Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/125

Rh nought. East and south winds even now are bearing the fond dream away. Another is blest, and reaps the fruit of his own vows and solicitude. In a companion elegy, which recent editors have seen fit to distinguish from that on which we have just touched, the failure of his endeavours to console himself with some other fair one, or drown care in the wine-cup, is vividly described; and Delia's infatuation with her wealthier admirer attributed to the hired services of a witch, against whom Tibullus pours out a highly poetical volley of imprecations. Such a character, described as heralded by the screech-owl's hoot, and hungrily gnawing the bones which the wolves have discarded in the cemeteries, reminds one of the 'Pharmaceutria' in the Idylls of Theocritus, and Eclogues of Virgil,—or, more familiarly, of the Ghoules in the Arabian Nights. Still, however, there are harder words for all others than Delia, whose accessibility to the "golden key" is lightly noticed, while upon the successful rival is lavished a highly-drawn picture of the prospect awaiting him in the wheel of chance:—

Still less satisfactory are the relations of Delia and