Invenio fylvam, quae faepe cubilia nobis

Praebuit, et multa texit opaca coma.
At non invenio dominum fylvaeque, meumque.
Vile folum locus eft: dos erat ille loci.
Agnovi preffas noti mihi cefpitis herbas;

De noftro curvum pondere gramen erat.
Incubui, tetigique locum qua parte fuisti ;
Grata prius lacrymas combibit herba meas.
Quinetiam rami pofitis lugere videntur
Frondibus; et nullae dulce queruntur aves.
Sola virum non ulta pie moeftiffima mater
Concinit Ifmarium Daulias ales Ityn.
Ales Ityn, Sappho defertos cantat amores:
Hactenus, ut media caetera nocte filent.

Eft nitidus, vitroque magis perlucidus omni,
Fons facer; hunc multi numen habere putant.
Quem fupra ramos expandit aquatica lotos,

166

170

175

180

Una nemus; tenero cefpite terra viret. Hic ego cum laffos pofuiffem fletibus artus,

185

Conftitit ante oculos Naïas una meos.

Conftitit, et dixit, "Quoniam non ignibus aequis "Ureris, Ambracias terra petenda tibi.

"Phoebus

That charm'd me more, with native mofs o'ergrown,

Than Phrygian marble, or the Parian stone,

I find the shades that veil'd our joys before;
But, Phaon gone, thofe fhades delight no more.
Here the prefs'd herbs with bending tops betray
Where oft entwin'd in am'rous folds we lay;

I kifs that earth which once was prefs'd by you,
And all with tears the withering herbs bedew.
For thee the fading trees appear to mourn,
And birds defer their fongs till thy return:

166

170

Night fhades the groves, and all in filence lie,

175

All but the mournful Philomel and I:

With mournful Philomel I join my ftrain,

Of Tereus fhe, of Phaon I complain.

A fpring there is, whofe filver waters fhow, Clear as a glass, the fhining fands below :

180

A flow'ry Lotos fpreads its arms above,

Shades all the banks, and feems itself a grove;

Eternal greens the moffy margin grace,

Watch'd by the fylvan Genius of the place.

Here as I lay, and fwell'd with tears the flood, 185 Before my fight a watʼry Virgin stood:

She stood and cry'd, "O you that love in vain!

;

Fly hence, and feek the fair Leucadian main "There stands a rock, from whofe impending fteep "Apollo's fane furveys the rolling deep;

190

"There

NOTES.

VER. 188. Leucadian main] Addison, with his ufual exquifite humour, has given in the 233d Spectator an account of the perfons, male and female, who leaped from the promontory of Leucate

into

"Phoebus ab excelfo, quantum patet, aspicit aequor!

"Actiacum populi Leucadiumque vocant. "Hinc fe Deucalion Pyrrhae fuccenfus amore "Mifit, et illaefo corpore preffit aquas.

195

"Nec mora: verfus Amor tetigit lentiffima Pyrrhae "Pectora; Deucalion igne levatus erat.

"Hanc legem locus ille tenet, pete protinus altam "Leucada; nec faxo defiluiffe time."

Ut monuit, cum voce abiit. Ego frigida furgo: 200
Nec gravidae lacrymas continuere genae.
Ibimus, o Nymphae, monftrataque faxa petemus.
Sit procul infano victus amore timor.

Quicquid erit, melius quam nunc erit: aura, fubito.
Et mea non magnum corpora pondus habent.
Tu quoque, mollis Amor, pennas fuppone cadenti:
Ne fim Leucadiae mortua crimen aquae.

NOTES.

into the Ionian fea, in order to cure themselves of the paffion of love. Their various characters, and effects of this leap, are defcribed with infinite pleafantry. One hundred and twenty-four males, and one hundred and twenty-fix females, took the leap in the 250th Olympiad; out of them one hundred and twenty were perfectly cured. Sappho, arrayed like a Spartan virgin, and her harp in her hand, threw herfelf from the rock with fuch intrepi dity, as was never before obferved in any who had attempted that very dangerous leap; from whence she never rofe again, but was faid to be changed into a fwan as fhe fell, and was seen hovering in the air in that fhape. Alcæus arrived at the promontory of Leucate that very evening, in order to take the leap on her account; but hearing that her body could not be found, he very generously lamented her fall, and is faid to have written his 125th ode on that occafion.

Inde

194

"There injur'd lovers, leaping from above, "Their flames extinguish, and forget to love. "Deucalion once with hopeless fury burn'd, "In vain he lov'd, relentless Pyrrha fcorn'd: "But when from hence he plung'd into the main, "Deucalion fcorn'd, and Pyrrha lov'd in vain. "Hafte, Sappho, hafte, from high Leucadia throw "Thy wretched weight, nor dread the deeps below!" She spoke, and vanifh'd with the voice-I rife, And filent tears fall trickling from my eyes. I go, ye Nymphs! those rocks and feas to prove; How much I fear, but ah, how much I love! I go, ye Nymphs, where furious love inspires;

Let female fears fubmit to female fires.

To rocks and feas I fly from Phaon's hate,
And hope from feas and rocks a milder fate.
Ye gentle gales, beneath my body blow,
And foftly lay me on the waves below!

200

205

And thou, kind Love, my finking limbs fuftain,
Spread thy foft wings, and waft me o'er the main,
Nor let a Lover's death the guiltlefs flood profane!
On Phoebus' fhrine my harp I'll then bestow,
And this Infcription fhall be plac'd below,

212

NOTES.

VER. 207. Te gentle gales] Thefe two lines have been quoted as the most smooth and mellifluous in our language; and they are fuppofed to derive their sweetness and harmony from the mixture of fo many Iambics. Pope himfelf preferred the following line to all he had written, with refpect to harmony:

Lo, where Mæotis fleeps, and hardly flows-

Inde chelyn Phoebo communia munera ponam :

Et fub ea verfus unus et alter erunt.

"Grata lyram pofui tibi, Phoebe, poëtria Sappho : "Convenit illa mihi, convenit illa tibi." Cur tamen Actiacas miferam me mittis ad oras,

Cum profugum poffis ipfe referre pedem? Tu mihi Leucadia potes effe falubrior unda:

Et forma et meritis tu mihi Phoebus eris. An potes, o fcopulis undaque ferocior illa, Si moriar, titulum mortis habere meae? At quanto melius jungi mea pectora tecum,

Quam poterant faxis praecipitanda dari!

Haec funt illa, Phaon, quae tu laudare folebas;
Vifaque funt toties ingeniofa tibi.

220

225

Nunc vellem facunda forent: dolor artibus obftat ; Ingeniumque meis fubftitit omne malis.

Non mihi refpondent veteres in carmina vires. 230 Plectra dolore tacent: muta dolore lyra eft.

NOTES.

Lefbides

VER. 227.] Little can be added to the character that Addifon has fo elegantly drawn in the 223d and 229th numbers of the Spectator; in which are inferted the translations which Philips, under Addison's eye, gave of the two only remaining of her exquifite odes; one preferved by Dionyfius Halicarnaffus, and the other by Longinus. To the remarks that Pearce has made on the latter, I cannot forbear fubjoining a remark of Tanaquil Faber on a fecret and almoft unobferved beauty of this ode: that in the eight laft lines, the article d, in the original, is repeated feven times, to reprefent the fhort breathings of a perfon in the act of fainting away, and pronouncing every fyllable with difficulty. Two beautiful fragments are preferved; the first confifting only of four lines in Fulvius Urfinus, which Horace has imitated in the twelfth ode of the third book, Tibi qualum, &c.;

and