CARM. XLVI.

The subject, and manner of treating it, is merely a repetition of the 44th poem,—a complaint of Lesbia's inconstancy.

5. "My heart, O Lesbia, is now brought to this condition by your ill conduct, and has so wounded itself by affection for you, that however virtuous you may become, I cannot think well of you; and whatever enormities you may commit (omnia si facias,) I cannot cease to love you."

CARM. XLVII.

The poet expostulates with himself on the folly of his continued attachment to the abandoned Lesbia, and says, that if faith unbroken deserves reward, he may fairly expect happiness in his old age; (v. 6.) He feels the difficulty, however, no less than the necessity of making a final effort to rescue himself from this ruinous thraldom, (v. 13;) and finally entreats the Gods to lend their aid in ridding him of his passion.

9." All which kind expressions have gone for nothing, (perierunt) being bestowed on an ungrateful heart."

11. Quin animum firmas, teque ipsa recolligis, Iphi ? Consiliique inopes et stultos excutis ignes?'"

Ovid. Met. ix. 744.

ib. Teque istinc usque reducis?" and why do you not tear yourself away from her for ever?"

12. Dis invitis, "6 even though the Gods (particularly Venus and Cupid,) are against you."

16. "You must get rid of your love somehow or other,—by hook or by crook." Kal dikaiws kådíkws.—Aristoph. Plut. 233.

18. Extrema jam in morte parant defendere talis.'-VIRG.

CARM. XLVIII.

This is written against one Rufus, who had made use of the friendship of Catullus, to do him some heavy wrong.

2. Pretio," cost."

'Hac gener atque socer coëant mercede suorum.'-VIRG. ὅς κε τίν ̓ ἀθανάτων, ὅκα μὴ θεὸς αὐτὸς ἕληται,

ἀθρήση, μισθῷ τοῦτον ἰδεῖν μεγάλῳ.-Callim. Lavac. Pall.

101.

3. "Have you by subtlety gained my affections, and deeply wounding my heart," (intestina perurens, &c.)

CARM. XLIX.

The husband of Lesbia, it appears, was delighted because she abused Catullus; for he therefore concluded that she did not care for him. But Catullus says he must be as stupid as a mule, to jump to such a conclusion as this; for that she showed indifference by silence; whereas her gabbling and abuse of him, not only shows that she remembers him, but that she thinks enough about him, to be angry with him—a main and necessary point in the intercourse of true lovers; since we learn from Terence,

'Amantium iræ amoris integratio est.'

CARM. L.

There were cocknies at Rome (as elsewhere,) who had a desperate prejudice in favour of the letter "h" in the wrong place. (It is to be supposed-if not presumed that they had as rooted an antipathy to this ill-used letter in the right place.) Of the number of these was one Arrius, who, Catullus says, inherited this unhappy failing from his mother, his maternal uncle Liber, his maternal grandmother and father. It was therefore, by the mother's side, an inveterate and hereditary malady. The " ears polite" however of the literary men of Rome had enjoyed a respite, in consequence of this Arius having gone to Syria. But their fancied security was disturbed by the appalling news,

that the Ionian sea would shortly be called "Hionian" again, i. e. that Arrius was returning home. It is perhaps fortunate for Arrius, that no more is known of him than his predilection for aspirates.

9. Postillä, id. quod postea.

'Mina mihi argenti dono postillä data est.'-Plaut. Pœn. ii. 21.

'Is explicavi meam rem postillä lucro.'-Ib. iii. 5. 5.

It is doubtful how this long final a is to be explained. Professor Key thinks that the original form was postillam, as it is postquam. The Alphabet: Terentian Metres, p. 77-8. (A most learned and ingenious book, that ought to be in the hands of every scholar.)

CARM. LI.

The poet says he is in love, and feels very uncomfortable; but he doesn't very clearly know why.

CARM. LII.

