The Lady and the Poem: Catullus 35-42

Author(s): P. Y. Forsyth
Source: The Classical Journal , Oct. - Nov., 1984, Vol. 80, No. 1 (Oct. - Nov., 1984), pp.
24-26
Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc. (CAMWS)

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3297394

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 THE LADY AND THE POEM: CATULLUS 35-42

Whether or not one believes that the entire Catullan corpus as we now
it was arranged by the poet himself, it is still possible to see within that c
meaningful juxtapositions of poems. It sometimes happens that poems w
are placed together are thematically related: for example, 15 and 16; 23
24; 88 through 91; 110 and 111; and 114 and 115. On the other hand, ther
what could be called "poetic clusters," such as the well-studied 2-11
which there is a looser rhythm which gives unity to the group despite
presence of an occasional poem that shows thematic variation. Such clus
are often more difficult for the reader to spot, and one in particular-poem
through 42-has not received a thorough analysis in the critical literature.
In the recent past, critical attention has been focused on poems 36-40
unit thematically drawn together by the "Lesbia theme. " This interpreta
has involved what some have seen as a "strained" reading of poem 38
poet's reprimand of Cornificius for apparent callousness to Catullus' suf
ings. For the crucial sixth line of the poem (irascor tibi. sic meos amore
cannot, on this interpretation, mean "I am angry at you; is this how you r
my friendship?" but must instead contain a reference to Lesbia. The appr
of T. P. Wiseman is illustrative: "I should therefore take line 6 to mean 'is th
all you think of my unhappy love-affairs?' and meos amores to refer .
Lesbia. If this is so, then all five poems are concerned with Lesbia
However, other critics (such as E O. Copley) have denied that Lesbia is in
way present in poem 38,3 despite her involvement (directly or indirectl
poems 36, 37, 39, and 40.
One problem here is that focusing exclusively on an alleged "Les
theme" in these poems has obscured an important unifying motif that ext
beyond this group, to include poems 35 to 42. For, while poem 38 may or
not be "about" Lesbia, it is undeniably about poetry (paulum quid lu
allocutionis, / maestius lacrimis Simonideis, 7-8), and it is the contentio
this paper that poetry provides an underlying theme in this cluster in much
same way that "Lesbia" is an underlying theme in poems 2-11.
Prior to poem 35, poetry per se has not been a dominant or persistent th
in the corpus, despite occasional pieces touching upon the subject (e.g. t
programmatic poem 1, or poems 6, 12, 14, 16, 22, and perhaps poem 27-
that piece is programmatic as argued by Wiseman4). With the initial wo

ISee, e.g., C. P. Segal, "The Order of Catullus, Poems 2-11," Latomus 27 (1968) 305-21;
H. D. Rankin, "The Progress of Pessimism in Catullus, Poems 2-11," Latomus 31 (1
744-51.
2T. P. Wiseman, Catullan Questions (Leicester 1969) 15.
3F. O. Copley, "Catullus, c. 38," TAPA 87 (1956) 125-29.
4Wiseman, op. cit., 7-9.
24

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 CATULLUS 35-42 25

(poetae tenero) of poem 35, however, p

sends a poetic epistle to Caecilius, the s
the Magna Mater, which, according
(17-18). Caecilius is advised to come t
Catullus,s despite the pleas of his mi
Apparently this lady is Sapphica puella
so deeply affected by Caecilius' poem t
him.

