No More Learning

Here lies safety alone, one victory must not fail
thee. 1 5
One last stake to be lost haply,"perhaps to be won.
O great Gods immortal, if you can pity or ever
Lighted above dark death's shadow, a help to the
lost ;
Ah ! look, a wretch, on me ; if white and blameless in
all I
Liv'd, then take this long canker of anguish away. 20
If to my inmost veins, like dull death drowsily
creeping,
Every delight, all heart's pleasure it wholly benumbs.
Not anymore I pray for a love so faulty returning,
Not that a wanton abide chastely, she may not again.
Only for health I ask, a disease so deadly to banish. 25
Gods vouchsafe it, as I ask, that am harmless of ill.
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? 94 CATULLUS.
LXXVII.
RUFUS, a friend so vainly believ'd, so wrongly relied in,
(Vainly ? alas the reward fail'd not, a heavier ill ;)
Could'st thou thus steal on me, a lurking viper, an
aching
Fire to the bones, nor leave aught to delight any
more?
Nought to delight any more ! ah cruel poison of equal 5
Lives ! ah breasts that grew each to the other awhile !
Yet far most this grieves me, to think thy slaver
abhorred
Foully my own love's lips soileth, a purity rare.
Thou shalt surely atone thine injury : centuries harken,
Know thee afar ; grow old, fame, to declare him
anew. 10
LXXXVIII.
GELLIUS, how if a man in lust with a mother, a sister
Rioteth, one uncheck'd night, to iniquity bare ?
How if a man's dark passion an aunt's own chastity
spare not ?
Canst thou tell what vast infamy lieth on him ?
Infamy lieth on him, no farthest Tethys, or ancient 5
Ocean, of hundred streams father, abolisheth yet.
Infamy none o'ersteps, nor ventures any beyond it.
Not tho' a scorpion heat melt him, his own para-
mour.
LXXXIX.
GELLIUS he's full meagre. It is no wonder, a friendly
Mother, a sister is his loveable, healthy withal.
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? CATULLUS. 95
Then so friendly an uncle, a world of pretty relations.
Must not a man so blest meagre abide to the last ?
Yea, let his hand touch only what hands touch only to
trespass ; 5
Reason enough to become meagre, enough to remain.
XC
RISE from a mother's shame with Gellius hatefully
wedded,
One to be taught gross rites Persic, a Magian he.
Weds with a mother a son, so needs should a Magian
issue,
Save in her evil creed Persia determineth ill.
Then shall a son, so born, chant down high favour of
heaven, 5
Melting lapt in flame fatly the slippery caul.
XCI.
THINK not a hope so false rose, Gellius, in me to find thee
Faithful in all this love's anguish ineffable yet,
For that in heart I knew thee, had in thee honour
imagin'd,
Held thee a soul to abhor vileness or any reproach.
Only in her, I knew, thou found'st not a mother, a sister, 5
Her that awhile for love wearily made me to pine.
Yea tho' mutual use did bind us straitly together,
Scarcely methought could lie cause to desert me
therein.
Thou found'st reason enow ; so joys thy spirit in every
Shame, wherever is aught heinous, of infamy born. 10
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? 96 CATULLUS.
XCII.
LESBIA doth but rail, rail ever upon me, nor endeth
Ever. A life I stake, Lesbia loves me at heart.
Ask me a sign ? Our score runs parallel. I that abuse
her
Ever, a life to the stake, Lesbia, love thee at heart.
XCIII.
LIGHTLY methinks I reck if Cassar smile not upon me :
Care not, whether a white, whether a swarth-skin, is he.
XCIV.
MENTULA wanton is he ; his calling sure is a wanton's.
Herbs to the pot, 'tis said wisely, the name to the man.
XCV.
NINE times winter had end, nine times flush'd summer in
harvest,
Ere to the world gave forth Cinna, the labour of years,
Zmyrna ; but in one month Hortensius hundred on
hundred
Verses, an unripe birth feeble, of hurry begot.
Zmyrna to far Satrachus, to the stream of Cyprus,
ascendeth ; 5
Zmyrna with eyes unborn study the centuries hoar.
Padus her own ill child shall bury, Volusius' annals ;
In them a mackerel oft house him, a wrapper of ease.
