FRAGMENTS.

If to a friend sincere, Cornelius, e'er was a secretTrusted, a friend whose soul steady to honour abides;Me to the same brotherhood doubt not to be inly devoted,Sworn upon oath, to the last secret, an Harpocrates.

Briefly, the sesterces all, give back, full quantity, Silo,Then be a bully beyond exorability, you:Else, if money be all, O cease so lewdly to practiseBawd, yet bully beyond exorability, you.

What? should a lover adore, yet cruelly slander adoring?I my lady, than eyes goodlier easily she?Nay, I rail not at all. How rail, so blindly desiring?Tappo alone dare brave all that is heinous, or you.

Mentula toils, Pimplea, the Muses' mountain, ascending:They with pitchforks hurl Mentula dizzily down.

Walks with a salesman a beauty, your eyes that beauty discerning?Doubt not your eyes speak true; Sir, 'tis a beauty to sell.

If to delight man's wish, joy e'er unlook'd for, unhop'd for,Falleth, a joy were such proper, a bliss to the soul.Then 'tis a joy to the soul, like gold of Lydia precious,Lesbia mine, that thou com'st to delight me again.5Com'st yet again long-hop'd, long-look'd for vainly, returnestFreely to me. O day white with a luckier hue!Lives there happier any than I, I only? a fairerDestiny? Life so sweet know ye, or aught parallel?

5Com'st yet again long-hop'd, long-look'd for vainly, returnestFreely to me. O day white with a luckier hue!Lives there happier any than I, I only? a fairerDestiny? Life so sweet know ye, or aught parallel?

Loathly Cominius, if e'er this people's voice should arraign thee,Hoary with all unclean infamy, worthy to die;First should a tongue, I doubt not, of old so deadly to goodness,Fall extruded, of each vulture a hungry regale;5Gouged be the carrion eyes some crow's black maw to replenish,Stomach a dog's fierce teeth harry, a wolf the remains.

Think you truly, belov'd, this bond of duty between us,Lasteth, an ever-new jollity, ne'er to decease?Grant it, Gods immortal, assure her promise in earnest;Yea, be the lips sincere; yea, be the words from her heart.5So still rightly remain our lovers' charter, a life-longFriendship in us, whose faith fades not away to the last.

Aufilena, the fair, if kind, is a favourite ever;Asks she a price, then yields frankly? the price is her own.You, that agreed to be kind, now vilely the treaty dishonour,Give not at all, nor again take;—'tis a wrong to a wrong.5Not to deceive were noble, a chastity ne'er had assented,Aufilena; but you—blindly to grasp at a gain,Yet to withhold the effects,—'tis a greed more loathly than harlot'sVileness, a wretch whose limbs ply to the lusts of a town.

5Not to deceive were noble, a chastity ne'er had assented,Aufilena; but you—blindly to grasp at a gain,Yet to withhold the effects,—'tis a greed more loathly than harlot'sVileness, a wretch whose limbs ply to the lusts of a town.

One lord only to love, one, Aufilena, to live for,Praise can a bride nowhere goodlier any betide;Yet, when a niece with an uncle is even mother or evenCousin—of all paramours this were as heinous as all.

Naso, if you show much, your company shows but a veryLittle; a man you show, Naso, a woman in one.

Pompey the first time consul, as yet Maecilia countedTwo paramours; reappears Pompey a consul again,Two still, Cinna, remain; but grown, each unit an evenThousand. Truly the stock's fruitful: adultery breeds.

Rightly a lordly demesne makes Firman Mentula count forWealthy! the rich fine things, then the variety there!Game in plenty to choose, fish, field, and meadow with hunting;Only the waste exceeds strangely the quantity still.5Wealthy? perhaps I grant it; if all, wealth asks for, is absent.Praise the demesne? no doubt; only be needy the man.

Acres thirty in all, good grass, own Mentula master;Forty to plough; bare seas, arid or empty, the rest.Poorly methinks might Croesus a man so sumptuous equal,Counted in one rich park owner of all he can ask.5Grass or plough, big woods, much mountain, mighty morasses;On to the farthest North, on to the boundary main.Vastness is all that is here; yet Mentula reaches a vaster—Man? not so; 'tis a vast mountainous ominous He.

