VII. THE POET'S ART

It would be impossible in the space at our command to give a complete conspectus of the formal and stylistic qualities of Tibullus's poetry. We must therefore content ourselves with a brief treatment of a few important points suggested by the general statements already made in the preceding pages. For further details the student is referred to the notes.

One of the most characteristic and important features of Tibullus's poetic art is his method of developing his theme., Mindful of the artistic simplicity belonging to his own peculiar type, he arranges his topics so skilfully and associates them by transitions so natural and unaffected, that all idea of artifice or of a deliberate scheme disappears in the mere pleasure of reading. As soon however as under the leadership of Vahlen and Leo1 we begin to consider these masterpieces of composition as they are instead of as they were, after they had been disfigured by the transpositions of Scaliger and the doctrinaires of 'strophic arrangement,' we perceive that, as Sellar puts it, 'there is at once unity and variety in every elegy- the unity of a dominant sentiment, the variety of thoughts and pictures in keeping with it, arranged in groups corresponding with one another, and succeeding one another by gentle and natural transition.'

'1, 3, for instance, gives utterance to his feelings while ill at Corcyra and apprehensive of death. What gives unity to the poem is his memory of the love of Delia in the past, and his longing for her in the immediate future. But with this feeling is blended his love of home: and a vivid contrast is drawn between the perils of war and foreign adventure and the ideal happiness of the Saturnian Age. From these perils he passes to the thought of his own imminent danger, and from that to describe the joys of the

1 Vahlen, Monatsber, der Berliner Akademie, 1878, p. 343 f.; F. Leo, Philologische Untersuchungen, II, n. 1 f. For later contributions see Schanz, l.c. (p. 30, n. 1, above). For Jacoby's theories of the poet's art see op. cit. (p. 24, n., above). His evidence lacks adequate support and his conclusions are unsound.

blessed in Elysium and the tortures of the damned in Tartarus ; among them he mentions last the punishment of the daughters of Danaos," Danai proles Veneris quod numina laesit." This thought (carrying with it the characteristic parable of warning to Delia) leads him back by the force of contrast to the brightest picture which his imagination can paint in the world of the living, that of Delia spinning among her handmaids, and of his own unexpected return. There is no mechanical arrangement, but rather a harmonious combination of his materials, their succession being regu-lated sometimes by the suggestions of similarity, sometimes of contrast. The peaceful joys of the country are in many of the elegies set over against the dangers and the rough life of the soldier, and the joy of youth and love is made more intense by the thought of death. There is nothing forced or strained in his manner of treatment: no undue emphasis or exaggeration of colouring. He is impressive by the truth and simplicity of his separate pictures, and their harmony with the moods to which he wishes to give expression.'

Often, as in 1, 3, he prefers to begin with the contrast, the negative of his underlying theme, and to end with the positive statement, having passed from the one to the other by a series of conflicting views a sort of echo of the άyóv, as Crusius observes, except that the opposing sentiments are in the speaker's own breast.

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In short the most characteristic feature of our poet's rhetorical exposition is that it proceeds by parallelism, comparison, contrast, by statement and counterstatement, desirable and undesirable, negative and positive, running off from time to time into variations. which seem to halt like eddies in a flowing stream, albeit the stream continues to flow steadily onward until it reaches the end. To paraphrase the words of Vahlen, 'the poetry of Tibullus moves like the waves of a summer sea. We sway in rhythmic cadence, now forward, now backward, yet from time to time the crest of some succeeding billow carries us insensibly a little farther on.'

Let us take the introductory elegy of the first book as an illustration. Tibullus has already seen active service as a soldier. Now his friend and patron invites him to return to it. There is hope of pecuniary reward, hence a chance to recoup the fallen fortunes of his house; there is also a chance to win distinction. None of these things is formally stated, they are merely men. tioned in passing or to be inferred from the context (cp. 25-26, 53-54, 1-4, 41-42). Tibullus refuses to return, but not until 53-54 do we realize that he was refusing, and that the refusal is addressed to Messalla; and not until 55 ff., though we begin to suspect it as far back as 45, does it become clear that the elegy was really inspired by Delia and intended for her. Or to put it another way:

1-6. Those who are willing to acquire wealth at the price of toil and danger are welcome to it. My income is not large; but the bubble reputation, the life of action, are nothing to me so long as I can keep the humble but comfortable home I now have.