Dear to my heart be a friend's unbulky memorial ever ;
Cherish an Antimachus, weighty as empty, the mob. 10
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? CATULLUS. 97
XCVI.
IF to the silent dead aught sweet or tender ariseth,
Calvus, of our dim grief's common humanity born ;
When to a love long cold some pensive pity recals us,
When for a friend long lost wakes some unhappy regret ;
Not so deeply, be sure, Quintilia's early departing 5
Grieves her, as in thy love dureth a plenary joy.
XCVIII.
ASKS some booby rebuke, some prolix prattler a judgment ?
Vettius, all were said verily truer of you.
Tongue so noisome as yours, come chance, might surely
on order
Bend to the mire, or lick dirt from a beggarly shoe.
Would you on all of us, all, bring, Vettius, utterly ruin ? 5
Speak ; not a doubt, 'twill come utterly, ruin on all.
XCIX.
DEAR one, a kiss I stole, while you did wanton a-playing,
Sweet ambrosia, love, never as honily sweet.
Dearly the deed I paid for ; an hour's long misery waning
Ended, as I agoniz'd hung to the point of a cross,
Hoping vain purgation ; alas ! no potion of any 5
Tears could abate that fair angriness, youthful as you.
Hardly the sin was in act, your lips did many a falling
Drop dilute, which anon every finger away
Cleansed apace, lest still my mouth's infection abiding
Stain, like slaver abhorr'd breath'd from a foul frica-
trice. 10
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? 98 CATULLUS.
Add, that a booty to love in misery me to deliver
You did spare not, a fell worker of all agonies,
So that, again transmuted, a kiss ambrosia seeming
Sugary, turn'd to the strange harshness of harsh
hellebore.
Then such dolorous end since your poor lover awaiteth, 1 5
Never a kiss will I venture, a theft any more.
C.
QUINTIUS, AUFILENA ; to Caelius, Aufilenus ;
Lovers each, fair flower either of youths Veronese.
One to the brother bends, and one to the sister. A noble
Friendship, if e'er was true friendship, a rare brother-
hood.
Ask me to which I lean? You, Caelius : yours a devotion 5
Single, a faith of tried quality, steady to me ;
Into my inmost veins when love sank fiercely to burn
them.
Mighty be your bright love, Caelius, happy be you !
CI.
BORNE o'er many a land, o'er many a level of ocean,
Here to the grave I come, brother, of holy repose,
Sadly the last poor gifts, death's simple duty, to bring
thee;
Unto the silent dust vainly to murmur a cry.
Since thy form deep-shrouded an evil destiny taketh 5
From me, O hapless ghost, brother, O heavily ta'en,
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? CATULLUS. 99
Yet this bounty the while, these gifts ancestral of usance
Homely, the sad slight store piety grants to the tomb;
Drench'd in a brother's tears, and weeping freshly,
receive them ;
Yea, take, brother, a long Ave, a timeless adieu. 10
CII.
IF to a friend sincere, Cornelius, e'er was a secret
Trusted, a friend whose soul steady to honour abides ;
Me to the same brotherhood doubt not to be inly devoted,
Sworn upon oath, to the last secret, an Harpocrates.
cm.
BRIEFLY, the sesterces all, give back, full quantity, Silo,
Then be a bully beyond exorability, you :
Else, if money be all, O cease so lewdly to practise
Bawd, yet bully beyond exorability, you.
CIV.
WHAT ? should a lover adore, yet cruelly slander adoring ?
I my lady, than eyes goodlier easily she ?
Nay, I rail not at all. How rail, so blindly desiring?
Tappo alone dare brave all that is heinous, or you.
CV.
MENTULA toils, Pimplea, the Muses' mountain, ascend-
ing:
They with pitchforks hurl Mentula dizzily down.
H2
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? ioo CATULLUS.
CVI.
WALKS with a salesman a beauty, your eyes that beauty
discerning ?
Doubt not your eyes speak true ; Sir, 'tis a beauty to
sell.
CVII.
IF to delight man's wish, joy e'er unlook'd for,unhop'd for,
Falleth, a joy were such proper, a bliss to the soul.
Then 'tis a joy to the soul, like gold of Lydia precious,
Lesbia mine, that thou com'st to delight me again.
Com'st yet again long-hop'd, long-look'd for vainly, re-
turnest 5
Freely to me. O day white with a luckier hue !
