Ode VIII
Fair and faithless I might trust thee yet, had the gods punished thy false oaths by marring one ivory finger nail or tarnishing one tooth of pearl. But at lovers' perjuries they only laugh. Thy beauty and the number of thy victims increase day by day. Cf. Sellar, p.169. For theme, cf. Ov. Amor. 2.8. Tbere is an excellent trapsiation by Sir Charles Sedley. Cf., also, Duke, Johnson's Poets, 9.216. The origin of name Barine is uncertain. Some think it 'the maid of Bari' (Barium). l. juris . . . peierati: perjury; perhaps a new coinage after analogy of ius iurandum. pe is the pejorative per of perperam and peior. 3, dente, ungui: both ablatives of measure of difference with turpior. nigro, uno: both with each noun. For superstition that perjury entailed bodily blemish, cf. Theoc. 9.30; 12.24, and Ovid's ingenious elaboration of the idea (Am. 3.3.1 sqq.).
votis: dative, preferably, cf. Epode 17.67; she has forfeited her head to the penalties (devotiunculis) invoked if she lie. Cf. Tennyson's Vivien, 'May yon just heaven that darkens o'er me send| One flash that, missing all things else, may make| My scheming brain a cinder if I lie.' enitescis: cf. 1.5.13; 1.19.5; Cat. 2.5.
prodis: walkest abroad, the cynosure of all eyes. Cf. 3. 14.6; Tibull. 3. 1.3. So procedere, Propert. 1.2. l. So προιέναι.
cura: technical, in love's vocabulary, of the object of affection. Verg. Ecl. 10.22, tua cura Lycoris. Propert. 3.32.9. Coventry Patmore, Angel in the House, 'And in the records of my breast,| Red-lettered, eminently fair| Stood sixteen who beyond the rest| By turns till then had been my care.'
expedit: it profits thee. matris: cf. Propert. 3.13. 15. Ossa tibi iuro per matris et ossa parentis |Si fallo cinis, heu, sit mihi uterque gravis. opertos: i.e. sepultos (Verg. Aen. 4.34).
fallere: swear falsely by. Cf. Verg. Aen. 6.324. taciturna: the eternal poetic contrast between the severa silentia noctis, 'The silence that is in the starry skies,' and the agitation of the human breast 'wherein no mighty calm can be.' Cf. Theoc. 2.38-39; Epode 15.1; Catull. 7.7, Aut quam sidera multa cum tacet nox | furtivos hominum vident amores; O. W. Holmes, 'But when the patient stars look down| On all their light discovers,| The traitor's smile, the murderer's frown,| The lips of lying lovers ': and Heine: 'Wenn junge Herzen brechen,|So lachen drob die Sterne.'
gelida: 'Death lays his icy hand on kings' (Shirley). 'Barren rage of death's eternal cold' (Shaks. Sonnet 13).
carentis: cf. 3.26.10. n.
ridet: cf. Rom. and Jul. 2.2, 'Yet if thou swear'st| Thou mayst prove false; At lovers' perjuries,| They say Jove laughs'; Pseudo-Tibull. 3.6.49, periuria ridet amantum; Plato, Symp. 183 B; Callim. Epig. 27.3; Anth. Pal. 5.6. inquam: I repeat; ridet resumes the thought of expedit.
simplices: guileless, εὐηθεῖς, faciles (Verg. Ecl. 3. 9).
Cf. the representation in ancient gems of Cupid turning the cos versatilis; the little loves sharpening their darts in the corner of Correggio's Danae, and Thorwaldsen's Vulcan forging arms for Cupid. Cruel Cupid bears πυρίπνοα τόξα, and his shafts are αἱματόφυρτα, dripping with hearts' blood. Cf. Anth. Pal. 5.180.1.
cruenta: is transferred to cote from sagittas.
adde quod: the huc accedit quod of prose. Latin poetry can hardly avoid an occasional prosaically explicit logical juncture. Cf. 2.18.23; 3. 1.41; 3.11.21; Ov. Pont. 2.9.47; Lucret. 4.1121-1122 bis. tibi crescit: cf. Sen. Herc. Fur. 874, tibi (sc. morti) crescit omne | et quod occasus videt et quod ortus.
servitus: to be thy slaves. Cf. Propert. l. 5. 19. Tum grave servitium nostrae cogere puellae |discere. priores: the old lovers.
impiae: not necessarily because of her perjuries, but because 'the slight coquette she cannot love.' Cf. Propert. 2. 9.20; Ov. Met. 13.301. Me pia detinuit coniux, pia mater Achillem. dominae: cf. 2.12.13. n.
minati: the lover's inability to execute such threats was a commonplace of comedy. Cf. Ter. Eunuch. 1.1; Hor. Sat. 2.3.262; Pers. Sat. 5.161; Tibull. 2.6.13; Anth. Pal. 5.254, 256.5.
With this passage cf. Catull. 61.51-55. See Ensor in Hermathena XII (1903). 108.
iuvencis: for their sons, the image of 2.5.6. Cf. Lucret. 5.1073.
miserae: from fear of Barine.
virgines: so puellae (3.14.11).
aura: attraction; cf. Propert. 3.23.15, si modo damnatum revocaverit aura puellae; Ov. Am. 2.9.33, incerta Cupidinis aura; Eurip. Iph. Aul. 69, πνοιαὶ . . . Ἀφροδίτης;; "The young girls that brought an aura of infinity' (James, Psychol. 1.233). There is no need to continue the metaphor of iuvencis with the aid of Verg. G. 3.251.
