History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Volume I Part 25

The young men, companions of the bridegroom, are supposed to have left him at the rising of the evening star of love:-

-- "Vesper Olympo Expectata diu vix tandem lumina tollit.

Hespere, qui clo lucet jucundior ignis?"

These lines appear to have been imitated by Spenser in his Epithalamium-

"Ah! when will this long weary day have done!

Long though it be, at last I see it gloom, And the bright evening star, with golden crest, Appear out of the east; Fair child of beauty, glorious lamp of love, How cheerfully thou lookest from above!"

The maids who had accompanied the bride to her husband's house, approached the youths who had just left the bridegroom, and they commence a very elegant contention concerning the merits of the star, which the chorus of virgins is pleased to characterize as a cruel planet. They are silenced, however, by the youths hinting that they are not such enemies to Hesper as they pretend to be. Then the maids, draw a beautiful, and, with Catullus, a favourite comparison between an unblemished virgin, and a delicate flower in a garden:

"Ut flos in septis secretus nascitur hortis, Ignotus pecori, nullo convulsus aratro, Quem mulcent aurae, firmat sol, educat imber; Multi illum pueri, multae optavere puellae.

Idem c.u.m tenui carptus defloruit ungui, Nulli illum pueri, nullae optavere puellae.

Sic virgo dum intacta manet, tum cara suis; sed c.u.m castum amisit, polluto corpore, florem, Nec pueris jucunda manet, nec cara puellis."

To the sentiment delineated by this image, the youths reply by one scarcely less beautiful, emblematical of the happiness of the married state; and as this was a theme in which the maidens were probably not unwilling to be overcome, they unite in the last stanza with the chorus of young men, in recommending to the bride to act the part of a submissive spouse.

Few pa.s.sages in Latin poetry have been more frequently imitated, and none more deservedly, than the above-quoted verses of Catullus, who certainly excels almost all other writers, in the beauty and propriety of his similes. The greatest poets have not disdained to transplant this exquisite flower of song. Perhaps the most successful imitation is one by the Prince of the romantic bards of Italy, in the first canto of his _Orlando_, and which it may be amusing to compare with the original:

"La Verginella e simile alla rosa, Che in bel giardin su la nativa spina, Mentre sola, e sicura si riposa, Ne gregge, ne pastor se le avvicina; L'aura soave, e l'alba rugiadosa, L'acqua, la terra al suo favor s'inchina: Giovini vaghi, e donne innamorate, Amano averne e seni, e tempie ornate.

Ma non si tosto dal materno stelo Rimossa viene, e dal suo ceppo verde; Che quanto avea dagli uomini, e dal cielo, Favor, grazia, e bellezza tutto perde.

La vergine, che il fior, di che piu zelo, Che de begli occhi, e della vita, aver de, Lascia altrui corre, il pregio, ch'avea dinanti, Perde nel cor de tutti gli altri amanti."

The reader may perhaps like to see how this theme has been managed by an old _French_ poet nearly contemporary with Ariosto:

"La jeune vierge est semblable a la rose, Au beau jardin, sur l'epine native, Tandis que sure et seulette repose, Sans que troupeau ni berger y arrive; L'air doux l'echauffe, et l'Aurore l'arrose, La terre, l'eau par sa faveur l'avive; Mais jeunes gens et dames amoureuses, De la cueillir ont les mains envieuses; La terre et l'air, qui la soulaient nourrir, La quittent lors et la laissent fletrir(498)."

It is evident that Ariosto has suggested several things to the French poet, as he has also done to the imitators in our own language, in which the simile has been frequently attempted, but not with much success. Ben Jonson has translated it miserably, subst.i.tuting doggerel verse for the sweet flow of the Latin poetry, and verbal ant.i.thesis and conceit for that beautiful simplicity of idea which forms the chief charm of the original:

"Look how a flower that close in closes grows, Hid from rude cattle, bruised by no plows," &c.

One of the best of the numerous English imitations is that in the _Lay of Iolante_, introduced in Bland's _Four Slaves of Cythera_:

"A tender maid is like a flow'ret sweet, Within the covert of a garden born; Nor flock nor hind disturb the calm retreat, But on the parent stalk it blooms untorn, Refresh'd by vernal rains and gentle heat, The balm of evening, and the dews of morn: Youths and enamoured maidens vie to wear This flower-their bosoms grace, or twined around their hair.

