Ebook: Propertius: Elegies: Book II

This edition of Propertius II, the last in the series edited by Mr Camps, follows generally the style and arrangement of Book I, III and IV. Mr Camps presents, without concealing difficulties and uncertainties, a fairly conservative but readable and coherent text (with selective apparatus), together with sufficient annotation to help the modern reader of Latin to understand the language and follow the thought of this difficult, much disputed, but very rewarding poet. Throughout the series Mr Camps has had in mind the needs of undergraduates and sixth forms as well as other readers. The notes are weighted differently from those in Butler and Barber's edition of 1933, and the text also differs in some respects both from the text of that edition and from the Oxford text of 1960. A list of variants from the Oxford text is provided for those who wish to use these notes and that text together. This book, like Book I, is almost wholly concerned with the thoughts and feelings of a lover. But romantic devotion is no longer the prevailing tone. Frustration and jealousy alternate with rapture and triumph, and sometimes with cynicism. The mood may change from fury to surrender within the limits of a single elegy. Towards the end of the book the rang of feeling narrows. The poet moves towards resignation, seeing in Cynthia's foibles an unalterable condition of a relationship which he cannot live without. In his introduction Mr Camps discusses the formal elements in the poems and considers the structure of the book in relation to its subject-matter.