Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/162

150 The quatrains above quoted express the two-fold charm of intellectual and physical grace, and, with lover-like caution, weigh warily the preponderance of compliment to either side of the balance. If Cynthia's dancing is graceful as Ariadne's, and her music recalls the chief female names in Greek lyric poetry, Propertius introduces a subtle and parenthetic make-weight in praise of her exquisite complexion (which he likens, after Anacreon and Virgil, to rose-leaves in contact with milk, or "vermilion from Spain on snow"), her flowing ringlets, and her star-like eyes. Elsewhere he sings explicitly of her form and figure:—

or again twits the winged god, Cupid, with the loss to the world he will inflict if he smite him with his arrows:—

With these and many more hints for a portrait of his lady-love, to be gleaned from Propertius's impassioned description, it is no marvel that he was so plain-spoken in declining solicitations of Mæcenas to exchange the elegy for the epic. To quote Mr Cranstoun on this subject in his version of the first elegy of the second book:—