Catu/li Carmina. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Charles Stuttaford,
(G. Bell and Sons. 6s. net.)—This is a service- able edition, and good to look at. The little that there is to say about the MSS. is said clearly. There is a good sketch of Roman history and politics in the time of Catullus. The editor might have given us with advantage the notices of the poet that are to be found in Latin,—that Ovid speaks of him as doctus, for instance. The notes are of a useful kind. Some might have been spared. Perhaps it was well that all the poems should be printed ; but some are certainly better left without annotation,—annotation, too, that even increases the grossness. Mr. Stuttaford follows excellent authority when he says that all Roman literary books were written on paper, parchment being used for account-books and the like. But Horace's ut tote non quater anno membranatn poscas tells the other way, and it is scarcely satisfactory to say that parchment in this case was used only for a rough copy.
Previous page
