spirit of orgiastic worship, the fiery vehemence of the Greek dithyramb.” It is the only specimen we have in Latin of the Galliambic measure; so called because sung by the Galli, the emasculated votaries of Cybele. The Romans under the republic, being a more sober and severe people than the Greeks, gave less encouragement than they to the celebration of orgiastic rites, such as those of Bacchus and Cybele, and have left few examples of dithyrambic poetry. * This new-made woman.] These words are a prosaic substitute for the abrupt transition to the feminine gender, which is so striking in the original. 3 TtmSre?.] Tympanum. An instrument like the modern tambourine, but without its jingling metallic appendages. The Cymbalum was a small cup-like brazen instrument with a handle. Vossius reads tympanum tuham, without a comma interposed, and understands the passage to mean, “ the tympanum which serves in lieu of a trumpet in the mys¬ teries of Cybele.” This reading is authorized by Suidas, who says ex¬ pressly, that the only instruments used in those rites were the tympanum and flagellum. ^ Gallce.] Catullus substitutes the feminine form Galloe for the mascu- 56 CATULLUS. 'fi speed ye together, roving cattle of the mi stress of.Dindymus ; * who seeking foreign lands, like exiles, following my sect, led by me, have borne as my comrades the rapid salt-sea wave, the fierceness of the deep, and have unmanned your bodies in intense hatred of Venus; gladden your souls with frenzied excitement; let dull delay begone from your minds; speed ye together; follow to the Phrygian home of Cybele, to the JL goddess’s Phrygian forests, where the cymbals resound, where ^ the t^brels roar aloud, where the Phrygian fiutist drones on the curve3~^pipe, where the ivy-crowned Maenades^ wildly toss their heads, where they ply their hallowed mysteries with piercing yells; where that roving train of the goddesses is wont to run to and fro, thither it befits us to hasten in quick-step dancing measure.” When Atys, the new-made woman, thus sang to her mates, the whole rout^ forthwith yelled with quivering tongues, the light timbrel booms, the hollow cymbals clash, and up to Ida goes the impetuous rout with hurried steps i with them goes Atys with her timbrel, raving, panting, like one lost and demented, and leads the way through the murky forests, like an unbroke heifer shunning the burthen of the yoke. Swiftly the Gallae follow their hasty-footed leader.'^ So when they reach the home of Cybele, wearied with excessive exer¬ tion, they fall asleep fasting. Heavy sleep covers their droop¬ ing eyes with languor, and their raving phi’ensy subsides in soft repose. line Gain, the ordinary name of the emasculated priests of Cybele. They were so called from Gallus, a river of Phrygia, the water of which mad¬ dened those who drank it. ‘ Dindymus.] A part of Mount Ida, sacred to Cybele. ^ Mcenades.'] Women devoted to the service of Bacchus or of Cybele ; for many things were common to the rites of both deities. The name is derived from fiaivfaOai, to rave. The whole Thiasns is properly a chorus of sacred singers and dancers, living in community, like a college of dervishes, who, indeed, are an exact counterpart of the Galli as regards their howling and dancing ritual, but have the advantage of their predecessors in one important particular. * Hasty-footed leaderJ] We adopt the suggestion of Vossius, who ob¬ jects to the tautology of the common reading, Rapidce dxicem sequuntwr Galke propero pede, F or propero pede he substitutes properipedem, which, as he further observes, is more conformable to the style of this poem, in which Catullus affects the use of compound words, such as hederigenp, sonipedilms, herifuga, sylvictiUrix, neniorivagm, &c. I CATULLUS. 57 5P - But when the sun surveyed with the radiant eyes of his golden face the aether, and thfe firm land, and the wild sea, and chased the shades of night with his sonorous-footed steeds, then Sleep swiftly fled from awakened Atys, and the divine Pasithea ^ received the fugitive to her bosom. So when, her madness allayed by soothing rest, Atys reflected on her oWn acts, and saw with lucid mind what she had lost, and where she was, again with surging soul she retraced her way to the shore. There, gazing on the vast sea with streaming eyes, the sorrowing wretch thus piteously apostrophized her native land. “ My country ! O creatress, parent country ! which I, wretch, forsaking, as fugitive slaves forsake their masters, \i ^' fled to the forests of Ida, to dwell amid snow and the chill T: derf^of wild beasts, and to roam frantically among all their lairs I Where, in what quarter, shall I now deem thee placed, my country ? My very eyeball longs to turn its rays to thee, whilst my mind is for a brief while free from fierce delirium. Must I roam these woods remote from my own home ? Must I dwell far away from my country, from all I possess, from my friends, my parents; far from the forum, the palaestra, the stadium, and the gymnasia ? ^ O wretched, wretched soul! for ever and for ever must I wail. For what kind of form is there that I have not worn ? I have been man,^ youth, strip¬ ling, boy. I was the flower of the gymnasium and the pride of the wrestling ground. My gate, my hospitable threshold was thronged, my home was hung with flowery chaplets,'^ when ’ Pasithea.'} One of the three Graces, whom Juno bestowed in mar¬ riage on the god of sleep for exerting his power over Jupiter, while Juno was assisting the Trojans. ^ The forum, &c.] Atys enumerates the recreations of his manhood : the public spectacles of the forum ; the wrestling ground {palcestra); the race course {stadium); and the schools for gymnastic exercises. ® A man.} Pvher. We adopt without hesitation this amended reading of Scaliger’s instead of muli^r, which is irreconcilable with the general tenor of the passage. * Hung with flowery chaplets.} It was customary with lovers to hang garlands before the doors of the beloved. See Tibullus, book i. El. ii. There are some beautiful lines on this subject by a modern poet, Angeri- anus, translated by Moore : Ante fores madidae sic sic pendete corollse, ■ Mane orto imponet Caelia vos capiti; At quum per niveam cervicem influxerit humor, Dicite, non roris sed pluvia haec lacrymae. 58 CATULLUS. I liad to leave my couch at sunrise. Must I rank as a vota¬ ress of the gods, as Cybele’s bdndsmaid ? Must I be a Mienas, a part of myself, a sterile man ? Must I dwell in green Ida’s snow-clad regions, and pass my life under the lofty peaks of Phrygia, where dwell the sylvan stag, and the forest-ranging boar ? Now do I grieve, now do I repent what I have done.” When these sounds escaped her rosy lips,^ then Cybele, un¬ yoking the lions from her chariot^ and pricking the left hand foe of the herd, thus speaks: “ Up, fierce beast, up, she says; go, hence with him, in madness, make him return hence, smit¬ ten with madness, into the forest, who audaciously desires to fly from my sway. Up ! beat thy flanks with thy tail; lash thyself; make the whole region reSbund with tHy^oaring. Toss fiercely thy tawny mane on thy brawny neck.”—So said terrific Cybele, and unfastened the yokes with her hand. The beast, inciting himself, pricks up his impetuous spirit, runs, roars, and breaks down the bushes in his headlong course. But when he reached the verge of the foam-whitened shore, and saw soft Atys near the breakers, he made a rush. The bewildered wretch fled into the wild forest, and there he. re¬ mained all his life long a bondsmaid^ to Cybele. Goddess, mighty goddess, goddess lady of Dindymus, far from my house be all thy fury, dread mistress: goad others to such rage ; madden others ; hut leave me free. LXIV, THE MARRIAGE OF PELEUS AND THETIS.^ Pines that grew on Mount Pelion are said to have swum through Neptune’s liquid waves to the banks of the river By Caelia’s arbour all the night Hang, humid wreath, the lover’s vow ; And haply, at the morning light, My love shall twine thee round her brow. Then, if upon her bosom bright Some drops of dew shall fall from thee, Tell her, they are not drops of night, But tears of sorrow shed by me. ^ Rosy The line beginning Geminas Deomm is condemned as spurious by the best commentators. We have not translated it. 2 A hondsmaid.'] Famula. This mingling of two genders in the same sentence exists in the original. * The Marriage of Peleus and Thetis.'] This longest and most elaborate CATULLUS. 59 Phasis ^ and the .^etasan confines; when chosen young men, the flower of the stout Argive youth, desiring to carry off the Golden Fleece^ from Colchis, dared to traverse the salt seas in a fleet ship, sweeping the azure plains with oars of fir. The goddess who holds the citadels in the high places of towns,^ herself made for them the chariot that flew with a light breath of wind, connecting the knitted pine timbers'* with the curved keel. That ship first acquainted inexperi¬ enced Amphitrite^ with navigation. As soon as it clove the windy sea with its prow, and the oar-tortured wave grew white with foam, wild faces emerged out of the whitening deep, namely^ the marine Nereids, wondering at the prodigy on that day, and no other, mortal eyes saw sea-nymphs with naked bodies exposed to the breasts from out the hoary wa¬ ters. Then Peleus is said to have been inflamed with love for Thetis; then Thetis did not despise human nuptials; then father Jove himself consented that Peleus should be united to Thetis."^ O heroes born in that happier age, hail, progeny of gods ! of the poems of Catullus has been erroneously styled an Epithalamium, for no other reason than because it treats of a marriage. We might be content to reject the misnomer in silence, were it not that it has been made the pretext for some very silly criticism, according to which we are to regard the poem as altogether void of method and symmetry, a mere tissue of splendid faults ; and this because its structure does not conform to that of the epithalamium, a species of composition with which it has no affinity. It is wonderful how much there is in a name. Call the poem, with Gurlitt, a small Epos, which it really is, and you take away all ground for objection, especially as to the length of the episode of Ariadne, which no man of taste would wish to shorten by a single line.' * Phasis.'\ A river of Colchis, up which the Argonauts sailed to the capital of king ^etes, the father of Medea. 2 Golden Fleece.'] The expedition of the Argonauts to rob iEetas, king of Colchis, of the golden fleece, is narrated by Ovid, and is the subject of a Greek poem by Apollonius Rhodius, and of a Latin poem by Valerius Flaccus. ® The goddess, &c.] Minerva. * Knitted pine timbers.] Pinea texta. To build ships is in Latin texere naves; and the shipbuilder’s yard is textrinum. * Amphitrite.] The wife of Neptune, here put for the sea. * Wondering at the prodigy.] The reader of the original will not fail to note the fine effect produced by making admirantes the ending of a spondaic hexameter. ^ Jove consented, &c.] Jupiter had himself intended to marry Thetis, but, learning from Prometheus that she was fated to bear a son who should eclipse the glory of his father, he bestowed her on his grandson Peleus. 60 CATULLUS. O good mother ^ of the brave! Often will I invoke thee in my song ; and thee too so surpassingly honoured by thy happy marriage, Thessalia’s bulwark, Peleus, to whom Jupiter him¬ self, the father of the gods himself, resigned his love. Did Thetis, fairest daughter of Neptune, accept thee ? Did Tethys grant thee to wed her grandchild, and did Oceanus consent, who embraces the whole globe with the sea ? Now when in due time the longed-for day was come, all Thessaly thronged to the abode of Peleus; the palace is filled by the joyous assemblage; they bring presents ; and declare with their faces the gladness of their hearts. Scyros is deserted; they leave Phthian Tempe, and Cranon’s homes and the walls of Larissa; they flock to Pharsalia,^ and throng the Pharsa- lian halls. No one tills the lands; the callous necks of the steers are left to soften; the low vine is not cleared from weeds with rakes; no bull tears up the glebe with the prone plough; no pruner’s hook thins the trees’ shady boughs; squalid rust overspreads the deserted ploughshares. But the mansion, in every part of its opulent interior, glitters with shining gold and silver; white are the ivory seats; goblets gleam on the tables ; the whole dwelling re¬ joices in the splendour of regal wealth. In the midst of the mansion is placed the genial couch of the goddess, inlaid with polished Indian tooth, and covered with purple dyed with the shell’s rosy juice. This coverlet, diversified with figures of the men of yore, portrays the virtues of heroes with won¬ drous art.^ ^ Good mother.^ The ship Argo, poetically called the mother of her valiant crew. * Scyros, &c.] An island in the .®gean, off the coast of Thessaly. The celebrated vale of Tempe in Thessaly is called Phthiotica from the neighbouring city of Phthia, or from Phthiotis, the region to which the city belongs. Cranon and Larissa were towns of Thessaly. Pharsalus, where stood the palace of Peleus, is well known as the scene of the battle between Csesar and Pompey. ® This coverlet, diversified, «fec.] The tapestry comprised two pictures, each of which represented a scene in the history of Ariadne, which the poet now proceeds to expound. We are to imagine him standing by the picture, and explaining to the admiring crowd not only the incidents actually portrayed, but also their causes and consequences; and hence we account for the words ferunt, perhihent, and so forth, which occur throughout the narrative. In the first compartment Ariadne is seen just at the moment when she has discovered her lover’s perfidy, and stands petrified by the shock, saxea ut effigies bacchantis. CATULLUS. 