7-24. Idyllic picture of that home, its associations, occupations, etc.

25-26. An exclamation which takes up 1-6 again, and adds a new motive Give me my quiet life; I have had enough of

the other.

27-40. Second idyllic picture.

41-42. Again 1-6 with a new motive - Give me my quiet life; I do not regret the loss of my ancestral fortune, my wants are few.

43-48. Wants enumerated; new motive of the domina generally stated.

49-52. Again 1-6, with the new motive suggested by the domina just mentioned-The quiet life for me. I would not win the wealth of Ormus or of Ind at the price of breaking a girl's heart.

53 ff. War for honour (not wealth) becomes a

man like

Messalla. Here however I cannot choose; for love is stronger than ambition, and I am in love. (Note the compliment to both Messalla and the girl, and how artfully we have been led

by a series of hints to this point.)

Now as if in reply to the implied reproach of the previous lines he names the girl, and immediately adds —‘But fame and fortune are nothing to me, Delia, if you will only love me as long as I live. Death would be sweet after such a life. Death however cuts off love, and old age makes it ridiculous. Both come anon. Let us therefore make the most of youth while it is yet ours. Here I am in my element. Here in fact I have already taken service. Hence therefore,' etc., and

he ends on the keynote (1-6).

By way of comparison, let us examine the first elegy of Propertius to Cynthia (1, 1).

1-8. Since I fell in love with Cynthia I have been utterly helpless in her hands. She has ruined me, and I have no redress.

9-18. The myth of Milanion and Atalanta the huntress, i.e. (following the Alexandrian rule, see p. 15) the literary prototype of his own case. The transition from 8 to 9 has been postponed to 16-18, so that he can sum up after his favourite fashion, and proceed to his next topic by showing that the prototype is not as complete as it appeared at first sight. Preces' and 'benefacta' saved the day for Milanion, but his wits were sharpened by adversity, mine, alas! are paralyzed.

19-30. If these fakirs from Thessaly with their stale moon trick could make her suffer as I suffer, I might believe anything of them.

Help, friends! But no, it is too late.

Take me to the ends of the earth beyond the reach of womankind. Only the happy should stay here. My case is desperate. 35 ff. Beware, ye lovers all, and shun the fault I fell in. There is no carefully managed transition here as in Tibullus,

none of his anticipatory hints, no recurring notes with added motives and variations. Propertius does not pause for transitions, he does not anticipate, often the general statement is only to be derived from a series of particulars, he does not end as Tibullus does. 'My case is pitiable - worse than its prototype- my case is hopeless. Lovers, take warning ere you regret it.' Such is the sum of his thought. In other words Propertius is highly emotional. He even starts his melody as it were with a bang, like a man whose feelings are already too much for him. Much of the difficulty and not a little of the modernity of this great poet may be traced to these emotional qualities of his style.

Still a different type is represented by Ovid. It varies according to theme and mood, but it is usually characteristic of his neat and orderly methods and reflects his rhetorical training. An extreme case is Amores, 1, 9, really a suasoria in verse, beginning with a statement of his theme

followed by a series of proofs and illustrations and ending with the Q. E. D.

qui nolet fieri desidiosus, amet!

As regards the once popular theory of strophic arrangement we are probably safe in saying that so far as not only Tibullus but also the entire elegy is concerned such regular recurrence as we observe is due simply to rhetoric. On general principles strophic arrangement should not inhere in any types of poetry except those with which the accompaniment of music or the dance is traditional and constant. The recurring strain of music, the recurring figure of the dance, the opposition of chorus to chorus, of sex to sex, of shepherd to shepherd, is the real and reasonable basis of strophic arrangement and demonstrates its value and usefulness. There is nothing now to show that it was characteristic even of the earliest elegy which was accompanied by the flute. The