"No sooner gathered from the vernal bough, Where fresh and blooming to the sight it grew.

Than all who marked its opening beauty blow, Forsake the tainted sweet, and faded hue.

And she who yields, forgetful of her vow, To one but newly loved, another's due, Shall live, though high for heavenly beauty prized, By youths unhonoured, and by maids despised."

One of the lines in the pa.s.sage of Catullus,

"Multi illum pueri-multae optavere puellae,"

and its converse,

"Nulli illum pueri-nullae optavere puellae,"

have been copied by Ovid in his _Metamorphoses_(499), and applied to Narcissus,

"Multi illum pueri, multae cupiere puellae.

Sed fuit in tenera tam dura superbia forma, Nulli illum juvenes, nullae tetigere puellae."

The origin of the line,

"Nec pueris jucunda manet, nec cara puellis,"

may be traced to a fragment of the Greek poet Mimnermus:

"???' ?????? e? pa?s??, at?ast?? de ???a????."

63. _De Ati_.-The story of Atis is one of the most mysterious of the mythological emblems. The fable was explained by Porphyry; and the Emperor Julian afterwards invented and published an allegory of this mystic tale.

According to them, the voluntary emasculation of Atis was typical of the revolution of the sun between the tropics, or the separation of the human soul from vice and error. In the literal acceptation in which it is presented by Catullus, the fable seems an unpromising and rather a peculiar subject for poetry: indeed, there is no example of a similar event being celebrated in verse, except the various poems on the fate of Abelard. It is likewise the only specimen we have in Latin of the Galliambic measure; so called, because sung by Galli, the effeminate votaries of Cybele. The Romans, being a more sober and severe people than the Greeks, gave less encouragement than they to the celebration of the rites of Bacchus, and have poured forth but few dithyrambic lines. The genius of their language and of their usual style of poetry, as well as their own practical and imitative character, were unfavourable to the composition of such bold, figurative, and discursive strains. They have left no verses which can be strictly called dithyrambic, except, perhaps, the nineteenth ode of the second book of Horace, and a chorus in the _dipus_ of Seneca. If not perfectly dithyrambic, the numbers of the _Atis_ of Catullus are, however, strongly expressive of distraction and enthusiasm. The violent bursts of pa.s.sion are admirably aided by the irresistible torrent of words, and by the cadence of a measure powerfully denoting mental agony and remorse. In this production, now unexampled in every sense of the word, Catullus is no longer the light agreeable poet, who counted the kisses of his mistress, and called on the Cupids to lament her sparrow. His ideas are full of fire, and his language of wildness: He pours forth his thoughts with an energy, rapidity, and enthusiasm, so different from his usual tone, and, indeed, from that of all Latin poets, that this production has been supposed to be a translation from some ancient Greek dithyrambic, of which it breathes all the pa.s.sion and poetic phrensy. The employment of long compound epithets, which constantly recur in the _Atis_,-

"Ubi cerva sylvicultrix, ubi aper nemorivagus," --

is also a strong mark of imitation of the Greek dithyrambics; it being supposed, that such sonorous and new-invented words were most befitting intoxication or religious enthusiasm(500). Anacreon, in his thirteenth ode, alludes to the lamentations and transports of Atis, as to a well-known poetical tradition:

"?? e? ?a??? ?????

??? ??????? ?tt??

?? ???es?? ???ta, ?e???s?? ??a???a?."

Atis, it appears from the poem of Catullus, was a beautiful youth, probably of Greece, who, forsaking his home and parents, sailed with a few companions to Phrygia, and, having landed, hurried to the grove consecrated to the great G.o.ddess Cybele,-

"Adiitque opaca sylvis redimita loca Deae,"

There, struck with superst.i.tious phrensy, he qualified himself for the service of that divinity; and, s.n.a.t.c.hing the musical instruments used in her wors.h.i.+p, he exhorted his companions, who had followed his example, to ascend to the temple of Cybele. At this part of the poem, we follow the new votary of the Phrygian G.o.ddess through all his wild traversing of woods and mountains, till at length, having reached the temple, Atis and his companions drop asleep, exhausted by fatigue and mental distraction.

