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WIMMEL, W., Tibull und Delia. Erster Teil. Tibulls Elegie 1,1. Zweiter Teil. Tibulls Elegie 1,2. Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1976/83. 2 vols. XII,120;VIII,130p. Sewn. Card board. Series: Hermes, Einzelschriften, Heft 37/47. 'A knowledge of the group to which a poem belongs and its place within that group is, according to W. essential for its interpretation. His whole analysis of 1.2, then, depends on seeing this poem as the first in a series of three on the subject of unhappy love connected with Delia. Criticism of Tibullus 1.2 has traditionally concerned itself with the dramatic setting. (...) Does Tibullus imagine himself in a reverie at a drinking party, or soliloquizing at home? Readers of W. hoping to find straightforward answers to these problems will be disappointed. Most of the discussion takes place at the abstract level of the interplay of themes and motifs. (...) Many scholars will have serious doubts about W.'s methodology. (...) Any method which uses types or categories of poems to establish a chronology, on the basis of which individual poems are then interpreted, clearly runs the risk of circularity. (...) The ultimate danger of such a deterministic approach, in which themes and patterns become all-important, is that it leads to a serious underestimation of the poet's individual creative powers. W. is at his best when he manages to break away from thematic criticism of this kind. (...). The scholar who is willing to fight his way through W.'s formidable prose will glean many useful points of detail from this book, but is likely to find the underlying methodology misconceived or, at best, unnecessarily restrictive.' (ROBERT MALTBY on Heft 47 in The Classical Review (New Series), 1985, pp.279-281). € 40.00 (Antiquarian)