61 For, gazing from the wave-sounding shore of Dia,^ Ari¬ adne,^ her heart filled with unconquered rages, beholds The¬ seus departing with his swift ship nor does she yet believe that she sees what she does see,'^ as but just awakened from her treacherous sleep she finds herself wretched and deserted on the lonely sands. But the ungrateful youth, flying from her, smites the sea with his oars, abandoning his vain pro¬ mises to the stormy winds. With sad eyes the daughter of Minos, like a stone image of a Mcenad yelling Evoe, gazes on him speeding far from the weedy strand, and she heaves with great waves of sorrow. No more she retains the slender fillet on her yellow hair ; no more the light veil conceals her bosom; no more the smooth cincture ^ binds her struggling * Dia."] Naxos, the divine island, ^ia, sacred to Bacchus, is generally held to have been the scene of Ariadne’s desertion; but Vossius contends that the Dia in question was an islet near Crete, now called Standia. His arguments, however, have very little weight. * Ariadne.'] For the sake of brevity we will here compress together the leading facts connected with the story of Theseus and Ariadne. The Athenians having joined in the murder of Androgeus, son of Minos, king of Crete, the latter made war on them, and compelled them to send every year to Crete seven youths and as many virgins to be devoured by the Minotaur. This monster was the fruit of an unnatural passion which Pasiphae, the daughter of the Sun, and the wife of Minos, had conceived for a bull. Daedalus, who had lent his mechanical skill to the fulfilment of the queen’s desires, built the famous labyrinth to conceal her half¬ human, half-brute offspring. Theseus, son of ^Egeus, king of Athens, slew the monster, and made his way out of the labyrinth by means of a clue supplied to him by Ariadne, one of the two daughters of Minos and Pasiphae. Theseus then departed for his home, taking with him Ariadne, who was accompanied by her sister Phaedra ; but he deserted the former at Naxos, and took the latter to Athens as his bride. Catullus, however, omits this part of the story, and says expressly that Ariadne left her sister behind when she fled from Crete. ^ Swift ship.] Classis must here stand for a single ship, for a fleet was not requisite to convey to Crete the tribute of fourteen human victims. ■* Nor does she yet believe, &c.] The true reading of this line is very uncertain; we have adopted that proposed by Vossius. Achilles Statius would read Necdum etiam sese quce sit turn credidit esse, “ Nor does she yet believe that she is herself.” ^ Cincture.] The strophium was a band which confined the breasts and restrained the,exuberance of their growth. Martial apostrophizes it thus : Fascia, crescentes dominae compesce papillas, Ut sit quod capiat nostra tegatque manus. “ Confine the growth of my fair one’s breasts, that they may be just large enough for my hand to enclose them.” 62 Catullus. breasts; tbe salt wave sports with th^m all, dropped from her body, and scattered at her feet. But thinking neither of fillet, nor of floating veil, lost and undone, she was intent on thee, Theseus, with her whole heart, and soul, and mind. Ah wretched Ariadne, whom Venus doomed to distracting sorrows,^ implanting thorny cares in thy bosom, what time cruel Theseus, issuing from the curved shores of the PirsBUS,'-^ reached the Gortynian^ abode of the unjust king. For ancient legends tell that, compelled by a dire pestilence to atone for the murder of Androgeos, the Cecropian city^ was wont to present choice youths and fairest virgins as food for the Minotaur. Seeing that the little city was thus afflicted, Theseus desired to sacrifice his own body for his dear Athens, rather than that such unfuneralled funerals^ of Athens should be carried to Crete. Borne therefore in a fleet ship by gentle winds, he came to the arrogant® Minos and his superb abode. There as soon as the royal virgin beheld him with desiring eye, she whom the chaste bed, breathing sweet odours, cherished in her mother’s soft embrace, lovely as the myrtles which the waters of Eurotas*^ rear, or the various- coloured flowers which the breath of spring brings forth; she did not take her glistening eyes off him until her whole bosom was thoroughly on fire, and she burned to her inmost marrow. Alas ! divine boy, who confoundest together human joys and sorrows, with ruthless heart exciting wretched mor¬ tals to frenzy, and thou who rulest Golgos, and the evergreen Idalium,® on what billows ye tossed that soul-kindled maiden, ’ Doomed to distracting sorrotos.'\ Externavity put beside thyself. ^ PircBtts.'] The harbour of Athens, but mentioned here with poetic independence of liistorical fact, for it was not made a naval station until the time of Themistocles. ® Gortynian.'] Gortyna, a city of Crete. Cecropian city.] Athens, founded by Cecrops. ® Unfuneralled funerals.] Funera nefunera: a Greek form of expres¬ sion, frequently imitated in Latin. ® Arrogant.] Magnanimum. Doering justly observes that this epithet must here be understood in a bad sense. ’’ Etirotas.] The river of Sparta. ® Idalium^ Lambe’s note on this passage is judicious. “Venus,” he says, “ is not mentioned merely as the goddess of love, as seems to have been conceived by most commentators. Pasiphae, Ariadne’s mother, was the daughter of the Sun and Perseis, one of the Oceanides; and Venus persecuted all the descendants of Apollo, because that god discovered her amour with Mars. This is finely alluded to in the Phedre of Racine: CATULLUS. 63 often sighing for the yellow-haired stranger ! What fears she endured in her fainting heart! How often did she grow wan¬ ner than the sheen of gold ! When Theseus, eager to contend with the dread monster, was about to encounter death or the glory of victory, then did she timidly frame vows with silent lip,^ promising gifts to the gods, gifts not unacceptable to them, but offered unprofitably for herself. For as an irresistible whirlwind tears up an oak that shakes its branches on the summit of Taurus, or a cone-bearing pine with oozing stem, twisting the trunk with its blast; uprooted it falls prone, covering a wide space, and breaking all beneath it far and near; so Theseus prostrated the carcase of the vanquished monster, vainly tossing its horns to the empty air. Thence he returned safely with great renown, directing his wander¬ ing steps by a slender thread, that the indistinguishable maze might not baffle his attempt to issue from its labyrinthine windings. But why, digressing from my first subject, need I tell more ? How the daughter, forsaking her father’s face, forsaking the embrace of her sister, and even of her mother, who wept in despair for her child, gladly preferred the sweet love of Theseus to them all ? Or how their ship was borne to the foamy shores of Dia ? Or how her husband, departing with ungrateful breast, left her with her eyes closed in calamitous sleep ? Often, ’tis said, with a heart on fire with rage, she sent out shrill shrieks in gushes^ from the bottom of her breast ; then sadly climbed the precipitous mountains, whence she could stretch forth her gaze over the wide billows ; then ran into the oppos¬ ing waves of the agitated sea, lifting up the soft coverings from her bared leg,^ and with streaming face and shivering sobs, uttered these words in the extremity of her woe: ‘ O haine de Venus ! O fatale colere ! Dans quels egaremens 1’ amour jeta ma mere ! Ariane, ma soeur! De quel amour bless^e,’ &c.” ^ Timidly frame vows, &c.] Tadto suspendit vota lahello. This is an uncommon and beautiful use of the word suspendit, the meaning of w'hich may be deduced from the familiar phrase pedem suspendere, to tread cau¬ tiously, as if one feared to set one foot before the other. Ariadne durst not breathe a syllable of the wishes of her heart. * In gushes.Fudisse. ^ Lifting, &c.] Nott quotes with approval the remark made on this passage by an English annotator on Tibullus, who notes as “ a fine stroke 64 CATULLUS. “ Is it thus, perfidious! thou hast left me, borne away from my native shores, left me, perfidious Theseus! on the desert strand? Is it thus thou departest, in contempt of the gods, ingrate ! and carriest home thy perjuries and the curses that cling to them ? ^ Could nothing change the purpose of thy cruel mind ? Was there no mercy about thee, that thy ruthless breast might have pity on me ? But not such were the promises thou gavest me formerly ; this was not what thou badest me, miserable girl, to expect, but joyful union, happy rites of wedlock ;—all idle words scattered by the winds ! Henceforth let no woman believe man’s oaths ; let none hope that a man’s words are trusty ; for whilst their lusting minds are bent on obtaining, they shrink from no oaths, they spare no promises ; but as soon as their lustful desire is satiated, they have no fear to break their words, they care nothing for perjury. Surely I rescued thee when thou wast in the midst of the vortex of death, and re¬ solved rather to lose my brother than to fail thee, treacherous as thou art, in that supreme moment. For this I shall be given as a prey to be torn asunder by wild beasts and birds, and when dead, I shall remain unentombed, with no earth cast upon my body. What lioness gave thee birth under some lonely rock ? What sea conceived and spat thee forth from her foaming waves ? What Syrtis, what greedy Scylla, what vast Charybdis, bore thee, who returnest such rewards for sweet life ? If thou wast averse to wedlock with me because thou didst abhor the cruel edicts of my stern father,^ yet thou mightest have taken me to thy dwelling, and I would have served thee as a handmaid ^ with cheerful labour, bathing thy of genius ” this picture of “ Ariadne running into the sea, as though to catch Theseus, who was sailing off.” And then in the very next sentence he tells us thatThe “ coverings ” of which she bared her legs were her buskins ! Instead of instinctively catching up the robe that impeded her movements, an act which would have been consistent with the most im¬ petuous emotion, she stopped, like a thrifty girl, to take off her best bus¬ kins, lest the salt water should spoil them ! * Perjuries and the curses^ &c.] Devota perjuria, perjuries that are diris obnoxia, that infer the wrath of the gods. * Stem father.^ Prisci ; one "whose cast of mind retains the primitive harshness of earlier times. ^ Served thee as a hatidmaid.l Lambe quotes from the old ballad of Childe Waters, in Percy’s collection, a simple but pathetic parallel to this touching passage: “ To-morrow, Ellen, I must forth ride Farr into the north countrie ; I CATULLUS. 65 white feet with limpid water, or spreading the purple coverlet on thy bed. “ But why, beside myself with woe, do I complain in vain to the ignorant winds, which being endowed with no senses, can neither hear uttered words, nor return any ? He is now nearly mid-way on the sea, and no mortal appears on the vacant beach. Thus cruel fortune, too much insulting me in my last moments, grudges even ears to hear my lamenta¬ tions. Almighty Jove, would that neither in the beginning the Cecropian ships had touched the Gnossian shores ; nor that the perfidious mariner had ever unmoored for Crete, bringing dire tribute to the unconquered bull ; nor that yon bad man, concealing cruel purposes under a winning form, had rested as a guest in our abode ! For whither shall I betake myself? On what hope shall I, undone, rely ? Shall I seek the Cretan mountains ? But the fierce severing sea divides me from them with its wide expanse. Can I hope for aid from my father, whom I left of my own accord to follow the youth stained with my brother’s gore? Can I console myself with the trusty love of a husband who flees from me, bending his pliant oars in the deep ? If I pass from the shore, the lonely island is without a roof; nor is there any exit open from it, encompassed as it is by the waves. There is no means of escape, no hope ; all around is silence and desolation ; all around is death. Not however shall my ey^s languish in death, nor shall my senses depart from my weary body, before I implore from the gods a just penalty for my betrayal, and invoke the faith of the celestials in my last hour. Wherefore, ye who visit the deeds of men with avenging chastisement, Eumenides, whose brows, covered with serpents for hairs, be¬ speak the wrath that exhales from your breasts,^ hither. The fairest lady that I can find, Ellen, must goe with me.” “ Though I am not that lady fayre, Yet let me goe wdth thee; And ever, I pray you, Childe Waters, Your foot-page let me bee.” * Wrath that exhales.'] Expirantis pectoris iras : literally, “ the w'rath of ... . expiring breast.” That is, as we understand it, of “ your ” breasts, or, according to Elton, “ my ” breast, i. e. Ariadne’s. The Del- phin editor absurdly interprets the passage as meaning “ Whose brows covered, &c., typify the anguish of the dying man,” 66 CATULLUS. hither speed ye, hear my wailings, which I, how wretched! am forced, helpless, with burning brain, blind with raving mad¬ ness, to pour out from my inmost vitals. And since they truly spring from the bottom of my heart, suffer not my cries of agony to pass idly away; but through that spirit which prompted Theseus to leave me forlorn, through that same spirit, goddesses, let him bring destruction on him and his.” After the anguished girl, imprecating punishment on the cruel deeds of her betrayer, sent forth these words from her sad bosom, the ruler of the celestial gods assented with his po¬ tent nod, whereat the earth and the rough sea trembled, and the firmament shook its glittering stars. But Theseus him¬ self, seized with thick mental darkness, lost from his oblivious bosom all those injunctions which he before held fast in mind, and hoisted no glad signals for his sad father, to show that he was in sight of harbour safe and rescued. For they say that previously, when -dEgeus intrusted his son to the winds, as he was leaving the city of the goddess Pallas with his fleet, em¬ bracing his son, he gave the young man these injunctions: “ My only son, dearer to me than long life, my son, lately restored to me at the end of an extreme old age,' and whom I am compelled to send away to dangerous adventures, since my ill fortune and thy hot valour tear thee away from me so loth to part with thee, for not yet have my dim eyes had enough of my son’s dear face: not in joy and gladness of heart will I send thee away, nor will I let thee show tokens of pros¬ perous fortune; but first I will send forth many a lamentation from my heart, defiling my white hairs with earth and dust; and then I will hang dyed sails upon the flitting mast, that so the Iberian canvass with its dark dye may declare my grief, and the burning anguish of my mind. But if the dweller on sacred Itone^ (who has promised us, her trusting votaries, to defend our race and these abodes) grants thee to stain thy right hand with the blood of the bull, then be sure that these injunctions have force, stored up in thy heart, and that no lapse of time obliterate them. As soon as thine eyes behold our hills, let the yards drop every where their funereal clothing, and let ' Lately restored to me.'] Theseus was born in Troezene, and brought up by his maternal grandfather Pittheus. * Itone,] A town in Boeotia, in which Pallas was especially wor¬ shipped. CATULLUS. 