James Davies

Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius James Davies

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ...object the violent attacking of Caesar, Mamurra, Gellius, and other less notable-names obnoxious to our poet. By far the most part of these are so coarse, that, frojn their very nature, they are best left in their native language; and in-this opinion we suspect we are supported by the best translators of Catullus, who deal with them sparingly and gingerly. Here and there, as in Epigram or Poem 84, Catullus quits this uninviting vein for one of purer satire in every sense, the sting of it being of philological interest. Arrius, its subject, like some of our own countrymen, seems to have sought to atone for clipping his h's by an equally ill-judged principle of compensation. He used the aspirate-where it was "wrong as well as where it was right. The authors of a recent volume already alluded to--' Lays from Latin Lyres ' have so expressed the spirit and flavour of Catul-lus's six couplets on this Arrius, that their version may well stand for a sample of one of the most amusing and least offensive of his skits of this nature. It is, of course, something in the nature of a parody:--" Whenever 'Airy tried to sound An H, his care was unavailing; He always spoke of 'orse and 'ound, And all his kinsfolk had that failing. Peace to our ears. He went from home; But tidings came that grieved us bitterly--That 'Arry, while he stayed at Eome, Enjoyed his 'oliday in Hitaly." And so we bid adieu to a poet who, with all his faults, has the highest claims upon us as a bard of nature and passion, and who was beyond question the first and greatest lyric poet of Italy. TIBULLUS. CHAPTER L THE LIFE OP ALBIUS TIBDLLUS. Although Catullus, as we have seen, lays some claim to the credit of acclimatising the elegy as well as other Greek types of poetry at Bome, the...