Chapter XV: Catullus (3)

The four longer elegiac pieces which follow add little to our impression of the art of Catullus. In the 'Epistle to Manlius'--perhaps owing to the trouble by which his mind was darkened at the time of its composition--he does not use the elegiac metre, as a vehicle of his personal feelings, with much force or clearness. There is much more than in his phalaecians and iambics the appearance of effort, and there is much greater uncertainty as to his meaning. The 67th poem keeps alive with some vivacity a scandalous story of his native province which might well have been allowed to sink into oblivion. In the 'Coma Berenices,' and the poem addressed to Allius, he again writes under the influence of his Alexandrian masters. He seems to have regarded the 'Carmina Battiadae' with the admiration which youthful genius, not yet sure of its own powers, entertains for culture and established reputation,--the kind of admiration which led Burns to imagine that his own early inspiration might be of less value to the world than 'Shenstone's art.' Like Burns, too, Catullus is least happy when he gives up his own language, which he wields easily and powerfully, and the forms of art which came naturally to him, in deference to the standard of poetic taste recognised in his day. His selection of the 'Coma Berenices' as a task in translation, illustrates the attraction which the union of beauty and passion with truth and constancy of affection had for his imagination. The poem to Allius is the most artificially constructed of all his pieces. He endeavours to unite in it three distinct threads of interest,--that of his passion for Lesbia, that of the romance of Laodamia and Protesilaus, and that of his brother's death in the Troad. Although this triple combination is accomplished with much mechanical ingenuity[610], yet the effect of the poem as a whole is disappointing, and its motive,--gratitude for a service which no honourable man, according to our modern ideas of honour, would have rendered,--does not make amends for the want of simplicity in its structure. Yet as written in the heyday of his passion for Lesbia, and largely inspired by that passion, it has, along with an Alexandrian superfluity of ornament and illustration, many beauties of expression and feeling. The passionate devotion of Laodamia for Protesilaus is conceived with sympathetic power,--

Quo tibi tum casu pulcherrima Laudamia,
Ereptum est vita dulcius atque anima
Coniugium[611]--

There is an exquisite picture of his own stolen meetings with his 'candida diva'; and depth and sincerity of affection are purely and simply expressed in the two last lines--

Et longe ante omnes mihi quae me carior ipso'st
Lux mea qua viva vivere dulce mihi'st.

In this poem too, although the application of the image is an incongruous adaptation of an old Homeric simile, we meet with a descriptive passage which, more perhaps than any other in his poems, shows that Catullus was a true lover and close observer of Nature,--

Qualis in aerii perlucens vertice montis
Rivos muscoso prosilit e lapide
Qui cum de prona praeceps est valle volutus
Per medium sensim transit iter populi,
Dulce viatori lasso in sudore levamen,
Cum gravis exustos aestus hiulcat agros.[612]

