5 1Ο hic licet occultos proferre inpune dolores, si modo sola queant saxa tenere fidem. nunc in amore tuo cogor habere notam. quid tantum merui? quae te mihi crimina mutant? sic mihi te referas, levis, ut non altera nostro limine formosos intulit ulla pedes. quamvis multa tibi dolor hic meus aspera debet, 18. 9. crimina o carmina 0. relief in voicing his feelings. querenti: dat. of ref. 2. Cf. Martial 6, 76, 6: et famulum victrix possidet umbra nemus. : 3. occultos i.e. up to this time. -inpuně: note the shortening of the final vowel. 4. Perhaps the poet recalls the legend of King Midas and his servant, whose secret was not safe even when confided only to a hole in the ground. Cf. Pers. 1, 119. censors to a citizen degraded from his former rank. 9. crimina charges' brought by Cynthia herself. IO. an: A, 335, b. - tristitiae coldness.' II. sic. . . ut: cf. Tib. 2, 5, 63, n. - levis: O madam lightof-love' (Phillimore). - 12. Cf. Cat. 68, 70-72. - limine is best considered instrumental, but rendered over my threshold.' 13. aspera: substantive use: 'bitter experiences' (cf. colloquial 'bad quarter of an hour'). — debet: poetic indic. with quamvis; cf. L. 1906; H. 586, 2, 2; A. 527, e. 14. venerit venio and eo are not infrequent equivalents of sum in Propertius; cf. 1, 15, 4: in nostro lenta timore venis; 1, 4, 10: inferior duro iudice turpis eat. 15 20 ut tibi sim merito semper furor et tua flendo et non ulla meo clamat in ore fides? vos eritis testes, siquos habet arbor amores, fagus et Arcadio pinus amica deo. ah quotiens teneras resonant mea verba sub umbras, scribitur et vestris Cynthia corticibus! an tua quod peperit nobis iniuria curas, 17. colore O calore V2. 15. furor: cf. Harper's Lex. s.v. 2; Pichon s.v. at the end. 16. Cf. Tib. 1, 1, 51-52; 2, 6, 41-43; Ovid, Am. 3, 6, 57-60: quid fles et madidos lacrimis corrumpis ocellos pectoraque insana plangis aperta manu? ille habet et silices et vivum in pectore ferrum, qui tenero lacrimas lentus in ore videt. 17. The second possible charge against the poet-lover,-here again, as in the previous instance, in the form of an indignant question, implying a negative answer, - is that he gives little external manifestation of his passion, such as young and ardent lovers usually exhibit, viz. in countenance and in words. mutato. . . colore: cf. 1, 6, 6, n. Probably both the temporary change of the occasional blush, and the more permanent change from normal color to the habitual paleness traditionally ascribed to lovers are in the mind of the poet. 18. in ore fides: 'pledge on my lips'; cf. Ovid, Her. 2, 31: iura, fides ubi nunc commissaque dextera dextrae, quique erat in falso plurimus ore deus? 19. Propertius answers that much more enduring signs are on the trees, and that the woods are vocal with his protestations of fidelity. 20. fagus: the tree that still serves best for the carving of sweethearts' names. - pinus amica deo: Pitys, a nymph beloved by Pan, was changed into a pine. This tree would thus easily be thought of as especially sympathetic with lovers' confidences. 23. The third possible charge. - peperit: 'brought forth = 'revealed.' iniuria: 'the wrongs you have done me'; a regular word for infidelity in the elegiac writers; cf. 3, 25, 7; Cat. 72, 7.curas: the bitterness of heart that lovers know. 25 30 quae solum tacitis cognita sunt foribus? et datur inculto tramite dura quies: sed qualiscumque es, resonent mihi 'Cynthia' silvae 27. divini fontes O dumosi montes Heinsius mi duri montes Enk suggests. opacum; Hor. Car. 1, 1, 22: ad aquae lene caput sacrae; Milton, Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity: "The lonely mountains o'er, And the resounding shore, A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament; From haunted spring, and dale, Edg'd with poplar pale." 30. Cf. 1, 17, 2. 31. qualiscumque: though the poet was rash enough, in this temporary estrangement in the earlier period of his passion, to risk such a universal declaration, we see from 3, 24, 18, and other passages in that and the following poem that his eyes were entirely opened, and a complete revulsion of sentiment took place. - Cynthia: voc. This is the cry uttered repeatedly by the poet, as he wanders to and fro, and as such is used without change of form, in apposition to an implied verbum. Cf. Verg. Aen. 4, 383: nomine Dido saepe vocaturum. 5 19 Non ego nunc tristes vereor, mea Cynthia, manes, sed ne forte tuo careat mihi funus amore, hic timor est ipsis durior exequiis. I, 19 With a lover's forebodings, Propertius anticipates an early death, but dreads only the possibility that Cynthia's love will then die too. 1-4: 'I fear not death, only that you will cease to love me when I am in the tomb; 5-10: for my own love defies death, like the love of Protesilaus, 11-18: and will remain absolutely true to you in the spirit-world. 19-24: O that you may be conscious of this fidelity! that I may be spared my fear that your love will be stolen away from me. 25-26: Then let us love here while we may!' I. nunc seems to imply a reconciliation with Cynthia. manes: the development of the meaning is: 'spirits of the dead,' then 'association with these spirits,' therefore 'condition of death. In nothing does Propertius show a wider imagination 1Ο 15 non potuit caecis inmemor esse locis, illic formosae veniant chorus heroinae, quas dedit Argivis Dardana praeda viris; quarum nulla tua fuerit mihi, Cynthia, forma gratior, et (Tellus hoc ita iusta sinat) quamvis te longae remorentur fata senectae, cara tamen lacrimis ossa futura meis. 19. 10. Thessalis DV Thessalus NAF. 9. falsis. . . palmis: with his mere semblances of hands'; cf. Verg. Aen. 6, 292: tenues sine corpore vitas. - gaudia: ling'; cf. Cat. 2, 5: meo nitenti (C. S.). 10. Thessalis mere ghost of a predicate use. his dardesiderio umbra: 'a Thessalian,' 11. At first sight the certainty of the second part of the verse seems inconsistent with the indefiniteness of the first. But the poet means to doubt only with reference to the conditions of existence in the world of shades ; that he as a shade will still be known to all as her lover he cannot doubt. 12. A noble line, where the longing for immortality defies the narrow confines of the senses. 13. chorus in apposition with heroinae: the band of beautiful heroines,' Helen, Andromache, |