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Fronto and Appuleius aimed at uniting elements in the Latin of the second century B.C. and in the popular diction of their own day, with a romantic, highly coloured style, which we, looking back over the Middle Ages, are disposed (though figuratively rather than with strict accuracy) to call mediaeval. Perhaps also, I would conjecture, something of the graceful direct conversational manner possible in Greek literature, together with the tender sentiment of its later stages, such as the Epigrams show, came in through the Greek impulse, already noticed, of the period before us.

I have dwelt at some length on this subject, partly as so curious in itself, and yet so often slurred over by our literary historians, partly because its effect on landscape poetry is especially perceptible.1 We have, indeed, these poetae novelli, as the Grammarians call them, in scattered fragments, the dates uncertain, the texts corrupt. And we are ignorant how numerous may have been the writers who worked in this new style, classical literature everywhere reflecting the gaps and imperfections of the "geological record";-and the movement apparently ended early in the fourth century at the advent of Christian verse, with its new ideas, new diction, new colour; whilst the old classical manner, as we shall see, meanwhile survived, though in a feeble imitative condition.

Turning now to the Elocutio Novella itself in still extant literature, we may note that with Appuleius, especially in his beautiful Cupid and Psyché romance, his prose approaches in manner what is known as assonant verse. Probably to the middle of the second century A.D. may be assigned the singular fragmentary Vigil of Venus, written in long trochaics—a reversion to very early Latin usage-but here so treated that accent tends to coincide with quantity. The song opens

thus

To-morrow let him love who has never loved yet, and he who has loved let him love to-morrow.

very peculiarities which suggest this idea, looked at closely, are its absolute refutation.

1 For a fuller statement readers are referred to Mr. Mackail's Latin Literature, to which I am here deeply indebted.

(A line which, employed in true romantic fashion as a refrain, recurs throughout.)

Spring is fresh, Spring now is musical, Spring is the world born again;

In spring lovers agree, in spring the birds wed,

And the wood lets loose its tresses as it is married by the showers.

To-morrow let him love who has never loved yet, and he who has loved let him love to-morrow.

Then the rose, that typical flower of love, in romance,

appears

Formed of the blood of Venus, and the kiss of Amor,

And of gems and of flames, and the crimson which the sun brings

out:

To-morrow she, her virgin zone once loosed, will not blush to unveil

The ruby which lay within her outer robe of fire.

But the text is here so uncertain that only the scattered hints of the poet are discernible. It is with a love-sigh that

the song ends

The bird sings, we are silent: when will my spring come?1

We who have mediaevalism to look back upon can hardly help finding in these lines an anticipation of later sentiment. And this is true in some sense. How deeply the passion shown here and the style differ from the tone of the

1 cras amet qui nunquam amavit, quique amavit cras amet ;

ver novum, ver iam canorum, ver renatus orbis est ;

vere concordant amores, vere nubunt alites

et nemus comam resolvit de maritis imbribus:

cras amet qui nunquam amavit, quique amavit cras amet.

facta Cypridis de cruore deque Amoris osculo

deque gemmis deque flammis deque solis purpuris,

crás ruborem qui latebat veste tectus ignea

unico marita nodo non pudebit solvere.

illa cantat, nos tacemus: quando ver venit meum ?

unico: the unico gaudens mulier marito of Horace (Od. III, xiv) seems here to have been in the poet's mind.

Augustan poetry is obvious! Full as the song is of feeling, it is not the unique feeling of Vergil, nor has it, of course, the breadth, the great manner of his poetry. Beside the Greek influence which we have noted there is here also something of an Asiatic exuberance. The elements of romance, in fact, doubtless lie deep in human nature, and under the changing circumstances of life, among the civilised communities of our hemisphere from their earliest date, come to the surface, as it were, bloom into poetry and fade, each in their due season. If, therefore, we here use the term mediaevalism, I understand it rather as an explanatory expression than as necessarily implying that this school of Roman poetry had any direct influence upon the remote future.1

An epigram, not of early date, belongs to the same cultus of the Rose as the Pervigilium Veneris has presented; a flower under which, in the eternal drama of Love, poetry at all times has delighted to figure Beauty. Here, also, we have the modern accent-more perceptible, perhaps, from the familiar repetition of the motive in English verse

O what roses have I seen come forth at morning! They were still coming to birth, not all of one age. The first was [only] putting forth her budding clusters: The next was lifting the crimson points from the now perfect bud: Not yet had the third displayed the whole circle of the calyx: The fourth now shone out all together, the flower had changed her covering. Meanwhile one lifts her head, a second unwinds her zone, the maiden blush of another is half-hidden by her robe :-Gather roses early, lest they die! How soon a maid withers! 2

1 Early Arabian poetry, perhaps early Indian, judged by translation, offers a sentiment in regard to love as personal passion, perhaps also in regard to Nature, which seems to me to support the view I have here ventured to offer.