The perfection attained by Catullus in his best lyrical poetry, and the power displayed in his longer pieces, are so high and genuine that we are hardly surprised at the enthusiasm of those who have ranked him, in respect both of art and genius, foremost among Roman poets. If the pure essence of poetry could be separated from the whole spiritual and intellectual being of the poet, much might be said in favour of that estimate. Others, who think that the work accomplished by Lucretius, Virgil, and Horace is, both in quantity and quality, of more lasting value to the world, cannot forget that had they died at the same early age as Catullus, their names would have been unknown, or perhaps remembered as those of Cinna and Cornificius are now. From the exquisite skill with which Catullus has treated light and playful themes, he has been sometimes compared to modern poets who have no other claim to recognition than a similar facility. But if he is to be compared with any, it is not with the minor poets, ancient or modern, but with the greater, that he is to be ranked. The two eminent English scholars who have made a special study of this poet, and have done more than almost any others in recent times to elucidate his meaning and gain for him his just recognition, look upon him as the equal of Sappho and Alcaeus. Among modern poets he has been compared to one, most unlike him in all the outward conditions of his life, and in many of the conditions of his art,--the poet Burns[613]. In general intellectual power, in the breadth of his human sympathies, the modern poet is much the greater. He is, in all ways, the larger man. But in some endowments of heart and genius the ancient poet is far from being the inferior. He was more fortunate in his nearness to the greatest source of poetic culture, and in the use of a medium of expression, not of a local and limited influence, but one which brings him into immediate relation with educated men of all ages and countries. But in the passionate ardour of their temperament, and the robustness, too closely allied with coarseness, of their fibre; in their susceptibility to beautiful and tender emotions, and the mobility of nature with which they yielded to impulses the most opposite to these; in their large capacity of love and scorn, of pleasure and pain; in their genuine sincerity and firm hold on real life; in the keenness of their satire, and their shrewd observation of the world around them;--in their simple and direct force of feeling and expression; in the freshness of their love for the fairer objects in Nature with which they were most familiar,--they have much in common. The resemblance of the concluding lines of the 'Final renunciation of Lesbia' to the sentiment of the 'Daisy' has been already noticed. The scornful advice, conveyed in the words 'pete nobiles amicos' finds many an echo in the tones of the modern poet. The art of both is so inseparably associated with their lives, that our admiration of it can hardly help being enhanced or qualified by personal sympathy with, or dislike of their characters. In the case of Catullus it must be allowed that if a careless pursuit of pleasure, an apparent absence of all high aims in life, the too frequent indulgence in the coarsest language and the vilest imputations, could alienate our affections from a great poet, his art would be judged at a disadvantage. But his own frank revelations, from which we learn his faults, must equally be taken as the unintended evidence of his nobler and more generous nature. If his passions led him too far astray, he himself, so far as now appears, alone suffered from them. There is no trace in him of the selfish calculation, or the baser falsehood, which renders 'the life of pleasure,' as led by many men, detestable. There was in his case no 'hardening of all within' as its effect. The small volume bequeathed by him to the world is in itself a sufficient result of his few years. If he is in a great degree unreflective, if he does not consciously realise what are the ends of life, yet he does not look on life in a spirit of cynicism or frivolity. Whatever vein of reflection appears in him is not devoid of reverence and seriousness. His too frequent coarseness is to be explained by the manners of his age and race; and the imputations which he makes on his enemies were, in all probability, never meant to be taken seriously. Although unfortunate in his love, he has shown a capacity of ardent, self-forgetful, and constant devotion, that deserved a better object. He could care for another more than for his own life and happiness. And he had, in a degree rarely equalled, a virtue which devoted lovers often want, the truest, kindliest, most considerate and appreciative affection for many friends. His very dependence on their sympathy in all his joy and sorrow is a claim on the sympathy of the world. If to love warmly, constantly, and unselfishly be the best title to the love of others, few poets, in any age or country, deserve a kindlier place in the hearts of men than 'the young Catullus.'

[Footnote 547: Cf. 'L. Julium Calidum, quern post Lucretii Catullique mortem multo elegantissimum poetam nostram tulisse aetatem vere videor posse contendere.'--Corn. Nep. Vit. Att. 12.]

[Footnote 548: 'Multa satis lusi.'--lxviii^a. 17. The context shows that the 'lusi,'--like Horace's 'lusit Anacreon,'--refers to the composition of amatory poetry founded on his own experience. It was for this kind of poetry that Manlius had applied to him, and he pleads his grief as an excuse for his inability to write any at that time, although he had written much in his earliest youth.]

[Footnote 549: E. g. xvi. 12; liv. 6.]

[Footnote 550: Three poems formerly attributed to Catullus,--those between xvii and xxi,--are now omitted from all editions. On the other hand, one poem, lxviii must certainly be divided into two, and possibly some lines now attached to others are parts of separate poems.]

[Footnote 551: x. 6.]

[Footnote 552: xvii. 7; liii. 1; lvi. 1.]

[Footnote 553: ix.]

[Footnote 554: xxv, xl, xlii, etc.]

[Footnote 555: Cf. viii, xxxviii, lxv, etc.]

[Footnote 556: liii.]

[Footnote 557: Cf 'quae etiam aleret adulescentis et parsimoniam patrum suis sumptibus sustentaret.' Cic. Pro M. Caelio, 16, 38. Gellius, another of her lovers, was probably about the same age, or a year or two younger than Caelius. Cf. Schwabe, p. 112, etc.]

[Footnote 558: Cf. x, xiii, xxvi, xli, ciii.]

[Footnote 559: lviii. 3; lxxix. 2.]

[Footnote 560: Cf. cx, xli.]

[Footnote 561: Reading suggested by Mr. Munro.]

[Footnote 562: E.g. lxiv. 240-41:--

'Ceu pulsae ventorum flamine nubes,
Aerium nivei montis liquere cacumen.'

And this most characteristic feature of Alpine scenery.--lxviii^b. 17, etc.:--

'Qualis in aerii perlucens vertice montis
Rivos muscoso, prosilit e lapide,' etc.

