Whatever decks the velvet field, 'T was he who gave that voice to thee, 'T is he who tunes thy minstrelsy. Unworn by age's dim decline, The fadeless blooms of youth are thine. ODE XXXV.1 CUPID once upon a bed Of roses laid his weary head; grasshoppers which sing, and that the females are silent; and on this circumstance is founded a bon-mot of Xenarchus, the comic poet, who says είτ' εισιν οι τεττιγες ουκ ευδαι μόνες, ων ταις γυναιξιν ουδ' οτι ουν φωνής ενί ; ' are not the grasshoppers happy in having dumb wives?" This note is originally Henry Stephen's; but I chose rather to make Madame Dacier my authority for it. The Muses love thy shrilly tone, etc.] Phile, de Animal. Proprietat. calls this insect Mouras cos, the darling of the Muses; and Move opviv, the bird of the Muses; and we find Plato compared for his eloquence to the grasshopper, in the following punning lines of Timon, preserved by Diogenes Laertius: Των παντων δ' ηγείτο πλατυστατος, αλλ' αγορητής Ηδυεπης τεττιξιν ισογράφος, οι δ' εκάδημου Δενδρες εφεζομενοι οπα λειριοεσσαν ιείσι. This last line is borrowed from Homer's Iliad, λ. where there occurs the very same simile. Melodious insect! child of earth!] Longepierre has quoted the two first lines of an epigram of Antipater, from the first book of the Anthologia, where he prefers the grasshopper to the swan: Αρκει τεττιγας μεθυσαι δροσος, αλλα πιοντες In dew, that drops from morning's wings, 1 Theocritus has imitated this beautiful ode in his nineteenth idyl, but is very inferior, I think, to his original, in delicacy of point, and naïveté of expression. Spenser in one of his smaller compositions, has sported more diffusely on the same subject. The poem to which I allude begins thus: Upon a day, as Love lay sweetly slumbering All in his mother's lap; A gentle bee, with his loud trumpet murmuring, About him flew by hap, etc. Luckless urchin not to see I die with pain-in sooth I do! ODE XXXVI. If hoarded gold possess'd a power To lengthen life's too fleeting hour, creon, where Love complains to his mother of being wounded by a rose. The ode before us is the very flower of simplicity. The infantine complainings of the little god, and the natural and impressive reflections which they draw from Venus, are beauties of inimitable grace. I hope I shall be pardoned for introducing another Greek Anacreontic of Monsieur Menage, not for its similitude to the subject of this ode, but for some faint traces of this natural simplicity which it appears to me to have preserved: Ερως ποτ' εν χορείαις Εγω δε οι παραστάς, As dancing o'er the enamell'd plain, Zitto, in his Cappriciosi Pensieri, has translated this ode of Anacreon. 1 Monsieur Fontenelle has translated this ode, in his diaIn Almeloveen's collection of epigrams, there is one by logue between Anacreon and Aristotle in the shades, where Luxorius, correspondent somewhat with the turn of Ana-1 he bestows the prize of wisdom upon the poet. And purchase from the hand of death That when the Fates would send their minion, As lull'd in slumber I was laid, Oh! let me dream them o'er and o'er !" ODE XXXVII.1 "T WAS night, and many a circling bowl Had deeply warm'd my swimming soul; "The German imitators of it are, Lessing, in his poem Gestern Brüder, etc.' Gleim, in the ode 'An den Tod,' end Schmidt in der Poet. Blumenl. Gotting. 1783, p. 7."Degen. That when the Fates would send their minion, To waft me off on shadowy pinion, etc.] The commentators, who are so fond of disputing "de lana caprina," have been very busy on the authority of the phrase ιν' αν θανειν επελθη. The reading of iv' αν Θανατος επελόη, which De Medenbach proposes in his Amanitates Litterariæ, was already hinted by Le Fevre, who seldom suggests any thing worth notice. The goblet rich, the board of friends, Whose flowing souls the goblet blends!] This communion of friendship, which sweetened the bowl of Anacreon, has not been forgotten by the author of the following scholium, where the blessings of life are enumerated with proverbial simplicity. Υγιαίνειν μεν αριστον ανδρι θνήτω. Δεύτερον δε, καλόν φυήν γενεσθαι. Το τρίτον δε, πλουτειν αδόλως. Και το τεταρτον, συνήθων μετά των φίλων. Of mortal blessings here, the first is health, And next, those charms by which the eye we move; The third is wealth, unwounding, guiltless wealth, And then, an intercourse with those we love! 'der 1 "Compare with this ode the beautiful poem, Traum of Uz.'"