Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/96

84 been his handmaid, to spread his couch and lave his feet, have more than one echo in English poetry; and the climax of the lament, in a deep and sweeping curse on her betrayer, is a passage of terribly realistic earnestness:—

It is not to be denied that it would have been more artistic had the poet here dismissed the legend of Theseus and his misdemeanours, or, if not this, had he at least omitted the lesson of divine retribution conveyed in his sire's death as he crossed the home-threshold, and contented himself with the spirited presentment of Bacchus and his attendant Satyrs and