67 the twisted ropes hoist white sails, so that discerning them as soon as possible, I may recognise their glad tidings with joy, when a prosperous time puts thee, returned, before me.” As clouds driven by the breath of the winds leave a snowy mountain’s airy crest, so these injunctions departed from the memory of Theseus, who had previously retained them with constant mind. But his father, as he looked out from the top of the fortress, wasting his anxious eyes in ceaseless tears, when, first he beheld the canvass of the inflated sail, threw himself headlong from the top of the rocks, believing that Theseus w’as lost by a cruel fate. Thus exulting Theseus, entering a house woe-stricken by his father’s death, ^ himself encountered such sorrow as he had inflicted by his forgetful¬ ness on the daughter of Minos; while she, wholly rapt, still gazed upon his departing ship, and heart-stricken, was agi¬ tated with manifold woes.^ But on another part of the coverlet the blooming lacchus was hastening with his crew of Satyrs and the Nysa-reared Sileni, seeking thee, Ariadne, and burning with love for thee. In wild joy they raved all around him, yelling Evoe, Evoe, and rolling their heads about. Some of them brandished thyrsi with ivy-covered points ; some snatched away the limbs of oxen torn to pieces; some girt themselves with twisted serpents; some celebrated mysterious orgies with im¬ plements contained in wicker-baskets, orgies which the unini¬ tiated vainly desire to hear. Others beat timbrels with ex¬ tended hands, or produced fine tinklings with the smooth brass. Horns yielded hoarse blasts to many, and the barbarian pipe droned with horrible notes.^ ‘ Thus exulting Theseus, &c.] We follow Vossius and Doering in their interpretation of this passage. Others understand it thus : Theseus, ex¬ ulting in the death of the monster, entered his woe-stricken paternal dwelling, &c. 2 While she, wholly rapt, &c.] The common reading is, Qu'o Sextio, c. 51). The nephew was equally dissolute, he death of CjEsar he conspired to assassinate Cassius in the midst army, and having been pardoned, deserted to Antony. One of the |is crimes of which he was suspected identifies him as the Gellius our poet, and whose vices were so enormous that all the' sea could not wash him clean. (Ixxxvii.) je.] The first part of this poem, as far as the words “for thee,” 'some editions as a separate poem or fragment, numbered 7 ?L] Pkttn; a term which implies a conscientious regard for hs well as religious duties. hanceof the gods.'] Viz. Venus and Cupid. CATULLUS. long-cherished love : it is hard, but" This is thine only safety; this must this thou shalt do, ^ it possible or impog if it is your attribute to have pity, ot Inted aid to mortals in the very crisis of mortal-d l|)on my misery; and if I have led a pure life, pluq ^his plague and destruction, which, creeping like through every fibre of my frame, has expelled all] from my breast. I do not now ask that she may Ic return, or, what is impossible, that she should be ctj desire myself to be healed, and to cast off this dirij Grant me this, O gods, in reward of my piety. ti LXXVII. TO RUFUS. Rufus, whom fruitlessly and in vain I treated as fruitlessly ? nay, to my great loss and damage ; hast tl cajoled me, and consuming my vitals, ravished froi my joys? Thou hast ravished them from me. O cru( of my life ! O plague of my friendship ! And now that thou hast beslavered- my girl’s sweet lips with t| kisses. But thou shalt not escape with impunity ages shall know thee, and long-lived fame shall ll thou art. LXXVIII. ON GALLUS. Gallus has brothers, one of whom has a very chaj wife; the other a charming son. Gallus is a nice mai he panders sweetly, and puts the handsome aunt aij handsome nephew to bed together. Gallus is a fool; does not stop to consider that he is a husband and an before he demonstrates how an uncle may be made a cm LXXIX. ON GELLIUS. Gelltus is handsome : who can doubt it ? since I ,prefers him to you, Catullus, and your whole race. less this handsome youth is at liberty to sell Catulluj race, if he find three men of condition to salute himj % f LXXX. TO GELLIUS.i [See Metrical Version] ^ To Gellius.'] Nous diras tu, Gellius, pourquoi tes Ifevres CATULLUS. 91 LXXXI. TO JUVENTIUS. Was there no one in so great a multitude, Juventius, no nice fellow, to whom you might take it into your head to be¬ come attached, besides that host of yours from deadly malari¬ ous Pis^urum,^ wanner then a gilded statue ; who is now dear to you, whom you dare to prefer to me ? Ah ! you know not \ynat you do. • . / LXXXII. TO QUINTITJS. If you would have Catullus owe his eyes to you, Quintius, or aught else dearer to him than his eyes, if such thing there be, do not ravish from him what is much dearer to him than his eyes, or than anything still dearer. LXXXIII. ON LESBIA’S HUSBAND. Lesbia says all sorts of abusive things of me, when her husband is by, and this is a great delight to that numskull. Ass ! do you not see that if she forgot me and said nothing, she would be all right ? Whereas now she snarls and rails, she not only remembers, but what is worse, she is angry: that is to say, she is on fire and she speaks. » LXXXIV. ON ARRIUS. • ^ Ik. Whenever Arrius had occasion to say the word commodi- '%us lie would say chommodious, and hinsidious when he meant insidious, and he hoped that he had spoken marvellously well whep he had aspirated hinsidious as much as he could. I be¬ lieve his mother, his uncle Liber, and his maternal grand¬ father and grandmother spoke thus. When he was sent into Syria, our ears had all a respite, for they heard the same words pris la blancheur de la neige, lorsque dans les longs jours d’ etd, la huiti- eme heure t’ arrache a la mollesse d’ un repos voluptueux ? En croirons nous les bruits qui t’ accusent de preter ta bouche a d’ infames complais- sances ? II le faut bien ; T epuisement de ton ami Victor, et les traces honteuses que conservent tes levres d^color4es, ne deposent que trop contre vous deux, l^oel. * Pisaurum.'] A town of Umbria noted for its insalubrity, now called Pesaro. Vossius says that in his time it had the same character, and there were few old inhabitants there. 92 CATULLUS. y'-r-t i' /■ ' ' pronounced smoothly and lightly. Thenceforth they had no dread of them, when suddenly the horrible news arrives, that the Ionian waves, after Arrius had gone thither, were no longer Ionian but Hionian. LXXXV. ON HIS LOVE. » I HATE and love. You ask perhaps how caii that J^e. I know not; but I feel that it is so, and I am tortured.^ \ \ . LXXXVI. ON QUINTIA AND LESBIA. < Quintia is handsome in the opinion of many ; in mine she is fair, tall, straight; this I acknowledge; I admit these several details, but that aggregate “handsome” I deny; for there is no loveliness, not a grain of piquancy, in her whole person, large as it is. Lesbia is handsome; for, beautiful all over as she is, she combines in her single self all the graces stolen from her whole sex. LXXXVII. [See note on LXX F.] LXXXVIII. AGAINST GELLIUS. What does he do,Gellius, who indulges his prurience with his mother and his sister, and is naked and busy all night ? What does he do, who suffers not his uncle to be a husband ? Have you any idea, what a load of guilt he takes upon him ? He takes upon him, Gellius, so much as not Tethys to her far¬ thest bounds, not Oceanus the farthest of the Nymphs^ can wash away.’ For there is no possible kind or form of guilt which can exceed this : Non si demisso se ipse voret capite. LXXXIX. ON GELLIUS. Gellius is thin ; and why not ? when he has such a kind • I hate and love, &c.] The reader may perhaps like to hear the opinion of the pure and saintly Fenelon concerning our obscene pagan author. “ Catullus,” he says, “ whom we cannot name without shuddering at his obscenities, is perfection itself in impassioned simplicity. Odi et amo, &c. Compare him here with Ovid and Martial; how far inferior are their ingenious and artificial points to these unadorned w'ords, in which the suffering heart talks with itself alone in an access of despair.” “ Wash atoay.'] The ancients believed the sea had the virtue to purge moral impurity, and that not typically or metaphorically, but in reality. CATULLUS. 93 mother, such a buxom and comely sister, such a good easy uncle, and such lots of female cousins,^ how should he cease to be lean ? Though he never touches anything but what it is nefarious to touch, you will find cause enough why he should be as lean as you please. XC. ON GELLIUS. Let there be born from the nefarious commerce of Gellius and his mother a Magus, who shall learn the Persian system of augury. For a Magus must be born of a mother and her son, if the impious religion of the Persians is true, that their offspring may worship the gods with acceptable hymns, melting the fat omentum^ in the flame of the altar. XCI. ON GELLIUS. It was not because I know you well, Gellius, and thought you constant, or capable of refraining from infamous villany, that 1 hoped you would be faithful to me in this matter of my , wretched, my desperate love ; but because I saw that this girl, for whom I was consumed with passion, was neither your mother nor your sister ; and though I had the experience of much personal intercourse to guide my judgment, I did not believe that there was enough in such a case to tempt you. You thought there was ; so great is your delight in every of¬ fence in which there is some mixture of enormous guilt. XCII. ON LESBIA. Lesbia always abuses me, and never ceases to talk about me. May I die but Lesbia loves me. Plow does that appear ? As if I am not perpetually reviling her just as much j yet may I die but I love her.^ * Lots of female cousins.'] Omnia plena puellis cognatis. This very- idiomatic expression is frequently used by Latin authors. Omnia mise- , riarum plenissima. Cic. Epist. 24, L. ii., ad Attic. Lacrymis omnia plena, Tibul. Eleg. 9, L. i. * Omentum.^ The fat of the victim, Avrapped in the omentum, a mem¬ brane that covers the intestines, was thrown into the fire on the altar, and auguries were drawn from the appearance of the flame. ® Lesbia, &c.] Bussy de Rabutin has pretty'well imitated this epigram ; 94 CATULLUS. XCIII. ON CiESAR. 1 DO not greatly care to court your good will, Caesar, nor to know whether you are white or black. XCIV. AGAINST MENTULA. The flesh sins: certainly the flesh sins. That is as much as to say. The pot gathers garden stuff for the pot.^ XCV. ON THE “SMYRNA” OF JHE POEt'cINNA.2 At last my friend Cinna’s Smyrna is published, after the lapse of nine years since it was begun; whereas Hortensius has in the mean while thrown off his flfty thousand verses in one ***** The Smyrna shall reach as far as the deep waves of Atrax distant ages shall peruse the Smyrna; but the Annals of Volusius * * * and shall often furnish loose wrappers for mackarel. The brief works of my friend Cinna are precious to me * * ; but let the mob delight in the turgid Antimachus.'^ Phillis dit le diable de moi; De son amour et de sa foi C’est une preuve assez nouvelle : Ce qui me fait croire pourtant Qu’ elle m’ aime effectisement, C’est que je dis le diable d’elle, Et que je Taime eperdument. ' The flesh, &c.] There is a double meaning in the original, and the translator can give but half of it. Mentula, synonymous with penis, is^a nickname applied by Catullus to Mamurra, of whom he says (cxv.) that he is not a man, but a great thundering mentula. Maherault has hap¬ pily rendered the meaning of the epigram in French, in which language there is an equivalent for Mentula, that is to say, a man’s name which is also a popular synonyme for what characterizes the god Priapus. “ Jean Chouard fornique; eh! sans doute, c’est bien Jean Chouard. C’est ainsi qu’on pent dire que c’est la marmite qui cueille les choux.” 2 The Smyma.