‘ 
30 
are indeed superior to all praise, and 
te feel them, it is only necessary to un- 
derstand the writer. To great concise- 
ness of expression and striking origi- 
nality of ideas, he unites a style, sim- 
ple without vulgarity, elegant without 
being laboured, and peculiar without 
the appearance of singularity. In the 
happy use of diminutives, and theal- 
most honied sweetness of his language, 
he has infused a softness, approaching 
to that of the modern Italian, in‘o the 
terseness and vigour of the Roman 
song. Bui, with all these excellencies, 
on how few occasions can we admire 
him without reserve: how seldom has 
his spirit been “ finely touched to fine 
issues!"? No writer has exercised so 
lamentable a perversion of such pre- 
eminent powers; the grossness of his 
conceptions but too frequently keep 
pore with the elegance of his style, ana 
is abilities on these occasions appear 
to be exerted with a view to reconcile 
us to subjects in the highest degree dis- 
gusting and revolting. With an ima- 
gination + wed vivid and lewd, he 
trampled decency and delicacy under 
foot with golden sandals, and when he 
bore his offering to the temple of the 
muses, the tribute was at once a dese- 
cration and an ornament to their 
shrine. 
But in the lays of Tibullus, we find 
no such drawbacks on our enjoyment ; 
the p'easure they afford us, whatever 
be its degree, we can always taste un- 
alloyed; the judgment is not revolted 
by pedantry, nor the feelings disgusted 
by pictures of gross obscenity. He may 
not be able to boast of the almost in- 
toxicating sweetness of Catullus, and he 
may beexcelled by Propertius in splen- 
dour and dignity of versification, but, 
as we have before observed, he has 
steered clear of the errors which dis- 
figured the productions of his competi- 
tors. When to these remarks we add 
that his peculiar beauties were perhaps 
more appropriate to his subjects than 
any that he could have borrowed from 
ather sources, we think it will not be 
difficult to draw a correct deduction 
from the comparison we have been in- 
duced to institute between the three 
elegiac poets. 
The short and inactive life of Aulus 
Albins Tibullus, could afford but scan- 
ty materials to the biographer, and 
even these have been but imperfectly 
collected. We have no authentic in- 
formation either as to the place or the 
date of his birth, though he is known to 
’ 
Lyceum of Ancient Literature.—No. XXXIV. 
-tan age. 
[Feb. 1, 
have been contemporary with Virgil, 
Horace and Ovid, and to have partici- 
pated with them in the honour of add- 
ing to the literary glories of the Augus- 
At an early period of his 
life, he followed his friend, Messala Cor- 
vinus, (to whom he afterwards address- 
ed two of his elegies, one of them an 
eulogium on his virtues,) to Corcyra. 
But he soon relinquished the pursuit 
of arms; the toils of war were not te 
his taste, nor its glories the objects of 
his ambition. Indeed his sentiments 
on this head are pretty clearly expressed 
in his works: 
“Quis fuit horrendos primus qui protulit 
enses? 
Quam ferus, et veré ferreus ille fuii !”* 
He returned to Rome, and resigning 
himself to the indolence and luxury of 
the age and climate, he became a_ poet 
and a gallant; aspiring to no glories 
but literary honours, and courting no 
combats but those of love. He was ex- 
tremely amorous, and appears to have 
indulged freely in the gratification of 
his propensities. In this respect, in- 
deed, he was much favoured both by 
nature and fortune, being possessed 
of great wealth, as well as superior 
personal attractions and accomplish- 
vaents. For this, we have the authority 
of his friend Horace, who, addressing 
him, says, 
—_ “ Di tibi formam, 
Ditibi divitias dederunt, artemque fruendi 
Quid voyeat dulci nutricula majus alumno, 
Qui sapere et fari possit que sentiat, et cui 
Gratia, fama, valetudo contingat abundé?”’+ 
Constancy does not appear to have 
been his virtue, nor did he think it ne- 
cessary to restrict to one nymph only, 
either the ardour of his flame, or the 
homage of his muse. Delia and Plautia, 
Nemesis, Nera, and Sulpicia, are 
each of them, by turns, the themes of 
his praises. Posterity, however, has no 
reason to regret either the warmth or 
the fickleness of his character as a 
lover, since we are indebted to it for his 
four books of elegies, the only compo- 
sitions of his now extant. They are of 
unrivalled elegance and beauty in that 
style of writing, and their graces of 
diction can only be equalled by their 
purity of sentiment. The author, 
though amorous, is no where licentious; 
and his elegies display a union of chaste- 
ness and warmth. rarely found in ama- 
tory poetry, particularly of that period. 
* Tibul. lib. 1. el. 10. 
+ Horat. 1. ep.4. 
His 
