Readings from Latin Verse Part 9

1. deum: genitive with which caelitum agrees. 3. abeat: is not so.-- Sellar.

_8._ Prose translation in Sellar, _Roman Poets of the Republic_, p. 76.

Note the alliterations in the pa.s.sage. 1. dacrumis: older form of lacrimis and related to it as dingua to lingua. nec...faxit: and let none weep at my funeral, faxit is perfect subjunctive. 2.

Volito...virum: I still live as I fly along the lips of men. _Cf_.

Vergil, _Georgics_, 3. 9: victorque virum volitare per ora, and Shakspere, _Sonnet_ 82:

You still shall live--such virtue hath my pen-- Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men.

II. LUCRETIUS.

98-55 B.C.

Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas atque metus omnis et inexorabile fatum subiecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari.

Vergil, _Georgics_, 2. 490-492.

He...died Chief poet on the Tiber-side.

Mrs. Browning, _Vision of Poets_.

This doctrine of Lucretius, though antagonistic to the popular religion, is not atheistic or pantheistic; it is not definite enough to be theistic. It is rather the twilight between an old and a new faith.-- Sellar, _Roman Poets of the Republic_, p. 355.

The joy and glory of his art come second in his mind to his pa.s.sionate love of truth, and the deep moral purport of what he believes to be the one true message for mankind. The human race lies fettered by superst.i.tion and ignorance; his mission is to dispel their darkness by that light of truth which is 'clearer than the beams of the sun and the s.h.i.+ning shafts of day.'--Mackail, _Latin Literature_, p. 43.

The _De Rerum Natura_, Lucretius' only work, left at his death unfinished, is a didactic poem in six books which aims to give an explanation of the origin and nature of the universe. All things are declared to be composed of atoms--even the soul, which is therefore mortal--and have been developed by a process of 'evolution' and 'survival of the fittest' under the uninterrupted control of natural law. G.o.ds exist, but have little to do with the world. On the ethical side contentment, self-control, obedience, humility, are earnestly enjoined.

The style abounds in archaism, alliteration, and a.s.sonance. The frequent use of new compounds is a noticeable peculiarity of the diction.

Jerome states that the wife of Lucretius gave him a love-philtre which took away his reason so that, after composing in his lucid intervals several books, which were afterward corrected by Cicero, he died by his own hand.

Sellar is inclined to accept this story as a 'meagre and distorted record of tragical events in the poet's life.' On the basis of this legend and an appreciative study of the _De Rerum Natura_, Tennyson composed his _Lucretius_.

For Reference: Sellar, _Roman Poets of the Republic_, chapters 11-14; Munro, _Text of Lucretius, with Notes and Introduction_ (4th. edition, Cambridge, 1886); Mackail, _Latin Literature_ (New York, 1898), pp. 44- 46 (Lucretius as antic.i.p.ating theories of modern science).

Metre: Dactylic Hexameter, B. 368; A. & G. 615.

_1._ 2. animi: a locative form, B. 232, 3; A. & G. 358. 3. thyrso: see _Lex_. II. A and B. 5-10. Often imitated, as by Vergil, _Georgics_, 3.

291-293. 5, 6. mente...loca: I traverse in blooming thought the pathless haunts of the Pierides.--Munro. 7. iuvat: I love.--Munro. 11,12. artis religionum nodis: Lucretius teaches that, since the G.o.ds do not govern the world, all rites of wors.h.i.+p are needless, and, since the soul is mortal, punishment after death is not to be feared. Cf. Tennyson, _Lucretius_:

My golden (cf. aurea, _Selection_ 2. 12) work in which I told a truth That stays the rolling Ixionian wheel, And numbs the Fury's ringlet-snake and plucks The mortal soul from out immortal h.e.l.l.

Religio is probably derived from the root lig, meaning to bind. The Roman felt his religion to be a fetter upon him. 14. contingens: o'erlaying, a compound of tango.--Munro.

_2._ 2. commoda: the true interests.--Munro. 3. o...decus: Epicurus, who is praised in many pa.s.sages. (See Sellar, _Roman Poets of the Republic_, p. 298 ff.) His bold and, comprehensive thinking is characterized as follows (1. 72-74):

Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit, et extra processit longe flammantia moenia mundi atque omne inmensum peragravit mente animoque.

6, 7. quid...cycnis: for in what respect could the swallow vie with swans? 8. consimile...et: that could compare with. 16. terrores: of superst.i.tion. To remove these by demonstrating the uncontested supremacy in the universe of natural law is Lucretius' main purpose. moenia ff.: Lucretius thinks of the earth as at rest in the centre of our system,-- or mundus,--surrounded by the air in which move the moon and the sun.

