While rosy boys disporting round, ODE VI.2 As late I sought the spangled bowers, 1 But ah! if there Apollo toys, I tremble for the rosy boys.] An allusion to the fable, that Apollo had killed his beloved boy Hyacinth, while playing with him at quoits. "This (says M. la Fosse) is assuredly the sense of the text, and it cannot admit of any other." The Italian translators, to save themselves the trouble of a note, have taken the liberty of making Anacreon himself explain this fable. Thus Salvini, the most literal of any of them : Ma con lor non giuochi Apollo ; Che in fiero risco Col duro disco A Giacinto flaccò il collo. ? This beautiful fiction, which the commentators have attributed to Julian, a royal poet, the Vatican MS. pronounces to be the genuine offspring of Anacreon. It has, indeed, all the features of the parent: et facile insciis Noscitetur ab omnibus. 3 Where many an early rose was weeping, I found the urchin Cupid sleeping.] This idea is prettily imitated in the following epigram by Andreas Naugerius : Florentes dum forte vagans mea Hyella per hortos Ecce rosas inter latitantem invenit Amorem Et simul annexis floribus implicuit. "I (dixit) mea, quære novum tibi, mater, Amorem, As fair Hyella, through the bloomy grove, ODE VII.4 THE Women tell me every day ODE VIII.7 I CARE not for the idle state Of Persia's king ", the rich, the great : This epigram of Naugerius is imitated by Lodovico Dolce in a poem, beginning Mentre raccoglie hor uno, hor altro fiore Vicina a un rio di chiare et lucid' onde, 4 Alberti has imitated this ode in a poem, beginning Nisa mi dice e Clori 5 Whether decline has thinn'd my hair, I'm sure I neither know nor care;] Henry Stephen very justly remarks the elegant negligence of expression in the original here: Έγω δε τας κόμας μου, Ειτ' εισιν, ειτ' απήλθον, Ουκ οίδα. And Longepierre has adduced from Catullus, what he thinks a similar instance of this simplicity of manner : Ipse quis sit, utrum sit, an non sit, id quoque nescit. Longepierre was a good critic; but perhaps the line which he has selected is a specimen of a carelessness not very commendable. At the same time I confess, that none of the Latin poets have ever ap peared to me so capable of imitating the graces of Anacreon is Catullus, if he had not allowed a depraved imagination to hurry him so often into mere vulgar licentiousness. 6 That still as death approaches nearer, The joys of life are sweeter, dearer;] Pontanus has a very delicate thought upon the subject of old age: Quid rides, Matrona ? senem quid temnis amantem? Why do you scorn my want of youth, Lady dear! believe this truth, That he who loves cannot be old. "The German poet Lessing has imitated this ode. Vol ip 24." Degen. Gail de Editionibus. Baxter conjectures that this was written upon the occasion of our poet's returning the money to Polycrates, according to the anecdote in Stobus. I envy not the monarch's throne, For Death may come, with brow unpleasant, But ne'er could I a murderer be, The grape alone shall bleed by me; Yet can I shout, with wild delight, "I will-I will be mad to-night!" Alcides' self, in days of yore, Imbru'd his hands in youthful gore, And brandish'd, with a maniac joy, The quiver of th' expiring boy: And Ajax, with tremendous shield, Infuriate scour'd the guiltless field. But I, whose hands no weapon ask, No armour but this joyous flask; The trophy of whose frantic hours Is but a scatter'd wreath of flowers, Ev'n I can sing with wild delight, "I will-I will be mad to-night!" ODE IX. I PRAY thee, by the gods above," Ψυχήν εμήν έρωτα, Τι σοι θελεις γενέσθαι ; Θελεις Γύγεω τα και τα Be mine the rich perfumes that flow, To cool and scent my locks of snow.] In the original, votos Hae mihi cura, rosis et cingere tempora myrto, Hae mihi cura, comas et barbam tingere succo This be my care, to wreathe my brow with flowers, To pour rich perfumes o'er my beard in showers, The poet is here in a frenzy of enjoyment, and it is, indeed, Imabilis insania; "— Furor di poesia, Di lascivia, e di vino, **Sicut unguentum in capite quod descendit in barbam tronia. Pocaume exxxiii.” ODE X.3 4 How am I to punish thee, Triplicato furore, Baccho, Apollo, et Amore. Ritratti del Cavalier Marino. This is truly, as Scaliger expresses it, -Insanire dulce Et sapidum furere furorem. 