Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/168

156 or, worse still, from learning that he is excluded for the sake of a rich and stupid prætor from Illyria, of whom he writes—

in spite of these provoking rebuffs and infidelities, the poet still courts and sighs for his inconstant charmer and whether she be near or far, follows her in fancy and with the breath of cultivated song. Allowance must of course be made for the change of winds in the course of a love which could not be said even by courtesy to run smooth. It is a rare phenomenon to find Propertius in such bliss and rapture as the following lines betoken:—