Ii tibi nos erimus; sed tu potius precor ut me 35 XVII. Unica nata meo pulcherrima cura dolori, Calve, tua venia, pace, Catulle, tua. Grandævique negant ducere aratra boves, Et vetus in templo bellica parma vacat; 35 Pectora nuda. Kuinoel reads pectore with Scaliger. Nuda is of course the nominative. The sense is, 'I hope however that you will survive me.' This is said, as it were, avertendi ominis gratia, since in v. 34 allusion is made, though in a general sentiment, to Cynthia's death. XVII. He asserts that though there is a time for all things to cease, yet he can never cease to love; and (v. 21) warns his rivals not to rely on the permanence of the favour they now enjoy. This is one of the most difficult of the elegies. I 'O tu, quæ pulcherrima mihi cura nata, quamvis dolenti, quod tam raro admittor, unica tamen cura es.' Hertzberg; who rightly connects quoniam in the second verse with meo dolori.-sæpe veni, Tò TOλλákis éπipoirâv. See on iii. 13, 14. This explanation is due to Jacob, before whose edition the most extravagant 5 ΤΟ alterations and interpretations had been proposed. 4 Calvus was the friend of Catullus, and like him a writer of amatory verses. Ovid, Am. iii. 9, 62. Obvius huic venias, hedera juvenilia cinctus Tempora, cum Calvo, docte Catulle, tuo.' He apologises to them for having used the superlative, notissima; implying that Cynthia's celebrity would be greater than the mistresses of either of those poets, viz. Quintilia and Lesbia, inf. iii. 26, 87-90. 9 Lachmann reads diducet. See on iii. 13, 5. In this instance there is no reason for altering the reading of all good copies. II 'And yet have I not endured more tortures than? &c. Still, I will not give in. The obduracy even of a rock is worn down by the continued efforts of the unceasing water-drop.'Perillus was the maker of the brazen bull for the tyrant Phalaris, and was K Et gemere in tauro, sæve Perille, tuo? himself burnt alive in it. Et Pha- 13 Obdurescere, to be changed into stone by looking at the head of Medusa.-Caucasias aves, the vulture of Prometheus. With etiam understand satius fuit. 17 'Desperatus versus.' Jacob; who gives the reading of the MS. Gron. 'At nullo de me teritur sub lumine amor qui, and proposes to read at nullo domina teritur spes limine, amorque Restat &c. interpreting nullo limine by nulla exclusione. As may be anticipated, he has not found a follower in the judicious Hertzberg, who retains the vulgate, and explains limen of the lintel, væeplúρiov. It appears to me that sub nullo domina limine means, as Barth has well explained it, 'domina limen in quo jaceo pernox, non potest amorem meum terere et consumere.' Sub limine must be taken literally, but elliptically, for excubando sub limine, i. e. 'close under,' and nullo gives the sense of nunquam to the whole verse. if any should prefer to take sub limine for sub domo, there would be no diffi But 15 20 culty. The words qui restat et sustinet mean: 'which remains unshaken, even though it has to bear undeserved threats.' Amor and domina are perhaps used generally. 19 Ultro is properly used when anything is done proprio motu; unasked, unchallenged, unprovoked: properly, beyond what the laws of par pari referto require. Thus, ultro bellum inferre is to commence hostilities without any previous injury. In the case of separated lovers, the party who first makes overtures for a reconciliation is said ultro vocare. Hence Persius, v. 172, 'ne nunc, cum accersor, et ultro supplicat, accedam?' -peccasse fatetur læsus, i. e. when the lover, though the fault is not really on his side, is willing to bear it in his anxiety to make up the quarrel. The editors place a full stop at minas. Possibly the construction is continued from qui restat, amator being naturally implied in amor. 21 He warns his rival, that he will not give up his claims to Cynthia because he has been rejected; but may yet supplant him in the contest for her regard.-fastus. See on i. 1, 3. Cum sæpe in portu fracta carina natet? Aut prius infecto deposcit præmia cursu, Septima quam metam triverit ante rota? Mendaces ludunt flatus in amore secundi. Si qua venit sero, magna ruina venit. Tu tamen interea, quamvis te diligat illa, In tacito cohibe gaudia clausa sinu. Namque in amore suo semper sua maxima cuique Nescio quo pacto verba nocere solent. Quamvis te persæpe vocet, semel ire memento: 23-6 'No one reckons on safety in a storm, or victory in a race, before he has realised it: do you therefore not presume too much on your fancied success.' cum sæpe, &c. i. e. when even in the harbour itself ships are sometimes lost: 'fallit portus et ipse fidem,' iv. 7, 36.-septima rota, septimo cursu. Both in the Greek stadium and the Roman circus, the racers took seven turns round the pillar. Soph. El. 755, teλoûvtes ektov ἕβδομόν τ ̓ ἤδη δρόμον. The charioteer was said radere, stringere, or terere metam, words signifying the actual scraping of the wheel against the pillar, but implying only the close proximity.-prius-quam ante triverit seems to be the construction intended, ante being redundant by a well-known use, as Æsch. S. c. Theb. 694, λéyovra κέρδος πρότερον ὑστέρου μόρου. Hertzberg joins quam-ante, for antequam; see on iii. 9, 10, Quam prius adjunctos sedula lavit equos.' examples he adduces from Tibull. i. 3, 9; iv. 1, 33, Ovid, Trist. iv. 9, 31, are not really to the point for the reason mentioned on the former passage. But that from the Copa, commonly attributed to Virgil, v. 4, is appropriate Quid juvat æstivo defessum pulvere abesse, Quam potius bibulo decubuisse toro;' i. e. potius : The 25 30 quam. The redundance of ante after prius is well defended by Kuinoel from Virg. Æn. iv. 24-7, Sed mihi vel tellus optem prius ima dehiscat, -ante, Pudor, quam te violo.' 