A last comment on AL 914

[falmouth]

...for now at least... and this time I think telling fairly heavily
towards late authorship

1. [Gallus] 99-100
Heu male (crede mihi) si quis sua gaudia differt;
Dum loquimur, nox est, mortis et umbra subit.
 
2. On the one hand, one can well imagine a poem of real Gallus
finishing like this: not dissimilar in atmosphere is the end of
Eclogue 10 (which one would not be surprised to echo an actual poem of
Gallus):

Surgamus: solet esse grauis cantantibus umbra,               75
iuniperi grauis umbra; nocent et frugibus umbrae.
 
and the end of Tibullus 2.1 is very thematically close
 
ludite: iam Nox iungit equos, currumque sequuntur
    matris lasciuo sidera fulua choro,
postque uenit tacitus furuis circumdatus alis
    Somnus et incerto Somnia nigra pede.
(Tib. 2.1.87-90).
 
3. Closer still, to the point of suspiciousness, is the famous ending
to Horace Odes 1.11
… Dum loquimur, fugerit inuida
aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.
(Hor. Od. 1.11.7-8)
 
where the exact echo “dum loquimur” is striking.
 
4. Problematic from the point of view of the hypothesis of genuine
Gallan authorship is the phrase “mortis et umbra”, since this
inevitably calls to mind the Biblical “shadow of death” - indeed,
“umbra mortis” in the Vulgate and “skia thanatou” in Greek. While
“umbra” in Latin does, of course, have connotations of death and one
could just about a Latin poet coming up with such a metaphor[1], I
think very much the more natural conclusion would be to suspect that
the poet was influenced here by Biblical Latin.
5. This is also suggested by the fact that [Gallus].100 apes in sound
a very common construction in classical elegiac verse where two
nominative nouns govern a single verb, often singular, usually as a
hendiadys, at the beginning of the second hemistich of a pentameter
(an effect which [Gallus] himself uses “ventus et aura furit” (42)):
e.g. Ov. Am. 1.8.96, Ov. Ib. 108, Mart. 9.38 “ventus et aura”; Prop.
2.28a.10, Ov. Am. 2.16.45-6 “ventus et unda”; Prop. 2.4.14 “tempus et
aura”; Tib. 2.5.40 “ventus et ignis”; and, of some interest for
present purposes (because of ‘et umbra’ in the same position):
“mollierant animos lectus et umbra meos.” (Ov. Am. 1.9.42)
“Contempto colitur lectus et umbra foro.” (Ov. AA. 3.542)
But the construction of [Gallus] 100 “mortis et umbra” must be taken
to be ‘[genitive] + postponed ‘et’ + [nominative].”, something which I
struggle to parallel.


[1] I can think of no close parallel. “Mors” is frequently personified
in Latin, salient examples being Hor. Odes 1.4.13-4 and Tib. 1.3.3, so
one could take the image as being of the actual shadow of a
personified Death creeping up.