The air is encompa.s.sed by the fiery aether,--or flammantia moenia mundi, 'the flaming walls of the world,'--which, as it rotates, carries the stars with it. Beyond is the 'illimitable inane' (inmensum inane) in which are set an infinite number of other worlds, and in the midst of these the dwellings where the G.o.ds 'live the great life...center'd in eternal calm' (deos securum agere aevom, 6. 58). To the poet's instructed vision aether opens and earth becomes transparent. 18-24.

Inspired by _Odyssey_, 6. 42-45. Cf. Tennyson, _Lucretius_:

The G.o.ds, who haunt The lucid inters.p.a.ce of world and world, Where never creeps a cloud, or moves a wind, Nor ever falls the least white star of snow, Nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans, Nor sound of human sorrow mounts to mar Their sacred everlasting calm!

and his description of the

island-valley of Avilion, Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, Nor ever wind blows loudly

in the _Pa.s.sing of Arthur_. Observe the melody of the Latin due to the skilful alliteration, and cf. Munro's translation of it for a like effect.

25. nusquam apparent: Lucretius has proved that they do not exist. 26.

nec...dispiciantur: though earth is no bar to all things being descried.--Munro. 28, 29. voluptas adque horror: delight mixed with shuddering awe.--Munro.

_3._ 1-4. Zephyr and Flora precede Spring and Venus. viai: genitive of archaic form dependent on cuncta, translate as all the way. 5. loci: part.i.tive genitive after inde; translate the two words by then. 8.

aliae...ventique: other stormy winds, i.e. Volturnus and Auster. 10.

bruma: midwinter.

_4._ 1. Ergo: because of visions of the night and day and because of their observation of natural phenomena men at large came to the incorrect belief that the G.o.ds govern the world. (Lucretius denies the providence of the G.o.ds, not their existence.) 2. tradere, facere: infinitives used substantively in apposition to perfugium. 3. templa: realms. 5. severa: stern, austere. Properly the epithet of noctis, but poetically transferred to signa. 6. faces, flammae: meteors. 7. The heaping up of substantives without a copula is not uncommon in Lucretius. 8. fremitus: distant, rumbling thunder. murmura magna minarum: the near loud, threatful thunderclaps.--Munro. minarum is equivalent to a limiting adjective. 13. velatum: the Romans prayed with covered head. 14. vertier: middle. The reference is to a Roman custom by which the suppliant approached with the statue on his right; after praying, he turned to the right so as to face it and then prostrated himself. 17. vota: votive tablets. 18 ff. It is true piety, not to perform these rites, but to possess a tranquil mind, and this is difficult, for the grandeur and terror of nature are almost overwhelming. 20. super fixum: fast above.--Munro. 21. et...viarum: and direct our thoughts to the courses of the sun and moon.--Munro. viarum: B. 206, 3. 26. rationis egestas: lack of power to solve the question.-- Munro. 27. genitalis origo: birthtime.--Munro. 28. quoad: how long. 34.

contrahitur: shrink into itself.--Munro. 38. corripiunt: like contrahitur, but stronger. 40. poenarum: genitive depending on solvendi.

45. viris quae ff.: powers sufficient to, etc.

LUCRETIUS AS OBSERVER AND WORD-PAINTER.--The following groups of phrases and sentences are given as ill.u.s.trative of the accuracy, variety, and splendor of Lucretius' descriptions:

1. _Sh.e.l.ls on the Sh.o.r.e._

Concharumque genus parili ratione videmus pingere telluris gremium, qua mollibus undis litoris incurvi bibulam pavit aequor arenam. 2. 374-376.

2. _The Stars._

Candida sidera. 5. 1210.

micant aeterni sidera mundi. 5. 514.

Simul ac primum sub diu splendor aquai ponitur, extemplo caelo stellante serena sidera respondent in aqua radiantia mundp. 4. 211-213.

caeli labentia signa. 1. 2.

fervida signa. 5. 628.

Raraque per caelum c.u.m venti nubila portant tempore nocturno, tum splendida signa videntur labier adversum nimbos atque ire superne. 4. 443-445.

totum circ.u.m tremere aethera signis. 1. 1089.

3. _The Sky._

stellis fulgentibus apta concut.i.tur caeli domus. 6. 357-358.

signiferi super aetheris aestas. 6. 481.

caeli lucida templa. 1. 1014.

altaque caeli densebant procul a terris fulgentia templa. 5. 490-491.

4. _The Sun._

sol lumine conserit arva. 2. 210-211.

rosea sol alte lampade lucens. 5. 610.

aeternum lampada mundi. 5. 402.