Taliaque illacrimans mutæ jace verba favillæ : II. Liber eram, et vacuo meditabar vivere lecto; Fulva coma est, longæque manus, et maxima toto barbarous form, we are bound to suppose. Kuinoel refers to Cæsar, Bell. Gall. iv. 24. Sueton. Calig. 51. Virg. Georg. iii. 204. The concluding lines of this elegy Kuinoel rightly calls 'suavissimus locus.' II. This short but elegant elegy describes in glowing terms his admiration of Cynthia's beauty, and is a kind of apology for his having become so deeply enamoured of her, in violation of a solemn resolution to leave her. I Quærebam, Kuinoel, which has no MS. authority, and is supposed by Lachmann to have arisen from an oversight on the part of Scaliger. It is not nearly so elegant as meditabar. -composita pace is explained by Kuinoel ficta, simulata, as componis insidias iii. 24, 19; componere fraudes ii. 9, 31. But Lachmann (Præf. p. XXV.) understands 'pacem integrato amore cum Cynthia factam,' quoting from Livy ii. 13. his conditionibus composita pace,' and En. vii. 339. 'Disjice compositam pacem.' Thus the sense seems rather to be, 'I vainly flattered myself, that having made a truce with love, I should live for the future unmolested by him.' Compare v. i. 138. Et Veneris pueris utilis 5 hostis eris.' The peace is that made with Love, not that with Cynthia, as Lachmann thought. From ii. 3, 3, it seems that his resolution to live apart only lasted a month. 3 'Why does so fair a form still linger on earth?' I think nothing of those famous charms with which you made free, O Jupiter, when I compare them with Cynthia.' Ignoro approaches closely to the English use; 'I ignore them;' i.e. I do not take any account of them, ἐκφαυλίζομαι. ignosco, which is written above the word in the Naples MS., not only changes the sense materially but absolutely requires another construction. The meaning is, if Jupiter were really as amorous as he is represented in the legends, he certainly would have carried Cynthia up to the sky. 5 Longa manus, 'taper hands.' A well-shaped hand is a part of a portrait which is especially regarded; and it is well known how proud the possessors of such a feature are wont to be.-Jove digna soror, a brief expression for quæ sit Jovis soror; 'worthy of Jove as his sister.' Fulva coma est. The light flaxen hair of the Teutonic type, so common in those of Saxon descent in our country, but so rare among the black-haired Aut cum Dulichias Pallas spatiatur ad aras, Gorgonis anguiferæ pectus operta comis. Qualis et Ischomache, Lapithæ genus, heroïne, Centauris medio grata rapina mero, Mercurio et Sais fertur Bobeïdos undis Virgineum primo composuisse latus. Cedite jam, divæ, quas pastor viderat olim Idæis tunicas ponere verticibus. and olive-complexioned natives of the south of Europe, was greatly admired by both Greeks and Romans. The former called it gaven, a word difficult to disconnect with gaivw, on the analogy of our word flaren. ολη Kóμn was crisp, woolly hair, as opposed to hair which could be plaited or woven from its soft and pliant nature, and the word gaveǹ may have passed into the secondary signification of the colour of such hair. 7 The epithet Dulichias appears to refer to some cultus of Pallas in the island of Dulichium (one of the Echinades), of which no account has come down to us. As this goddess was the especial patroness of Ulysses, in whose dominions the island lay, (see iii. 5, 4,) it seems rash to alter the word to Munychias, as Kuinoel has done with some of the corrected copies. The next line describes the ægis: see on v. 9, 58. For aut cum Hertzberg and others suggest ut cum, with great probability. But the idea in the poet's mind may have been 'Cynthia is as fair as Juno or Pallas.' 9 I quite agree with Hertzberg, that the common reading, Lapithe genus heroina, cannot be defended. As the good copies agree in heroine, it seems better to consider it as the Greek form of the nominative. Lapithe is the genitive singular of Lapithes, the hero or eponym of the Lapitha. Ischomache (called also Hippodamia) was the wife of Pirithous, king of the Lapithæ; and it was at her nuptials, and in consequence of her being carried off by a Centaur, that the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapithæ arose. See inf. ii. 6, 18. 