History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Volume I Part 24

The modern Latin poets of Italy frequently apostrophize their favourite villas, in imitation of the address to Sirmio. Flaminius, in a poem, _Ad Agellum suum_, has described his attachment to his farm and home, and the first lines of it rival the tender and pleasing invocation of Catullus.

Some of the subsequent lines are written in close imitation of the Roman poet-

-- "Jam libebit in cubiculo Molles inire somnulos.

Gaudete, fontes rivulique limpidi."

As also the whole of his address to the same villa, commencing-

"Umbrae frigidulae, arborum susurri."

One of the most pleasing features in the works of the modern Latin poets of Italy, is the descriptions of their villas, their regret at leaving them, or their invitations to friends to come and witness their happiness.

Hence Fracastoro's villa, in the vicinity of Verona, Ambra, and _Pulcherrima Mergellina_, are now almost esteemed cla.s.sic spots, like Tusculum or Tibur.

The invocation to the peninsula of Sirmio was evidently written soon after the return of Catullus from Bithynia; and his next poem worth noticing is a similar address to his villa near Tibur. The thought, however, in this poem, is very forced and poor. Catullus having been invited by his friend s.e.xtius, according to a common custom at Rome, to be one of a party a.s.sembled at his house for the purpose of hearing an oration composed by their host, had contracted such a cold from its frigidity, that he was obliged to leave Rome, and retire to this seat, in order to recover from its effects. For his speedy restoration to health, he now gives thanks to his salubrious villa. This residence was situated on the confines of the ancient Latian and Sabine territories, and the villas there, as we learn from this ode, were sometimes called Tiburtine, from the town of Tibur, and sometimes Sabine, from the district where they lay; but the former appellation, it seems, was greatly preferred by Catullus. As long as the odes of Horace survive, the

"Domus Albuneae resonantis, Et praeceps Anio, et Tiburni lucus, et uda Mobilibus pomaria rivis,"

will be remembered as forming one of the most delightful retreats in Italy, and one which was so agreeable to its poet, that he wished that of all others it might be the shelter and refuge of his old age. From the present aspect of Tivoli, the charm of the villas at the ancient Tibur may be still appreciated. "We ascended," says Eustace, "the high hill on which Tivoli stands, pa.s.sing through groves of olives, till we reached the summit. This town, the Tibur of the ancients, stands in a delightful situation, sheltered by Monte Catillo, and a semicircular range of Sabine mountains, and commanding, on the other side, an extensive view over the Campagna, bounded by the sea, Rome, Mount Soracte, and the pyramidal hills of Monticelli and Monte Rotondo, the ancient Eretum. But the pride and ornament of Tivoli are still, as anciently, the falls and the windings of the Anio, now Teverone. This river having meandered from its source through the vales of Sabina, glides gently through Tivoli, till, coming to the brink of a rock, it precipitates itself in one ma.s.s down the steep, and then boiling for an instant in its narrow channel, rushes headlong through a chasm in the rock into the caverns below.* * * To enjoy the scenery to advantage, the traveller must cross the bridge, and follow the road which runs at the foot of the cla.s.sic Monte Catillo, and winds along the banks of the Anio. As he advances he will have on his left the steep banks covered with trees, shrubs, and gardens, and on his right the bold but varying swells of the hills shaded with groves of olives. These sunny declivities were anciently interspersed with splendid villas, the favourite abodes of the most luxurious and refined Romans. They are now replaced by two solitary convents, but their site, often conjectural or traditionary, is sometimes marked by scanty vestiges of ruins, and now and then by the more probable resemblance of a name(488)." Eustace does not particularly mention the farm or villa of Catullus. In the travels, however, which pa.s.s under the name of M. Blainville, written in the beginning of last century, we are informed, that a monastery of the religious order of Mount Olivet was then established on the spot where formerly stood the Tiburtine villa of Catullus(489). M. de Castellan fixes on the same spot, on account of its situation between the Sabine and Tiburtine territory. "D'ailleurs," continues he, "il n'est pas d'endroit plus retire, mieux garanti des vents, que cet angle rentrant de la vallee, entoure de tous cotes par de hautes montagnes; ce qui est encore un des caracteres du local choisi par notre poete, qui pretendoit y etre a l'abri de tout autre vent que de celui qui l'expose a la vengeance de sa maitresse(490)." It would appear from Forsyth's Travels, that a spot is still fixed on as the site of the residence of Catullus. "The villa of Catullus," he says, "is easily ascertained by his own minute description of the place, by excavated marbles, and by the popular name of Truglia."