]

[Footnote 563: The epigram on Cominius (cviii.) was probably written at Rome, as he was not of sufficient importance to have made an impression on the people of Verona. The accusation of C. Cornelius, which excited odium against him, was made in 65 B.C. But it does not follow that the poem was written by Catullus at that time. He may have become acquainted with him later, and avenged some private pique by reference to the unpopularity formerly excited by him. There is no direct reference to the trial of Cornelius in the poem, which appears among others referring to a much later date.]

[Footnote 564: lxviii. 15-18.]

[Footnote 565: In the 'docto avo' we have an allusion to the author of the 'Istrian War.']

[Footnote 566: lxviii^b.]

[Footnote 567: The _Caelius_ addressed in some of the poems is not M. Caelius Rufus, but a Veronese friend and confidant of Catullus--

'Flos Veronensum. .. iuvenum.'

Caesar, Bell. Civ. i. 2. mentions M. Caelius Rufus simply as M. Rufus. Cicero also, in his letters to Caelius, addresses him as mi Rufe, Ep. II. 9. 3, 12. 2.]

[Footnote 568: Among other indications the vow of Lesbia (xxxvi.) throws light on her literary taste and accomplishment.]

[Footnote 569: On the whole question compare Mr. Munro's Criticisms and Elucidations, etc., pp. 194-202.

It has been argued on the other side that public opinion would not have tolerated the publicity given to an adulterous intrigue, especially one with a Roman matron so high in rank as the wife of Metellus Celer. But the state of public opinion in the last years of the Republic is not to be gauged either by that of an earlier time, or by that existing during the stricter censorship of the Augustan régime. Catullus himself (cxiii.) testifies to what is known from other sources, the extreme laxity with which the marriage tie was regarded in the interval between 'the first and second consulships of Pompey.' Perhaps, however, if Metellus Celer had survived Catullus, the Lesbia-poems might never have been publicly given to the world. After his death Clodia by her manner of life forfeited all claim to the immunities of a Roman matron.]

[Footnote 570: lxviii^b. 105-6.]

[Footnote 571: The poem lxviii:--

'Quod mihi fortuna casuque oppressus acerbo'--

was addressed to Manlius just after Catullus had heard of his brother's death, i.e. probably late in the year 60, or early in the year 59 B.C. Manlius was himself suffering then from a great and sudden sorrow. The expressions in lines 1, 5, 6, 'casu acerbo,' 'sancta Venus,' 'desertum in lecto caelibe,' make it at least highly probable that this sorrow was the premature death of his young bride. If this generally accepted opinion is true the Epithalamium must have been written some time before 59 B.C.]

[Footnote 572: That of Westphal.]

[Footnote 573: There is some uncertainty both as to the reading and interpretation of the lines (lxviii. 15-19). The most generally accepted view is that Manlius had written to let Catullus know that several fashionable rivals were supplanting him in his absence. Mr. Munro supposes that the letter was written from Baiae, and that the _hic_ is so to be explained. Another view of the passage is that Manlius had, without any reference to Clodia, merely rallied Catullus on leading a dull and lonely life at Verona, a place quite unsuitable for the pleasures of a man of fashion.]

[Footnote 574: Cf. poems x. 30, etc., and xcv.]

[Footnote 575: Cf. Munro's Criticisms and Elucidations of Catullus, p. 214.]

[Footnote 576: Cf. xxiv. 7:--

'Qui? non est homo bellus? inquies. Est.'

]

[Footnote 577: Two of the four poems connected with Calvus allude to his antagonism to Vatinius, which went on actively between the years 56 and 54 B.C. In none of them is there any allusion to Lesbia, who was never out of Catullus' thoughts or his verse till after his Bithynian journey.]

[Footnote 578: Horace contrasts the 'dirge of Simonides' ('Ceae retractes munera neniae') with the lighter poetry of love.]

[Footnote 579: Cf. Munro's Lucretius, p. 468, third edition.]

[Footnote 580: lxxii. 5-8:--

'Nunc te cognovi: quare etsi impensius uror,
Multo mi tamen es vilior et levior.
Qui potis est? inquis. Quia amantem iniuria talis
Cogit amare magis, set bene velle minus.'

]

[Footnote 581: lxxxv. 1.]

[Footnote 582: xi. 23.]

[Footnote 583: lxxvi.]

[Footnote 584:

'Calvus, if those now silent in the tomb
Can feel the touch of pleasure in our tears
For those we loved, who perished in their bloom,
And the departed friends of former years:
Oh then, full surely thy Quintilia's woe.
For the untimely fate that bade ye part,
Will fade before the bliss she feels to know
How very dear she is unto thy heart.'--Martin.