Vastness is all that is here; yet Mentula reaches a vaster—Man? not so; 'tis a vast mountainous ominous He.

Oft with a studious heart, which hunted closely, requiringSkill great Battiades' poesies haply to send,Laying thus thy rage in rest, lest everlastingDarts should reach me, to wound still an assailable head:5Barren now I see that labour of any requital,Gellius; here all prayers fall to the ground, nor avail.No; but a robe I carry, the barbs, thy folly, to muffle;Mine strike sure; thy deep injurytheyshall atone.

5Barren now I see that labour of any requital,Gellius; here all prayers fall to the ground, nor avail.No; but a robe I carry, the barbs, thy folly, to muffle;Mine strike sure; thy deep injurytheyshall atone.

Here I give to be thine a fair grove, an holy, Priapus,Where thy Lampsacus holds thee in chamber seemly, Priapus;God, in every city, thou, most ador'd on a sea-shoreHellespontian, eminent most of oystery sea-shores.

Rapidly the spirit in an agony fled away.

Where yon lucent mast-top, a cup of silver, arises.

VIII. 2.

Lost is the lost, thou know'st it, and the past is past.

I am indebted for this expression to a translation of this poem by Dr. J.A. Symonds, the whole of which I should have quoted here, had it not been unfortunately mislaid.

XIV. 20.

Plague-prodigy.

Proves a plague-prodigy to God and man.

Browning,Ring and Book, v. 664.

XVII. 26.

Rondel.

The round plate of iron which, according to Rich, Companion to the Latin Dictionary, p. 609, formed the lower part of the sock worn by horses, mules, &c., when on a journey, and, unlike our horse-shoes, was removable at the end of it.

XXII. 11.

Looby

a clown.

Let me now the vices trace,From his father's scoundrel race.What could give the looby such airs?Were they masons? were they butchers?

Tickell,Theristes or the Lordling, 23-26.

XXIII.

For a spirited, though coarse, version of this poem, see Cotton's Poems, p. 608, ed. 1689.

6Lathy.

On a lathy horse, all legs and length.

Browning,Flight of the Duchess, v. 21.

XXIX. 8.

The connexion between Adonis and the dove is specially referred to by Diogenianus (Praef.p. 180 in Leutsch and Schneidewin'sParoemiographi Graeci). It formed part of the legends of Cyprus, and was alluded to by the lyric poet Timocreon (Bergk. Poetae Lyrici Graeci, p. 1203). Compare Browning:—

Pompilia was no pigeon, Venus' Pet.

Ring and Book, v. 701.

XXXV. 7.

So he'll quickly devour the way,

move quickly over the road. So Shakespeare:

Starting soHe seem'd in running to devour the way,Staying no longer question.

2nd Part of Henry IV., Act i. sc. 1.

XXXVII. 10.

With scorpion I, with emblem all your haunt will scrawl.

A member of the Saraceni family at Vicenza, finding that a beautiful widow did not favour him, scribbled filthy pictures over the door. The affair was brought before the Council of Ten at Venice.

Trollope'sPaul the Pope, p. 158.

XLIII. 3.

Mouth scarce tenible,

easily running over.

XLV. 7.

A sulky lion.

Properly "green-eyed." The epithet would seem to be not merely picturesque; the glaring of the eyes would be more marked in proportion as the beast was in a fiercer and more excitable state.

LI. 5-12.

I watch thy grace; and in its placeMy heart a charmed slumber keeps,While I muse upon thy face;And a languid fire creepsThro' my veins to all my frame,Dissolvingly and slowly: soonFrom thy rose-red lips my nameFloweth; and then, as in a swoon,With dinning sound my ears are rife,My tremulous tongue faltereth,I lose my colour, I lose my breath,I drink the cup of a costly death,Brimmed with delicious draughts of warmest life.

