Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/37

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But anon comes a change over the poet's complacent satisfaction. This perfect creature is only outwardly and bodily perfect; or, if her mental endowments enhance the attractions of her form and beauty, he soon finds that the heart is wanting. It was her pride in the homage of a brilliant and popular poet that had bidden her win him to her feet: the effort to retain him there was too great for her fickle temperament, if indeed she did not trust her fascinations to keep him attached to her train—at fast or loose, as it suited her purpose. It would hardly seem that he could have counted upon much more, if we are to connect with Lesbia, as there is every reason to do, the poem to Manius Acilius Glabrio, in which he professes toleration of rivals, and goes so far as to say that—

Perhaps for a while it sufficed him to act as his own detective, and warn off such fops as Gellius, Alfenus,