Lives there happier any than I, I only ? a fairer
Destiny ? Life so sweet know ye, or aught parallel ?
CVIII.
LOATHLY Cominius, if e'er this people's voice should
arraign thee,
Hoary with all unclean infamy, worthy to die ;
First should a tongue, I doubt not, of old so deadly to
goodness,
Fall extruded, of each vulture a hungry regale ;
Gouged be the carrion eyes some crow's black maw to
replenish, $
Stomach a dog's fierce teeth harry, a wolf the remains.
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? CATULLUS. roi
CIX.
THINK you truly, beloved, this bond of duty between us,
Lasteth, an ever-new jollity, ne'er to decease ?
Grant it, Gods immortal, assure her promise in earnest ;
Yea, be the lips sincere ; yea, be the words from her
heart.
So still rightly remain our lovers' charter, a lifelong 5
Friendship in us, whose faith fades not away to the last.
CX.
AUFILENA, the fair, if kind, is a favourite ever ;
Asks she a price, then yields frankly? the price is her
own.
You, that agreed to be kind, now vilely the treaty dis-
honour,
Give not at all, nor again take ; 'tis a wrong to a
wrong.
Not to deceive were noble, a chastity ne'er had
assented, 5
Aufilena ; but you blindly to grasp at a gain,
Yet to withhold the effects, 'tis a greed more loathly
than harlot's
Vileness, a wretch whose limbs ply to the lusts of a
town.
CXI.
ONE lord only to love, one, Aufilena, to live for,
Praise can a bride nowhere goodlier any betide ;
Yet, when a niece with an uncle is even mother or even
Cousin of all paramours this were as heinous as all.
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? 102 CATULLUS.
CXII.
NASO, if you show much, your company shows but a very
Little ; a man you show, Naso, a woman in one.
CXIII.
POMPEY the first time consul, as yet Maecilia counted
Two paramours ; reappears Pompey a consul again,
Two still, Cinna, remain ; but grown, each unit an even
Thousand.
Truly the stock's fruitful : adultery- breeds.
CXIV.
RIGHTLY a lordly demesne makes Firman Mentula count
for
Wealthy ! the rich fine things, then the variety there !
Game in plenty to choose, fish, field, and meadow with
hunting ;
Only the waste exceeds strangely the quantity still.
Wealthy ? perhaps I grant it ; if all, wealth asks for, is
absent. 5
Praise the demesne ? no doubt ; only be needy the man.
CXV.
ACRES thirty in all, good grass, own Mentula master ;
Forty to plough ; bare seas, arid or empty, the rest.
Poorly methinks might Croesus a man so sumptuous
equal,
Counted in one rich park owner of all he can ask.
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? CATULLUS. 103
Grass or plough, big woods, much mountain, mighty
morasses ; 5
On to the farthest North, on to the boundary main.
Vastness is all that is here ; yet Mentula reaches a vaster
Man ? not so ; 'tis a vast mountainous ominous He.
CXVL
OFT with a studious heart, which hunted closely, requiring
Skill great Battiades' poesies haply to send,
Laying thus thy rage in rest, lest everlasting
Darts should reach me, to wound still an assailable
head:
Barren now I see that labour of any requital, 5
Gellius ; here all prayers fall to the ground, nor avail.
No ; but a robe I carry, the barbs, thy folly, to muffle ;
Mine strike sure ; thy deep injury they shall atone.
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? FRAGMENTS.
ii.
Here I give to be thine a fair grove, an holy, Priapus,
Where thy Lampsacus holds thee in chamber seemly,
Priapus ;
God, in every city, thou, most ador'd on a sea-shore
Hellespontian, eminent most of oystery sea-shores.
IV.
Rapidly the spirit in an agony fled away.
v.
Where yon lucent mast-top, a cup of silver, arises.
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? NOTES.
VIII. 2.
Lost is the lost, thou knovfst it, and the past is past.
I am indebted for this expression to a translation of this poem
by Dr. J. A. Symonds, the whole of which I should have
quoted here, had it not been unfortunately mislaid.
XIV. 20.
Plague-prodigy,
Proves a plague-prodigy to God and man.
BROWNING, Ring and Book, v. 664.
XVII. 26.
*
Rondel.
