"Hanc tibi cur tradam, pia causa, Lavinia conjux,
Est mihi: consumpsi naufragus hujus opes.
Orta Tyro est regnum Libyca possedit in ora:
Quam precor ut caræ more sororis ames.
Omnia promittit, falsumque Lavinia vulnus
Mente premit tacita, dissimulatque metus.
Donaque cum videat præter sua lumina ferri
Multa palam, mitti clam quoque multa putat.
Non habet exactum, quid agat.

Et parat insidias, et cupit ulta mori.

105

110

Furialiter odit,

Nox erat: ante torum visa est adstare sororis

115

Squalenti Dido sanguinolenta coma,

Et "Fuge, ne dubita, moestum fuge," dicere, "tectum."

Sub verbum querulas impulit aura fores.

Exsilit, et velox humili super arva fenestra

Se jacit: audacem fecerat ipse timor.

120

Quaque metu rapitur, tunica velata recincta,
Currit, ut auditis territa dama lupis.

Corniger hanc cupidis rapuisse Numicius undis
Creditur, et stagnis occuluisse suis.

Sidonis interea magno clamore per agros
Quæritur. Apparent signa notæque pedum.
Ventum erat ad ripas: inerant vestigia ripis.
Sustinuit tacitas conscius amnis aquas.

125

Ipsa loqui visa est, “Placidi sum nympha Numici :
Amne perenne latens Anna Perenna vocor.”

MACRO.

[Ex Ponto, lib. ii. epist. 10.].

Ecquid ab impressæ cognoscis imagine gemmæ
Hæc tibi Nasonem scribere verba, Macer?
Auctorisque sui si non est annulus index,
Cognitane est nostra litera facta manu?
An tibi notitiam mora temporis eripit horum?
Nec repetunt oculi signa vetusta tui?
Sis licet oblitus pariter gemmæque manusque,
Exciderit tantum ne tibi cura mei.

5

Quam tu vel longi debes convictibus ævi,
Vel mea quod conjux non aliena tibi ;

10

Vel studiis, quibus es, quam nos, sapientius usus ;
Utque decet, nulla factus es Arte nocens.

Tu canis æterno quicquid restabat Homero
Ne careant summa Troica fata manu.

Naso parum prudens, Artem dum tradit amandi,
Doctrinæ pretium triste magister habet.

Sunt tamen inter se communia sacra poetis,
Diversum quamvis quisque sequamur iter.

15

Quorum te memorem, quamvis procul absumus, esse
Suspicor, et casus velle levare meos.

20

Te duce, magnificas Asia perspeximus urbes :
Trinacris est oculis, te duce, nota meis.
Vidimus Ætnæa cœlum splendescere flamma,
Suppositus monti quam vomit ore gigas;
Hennæosque lacus, et olentia stagna Palici,
Quaque suis Cyanen miscet Anapus aquis.

25

Nec procul hinc Nymphen, quæ, dum fugit Elidis amnem, Tecta sub æquorea nunc quoque currit aqua.

Hic mihi labentis pars anni magna peracta est;

Eheu! quam dispar est locus ille Getis!

30

Et quota pars hæc sunt rerum, quas vidimus ambo,
Te mihi jucundas efficiente vias!

Seu rate cæruleas picta sulcavimus undas;

Esseda nos agili sive tulere rota.

Sæpe brevis nobis vicibus via visa loquendi ;
Pluraque, si numeres, verba fuere gradu.

Sæpe dies sermone minor fuit: inque loquendum
Tarda per æstivos defuit hora dies.

Est aliquid, casus pariter timuisse marinos;
Junctaque ad æquoreos vota tulisse deos:
Et modo res egisse simul; modo rursus ab illis,
Quorum non pudeat, posse referre jocos.
Hæc tibi si subeant, absim licet, omnibus horis
Ante tuos oculos, ut modo visus, ero.

35

40

Ipse quidem extremi quum sim sub cardine mundi,
Qui semper liquidis altior exstat aquis,

45

Te tamen intueor, quo solo pectore possum,
Et tecum gelido sæpe sub axe loquor.

Hic es, et ignoras, et ades celeberrimus absens :
Inque Getas media visus ab urbe venis.
Redde vicem; et, quoniam regio felicior ista est,
Illic me memori pectore semper habes.

50

115

NOTES ON CATULLUS.

I. Owing to the grace and pathos of this and the following poem on Lesbia's sparrow, the 'Passer Catulli' became almost proverbial for elegance and tender sentiment among later Roman writers. (See Martial, Epigramm. i. 8. 110; iv. 14; xi. 7.) In the name Lesbia there may be an allusion to Hostia's accomplishments in literature or music, i. e. to Sappho of Lesbos.

3. Primum digitum.-The tip of the fore-finger.-Desiderio meo nitenti. To the bright and beautiful object of my love.' Desiderium here signifies the object of love, as πólos does in Bion's Idyll. i. 283. Nitere, nitor, nitidus, are words commonly expressive of female beauty; e. g. Horace, Od. i. 19. 5, 'Urit me Glyceræ nitor;' id. ib. ii. 12. 19, Nitidæ virgines; id. ib. i. 5. 13, 'Miseri quibus intentata nites.'