]

[Footnote 585: Compare also his humourous notice of the compliment which he heard in the crowd paid to the speech of Calvus against Vatinius--

'Dii magni, salaputium disertum.'

]

[Footnote 586: xii.]

[Footnote 587: xxxviii.]

[Footnote 588: Mr. Munro, in his Elucidations (pp. 209, etc.), shows that the whole point of the poem consists in the contrast drawn between the 'Zmyrna' of Cinna and the 'Annals of Volusius.' Baehrens admits the reading 'Hortensius' into the text, but adds in a note on the word, _vox corrupta est_.]

[Footnote 589: lxxvi. 1-4.]

[Footnote 590: Cf. lxviii. 12:--

'Neu me odisse putes hospitis officium.'

]

[Footnote 591: lxxvi. 19.]

[Footnote 592: xvi. 5-6.]

[Footnote 593: lxxxiv.]

[Footnote 594: Hor. A. P. 437-38:--

'Quintilio si quid recitares, Corrige, sodes,
Hoc aiebat et hoc'--
]

[Footnote 595: vii. 7-8.]

[Footnote 596: xi. 22-24.]

[Footnote 597: xvii. 12-13 and 15-16.]

[Footnote 598: E.g.

'Litus ul longe resonante Eoa
Tunditur unda.'
]

[Footnote 599: 'Criticisms and Elucidations, etc.' p. 73.]

[Footnote 600: The pride of Roman nationality, is perhaps, unconsciously betrayed in such phrases as 'Romuli nepotum,' in the lines addressed to Cicero.]

[Footnote 601: xxxiv. 7-12:--

'Quam mater prope Deliam
Deposivit olivam,
Montium domina ut fores
Silvarumque virentium
Saltuumque reconditorum
Amniumque sonantum.'
]

[Footnote 602: lxi. 122-46.]

[Footnote 603: lxiv. 89-90.]

[Footnote 604:

'Soon my eyes shall see, mayhap,
Young Torquatus on the lap
Of his mother, as he stands
Stretching out his tiny hands,
And his little lips the while
Half-open on his father's smile.

'And oh! may he in all be like
Manlius his sire, and strike
Strangers when the boy they meet
As his father's counterfeit,
And his face the index be,
Of his mother's chastity.'--Martin.
]

[Footnote 605: Cf. Mr. Ellis' notes on the poem.]

[Footnote 606: Cf. Plaut. Pseud. 147:--

'Neque Alexandrina beluata conchyliata tapetia.'

Mr. Ellis, in his Commentary on Catullus, p. 226, mentions that both the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, and the legend of Ariadne, were common subjects of ancient art. He points out also that the idea of the quilt on which the Ariadne story was represented was borrowed from Apollonius, i. 730-06.]

[Footnote 607:

'Whate'er of loveliest decks the plain, whate'er
The giant mountains of Thessalia bear,
Whate'er beneath the west's warm breezes blow,
Where crystal streams by flowery margents flow,
These in festoons or coronals inwrought
Of undistinguishable blooms he brought,
Whose blending odours crept from room to room,
Till all the house was gladdened with perfume.'--Martin.
]

[Footnote 608: E.g. 'Argivae robora pubis'--'decus innuptarum'--'funera nec funera,' etc., etc. Mr. Ellis's commentary largely illustrates the influence exercised by the phraseology of the Greek poets,--especially Homer, Euripides, Apollonius--on the poetical diction of Catullus in this poem.]

[Footnote 609: This monotony, as is pointed out by Mr. Ellis, is, in a great degree, the result of the coincidence of the accent and rhythmical ictus in the last three feet of the line.]

[Footnote 610: Westphal, pp. 73-83, has given an elaborate explanation of the principle on which the various parts of the poem are arranged and connected with one another.]

[Footnote 611: The lines immediately following these are in the worst style of learned Alexandrinism.]

[Footnote 612:

'As some clear stream, from mossy stone that leaps,
Far up among the hills, and, wimpling down
By wood and vale, its onward current keeps
To lonely hamlet and to stirring town,
Cheering the wayworn traveller as it flows
When all the fields with drought are parched and bare.'

Martin.
]

[Footnote 613: This parallel was first pointed out by the writer of an excellent article on Catullus in the North British Review, referred to by Mr. Munro in his 'Criticisms and Elucidations,' p. 234.]