The round plate of iron which, according to Rich, Com-
panion to the Latin Dictionary, p. 609, formed the lower part
of the sock worn by horses, mules, &c. , when on a journey,
and, unlike our horse-shoes, was removable at the end of it.
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? io8 NOTES.
XXII. ii.
Looby
a clown.
Let me now the vices trace,
From his father's scoundrel race.
What could give the looby such airs ?
Were they masons ? were they butchers ?
TlCKELL, Theristes or the Lordling, 23-26.
XXIII.
For a spirited, though coarse, version of this poem, see Cot-
ton's Poems, p. 608, ed. 1689.
6 Lathy.
On a lathy horse, all legs and length.
BROWNING, Flight of the Duchess, v. 21.
XXIX. 8.
The connexion between Adonis and the dove is specially re-
ferred to by Diogenianus (Praef. p. 1 80 in Leutsch and Schnei-
dewin's Paroemiographi Graed). It formed part of the legends
of Cyprus, and was alluded to by the lyric poet Timocreon
(Bergk. Poetae Lyrici Graeci, p. 1203). Compare Browning :
Pompilia was no pigeon, Venus' Pet.
Ring and Book, v. 701.
XXXV. 7.
So h&ll quickly devour the may,
move quickly over the road. So Shakespeare :
Starting so
He seem'd in running to devour the way,
Staying no longer question.
2nd Part of Henry IV. , Act i. sc. I.
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? NOTES. 109
*
XXXVII. 10.
With scorpion I, tuith emblem all your haunt will scrawl.
A member of the Saraceni family at Vicenza, finding that a
beautiful widow did not favour him, scribbled filthy pictures over
the door. The affair was brought before the Council of Ten at
Venice.
TROLLOPE'S Paul the Pope, p. 158.
XLIII. 3.
Mouth scarce tenible,
easily running over.
XLV. 7.
A sulky lion.
Properly "green-eyed. " The epithet would seem to be not
merely picturesque ; the glaring of the eyes would be more
marked in proportion as the beast was in a fiercer and more
excitable state.
LI. 512.
I watch thy grace ; and in its place
My heart a charmed slumber keeps,
While I muse upon thy face ;
And a languid fire creeps
Thro' my veins to all my frame,
Dissolvingly and slowly : soon
From thy rose-red lips my name
Floweth ; and then, as in a swoon,
With dinning sound my ears are rife,
My tremulous tongue faltereth,
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? no NOTES.
I lose my colour, I lose my breath,
I drink the cup of a costly death,
Brimmed with delicious draughts of warmest life.
TENNYSON, Ekiinore.
LIV. 6.
Yet thou flee'st not above my keen iambics.
This line is quoted as Catullus's by Porphyrion on Hor. c. I. 1 6,
24. His words, Catullus cum maledicta minaretur, compared
with the last lines of this poem, Irascere iterum meis iambis
Inmerentibus, unice imperator, seem to justify my view that they
belong here. See my large edition, p. 217, fragm. I. The fol-
lowing line, So may destiny, &>c. , is a supplement of my own :
it forms a natural introduction to the Si non udlem of v. 10.
LV.
This is the only instance where Catullus has introduced a
spondee into the second foot of the phalaecian, which then be-
comes decasyllabic. The alternation of this decasyllabic rhythm
with the ordinary hendecasyllable is studiously artistic ; I have
retained it throughout. In the series of dactylic lines 17 22,
Catullus no doubt intended to convey the idea of rapidity, as, in
the spondaic line immediately following, of labour.
4 You on Circus, in all the bills but you, Sir.
There seems to be no authority for the meaning ordinarily
assigned to libellis, "book-shops. " I prefer to explain the
word placards, either announcing the sale of Camerius's effects,
which would imply that he was in debt, or describing him as a
lost article.
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? NOTES. in
LXL
In the rhythm of this poem, I have been obliged to deviate in
two points from Catullus, (i) In him the first foot of each line
is nearly always a trochee, only rarely a spondee : the monoto-
nous effect of a positional trochee in English, to say nothing of
the difficulty, induced me to substitute a spondee more frequently.
(2) I have been rather less scrupulous in allowing the last foot
of the glyconic lines to be a dactyl (---), in place of the more
correct cretic (--).
108. The words in italics are a supplement of my own.
LXII. 3961.