Being tranquillized in some measure by a night's repose, Atis becomes sensible of the misery of his situation; and, struck with horror at his rash deed, he returns to the sea-sh.o.r.e. There he casts his eyes, bathed in tears, over the ocean homeward; and comparing his former happiness with his present wretched condition, he pours forth a complaint unrivalled in energy and pathos. Gibbon talks of the different emotions produced by the transition of Atis from the wildest enthusiasm to sober pathetic complaint for his irretrievable loss(501); but, in fact, his complaint is not soberly pathetic-to which the Galliambic measure would be little suited: it is, on the contrary, the most impa.s.sioned expression of mental agony and bitter regret in the wide compa.s.s of Roman literature:

"Abero foro, palaestra, stadio et gymnasiis?

Miser, ah miser! querendum est etiam atque etiam, anime: Ego p.u.b.er, ego adolescens, ego ephebus, ego puer; Ego gymnasii fui flos, ego eram decus olei; Mihi januae frequentes, mihi limina tepida, Mihi floridis corollis redimita domus erat, Linquendum ubi esset, orto mihi Sole, cubiculum.

Egone Deum ministra et Cybeles famula ferar?

Ego Maenas, ego mei pars, ego vir sterilis ero?

Ego viridis algida Idae nive amicta loca colam?

Ego vitam agam sub altis Phrygiae columinibus, Ubi cerva sylvicultrix, ubi aper nemorivagus?

Jam jam dolet quod egi, jam jamque pnitet."

One is vexed, that the conclusion of this splendid production should be so puerile. Cybele, dreading the defection and escape of her newly acquired votary, lets loose a lion, which drives him back to her groves,-

"Ubi semper omne vitae spatium famula fuit."

Muretus attempted a Latin Galliambic Address to Bacchus in imitation of the measure employed in the _Atis_ of Catullus, and he has strenuously tried to make his poem resemble its model by an affected use of uncouth compound epithets. Pigna, an Italian poet, has adopted similar numbers in a Latin poem, on the metamorphosis of the water nymph, Pitys, who was changed into a fir-tree, for having fled from the embraces of Boreas. In many of the lines he has closely followed Catullus; but it seems scarcely possible that any modern poet could excite in his mind the enthusiasm essential for the production of such works. Catullus probably believed as little in Atis and Cybele as Muretus, but he lived among men who did; and though his opinions might not be influenced, his imagination was tinged with the colours of the age.

_Atis_ is the name of one of the tragic operas of Quinault, which, I believe, was the most popular of his pieces except _Armide_; but it has little reference to the cla.s.sic story of the votary of Cybele. The French Atis is a vehement and powerful lover, who elopes with the nymph Sangaride on the wings of the Zephyrs, which had been placed by Cybele, who was herself enamoured of the youth, at the disposal of Atis. It seems a poor production in itself, (how different from the operas of Metastasio!) but it was embellished by splendid scenery, and the music of Lulli, adapted to the chorus of Phrygians, and Zephyrs, and Dreams, and Streams, and Corybantes.

64. _Epithalamium Pelei et Thetidis_.-This is the longest and most elaborate of the productions of Catullus. It displays much accurate description, as well as pathetic and impa.s.sioned incident. Catullus was a Greek scholar, and all his commentators seem determined that his best poems should be considered as of Greek invention. I do not believe, however, that the whole of this epithalamium was taken from any one poet of Greece, as the _Coma Berenices_ was from Callimachus; but the author undoubtedly borrowed a great deal from various writers of that country.

Hesiod wrote an Epithalamium, ??? ???ea ?a? Tet??(502), some fragments of which have been cited by Tzetzes, in his _prolegomena_ to Lycophron's _Ca.s.sandra_; and judging from these, it appears to have suggested several lines of the epithalamium of Catullus. The adornment, however, and propriety of its language, and the usual practice of Catullus in other productions, render it probable, that he has chiefly selected his beauties from the Alexandrian poets. Valckenar, in his edition of Theocritus, (1779,) has shown, that the Idyls of Theocritus, particularly the _Adoniazusi_, have been of much service to our Latin poet; and a late German commentator has pointed out more than twenty pa.s.sages, in which he has not merely imitated, but actually translated, Apollonius Rhodius(503).