Differet hæc numquam, nec poscet garrula, quod te Nec dicet: Timeo; propera jam surgere, quæso: Infelix, hodie vir mihi rure venit! Et quas Euphrates et quas mihi misit Orontes, 20 XV. 'Tu loqueris, cum sis jam noto fabula libro, 17 Differet, abuse you.' See on i. 4, 22.-' Promissis ducet,' Barth. 21 Juven. iii. 62–5. ‘Jam pridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes, et linguam et mores, et cum tibicine chordas-Vexit, et ad Circum jussas prostare puellas.'—juerint, i. e. juverint. So Hertzberg from the Naples MS., which gives juverint. The rest have capiant. One reading or the other is manifestly a correction; and as a question of probability, the chances are in favour of the least usual form being the genuine one. Juerint occurs Catull. lxvi. 18.—furta pudica tori, i. e. pudici tori, nuptarum. 23-4 'Since every lover of necessity loses his liberty, none must love who wish to be free.' Jacob places a colon at v. 22, and a full stop at v. 23, 'ne in protasi idem esset quod in apodosi: Quoniam nemo amans liber, nemo amans liber est.' Hertzberg rightly restores the old punctuation. XV. The same subject is continued. He excuses himself for his faithlessness to Cynthia, on the plea that she acts towards him the capricious part before described as peculiar to the ladies of Rome. This elegy is very difficult, nor do the commentators agree either as to sense, reading, or punctuation in many places. I Tu loqueris? As in El. 9, supr. he commences with a quotation, and is replying to an imaginary rebuke: 'Do you talk of having abandoned your pursuit of women in the better rank of life, when all the world knows, by your published poems, your attachment to Cynthia ?'-noto libro. See introductory note on Aut pudor ingenuis, aut reticendus amor. Non ego nequitiæ dicerer esse caput; almost imperatively demands. Hertz- 5' Were Cynthia a little less cruel, I should never have been called a profligate,' i. e. I should not have exposed myself by writing verses. On spiraret see iii. 3, 8. 5 IO 7-8 Nec traducerer et darem may be understood as nec darem, i. e. the negative will apply to two verbs closely coupled by et; 'nor would I disguise her real name by the assumed one of Cynthia.' See on i. 1, 1. Kuinoel with the Naples MS. has ureret. Hertzberg punctuates the passages thus: —urerer et quamvis nomine, verba darem; which I cannot understand. urerer he interprets irritarer. Omitting the comma usually placed at quamvis, we may explain thus: nec (sic) urerer, quamvis &c. Nor should I have been annoyed so much, in spite of my caution in concealing her real name.' II He passes to another objection, alluded to in v. 8 of the preceding elegy. 'Besides, she is ever wishing to possess a flapper (fan) of peacock's feathers, or a ball for cooling her hands; and she requires me, already exasperated by her demands, to beg for her (emere, Hertz.) ivory dice.' The flabellum was used, as it now is in hot countries, for making a cool breeze: Martial, iii. 82. What the pila was, alluded to in v. 12, appears to be hitherto unexplained. Kuinoel says, 'pila ex crystallo, quam matronæ delicatiores æstivo tempore ad calorem frigore ejus mitigandum manibus tenere solebant. Vide Plin. N.H. xxxvii. 2; Martial xi. 8,' (v. 37,) where mention is made of amber, but in a manner not applicable to the Et manibus dura frigus habere pila, Ac peream, si me ista movent dispendia; sed me 15 XVI. Hoc erat in primis quod me gaudere jubebas? Me modo laudabas, et carmina nostra legebas: present passage. A conjecture may be hazarded, in the absence of any direct testimony. Claudian has a series of epigrams (vi-xiv.) ' de crystallo cui aqua inerat,' which the Romans appear to have considered (or rather perhaps, poetically to have represented) as ice, partly congealed to stone, partly liquified in the interior. The cold sensation to the touch is more than once alluded to: ep. viii. Solibus indomitum glacies Alpina rigorem Induerat, nimio jam pretiosa gelu;' and ep. xi. 