Excerpt from The Roman Elegiac Poets The need of a college textbook containing a judicious selection from the whole field of Roman elegy with suitable introductory matter and English comments has long been evidenced by the announcements of various publishers that such books were in preparation. The present edition was undertaken many years ago by my father, the plan as then conceived being somewhat less comprehensive than that which has now been worked out At the time of his death he had already written some notes on Propertius for the contemplated book, the last words appearing in his manuscript, penned amid increasing feebleness, being, by a touching coincidence, one of his happy English versions, reading, 'Ah me! that the strain should be so feeble in my mouth!' (4, 1, 58). Such of those first-draft notes as were available have been included in this edition under the signature "(C. S.)." The magnitude of the task has grown with the years, as the vast amount of material published in connection with the four authors from which these selections are taken has increased. Moreover, the classes in which a book of this kind will be used require in many cases a relatively advanced grade of comment; yet the linguistic basis for higher scholarship is too often in America sadly wanting, and, incongruous as it may appear, the somewhat elementary note seems to be required, side by side with one that stimulates to original research. It is with a full appreciation of the impossibility of meeting equally well all the possible varieties of demands made by the different users of the book that the editor ventures at length to give it to the public. The arrangement of both the commentary and a carefully selected conspectus of variant textual readings on the same page with the text will, in practice, commend itself as the most practical one for the kind of classes for which the book is intended. Special effort has been made by running analysis to make the outline of the elegy clear to the student. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.