5-13. Quum...ligatam.-The order of the words in this passage is : Quum lubet desiderio meo nitenti,' i. e. meæ formosæ puellæ, 'jocari nescio-quid carum,' i. e. dulce aliquid, 'ad solatiolum sui doloris: credo, ut quo gravis ardor acquiescit :' (si) possem, sicut ipsa, tecum ludere, et tristes animi levare curas,' id. scil. lusus ille foret tam gratum mihi quam ferunt' (dicunt) aureolum malum fuisse pernici puellæ, quod' (malum) 'solvit zonam diu ligatam.'

11. Puellæ pernici.—Atalanta was daughter of Schoënus, king of Onchestus in Boeotia, the most swift-footed of women, who lost her race with Hippomenes through stooping to pick up the golden apples that her suitor and competitor flung on the race-course. Shakspeare, 'As You Like It,' act iii. sc. 2, speaks of 'Atalanta's better part,' i. e. her swiftness of foot.

13. Zonam. The zona or cingulum was the girdle worn about the loins by both sexes; its chief use was to hold up the tunic when the wearer was working, walking, etc. In Greek ζώνη or ζωστήρ is properly the man's girdle, Caviov the woman's. Young women, however, even when their tunics were not girt up, retained the girdle, which, being removed on the marriage-day, was an emblem of their condition, and was therefore called (wvη πаρleviкǹ, the maiden's belt.'-Diu ligatam. ' Long unclasped,' because Atalanta had vanquished many suitors before she was herself conquered by Hippomenes, and so had long remained unmarried. The story of Hippomenes and Atalanta is told by Ovid, Metamorph. x. 561-704.

II. This lamentation, or threne, for the death of Lesbia's sparrow has 3 suggested many similar compositions :-(1) Ovid's Elegy, 'In Mortem Psittaci' (Amor. El. vi.), in which he extols and laments the favourite

parrot of his mistress Corinna. (2) A poem by Statius (Silvæ, ii. 3), entitled, 'Psittacus Melioris.' (3) Lotichius, a celebrated writer of Latin, who flourished in Germany about the middle of the seventeenth century, composed an elegy on the death of a dolphin; and Naugerius in his verses "In Obitum Borgetti Catuli,' closely copies Catullus, e. g. :

'Nunc, raptus rapido maloque fato,

Ad manes abiit tenebricosos.'

In grace and felicity of expression, however, the original far surpasses the copies; and, indeed, if Catullus has any rivals in this poem, they must be sought in French rather than in Latin literature.

2. Quantum est hominum venustiorum (i. e. quotquot sunt homines elegantes et delicati), all persons endowed with refined feelings-sensibility. Venustus, derived from Venus, the goddess of grace and beauty,· has a moral as well as a physical import, and may be applied to mental as well as corporal qualities, and to things and places as well as persons. Catullus terms his friend Fabullus venuste noster' (xiii. 6), and Cicero (De Orat. ii. 56) says to Julius Cæsar, Quum omnium sis venustissimus et urbanissimus,' 'a man perfectly pleasant and polite.' The beautiful peninsula of Sirmio is described by Catullus (xxxi. 12) as 'venusta,' and Cicero calls ready wit (facilitas jocandi), 'sermo venustus et urbanus;' on the other hand, Catullus designates a piece of ill-timed pleasantry, as 'res sordida et invénusta.'

7. Ipsam (i. e. dominam, 'suam ipsam '), 'his own mistress.' Compare Plautus (Casin. act iv. sc. 2, v. 10), Ego eo quo me ipsa (domina) vocat.' aŬTos and aŬTη, in like manner, stand for dominus, domina.

11. Tenebricosum.-Compare Sallust (Catil. c. 52), Inferorum loca sunt tetra, inculta, fœda, atque formidolosa;' Hesiod (Theogon. 744), Nuктds èpeμvîs... oikía dewá: and Virgil (Æneid, vii. 268), Æneas and the Sibyl at the entrance of the nether-realm (primis in faucibus Orci):

Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram,
Quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna
Est iter in silvis: ubi cœlum condidit umbra
Jupiter et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem.'

12. Illuc, unde negant, etc.—Shakspeare (Hamlet, act iii. sc. 1):

'The undiscovered country, from whose bourne

No traveller returns.'

And compare an epigram by Antipater (Analect. Vet. Poet. Græcor. 90, tome ii. 37, ed. Brunck):

ἐς γὰρ ἄκαμπτον

Ἐς τὸν ἀνόστητον χῶρον ἔβης ἐνέρων.

15. Orci, quæ omnia bella devoratis.-This image may perhaps be traced to Bion's Idyll (the Lament of Aphrodite on the Death of Adonis), 55:

Λάμβανε, Περσεφόνα, τὸν ἐμὸν πόσιν, ἐσσὶ γὰρ αὐτὰ
Πολλὸν ἐμεῦ κρέσσων· τὸ δὲ πᾶν καλὸν ἐς σὲ καταῤῥεῖ.