Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/25



chronology would plead for the postponement till much later of the record of Catullus's love-fever, and it might seem more in order to set first the floating epigrams and occasional pieces which treat of town or country jokes, witticisms, petits soupers, and the like, and to make the reader acquainted with the everyday life of the poet at home or abroad; yet the passion for Lesbia was so absorbing when it was lighted, and possessed its victim so thoroughly, that we must needs treat it first in our sketch of his writings. A poet's love has mostly been inseparable from his after-fame; and in a higher degree than the Cynthia of Propertius, the Corinna of Ovid, or the Delia, probably, of Tibullus, does the Lesbia of Catullus fasten her spell around him, to the exclusion of other and fresh loves, of which he was apparently cautious and forbearing both before and after the crisis of his master-passion. His erotic verses, save those to Lesbia, are but few. Ipsithilla, Aufilena, and Ametina are mere passing and casual amours, soon forgotten; he is oftener found supping with a