~\ The author of this lost poem was the unlucky Cinna, who was' torn “ for his bad verses ” by Antony’s mob after the assassina¬ tion of Caesar. The text of this poem is defective in three places. 3 Atrax.'] A town and river of Thessaly, introduced here merely to express distance. Volusius’ Annals have been before celebrated. * Turgid Antimachus.] A Greek poet who wrote an Epic poem on the Theban war; and having composed twenty-four books without mention¬ ing Thebes, unfortunately died, and never got to his subject in this world. His name is used here for any prolix and tiresome poet. CATULLUS. 9o XCVI. TO CALVUS ON QUINTILIA. If anything pleasing and acceptable can accrue to the mute grave from our sorrow, Calvus, and from the yearning with which we revive the memory of old loves, and weep over long- lost friendships ; ^ surely Quintilia mourns less her premature death, than she is gladdened by your love. XCVII. ON JEMILIUS.2 [See Metrical Version.] XCVIII. TO VETTIUS.3 To you, stinking Vettius, if to any one, may be applied what is said to babblers and fools. With that tongue of yours ^ The yearning, &c.] “The two lines of the original,” says Lamb, “ beginning Quo desideris, flow with a sweet melancholy that defles imi¬ tation. Shakspeare has a sonnet much resembling it in idea and ex¬ pression : When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, And with old woes new wail my time’s dear waste. Then can I drown an eye (unused to flow) For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night, And weep afresh love’s long since cancell’d woe. And moan th’ expense of many a ravish’d sight. ® On jEmilius.] There is in the Greek Anthology a similar epigram by Nicarchus, which has been thus translated by Grotius : Non culo, Theodore, minus tibi foetida bucca est Noscere discrimen sit sapientis opus. Scribere debueras hie podex est mens, hie os : Nune tu eum pedas atque loquare simul, Discere non valeo, quid venerit inde vel inde ; Vipera namque infra sibilat atque supra. ^ To Vettius.] Justus Lipsius has written a dissertation with regard to Vettius, whom he supposes to be the person mentioned in Cieero’s Let¬ ters to Attieus, and by Suetonius, as having been suborned by Caesar to allow himself to be seized with a weapon on his person, and to eonfess that he had been employed by the chiefs of the senate to assassinate Pompey—a device contrived by Caesar in order to set Pompey and the senate at variance. Vettius was strangled in prison, and Cicero charged Vatinius with the murder. He had previously served Cicero as a spy in the affair of Catiline’s conspiracy, and had accused Caesar of being impli¬ cated in it. He was a dirty fellow (see Poem liv.) and ready for any dirty work. 96 CATULLUS. you may wipe cowkeepers’ shoes and nastier things yet, if you have occasion. If you wish utterly to destroy us all, Vettius, open your mouth; you will effect your purpose to a certainty XCIX, TO - I snatched from you, while you played, honeyed one, a kiss sweeter than sweet ambrosia; but not with impunity; for I remember that I hung for more than an hour on the cross, all the while endeavouring to excuse myself, but unable to abate your cruelty in the least. For as soon as the act was committed, you rinsed your lips again and again, and rubbed them with every joint of your fingers ; that no particle from my mouth should remain on them, as though it were the filthy slaver of a common trull. Moreover you have never ceased to subject my miserable being to the despites of love, and to torture me in every way: so that now that kiss is changed for me from ambrosia to be bitterer than bitter hellebore. Since such is the penalty you impose oii unfortunate love, never more will I steal kisses. C. ON CCELIUS AND QUINCTIUSA [See Metrical Versio7i.] Cl.^ FUNERAL CEREMONIES AT HIS BROTHER’S TOMB. Through many nations, over many seas I am come, bro¬ ther, to these sad funeral rites, to bestow upon thee the last gifts to the dead, and vainly to address thy mute ashes, since fortune has bereft me of thyself, ah! poor brother, cruelly taken from me ! Now then accept those gifts, profusely watered with a brother’s tears, which the ancient usag^, de¬ rived from our ancestors, prescribes for the sad rites of the grave ; and now for ever hail, brother, and farewell! ’ On Conlim and Quinctius.'] Ccelius et Quinctius, la fleur de la jeu- nesse de Verone, brulent tons deux, T un pour Aufil^nus, 1’ autre pour Aufil^na. Voila ce qu’ on pent appeler une charmante confraternite. Pour qui seront lues vceux ? Pour 1’ ami du fr^re, on pour T amant de la soeur ? (5 Coelius ! j’ ai trop reconnu la sincerite de ton amitie, lors que les feux d’ amour qui m’ embrasaient me rendaient son indulgence necessaire. Puisse done T amour couronner tes ardeurs! Puisses tu 1 e montrer digne des faveurs de T amour! CATULLUS. CII. TO CORNELIUS. If ever anytliing was committed bj a confiding the secret keeping of another whose fidelity was thorouglSj known, you will find me t^o, Cornelius, religiously bound to secrecy ; so tliink that I am become Harpocrates. cm. TO SILO. Either be good enough to return me ten thousand sesterces, and then be as surly and savage as you please; or if you like the money too well^ cease, I beg, to be a pimp, and at the same time surly and savage. CIV. TO A CERTAIN PERSON, CONCERNING LESBIA. Do you believe that I could revile my life, who is dearer to me than both my eyes ? I neither could do so, nor if I could, should I love her so desperately. But you invent all sorts of monstrous things with your friend the tavern-keeper. CV. ON MENTULA. Mentula strives to climb the Pimplsean mountain: the Muses pitch him down headlong with forks. CVI. ON A BOY AND A PUBLIC CRIER.^ [See Metrical Versioti.-] evil. TO LESBIA. If ever any one who desires and longs for anything, but has no hope'of it, obtains the object of his ivishes, then is it pecu¬ liarly welcome to his soul: therefore it is welcome to me, and more precious than gold, that you, Lesbia, restore yourself to my longing breast. You restore yourself, and of your own accord give yourself back to me unexpectedly. O day of whiter mark ! "Who can say what happier man lives than I, or what there is more to be desired in life than this ? * On a Boy, &c.] Un crieur paraitre en public h cdt€ d’ un jeune et beau garden! C’ est done pour afficher qu’ il est a vendre et qu’ il cherche chaland ? H CATULLUS. CVIII. ON COMINIUS. ^our hoary age, Cominius, defiled by foul habits, were to ush by the sentence of the people, I make no doubt but that 'your tongue, so hostile to the good, would be cut out and thrown to a vulture; the crow would pick out your eyes and swallow them down its black throat; dogs Avould devour your intestines, and wolves the rest of your carcase. CIX. TO LESBIA. My life, my Lesbia, you profess that this love of ours shall be mutually fond and perpetual. Great gods ! grant that she may be able to promise truly, and that she say this sincerely and from her soul; that we may be permitted to maintain throughout our lives this hallowed bond of affection. CX. TO AUFILENA. j Good friendly wenches are always praised, Aufilena ; they take the price of what they mean to perform. But you are the reverse of good and friendly, because you have made me promises and not kept them j and forasmuch as you never give, and often take, you are criminal. It became you, Au¬ filena, either as a frank, honest girl to keep your word, or as a modest girl not to promise. But to clutch what is given you, and bilk the giver, exceeds the infamy of the greediest harlot, that prostitutes herself with her whole body. CXI. TO AUFILENA. To live content with one husband, Aufilena, is the first among the choicest glories of married women ; but it is allow¬ able to yield to any lover, rather than to be the mother of one’s own cousins german.^ CXII. ON NASO .2 [iS'eft Metrical Version.'] * Coiisms german.] Fratres ex patruo. Uncles’sons were called ox fratres patrueles. Thus in Ovid, Ajax claims as a brother’s right the arms of his dead cousin Achilles : Frater erat^fraterna peto. Metam. 13. ^ On Naso.] A tes yeux, Nason, tu es un grand personnage. Mais comment concilier cette haute opinion de toi raeme avec T etrange hu¬ miliation a la quelle tu te soumets ? CATULLUS. 99 CXIII. TO CINNA. When Pompey was consul the first time, there were two known adulterers in Rome ; when he was again made consul, the number was still two ; but several thousands have been superadded to each one of the pair. Adultery is prolific. CXIV. ON MENTULA. Your Formian estate, Mentula, is not untruly reputed rich, for how many fine things does it comprise ! Feathered game of all kinds, fish, beasts, pasture and arable lands. All in vain ; for your expenditure exceeds the income. I grant then your estate is rich, but you are destitute ; let us praise the wealth of your estate, but you are a beggar. CXV. AGAINST MENTULA. Mentula has something like thirty acres of meadow and forty of arable land: the rest is as ivide as the sea. Why can he not surpass Croesus in wealth, who possesses so many fine things in one domain ; meadows, arable land, vast woods and forests, and marshes, stretching away to the world’s end and to the ocean ? All these are great; but greatest of all by far is himself, no man, but truly a great threatening MENTULA. CXVI. TO GELLIUS. Though often inquiring how I might send you the poems of Battiades to be carefully investigated, that so I might soften you towards me, and that you might not attempt to prick my head with your gnat’s sting; I now see that I took all this trouble in vain, Gellius, and that my prayers to that effect were of no avail. ^ So then I will ward off your weapons with my cloak alone, but you shall suffer condign punishment, pierced by mine. * Though often inquiring, &c.] On this epigram Lamb remarks: “ From the former poems on Gellius, it would not be expected to find Ca¬ tullus at last trying to conciliate him by the compliment of asking for his criticisms. This poem however shows that it was so, and that the attempt had failed.” We notice this remark as an instance of the false inferences often drawn from the order in which the poems of Catullus are arranged, as if that was chronological. For aught we know to the contrary, this epigram is just as likely to have been the first as the last addressed to Gellius. H 2 THE TIGIL OF YENUS.' To-morroyv let those lo\"e, who have never loved; let those who have loved, love to-morrow. The new spring is come, the warbling spring, the season in Yvhich the world was born. In spring the loves impel to union; in spring the birds mate together, and the woods, quickened by prolific showers, shake loose their locks of ver¬ dure. To-morrow she who knits the bonds of ^ove will visit the* shady groves, and twine the myrtle sprays into green bowers: to-morrow, seated on her lofty throne, Dione pub¬ lishes her edicts. To-morrow, &c. ' It was in spring that, from its foamy womb, impregnated by celestial blood, the mighty deep produced Dione,^ floating * The Vigil of Vemis.l This pretty poem has been by turns ascribed to a great number of authors, among the rest, to Catullus; but all the learned are now agreed that it is certainly the Avork of an anonymous w'riter, and probably of the second century, if not of later date. The language of the piece is evidently that of an age of degenerate Latinity, and in its florid luxuriance, as well as in certain peculiarities of expres¬ sion, it exhibits the closest affinity to that African school, of which Apuleius is the most remarkable example. When the poem was first rescued from oblivion by Pierre Pithou and Claude Saumaise, the text was corrupt in every line, sometimes in every word of a line; and al¬ though much labour has since been bestowed on its correction, its condi¬ tion in many places is still far from satisfactory. The subject of the poem is the Festival of Venus, which w'as celebrated on the first three days of April, beginning at nightfall on the last day of March. For, says Macrobius, Saturnal. i. 21, “When the sun ascends above the lower parts of the earth, and passes the bounds of the vernal equinox, lengthening the days, then is Venus glad, the fair fields are green with corn, the meadows with grass, the trees with leaves. For this reason our forefathers dedicated the month of April to Venus.” 2 Produced Dione.'\ The “celestial blood” of which Dione or Venus was engendered, was that which fell from the god Coelus, when he was mutilated by his son Saturn, the father of Jove. CATULLUS. 101 over the waves, amidst the azure throngs of Tritons and NereidSy and the biped horses.^ To-morrow, &c. She paints the year with flowers that purple it as with gems; she urges the buds, swelling with the breath of Zephyr, into the warm bridal bed of air she scatters the bright dewy moisture left by the humid air of night; how its tears glitter and tremble as if they would fall; but each pendent drop re¬ mains self-balanced by its little orb. That moisture which the stars shed in the calm night loosens the virgin buds in the morning from their humid robe, and displays the crimson blushes of the flower. She has commanded that to-morrow all the virgins shall wear roses. The rose tinged with the blood of Venus,^ perfumed by the kisses of Love, and glowing with the lustre of gems, of flames, of the sun’s orient splendours, to-morrow will not be ashamed to loose as a bride her last knot, and display the crimson concealed beneath her robe of fire. To-morrow, &c. The goddess hath bidden the Nymphs assemble in the myrtle grove. Her .boy accompanies them; but Love cannot be trusted as a harmless associate in the festival if he carries his arrows. Go, Nymphs; Love has laid aside his arms, he is harmless. He is ordered to go unarmed and naked, that he may do no mischief with his bow, or his arrows, or his torch. Yet, Nymphs, beware, for Cupid is beautiful. Love is all armed even when he is naked. To-morrow, &c. ‘ Biped horses.