Catullus VIII. 147 



reference to the happiness of the past is treated in vss. 3—8 with 

 a vividness of which neither Propertius nor Horace was capable. 

 This is Catulhis' pecuhar province. Even in an ideal poem like 

 xlv his treatment of passionate love has all the spontaneity of a 

 personal emotion. Postponing for a moment the question whether 

 or how far the poet is here addressing Lesbia, we must recognize 

 the fact that these lines are here because they belong to this type 

 of poem, not because Catullus was in love with a particular woman. 

 The corresponding verses in Horace's Epode, vss. 1—10, are not, 

 in themselves, an expression of the writer's personal feeling. The 

 same distinction is to be made in regard to the pathos of the 

 repeated line fiilscrc . . . soles. It is pathetic, as Macaulay some- 

 where says, but the pathos is for the puclla, not for the reader. 

 Catullus the lover in this little dramatic lyric tries to touch the 

 heart of the girl, but ("atullus the poet trusted to the acuteness of 

 his readers— and of Lesbia — to see that this is only a scene in 

 a pretty comedy. Finally, the other element, the threatening pre- 

 dictions, Catullus expresses in a series of impassioned questions 

 which are more a reminder of what has been than a prophecy of 

 what may be, as Horace, in a different way, avoids the crudities 

 of comedy and the bitterness of Propertius. 



Taken by itself and interpreted by comparison with other poems 

 of the same type, this poem is not difticult. It is not by any means 

 the record of an attempt on the part of Catullus to break off 

 a love-affair with some girl, whether Lesbia or another ; that record 

 is written, in very different words, in Ixxvi. It is a light and 

 humorous presentation of a lover — Catullus himself playing the 

 part — trying to move the heart of an inconstant girl by appeals 

 and pathos and sternness and threats. 



There still remains the question how far this poem is to be 

 adjusted to the circumstances of Catullus' life. Or, in other words, 

 how far has Catullus, in using this type of poem, changed it in 

 order to adapt it to the expression of his feeling toward a partic- 

 ular person, on a particular occasion ? To answer this question 

 it is necessary to go back to some general principles of the inter- 

 pretation of Catullus. 



Of his purely ideal poems, Ixii, Ixiii, Ixiv, Ixvi and especially 

 xlvj nothing need be said beyond \\hat was said above, that they 

 are marked off from the personal poems l^y a clear line. This is 

 not one of them, and nothing that has been said above of its 

 typical character is meant to be understood as implying that it is 

 also ideal. 