27 Secundi. Kuinoel, with Heinsius, reads secundo. Hertzberg rightly approves of Lachmann's explanation: 'mendaces isti venti sunt, si qui propitii amantibus flare videntur.' 29 Tu tamen. That is, quamvis te diligat, tu tamen cohibe &c. 'Do not boast of your good fortune lest you should be put to the blush when it leaves you.' The evils arising from proud words are well expressed in the following distich. 32 From speaking with too much boldness and freedom, the poet passes to the danger of acting in such a way as to excite invidia. Both the Greeks and the Romans considered that it was easy to provoke the gods to withdraw the felicity bestowed on those who made an unworthy or thankless use of it. Lachmann singularly misunderstood this doctrine: ineptum hoc est, immo putidum, quod quamvis sæpe a puella vocetur, semel tantum, neque amplius, ire jubetur.' Jacob pronounces semel 'ridiculum,' and would read simulare memento. Kui noel's explanation appears perfectly right:-'ne abutaris benignitate do Invidiam quod habet, non solet esse diu. ego. Essem ego, quod nunc tu; tempore vincor At vos, qui officia in multos revocatis amores, Quantum sic cruciat lumina vestra dolor! Hæc atque illa mali vulneris una via est; 35 40 45 minæ, sed parce utere ea, ut decet | strictly correct and obvious order. circumspectum.' 35 Kuinoel's view of this perplexed passage is certainly rather startling, 'antiquis grata puellis, docte pro antiqua grata puellis,' where for 'docte' he certainly ought to have said indocte.' Lachmann gives up the verse altogether, and Jacob suggests an explanation which it is impossible to recommend to the reader. Hertzberg alone gives a plausible solution. He takes sæcla antiquis puellis for 'sacla, cum antiquis moribus puellæ adhuc vigebant,' comparing 'formosi temporis ætas,' i. 4, 7.— grata, i. e. 'amorem tutum expetenti.' He acutely observes, that antiqua sæcula is one thing, antique puellæ another; the latter meaning more than ancient, viz., of primitive simplicity and virtue.' It appears to me that grata is used indefinitely for 'in vogue,' 'in fashion,' 'still popular.' The difficulty would be much diminished by the transposition, quod si grata forent antiquis sæcla puellis. But Hertzberg has collected many examples (Quæst. p. 121-3,) of words displaced by the poet from their See, for instance, i. 3, 42; iv. 4, 18. 39 Revocatis, 'withdraw from one to bestow upon another.'-'You who set your fickle affections on many women, what pain do you inflict on your own eyes by this conduct!' This uneasiness, which he here assigns to others, the poet avows to be his own habitual malady, supr. El. 13. 43 Argiva figura, 'of Grecian form.' See on i. 15, 22, and i. 4, 9. 45 Sandicis, of purple.'-sandix, (Virg. Ecl. iv. 45) or sandyx was a dye extracted from a plant, perhaps the rochella tinctoria or orchil. Others (Pliny, N. H. 35, 23) make it a bright red mineral colour. 46 Hæc atque illa una. Each of these individually inflicts a wound.' Hertzberg observes on this: ' mirum, quod puella ipsa via vulneris dicitur, quam pro causa Latine poni nego.' He therefore thinks that the vulnus spoken of is from the darts of Cupid, who pulchris excubat in genis' puellæ. And this seems a reasonable view. Cupid inflicts the wound, which comes through the girl by whose beauty the party is struck. 6 Cum satis una tuis insomnia portet ocellis, XVIII. Vidi te in somnis fracta, mea vita, carina Et quæcumque in me fueras mentita, fateri, Aurea quam molli tergore vexit ovis. Quam timui, ne forte tuum mare nomen haberet, Quæ tum ego Neptuno, quæ tum cum Castore fratri, XVIII. He endeavours, by relating a feigned dream, to deter Cynthia from a voyage she was about to make (v. 29,); but concludes by professing his readiness to follow her, should she adhere to her resolution. From not sufficiently attending to the poet's custom of relenting and unsaying at the end what he had threatened or predicted at the beginning, most of the editors have commenced a new elegy at v. 21. Hertzberg has followed the arrangement in the MSS., observing that it would be absurd to relate a dream without following it up by some conclusion. He regards it as an allegory, implying the favour of the gods towards a poet, (v. 18; but this is said of Cynthia, not of Propertius ;) and his own fidelity, symbolized by leaping after her from rock, v. 19.It is a most elegant poem. 5 Qualem Hellen. More usually qualis Helle; but the accusative is by attraction to te preceding. Barth is clearly wrong in construing qualem ovis aurea vidit Hellen. Hertzberg 5 remarks on purpureis (the Homeric πορφύρεον κῦμα), that the southern seas do under certain circumstances assume a purple tint; arising, of course, from the reflection of the sky. See on v. 2, 13.-tergus, it is proper to remark, differs from tergum; though the latter is used for the former by Tacit. Ann. iv. 72, and xv. 44. Virg. Æn. i. 368. 7 Tuum nomen. The elegance of the compliment is enhanced by quam timui, as if he could not lose her even for the geographical immortality of a Mare Cynthiacum.'-For atque Hertzberg with great probability proposes teque, observing that out of 43 places where the poet has used the word, in one other only (v. 2, 52.) it occurs without elision. The reluctance of the Roman poets generally to place atque before a consonant is well known: moreover te must be understood, which makes it unlikely that so unnecessary a licence should in this instance have been taken. 9 Quæ (vota) excepi, i. e. suscepi Neptuno. So iii. 7, 4. Ah! Nep |