Poem 35 is thus a poem about poetry and about a mistress, and it is

followed at once in the text by another poem concerned with these very same
themes: Annales Volusi, cacata carta, / votum solvite pro mea puella (36.
1-2). As was the case in poem 35, poem 36 features the conceit of a mistress
who has been deeply affected by some poetry--only this time the mistress is
Lesbia, and the poetry is that of Catullus, though he pretends it is that of
Volusius.
The hypothesis of poem 36 is clear enough: some of Catullus' truces .
iambos (5) had offended Lesbia, who vowed to burn them should she and the
poet be reconciled; but on their reconciliation, Catullus "re-interpreted" her
vow to refer to the poems of Volusius-which he proceeds to toss into the
flames in a display of one-upmanship with Lesbia. Of course, Volusius, too,
ends up on the receiving end of the joke, as Catullus brands his poems as
electissima pessimi poetae / scripta (6-7).
The next poem in the corpus is thematically concerned with a mistress, but
not with poetry, and so introduces some thematic variation into the cluster (cf.
poems 2-11). It has been suggested that we have in poem 37 an example of the
truces iambos mentioned in the preceding poem, and, indeed, one can easily
imagine Lesbia taking offense at a poem which depicts her as a common
tavern whore, not above associating even with such riff-raff (omnes pusilli et
semitarii moechi, 16) as the Spaniard Egnatius. In poem 39, this same
Egnatius will become the poet's sole focal point, and poems 37 and 39 are
obvious companion pieces (cf. poems 5 and 7 within the cluster of 2-11).
With poem 40, however, poetry and (probably) mistresses return to stage
center. Here poetry is depicted as an effective vehicle for public ridicule, as
Catullus threatens a rival (Ravidus, if the text is sound) with iambos (2) that
will place him in ora vulgi (5), and the reader is clearly aware that Catullus
has just done something of this sort to Egnatius in poem 39. The reason for
Catullus' threat is revealed in the final lines of the poem: quandoquidem meos
amores / cum longa voluisti amare poena (7-8). To be sure, meos amores is
rather vague, but could just as easily refer to Lesbia as to Juventius, and, with
Lesbia and/or her lovers being the subjects of poems 37 and 39, the placement
of poem 40 at least suggests the female rather than the male lover (cf. also
poem 43, where Lesbia is actually named; Juventius, on the other hand, has
been absent from the text since poem 24).
With poem 41, the so-called "Ameana cycle" commences,6 but even this
5An interpretation now generally accepted; cf. K. Quinn, Catullus: The Poems (London 1970)
194-98.
6P. Y. Forsyth, "The Ameana Cycle of Catullus," CW 70 (1977) 445-50.

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 26 P. Y. FORSYTH

small group of poems has one memb

of poetry and the mistress. Poem 42
which the hendecasyllabic poems
moecha in order to get back some
expects his poetry (here personif
woman.

What, then, can we make of poem 38 in light of the twin

Catullus in this cluster of poems? Clearly poem 38 is concer
that of Cornificius and, by analogy, that of Simonid
concerned with a woman, specifically with the poet's mist
have argued for a reference to Lesbia in the meos amores
believe it is, and often point out that even a scholar who pre
meos amores as a reference to Catullus' friendship with Cor
that "parallels for this meaning are rare in Catullus-in fac
is to be found. "8
Indeed, the usual sense of meos amores in the poems of
lover. " One parallel is near at hand, in the aforementione
poem 40 (whether it be Lesbia or Juventius who is meant b
here), and similar usages can be found at 6.16, 10.1, 15.1,
Kenneth Quinn has stated, "idiomatically the most natural
to meos amores is 'my love,' i.e. the object of C. 's affecti
his mistress."9
If Lesbia is in fact alluded to by meos amores, poem 38 would make
eminent sense: Catullus is in serious distress over his mistress-a theme
surely not unique to this poem; his distress increases all the time, but could be
somewhat alleviated with a few poems of consolation from Cornificius. (One
is reminded here, of course, of poem 68, at the beginning of which we learn
that Mallius is in distress over a love-affair [1-10] and has asked Catullus for a
poem of consolation.) When Cornificius appears to delay, Catullus naturally
expresses his disappointment. On such an interpretation, poem 38 would
indeed participate in the twin themes prominent in this cluster of poems.
It would appear likely, then, that in poems 35-42 we have a Catullan cluster
united by a general concern with poetry and mistresses, and how the two
relate to each other. As in the case of poems 2-11 and, indeed, poems 15-26,
there are occasional pieces within the group that seem to stand somewhat
apart: none the less there is a rhythm, a sense of unity, in these poems which
suggests that Catullus arranged them in this way in order to explore a poetic
concept that intrigued him.

P. Y. FORSYTH
University of Waterloo

7E. Fraenkel, "Two Poems of Catullus," JRS 51 (1961) 46-53.

8Copley, art. cit., 128.
9Quinn, op. cit., 207.

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