^ The horses of Neptune were, like seals, furnished only with fore feet, and these were webbed. * TJie toann bridal bed of air.\ We read with Lipsius in tor os tepentis. ^ The blood of Venus.'] The following epigram tells how this happened: Ilia quidem studiosa snum defendere Adonim, Gradivus stricto quern petit ense ferox, Affixit duris vestigia coeca rosetis, Albaque divino picta cruore rosa est. While the enamour’d queen of joy Flies to protect her lovely boy. On whom the jealous war-god rushes ; She treads upon a thorned rose. And while the wound with crimson flows. The snowy flowret feels her blood, and blushes ! Moors. 102 CATULLUS. Virgin of Delos, Venus sends thee virgins modest as thy¬ self. There is one thing we beg of thee. Leave this grove to her awhile unsullied by the slaughters of the chase. She would fain invite thee if thy maiden modesty would yield to her prayer. She would gladly see thee at her festival if the scene were not repugnant to thy virgin mind. For three nights thou wouldst see the festive choirs, crowned with flowers, wandering through the groves, or disporting in its myrtle bowers. Ceres and Bacchus ^ will be there, and the god of the po'ets ; the whole wakefuh night will resound with song. Dione shall reign in the woods; give place to her, Delia. To-morrow, &c. The goddess hath commanded a tribunal to be reared of flowers of Hybla. She will preside there; the Graces will be her assessors. Hybla, pour out every flower that the year produces ; Hybla, cast forth a tapestry of flowers, vast as that which adorns the plain of Enna. Plither will come the Nymphs of the fields and the mountains, and those that dwell in forests, groves, and streams. The mother of the winged boy has bidden them all to attend, and has enjoined them not to trust Love though he be naked. To-morrow let those love, who have never loved ; let those who have loved, love to-morrow, and weave a verdant shade with new-opened flowers. The day returns to-morrow on * Ceres and Bacchus .Every one knows the aphorism in Terence’s Eunuch, “Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus,” “Without Ceres and Bacchus Venus freezes or, as Le Noble oddly paraphrases it. Point de beau feu sans la marmite ; Mille accidens m’ont convaincu Que I’Amour n’est qu’un floid-au-cu. Si Ceres et Bacchus ne marchent a sa suite. After the line of the original beginning Nec Ceres, nec Bacchtis, Lipsius places the four following, which he believes to be by the author of the Vigil: Hie Apollo, deinde Liber hie videtur ignifer ; Ambo flaminis sunt creati, prosatique ex ignibus; Ambo de com is calorem, vite, radio conserunt: Noctis hie rumpit tenebras, hie tenebras pectoris. “ Here are seen Apollo and fire-giving Bacchus ; both were born of flames and begotten of fire; both shed warmth from what crowns their brows, the vine, and the rays; the one bursts the gloom of night, the other the gloom of the breast.” CATULLUS. 103 which the primal a3ther consummated its nuptials ; ^ that he, the father of the dew, might beget the year with his innu¬ merable clouds. The bridegroom-shower flowed into the bo¬ som of his genial spouse, and spread throughout her vast body to nurture all its germs of life. The great procreant goddess herself breathing through all the veins and the mind, governs them with occult powers; suffuses her penetrating influence by every channel of generation through heaven and earth, and the sea’s depths; and bids the world know the ways of reproduction. To-morrow, &c. She transported the Trojan Penates to the shores of La- tium; she gave the Laurentian maid as a spouse to her son -®neas; she gave a chaste vestal to the arms of Mars ; she effected the marriage of the Romans with the Sabines, whence sprang the Ramnes and the Quirites, and for the weal of Romulus’s remote descendants—the Caesars, father and ne¬ phew. To-morrow, &c. The goddess of Pleasure fructifies the fields ; they feel the presence of Yenus ; Love himself, Dione’s son, is said to have been born among them.^ It was when they -were in their season of parturition that his mother first folded him to her bosom, and she reared his infancy on the perfumed juice of flowers. To-morrow, &c. ^ Consummated its nuptials.'\ Of all marriages the most ancient is that of the air with the earth, and it is renewed every year in spring. This idea, and the very forms in which it is here expressed, are taken from Virgil, Georg, ii. 325. Stanley cites a kindred passage from Euripides, which he thus renders ; How far Cythera’s power extends No speech, no fancy comprehends. Me, thee, and all she doth sustain. The barren earth affects the rain: Heaven big with showers, this Queen of Loves To fall into Earth’s bosom moves : These two, commixed with mutual heat. All things that serve mankind, beget. ^ Love himself, &c.] Tibullus gives the same account of the birth of Love, Book ii. El. 1. 104 CATULLUS. The bonds of marriage bind all creatures. See the bulls spread their broad flanks over the brooms; the bleating ewes flock to the shade with the rams; the lakes resound with the hoarse voice of the swan; and the goddess has forbidden the tuneful birds to be silent. The nightingale sings in the shade of the poplar, that you would suppose she was uttering in music the emotions of love, not that she was complaining to her sister of the barbarity of Tereus. She sings: we are silent! When shall my spring come ? When shall I be like Chelidon, and silent never more ? I have lost the Muse’s favour by keeping silence, and Phoebus no longer regards me. So was Amyclai undone by silence.^ To-morrow, &c.^ ^ Amyclce undone hy silencel\ Amyclae was a town of Italy between Cuieta and Terracina. Its people having been frequently terrified by false alarms of the approach of besiegers, passed a law forbidding that any one should make report of danger on any grounds whatever. The be¬ siegers came at last, and the place was taken by surprise. 2 It was with reference to this poem that Dousa (Van des Deos) plan¬ ned a hoax upon his learned contemporaries, like that which Muretus practised on Scaliger. He gave out that one of his friends had seen another Vigil in a library in France, and had retained these four lines of it in his memory— Nemo tentis mentulis det, nemo nervis otium. Ecce passeres salaces, ecce rauci turtures, Hac super virenti myrto nos amoris admonent. Nemo tentis, etc. The trick succeeded; the learned unanimously recognised the genuine air of antiquity in this fragment; and when they were undeceived, they consoled them as Scaliger had done, by virulently abusing the clever mystifier. ELEGIES OF TIBULLUS. BOOK 1. ELEGY I.‘ Let another heap up wealthy store of yellow gold,^ and hold many thousand acres^ of cultivated land; so shall he be troubled with incessant dread of the approaching enemy, and his sleep be scared by the trumpet’s blast. As for me, let my poverty consign me to a life without excitement, whilst the ‘ Elegy /.] An invitation from Messala to accompany him to the wars, with a view to repairing the poet’s fortunes, appears to have been the occasion of this Elegy, in which Tibullus declares his determination to abandon the pursuit of wealth and power, and to retire to the country, there to lead a life of calm and simple enjoyment with the girl of his heart. We may confidently fix the date of the poem about the begin¬ ning of B. c. 31, the year in which Messala won the battle of Actium for Octavius. According to Scaliger and Bronkhusius, whose arrange¬ ment of the text we generally follow, this Elegy consists of 92 lines: Heyne and the Vulgate give it 78. Tibullus has suffered a twofold injury at the hands of ignorant copyists, who, not content with mutilating and changing his words, have in many instances broken the order of his lines, and shuflled them about in pairs and in scores in the most ran¬ dom manner. * Gold, &c.] The poet here specifies wealth in money and wealth in land, both however with reference to the “ praemia militiae.” The soldier acquired gold by direct plunder from his foes, and at this period it was the practice to make an assignment of land to each veteran when discharged from service. ’ Many acres.'] Jugera. The Roman jugenim contained two actus, Oie actm being a square whose side was one hundred and twenty Roman feet. The Roman foot was equal to 11*64 English inches. From these data it is easily calculated that the jugerum was not quite two-thirds of an English acre. 106 TIBULLUS. fire on my hearth is always bright nor let hope disappoint me, but always yield me heaps of fruit, and a vat full of rich must. Myself a rustic, I will plant my tender vines and large apples with ready hand in due season. Nor yet will I shame to handle the fork at times, or to hasten the slow oxen with the goad. I will not be loth to carry home the lamb in my bosom, or the kid deserted by its mother. Here it is my yearly custom to fumigate my shepherd, and to sprinkle the altar of the placid Pales ^ with milk;^for I revere every divinityy whether a forlorn bole in the fields, or an old stone in a forking of the roads bear flowery garlands ; and whatever apples the new year rears for me, their firstlings are placed before the goddess of the fields. Yellow Ceres, let there be a crown woven from the corn- ears of our crop, to hang before the door of thy temple ; and let Priapus, ruddy ^ guardian, stand in my orchard to frighten the birds with his menacing sickle. And you too receive your olferings, my Lares,guardians of a once rich, now poor, ^ The fire—alicays brighf.'\ Assiduo luceat igne fiocus : or, if \ve read exiguo, for which there is equal MS, authority, “ whilst my hearth shines with a small fire.” The chief objection to assiduo is the occurrence of the same word three, lines before. On the other hand exiguo would per¬ haps imply sordid poverty, as Ramsay remarks. The “ blazing hearth” was the emblem of domestic comfort among the Romans as well as among ourselves. There is a sepulchral inscription preserved in Fabretti, c. iv. 283, apparently engraved by a husband as a memorial to his wife and friend, which concludes with these words,— ;TVNc. mevs.Jassidve. semper. BENE LVXIT. AMICE. FOCVS. - FalesP\ The goddess of shepherds. See II. v. * RuddyP^^ Ruber. Painted with vermilion. See Virg. E. x. 26. Pliny has a curious passage (N. H. xxxiii. 7) on the custom practised by the early Romans of adorning the faces of their gods, and even the bodies of their triumphant generals, triumphantumqice corpora, with red paint. Camillus, he says, followed that fashion when he triumphed. Lares.] The word Lar is of Tuscan origin, and in that language was a title of honour, equivalent, apparently, to chief or prince. Thus we read of Lar Porsenna, king of Clusium, Lar Tolumnius, king of the Veiientes. The testimony of those among the Romans who were best quali¬ fied to form an oyinion upon such a subject is so precise that we can enter¬ tain no doubt that, according to the popular belief, the deities denominated Lares were certain spirits of dead men, Avho were supposed to watch over and protect the living. They were very numerous, and were ranked in classes according to the departments over which they presided, the first grand division being into private and public Lares. The former were tutelary spirits who received the homage of all the individuals residing under the same roof. The spot peculiarly sacred to them was the fociis TIBULLUS. 107 domain. In those days a slaughtered calf was the propitia¬ tory sacrifice for vast herds; now a lamb is a sumptuous vic¬ tim to come from my small estate. A lamb shall fall before you, and round it the rustic youth shall cry : “ lo ! give us a plenteous harvest and a good vintage.” Favour us with your presence, gods ; scorn not the gifts of a poor table, nor liba¬ tions from clean pottery. Such vessels the husbandman of yore made for himself and formed them of ductile clay. And yon, ye thieves and wolves, spare my few heads of cattle, and take your prey from large herds. I do not regret the wealth of my fathers, and the plenty which their stored harvests afforded of yore. For me a small crop is enough; it is enough to rest under my own roof, if I may, and to stretch my limbs on my wonted couch. How delightful it is to hear the pitiless winds as we lie in bed, and fold the mistress we love to our bosom; or when the wintry south wind pours down its sleety waters, to sleep on securely, lulled by the plashing rain ! Let this be my lot. Let him grow rich, as is but fair, who can bear the rage of the sea and the dismal rain. ! Now I, who am content to live on a little, cannot do this, nor can I be alway resigned to long wayfaring; ^ but my choice is or hearth, siUiated in the principal apartment {atrium), and considered the central point of the mansion. Here stood the altar for domestic sacrifice, and near to this there was usually a niche, containing little images of these gods, and denominated lararium cedicula, which in the sumptuous palaces of later times was not unfrequently enlarged into a chapel with magnificent decorations. The public Lares were of several kinds: e. g. Lares Rurales, guardians of flocks, herds, and fruits of the earth ; the poet addresses these in the lines before us: Lares Compitales, worshipped at the spot where two or more roads crossed; Lares Prcestites, protectors of the city, &c. &c. The Lares bear a striking resemblance to the saints of modern Italy. Moreover the holy books of the Etruscans described certain sacred rites, by means of^which the souls of men might be changed into gods, a process somewhat analogous to canonization. The Penates were the deities worshipped in the penus, or innermost part of the house. Penates is a generic term, and includes the Lares and cer¬ tain other gods who were worshipped at the hearth, especially Vesta, who was herself the Goddess of the Hearth.