11 The Naples and Groning. MSS. have Mercurio satis. Lachmann and Kuinoel edit sanctis from an interpolated copy; Jacob Saitis, from his own conjecture: Hertzberg with Pucci, Mercurio et Sais. For primo in the pentameter Lachmann and Kuinoel give Brimo (Вpiμò) a name of Proserpine, who is said to have been assaulted by Mercury near the Boebian lake in Thessaly; for which legend reference is given to several grammarians in Kuinoel's note. The correction, which is Turnebe's, is exceedingly ingenious and probable. On the other hand, Minerva is called • Σάϊς κατὰ τὴν Αἰγυπτίων φωνὴν in Pausanias, ix. 12, 2, (the reference in Hertzberg's note to the Schol. on Esch. Sept. c. Theb. 169 is a mistake,) and all accounts represent Proserpine not only as having successfully resisted the advances of Mercury, but even as having derived her name Brimo from the terrible fury she displayed on this very occasion. But Jacob and Hertzberg incline to the opinion that the Egyptian Minerva F Hanc utinam faciem nolit mutare senectus, Etsi Cumææ secula vatis aget. 15 III. Qui nullam tibi dicebas jam posse nocere, was essentially the same in her attri- 16 Et sic Kuinoel, contrary to the good copies, and with great detriment to the sense, which is obvious: ‘may her beauty never be spoiled by age, though she live as long as the Sibyl.' III. The subject is much the same as the last. The poet admits, while he alleges the reasons of, his complete enslavement to his mistress. I The MSS. have nullum, which Jacob alone retains, while he assents to the correction of Heinsius, nullam. The poet addresses himself: 'This 5 IO then, is the end of all your boasting and fastus' (i. 1, 3.) 4 Liber alter. The first book was therefore already published, and only a month before the commencement of the second. 6 5 Quærebam, etc. In this resolve' (see v. 1. of the preceding) ‘I was in fact expecting the impossibility of an animal living out of its own element.' On nec solitus see iii. 20, 52. 7 'Another attempt was, to devote myself to severe studies.' K. compares iv. 21, 25. 6 II Minio Hibero, vermilion from Spain,' i. e. cinnabar, or ore of Mercury. K. refers to Pliny N.H. 33, 7. The piros of Homer proves its use as a colouring matter from very early times. 12 The elegant comparison of roseleaves in milk with the delicate colour of a youthful face occurs also in Æn. xii. 68. Nec de more comæ per levia colla fluentes, Non sum de nihilo blandus amator ego,- Et sua cum antiquæ committit scripta Corinnæ, aut mixta rubent ubi lilia multa alba rosa.' (K.) : 15 Si qua, i.e. si forte vel quandocunque.' Jacob; which Hertzberg approves of, comparing En. i. 18, 'Si qua fata sinant.' He might have added ib. vi. 883, 'si qua fata aspera rumpas, ἤν πως. But I think siqua is for si aliqua, and that the meaning is this nor is it from the mere accident of a girl dressing in silk: I am not a man to become a devoted lover on such trifling grounds.' So iii. 4, 10, Nec siqua illustres femina jactat aros.'- blandus amator, i. e. qui blanditias adhibet, qui captare studet. Jacob draws a refined distinction between 'quia pulcra est et quod saltat,' and' si forte et quum ;' the causal and the conditional. On the silk dresses of the Roman ladies see on i. 2, 2. Becker, Gallus, p. 442 &c. 17 From this verse (and inf. 33.) the true character of Cynthia (i.e. as a meretrix) is sufficiently apparent. For her polite accomplishments see i. 2, 27. 20 Aganippeæ lyra, the Muses.par appears to be the nominative. 21 Et cum, and when &c.' Hertzberg rightly observes that Corinnæ is 15 20 the dative, being used for scriptis Corinna by a well known idiom. Otherwise the construction might have been cum (scriptis) Corinnæ, ovv Tois Tns &c., but that the poet would have written Corinnes, as Hertz. remarks. Compare ii. 8, 23, 'Et sua cum miseræ permiscuit ossa puellæ.' 22 The MSS. generally have carmina quæ quivis (evidently a correction), or quæ lyrnes. The latter (in MS. Gron.) retains a vestige of the true reading, which was restored by Beroaldus.-Corinna was a Boeotian poetess, contemporary with Pindar. Erinna lived still earlier (about B.C. 600.) Both wrote in the Eolic dialect, whence Eolio plectro, v. 19. There can be no doubt that in the Augustan age the ancient lyric poetry of Greece was extant in its integrity, and it is not easy to understand why such very scanty and corrupt fragIments have alone descended to our times.-The sentiment, perhaps, is not intended to be so boastful as it appears at first sight: 'she vies with the poetesses of old' is what the poet wished to express. There is an hyperbole however in either case. 24 The MSS. have arduus or ar Hæc tibi contulerunt cælestia munera divi; Post Helenam hæc terris forma secunda redit. didus. Kuinoel gives aureus from 25 30 35 26 Forte (i.e. fortuito) dedisse are to be connected, not forte putes. On the rhyme in the following distich see i. 17, 5. 30 The MSS. have accumbens. With some probability Lachmann and Jacob propose to change the order of these lines, so that nec semper &c. should be followed by Romana ac 38 Lentus, sc. in reddendo quam injuria rapuisti. C would account for the reading ar- 39 'Beauty (in the abstract) I now feel to have been worth dying for, to say nothing of the anger of Achilles from the same cause: nay, it was deserving of approval (probari debebat) as a motive for war even by the aged Priam.' Lachmann reads foret with the MS. Groning. But this would imply the awkward ellipse of vel (quæ) foret, &c., the subjunctive depending on digna. The same MS. has PriaThe verse has evidently been tampered with. Allusion is made to that fine scene, Il. iii. 154. mus. |