Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/157

Rh In one so wedded to Greek traditions, a treading of classic soil must have reawakened long-banished song; but Propertius died comparatively young, like Catullus and Tibullus, and he probably ceased to write and to live about the age of thirty-four, or from that to forty. Though Pliny's gossip credits him with lineal descendants—which involves a legal union after Cynthia's death—there is everything in his extant remains to contradict such a story. He doubtless sang his mistress in strains of exaggeration for which one makes due allowance in gleaning his slender history; but substantially true was his constant averment that Cynthia was his last love, even as she was his first. It is irresistible to cling to the belief that the comparatively brief space of life he lived without her and her distracting influences was the period of his finest Roman poems, and of the philosophic studies to which his Muse in earlier strains looked forward. He is supposed to have died about 15. In his poetry he contrasts strongly with his co-mates Catullus and Tibullus. As erotic as the first, he is more refined and less coarse without being less fervent. On the other hand, he can lay no claim to the simplicity and nature-painting of Tibullus, though he introduces into his verse a pregnant and often obscure crowding of forcible thoughts, expressions, and constructions, which justify the epithet that attests his exceptional learning. In strength and vigour of verse he stands pre-eminent, unless it be when he lets this learning have its head too unrestrainedly. And though the verdict of critics would probably be that he is best in the love