Tennyson,Eleänore.

LIV. 6.

Yet thou flee'st not above my keen iambics.

This line is quoted as Catullus's by Porphyrion on Hor. c. 1. 16, 24. His words,Catullus cum maledicta minaretur, compared with the last lines of this poem,Irascere iterum meis iambis Inmerentibus, unice imperator, seem to justify my view that they belong here. See my large edition, p. 217, fragm. I. The following line,So may destiny, &c., is a supplement of my own: it forms a natural introduction to theSi non uellemof v. 10.

LV.

This is the only instance where Catullus has introduced a spondee into the second foot of the phalaecian, which then becomes decasyllabic. The alternation of this decasyllabic rhythm with the ordinary hendecasyllable is studiously artistic; I have retained it throughout. In the series of dactylic lines 17-22, Catullus no doubt intended to convey the idea of rapidity, as, in the spondaic line immediately following, of labour.

4You on Circus, in all the bills but you, Sir.

There seems to be no authority for the meaning ordinarily assigned tolibellis, "book-shops." I prefer to explain the word placards, either announcing the sale of Camerius's effects, which would imply that he was in debt, or describing him as a lost article.

LXI.

In the rhythm of this poem, I have been obliged to deviate in two points from Catullus. (1) In him the first foot of each line is nearly always a trochee, only rarely a spondee: the monotonous effect of a positional trochee in English, to say nothing of the difficulty, induced me to substitute a spondee more frequently. (2) I have been rather less scrupulous in allowing the last foot of the glyconic lines to be a dactyl (-uu), in place of the more correct cretic (-u-).

108. The words in italics are a supplement of my own.

LXII. 39-61.

Look in a garden croft, when a flower privily growing, &c.

Opinion.Look how a flower that close in closes grows,Hid from rude cattle, bruised with no ploughs,Which th' air doth stroke, sun strengthen, showers shoot higher,It many youths and many maids desire;The same, when cropt by cruel hand 'tis wither'd,No youths at all, no maidens have desired;So a virgin while untouch'd she doth remainIs dear to hers; but when with body's stainHer chaster flower is lost, she leaves to appearOr sweet to young men or to maidens dear.Truth.Virgins, O Virgins, to sweet Hymen yield,For as a lone vine in a naked fieldNever extols her branches, never bearsRipe grapes, but with a headlong heaviness wearsHer tender body, and her highest sproutIs quickly levell'd with her fading root;By whom no husbandmen, no youths will dwell;But if by fortune she be married well,To the elm her husband, many husbandmenAnd many youths inhabit by her then;So whilst a virgin doth untouch'd abide,All unmanur'd she grows old with her pride;But when to equal wedlock, in fit time,Her fortune and endeavour lets her climb,Dear to her love and parents she is held.Virgins, O Virgins, to sweet Hymen yield.

Truth.Virgins, O Virgins, to sweet Hymen yield,For as a lone vine in a naked fieldNever extols her branches, never bearsRipe grapes, but with a headlong heaviness wearsHer tender body, and her highest sproutIs quickly levell'd with her fading root;By whom no husbandmen, no youths will dwell;But if by fortune she be married well,To the elm her husband, many husbandmenAnd many youths inhabit by her then;So whilst a virgin doth untouch'd abide,All unmanur'd she grows old with her pride;But when to equal wedlock, in fit time,Her fortune and endeavour lets her climb,Dear to her love and parents she is held.Virgins, O Virgins, to sweet Hymen yield.

Ben Jonson,The Barriers.

LXIII.

