as a piece of Latin writing I should prefer se sequentem. The se, to which there is no objection on the ground of euphony, might easily fall out before sequentem and persequentem would seem an obvious amendment. In 1. 9 of the same piece uenit sed abiit hac ad laeuam; et dexteram I conjectured and Dr. Gow accepted the conjecture for the second edition of the Corpus that for nutu we should read nictu. This is confirmed not only by the oculis of 1. 10, but by the "adsignat oculis" of both Ademar and Romulus here. App. 27. At the end of this ironical composition in which the mutual insincerities of a pair of lovers are transfixed the paraphrasts have an addition which seems to have a basis in the lost original. Romulus (p. 218) has "sic uerbis se deluserunt" and Wissemburg after a strange insertion "de bonis meis ipse diris" goes on "verbis sermonem [apparently for sermonum] inuicem se luserunt," which apparently came from ita illi uerbis deluserunt se inuicem ADDENDUM When the above paper was written in the early summer of 1917, I was unable to refer to the works of G. Thiele on the Mediaeval Fabulists, Der illustrierte lateinischer Aesop in der Handschrift des Ademar and Der lateinische Aesop des Romulus. This will explain why the paraphrasts are cited only by the edition of Hervieux. The correction of nictu in App. 26. 9 has been made independently by L. Rank in Mnemosyne (1912). THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL 1 Does this represent some corruption of "hanc vocem audio" for which there is no equivalent in the paraphrase? It is by no means the only senseless thing in the rendering which concludes with a sentence the construction and source of which are unfathomable to me. In their reproduction of "libenter inquit" as "benigne respondit," both Wissemburg and Romulus are faithful to their blundering original. ASPECTS OF AUTUMN IN ROMAN POETRY BY KEITH PRESTON In their treatment of the seasons, as in most other respects, English poets have derived much from the Latins. The degree of advance or development varies with the different seasons. Without any very exhaustive examination of the evidence, I venture the opinion that in spring poetry classical canons have most largely prevailed, because, no doubt, the Roman poets treated this season with a high degree of sentiment, and realized to the full most of the inevitable thrills and associations. Then too such striking phenomena as the revival of life in growing things and the awakening of love are very little influenced by local climatic conditions. Summer, on the contrary, was, generally speaking, an uncongenial season to the Roman poets; the torrid summers of Italy made their impression on poetry, and the "glorious summer" of English literature is a distinct change from Roman references to the scorching dog days. A more delicate and interesting problem is presented by the autumn It seems to be the prevailing impression that externals, for the most part agreeable, entirely governed the handling of this season in the Roman poets, and that the seasonal melancholy which figures so largely in modern poetry is a comparatively recent innovation.1 There is certainly much reason for this assumption, but a review of the evidence has convinced me that the modern idea was not altogether a "sudden leap" in evolution, but to some extent a development from plain suggestions in the Roman poets.2 The present paper is designed to review in a cursory way the various aspects of autumn in the Roman poets. Though my title seems to limit the consideration to autumn, I shall include such references to winter as bear directly on important poetical associations. Autumn (autumnus), and winter (hiems, bruma) are not sharply distinguished season. 1 See Gustave Lanson, Lamartine: Méditations poétiques, nouvelle édition (Paris, 1915), t. I, pp. 247-48. 2 This problem may more safely be left to my English colleague, Professor Crane, in his forthcoming study of Autumn In English Poetry. in the Roman poets; in fact, where late autumn (autumnus praeceps) is the season referred to, autumnus and hiems are used indiscriminately in the same passage. The Italian autumn follows the harvest and brings in the vintage. Relief from scorching Sirius, tempered warmth, rest from toil, with rich rewards and rustic celebrations, mark the season for the farmer, and on all these things the Roman poets love to dwell. Their autumn landscapes show the orchards laden down with heavy fruit, and vines where the luscious, richly tinted grapes hang in full clusters. Presently the grapes are picked-a light, glad exertion-and juice from the trodden presses foams in the vats. A holiday, with rest for man and beast, follows the completion of the vintage. There are honors for Ceres and Bacchus. Food and wine, rude dances and ruder songs, with games and trials of skill, amuse the gathered countryside.1 In accordance with these pictures the personifications of autumn are benignant or neutral. In the Palace of the Sun, ranged with the Days, the Months, the Year, the Ages, the Hours, and the other Seasons, "stood also Autumn, stained with the trampled grapes, and icy Winter, shaggy, with hoary locks."2 " Another personification is suggested to Ovid by tempered warmth: "Next comes Autumn, no longer with the hot blood of youth, but mellow, mild, a happy blend of youth and age, with white hairs scattered over his temples. Then aged Winter comes, unkempt, with stumbling tread, robbed of his hair, or, what he has, quite white." In one beautiful and rather elaborate procession of the Seasons, Autumn strides side by side with Euhius (Bacchus). Again, he "rears from the fields his head, comely with mellow fruit." The personification Plenty (Copia) 1 See Vergil Geor. ii. 1-8. 