— Ramsay. * Now I, who am content, »S:c.] Jam mode non possum contentus vivere parvo, Nec semper longae deditus esse vise. The first of these lines has greatly perplexed all the editors; for, separ¬ ated from its true context, and punctuated as above, it seems to express the very reverse of its author’s undoubted meaning. The difficulty arises 108 TIBULLUS. to shun the heat when the sultry dogstar is in the ascendant, reposing under the shade of foliage, beside the running stream.^ Oh perish all the gold and gems^ in the world rather than any girl should weep for my wayfaring ! It is for thee, Messala, to war by land and sea, that thy house may display the spoils of the foe. Me the bonds of a fair girl hold captive, and I sit like a gate-keeper^ before her obdurate door. I care not to be praised, my Delia; only let me be with thee, and I am content to be called slow and entirely from the dislocation we have spoken of in a preceding note; for in most editions the foregoing twenty-five lines, from “Adsitis divi,” “ Favour us with your presence, gods,” down to “ ferre potest pluvias,” “ can bear, &c. the dismal rain,” are printed out of their proper place. After their restoration to it, nothing more is wanted to make the sense quite clear, except a comma possum. ^ Under the shade of foliage, &c.] In Dunlop’s notice of Catullus (Hist. Rom. Lit.) we find a passage which commends itself especially to the reader of Tibullus : “ The Romans, and particularly the Roman poets, as if the rustic spirit of their Italian ancestry was not altogether banished by the buildings of Rome, appear to have had a genuine and exquisite relish for the delights of the country; not as we are apt to enjoy it, for the sake of exercise or field sports, but for its amenity and repose, and the mental tranquillity which it diffused. With them it seems to have been truly— ‘ The relish for the calm delight Of verdant fields and fountains bright; Trees that nod on sloping hills, And caves that echo tinkling rills.’ Love of the country among the Romans thus became conjoined with the idea of a life of pastoral tranquillity and retirement, a life of friendship, liberty, and repose, free from labour and from care, and from all turbu¬ lent passions. Scenes of this kind delight and interest us supremely, whether they be painted as what is hoped or what is enjoyed. We feel how natural it is for a mind with a certain disposition to relaxation and indolence, when fatigued with the bustle of life, to long for serenity and quiet, and for those sequestered scenes in which they can be most exqui¬ sitely enjoyed. There is much less of this in the writings of the Greeks, who were originally a seafiiring and piratical, not, like the Italians, a pas¬ toral, people. It is thus that even in their highest stage of refinement the manners and feelings of nations bear some affinity to their original rudeness, though that rudeness itself has been imperceptibly converted into a source of elegance and ornament.” 2 Gems.'] Smaragdi. It appears extr^ely probable that the ancients gave this name not merely to the precious gem which we call an emerald, but also to fluor spar, green vitrified lava, (green Iceland agate,) green jasper, and green glass. * / sit, &c.] A remark of Heyne’s happily disposes of the apparent incongruity between the two images of wearing chains and sitting as a door-keeper. Porters in Rome were chained to the doors. TIBULLUS. 109 spiritless. Let me be free to yoke my oxen ; so I be but with thee, my Delia, and to feed my flock on the lone mountain ; and, if I may but hold thee in my fond arms, soft be my sleep on the rude ground ! What boots it to lie down on a Tyrian couch without favouring love, when the sleepless night must be passed in tears ? Vain then are down, and richly dyed tapestry, and even the gentle murmuring of water, to induce slumber. The man were iron who, when he could have thee, should stupidly prefer to follow arms and rapine. He may drive before him vanquished troops of Cilicians, and pitch his martial camp on the conquered soil ; caparisoned all over with gold and silver, he may bestride his swift steed in all the pomp of his glory. Let me behold thee when my last hour is come, thee let me hold with my dying hand.^ Thou wilt weep, Delia, when I am laid on the funeral pile, and thou wilt give me kisses mingled with sad tears ; thy bosom is not cased in hard iron, nor hast thou flint in thy tender heart. No youth, no virgin will be able to return from that funeral with dry eyes. But pain not my Manes ; spare thy dishevelled hair, Delia, and spare thy tender cheeks. Meanwhile, as long as the fates permit, let us indulge our mutual love. Soon death will come with its head wrapt in gloom ; soon sluggish age will-creep upon us ; nor will it be seemly to love or to talk amorously with hoary heads. Now is our time to ply light Venus, whilst we may without blush¬ ing break doors, and commit riotous frolics. In this warfare I am a captajn and a good soldier. Banners and trumpets, begone^^'MIestow wounds and rich booty on heroes who long for tlmm; as for me, secure in the store I possess, I will desp^e both opulence and penury. ' Let me behold thee.l No otlier poet so often introduces the dismal images of death. Tibullus does not, like Anacreon or Catullus, present them for a moment, or on the back-ground of his pictures of joy, but ex¬ hibits them at full length and on the front of the canvass. When he thinks of death he thinks so profoundly, and so long contemplates its image, that the ideas it suggests must have occupied a large space in his soul. Even to the most joyous thoughts of Tibullus some mournful or plaintive sentiment is generally united, and his most gay and smiling ligures wear chaplets of cypress on their brows. While deeming himself liappy in comparison witli the great Messala, because he will pass his life unknown in the arms of Delia, he thus concludes his address to this be¬ loved mistress: “ Let me behold thee,” «&:c. Dunlop. 110 TIBULLUS. ELEGY II.i More wine ! Lull my new pains with wine, till sleep hold my weary eyes in subjection. Let no one wake me as I lie with my brain drenched by Bacchus, and have a respite from the wretchedness of love. Let me drink ; for a stern watch is set upon my girl, and the obdurate door is firmly barred upon her for the night. Surly door, may the rain beat upon thee, may the lightning smite thee by Jove’s command. Open, door, for me only, subdued by my plaintive entreaties, and make no noise as thou turnest stealthily on thy hinges. And if my crazy passion has given thee any bad words, par¬ don me ; let them be upon my own head, I pray. Remember all the thousand things I said to thee in suppliant tone, when I hung thy frame with garlands of flowers.^ And thou too, Delia, be not afraid to elude thy guards. Be venturous; Venus herself aids the bold. She favours enterprise whether some youth assays new thresholds or a girl opens the barred doors. She teaches how to creep stealthily out of the soft bed; how to step with noiseless foot; how to converse in speaking signs in presence of a husband, and to convey hidden phrases of soft import in preconcerted tokens. Nor does she teach this to all, but only to those who are neither laggards, nor forbidden by fear to rise in the dark night. As for me, when I wander anxiously over the whole city in darkness, Venus makes me fearless in the darkness, nor does she let any one meet me to wound my body with steel, or to * Elegy 7/.] Delia having married during her lover’s absence from Rome, he tries to drown his grief in wine. Then he alternately abuses and coaxes her obdurate door, and begs her to summon courage enough to admit him, assuring her that he has procured magic means to hinder all discovery. * Garlands.'] We have already seen that this kind of gallantry was much practised by the Romans: thus Lucretius : At lacrimans exclusus amator limina stepe Floribus, et sertis operit, postesque superbos Ungit amaracyno. Meantime excluded, and exposed to cold, The whining lover stands before the gates. And there with humble adoration waits; Crowning with flowers the threshold and the floor, And printing kisses on the obdurate door. Dryden. TIBULLUS. Ill make booty of my garments.^ Whoever is possessed by love, may go where he will, safe and sacred; it is not for him to fear any lurking dangers. I am not hurt by the numbing cold of the winter nights ; nor when the rain falls in torrents ; all this does not harm me, if only Delia unclose the door, and mutely summon me to the beck of her finger. Man or woman who come in my way, hold off with lights ! Venus chooses that her thefts should be concealed. Alarm me not with the sound of your feet; ask not my name, nor bring the light of a blazing torch near me. If any indiscreet person see me, let him forget who I am, and swear by all the gods he does not know me. For should any one chatter, he shall be made to feel that Venus is born of blood and of the swiftly- roused sea. Your husband however will not believe this impertinent meddler, as a truth-telling sorceress hath assured me by means of her magic art. I have seen her draw down the stars from heaven; she turns the course of the swift lightning by her incantations ; she cleaves the earth, brings out the Manes from the sepulchres, and calls down the bones from the still smouldering pile. Now she makes the infernal hosts swarm round her with her magic screamings, and now she bids them be gone, sprinkling them with milk. When she pleases, she sweeps away the clouds from the sombre sky ; when she pleases, she calls down the snow in summer by a word from her mouth. She is said to possess alone all the evil herbs known to Medea, alone to have brought the fierce dogs of He¬ cate under subjection. This witch has composed for me chants by which you may deceive all eyes. Chant thrice, spit thrice^ after reciting the charm; your husband will be unable to be- * To wound my body, &c.] During the civil wars, and for a long time after them, Rome was full of thieves and cut-throats. 2 Spit thrice.^ The poor Irishwoman who spits for luck on the first coin she takes in the day, has classical authority for the practice. The reader who wishes to be informed of the many uses made of spittle in medicine, in magic, in expiations, in averting witchcraft, and in concili¬ ating love, may consult Pliny the Elder, and those commentators whom Brockhusius has quoted. The Romans had great faith in it as a pre¬ servative against fascination. Accordingly on the d’, yet some editors have strangely tacked to it “ Ferreus ille fuit,” and the thirteen following lines, which belong to the first Elegy. And not content with this, they have forced “ Num Veneris inagnee,” and the seven succeeding verses, from their natural place in the fifth Elegy of this book, and have added them to the other transposition. * Elegy III.] Soon after his successful campaign in Aquitania, Me-s- sala was despatched by Augustus on a mission to the East. Tibullus formed one of his retinue, but was taken ill and compelled to remain behind at Corcyra, where this Elegy was composed, b. c. 29. 2 Phceacia.] The island of Corcyra, now Corfu. ♦ The lots.] Sortes. These were of various kinds. The first words spoken by the virgin in the temple of Juno were the sortes in cases of marriage ; as the first spoken by a boy in the high-way, gave the omen commonly depended upon before a journey was undertaken. An example will better explain this obscure piece of superstition. A lady who w^s betrothed went with a young companion to the temple of the goddess of marriage to watch the first words spoken by a woman. Anxiously at¬ tentive, she seated herself while her companion stood. Two hours having passed without a word being uttered, or anybody entering the temple, the younger at last said, “ My dear, I am tired; will you permit me to TIBULLUS. 113 her news of sure omens from the streets. Everything prog¬ nosticated my return, yet nothing could hinder her from weep¬ ing and turning to look after me as I went. I myself, to console her, when I had already given orders for my departure, still anxiously sought for pretexts to delay; and alleged either an unpromising appearance of the birds, or dire omens, or that Saturn’s unlucky day^ detained me. Oh how often at the outset of my journey did I say that a stumble at the * threshold 2 had given me sinister warning ! Let no one dare to set out on a journey in spite of love, or if he does, let him know that his course is begun under the prohibition of the god. What does your Isis for me now, Delia ? What avail me those brazen sistra of hers so often shaken by your hand Or what am I the better for remembering that, while you were pursuing her rites, you bathed purely and lay alone in sit in your chair a little ? ” These were the first words. The sequel ac¬ corded with them. The betrothed lady died soon after, and the otlaer was married to the bridegroom in her stead. Another way of taking the lots ■was by means of slips of parchment or pieces of wood, upon which certain words or sentences were inscribed. They were shuffled together in a box or urn ; one was drawn or shaken out at random, and a conclusion dra'v^m from the import of its inscription. Fortune-tellers drove a brisk trade in Rome, and frequented the Forum, the Circus Maximus, and other places of public resort. In the case before us, Delia sent a boy to a place where three ways met, that he might watch for an omen; or if we read trinia instead of triviis, she employed him to draw the lots from the urn three times—the mystical number. ‘ Sahirn’s unlucky day.'