In the metre of this poem Catullus observes the following general type—

- - ´- - ´ - -(so Heyse.)u u - u - - u - -u u - u u u u -u uu u

Except in 18,Hilarate aere citatis erroribus animum, 53,Et earum omnia adirem furibunda latibula, where the Ionic a minore, which seems to have been the original basis of the rhythm, is preserved intact in the former half of the line. I have followed Catullus generally with exactness, but with an occasional resolution of one long into two short syllables, where it has not been introduced by the poet,e.g.in 31, 34, 49, 64, 65, 68, 79. In v. 10 I have ventured on a license which Catullus does not admit, but which is, I think, justified by other and earlier specimens of the metre, an anaclasis of the original Ionic a minore at the end of the line. In reading this poem it should never be forgotten that there is a pause in the middle of each line, which practically divides it into two halves. Tennyson, in hisBoadicea, written on the model of theAttis, divides each verse similarly in the middle; but in the first half he has changed the rhythm of Catullus to a trochaic rhythm, inthe second, while producing much of the effect of theAttisby the accumulation of short syllables at the end of the line, he has not bound himself to the same strictly defined feet as Catullus, and generally has preferred to take from the somewhat emasculate character of the verse by adding an unaccented syllable at the close.

LXIII.

8Taborine

Beat loud the tabourines, let the trumpets blow.

Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. sc. 5.

16Aby

abide; as, I think, in Spenser'sFaerie Queene, vi. 2, 19.

But he was fierce and whot,Ne time would give, nor any termes aby.

Below, lxiv. 297, I have used it in its more common meaning of atoning for,Faerie Queene, iv. 1, 53.

Yet thou, false Squire, his fault shalt deare aby,And with thy punishment his penance shalt supply.

Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2.

Lest to thy peril thou aby it dear.

24Ululation.

There sighs, complaints, and ululations loudResounded through the air without a star.

Longfellow'sDante Inf. iii. 22.

41When he smote the shadowy twilight with his healthy team sublime.

Ere yet they blind the stars, and the wild teamWhich love thee, yearning for thy yoke, arise,And shake the darkness from their loosen'd manes,And beat the twilight into flakes of fire.

Tennyson,Tithonus.

83On a nervy neck.

Four maned lions haleThe sluggish wheels; solemn their toothed maws,Their surly eyes brow-hidden, heavy pawsUplifted drowsily, and nervy tailsCovering their tawny brushes.

Keats,Endymion, II. ad fin.

LXIV. 160.

Yet to your household thou, your kindred palaces olden.

I have combinedthouwithyourpurposely, to suggest the idea conveyed inuestrasas opposed topotuisti, the family abode as opposed to the individual Theseus.

183Flexibly fleeting

bent as they move rapidly through the water.

186No glimmer of hope

from Heyse,

Keinerlei Flucht, kein Schimmer der Hoffnung, stumm liegt Alles.

258Gordian.

She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue,Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue.

Keats,Lamia, Part I.

308Wreaths sat on each hoar crown, whose snows flush' d rosy beneath them.

I have attempted here to give what I conceive Catullus may have meant to convey by the remarkable collocationAt roseo niueae residebant uertice uittae. Properly, the wreaths are rosy, the locks snow-white; but the colour of the wreaths is so blent with the colour of the locks that each is lost in the other, and an inversion of epithets becomes possible.

So, in fury of heart, shall death's stern reaper, Achilles.

A verse seems to have been lost here, which I have thus supplied.

LXVIII. 149.

So, it is all I can, take, Allius, answer, a littleVerse, to requite thy much friendship, a contrary boon.

These little rites, a stone, a verse, receive,'Tis all a father, all a friend can give.

Pope,Epitaph on the children of Lord Digby.

LXIX. 4.

Clarity

clearness, transparency.

Here clarity of candour, history's soul,The critical mind in short.

Browning,Ring and Book, i. 925.

LXX.

Sir Philip Sidney thus translates this poem:—

Unto no body my woman saith shee had rather a wife be,Then to myself, not though Jove grew a suter of hers.These be her words, but a woman's words to a love that is eager,Midde [windes?] or waters stream do require to be writ.

XCIX. 10.

Fricatrice.

To a lewd harlot, a base fricatrice.

Ben Jonson,The Fox, iv. 2.

FOOTNOTES:[A]The translation follows this edition (Oxford, 1867), in the constitution of the text, as well as in the sectional division of the poems.

[A]The translation follows this edition (Oxford, 1867), in the constitution of the text, as well as in the sectional division of the poems.

Back to Index Next