516-31; Horace Odes iii. 18. 5–16; Ovid Trist. iii. 10 71-72; Lucretius i. 175. Ovid Met. ii. 29-30: Stabat et Autumnus, calcatis sordidus uvis: Ovid Met. xv. 209-13: Excipit Autumnus, posito fervore iuventae Lucr. v. 737-50. Horace Epodes ii. 17-18: Vel, cum decorum mitibus pomis caput ἐκπλήσσει, τέχνη δὲ ἄνευ ἀλκῆς οὐδὲν ὠφελεῖ, “for fear knocks memory out, and skill without strength does no good." póßos is personified again in the pathetic plea of the Plataeans not to be sacrificed by Spartans to their inveterate Theban enemies, iii. 54. 5, kai iμîv, ¿ Λακεδαιμόνιοι, ἰδίᾳ, ὅτεπερ δὴ μέγιστος φόβος περιέστη τὴν Σπάρτην μετὰ τὸν σεισμὸν τῶν ἐς Ιθώμην Εἱλώτων ἀποστάντων, τὸ τριτον μέρος ἡμῶν αὐτῶν ἐξεπέμψαμεν ἐς ἐπικουρίαν· ὧν οὐκ εἰκὸς ἀμνημονεῖν, “And to your aid, O Lacedaemonians, just when very great fear encompassed Sparta, after the earthquake, when the Helots had gone in revolt to Ithome, we sent a third of our own citizens. These things should not be forgotten." A bolder personification than póßos is кóжOs in vii. 40. 4. The Athenians had been deceived by a trick proposed to the Syracusans by their cleverest pilot, the Corinthian Aristo, and forced to put out hastily and in bad order, most of them without food. For some time the two fleets held off, guarding against each other, then Thucydides says (vii. 40. 4), ἔπειτα οὐκ ἐδόκει τοῖς ̓Αθηναίοις ὑπὸ σφῶν αὐτῶν διαμέλλοντας κόπῳ ἁλίσκεσθαι, ἀλλ' ἐπιχείρειν ὅτι τάχιστα, "After a while the Athenians thought best not to delay any longer and be self-beaten by weariness [lit. be overcome], but to attack as soon as possible." But weakness from hunger on their own part and the heavy prows of the Syracusan vessels soon proved too much for them, and they had to seek refuge behind their own line of transport boats. Very naturally the commentators shake their heads at the phrase κóπ åλioкeσlaι. Krüger calls it "ungewöhnlich"; Stahl adopts Madvig's conjecture ἀναλίσκεσθαι. But compare ἁλοῦσαι ὕπνῳ, Aesch. Εum. 67; μανίᾳ ὁλοὺς, Soph. Αi. 216; θανάτῳ ἁλῶναι, Hom. 281; vπ' ëρwтos åλŵvai, Plato Phaedr. 252c. It is the same kind of personification of TVOs that we have in Hom. B 34. PERSONIFICATION OF ABSTRACTS After the remarkable description of the plague which wrought such fearful havoc at Athens and among the troops at Potidaea, and of the coincident Peloponnesian invasion of Attica, we are told that a change came over the spirit of the Athenians. They blamed Pericles, because he had persuaded them to go to war, as the author of all their 1 Cf. ii. 38, ἡ τέρψις τὸ λυπηρὸν ἐκπλήσσει. troubles. He goes before the assembly to encourage and hearten them, and when he tells them not to worry over the loss of property, which is, as it were, only "the garden of the house, the superfluous ornament of wealth," but to be anxious about freedom and preserve that, for it would recover all the rest (ii. 62. 3), freedom (éλevlepia) suddenly becomes an active agent; and the chapter winds up in this way: καὶ τὴν τόλμαν ἀπὸ τῆς ὁμοίας τύχης ἡ ξύνεσις ἐκ τοῦ ὑπέρφρονος ἐχυρωτέραν παρέχεται, ἐλπίδι τε ἧσσον πιστεύει, ἧς ἐν τῷ ἀπόρῳ ἡ ἰσχύς, γνώμῃ δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν ὑπαρχόντων, ἧς βεβαιοτέρα ἡ πρόνοια, “and daring, when fortune is impartial, from a consciousness of its superiority is made more secure by intelligence, and trusts less to hope, whose strength lies in perplexity, but more in judgment, whose foresight is surer." Note how all sorts of abstractions here become agents: τόλμα, τύχη, ξύνεσις, ἐλπίς, γνώμη. There is another fine example of the personification of Tóλμa in Pericles' funeral oration, ii. 41. 4, καὶ οὐδὲν προσδεόμενοι οὔτε Ὁμήρου ἐπαινέτου οὔτε ὅστις ἔπεσι μὲν τὸ αὐτίκα τέρψει, τῶν δ' ἔργων τὴν ὑπό νοιαν ἡ ἀλήθεια βλάψει, ἀλλὰ πᾶσαν μὲν θάλασσαν καὶ γῆν ἐσβατὸν τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ τόλμῃ καταναγκάσαντες γενέσθαι, πανταχοῦ δὲ μνημεῖα κακῶν τε κἀγαθῶν ἀίδια ξυγκατοικίσαντες, “we shall need no Homer to sing our praise, nor any other poet, whose verses will give delight for the moment, though his representation of the facts will be marred by the truth. Nay, we have compelled every land to give access to our daring, and have everywhere planted everlasting memorials both of evil to foes and of good to friends." "So, for a moment," says Lamb, "he will make Truth-though she had no special cult-a greater person than Homer, and go on to exalt Athenian Daring to the glory of a conquering invader." 1 In Diodotus' masterly plea to the Athenians, to save them from incurring the enormous guilt of adopting Cleon's proposal to put to death all the Mytilenaean men and enslave their women and children, we have another group of personifications of abstract conceptions. The passage is iii. 45. 4-6. Here the actors are poverty (Tevia), wealth (ovoia), hope (λris), passionate love (epws), fortune (τúxn), and human nature (ávoрúжela дvois). Another good example of the personification of rúxn is found in vii. 68. 1. 1 Clio Enthroned, p. 223. |