\ It was doubtless from observing the conduct of the Jews on their sabbath, which corresponded with Saturn’s day, (Saturday,) that the superstitious Romans thought that an unlucky day to begin a journey. Thus Ovid, A. A. i. 415, Quaque dies redeunt rebus minus apta gerendis Culta Palaestino septima sacra Syro. “ The passage before us,” says Ramsay, “ is remarkable as being the first in which we find mention of a day of the week named after a planet, and it is by no means certain that the planetary names for the other six were at this time known to the Romans.” * Stumble at the threshold.'] The worst of all omens to a person set¬ ting out upon a journey, or about to begin any important undertaking. ® Sistrum.'] A bronze instrument which the worshippers of Isis held in their hands, and shook whilst performing their devotions. It re¬ sembled the frame of a racket or battledore in miniature, with trans¬ verse rods loosely fitted in, by means of which a jingling sound was produced. I 114 TIBULLUS. a pure bed. Now, now, goddess, succour me; for that man may be healed by thee, is proved by many a picture in thy temples. Let my Delia, dressed in linen,^ sit before thy sacred ^doors, performing vigils vowed for me ; and twice a day, with 'liair unbound, conspicuous among the Pharian crowd, let her recite thy due praises; but be it my lot to celebrate my native Penates, and Oto offer monthly incense to my ancient Lar. How happily men lived when Saturn reigned, before the earth was laid open by long roads! Not yet had the pine contemned the azure waves, and shaken out its bellying sails to the winds, nor had the roving mariner, seeking gain in un¬ known lands, loaded his ship with foreign merchandise. In those days the strong bull did not bear the yoke; the horse did not champ the bit in his subject mouth; no house had doors; there was no stone fixed on the fields, to mark the precise boundaries of each man’s crop ; the very oaks yielded honey, and the sheep spontaneously offered their milky udders, and gave no trouble to those who wanted them.' There were no armies, no enmity, no wars ; nor had the cruel smith forged the sword with ruthless art. Now under the rule of Jove, slaughter and SAVords are in¬ cessant ; now sea and land ofier a thousand ways of sudden death. Spare me. Father ; I have not a conscience frightened by any perjuries, or impious words uttered against the holy gods. But if I have now completed my destined years, let a stone stand over my bones, Avith this inscription:—Here lies Tibullus, consumed by pitiless death, Avhile following Messala by land and sea. But because I am always obsequious to te^er Love, Venus herself Avill conduct me to the Elysian fi^s. There dance and song are perpetual, and birds flitting in all directions Avarble SAveetly Avith their small throats. The uncultivated vegetation bears cinnamon, and the benignant ground blooms all over Avith fragrant roses. Groups of youth sport Avith * Lmen.l The priests of Egypt were compelled to pay the most scru¬ pulous regard to personal cleanliness. To insure this, they shaved their heads, and Avore no garments but such as were made of linen, and per¬ haps cotton. It appears from this passage that the w’orshippers of Isis, w'hen they appeared at his shrine, wore habits of this description, Avhich would be very remarkable at Rome, AA'here the clothing of all ranks was chiefly woollen. The fullest account of the worship of Isis is given by Apuleius in the eleventh book of his Metamorphoses. TIBULLUS. 115 tender damsels, and love incessantly mingles them in pleasing strife. There is the place of every one whom rapacious death interrupts in the midst of his love, and he bears myrtle wreaths on his distinguished head. But the abode of guilt lies buried in deep night, and black floods roar around it. There rages Tisiphone with fierce tangled snakes for hair, and the crowd of the wicked flies hither and thither before her. Black Cerberus hisses with his serpents * at the entrance, and watches before the brazen gates. There the guilty limbs of Ixion, who dared to attempt Juno, are whirled round on the rapid wheel, and Tityos, ex¬ tended over nine acres of ground, feeds the ever-ravening birds with his dark entrails. Tantalus is there, with a lake around him; but the water baffles his hot thirst just as he is about to drink: and the children of Danaus, who committed sacrilege against Venus, carry the water of Lethe into pierced casks. There let him be, whosoever troubled my love, and wished for me the tedious anxieties of warfare. But, Delia, remain faithful, I implore, and let an old woman always sit by your side, a sedulous guardian of your sacred modesty. Let her tell you stories, and fill long spindles with the threads she draws from the distaff by lamp-light; and let the girl near her, intent on her busy task, yield gradually to sleep and leave off her work. Then I will come suddenly; no one shall announce me, but I shall seem to you as if I had dropped from the sky. ‘ Then run to me, Delia, just as you are, with bare feet and your long hair in disorder. This is my prayer ; may fair Aurora bring us that bright day with her rosy horses. ELEGY IV.2 So may you always have a shady canopy, Priapus, to de¬ fend your head from sun and snow; but tell me by what ‘ Cerberus hisses, &c.] The three-headed dog Cerberus had a crest and mane of hissing serpents, and the tail of a dragon. * Elegy IV.] Unsuccessful in an amour, Tibullus consults Priapus, who delivers so animated a lecture on the art of conducting such matters, that his pupil at once proclaims himself advanced to the ranks of a pro¬ fessor ; but ends by confessing that he has still much to learn. Bach thinks it probable the date of the poem is not earlier than b. c. 24. The translator has been compelled to be unfaithful to the original with regard I 2 116 TIBULLUS. cunning art of yours do you captivate the fair ? Truly your beard is not glossy, your hair is not neat; naked you endure the winter’s frost, and naked you endure the parching season of the dog-star. So said I, and thus answered the rustic son of Bacchus armed with his curved sickle. “ Be not disheartened, if haply a girl refuse you at first; by degrees she will give her neck to the yoke. Time has taught lions to obey man ; with time soft water cuts its way through stone. A year ripens the grapes on the sunny hills; a year brings round the changes of the constellations in sure order. Be not afraid to swear; the oaths broken in the sight of Venus the winds scatter over land and sea. For this, great thanks to Jove: the great father himself has forbidden to have any force, whatever oaths thoughtless love may have eagerly sworn; and Diana allows you to pledge yourself with impunity by her arrows, and Minerva by her hair. But if you are not prompt you will miss all. Time passes away ! The day does not stand still, or return. How soon the earth loses its brilliant hues! How soon the tall poplar its comely tresses! How helpless lies, when the fates of old age are come upon him, the courser that was first to bound forth from the Elaean starting-place. I have seen one who was but now a youth, lamenting, when graver years pressed upon him, the days that had passed foolishly away. Cruel gods ! the serpent casts his skin and comes forth anew every year: but the Fates have granted no delay to beauty. Eternal youth belongs to Phoebus and Bacchus alone, for unshorn locks adorn both gods. “ Whatever your fair one has a mind to do, let her have lier own way. Love achieves many victories by compliance. Do not refuse to accompany her, though a long journey is intended, and the fiery dog-star parches the fields; though the watery bow, marking the sky with its parti-coloured dyes, portend the coming rain. Or if she desires to roam over the azure waves, ply the oar yourself and speed the light bark over the waters. Grudge not to undergo hard labour, and to chafe your hands unused to such work. And if she wishes to enclose deep valleys with the hunter’s toils, let not to gender. This change has occasioned some awkwardness in a few places; but without it the poem, which is one of the most elegant of the author’s works, could not have been presented in English. TIBULLUS. 117 your shoulders refuse to carry the nets, if so you may please her. If she will practise arms, you will try to fence with a light hand, and often expose your unguarded side that she may make a hit. Then she will be indulgent; then you will be allowed to snatch sweet kisses; she will struggle, but give them after all. First she will give what you steal; afterwards she will offer them for you to take, and at last she will freely clasp your neck. “ Alas, how vilely these times treat unfortunate art. The tender girl is now grown used to desire presents. Now may the stone press wretchedly on thy bones, whoever thou art, that first taught Venus to sell her favours. 0 love the Muses, young beauties, and love learned poets; let not golden gifts out¬ do the Muses. Through song is the hair of Nisus ^ purple; if song were not, ivory would not have shone from the shoulder of Pelops. Whom the Muses extol, shall live whilst the earth has trees, the sky has stars, the river rolls waters. But whoso hears not the Muses, whoso [buys or] sells love, be it theirs to follow the chariot of Idan Ops, let them fill three hundred cities with their wanderings, and mutilate their vile bodies in Plirygian fashion. Venus desires that there be room for the winning ways of courtship; she favours plaintive supplica¬ tions and piteous tears.” These precepts the god delivered to me that I might sing them to Titia, but Titia’s spouse bids her not mind. them. “ 0 beware of trusting the amorous crowd of youths,” he says, “ for they never want a plausible pretext for love. This one finds favour because he reins the steed with address; that one, because he cleaves the calm waters with snowy breast; another captivates, because he is strong and daring; and a fourth, because maiden modesty sits upon his soft cheeks.” Let her obey her monitor ; but as for you, whom the wily boy maltreats, extol me as your guide and master. To each belongs her own glory; to me let all lovers who are scorned come for consultation: my door is open to them all. The time will come when a studious crowd of youths will attend the aged Tibullus as he expounds the doctrines of Venus. Alas, alas, with what slow tortures Titia racks me. Vain ^ The hair of JVestw.] Nisus, king of Megara, had among his white locks a single purple one, on the preservation of which his life depended. Ovid, Met. viii. 8. 118 TIBULLUS. are all my arts, vain all my wiles. Spare me, Titia, I implore, let me not become the laughing-stock of my acolytes, when they see how idle is the science I profess. ELEGY V.i I WAS cross, and S'aid that I could bear a rupture well,'but now my brave boasting is far a,way; for I am whirled like the top 2 which the nimble boy with practised skill lashes along the smooth ground. Burn, torture me for my insolence; cure me of all desire to talk big in future; put down my bluster¬ ing. Yet spare me, I implore you, by our confederate bed- thefts, by Venus, and by your own comely head. I am he who is declared to have snatched you from the grasp of death by my vows when you lay overcome by griev¬ ous illness. I myself performed fumigations round you with pure sulphur, whilst the old woman was busied with magic incantations. I took care that you should not be troubled with painful dreams, which I caused to be charmed away by a thrice-consecrated cake.^ Veiled in linen, with robes un¬ bound, I paid nine vows to Trivia in the silent night. I did all; another now enjoys your love, and is happy in the fruits of my prayers; whilst, fool that I was, I pictured to myself the happy life that should be mine, if you were saved; but the gods opposed my hopes. I will cultivate my fields; my Delia will be the keeper of my garners, whilst the harvest is threshed under the hot sun ; or she will keep my grapes in full baskets, and my rich must pressed with nimble feet. She will grow used to number ‘ Elegy V. ] Tibullus recants the boast he had made, that he could easily reconcile himself to the loss of Delia, and pleads to her the care he had bestowed when she \Vas ill, and the hopes he had built on her recovery. Bach concludes from internal evidence that the Elegy was written not earlier than b. c. 29. * Like the top.'\ No poet perhaps ever used fewer similes than Tibullus. The principal object always employed him too much to think of resem¬ blances. Virgil has applied the simile of the top to Amata in the seventh book of the iEneid; as Valerius Flaccus does to Medea in the eighth book of his Argonautus. Things of no dignity in themselves become im¬ portant in the hands of a real poet.— Grainger. ^ Thrice-consecrated caAe.] This cake, which was made three times a year by the Vestal virgins, was a composition of flour and two kinds of salt. TIBULLUS. 