This spot, which is close to the church of St Angelo in Piavola, is on the opposite side of the Anio from Tibur, about a mile north from that town, and on the north side of Monte Catillo, or what might be called the back of that hill, in reference to the situation of Tibur. The Anio divides the ancient Latian from the Sabine territory, and the villa of Catullus was on the Sabine side of the river, but was called Tiburtine from the vicinity of Tibur(491).

The Romans, and particularly the Roman poets, as if the rustic spirit of their Italian ancestry was not altogether banished by the buildings of Rome, appear to have had a genuine and exquisite relish for the delights of the country. This feeling was not inspired by fondness for field-sports, since, although habituated to violent exercises, the chase never was a favourite amus.e.m.e.nt among the Romans, and they preferred seeing wild animals baited in the amphitheatre, to hunting them down in their native forests. The country then was not relished as we are apt to enjoy it, for the sake of exercise or rural pastimes, but solely for its amenity and repose, and the mental tranquillity which it diffused. With them it seems to have been truely,

"The relish for the calm delight Of verdant vales and fountains bright; Trees that nod on sloping hills, And caves that echo tinkling rills.".

Love of the country among the Romans thus became conjoined with the idea of a life of pastoral tranquillity and retirement,-a life of friends.h.i.+p, liberty, and repose,-free from labour and care, and all turbulent pa.s.sions. Scenes of this kind delight and interest us supremely, whether they be painted as what is desired or what is enjoyed. We feel how natural it is for a mind with a certain disposition to relaxation and indolence, when fatigued with the bustle of life, to long for security and quiet, and for those sequestered scenes in which they can be most exquisitely enjoyed. There is much less of this in the writings of the Greeks, who were originally a sea-faring and piratical, and not, like the Italians, a pastoral people. It is thus that, even in their highest state of refinement, the manners and feelings of nations bear some affinity to their original rudeness, though that rudeness itself has been imperceptibly converted into a source of elegance and ornament.

34. _Seculare carmen ad Dianam_. This is the first strictly lyric production of Catullus which occurs, and there are only three other poems of a similar cla.s.s. In Greece, the public games afforded a n.o.ble occasion for the display of lyric poetry, and the sensibility of the Greeks fitted them to follow its highest flights. But it was not so among the Romans.

They had no solemn festivals of a.s.sembled states: Their active and ambitious life deadened them to the emotions which lyric poetry should excite; and the G.o.ds, whose praises form the n.o.blest themes of the aeolian lyre, were with them rather the creatures of state policy, than of feeling or imagination.

45. _De Acme et Septimio_. Here our poet details the mutual blandishments and amorous expressions of Acme and Septimius, with the approbation bestowed on them by Cupid. This amatory effusion has been freely translated by Cowley:-

"Whilst on Septimius' panting breast.

Meaning nothing less than rest," &c.

49. _Ad M. Tullium_. In this poem, which is addressed to Cicero as the most eloquent of the Romans, Catullus modestly returns the orator thanks for some service he had rendered him.

51. _Ad Lesbiam_. This is the translation of the celebrated ode of Sappho, which has been preserved to us by Longinus, Fa??eta? ?? ?????, &c. The fourth stanza of the original Greek has not been translated, but in its place a verse is inserted in all the editions of Catullus, containing a moral reflection, which one would hardly have expected from this dissolute poet:

"Otium, Catulle, tibi molestum est: Otio exultas, nimiumque gestis; Otium reges prius et beatas Perdidit urbes."