3 This ode is addressed to a swallow. I find from Degen and from Gail's index, that the German poet Weisse has imitated it, Scherz. Lieder. lib. ii. carm. 5.; that Ramler also has imitated it, Lyr. Blumenlese, lib. iv. p. 335.; and some others. See Gail de Editionibus. We are here referred by Degen to that dull book, the Epistles of Alciphron, tenth epistle, third book; where Iophon complains to Eraston of being awakened by the crowing of a cock, from his vision of riches. 4 Silly swallow, prating thing, &c.] The loquacity of the swallow was proverbialised; thus Nicostratus: Ει το συνεχώς και πολλά και ταχέως λαλείν For they prattle much faster than we. 5 Or, as Tereus did of old, &c.] Modern poetry has confirmed the name of Philomel upon the nightingale ; but many respectable authorities among the ancients assigned this metamorphose to Progne, and made Philomel the swallow, as Anacreon does here. ODE XI. "TELL me, gentle youth, I pray thee, What in purchase shall I pay thee For this little waxen toy, Image of the Paphian boy?" Thus I said, the other day, To a youth who pass'd my way: "Sir," (he answer'd, and the while Answer'd all in Doric style,) "Take it, for a trifle take it; "Twas not I who dared to make it ; No, believe me, 'twas not I; Oh, it has cost me many a sigh, And I can no longer keep Little gods, who murder sleep!"2 "Here, then here," (I said with joy,) "Here is silver for the boy : He shall be my bosom guest, Idol of my pious breast!" Now, young Love, I have thee mine, Warm me with that torch of thine; Make me feel as I have felt, Or thy waxen frame shall melt: I must burn with warm desire, Or thou, my boy-in yonder fire." Or thou, my boy-in yonder fire.] From this Longepierre conjectures, that, whatever Anacreon might say, he felt sometimes the inconveniences of old age, and here solicits from the power of Love a warmth which he could no longer expect from Nature. 4 They tell how Atys, wild with love, Roams the mount and haunted grove;] There are many contradictory stories of the loves of Cybele and Atys. It is certain that he was mutilated, but whether by his own fury, or Cybele's jealousy, is a point upon which authors are not agreed. 5 Cybele's name he howls around, &c.] I have here adopted the accentuation which Elias Andreas gives to Cybele: In montibus Cybelen Magno sonans boatu. 6 Oft too, by Claros' hallow'd spring, &c.] This fountain was in a grove, consecrated to Apollo, and situated between Colophon and Lebedos, in Ionia. The god had an oracle there. Scaliger thus alludes to it in his Anacreontica: Semel ut concitus œstro, Veluti qui Clarias aquas Ebibere loquaces, Quo plus canunt, plura volunt. Cybele's name he howls around, $ Full of mirth, and full of him, I will be mad and raving too- ODE XIII. I WILL, I will, the conflict's past, And I have thought that peace of mind And hop'd my heart would sleep secure. But, slighted in his boasted charms, The angry infant flew to arms; He slung his quiver's golden frame, He took his bow, his shafts of flame, And proudly summon'd me to yield, Or meet him on the martial field. And what did I unthinking do? I took to arms, undaunted, too;" 7 While floating odours, &c.] Spaletti has quite mistaken th import of Kopeadec, as applied to the poet's mistress-"Mea fatigatu amica; "- thus interpreting it in a sense which must want eithe delicacy or gallantry; if not, perhaps, both. 8 And what did I unthinking do! I took to arms, undaunted, too;] Longepierre has here quoted a epigram from the Anthologia, in which the poet assumes Reas as the armour against Love. Οπλισμοί προς έρωτα περὶ στερνοισι λογισμού, This idea of the irresistibility of Cupid and Bacchus united. delicately expressed in an Italian poem, which is so truly AL creontic, that its introduction here may be pardoned. It is s imitation, indeed, of our poet's sixth ode. Lavossi Amore in quel vicino flume Assum'd the corslet, shield, and spear, Bacco, nel tuo liquore? Sarei, piu che non sono ebro d'Amore. Plays round my heart with restless pinion. A day it was of fatal star, But ah! 