METER: elegiac couplet (see Catullus 70). 1 praesente viro: "while her husband is present." 'mala. . . dicit: this and dicit . . . male (Catullus 92) are equivalent to maledico, maledicere (31, maledixi, maledictum (+ dat.), to curse, heap abuse upon. 2 haec: i.e., the verbal abuse mentioned in line 1. Explain why haec, not hoc, is used here. Compare the use of haec in line 15 of Catullus 76. illi fatuo: i.e., Lesbia's husband. fatuus, -a, -um, foolish. laetitia: predicate nominative. 3 miilus, -i [m), mule. nostri: genitive of nos. oblitus, -a, -um (t gen.), forgetful of. 'taceo, tacere (2), tacui, taciturn, to be quiet. taceret: the subject is Lesbia. What mood and tense are taceret here and esset in line 4? What type of condi- tional sentence is this? 4 siinus, -a, -um, sane, rational, "in her right mind." gannio, gannire 141, to snarl. obloquor, obloqui (3), oblocutus sum, to interrupt, insist upon speaking. 5 memini, meminisse (perfect in form, present in meaning), to remember. quae . . . res: a parenthetical remark that looks ahead to iriita est (6); translate idiomati- cally, "and the following fact. . . ." iicer, iicris, acre, sharp, revealing. How do you translate multo when it is used with a comparative adjective? 6 Hoc est: "That is. . . ." Hoc: nominative singular, with the o pronounced as a long vowel. Lesbia mi praesente viro mala plurima dicit.CATULLUS 83 Lesbia's Stinging Words Are Not What They Seem. Catullus lays out before us the logic of love and the rules by which we can read the symptoms of this love. What in Lesbia's behavior leads Catullus to the conclusion at the end of the poem! 1 Lesbia mi praesente viro mala plurima dicit; 2 haec illi fatuo maxima laetitia est. .3 Mule, nihil sentis? Si nostri oblita taceret, 4 sana esset: nunc quod gannit et obloquitur, 5 non solum meminit, sed, quae multo icrior est res, h irata est. Hoc est, uritur et loquitur. 1. Describe the situation in the first couplet. Why does Catullus call the husband a mule in the second couplet? 2. Catullus pays great attention to the design of his poems. You can often divide the poems into symmetrical units and see the development of his thoughts. In this poem, each couplet is a unit and part of a progression that builds up to the final words, uritur et loquitur. Trace this progression. 3. How does the contrary-to-fact condition in lines 3-4 strengthen the conviction stated in lines 5-67 4. In terms of love and the emotions of love, what special meaning might sana (4), irata (6), and uritur (6) have? Why do you think there are so many references to speech in this poem (dicit, taceret, gannit, obloquitur, and
View Full Document
Unlocking...