This stanza is so foreign from the spirit of high excitation in which the preceding part of the ode is written, that Maffei suspected it had belonged to some other poem of Catullus; and Handius, in his _Observationes Criticae_, conjectures that the fourth stanza, which Catullus translated from the original Greek, having been lost, and a chasm being thus left, some idle librarian or scholiast of the middle ages had interpolated these four lines of misplaced morality, that no gap might appear in his ma.n.u.script(492). It is not impossible, however, that this verse may have been intended to express the answer of the poet's mistress.

Many amatory poets have tried to imitate this celebrated ode; but most of them have failed of success. Boileau has also attempted this far-famed fragment; but although he has produced an elegant enough poem, he has not expressed the vehement pa.s.sion of the Greek original so happily as Catullus. How different are the rapidity and emotion of the following stanza,

"Lingua sed torpet, tenuis sub artus Flamma dimanat, sonitu suopte Tintinant aures-gemina teguntur Lumina nocte,"

from the languor of the corresponding lines of the French poet!

"Une nuage confus se repand sur ma vue, Je n'entend plus, je tombe en de douces langueurs, Et pa.s.se, sans haleine, interdite, perdue; Un frisson me saisit-je tremble, je me meurs."

These lines give us little idea of that furious pa.s.sion of which Longinus says the Greek ode expresses all the symptoms. Racine has been much more happy than Boileau in his imitation of Sappho. Phaedra, in the celebrated French tragedy which bears the name of that victim of love, thus paints the effects of the pa.s.sion with which she was struck at her first view of Hippolytus:-

"Athenes me montra mon superbe ennemi: Je le vis, je rougis, je palis a sa vue- Un trouble s'eleva dans mon ame eperdue, Mes yeux ne voyoient plus, je ne pouvois parler; Je sentis tout mon cur et transir et bruler(493)."

On this pa.s.sage Voltaire remarks, "Peut on mieux imiter Sappho? Ces vers, quoique imites, coulent de source; chaque mot trouble les ames sensibles, et les penetre; ce n'est point une amplification: c'est le chef d'uvre de la nature et de l'art(494)." A translation by De Lille, which has a very close resemblance to that of Boileau, is inserted in the delightful chapter of the _Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis_, which treats of Lesbos and Sappho. Philips, it is well known, attempted a version of the lyric stanzas of Sappho, which was first printed with vast commendation in the 229th Number of the Spectator, where Addison has also remarked, "that several of our countrymen, and Dryden in particular, seem very often to have copied after this ode of Sappho, in their dramatic writings, and in their poems upon love."

58. _Ad Clium de Lesbia_. In this ode, addressed to one of her former admirers, Catullus gives an account, both tender and pathetic, of the debaucheries and degraded condition of Lesbia, to his pa.s.sion for whom, he had attributed such powerful effects in the above imitation of Sappho.

61. _In Nuptias Juliae et Manlii_. We come now to the three celebrated epithalamiums of Catullus. The first is in honour of the nuptials of Julia and Manlius, who is generally supposed to have been Aulus Manlius Torquatus, an intimate friend of the poet, and a descendant of one of the most n.o.ble patrician families in Rome. This poem has been ent.i.tled an Epithalamium in most of the ancient editions, but Muretus contends that this is an improper appellation, and that it should be inscribed _Carmen Nuptiale_. "An epithalamium," he says, "was supposed to be sung by the virgins when the bride had retired to the nuptial chamber, whereas in this poem an earlier part of the ceremony is celebrated and described." This earlier part, indeed, occupies the greater portion of the poem, but towards the conclusion the bride is represented as placed in the chamber of her husband, which may justify its ordinary t.i.tle:

"Jam licet venias, Marite; Uxor in thalamo est tibi," &c.

In this bridal song the poet first addresses Hymen; and as the bride was now about to proceed from her paternal mansion to the house of her husband, invokes his aid in raising the nuptial hymn. He then describes the bride:-

"Floridis velut enitens Myrtus Asia ramulis; Quos Hamadryades Deae Ludicrum sibi roscido Nutriunt humore."

A similar image is frequent with other poets, and has been adopted by Ponta.n.u.s(495) and Naugerius(496).

