Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/188

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Here, as in the address of Phœbus from the stern of Augustus's galley, the poet is quickened to a fire and enthusiasm which befits his subject, and of which the accomplished scholar from whom we have quoted is not insensible. In one line of it, the sentiment,

is an anticipation of Shakespeare's adagial lesson,

and the bard's conclusion takes the form of pervading festivity, whilst it merely glances at the principal military exploits of Augustus, and hints that he should leave some "fields to conquer" to his sons.

Yet after the taste of this heroic vein already given, it would be hard to part with Propertius upon ground where there is little room for his rare gift of pathos. And so two beautiful elegies which exhibit him at his best, and in his tenderest mood, have been kept to the last. The one is the letter of Arethuse to her husband Lycotas on a campaign; the other the imaginary appeal of the dead Cornelia to her husband, Paullus. The first is proof positive that Ovid does not deserve the credit which he claims in his 'Art of Love' of having originated the style of poetry which we know as Epistles; and Ovid never wrote anything so really pathetic and natural. Of both we are fortunate in having free yet adequate translations in graceful verse