-Degen. Monsieur Le Fevre, in a note upon this ode, enters into an elaborate and learned justification of drunkenness; and this is probably the cause of the severe reprehension which I believe he suffered for his Anacreon. Fuit olim fateor (says he, in a note upon Longinus,) cum Sapphonem amabam. Sed ex quo illa me perditissima fœmina pene miserum perdidit cum sceleratissimo suo congerrone (Anacreontem dico, si nescis Lector,) noli sperare," etc. etc. He adduces on this ode the authority of Plato, who allowed ebriety, at the Dionysian festivals, to men arrived at their fortieth year. He likewise quotes the following line from Alexis, which he says no one, who is not totally ignorant of the world, can hesitate to confess the truth of: Ουδεις φιλοποτης εστιν ανθρωπος κακος. "No lover of drinking was ever a vicious man." -when all my dream of joys, Dimpled girls and ruddy boys, ODE XXXVIII.' LET us drain the nectar'd bowl, Εγρόμενος δε Παρθενον ουκ' εκιχήσε, και ηθελεν αυθις ιαύειν. Again to slumber he essay'd, Again to clasp the shadowy maid! Longepierre. "Sleep! again my joys restore, Oh! let me dream them o'er and o'er!] Doctor Johnson, in his preface to Shakspeare, animadverting upon the commentators of that poet, who pretended, in every little coincidence of thought, to detect an imitation of some ancient poet, alludes in the following words to the line of Anacreon before us: "I have been told that when Caliban, after a pleasing dream, says, 'I tried to sleep again,' the author imitates Anacreon, who had, like any other man, the same wish on the same occasion." 1 "Compare with this beautiful ode the verses of Hagedorn, lib. v. das Gesellschaftliche; and of Bürger, p. 51," etc. etc.-Degen. Him, that the snowy Queen of Charms Has fondled in her twining arms.] Robertellus, upon the epithalamium of Catullus, mentions an ingenious derivation of Cythera, the name of Venus, παρα το κεύθειν τους All were gone!] Nonnus says of Bacchus, almost in the sporas, which seems to hint that "Love's fairy favours are same words that Anacreon uses, I lost, when not concealed." ODE XL. I KNOW that Heaven ordains me here I neither know nor ask to know. ODE XLI. WHEN Spring begems the dewy scene, No, no, the heart that feels with me, Can never be a slave to thee!] Longepierre quotes an epigram here from the Anthologia, on account of the similarity of a particular phrase; it is by no means anacreontic, but has an interesting simplicity which induced me to paraphase it, and may atone for its intrusion. Ελπις, και συ, τυχή, μέγα χαιρετε. τον λιμεν' ευρον. At length to Fortune, and to you, May now betray some simpler hearts, And they shall weep at your deceiving! Bacchus shall bid my winter bloom, And Venus dance me to the tomb!] The same commentator has quoted an epitaph, written upon our poet by Julian where he makes him give the precepts of good-fellowship Oh! can the tears we lend to thought "T is wine alone can strike a spark! And through the dance meandering glide; To souls that court the phantom Care, ODE XXXIX. How I love the festive boy, But his heart-his heart is young! No, no, the walk of life is dark, 'Tis wine alone can strike a spark!] The brevity of life allows arguments for the voluptuary as well as the moralist. Among many parallel passages which Longepierre has adduced, I shall content myself with this epigram from the Anthologia: Λουσάμενοι, Προδική, πυκασωμεθα, και τον ακρατο Of which the following is a loose paraphrase: Fly, my beloved, to yonder stream, We'll plunge us from the noontide beam! Age is on his temples hung, But his heart-his heart is young'] Saint Pavin makes even from the tomb. he same distinction in a sonnet to a young girl. Je sais bien que les destinées Ont mal compassé nos années; Fair and young, thou bloomest now, Thou shalt not find my love is old. My love 's a child; and thou canst say Πολλακι μεν τοδ' αεισα, και εκ τυμβου δε βοήσω Πίνετε, πριν ταυτην αμφιβάλησθε κονιν. This lesson oft in life I sung, And from my grave I still shall cry, And with the maid, whose every sigh And does there then remain but this, ODE XLII.' YES, be the glorious revel mine, Let the bright nymph, with trembling eye, And, while she weaves a frontlet fair Oh! let me snatch her sidelong kisses, And little has it learn'd to dread The gall that Envy's tongue can shed. ODE XLIII. WHILE our rosy fillets shed 1 The character of Anacreon is here very strikingly depicted. His love of socia, harmonized pleasures is expressed with a warmth, amiable and endearing. Among the epigrams imputed to Anacreou is the following; it is the only one worth translation, and it breathes the same sentiments with this ode: Ου φίλος, ος κρητήρι παρα πλέω οινοποτάζων, Αλλ' οστις Μουσέων τε, και αγλαα δόρ Αφροδίτης When to the lip the brimming cup is press'd, And hearts are all afloat upon the stream, But bring the man, who o'er his goblet wreathes And while the harp, impassion'd, flings Tuneful rapture from the strings, etc.] On the barbiton a host of authorities may be collected, which, after all, leave us ignorant of the nature of the instrument. There is scarcely any point upon which we are so totally uninformed as the music of the ancients. The authors (a) extant upon the subject are, I imagine, little understood; but certainly if one of their moods was a progression by quartertones, which we are told was the nature of the enharmonic scale, simplicity was by no means the characteristic of their (a) Collected by Meibomius. Some airy nymph, with fluent limbs, A youth, the while, with loosen'd hair Sings, to the wild harp's tender tone, ODE XLIV.' BUDS of roses, virgin