The praises of Hymen follow next:-

"Nil potest sine te Venus, Fama quod bona comprobet, Commodi capere: at potest Te volente. Quis huic Deo Compararier ausit?

Nulla quit sine te domus Liberos dare, nec parens Stirpe jungier: at potest Te volente. Quis huic Deo Compararier ausit?"

Claudian, in his epithalamium on the nuptials of Palladius and Celerina, and the German poet Lotichius, extol Hymen in terms similar to those employed in the first of the above stanzas: and the advantages he confers, alluded to in the second, have been beautifully touched on by Milton, as also by Pope, in his chorus of youths and virgins, forming part of the Duke of Buckingham's intended tragedy-_Brutus_:

"But Hymen's kinder flames unite, And burn for ever one, Chaste as cold Cynthia's virgin light, Productive as the sun.

"O source of every social tye, United wish and mutual joy, What various joys on one attend!

As son, as father, brother, husband, friend."

Catullus now proceeds to describe the ceremonies with which the bride was conveyed to the house of her husband, and was there received. He feigns that he beholds the nuptial pomp and retinue approaching, and encourages the bride to come forth, by an elegant compliment to her beauty; as also, by reminding her of the fair fame and character of her intended husband.

As she approaches, he intimates the freedom of the ancient Fescennine verses, which were first sung at marriage festivals.

The bride being at length conducted to her new habitation, the poet addresses the bridegroom, and shuts up the married pair: But before concluding, in reference to Torquatus, one of the husband's names, he alludes, with exquisite delicacy and tenderness, to the most-wished-for consequence of this happy union:-

"Torquatus, volo, parvulus Matris e gremio suae Porrigens teneras ma.n.u.s, Dulce rideat ad patrem, Semihiante labello."

The above verse has been thus imitated in an Epithalamium on the marriage of Lord Spencer, by Sir William Jones, who p.r.o.nounces it a picture worthy the pencil of Domenichino:

"And soon to be completely blest, Soon may a young Torquatus rise, Who, hanging on his mother's breast, To his known sire shall turn his eyes, Outstretch his infant arms a while, Half ope his little lips and smile."

And thus by Leonard, in his pastoral romance of _Alexis_, where, however, he has omitted the _semihiante labello_, the finest feature in the picture:-

"Quel tableau! quand un jeune enfant, Penche sur le sein de sa mere, Avec un sourire innocent Etendra ses mains vers son pere."

This nuptial hymn has been the model of many epithalamiums, particularly that of Jason and Creusa, sung by the chorus in Seneca's _Medea_, and of Honorius and Maria, in Claudian. The modern Latin poets, particularly Justus Lipsius, have exercised themselves a great deal in this style of composition; and most of them with evident imitation of the work of Catullus. It has also been highly applauded by the commentators; and more than one critic has declared that it must have been written by the hands of Venus and the Graces-"Veneris et Gratiarum manibus scriptum esse." I wish, however, they had excepted from their unqualified panegyrics the coa.r.s.e imitation of the Fescennine poems, which leaves on our minds a stronger impression of the prevalence and extent of Roman vices, than any other pa.s.sage in the Latin cla.s.sics. Martial, and Catullus himself elsewhere, have branded their enemies; and Juvenal, in bursts of satiric indignation, has reproached his countrymen with the most shocking crimes.

But here, in a complimentary poem to a patron and intimate friend, these are jocularly alluded to as the venial indulgences of his earliest youth.

62. _Carmen Nuptiale_. Some parts of this epithalamium have been taken from Theocritus, particularly from his eighteenth Idyl, where the Lacedaemonian maids, companions of Helen, sing before the bridal-chamber of Menelaus(497). This second nuptial hymn of Catullus may be regarded as a continuation of the above poem, being also in honour of the marriage of Manlius and Julia. The stanzas of the former were supposed to be sung or recited in the person of the poet, who only exhorted the chorus of youths and virgins to commence the nuptial strain. But here these bands contend, in alternate verses; the maids descanting on the beauty and advantages of a single life, and the lads on those of marriage.