The programmatic poems of Propertius, Book 4
Date
1986
Authors
Hunt, Edmund T.
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Abstract
This thesis clarifies the methods that Propertius employed to advertise to his readers the character and purpose of his last book of elegies. Recognising that Book 4 was ostensibly so different in content and design from his previous three books of subjective love-elegy, Propertius predicted the surprise and doubts of his experienced readership and so placed at the start of the book two poems, the first of which elucidated a problem of aesthetics while the second provided the solution and pointed the way to the important and original aspects of Book 4.
The introduction establishes the historical and literary context of Propertius' fourth book and explains that the desire to match the political relevance of Virgil's Aeneid, published a few years earlier, within the minute framework and stringent rules of Roman elegy provided the main stimulus to the work. Propertius' problem was how to reconcile the elevated stance of the vatic poet with the literary precepts that characterised his three books of love-elegy.
Chapter I then demonstrates that the two contrasting figures of Propertius and Hores, the respective soliloquists of 4.lA and 4.lB, each express one of the opposing forces acting upon Propertius' poetry. A careful study of their words and personalities indicates that their two speeches do not, as is usually claimed , directly programme the mixed content of Book 4. Rather, as a comparison with t he poet's earlier programmatic poems shows , neither Propertius nor Horos has t he authority to order the remaining poems. I show how the poet has, in fact, struck a balance between the two positions, thus suggesting to the reader t at the nature of Book 4 will depend on a reconciliation between the personae of Roman vates and elegiac poet -lover.
Propertius ' reader , however, is left wondering what the results of such a compromise might be, and so the poet composed and arranged a second programmatic elegy that would exemplify t he merging of styles and content. Chapter II comprises a detailed study of Vertumnus ' (4 .2 ' s soliloquist) vocabulary and idiosyncrasies that, I suggest, were intended to illuminate different aspects of Propertius' art throughout Book 4.
Propertius, in the person of Vertumnus, invites the reader to appreciate his success in combining a serious personal vision of his city's life with the wit, irony, brevity, originality and charm that were the poet's and elegy's prime characteristics.