119 my flock; the prattling boy born in my house will grow used to play on the lap of my mistress ; she will know how to offer to the god of the husbandman grapes for the vines,* ears of corn for the crops, meat-offerings for the flock. Let her rule all ray people ; let her have charge of everything, and let it be a pleasure to me to be as nothing in my house and all that belongs to it. Hither will come my Messala; Delia will set before him sweet apples from choice trees; and reverencing so great a man, she will sedulously entertain him, obey his wishes, and herself serve the banquet and wait upon him. These things I pictured to myself, but now Eurus and Hotus have swept the fond visions to the odorous shores of Armenia. __ Have I outraged the divinity of great Venus by any words of mine, and do I now suffer the penalty due to my impious tongue ? Am I charged with having assailed the abodes of the gods, and torn the garlands from their sacred shrines ? Let me not hesitate, if I have incurred this guilt, to prostrate myself in their temples and kiss their sanctified thresholds; I will not refuse to crawl suppliantly on my knees, and beat my wretched head against the holy doors.^ But you who ex- ultingly deride my woe, beware ; your own turn will come by and by; one god will not always be wroth alone. I have seen an old man, because he had mocked the unfortunate loves of his juniors, himself afterwards forced to bend his neck to the bonds of Venus ; and to shape his quavering voice to the utterance of soft things, and to try to arrange his white hairs with his hands. Nor was he ashamed to stand before the dear girl’s doors, and to stop her servant in the middle of the forum. Boys and youths encompassed him in dense crowds, and each one spat upon his own soft bosom.^ But spare me, Venus: my mind has always been devoted to thy service; why dost thou rancorously consume thy own harvests ? ^ Beat my headJ] According to Broekhusius, the beating of the head against the sacred threshold was an expiatory ceremony brought from Egypt along with the goddess Isis. This is the only passage of antiquity where this extraordinary rite is mentioned; whence that commentator concludes that it neither prevailed long, nor was generally received at Rome. * Spat upon his own soft fiosom.] As a preservative against the bad omen of such preposterous love. 120 TIBULLUS. ELEGY VI.i t Often have I tried to dispel my cares with wine; but grief turned all my wine to tears. I have often clasped an¬ other fair one in my arms; but just as I was at the point of enjoyment, Venus reminded me of my mistress and deserted me. Then the woman quitted me, saying I was bewitched,^ and, oh shame ! she goes about telling that she knows abomin¬ able things about me. No witch does this by magic words; my girl it is that be¬ witches me with her face, her gentle arms, and her yellow hair; lovely as Thetis,^ the daughter of Nereus, when she was wafted of yore by a bridled fish to -T^monian Peleus. This is what wrought my hurt. That she has a rich lover, is the work of a cunning bawd who interferes for my destruction. May she eat bloody food, and drink with gory mouth cups all bitter with gall. May souls complaining of their fate always hover round her, and the screech-owl hoot wildly on her roof. Goaded to madness by hunger, may she pluck grass from the sepulchres, and the bones left by ravening wolves. May she run naked and howling through the towns, and snarling packs of dogs hunt her from the cross-ways. It will come to pass; a god forebodes it; there is a divinity in a lover, and Venus unjustly forsaken takes dire vengeance. But you, my girl, reject forthwith the counsels of this greedy witch. Is all love overcome by gifts ? The poor lover 1 Elegy VI.'] Tibullus relates the failure of sundry remedies he has tried for his unfortunate passion; curses the go-between who has intro¬ duced a wealthier lover to Delia; and demonstrates the error committed by ladies who prefer a rich lover to a poor one—a general doctrine which he applies to his own advantage. Some editors have very injudiciously tacked this Elegy to the preceding one, with which it coincides in date. 2 Bewitched.] Devotum. Devovere, says Broekhusius, properly signi¬ fies, frigore ferire earn partem qua viri sum us, ut quantumvis cupiamus, tamenminime possumus. The French call it nouer Vaiguillette ; and the doctors of the canon law say that such persons are frigid! and malificiati. 3 Lovely as Thetis.] The heathen poets, in comparing a person to any of their deities, had a sure method of giving the reader a picture of that person, as the statues of their gods were known to every one and their features ascertained; and this, says the ingenious author of the Poly¬ metis, is one reason why similes of this kind are so frequent in ancient authors. TIBULLUS. 121 will be ever at your command; the poor lover will be the first to fly to you, and will cling inseparably to your side. The poor lover will be your faithful escort through the crowd, will fend ofi* the pressure with his hands, and make way for you. The poor lover will furtively conduct you to the secret carousals of his friends, and will himself untie your shoes and take them off your snow-white feet. Alas, I sing in vain; the door will not open for words alone, but must be knocked at by a well-filled hand. But you who now have the advantage, beware; light¬ wheeled fortune spins rapidly round. ELEGY VII.‘ Love, thou offerest me always a smiling countenance in order to allure me; but afterwards I find thee, to my sorrow, gloomy and severe. What quarrel hast thou with me, cruel boy ? Is it a great glory for a god to have laid snares for a man ? Toils are now spread for me ; now crafty Delia fur¬ tively cherishes I know not whom ^ in the silent night. She indeed denies this over and over again; but it is hard to be¬ lieve her, for she makes just as pertinacious denials about me to her husband. Unfortunate that I am, I taught her myself how to elude her guardians ; alas, alas ! I am now the victim of my own art. She has now learned how to invent pre¬ tences for lying alone, and how to make the doors turn on noiseless hinges. And then I gave her juices and herbs, for * Elegy VII.'] This must have been written before the preceding Elegy, (and probably in a. u. c. 724,) for here he only suspects what there he speaks of as a fact already beyond all doubt. The unfortunate lover complains that he is caught in his own trap, for he has taught Delia how to deceive. Then he appeals to her husband, makes a clean breast of it, and invites the poor man to make common cause with him. This is rather a bold step, it must be owned; it is asking too much, as Ovid says, Trist. ii. 457 : Denique ab incauto nimium petit ille marito Se quoque uti servet, peccet ut ilia minus. Grain^r and Dunlop are shocked at the impropriety of this proceeding, but w'ithout much reason. They forget the class to which Delia belonged, and the probability that her intimacy with Tibullus was no news to her husband. The address to that person is an exquisite piece of persiflage, and nothing more. * I know not whom.] Nescio quern: this is not to be understood liter¬ ally, but as an expression of contempt. 122 TIBULLUS. removing the livid marks which mutual Venus makes by the impress of the teeth. But you, incautious husband of the tricksome girl, keep me too, that she may be hindered from erring at all. Take care that she is not profuse in her compliments to young men, nor let her recline with her robe loose so as to ex¬ pose her bosom; let her not betray you with secret looks and nods, nor dip her finger in liquid, and draw marks on the table. If she goes out very often, be on your guard; or if she says she intends to visit the rites of the Bona Dea to which males are not admitted. But if you will intrust her to me, I will follow her alone to the altar; and then far it be from me to doubt the vigilance of my own eyes. I remember that I often touched her hand under pretence of examining her jewels or her [seal. Often I plied you with strong wine till you fell asleep, while I secured my victory by drinking sober draughts mingled with water. I did not wrong you intentionally; for¬ give me, as I confess my fault; Love commanded it should be so, and who can fight against the gods ? I am the very man, nor will I now be ashamed to tell the truth, at whom your dog " used to bark all night long. It is not for nothing that some V one just now is always stopping before your threshold; that he ^ looks about, retreats, pretends to pass the house, and presently comes back alone, and hawks and hems close by the door. Some furtive amour is preparing for you, I know not what; bestir yourself, I beg, while you may; as yet your boat swims in Smooth water. What use is it to have a charming wife, if you cannot keep what you have got ? It is in vain you have locks to your doors. While she embraces you, she sighs for other absent loves, and suddenly feigns a head-ache. But intrust her to my keeping; I do not refuse to endure stripes, I do not object to have my feet put in fetters, if I let her escape. Then keep off, all you who dress your hair with art, whose tunics hang loose upon your breasts. Any man that comes this way, to hinder all chance of his doing mischief, let him keep off, and not stop until he is far away in another street. Thus the god himself commands it to be done; thus the great priestess has conveyed to me the injunctions of the divine oracle. Once she is agitated and distraught by the impulse of Bellona, she fears neither scorching flame, nor lashes; she lacerates her own arms with an axe, and unmur- TIBULLUS. 123 muringlj sprinkles the goddess with her blood ; with a spike thrust through her side, and her bosom torn, she stands, and chants the events which the great goddess foretells. “For¬ bear from assailing a girl whom Love guards, lest you be afterwards taught a terrible lesson. Touch her, and your wealth shall pass away, like the blood from my wounds, like these ashes scattered by the winds.” And on you, my Delia, she denounced I know not what penalties: but if you receive me, I will pray her to be light with you. I do not spare you for your own sake; but your mother moves me, and the ex¬ cellent old woman subdues my resentment. She brings you to me in the dark, and mutely and in great fear joins our hands together. vShe waits for me by night, fixed to the door, and recognises the sound of my footstep a long way off. Long may you live for me, sweet old woman: fain would I com¬ pound my own years with yours, were it possible. I will always love yo]u, and your daughter for your sake; whatever she does, she is, after all, your blood. Teach her only to be chaste, though no fillet binds her hair, no long robe impedes her feet.' And on me, too, let hard laws be imposed, nor let it be possible for me to praise any beauty, unless she is before my eyes. And if I am adjudged to have offended in any way, and am pulled by the hair undeservedly, and am dragged along the sloping street ; ^ let me not think of striking of you; but if such madness seizes me, I should wish myself without hands. And be not chaste through fear alone, but let mutual love keep you faithful in mind to me when I am absent. The girl who was faithful to no lover, after age has overcome her, sinks into want, and draws out the twisted threads with her * Though no fillet^ &c.] The vitta and the stola were worn only by matrons and maidens of free descent (ingenuae). Delia was therefore lihertince conditionis, a foreigner, or the daughter or grand-daughter of one who had been a slave. The condition of such women in Rome was very like that of the free quadroon girls of New Orleans, who are all destined to become the mistresses of white men, never their wives. This is confirmed by Ovid, Ep. ex Pont. iii. 3 : Scio tamen, ut liquido juratus dicere possis Non me legitimes solicitasse toros. Scripsimus haec istis, quarum nec vitta pudicos Contingit crines, nec stola longa pedes. ^ The sloping street.'\ Pronas vias: most of the streets in Rome ran up and down hill. 124 TIBULLUS. tremulous hand, and interweaves the woof with the firm warp, and picks off the rough fibres drawn from the snowy fleece. The young men gather round her rejoicing to see her so em¬ ployed, and remark that she deserves to bear all this in her old age. Venus looks down disdainfully on her tears from the summit of Olympus, and shows by such an example how severe she is to the faithless. May these curses befall others; may we, Delia, be examples of love when we are both white-haired. ELEGY VIII.i The Fates, who weave the threads which no god can break, sang of this day ; they foretold that He would be, who should overthrow the tribes of Aquitania,^ and whom vanquished Atur should tremble to see approaching in martial might. The Roman youth has seen new triumphs, and kings with their arms bound. And thou, Messala, crowned with laurel, wast borne in an ivory chariot drawn by white horses. Thy hon¬ ours were not won without me; Tarbella^ of the Pyrenees is witness, and the shores of the Santonic Sea; ^ witness the Arar and the rapid Rhone, and the great Garonne, the yellow-haired Carnuto, and the Loire’s blue water. And thee, Cydnus, I will sing, which flowest softly with noiseless water, and vast * Elegy VIII .On his return from the East, b. c. 27, Messala enjoyed the honour of a magnificent triumph for his victories over the Aquitani. His birthday, which occurred soon after in the same year, is celebrated in this Elegy. The poet enumerates Messala’s exploits in Gaul, Cilicia, Syria, Egypt, dwelling especially on the wonders and fertility of the latter, and singing the praises of Osiris the inventor of agriculture. He then calls upon the genius of Messala to come and receive the honours which were peculiarly his own upon such an occasion, and concludes with prayers for his patron and his descendants. ^ Aquitania.'] The southern part of Gaul, extending from the Garumna, the modern Garonne, to the Pyrenees. The river Atax is now the Ande. * Tarbella.] The Tarbelli, one of the tribes of Aquitaine, have left their name to the city of Tarbes. They occupied the valley of the Atur (Adour). * Santonic Sea,