The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus Part 33

O quoties rigida pulsabis pallia vena!

or with this quatrain of an old French poet:

Ainsi depuis une semaine La longue roideur de ma veine, Pour neant rouge et bien en point, Bat ma chemise et mon pourpoint.

C. x.x.xvii. v. 1. Taverns and Wine-shops in Rome were distinguished by pillars projecting into the streets, the better to catch the eye of the pa.s.senger, as sign-posts of inns do with us now; the tavern in question was a house of ill-fame, and we are told it was the ninth column or sign-post from the Temple of Castor and Pollux.

v. 2. It was customary to display on the fronts of brothels the names of the inmates, just as shopkeepers' names were inscribed over places of more reputable trade: this was called _inscriptio_ or _t.i.tulus_.

v. 10. _Scorpionibus_. Indecent inscriptions scribbled on the walls and door with burnt sticks.

v. 11. Catullus's mistress had, it seems, run away from him to a common brothel, in front of which it was the custom, not only for women but even for men, to sit down and offer themselves for prost.i.tution.

v. 16. _Semitarii moechi_. Wh.o.r.emongers who take up with common women who offer themselves at every corner of the streets for a mere trifle.

v. 20. _Hibera Urina_. We are a.s.sured by Strabo, _Lib._ 3, that this filthy custom prevailed greatly in Spain: teeth were not only washed in stale urine, the acid of which must necessarily render them white, but they were also rubbed with a powder of calcined human excrement. Persons sometimes even bathed their whole bodies in urine.

C. x.x.xxi. v. 3. _Turpiculo naso_. The kind of nose alluded to is such as sheep or goats have. Cf. Lucretius, _lib._ iv. v. 1152.

C. x.x.xxvii. v. 6. _In trivio_, i.e., in the most public places, in hopes of finding some host.

v. 7. This hunting for invitations does not, according to modern notions, place the two friends of Catullus in a respectable light; but it was a common and avowed practice at Rome.

C. liii. v. 5. _Salaputium_. A pet name for the male virile member. This word has been the subject of much debate among the learned. Some read _solopachium_, meaning a "mannikin eighteen inches high"; Saumasius proposes salopygium, a "wagtail"; several editors have _salaputium_, an indelicate word nurses used to children when they fondled them, so that the exclamation would mean, "what a learned little puppet!" Thus Augustus called Horace _purissimum penem_.

C. liiii. I find it an impossibility to make any sense out of this poem.

v. 5. _Seni recocto_. Horace applies this epithet to one who has served the office of _quinquevir_, or proconsul's notary, and who was therefore master of all the arts of chicanery. These are his words, Sat. v. lib. 2:

_Plerumque recoctus_ _Scriba ex quinqueviro corvum deludit hiantem._

A seasoned scrivener, bred in office low, Full often dupes and mocks the gaping crow. FRANCIS.

The modern Italians say of a man of this stamp, _Egli ha cotto il culo ne'

ceci rossi_. The phrase _seni recocto_ may imply one who enjoys a green and vigorous old age, as if made young again, as the old woman was by wine, of whom Petronius speaks, _a.n.u.s recocta vino_; or aeson, who was re-cooked by Medaea. That witch, says Valerius Flaccus, _Recoquit fessos aetate parentes_.

C. lvi. v. 6. _Trusantem_. Many read _crissantem_, which means the movement of the loins in women; _ceventem_ being the like of a man. As the expression refers to the lad, _crissantem_ cannot be correct.

v. 7. _Pro telo_. Alluding to the custom of punis.h.i.+ng adulterers by transfixing them with darts. The double-entendre of _Telo_ with _Mentula_ is evident, and makes clear the apology to Venus. See _lib._ 9 of Apuleius for a similar pa.s.sage.

C. lvii. v. 7. _Erudituli_. The accomplishments alluded to are not literary, but Priapeian. It is in this sense Petronius calls Gito _doctissimus puer_. Oezema, a grave German jurist, parodied a part of this piece. His epigram can be read without danger of having one's stomach turned.

Belle convenit inter elegantes Dione's famulas, et eruditos Antiquae Themidis meos sodales.

Nos jus just.i.tiamque profitemur: Illae semper amant coluntque r.e.c.t.u.m.

"There is a charming coincidence of sentiment between the fair votaries of Venus and my learned brethren: we profess law and justice; they dearly love the thing that is upright."

C. lviii. v. 1. _Caeli_. This is the same with Caelius Rufus, Catullus's rival in the affections of Lesbia, or Clodia, according to Achilles Statius; Plutarch calls her Quadrantaria; she was debauched by her own brother, Publius Clodius; afterwards she became the mistress of Catullus, and lastly the common strumpet of Rome.

v. 4. The meanest trulls frequented the public streets.

v. 5. _Glubit_. _Glubo_ = to husk (corn), hence it is tropically used to denote masturbation. Cf. Ausonius, epigram 71.

C. lviiii. v. 1. _Fellat_. This refers to the complacent use by the female of her lips in the act of connection.

v. 3. The half-starved women of pleasure attended at funerals in the hope of picking up parts of the viands which were laid on the pile and burnt with the body.

