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Erotion Again1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

E. J. Kenney
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Extract

Of Martial's three poems on Erotion (v. 34, v. 37, x. 61) this has found least favour with the critics. Their coldness towards it is more than compensated by the warmth of the tributes which they pay to v. 34. ‘We must go to the best work of the Greek Anthology to surpass [it]’; ‘c'est là une des plus tendres et des plus délicates epigrammes de Martial’; ‘there can be few things in leterature more touching’. In contrast v. 37 has appeared a frigid jest or at best an unhappy marriage of pathos and satire. ‘Where there is no depth of feeling a piece of sarcasm will do well enough’; ‘the remaining lines of the poem [i.e. 18–24] are tasteless and unworthy of the portion quoted, and raise a doubt as to the poet's sincerity in the particular case’. These critics might have appealed to high authority in support of their views, for Lessing noticed what seemed to him a lack of unity in the poem and felt in the ending an unwelcome surprise and disturbance of mood.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , April 1964, pp. 77 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1964

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References

page 77 note 2 Butler, H. E., Post-Atigustan Poetry (1909), 272Google Scholar; Izaac, H. J., Budé ed., i. 160Google Scholar, n. i; Lloyd, , loc. cit. 41Google Scholar. Cf. Smith, K. F., Martial the Epigrammatist and other essays (Baltimore, 1920), 18–19.Google Scholar

page 78 note 1 Lloyd, , loc. cit. 40Google Scholar; Butler, , loc. cit. 274, n. iGoogle Scholar. Butler sugars the pill by adding ‘But this does not affect his general sympathy for childhood’. A relevant observation, if Martial were applying for a post as nursery-governess, but with no bearing whatever on his poetry.

page 78 note 2 Lessing, G. E., Sämtliche Schriften, ed. Lachmann-Muncker, ed. 3, vol. xi (1895), 242Google Scholar: ‘Dieses Sinngedicht fängt mit so sanften Empfindungen an; esnimmt mich für den weichherzigen Dichter, der sich um ein kleines unschuldiges Ding so sehr betrübt, so herzlich ein; ich fühle mich zu Mitleid und Melancholie so sehr gestimmt, dass ich mich nach ganz etwas anderm, als einem hämischen Zuge gegen einen guten Bekannten, sehne. Betrübniss macht sonst so gutdenkend; und boshafter Witz verstummet sonst so leicht bey einem bekümmerten Herzen!’ I owe this interesting reference to Post, E., Selected Epigrams of Martial (Boston, 1908), 138.Google Scholar

page 78 note 3 Seven of his poems are in scazons, and of these only Poem 31 (Sirmio) seems free from satirical overtones. This point is particularly relevant to the interpretation of Poem 8. Martial x. 30 is not at all Hipponactic, but even that has a mildly satirical twist at the end.

page 78 note 4 A formal analysis is not directly relevant to my purpose; but the variations in structure deserve attention: 1–3 dulcior… mollior… delicatior; 4–6 cui nec… praeferas… nec… –que; 7–8 quae… uicit…; 9–11 fragrauit… quod… quod… quod; 12–13 cui comparatus.…

page 80 note 1 It may or may not be significant that Garrod passed over v. 34 in favour of v. 37 for inclusion in The Oxford Book of Latin Verse. His selection is in general so capricious that I am not inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

page 81 note 1 Mr. A. G. Lee has been so kind as to read a draft of this paper, and I am indebted to him for several helpful suggestions.