Catullus VIII. 145 



Unfortunately there is nothing in the fragments of the Greek lyric 

 which surely illustrates this type. Nor is there any single poem in 

 the Palatine Anthology which can be used as a parallel. There 

 are, of course, the laments of disappointed lovers, predicting to girls 

 an unhai)p3' old age, but all is in miniature, while this kind of lyric 

 demands a certain space for its presentation. In Latin elegy and 

 l3Tic, however, the t^pe is well represented. 



Propertius has two examples. In ii, 5 Cynthia has been notori- 

 oush' unfaithful and her lover is threatening to leave her. There 

 is the usual reference to the past {ainata din, 8j and to her having 

 been called his pnella (vs. 6) and there are man}- self-exhortations 

 to firmness, mingled, as if involuntarily, with betrayals of weakness 

 (9, 10; 13, 15 f.). The definite threat with which the poem closes 

 is that the lover will make her infidelity known through his poetr}'. 

 The corresponding poem, iv, 25, is shorter and somewhat closer 

 to the general type : — " Cynthia is unfaithful, though I have served 

 her faithfully for five years. Now it is over and I am leaving her, 

 weeping, it is true, but sustained in my resolve by the sense of 

 m}' wrongs. Farewell to the threshold and to the door ! But yo\x 

 shall grow old in loneliness and shall suffer in turn the pangs of 

 unrequited love." Here again are the same outlines; the lover 

 regrets the past, strives to be firm, is conscious of his weakness, bids 

 the girl a lingering farewell (still hoping that the pathos may move 

 her), and finally predicts for her a life of unhappiness withovit love. 

 In both poems Propertius identifies himself fully with the lover and 

 apparently uses the typical form as a means of expressing his real 

 feeling on a definite occasion. As compared, therefore, with the 

 soliloquies of comed}', the pathetic and indignant element is rather 

 over-emphasized, and the humor — a qualit}- in which Propertius is 

 notal^ly deficient — is merely implied in the prolonged farewell and 

 the other indications of conscious weakness. The threats in iv, 25 

 take the form of a prediction that old age will bring wrinkles and 

 gra}' hair, and that the girl will then find no one to love her. 



In the love-poetr}' of Horace all is humorous. He maintains con- 

 sistently the attitude of the humorous oljserver of the mutations 

 of young love, and in so far his tone is a return to that of comed}". 

 In consequence of this and of the general lightness of touch which 

 he preserves in his verses on love, the other element, the lover's 

 indignation and distress, is somewhat slightly expressed. In his 

 most characteristic pictures, too, like i, 5 and i, 13, it is the coquette 

 who is triumphant, dismissing a lover only to receive his rival, and 

 Horace, identifying himself merely in a formal wa}' with the rejected 



Trans. Conn. Acad.. Vol. XV. 10 July. 1909. 