C. lxi. v. 22. _Myrtus Asia_. The Asia of Catullus was that marshy tract of land near Mount Tmolus and the River Caystrus. Cf. Homer (_Il._ ii. 461) for the "Ancient Meadow." It was said to be as famous for its myrtles as for its cranes. Proper "Asia Minor" is the t.i.tle first used by Oratius (Orazius?) (1. 2.) in the IVth century. See the "Life and Works of St.

Paul," by Dr. Farrar (i. 465).--_R. F. B._

v. 54. _Timens_. Many more obscenely write _tumens_, thus changing the "fear-full" bridegroom into the "swollen" bridegroom.

v. 123. It was usual for the mirthful friends of the newly married couple to sing obscene songs called _Fescennine_, which were tolerated on this occasion.

v. 124. _Nec nuces pueris_. This custom of throwing nuts, such as walnuts or almonds, is of Athenian origin; some say it was meant to divert the attention from the raptures of the bride and bridegroom, when in bed, by the noise they, and the scrambling boys, made on the floor. For _nuces_, referring to the use of boys, see Verg. Eclogue 8.

v. 125. _Concubinus_. By the shamelessness of this pa.s.sage, it would seem to be quite a usual thing amongst the youthful Roman aristocracy to possess a bedfellow of their own s.e.x.

v. 137. "This coa.r.s.e imitation of the Fescennine poems," says Dunlop (History of Roman Literature), "leaves on our minds a stronger impression of the prevalence and extent of Roman vices than any other pa.s.sage in the Latin cla.s.sics. Martial, and Catullus himself elsewhere, have branded their enemies; and Juvenal, in bursts of satiric indignation, has reproached his countrymen with the blackest crimes. But here, in a complimentary poem to a patron and intimate friend, these are jocularly alluded to as the venial indulgence of his earliest youth."

C. lxii. v. 39, _et seq._ Thus exquisitely rendered by Spenser, Faery Queen, b. ii. c. 12:

The whiles some one did chaunt this lovely lay: "Ah! see, whoso fayre thing doest faine to see, In springing flowre the image of thy day!

Ah! see the virgin rose, how sweetly she Doth first peepe foorth with bashfull modestie, That fairer seemes the lesse ye see her may!

Lo see soone after how more bold and free Her bared bosome she doth broad display; Lo! see soone after how she fades and falls away!

"So pa.s.seth, in the pa.s.sing of a day, Of mortal life the leafe, the bud, the flowre; Ne more doth flourish after first decay, That erst was sought to deck both bed and bowre Of many a lady, and many a paramoure!

Gather therefore the rose whilest yet is prime, For soone comes age that will her pride deflowre; Gather the rose of love whilest yet is time, Whilest loving thou mayst loved be with equal crime."

C. lxiii. v. 23. Women devoted to the service of Bacchus or of Cybele; for many things were common to the rights of both deities. The name is derived from [Greek: mainesthai], to rave.

v. 28. _Thiasus_ is properly a chorus of sacred singers and dancers, living in a community, like a college of dervishes, who, indeed, are an exact counterpart of the Galli as regards their howling and dancing ritual, but have the advantage of their predecessors in one important particular, _i.e._, they are not castrated.

C. lxiiii. v. 65. The strophium was a band which confined the b.r.e.a.s.t.s and restrained the exuberance of their growth. Martial apostrophizes it thus:

Fascia, crescentes dominae compesce papillas, Ut sit quod capiat nostra tegatque ma.n.u.s.

"Confine the growth of my fair one's b.r.e.a.s.t.s, that they may be just large enough for my hand to enclose them."

v. 377. _Circ.u.mdare filo_. That is, may you to-morrow prove that you are no longer a virgin; for the ancients had an idea that the neck swelled after venery; perhaps from the supposed descent of the procreative fluid which they thought lodged in the brain. See Hippocrates and Aristotle upon this subject. The swelling of the bride's neck was therefore ascertained by measurement with a thread on the morning after the nuptials, and was held to be sufficient proof of their happy consummation. The ancients, says Pezay, had faith in another equally absurd test of virginity. They measured the circ.u.mference of the neck with a thread. Then the girl under trial took the two ends of the magic thread in her teeth, and if it was found to be so long that its bight could be pa.s.sed over her head, it was clear she was not a maid. By this rule all the thin girls might pa.s.s for vestals, and all the plump ones for the reverse.

v. 403. Semiramis is said to have done thus by her son Ninus.

C. lxv. v. 19. The gift of an apple had a very tender meaning; according to Vossius it was _quasi pignus concubitus_, that is to say, it was the climax

To all those token flowers that tell What words can never speak so well.

In one of the love epistles of Aristaenetus, Phalaris complains to her friend Petala, how her younger sister, who had accompanied her to dine with Pamphilus, her lover, attempted to seduce him, and among other wanton tricks did as follows: "Pamphilus, biting off a piece of an apple, chucked it dexterously into her bosom; she took it, kissed it, and thrusting it under her sash, hid it between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s." Cf. note to C. ii. v. 12, _ante._