flowers, melody; for this is a nicety of progression of which modern music is not susceptib.e. The invention of the barbiton is, by Athenæus, attributed to Anacreon. See his fourth book, where it is called T εύρημα του Ανακρέοντος, Neanthes of Cyzicus, us quoted by Gyraldus, asserts the same. Vide Chabot, in Horat on the words "Lesboum barbiton," in the first ode. And then, what nectar in his sigh, As o'er his lip the murmurs die!] Longepierre bas quoted here an epigram from the Anthologia: Κουρη τις μ' εφίλησε ποίεσπερα χείλεσιν υγροις. Like a dew-drop shall lingering lie; Has Cupid left the starry sphere, To wave his golden tresses here?] The introduction of these deities to the festival is merely allegorical. Madame Dacier thinks that the poet describes a masquerade, where these deities were personated by the company in masks. The translation will conform with either idea. All, all here, to hail with me The Genius of Festivity!] Kopos, the deity or genius of mirth. Philostratus, in the third of his pictures (as all the annotators have observed) gives a very beautiful description of this god. 1 This spirited poem is an eulogy on the rose; and again, in the fifty-fifth ode, we shall find our author rich in the praises of that flower. In a fragment of Sappho, in the romance of Achilles Tatius, to which Barnes refers us, the rose is very elegantly styled "the eye of flowers;" and the same poetess, in another fragment, calls the favours of the Muse "the roses of Pieria." See the notes on the fiftyfifth ode. "Compare with this forty-fourth ode (says the German annotator) the beautiful ode of Uz, die Rose." 1 Drink and smile, and learn to think Of dimpled Spring, the wood-nymph wild! While virgin Graces, warm with May, ODE XLV. WITHIN this goblet, rich and deep, Why should we breathe the sigh of fear, For Death will never heed the sigh, In search of thorns, from pleasure's way; Which Bacchus loves, which Bacchus gave; ODE XLVI.' SEE, the young, the rosy Spring, When with the blushing, naked Graces, The wanton winding dance he traces.] "This sweet idea of Love dancing with the Graces, is almost peculiar to Anacreon."-Degen. With some celestial, glowing maid, etc.] The epithet Babuxoxos, which he gives to the nymph, is literally "fullbosomed:" if this was really Anacreon's taste, the heaven of Mahomet would suit him in every particular. See the Koran, cap. 72. Then let us never vainly stray, In search of thorns from Pleasure's way, etc.] I have thus endeavoured to convey the meaning of T SE TOV Bov vwμ; according to Regnier's paraphrase of the line: E che val, fuor della strada Del piacere alma e gradita, Vaneggiare in que ta vita? Have languish'd into silent sleep, etc.] It has been justly remarked that the liquid flow of the line ¤¤λVETI 1 The fastidious affectation of some commentators has is perfectly expressive of the tranquillity which it denounced this ode as spurious. Degen pronounces the four last lines to be the patch-work of some miserable versificator; and Brunck condemns the whole ode. It appears to me to be elegantly graphical; full of elegant expressions and luxurious imagery. The abruptness of 18s ws expos QavsToS is striking and spirited, and has been imitated. rather languidly by Horace: Vides ut alta stet nive candidum Soracte The imperative de is infinitely more impressive, as in Shakspeare, But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill. There is a simple and poetical description of Spring, in Catullus's beautiful farewell to Bithynia. Carm. 44. Barnes conjectures, in his life of our poet, that this ode was written after he had returned from Athens, to settle in his paternal seat at Teos; there, in a little villa at some distance from the city, which commanded a view of the Ægean Sea and the islands, he contemplated the beauties of nature, and enjoyed the felicities of retirement. Vide Barnes, in Anac. vita. xxxv. This supposition, however unauthenticated, forms a pleasant association, which makes the poem more interesting. Monsieur Chevreau says, that Gregory Nazianzenus has paraphrased somewhere this description of Spring. I cannot find it. See Chevreau, Euvres Mêlées. "Compare with this ode (says Degen) the verses of Hagedorn, book fourth, der Frühling, and book fifth, der Mai." While virgin Graces, warm with May, Fling roses o'er her dewy way!] De Pauw reads, XxpoTas poda Epuovσv, "the roses display their graces." This is not uningenious; but we lose by it the beauty of the personification, to the boldness of which Regnier has objected very frivolously. The murmuring billows of the deep describes. And cultured field, and winding stream, etc.] By Spo Tv Epya, "the works of men," (says Baxter,) he means cities, temples, and towns, which are then illuminated by the beams of the sun. But brandishing a rosy flask, etc.] Arxos was a kind of leathern vessel for wine, very much in use, as should seem by the proverb ασκος και θυλακος, which was applied to those who were intemperate in eating and drinking. This |