Chapter XV: Catullus (3)

The rhythm also is elaborately constructed after a Greek model,--the model, not of Homer, but of the later poets who wrote in his metre. It is much more carefully and correctly finished than the rhythm of Lucretius. Each separate line has a smoother cadence. The whole movement is more regular, more calm, and more stately. But with all the occasional roughness of Lucretius there is much more life and force in his general movement. It is much more capable of presenting a continuous thought or action to the mind. The lines of Catullus seem intended to be dwelt on separately, and each to bring out some point of detail. There is generally a pause in the sense at the end of each line, and thus the lines, when read continuously, produce an impression of monotony[74], which is increased by the frequent use of spondaic lines. The uniformity of his pauses, and the sameness of structure in a large number of his hexameters, enable us to appreciate the great improvement in rhythmical art which appeared some ten years later in the Bucolics of Virgil. Yet if Catullus does not, in this his most elaborate work, equal the natural force of language and rhythm displayed in his simpler pieces, the poem, as a whole, has a noble and stately movement, in unison with the noble and stately pictures of an ideal fore-time which it brings before the imagination.

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[75], 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[76].

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 last two lines--

Et longe ante omnes mihi quae me carior ipse'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[77].

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[78]. 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 1: Cf. 'L. Iulium Calidum, quem post Lucretii
Catullique mortem multo elegantissimum poetam nostram tulisse
aetatem vere videor posse contendere.'--Corn. Nep. Vit. Att.
12.]

[Footnote 2: '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 3: E.g. xvi. 12; liv. 6.]

[Footnote 4: Martial iv. 14,--

Sic forsan tener ausus est Catullus
Magno mittere passerem Maroni.

Ibid. xi. 6. 16,--

Donabo tibi passerem Catulli.]

[Footnote 5: B. Schmidt conjectures that the collection as
we now have it was made after books were generally written in
parchment. His whole collected poems would thus be more easily
enclosed in a single volume, than when written on the old
papyrus rolls.]

[Footnote 6: 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, in
all probability, be divided into two, and possibly some lines
now attached to others are parts of separate poems.]

[Footnote 7: Cf. B. Schmidt, quoting Bruner, Prolegomena, p.
xcviii.]

[Footnote 8: x. 6.]

[Footnote 9: xvii. 7; liii. 1; lvi. 1.]

[Footnote 10: ix.]

[Footnote 11: xxv, xl, xlii, etc.]

[Footnote 12: Cf. viii, xxxviii, lxv, etc.]

[Footnote 13: liii.]

[Footnote 14: 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 15: B. Schmidt supposes that he did not die till 52
B.C., and that he must have been born in 82 B.C. The reasons
he assigns for this belief are not convincing. He thinks that
it was unlikely that Catullus should have been reconciled to
Julius Caesar in the winter of 55-54 B.C., so soon after the
offence was committed, which must have been after the first
invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar in the summer and autumn
of 55. He shows that the reconciliation could not have
taken place in the winter of 54-3, as Caesar was absent in
Transalpine Gaul. He supposes therefore that it must have
taken place in the winter of 53-2. He thinks it probable that
Catullus' reconciliation must have taken place about the same
time or subsequently to that of Calvus, who was likely to have
influenced Catullus' political action, and that Calvus could
not have desired to be reconciled till after the autumn of
54, when he prosecuted Vatinius. It seems quite arbitrary to
suppose that a considerable time must have elapsed between the
offence and the apology of Catullus. If Catullus was in Verona
in the winter of 55-4, and in his father's house, and Julius
Caesar was then, as was his habit, living on intimate terms
with and enjoying the hospitality of the father of Catullus,
that of itself affords an explanation of their meeting and
reconciliation. If Catullus required to be induced by any
one to make an apology, it is more likely that his father's
influence moved him to do so than the example and influence of
Calvus.]

[Footnote 16: Cf. x, xiii, xxvi, xli, ciii.]

[Footnote 17: lviii. 3; lxxix. 2.]

[Footnote 18: Cf. cx, xli.]

[Footnote 19: Reading suggested by Munro.]

[Footnote 20: 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 21: For his influence on the art of the [Greek:
neoteroi] cf. Schmidt, Prolegomena, p. lxii.]

[Footnote 22: Schmidt believes that Cinna was a native of
Brescia; Prol. lxiii; but he does not there give his reason
for his belief.]

[Footnote 23: Cf. xcv. 7:

At Volusi Annales Paduam morientur ad ipsam.]

[Footnote 24: 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 25: lxviii. 15-18.]

[Footnote 26: In the 'docto avo' we have an allusion to the
author of the 'Istrian War.']

[Footnote 27: lxviii^b.]

[Footnote 28: 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 in his epistles addresses him as 'mi Rufe.']

[Footnote 29: Among other indications the vow of
Lesbia (xxxvi) throws light on her literary taste and
accomplishment.]

[Footnote 30: 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 _regime_. 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 31: lxviii^b. 105-6.]

[Footnote 32: 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 33: That of Westphal.]

