To turn for a moment to that other sapphic ode : it has much of the Greek cadences, and lacks much of the Horatian flow. What the exact import may be of his commission to Furius and Aurelius, that enigmatical pair, I have never been able to make out; but on the whole I very decidedly prefer this poem to any sapphic ode of Horace. Listen to the noble swell of many of the verses: Litus ut longe resonante Eoa Tunditur unda... Siue trans altas gradietur Alpes, Caesaris uisens monimenta magni, Gallicum Rhenum, horribile aequor ultimosque Britannos. How feeble, compared with this, is Horace's elegant imitation; for he is again treading in Catullus' footprints with his 'Septimi Gades aditure mecum'. And what is there in Horace like the pathos, worthy of Burns, which pervades the 'Qui illius culpa cecidit uelut prati Vltimi flos praetereunte postquam Tactus aratro est'? I will not stop to compare the world-stirring movements, shadowed forth by the one poet, with the somewhat meagre and quite personal argument of the other poet. In what has been here said, I have wished to shew, not that I love Horace less, but that I love Catullus more. I know well under what disadvantage I lie, when I attempt to controvert the terse and eloquent exposition of Conington. But I have always thought that he based this exposition on far too narrow grounds. Rightly or wrongly, I look on Catullus as the peer of Alcaeus and Sappho; to Horace I assign a different rank. they do or do not employ any word; Catullus shall always be in the wrong whether he does not or does employ such word? I seem to myself to see more of humour and narrowness of judgment in Conington's onslaught on the defenceless Catullus, than in any other of his criticisms which I have read. INDEX Arnobius imitates (?) Catullus 60 Asinius Marrucinus 39, 40, 43 attraction of case 24; of gender 24 Baise 168, 174, 199 Balbus, Cornelius 85; Caecilius, father Caesar, libels on, 78, 79, 80, 81, 85-95, Calvus, C. Licinius, 145, 214, 215; his Io amended 153 candidus 185 casus periculorum 60, 61 Catullus, age 42, 43, 69-73, 113; Censorinus imitates Catullus 4 Clodia 46, 47, 70, 73, 174, 181-202 Coleridge on Catullus 233 coma of trees 25, 149 connexion in syntax of things dis- constructions, involved, 49, 54, 110, cum legas 56 diminutives in poetry 234-236 do 219 dolor 7, 8 (am), e 143, 183, 184, 190; a, ei 3; lusi multa 171, 172 Macaulay on Catullus 233, 234 malum! 102, 111 Mamurra 80, 83-87, 93, 97, 98, 106– Martial imitates Catullus 2, 4, 5, 22, Memmius, propraetor, 45, 46; attacks meto huic 101, 110 mitto 215 modo with paulum, and with imper. modus 224, 225; modō unelided 225 mutari talento 40, 41 nam in transitions 175 Nicaea 14, 15, 21 nos for ego 184, 192, 217 noster and uester confused 65, 66 omnia perdidistis 103 oratio obliqua in questions 31, 32 rupes 183 sacer hircus 203 Sempronia 200, 201 Seneca trag. imitates Catullus 60, 145, si non omnia 125, 126, 129 socer generque 81, 102, 112 Statius (?) imitates Catullus 5 tacitus partic. 26 tamen 189, 190, 192 tonsi prati 225 totmoda 226 totus adverbial 47, 48 trirustice 127 typum Cybelles 142, 143 = CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. |