'twere even more fatal far, If, Bacchus, in thy cup of fire, I found this flutt'ring, young desire: Then, then indeed my soul would prove, Ev'n more than ever, drunk with love! And, having now no other dart, Best himself into my heart!] Dryden has parodied this thought in the following extravagant lines : I'm all o'er Love; Nay. I am Love; Love shot, and shot so fast, 1 The poet, in this catalogue of his mistresses, means nothing more than, by a lively hyperbole, to inform us, that his heart, unred by any one object, was warm with devotion towards the sex in ceneral. Cowley is indebted to this ode for the hint of his Salad, called The Chronicle ;" and the learned Menage has imitated it in a Greek Anacreontic, which has so much ease and it, that the reader may not be displeased at seeing it here: ΠΡΟΣ ΒΙΩΝΑ. Σε αλσεών τα φύλλα, Ορειάδας, Ναπαίας, Πάντων κορος μεν εστιν, ODE XIV.2 COUNT me, on the summer trees, Tell the foliage of the woods, I was but the moment's lover; Count me on the summer trees, Every leaf. &c.] This figure is called, by rhetoricians, the Impossible (advvarov), and is very frequently made use of in poetry. The amatory writers have exhausted a world of imagery by it, to express the infinite number of kisses which they require from the lips of their mistresses: in this Catullus led the way. - Quam sidera multa, cum tacet nox, As many stellar eyes of light, In stolen joys enamour'a lie, So many kisses, ere I slumber, Upon those dew-bright lips I'll number; So many kisses we shall count, Envy can never tell the' amount. No tongue shall blab the sum, but mine; No lips shall fascinate, but thine! 4 In the fam'd Corinthian grove, Carm. 7. Where such countless wantons rove, &c.] Corinth was very famous for the beauty and number of its courtezans. Venus was the deity principally worshipped by the people, and their constant prayer was, that the gods should increase the number of her worshippers. We may perceive from the application of the verb Dangerous to a soul like mine!] "With justice has the poet attributed beauty to the women of Greece."- Degen. M. de Pauw, the author of Dissertations upon the Greeks, is of a different opinion; he thinks, that by a capricious partiality of nature, the other sex had all the beauty; and by this supposition endeavours to account for a very singular depravation of instinct among that people. 2 Gades' warm desiring train ;] The Gaditanian girls were like the Baladières of India, whose dances are thus described by a French author; "Les danses sont presque toutes des pantomimes d'amour; le plan, le dessein, les attitudes, les mesures, les sons et les cadences de ces ballets, tout respire cette passion et en exprime les voluptés et les fureurs."-Histoire du Commerce des Europ. dans les deux Indes. Raynal. The music of the Gaditanian females had all the voluptuous character of their dancing, as appears from Martial : Cantica qui Nili, qui Gaditana susurrat. Lib. iii. epig. 63. Lodovico Ariosto had this ode of our bard in his mind, when he wrote his poem "De diversis amoribus." See the Anthologia Italorum. 3 The dove of Anacreon, bearing a letter from the poet to his mistress, is met by a stranger, with whom this dialogue is imagined. The ancients made use of letter-carrying pigeons, when they went any distance from home, as the most certain means of conveying intelligence back. That tender domestic attachment, which at Tell me whither, whence you rove, Tell me all, my sweetest dove. Curious stranger, I belong See me now his faithful minion, - 66 Soon, my bird, I'll set you free." Far from rugged haunts like these. To his lyre's beguiling sound; tracts this delicate little bird through every danger and difficulty, till it settles in its native nest, affords to the author of "The Plessures of Memory" a fine and interesting exemplification of his subject. Led by what chart, transports the timid dove See the poem. Daniel Heinsius, in speaking of Dousa, who adopted 4 She, whose eye has maddened many, &c.] For ruparver, in the original, Zeune and Schneider conjecture that we should read Tuparvov, in allusion to the strong influence which this object of his love held over the mind of Polycrates. See Degen. 5 Venus, for a hymn of love, Warbled in her votive grove, &c.] "This passage is invaluable, and I do not think that anything so beautiful or so delicate has ever been said. What an idea does it give of the poetry of the man, from whom Venus herself, the mother of the Graces and the Pleasures, purchases a little hymn with one of her favourite doves !"-Longe pierre. De Pauw objects to the authenticity of this ode, because it makes Anacreon his own panegyrist; but poets have a licence for praising themselves, which, with some indeed, may be considered as comprised under their general privilege of fiction. |