He admits that Quintia has many points of beauty about her; that she is fair, tall, and straight: that she is entirely "handsome," he denies, for she has no elegance, and not a grain of wit (mica salis) in her whole body; whereas Lesbia is handsome, being entirely beautiful throughout, and having stolen, and combined in her person, all the graces of all women.

'For several virtues

'Have I lik'd several women: never any
With so full soul, but some defect in her
'Did quarrel with the noblest grace she ow'd,
And put it to the foil: but you!-oh you!
'So peerless and so perfect!-art created

'Of ev'ry creature's best!'

Shaksp. Tempest, Act. iii. Sc. 1.

CARM. LIII.

Lesbia, he says, is always abusing him, and yet loves him. How is this paradox to be proved? By his own feelings and practice. For he is always rating her, and yet certainly loves her.

3. Deprecor," to imprecate."

Aulus Gellius dedicates the 16th Chap. of his Sixth Book to a discussion of the sense in which Catullus has here used the word deprecor. He says the prefix de is intensitive :— Deprecor a 'Catullo dictum est, quasi detestor, vel exsecror, vel depello, vel 'abominor.' He quotes the "Erechtheus" of Ennius,

'Quibus servitutem mea miseria deprecor.'

And again, from his "Cresphontes ;"

'Ego quum meæ vitæ parcam, lethum inimico deprecor.' So, in the words desavire, debacchari, de has an intensitive force.

CARM. LIV.

He says he has no particular desire to please Julius Cæsar,nor does he wish to know whether he is "white, or black;" i. e. has an entire contempt for him. Quinctilian, (Institut. Orat. xi. 1. 38,) thus refers to this epigram ;—' Negat se magni facere aliquis poetarum utrum Cæsar ater an albus homo sit insania; ' verte, ut idem Cæsar de illo dixerit, arrogantia est.'

2. Unde illa scivit, niger an albus nascerer ?-Phædr. Fab. iii. 15. 10.

Etiam libenter te, nuper usque albus an ater esses, ignoravi.'-Apul. Apolog.

'Quem ego hominem nullius coloris novi;' i. e. "was as unknown to nie, as a thing that has no colour."-Plaut. Pseud.

iv. 7. 100.

g

CARM. LV.

Cinna, a poet, wrote a poem called Smyrna, (this was another name for Myrrha,) which he took nine years to write and polish ;

'Membranis intus positis.'-HOR.

Catullus says, though Hortensius writes 1500 verses standing on one foot, yet that the Smyrna of Cinna shall go to distant lands;

('Aut fugies Uticam, aut vinctus mitteris Ilerdam ;')

even to the Atax in Gaul; (hod. " the Aude.")

But the annals of Volusius shall furnish wrappers for sprats ;-~ 'Deferar in vicum vendentem thus et odores,

Et piper, et quicquid chartis amicitur ineptis.'-HOR.

Cinna is thus mentioned by Virgil:

'Nam neque adhuc Varo videor, nec dicere Cinna

'Digna, sed argutos inter strepere anser olores'.-Eclog. ix.

Cinna Smyrnam novem annis accepimus scriptam.'

35.

Quinctil. Instit. Orat. x. 4. 4.

'Cinna quoque his comes est, Cinnaque procacior Anser.'Ovid. Trist. ii. 435.

3. Nam fuit hoc vitiosus; in hora sæpe ducentos,

'Ut magnum, versus dictabat, stans pede in uno.'-HOR.

5. Qua cava de Stygiis fluxerat unda vadis.'-Ovid. Ibis, 226. Implentur fossæ, et cava flumina crescunt.'-VIRG.

6. "Distant ages shall roll over the poem Smyrna."

Nec pateris, Cæsar, sæcula cana mori.'-Martial, ix. 30. 2. 'Quid, mea si canis ætas candesceret annis ?'-Propert. ii. 18. 5.

7. The words in brackets were conjectured by Passeratius ;"The poem shall never be heard of beyond the walls of Padua, where it was written."