2

o quales ego mane rosas procedere vidi !

nascebantur adhuc, neque erat par omnibus aetas.
prima papillatos ducebat [tecta] corymbos ;

altera puniceos apices umbone levabat;

tertia non totum calathi patefecerat orbem,
quarta simul nituit, mutato tegmine floris.

dum levat una caput, dumque explicat altera nodum,
huic dum virgineus pudor extenuatur amictu :-
ne pereant, lege mane rosas! cito virgo senescit.
Latin Anthology, no. 1020 (Meyer, 1835).

772

This may not be exactly landscape; but under cover of the Pervigilium I have allowed myself the pleasure of admitting it.

The four Bucolica, recognised by J. Conington as the work of Nemesianus of Carthage (close of third century), echoing Vergil, have something of his grace; but the style and thoughts are marked by a curious simplicity, found at times in later Latin poets. The shepherds (though our specimen does not exhibit this feature) offer love with a directness alien from the Master's delicacy.

A brief specimen, with a pretty refrain, may suffice. Mopsus invokes his cruel love Moroë

Hither, O fair Moroë! come! summer calls thee to the shade; already have the flocks moved beneath the wood, now no bird sings with its vocal throat, the scaly snake does not mark the ground with her winding track. Alone I sing, the whole wood speaks of me, nor do I yield in song to the cicadas of summer. Let each sing his love: songs also lighten pain.1

Yet Nemesianus also shows some sign of participating in the romantic movement, as a passage quoted by Mr. Mackail proves. It is, indeed, but " a little touch" of the modern tone, "partly " imitated from Virgil, but partly natural to the new Latin."

The rosebush loses the rose, nor are the lilies alway snow-bright, nor does the vine long retain her leafy tresses, nor the poplar its shade Beauty is a brief gift, nor can make itself at home in age.2

Tiberianus, Count of Africa in 326 A.D., and holder of other high offices, continues the Elocutio Novella even into the fourth century, although with less affectation or artifice of

1 huc, Moroë formosa, veni; vocat aestus in umbram;
iam pecudes subiere nemus; iam nulla canoro
gutture cantat avis, torto non squamea tractu
signat humum serpens. solus cano: me sonat omnis
silva, nec aestivis cantu concedo cicadis.

cantet, amet quod quisque : levant et carmina curas.

2 perdit spina rosas nec semper lilia candent,

nec longum tenet uva comas nec populus umbras;
donum forma breve est, nec se quod commodet annis.

Buc. IV, 38.

diction, and also with less metrical accuracy. The old laborious rules of Latin verse imported from the Greek were now rapidly breaking down-a change which was doubtless popularised by the Christian hymns and poetry freely produced after the conversion of Constantine. The little fragment by Tiberianus supplies one of the most detailed, of the completest landscape descriptions known to me in Latin poetry. I owe my copy of it to Mr. Mackail, who states that the single known text "is corrupt and badly spelled, so that one cannot be at all "sure of the reading in several lines."

The stream was moving through herbage as it poured down a chill valley, smiling with brilliant pebbles, coloured with the flowers of the meadow. Overhead a breeze softly stirred the dark green laurel and myrtle thickets with a caressing rustle. But beneath, soft grass was dense with sweet flowers, the lawn was reddened by crocus and glittering with lilies, while the whole grove was sweet with the breath of violets. Among those gifts of spring, jewelled beauties,-Queen of all odours and leader among the splendid hues, with her golden blossom-the Rose, Dioné's flower, stood forth eminent. The grove was crisp with dew throughout its moist herbage; here and there murmured rivulets from an abundant source. Moss and flourishing [ivy] within (garlanded the caves, where the oozing streams ran in shining drops.

Among these shades every bird, more tuneful than one could believe, sounded songs of spring and sweet chuckling laughter : Here the murmur of the babbling stream sang in concert with the leaves, stirred by the melody of the vocal breeze, the music of the western wind. Thus any one who went by the green spaces, fair, odorous, songful,-bird, stream, breeze, grove, flower, and shade delighted him.1

1 amnis ibat inter herbas valle fusus frigida,
luce ridens calculorum, flore pictus herbido.
caerulas superne laurus et virecta myrtea
leniter motabat aura blandiente sibilo.
subter autem molle gramen flore dulci creverat
et croco solum rubebat et lucebat liliis ;
tum nemus fragrabat omne violarum spiritu.
inter ista dona veris gemmeasque gratias
omnium regina odorum et colorum lucifer

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