tian, the closing lines of which
were to the effect that the critic would like to devour the bird:--

Meus hic Pulicianus
Tam bellum sibi passerem Catulli
Intra viscera habere concupiscit.

Martial says:

"Kiss me and I will give you Catullus's sparrow,

by which he does not mean a poem.

And in the Apophoreta:

"If you have such a sparrow as Catullus's Lesbia deplored, it may lodge
here."

Chaulieu has a similar Epigram:--

Autant et plus que sa vie
Phyllis aime un passereau;
Ainsi la jeune Lesbie
Jadis aima son moineau.
Mais de celui de Catulle
Se laissant aussi charmer,
Dans sa cage, sans scrupule,
Elle eut soin de l' enfermer.

Heguin de Guerle however sees nothing to justify this opinion, remarking
that Catullus was not the man to use a veil of allegory in saying an
indecency. "He preferred the bare, and even coarse, word; and he is too
rich in this style of writing to need the loan of equivocal passages."

v. 12. The story of the race between Hippomenes and Atalanta, and how the
crafty lover tricked the damsel into defeat by the three golden apples is
well known. Cf. Ovid. Metam. lib. x. v. 560, et seq. According to Vossius
the gift of an apple was equivalent to a promise of the last favour. The
Emperor Theodosius caused Paulinus to be murdered for receiving an apple
from his Empress. As to this, cf. the "Tale of the Three Apples," in _The
Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night_ (Sir Richard Burton's Translation,
Benares, 1885-8, 16 volumes), vol. i. p. 191. Cf. also note to C. lxv. v.
19.

v. 13. Virgins wore a girdle, generally of wool, for wool by the ancients
was supposed to excite love, which the bridegroom the first night unbound
in bed. Both in Greek and in Latin the phrase _to undo the zone_ was used
to signify the loss of virginity.

C. vi. v. 8. Some say this is the spikenard, and the same with the Syrian
_malobathrum_. But any rich odour was termed Syrian, by the Romans, who
were extravagantly fond of perfumes; and used them, according to Vulpius,
as provocatives to venery.

v. 9. _Pulvinus_, not _pulvinar_. Cf. carmen lxiiii. v. 47, post.

C. vii. v. 6. Battus (in Libyan) Bahatus, a chief, a ruler.--Halevy Essai,
p. 164.--_R. F. B._

C. viii. v. 18. Plautus speaks of Teneris labellis molles morsiunculae.
Thus too Horace:

Sive puer furens
Impressit memorem dente labris notam.

Or on thy lips the fierce fond boy