[Footnote 34: Schmidt supposes that poems ix, xii, xiii belong
to a later date, 56 B.C., when he thinks that Veranius and
Fabullus were with some otherwise unknown Piso in the Province
of Hispania Citerior, and that the poems xxviii,

Pisonis comites, cohors inanis,

and xlvii,

Porci et Socration, duae sinistrae
Pisones, etc.,

belong to the same period.

But not to speak of the fact that the character imputed
to Piso, in the phrase 'duae sinistrae,' and in the words
'vappa,' 'verpa,' 'verpus,' applied to him, are in exact
accordance with that ascribed to him in the virulent invective
of Cicero (In L. Calpurnium Pisonem Oratio), it is difficult
to see how the words in xxviii,

Satisne cum isto
Vappa frigoraque et famem tulistis?

could apply to either the climate or the condition of Hispania
Citerior at that time. But they closely coincide with the
words of Cicero applied to the government by Piso of his
province of Macedonia (17-40), 'An exercitus nostri interitus
ferro, _fame_, _frigore_, pestilentia?' On the other hand, the
words in ix,

Visam te incolumem audiamque Hiberum
Narrantem loca, facta, nationes,

would be applicable to the adventures and dangers of Julius
Caesar in further Spain in 61 B.C. There is no difficulty
in supposing that the two young friends went together on two
different occasions on the staff of two different provincial
governors. The tone of the two different sets of poems is
so different, the one set so bright and happy, the other so
savage and bitter, that it is almost inconceivable that they
belong to the same time and the same circumstances.]

[Footnote 35: Schmidt supposes that the person to whom this
letter is written is the same as the Allius of lxviii^b; that
the lines beginning

Non possum reticere

are a continuation of what used to be thought a separate poem,

Quod mihi fortuna, etc.,

that Manlius was the praenomen of Allius, and that he is
addressed in the first part of the poem by the praenomen,
in the latter by the gentile name. But the letter to Manlius
clearly indicates the recent loss of his bride, or some
distress connected with his marriage (lines 1, 5, 6), whereas
at the end of the letter to Allius he says, 'Sitis felices et
tu simul et tua vita;' lxviii. 155.]

[Footnote 36: 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 37: Cf. poems x. 30, etc., and xcv.]

[Footnote 38: Cf. Munro's Criticisms and Elucidations of
Catullus, p. 214.]

[Footnote 39: An entirely different interpretation has
recently been given to this poem (Schmidt, Prolegomena, xxxix,
etc.). It is supposed not to be complimentary, but bitterly
sarcastic. It is said that Catullus could not, except in
irony, have described himself as

'pessimus omnium poeta;'

and if those words applied to himself as a poet are irony,
so must the words applied in strong contrast to Cicero as an
advocate (tanto--quanto) be equally ironical. In that case the
_omnium_ in the last line must not be taken in connexion with
optimus, but with patronus. Cicero's readiness to be 'omnium
patronus' is sarcastically commented on with immediate
reference to his defence of Vatinius, which startled some of
his best friends among the constitutional party. The formal
address 'Marce Tulli' is also ironical. (If that is so,
probably also the 'Romuli nepotum' is used in mock heroic
irony, like the 'Remi nepotum' in lviii.) What then is
the favour for which Catullus writes these ironically
complimentary thanks? Schmidt supposes that Cicero had
expressed either publicly or privately a very poor opinion
of Catullus' poems, and that Catullus revenges himself by
professing to agree with him, to be most grateful for the
criticism (gratias tibi maximas Catullus agit), and to repay
it by heaping ironical coals on his head.

It is just possible that the poem might have been so
understood in the set to which Catullus belonged, if we were
certain that it was written at the time when Cicero defended
Vatinius. But the general public could hardly have understood
it so, and it is not surprising that it never occurred to any
one to understand it in that sense till within the last year
or two. It is not in keeping with Catullus' straightforward,
outspoken vituperation, nor with the manners of the time (as
shown in Cicero's speeches), to write an epigram which would
leave the object of it in doubt whether it was written in
earnest or derision. No doubt Catullus did not seriously think
himself 'the worst of living poets,' worse for instance than
Volusius. But there is an irony of modest self-depreciation,
as that of Virgil when he applies to himself the words
'argutos inter strepere anser olores,' as well as of insulting
banter. The change in the construction of the 'omnium' in
the two consecutive lines would be at least startling. That
Catullus, a young man, not intimate with Cicero, should
address him as Marce Tulli is not perhaps more remarkable than
that a young poet of the present day should in writing to a
man of great eminence, twenty years his senior, address him as
Mr. ----. Cicero writes banteringly and good-naturedly to one
of his correspondents, Volumnius, probably a much younger
man (Fam. vii. 32): 'Quod sine praenomine familiariter, ut
debebas, ad me epistolam misisti, primum addubitavi, num a
Volumnio senatore esset, quorum mihi est magnus usus.'
There is no reason for supposing that Cicero ever passed any
criticism favourable or unfavourable on Catullus, though in
his letters he twice uses his phrases; and if he did, it was
not in Catullus' way to retaliate without making it perfectly
clear what he was retaliating for. Cicero was constantly in
the way of doing kindnesses to all sorts of people, in the
law-courts or by recommending them to some of his influential
friends. He especially says that he had always done what he
could to foster the genius of poets. He was attracted to young
men like Catullus (he was not of the 'grex Catilinae'); and of
his friend Calvus he writes with genuine appreciation. It is
more natural as well as more pleasant to think of these two
men of genius, in so far as they came in contact, having
agreeable relations with one another, than to believe that
the poet wrote these apparently straightforward, kindly
appreciative lines in revenge for some real or fancied
disparagement of his verses.]