'Dum crystalla puer contingere lubrica gaudet, Et gelidum tenero pollice versat onus' &c. To this day ignorant vendors of minerals tell their customers that quartz, sulphate of lime, and fluor spar, are 'congealed water.' And from the same erroneous idea, perhaps, the epithet aquosa is applied to crystal in v. 3, 52. The cold feel, attributed to crystal, arose from the notion of its being mineralised ice. It is to be feared that those learned in the laws of caloric will question the benefit supposed to have been de 5 rived from such a practice. Mineralogists will be able to inform us whether rock-crystal is ever found in a natural state inclosing globules of water. It is common to see in toyshops glass globes containing water with bubbles or particles of light matter which float within on being shaken. XVI. This elegy is a continuation of the preceding in all the MSS. There can be no reasonable doubt that the editors have rightly separated it. It is addressed to Cynthia, and the subject is a comparison of his own fidelity with the insincerity of his rivals. Mollissimus regnat in hoc carmine sensus, qui et ad commiserationem mirifice animum movet.' Kuinoel. I Hoc erat &c. Hæccine tua promissa, quæ meum animum lætitia perfundebant? itane constans es in amore?' K.-gaudeo not unfrequently governs an accusative, like the Greek deodaí Tɩ.-in primis gaudere, so greatly to congratulate myself upon.' Ille tuus pennas tam cito vertit amor? Si libitum tibi erit, Lernæas pugnet ad hydras, Et tibi ab Hesperio mala dracone ferat; Non labor Alcidæ, non niger ille dies. 7-12 'Let my favoured rival shew himself as clever, as patient, as obedient to your behests as I, before he makes the same pretensions to your esteem.'-in primis discat &c. 'Above all, let him learn to be constant to one.' 10 'Let him prove his devotion by performing at your will some Herculean task.' Barth remarks that this verse is taken from Theocritus, Id. 28, 37. νῦν μὲν κἠπὶ τὰ χρύσεα μᾶλ ̓ ἕνεκεν σέθεν βαίην, καὶ φύλακον νεκύων πεδὰ Κέρβερον. II Ebibat. Lachmann raises a groundless objection to this word. as if it could only mean 'let him drink up the sea,' and reads inbibat. From iv. 7, 52, it will be seen that nothing more is meant, than 'let him brave shipwreck, and gulp the briny wave.' Epotus however means 'drunk up,' Juven. x. 177. 13-15 ' And then try the same toils and troubles in me, and you will find, by the contrast, that your proud and IO 15 20 All the boastful lover is a coward.' 15 In tumidum honorem is both an unusual and a questionable expression. Kuinoel explains, 'honor qui tumidum et inflatum reddit.' The editors give qui nunc se in tumidum &c., but the MS. Gron. omits se, and so Hertzberg (in his commentary): jactando will thus be used absolutely for jactantia. But perhaps we should read, Qui nunc se tumidum (i.e. tumide) jactando invenit honorem. 16 Dissidium, Kuinoel with the Naples MS. and ed. Rheg. 22 Certus eras heu heu, quamvis nec sanguine avito Phyllida Demophoon, hospes uterque malus; Et modo servato sola relicta viro. Dura est, quæ multis simulatum fingit amorem, Noli nobilibus, noli conferre beatis: Non ita is the conjecture of Beroaldus. The MSS. have navita, which seems to have arisen from the agnomen Nauta attached in most copies to the name Sextus Aurelius Propertius; or conversely (as Hertzberg and others think), the corruption of the present passage suggested the addition of the name. Jacob, with Heinsius, prefers haud ita; and this is nearer to Navita, haud or haut being sometimes written hau, according to Gronovius on Tac. Ann. vi. 43, quoted by Hertzberg, [where the Medicean MS. has haci.]-On the birth and fortune of the poet, see on v. 1, 128; iii. 26, 55. 25 30 sertam." Hertzberg. Jam fuisse in nave he explains as equivalent to jam ab illo tanquam uxorem avectam. The omission of fuisse is a very grave objection to such an interpretation. There is less difficulty in et for et tamen, with the defence of which the greater part of the learned commentator's note is occupied. Lachmann, with Jacob's approval (!) reads Jam tibi Iasonia votum est, Medea, carina, i. e. habes quod optabas in nave Iasonis;' and he quotes some passages where votum means 'one's wish.' Jacob says: nota est erit: modo innotuit nobis illuc venisse, et jam deseri eam videmus.' None of these views appear tenable. The context seems to require amota est, which accordingly I have ventured to restore. For the acquisitive use of tibi see on i. 5, 8. 32 Parare se. So the Greeks use ἑτοιμάζειν of preparing for nuptial purposes. 33 Conferre, 'to draw comparisons with the noble and the wealthy.' |