Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/171

Rh It will be seen in the third line that he was not above administering a covert reproof in the midst of poetic compliments; but the latter certainly predominate, as he declares that in her extremity, as it seemed, he often feared lest

and lest, if Glaucus had beheld her bright eyes as she sued for help—

The dream, says the poet, became so painful, that he awoke amidst the imaginary operation of taking a header. But in his waking thoughts, and in contemplation of a real voyage, he volunteers to bear her company, with protestations that

In another elegy of the same book we learn that her poet clearly believed that his mistress's destiny after such a catastrophe would be that of a goddess or a heroine. When an autumn and winter at Rome had endangered her life with malaria, he contemplates her apotheosis with the satisfaction of thinking of the company she will hereafter keep:—