[Footnote 40: Cf. xxiv. 7:--

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

[Footnote 41: 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 42: Horace contrasts the 'dirge of Simonides'
('Ceae retractes munera neniae') with the lighter poetry
of love.]

[Footnote 43: Cf. Munro's Lucretius, p. 468, third edition.]

[Footnote 44: 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 45: lxxxv. 1.]

[Footnote 46: xi. 23.]

[Footnote 47: lxxvi.]

[Footnote 48:

'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 49: Compare also his humorous notice of the
compliment which he heard in the crowd paid to the speech of
Calvus against Vatinius--

Dii magni, salaputium disertum.]

[Footnote 50: xii.]

[Footnote 51: xxxviii.]

[Footnote 52: 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 53: lxxvi. 1-4.]

[Footnote 54: Cf. lxiii. 12:--

Neu me odisse putes hospitis officium.]

[Footnote 55: Att. vii. 7. 6: 'Placet igitur etiam me expulsum
et agrum Campanum perisse et adoptatum patricium a plebeio,
Gaditanum a Mytilenaeo, et Labieni divitiae et Mamurrae
placent et Balbi horti et Tusculanum.']

[Footnote 56: lxxvi. 19.]

[Footnote 57: xvi. 5-6.]

[Footnote 58: lxxxiv. Cicero also was afflicted by a bore of
the same name, who stayed away from Rome in order 'that he
might pass whole days discussing philosophy with Cicero at
Formiae.' The Arrius of this poem is supposed to be Q. Arrius,
Praetor in 73 B.C., whom Cicero speaks of as having been in
the habit of acting as a kind of Junior Counsel along with
Crassus ('qui fuit M. Crassi quasi secundarum'), and having,
though a man of the lowest origin and without either culture
or natural ability, got into a considerable practice. The
words 'Hoc misso in Syriam' are supposed to imply that he was
sent as a legatus to join Crassus in his Syrian province. The
poem would thus be written about the end of 55 B.C. Schmidt.]

[Footnote 59: Hor. A. P. 437-38:--

Quintilio si quid recitares, Corrige, sodes,
Hoc aiebat et hoc.

Schmidt supposes him to be the Alphenus Varus, the Jurist, to
whom the 30th poem, written in a tone of tender reproach, is
addressed. Catullus does not seem to address the same person
by different names, unless Manius and Allius are the same.
Thus M. Caelius Rufus is addressed as Rufus, the Caelius
addressed in other poems being a native of Verona. As both
Alphenus Varus and Quintilius Varus were natives of Cremona,
Catullus was likely to have known both.]

[Footnote 60: vii. 7-8.]

[Footnote 61: xi. 22-24.]

[Footnote 62: xvii. 12-15 and 15-16.]

[Footnote 63: E.g.

Litus ut longe resonante Eoa
Tunditur unda.]

[Footnote 64: 'Criticisms and Elucidations,' etc. p. 73.]

[Footnote 65: The pride of Roman nationality is, perhaps,
unconsciously betrayed in such phrases as 'Romuli nepotum,' in
the lines addressed to Cicero.]

[Footnote 66: xxxiv. 7-12:--

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

[Footnote 67: lxi. 122-46.]

[Footnote 68: lxiv. 89-90.]

[Footnote 69:

'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 70: Cf. Mr. Ellis's notes on the poem.]

[Footnote 71: 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. 730-66.]

[Footnote 72:

'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 73: 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 74: 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 75: 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 76: The lines immediately following these are in the
worst style of learned Alexandrinism.]

[Footnote 77:

'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 78: 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.]

THE END.

Transcriber's Note:

Sundry damaged or missing punctuation has been repaired.

Page 28: 'Neibuhr' corrected to 'Niebuhr' (2nd entry) "Niebuhr went so far as to assert that the Romans ..."

Page 53: AEneas and Aeneas both occurred on this page. Both spellings are correct, but as there is only the single instance of AEneas, with the ae ligature, and around 30 instances of Aeneas, wihout the ligature, AEneas has been amended to Aeneas. The AE/ae ligature has not otherwise been used in this book.

page 148: 'advorsam' is correct; alternative spelling for 'adversam'.

page 157: 'adoped' corrected to 'adopted' "... into the forms which he adopted from Greece."

page 447: 'dulness' is correct; Oxford Dictionary gives it as an alternative spelling.

page 468: 'Luaguidnlosque' corrrected to 'Languidulosque' "Languidulosque paret tecum coniungere somnos."

End of Project Gutenberg's The Roman Poets of the Republic, by W. Y. Sellar